Yorkshire Pudding in Yorkshire!

It's been an amazing last few days since meeting up with mom! I'm so happy to be back with family yay! The weather has been great for the most part and we've been busy touring around London, and stopping at neat places on our way to Edinburgh where we currently are. So far, we've been shopping on Oxford St in London, caught in a freak thunder storm while on our way back from the underground trains to our hotel, figured out the underground system in London, learnt that elevators talk to you in London (please mind the door), eaten at a pub in London, had Pimms and Bulmers while staying in one night, walked through Hyde Park, ridden on the ferris wheel in Hyde Park (a huge accomplishment for mom seeing she's scared of heights-also mom thought this was the Eye of London), seen the Princes Dianna Memorial Fountain at Hyde Park, went to Cambridge and saw a few of the Universities that make up Cambridge, were offered "Punting" tours in Cambridge, went to York (Yorkshire) and ate Yorkshire pudding and roast turkey and beef for our easter dinner/lunch, saw a man walking a kitten in York, spend the night in Leeds at a sketchy hotel, stopped at Haidrains' wall, saw a Scotsman playing the bagpipes at the Scotland/England boarder, stopped in Melrose, Scotland for some tea and lunch, and are now currently in Edinburgh for our first of two evenings here.  I would love to elaborate on all of these places/events but for now, I'll post a few pictures and the stories will follow when we get home. :) Hope you enjoy the pics and we'll try to update the blog after our traditional Scottish evening tomorrow!

My last week at Sheepcote

Hello! I can't believe my working time abroad is almost over! It seems like I've been away from home for a looooooooooooong time, yet it also feels like I just got here! It's going to be tough to leave Sheepcote as I really like it here, and the people here are a blast to be around but I'm also very excited to get back home to familiar faces and places. I know it'll be tough but I'm going to try to keep in touch with the great people that I've met while at Belmont and Sheepcote as they've made my time away what it has been. 

It's been a fairly busy last week with Serena and Lucy competing at the Nationals but it's back to normal now on the farm.  Both Lucy and Serena did well last week at the show and it was nice to get an afternoon off this week to go watch at the show without having to groom. :) The group of us went back to the show on Friday evening for the gala which had some fun performances to music as well as a demo from Carl Hester on young horses and some of the things he considers when purchasing an upper level dressage prospect. 

I don't really have too much to write about this past week haha.  Things just go along as normal on the farm, and because of the show, we didn't get many lessons this week so it's been pretty busy to get horses ready to leave, then low key until they get back at the end of the day. 

I'm looking forward to when mom gets here on Friday, and I leave for London Friday morning. The girls here have told me that we HAVE to check out Oxford St for shopping while in London so hopefully we get a chance to take a stroll down there among other places haha. :) 

Just enjoying my last day off here at Sheepcote. I've had a nice sleep in (as per usual on my day off here) and I've just been doing laundry today and of course will have to do some more on Wednesday to prepare for the next few weeks with mom.  So far, no one I've come across here has clothes dryers... so we really have to plan ahead for doing laundry to make sure the clothes will be dry by the time we need them! Well, time to get off the computer and go change over the laundry! 

Another week passes by

This past week has been GORGEOUS out! So much sun!
It's been a different type of week, David has been out with his other job (he installs watering systems for arenas around the country.. and I think he's even gone to the US before too) but since he's been away most of the week it's been a pretty relaxing week at Sheepcote. And by relaxing I mean not tacking up or grooming the horses he rides haha other than that, things are busy as usual here! The Nationals for dressage are on here this week so last week there were a couple of schooling shows that David, Serena and Lucy went to. All did very well at the shows, and David and Dicci did an amazing job at their first Prix St. George test together! Serena and Dior rode a fabulous freestyle to music and scored a 74% I believe.  I missed her test unfortunately as I was helping out Lucy and David in the warm up arena, removing boots and such. It was so great to have a chance to watch Lucy and David perform though as I went along as a groom for one of the shows.
With all the sun here, of course we had to enjoy a nice evening at the local pub last Friday. We all had a drink and some chips and Steph and Chery selected some songs for the jukebox and we sat out on the patio until the sun went down and it cooled off. :) Such a nice quiet evening out. It was Steph's birthday on the 9th, and Chery's on the 10th so we all went out to one of the Clubs here on the Saturday evening which was nice to get out and off the yard for a night! Everyone from here cleans up really well! haha It was neat to see everyone all showered up and dressed NOT in breeches and a pony tail. :) The next day working was a little bit rough as none of us got much sleep the evening before (and I know I was nursing some sore feet from wearing heels for the first time in about 3 months).
Today it's my day off, only one more until I leave here! This coming week is going to be pretty hectic I think with the show lasting most of the week so I'm planning on fully enjoying my day to myself. :) Definitely looking forward to seeing my mom in about 10 and a bit days!

3 weeks down :)

Wow! It's been 3 weeks now at Sheepcote! I've gotta say, it's gone by pretty fast! This week was fairly uneventful here on the farm, just the normal daily grind, I think it goes by faster because there are less of us now so it's go-go-go all day long.  It's funny, I think I've actually caught up on sleep..yah, I know hey? I never thought I'd get to that point where my body will not let me sleep anymore but hey, I've hit it! I'm sure after about a week of being home with my "normal" schedule I'll be back to craving sleep again! It's been pretty nice just getting up, working all day until it's time to shower then head to bed, although, for the first time since being gone, I'm bored. Yup, that's right. I'm actually bored today haha.  There's really only so much to do on a day off when you don't have access to a car, and your muscles aren't really wanting to walk (or not wanting to walk by myself) to the bus stop down the road to get into a town that I'm not familiar with. Not that I'm complaining at all! It's kind of nice actually, however strange it is not to have a list of things waiting for me to do them (or put off doing them). So it's looking like another lazy day on the computer or watching movies until   everyone at home is up and about to converse with :) This time change sucks by the way. :P Everyone at home is just getting up when it's about 3pm here.
So, two of the girls here have birthdays this coming weekend and we've all been informed that we're going out this coming Saturday night! Eeps! It should be a good time though, and VERY different from when we went out in Belmont as it's an actual town here and apparently we're going to a club-not a pub so we'll see how it goes! As most people reading this will know, I'm more of a pub person that a club one haha so French Lucy and I have agreed that which ever one of us is ready to leave first, the other will split a cab home with them since she's not a club goer either. And then the younger girls can party all night and be as crazy as they want to (yah I saw pictures from last year's birthday outing...).
Only 18 more days until I get to hang out with mom! Yahoo! It's kind of nuts that it's just over 2 weeks now until I leave here. I've been trying to figure out how to get from the farm to the hotel that we're booked into but no such luck. I think it's going to be another case of taking the train into Paddington Station and then just trying to piece things together from there... Or perhaps I'll try google maps and see if that will help a bit more.
Well, until next week (or the next time I write on here), here's some photos for you to enjoy.