siglinde99

Two more necklaces. The yellow and black one is made of components from a necklace I loved in university and broke probably back in grad school. I kept meaning to put it together, but never did; I suspect many pieces have been lost over the years as I remember this being quite a bit longer. The rose quartz was purchased back when I was going to Hong Kong fairly regularly for work. I'm not sure I ever wore it. I haven't been to the pearl market in Hong Kong for almost 20 years, so this was definitely overdue for repair!

To alleviate the boredom, here are some pictures from the barn today. Fancy is looking very glossy now that her winter coat is gone. She's a little ribby, but now that the grass is coming in she should fill out quickly.

Got up at 5:30 this morning so I could be at my favourite volunteer activity of the year.

The first dressage test were at 7:30, and I needed to be there a bit early to get organized, after collecting S's friend and finding a way to the west end past the closure on 417.

After 6 1/2 hours of scribing dressage tests (that's playing secretary to a judge - sadly this one was not very good at her job, so it was a lot more work than usual, even though I had less feedback for riders to write down), I made announcements over the speaker system, and did general odd jobs for a while. That was followed by an hour or so of taking down jump standards and loading them onto trailers for storage. By then it was 5:30, so we went to my mom's to collect some vegetables and a chair, then to pink_lady2's to pick up forgotten ballet gear, then dropped off S's friend, and finally home to cook supper and help with homework.

Most definitely time for bed now, as tomorrow morning promises to be equally insane.

ShuLing and I worked the fall horse trials today. I got to scribe with a new judge, Anne Galt. I would love to take lessons from her, but it appears she just does freelance judging work.

It was a very bittersweet day. The weather was beautiful and the park never looked better, thanks to the volunteers who put in many hours building, painting and setting up the cross-country and stadium jumps. All the usual volunteers were there to run the show itself. I found out my friend Rowan is trying to buy two of the horses, and my former coach Jenn is also trying to buy two, and is hoping to be able to offer lessons from her place in Aylmer. There is lots of interest in my boy Fitzroy, so hopefully he will go someplace good.

The bitter parts were the sadness of people who have been riding there for 20 years, and have yet to find another stable that works for the moderately competent recreational rider of a certain age (I'm SOOO glad the City paid attention to the results of their survey last year on what people over 50 want in recreation). Getting details about some particularly difficult transfers of boarders was tough too - one 31 year-old guy who is blind in one eye and has been at the park forever took 3 hours to get trailered, and had to be blindfolded to get out of the trailer, into the new barn and into his stall. He wouldn't come out for days. It was not clear whether his bestest buddy in the world went to the same stable. Duchess, the newest barn cat, has a home (indoors, and with two dogs, but Shelley is hopeful she'll adjust eventually). Jacob has been promised a new home with one of the boarders, but he's still there and desperately lonely. He couldn't get enough pats today, and even ran into the cross-country warm-up ring. I didn't see Scooter (my favourite), and I couldn't find out what arrangements have been made for him. The lesson rings are desolate, ungroomed and higgledy-piggledy. We went to see the horses but could only find three of them. They can't go in the big field any more because the fence has been allowed to deteriorate to the point that it is dangerous. The horses could easily escape onto the road, or even the Queensway.

We managed not to be too teary, but people are heartbroken and bitter. Although there are promises that the park will continue to operate under new owners, we all know that people will eventually build allegiances at new barns, or give up riding altogether. This was probably the last event for the Friends of the Park.

The Friends of the Park were more than friends. We, and the animals, were family. Having our family torn apart with a pre-cooked deal and double standards regarding money-losing city operations is disgusting. The Park came very close to breaking even using registration fees (83% cost recovery), unlike the golf course, libraries, and indoor swimming pools. At least one person said they have been engaged and committed to the democratic process, but they are now so cynical they will never vote again. I'll be voting, and trying hard to make sure people remember this.

Today I learned that if I want a really good circle with a bendy horse, I need to put my outside leg on like I'm about to canter. Once I was told, I magically made Mercedes bend every time. It feels wonderful, and I have occasionally gotten it in the past, but I didn't know what I had done to make it happen consistently. When cantering, I needed to put my outside leg even further back than before. That kept her from leaning in in or cutting her courners. This is counterintuitive, but apparently the pressure behind the girth keeps her rear end from bulging out, so her front end doesn't get pushed. in to the centre.

My friend Rebecca from work had a potato soup that smelled amazing last week, so I asked her for the recipe. Here it is, in her highly technical, I love to cook, language:

Potato soup

Buy one of those little half hams and cut it up. Cut up some potatoes and celery and maybe some onion or whatever. Bung it all into a pot. Throw in some chicken broth. Cook it all up for a while and tadaah.

