Hay Horse & Pony Show. Country pursuits.

Here is my favourite pony at the Hay Horse & Pony Show last Sunday. I had a chat with the young owner before asking if I could take a photo. He was very proud of himself!

It's a quite informal event, lots of people taking part, and not that many spectators. There's show jumping, in hand showing, working hunter, driving classes and dressage.

Some very smart horses, as well as the magnificently round  and hairy ponies.

My view of the day was through my car windscreen. I was writing for the dressage judge. Here is the view of the rectangular dressage arena. I won't go into the detail, but the judge parks at point C, which you can see. Point A is directly opposite, and that's where the riders enter the arena, trotting up the centre line to C. We can see if they are going in a straight line, or if their line wanders!

Here is our schedule, and the sheets that need filling in for each rider's test. Not everyone rode the same test, depending on skill and how advanced they are. Each section on the sheet represents something the horse and rider have to do, and there's a space for a mark out of 10, and a comment.

The writer needs to concentrate, and also write the judges comments very quickly, and I struggled to write both quickly AND legibly. I think I succeeded!

Here are some of the competitors queuing up to enter various classes at the beginning of the day, some no doubt thinking 'I hope the dressage judge likes me and my horse'

At the end of the day, all riders judged, we had ice cream, which I forgot to photograph before gulping it down. And then I went home feeling marvellously refreshed for having had such a different day, and with only one sunburned shoulder!

Printing shed. Letterpress printing. Summer garden.

It has been absolutely lovely, in this hot weather, to have both doors of my printing shed open. The garden becomes part of it.

The sun shining onto the metal of the proofing press, which is on the floor. I have been experimenting printing with two colours. Very daring.

Enjoying finding quotes and phrases that I like.
Here is a bit of Descartes, I think therefore I am, making full use of the big fancy A and M.

My tray of the ever reliable and beautiful Caslon font by my side. I use this most of all for the big prints. It has upper and lower case letters, and there is something so reliable and utterly right about Caslon. Don't know why - it just is.

And here is the washing line with all three pieces hanging up to dry. Pirate map lore, Descartes, and Game of Thrones. I think that just about covers it!

Happy Summer. x

Orchids. Easy to keep? Yes!

I have been looking at the orchids that live on two windowsills in my home.

 Some are in the kitchen,

and some on the little windowsill on the landing, next to the bathroom.

I love all of them, and am always delighted by their thick glossy leaves, aerial roots, and long flower stems, none of them neat or tidy looking, but so vigorous.

I know the common perception of orchids is that they are difficult to keep, and many orchids are bought, treated like a long lasting cut flower and then thrown away. However, it's possible to keep them for years, and there are a few rules that will help you do this!

First of all, they need light, but not direct sunlight. I keep the blind in the kitchen just a little down in the summer to keep the full sun off - and the upstairs windowsill doesn't get direct sun, so that's perfect.

Secondly, keep them in a clear plastic pot. They need the light on their roots. The orchids grown for houses  originated growing on trees, so they don't want to be in the confined in a dark pot.

Orchids like humidity, so a kitchen is great. And the windowsill outside the bathroom is good too. I also mist mine regularly, spraying the flowers and leaves.  And watering the compost in the pots too, but not a huge amount.

When flowering is finished, don't cut the flower stem down immediately. Often the next flower stem grows from it. Wait until the stem has actually died back before cutting it, just to be sure.

I always have several in flower, and others are resting. Orchids bring colour and exotic beauty!
Oh - and watch out for wildlife living amongst the pots.

Haiku. Wren. Apple Cake.

Poems, especially haiku, take a long time to write, and sometimes I find one unfinished that I have forgotten about, in amongst my notes. Here is a poem I started at the beginning of this year.

While walking by the Wye I heard a wren singing in an ivy covered tree. It was a huge sound, and it seemed to me that it was calling upon the tree to wake, and on the spring to begin. So I took a photo,

and went home and made a load of notes. I always put the date in my notebook, but I can't quite work out if that's 1 or a 2 for the month, so it was either January or February!

I couldn't quite get to the centre of what I wanted to say. It was difficult to express.

So I left it for a while.  Some time later, after writing down an Apple Cake recipe from the internet, and making some lists of things to do, the haiku came into my mind again, so I started working on it as I was baking.
I found it again recently, having been looking for the recipe, remembering that I had written it in a notebook.

 Note that I have written hoorah underneath the utter confusion of the top right had corner. I think this means I believed the haiku to be complete.

 However, I am not so sure now.
Here it is;

one voice declares spring -
ivy shivering with song
trees compelled to wake

I'll leave it, and see what happens next time I come across it!

Striped rose. Oranges and lemons. Scented beauty.

Just one photograph, of a magnificent striped rose in my garden, called Oranges and Lemons. It's not at all robust, sends up about three weedy stems every year, and has two or three sprays of flowers. But what flowers! I  really do gasp when I come out into the garden and the first flower is there.

It's fantastic. I took the photograph with my phone, and will keep it there, to find and look at when I need reminding of good things.
My dream is to have a garden entirely filled with striped roses. I must work on making the dream a reality!

Letterpress printing. Tour de France.

I have been celebrating the Tour de France in my printing shed! I decided to make a print for each of the three main jerseys worn by the leaders of the race, and turn them into cards. Here is the maillot vert, the green jersey, worn by the fastest sprinter.

Poor Mark Cavendish is out of the race, having fallen at the finish line on the first day. I was hoping for him to be wearing this jersey at the end of the race in Paris in three weeks time.

But the card looks nice, stitched with green thread of course.

The best climber wears the King of the Mountains jersey. It's rather exciting, white with red dots.

I have used some huge full stops, and stitched the print onto the card with red thread.

And the race leader wears the maillot jaune, the yellow jersey.

The big wooden letters look fabulous, and I really like the bright yellow, not a colour I usually use. 

The maillot jaune is listed on my Etsy shop, and the others will follow. Vive le Tour!

http://etsy.me/1q7RpXm