“The richness of the rain made me feel safe and protected."

"I have always considered the rain to be healing -- a blanket -- the comfort of a friend. Without at least some rain in any given day, or at least a cloud or two on the horizon, I feel overwhelmed by the information of sunlight and yearn for the vital, muffling gift of falling water.”

The quotation from Douglas Coupland, author of  Life After God

I was looking for a positive interpretation for the current weather conditions and I believe I found one!

You know me, optimistic, a morning person, leaps out of bed every day at 6.30 or thereabouts to go to see to the horses. But at the moment it's HARD. It's dark at that hour - so dark I can't see the numbers on the padlock to unlock it so have to squeeze round the side of the gate. And it's cold and it's windy and it always seems to be raining.

So thank you, Douglas Coupland, for giving me something different to think about.

And thank you horses, always pleased to see me, waiting by the field gate, calling a greeting, no matter how drenched they are after a long night in the field.

There's no better way to start the day - even in the rain.

Winter is not a season, it's an occupation.

...especially if you have horses. By the way, I'm not complaining because I love it - but it IS hard work sometimes. Perhaps Sinclair Lewis was complaining? He'd be complaining all the more if he knew I hadn't heard of him AND he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930...

Back to the horses. Lately we've had all the weather winter could throw at us except heavy snow (which I won't write too loudly. You never know who might be listening.)

For a start, at 7 a.m. when I arrive at the yard - it's dark.

We've had howling gales and slashing rain. This translates into...the sand school's a lake, there's lots of mud, and frisky horses with sodden rugs to change. And riding's not much fun.

Storm horse by Zeelis Tech of Android Zoom

 We've had icy conditions - which means frozen windscreen, frozen fingers and toes, head collars with rigor mortis, frozen drinking troughs, treacherous roads. And riding's not much fun.

Ice horse by Cisco of Queeky

And today...we have sunshine.

And riding was a great deal of fun.