Eventful Weekend

After a rather challenging week, I had a wonderful weekend. The less said about school the better. On Saturday Johnny took me to the National Equestrian Centre to see Emily Butcher in action in a one day event. She had five horses entered. We watched Oscar, who is a beautiful white horse, complete his dressage event. I forgot to take a photo, which annoyed me a lot. He was gorgeous, but blew it at the end by being very naughty. There was a nasty man shouting at his daughter. Emily said there was almost a nasty woman shouting at Oscar as well. It was very exciting to see this horse in action. This is Southern Ben, who has competed in Badminton. He is looking a little disturbed because he is having his front legs iced after the cross country. He is coming back after a long injury break. He was one of only two horses competing in the Elite class.

Here he is with Emily on the water jump. Exciting!

Next time I'll take the good camera. I could have stayed all day but I had a date to go with The Crafty Neighbour to the Quilt and Craft Expo. I loved it, and returned home with a selection of Kaffe Fassett and Phillip Jacobs fabrics. I played with them on the table outside today.

I've got some pieces lined up for quilted cushions, and others for patchwork. I started working on a runner in red tones to go along the new TV bookshelf. By the way, Johnny built a matching bookshelf while I was out. It is fabulous. He is even more super duper clever!

No blog entry could be complete at this time of year without a few spring flowers. This is one of three blooms that have been overenthusiastic and produced eight petals.

Here is the border along the front. The skip bins on the house next door are full of bricks because the builders have had to remove all of the bricks because the earthquake loosened the mortar.

There are hundreds of pansies and violas in my garden. These blue ones caught my eye.

I experimented with some closeups today.

I quite enjoyed rolling around on the lawn getting some good angles.

Today has been lovely and relaxing. I enjoyed some time sitting outside perusing my new books with Monty curled up on my knee. Then I got loose on my craft cupboard as it was a shambles, and sorted it out from top to bottom. The earthquake contributed to the mess, but I was largely responsible. I'm not known for being tidy! Then I cleaned my craft room and made Monty a new nest as he had made his old one yucky (don't ask).

Wish me luck for the last week of term. We haven't had an earthquake in over 24 hours. How does over 700 earthquakes over the last two weeks sound?