I used 5 potatoes, 1 onion, 3 stalks of celery, most of the ham, and enough chicken broth to cover. I boiled until the potatoes were soft, then mashed the potatoes up a bit to give a creamier texture. It is as delicious as it smelled.

Update - Rebecca said I should have added a roux at the end to make it creamier. Then she gave me heck for not paying attention. Her cooking instructions and her work style are eerily similar.

Yesterday, swimming was all about butterfly. I got my second kick lined up with my push, stopped putting extra bits into my keyhole, and really had the pelvic thrust working. Between that and serving at feast, I have definitely fought off old lady arms for a few more days.

Feast was a ton of fun, though I wish I could have had many more hours to visit friends old and new. I managed to stay incredibly busy, between Fian, serving, Kaboone, and court stuff. I may be the worst head table server in the history of the SCA. Also, it would be nice to remember the names of people I am toasting or calling into court. One more brain fart and my head would have exploded!

It was great to see Glenda again after 30 years. I wish I could have had more time with Anne, Susanna, and a few others I rarely get to see these days. I did have fun geeking out on Fian stuff with one woman whose name I didn't catch. Hopefully, she will decide this is fun and contact us with a proposal. I also had a good chat with Dubhease; it has reinforced my desire to get back to doing some bardic stuff. I have a story I have been dying to tell ever since I rediscovered it, and always forget to rehearse so that it will be ready to deliver at an event. By the end of the day, I felt too broken to go to Mordain and Aelflaeda's for the post rev, something I really regret.

Today at riding, we were working at making our horses more elastic (going faster and slower, not more bendy - that's a different exercise). Part of it involved cantering and I had a breakthrough thanks to all the butterfly yesterday. To keep my legs on and sit up and make Mercedes go, I need to use a pelvic thrust here too. The rest of my class was spent humming "take a jump to the left...". I believe it was my best cantering ever. 

The Althing was fun. I enjoyed my drive down and back with rozzie
It was a great opportunity to chat about tons of different stuff. The event itself was quite delightful. I loved hanging out with my DARC buddies and visiting with other friends I get to see far too rarely (I'm looking at you suelet). Court was great - I was very pleased for both roller007 and Gaerwen of the endless cup of scotch.

It was a very long day, though, and 7:30 was far too early for sane people to be at the stables for the Ottawa Horse Show. Fortunately, the previous day's drive to Orono and back had demonstrated fairly clearly that I'm not sane. Scribing for the judge was both easier and harder this time. It was cold in our little booth as we were out of the sun. My feet were wet from walking through the grass to get there. I did get so see some good riding, and Caroline, the judge, was very patient about explaining new terms and how to recognize and correct for the errors that had led her to use the terms. I hope to incorporate the info into my riding in future.

After the dressage portion was over, I was too tired to hang out and watch the rest of the show, so I headed for the back field to have a few cuddles with the barn horses before heading home for a nap. Here are a few of the horses:

This is Shi, my current ride. She is a Canadian.




This is Pam, another Canadian who was purchased at the same time as Shi. I haven't ridden her yet, but she is incredibly friendly.

The big white horse with the dinner plates for feet is Mercedes. I have been riding her for three weeks now. She's a at least partly Irish Draught, with a sweet disposition, who loves to jump.  The other part is reputed to be tank, with no brakes.

Since I started to ride, I have had troubles with keeping my legs on (ie heels firmly clamped to the sides of my horse for control). When I started, there was so much focus on keeping legs on to steer, while not pulling on the horse's mouth, that I have simultaneously suffered from loopy reins. In the last couple of sessions, my instructor has been trying to teach us that we need to push our horses forward with our heels, while maintaining control with the reins so our horse would stay collected. Mostly, that sounded like jargon and I just couldn't do it. This may have been partly because I had been riding the same two horses for quite a while, and they were very forgiving of my mistakes.

When I fell off my horse over a jump at Christmas, I suddenly understood the consequences of not fixing this. I re-did the jump and stayed on, and tried for eight weeks to remember how it felt to hold the reins tight and have my legs on, until I could sign up for riding again. Apparently it sank in, because with Mercedes, I understand what my instructor is asking for. She is responsive to leg commands (and goes like stink!) at the same time as having a really strong mouth and neck, so I'm not afraid to use the reins.

There is still an element of Fear Factor with Mercedes. Today was my first time jumping her. I needed a lot of control to keep her from running wildly out over the jumps. In fact, she jumped all of them, even the little one she could have easily stepped over. It wasn't my best jumping session ever, but I learned a lot about technique today and am very satisfied with my progress.