Friday 24 January 2014

January 2014, Happy New Year of the Horse and happy new pony!

Now I think it's probably too far into January to say Happy New Year, but it certainly still feels like a time of transition, of taking store and planning ahead.  The days are starting to stretch slightly but on a grey day in Aberdeenshire it can still feel as if they are too short, once we get to the end of the month I really notice the difference in daylight.
Our mild winter weather and no snow (so far!) has meant we have turned our thoughts to spring and our yearly tradition of ordering seeds is under well way.  Paul has cleared most of the well rotted muck heap and top dressed the rhododendrons and other shrubs in the front garden.
This year I am planning a cut flower bed inside our polytunnel, so far I've got freesias, anemones, gladioli and dahlias.  As this is a 'experiment' I'm just going to plant the flowers that I love and then see what our success rate is, fingers crossed I'll have beautiful bright vases of flowers for the whole summer.
2014 is the Chinese Year of the Horse and my Chinese horoscope sign is the Horse, so I am feeling that this year will be full of love, joyfulness and galloping forwards.



I believe that people and animals come into my life for a reason and last week we had a new member of our equine family join us.  A series of coincidences led us to offer a home to the lovely Brooke, she had sadly lost her elderly equine companion before Christmas and my friend who is her hoof trimmer had taken her to her yard so that Brooke wouldn't be left alone and the family that owned her could start to find a new home for her.  We had lost our darling old horse Zac last year and I had always thought of rehoming or rescuing a pony to come and join Brea and Poppy our other horses.  We brought Brooke home on Saturday and after a few days of either ignoring each other or chasing each other, the 'girls' have now settled happily into their routine and my tiny 'herd' is complete.  Of course Brooke, won't ever replace Zac but she is filling our stables and my heart with her own personality.
Quite fitting that we have a new pony almost at the start of a new year of the Horse!  I hope to find the time to blog more this year, my only excuse for lack of posts last year was the fabulous weather and being outside too much to think about it :)

2 comments:

  1. Good to see you back here Ali, it's great to get glimpses of Aberdeenshire while I'm working abroad :o) Brooke is a very bonny lady!

    Kind Regards

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  2. Thanks, its a fair enough day today too, but apparently the snow is due to arrive next week! Brooke is extremely bonnie and very sweet natured too, we're all very happy with her. Best wishes Ali

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