Sweet Peas Galore

Today was a sunny day. Well, part of it. I fitted in horses, gardening and crafting. Yay! 

This morning was horse time. Well, after calling Mum for a big chat and mucking around for a considerable length of time. When I got out to the farm I brought Zanny in to the stable yard. Viv took a look at her wee rub marks and declared they were probably from rolling! So I felt worried and it wasn't anything to do with riding her. So I got sorted out with Em's oldest jumping saddle - that thing fits my backside like a glove - I love it. Apparently it is Em's favourite too, so no chance of buying it off her any time soon. 

Zanny was a bit unsettled being away from Tara. I headed out on her and all was well until we turned the corner quite a long way down the road so her ears were pointing more towards home, and I think she could hear Tara calling (I couldn't) and suddenly she was calling back and throwing a bit of a hissy. Scary for a wimp like me. Anyway, I couldn't ride her on so had to turn for home once I had got her to calm down, which wasn't ideal because she got what she wanted. We did walk safely home and I stopped her a few times to show her I was in control. Next time we'll go out with a friend and will wait until Tara is safely away from the farm before we go out on our own again. She'll be off soon, and will be keeping Ben company on a block nearby, then will be heading over to the Coast to meet her new stallion. 

So I wasn't exactly terrified by the upset, but I will be riding her in the arena unless I've got sensible company for a while. It is so high and the thing that scares me most about horses is bolting. Viv said she wouldn't do that, but for some reason, that is always what I think of when we have silly behaviour. It is actually falling off a bolting horse that I am terrified of. I don't have much faith in my ability to cling on in an emergency. And the ground is a very long way away. I wish I was less scared of falling off, but after the last time, I really don't think it is a good idea at all. 

On the way home I popped into Rolleston and purchased some sweet pea seeds. Yes, in my riding gear. 

 I planted around 100 sweet pea seeds of various mixes, and have some more that I purchased from The Crafty Child, who had a wee stall on a trolley (I bought lemons, coriander seeds and swan plant seeds as well).

 Mr Mouse repeatedly snuck into the greenhouse and stomped on my seed trays - he seemed determined to find out what I was hiding from him. Miss Dog knows she doesn't belong in there and was happy to hang out with an ancient bone nearby. I need more racks to stack the seed trays on. I am thankful that I have only planted one tomato plant so far, because the garden beds are covered in seed trays. So far the cucumbers, brassicas, peppers (2), tomatoes (1), lemongrass, pansies, leeks and clove pinks have made me very happy by germinating and pushing their way skyward.

 I love sweet peas. They are glorious cut flowers because the more you pick, the more you get!

 They are so pretty on china too. This is one of my favourite chintz patterns:

My chintz china collection is slowly growing. I'm expecting a delivery sometime this week. Exciting! There are so many divine patterns to discover. I think some were never imported here because I have seen some beauties on E-bay that I have never seen here. It would be lovely to go mad and just buy anything I liked, but I think I'd soon fill the whole house up and then I wouldn't treasure each and every piece. 

On the crafting front, I got back into a bit of scrapbooking today. I was watching Dexter on DVD - sooooo good and full of surprises. I love to watch in my craft room while I potter away. Hopefully there will be some gorgeous photos of the sweet peas I sowed today in all of their glory so that they can have their own scrapbook page.