Life in the South. Or, slightly on holiday.

My friend The Horticulturalist arrives. We catch up.

‘How is your blog?’ she says, politely. (I think it amazing of her to ask. Most real world people really don’t.)

‘Well,’ I say, ‘the awful thing is that I have not written it for two days because I was, you know, doing actual life.’

This is the thing that always startles me. I can do the blog and do the Facebook and twitter the tweets, because I resolutely refuse to have any social life in Scotland at all. I occasionally go up for cocktails with The World Traveller, and have been known to accept gratefully a Peroni beer after an afternoon’s work at HorseBack. About twice a year, I put on a frock and go to the Sister’s house for some celebratory occasion, but that really is it. I do all my socialising in my hectic visits south, and then return to my northern fastness and sit very, very still.

Also, I do not do the whole husband and children thing.

Thus, there is space for the blog. What astonishes me is that there are those of you out there who do have the families, and do have the social life, and still find time to write amusing online things and put up lovely pictures and generally illustrate your lives. I have no idea how you do it.

Admittedly, I was tired from the road. Someone over on Twitter told me to Buck Up since it was only five hundred miles and she did that with just one lav stop. More steely stamina than I, is all I can say. I used to do the thing in one go, and now I take it in two easy stages, and I still find my eyes a bit starey and boiled after squinting at the M6 for four hours at a stretch.  

Also, it was one of those weekends where there are many old friends with whom to catch up, and not a moment to be wasted. We have to talk very fast and almost make lists, to fit everything in.

But still, poor effort really. So sorry about that.

This is officially a holiday. Often when I am down here with the cousins, I am still working, carrying my laptop on my back as if I were a snail. This time, I have not had a break since June, so apart from my HorseBack work, I am taking the time off. The blog will be shorter than usual and there may be days missing. You can imagine me doing some lounging. And possibly some drinking. And even a nice little old lady rest in the afternoon. (The Beloved Cousin has the most comfortable beds in England.)

Also, I have to study and re-study the form for Cheltenham. So forgive me if the nature of this thing is a little spotty for the next two weeks.

In the meantime, here are some quick pictures for you:

Southern dogs. I love them. They are very like my old girls:

Apparently, these people have been doing a great deal of outrageous Spanish Riding School of Vienna dancing and prancing since I have been gone, although of course here they have their butter would not melt, dozy donkey faces on:

And this fella is being both good and helpful, and sounds as if he is being outrageously spoilt: