Suddenly, the cold northerly wind has gone away that we've had for nearly 6 weeks, and it's warm, almost hot here in Cumbria!

I fed both ponies this morning, which I haven't done so often in recent weeks because Jen, my daughter, has been teaching using Mr T and she often gets out before I do. HOwever, today she's taken Naomi in for day surgery to remove those chemotherapy lines - last step back to normality for our 4 1/2 year old grand-daughter, after nine months of cancer treatment :) So Mr T and Ruby had their soaked sugar-beet, soaked cubes and half scoop of mix, and a wee bite of hay to keep them happy till I came out around 10-30am to tack up Ruby for a drive.

Mr T stayed in, and apparently spent most of the hour and 20 minutes that we were away, bellowing for Ruby.

She never bothers to answer while she's working. Work, for her, comes first; she just loves doing it. We walked for a mile, up the hill past the motorway services, then I put her into trot, just an easy jog, about 11kph, nothing strenuous. The birds are busy here - most are already nesting, the blackbirds singing their hearts out and the crows divebombing the local buzzard in case he takes a fancy to their nest site. It's been a late,cold spring here, and a very dry six weeks or so. Some of the fields that are usually wet, and heavily overgrown in seaves (soft rushes) have burst into shades of palest lilac pink as the cuckoo-flowers (lady's smock) have come into bloom. I've never seen them so exuberant, it's quite remarkable. Further on, there was a soft, sweet green smell that I couldn't place at all - perhaps the smell of beech trees, because there is a long line of them beside the road, all big mature trees, smooth barked and newly in leaf and already casting a dense shade.

The oddest item on our daily drives has now gone - an abandoned fireside armchair that's lived for some weeks beside the electricity substation. I'd seen it previously in the rear of the pickup belonging to the man who took away our broken down washing machine; maybe he left it there to make room for his next collection! Since then, it's been nicknamed "the electric chair" and "the throne of power". Presumably he came back for it. I hope so - it was quite a nice chair, much too good to waste!

Ruby kept up the trot for a couple of miles, then we turned towards Sproat Ghyll Farm (smiling at the travelling butcher who was reading the newspaper while sitting in the cab of his van, in the shade of the big sycamore on the corner). I kept Ruby trotting till we reached the farm, then gave her a few minutes on the grass verge, in the shade, while she caught her breath. That took very little time! She was nibbling the hedge inside the first minute, and moving off within another two or three. I walked her back towards the junction, and she dealt quite composedly with a very large, wide Manitou loader that came bumpety bumping along the road to turn in at the farm. She didn't mind its size, but the unpredictable bumping did cause her to shy a tiny bit when it was level with us. However, she never makes much fuss so I just told her quietly to go on walking. Once we'd passed the butcher's van again, I set her off in trot and she picked up eagerly for home. I really wanted to make sure she is fit to do a fast, hilly marathon drive of about 6 miles, with 3 or 4 obstacles, on Sunday, so I took up the reins two-handed, which always alerts her that I want more energy. Quite how she knows that I've changed my grip, I'm not sure - perhaps I take a stronger hold two-handed. I have noticed, too, that I compensate better for her naturally convex right side this way, and she strides more evenly; which must say something about my perception of rein pressure when driving coachman style, I suppose. Anyway, she flew home at a rolling 16kph. Heading into the breeze, she actually cooled off as she did so. She is getting very fit, and her massive quarters are really hard-muscled.

She was still warm enough when we got home, though, to appreciate a wash off, without grumbling and swinging about!