Books, Mud and Compost. And Horses.

Yesterday we went to the local theatre to see a school production of West Side Story , which eldest's oldest friend was in. It's a very brave choice of thing to do for a school as much of the music is difficult, and it was, on the whole, pretty good. The orchestra were valiant and mostly accurate; Maria was gorgeous with a lovely soprano voice, Anita was a star, A-rab was brilliant in Officer Krupke, and Glad Hand more than made the most of her tiny part. But the smell. As most of the audience were teenagers, the theatre reeked of scent; body spray; aftershave... it was like walking into a vandalised chemist's shop. The scent virtually stood in the air. When I was getting ready I did briefly contemplate putting on a bit of scent (which is the difference between middle-aged me and a teenager; I think about whether to put the stuff on or not; they turn the nozzle to full and keep going) but it was just as well I didn't. When we got out of the theatre into the cle...

Here, especially for my nephews Ben and Sam, are the girls: Left to right, they are Matilda, Mary, Mother Hen (what you can see of her) and Rose. Mary is the wariest of the bantams, and most prone to panic, but Rose is not far behind her. Despite their nerves, both bantams are quite oofy, and are further up the pecking order than either Matilda or Mother Hen. If it is cold when they are roosting at night, Rose feels her place is under Matilda's wing, whether Matilda likes it or not. Mother Hen is the friendliest, and can be picked up with ease. If you sit down in their field, she will flap on to your shoulder. The bantams would sooner die than try this. Matilda is at the bottom of the pecking order, despite being the biggest, and is a hen of changeable mood. Sometimes she is friendly, and other times definitely not. The hens are excellent layers; the bantams lay when they feel like it, which lately is not often. Rose went broody last week, but must have realised the terri...

Our village fete happened yesterday, together with a fun dog show run by Wellingborough Dog Welfare , and you see to the left of you Holly, owner of the fourth most appealing eyes, and a magnificent second in the Fastest Chocolate Drop Eater competition. We really weren't sure whether we'd be able to enter anything - Holly is a rescue dog, and when we first got her was so nervous we couldn't get her beyond the front gate. The first time I took her to the school gates she had complete hysterics, and she does still tend to panic when faced with things that worry her. So, we thought the fete, with the Pipe band, Majorettes, Morris Dancers and teeming people and dogs might be a bit much, but she was an absolute star. It did take her a little while to come round to the Pipe Band, but after we stuffed her face with food she agreed with us that Pipe Bands (the Bedford Pipe Band - excellent. I love bagpipes when they are played well, and these were) were OK. Dog used to be ap...

Each and every time I do a catalogue (the new one's out tomorrow, on my website ) a bit of technology gathers itself up and does battle. There was the time the entire website was corrupt (a time so dreadful, and producing such a state of frantic flurry in their mother that the whole family remembers it with awe); the printer has thrown numerous hissy fits; my aged version of Microsoft Word decided that there had been one Windows XP update too many and it would never load again..... but this time I thought I might just make it. I wasn't confident enough to think there wouldn't be any problems, but I did have just the faintest of hopes. I wrote the catalogue on my trusty copy of OpenOffice (advert coming: this is a mostly excellent FREE alternative to Microsoft); managed, oh joy, to work out how to produce a brochure, found a printer to produce the things, loaded everything onto the web ready.... the camera threw a few fits, but I was ready for it and coped, but the lab...

I don't have a lot of illusions about myself, or at least I don't think I do, but I've always had a mental picture of myself as I'd like to be, drifting about my immaculate garden, dead heading my roses into one of those rather swish trugs. My garden, most of the time is nowhere near immaculate, but it did recently reach a stage when it wasn't that bad at all, and so I got with the illusion, and drifted about, dead heading. I then wandered in and mentioned to my husband that I had been pottering about in what I thought was quite a lady of the manor way, dead heading my roses. He looked up from the cricket and remarked that ladies of the manor generally did not do their dead heading into the same scabrous, muck-encrusted skip they used to use for pooh-picking but never got round to cleaning out. I also gathered, as he looked me up and down, that ladies of the manor did not do their drifting in pilates trousers that have seen better days and t shirt ditto, but dar...

I've just finished reading Patricia Leitch's Cross Country Pony. It's one of those books I've read before, known I've liked, but forgotten why. In many ways I like this book more than the Jinny series: it's written with a lighter heart and humour, and without the angst that sometimes makes the Jinny books a bit of a tortuous read. Some pony books succeed because the ponies in them are so wonderfully recognisable, and I think Harold (the cross country pony himself) is one of these. Jinty, who rides him, says: Cynically Harold regarded me, a gleam in his wicked little eyes. I was absolutely at his mercy. It was merely a question of what he decided to do with me. I used to ride a pony called Bear who was much like Harold: he summed you up in an instant and would then mercilessly exploit any weakness. He obviously found life at the riding stables a little dull, as he was constantly thinking up new and exciting ways to misbehave. When the stables built a...

Which makes me sound as if I am a refugee from that strange shampoo ad, but no. I'm deep in happy fanland, as I've been in touch with the great Caroline Akrill recently to ask her to contribute something about herself for the site, and she's just sent an excellent reply to the vast list of questions I asked. Now just have to get it onto the site....