Days Like These

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I’ve been feeling quite distant from this blog of late and I guess the reason is I’m not actively globetrotting at the moment.

I’m curious, have you ever had a time in your life where horses have been out of reach? I’ve had brief episodes in my life where my connection with equines has lapsed due to circumstances. We’re expecting our second child in mid-September and as a rule to myself I never ride after 12 weeks as to not jeopardise the safety of my unborn child. Read more about this in a prior post. So even though two of my three mares are grazing in the lush green paddocks that fringe my home, I feel at arms length from them. I’m yearning to ride at the moment, to crack a polo ball and go tearing up the field. Normally at this time of year I’m waking at 5am with the stars still twinkling to saddle my pony and work them in the golden light of morning. Or travelling to a far flung destination, far removed from the daily grind and explore unchartered territory from the back of a horse.

Thankfully, I’m finding immense enjoyment in sending guests on riding holidays throughout the world. We travelled quite a lot with our globetrotter Finn: Fiji, Bali, Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Japan. I hope we can be as ambitious when #2 arrives into the world. This we’ll have to wait and see.

For now, I’m trying to enjoy the change of pace, where planes and passports are not on the horizon nor weekend polo tournaments. The change of season is welcomed, apart from the shorter days where I get up in the dark to work at my computer hugging a cup of coffee and being pulled inside at 5pm to read books and eat an early dinner. When I can’t ride or surf, I keep busy in my garden. I love watching our citrus trees plump with green fruit slowly changing colour as the cold weather moves in like a creeping fog. Our mulberry tree with its gnarled limbs sits at the bottom of our garden and its budding green fruit resemble hairy caterpillars climbing the tree. I can’t help but think when the fruit turns to ribena purple we will be ready to welcome a new soul into the world.

I can’t help but get excited and impatient to count down the weeks of this pregnancy. I force myself to take a deep breath and enjoy being a family of three for now. Finn is two at the end of the week and she’s chattering away like a budgee and repeating phrases like a parrot. She’s a curious soul who loves being outside and picking up worms (pronounced by her as ‘worns’), grubs and caterpillars. She’s my shadow in the garden, with her tiny watering can, feeding the plants and getting distracted by falling leaves or swooping birds.

Above photo: This pic was taken just before we went to Canada last year. I thought I had lost this series of images but I stumbled upon them yesterday.