Horsin' around............And gettin' a ruddy grip!

Firstly, I will apologise for not being around much.

Lots of various stuff happening ie

Helping friend V with her horses 2 or 3 days a week.  She isn't rich at all. Just loves horses and works very hard to keep them.  Her daughter came home from Europe with a colt after working as a groom (she is only 17) and after a terrible time of being bullied and feeling suicidal.  So I had to help V prep and then move to a bigger field and stable in the same place.  After 7 years this was quite tough for her especially as she had taken a crappy nettle filled field and made it beautiful and had been moved to another nettle filled/cob shite filled field with ragwort and lots of deadfall from trees. 

So I got my fat little bod out the chair and started barrow pushing, stick picking, fence climbing, hill (steep, so very steep) climbing, baling twine plaiting - to make economical useful ties for just about anything - shaving scattering, haybale dragging etc.  My dear friend is about my height and finds it hard to maintain an 8 stone weight (God, I hate her) and has arms like Madonna.  She hefts water buckets and haybales and does it all at a trot, whilst wittering and worrying on.

My job as well, as all the above, is to tell her "to get a grip, get a ruddy grip" a la Mel from the Great British Bake Off.

Man, that first day I could hardly walk, but now I love it and have found some old wellies that I had to cut down because my calves have got bigger..... these are very old wellies..... to be more sensibly dressed.  It is in a lovely area just up the road, though you would hardly know it was there.   You can hear the dual carriageway but can't see it and there is a sweet sheltered valley (where the daughter and colt are now) and brisk windy hills and fields with lots of other people and their horses in various places.

I will sort out a couple of photos to give you an idea.

Daughter has started college and is love, love, loving it. phew.

Haven't seen much of best friend because her fella now has prostrate cancer, is facing redundancy and she spends a lot of time up there despite having daughter at college here.  Her gallstones have returned and she is in great pain as well as all her other pain.  We spoke on the phone today and I have counselled her, so that she can counsel boyfriend and his colleagues (one of whom was given the redundancy letter in her hospital bed - shame on them!) on fighting the close down of the local radio station where they work. 

Life is so fucking tough everywhere!!

And yet, and yet I am feeling better.  Even more better than when I felt better a few months ago when I wrote about that in my other blog.  Sorry, bad grammar but it's staying there.

I have been wanting to write this for a while, but couldn't seem to get it off the ground, but after commenting on some other blogs (see, I am being a good blogger now) and having a lovely response to a comment from John at Going Gently today I thought I had better just 'get on with it' just as I am telling V to do.

I pinkie swear on the photos and there may be a 'special' one. or not.

xx