A busy August

What a glorious summer we've had! So much like the ones I remember from my childhood when my mum used to turf us out of the door at breakfast time and call us back in for tea. I've been loving the weather, although Angus has found it rather difficult on the farm – moving cattle from field to field to try and find a bit of grass. Eventually we've had to resort to feeding them which is expensive and uses up valuable food for the winter. At the marina the sunshine puts everyone in a good mood, although I must confess I've hardly been there this month. At the beginning of August we took daughter No.2 to her first Junior International shooting competition and meet at Bisley Shooting Ground in Surrey (target shooting – imagine a 1950's holiday park but with shooting!) It was a very intriguing place – a central core of shooting clubs and camping and caravan fields surrounded by shooting ranges. She was amazing – shooting a personal best in the JI and winning a trophy for the best U16 shooter at the meet (very proud parent moment!!) Then it was back home for a couple of days before I flew off to Italy – I had an invite to spend a few days in Sorrento with a very dear friend. What a beautiful place and we even managed to squeeze in a boat trip to the island of Capri (think rich, famous, glamor, massive yachts and beautiful scenery). We spotted one super yacht called the Maltease Falcon – fully masted and massive – I googled it later – if you have a group of 12 you can holiday on it for a mere 440,000 euro a week! Then it was back home for a few days to take daughter No.1 to the Pony Club Championships which were local to us at Cholmondely Castle – we had a fab day out and the dressage team she was in came 2nd. Then it was 2 days at home and we were back out to Sheepgate arena near Boston in Lincolnshire for the British Dressage U25 championships – we've never been before and it's miles away and surrounded by fields and fields of cabbages! We had a fab week, daughter No.1 came home with rosettes, I spent the week drinking very civilised G&T's with one of the other mums and finished two books, and had the wagon set up like home from home, in fact it all went really well until that point on the way home when I had a disagreement with the satnav and lets just say a long way can become an awfully long way if you take a wrong turning.....particularly in a horse wagon...