Yeah, yeah we had the snow too!  Unlike some of you we actually had polar bears 'dans le coin' .
 To think some of you poor buggars still have snow now! Our snow only stopped us riding for four days (touch wood, there could well be more on the way) but while it was here I thought I should do something useful, so it seemed a cunning plan to break Peggy in, even if she is only two. There are some ponies in Peggy's background, we won't mention names, who weren't that cute to break so it seemed a good idea to crack along with her while still a baby.
Was that a great plan or what? Maybe it's just that Peggy is a sweet girl and has had us fooled by her madam antics these last couple of years?  Or maybe all of a sudden she is a reformed lady? She has  quite played the princess, trying to be caught, leading like a doll, making  lovey dovey faces for a tickle and a pat.
Infact as you can see in the photo above, the one fly in the ointment was Ted, having not ridden since last spring he seems to have gotten a bit rusty so while he could pose for a quick standing photo



When it came to schooling we had to tie him on, God knows what aids he was giving Peggy, but she took it all in her stride with good humour



Infact she was so good for a couple of days that I dared to get on her myself and despite weighing a good bit more than Ted she continued to enjoy it without hassle, panic or excitement.


,Last thursday before the snow came we went to the beach to celebrate my
th birthday.

As you can see we had a great party in the dark



having had a quick ride on Cloud



(who was a little over awed by the magnitude of space but held herself together well)

and Ginge beforehand;



Ginge wanted to do galloping with all that wide open sand, but lets face it,when doesn't he want to do galloping?

It is of course my favourite beach, across the bay from the Mont St. Michel. My favourite place in Normandy and possibly one of my top ten in the whole world, the feeling of being alone is superb.I have only surpassed it in  the australian outback and american wilderness.

Stupidly  before Christmas I thought it would be a cool day trip to make a fruit cake and a flask of mulled wine and take a ' trip out' to the other side of the bay visiting the actual Mont itself. It was bound, I felt certain, to have the most superior Christmas lights in the land.
( Never do this, the Mont is always best viewed from a distance so one is not forced to fight the heaving waves of tourists in the actual town itself. Furthermore their Christmas lights are pants, I don't know why they bother!)
However it was very interesting outing indeed since the Mont st Michel has just become the very latest disney attraction don't you know?
 It is no longer deemed safe enough, satisfactory enough or lucrative enough to have the tourist hordes parking on the causeway sands a stone's throw from the entrance arch. It is now necessary to park ones car on the terra firma end of the causeway at great expense and then either take the free shuttle bus or walk. Walk, imagine?

Yes we walked



because we had all the dogs on a Christmas special. And what a walk it is if I may say so.

All the more exciting made by the absolutely idyllic final approach



Okay, maybe that's not fair, we'll try another angle



or another



 Oh well , whatever angle you see it from right at this moment it's not particularly pretty, but I'm sure for future visitors the improvements and repairs will be  worth the trouble and expense they're currently expending.
While you can't knock the stonework repair, I do find the idea of the new railway shuttling the masses back and forth rather repugnant. It was all beautifully quaint, old fashioned and french to park on the beach and worry about the tide coming in and washing away you car. I fear it will be rather like starring in a movie  in  the years to come.





It's  certainly a beautiful place, a truly impressive feat of engineering,
one the doggies were  absolutely fascinated in.



Well they loved sniffing the dog pee up all the secret passageways



And posing for all the tourists who despite  being surrounded by marvels were still seduced by the cuteness (perhaps it was the madness) of five small dogs on leads. Mini excelled herself at doing cutesy faces and wiggley bum, Eeny was just terrified of so many new faces, colours and languages trying to pet and caress her.
By the time we'd finished tramping round the beach then racing up and down the steps, streets and alleys the idea of the long dull walk back to the car was rather daunting. So we enquired if doggies could use the shuttle bus



That's a yes if you carry them. Lucky they're small and the journey short.
For the cost of the parking, you might expect a seat but we felt we'd got a fair deal as we dipped out on the pay parking and nabbed a last freebie on the verge beside the car park entrance. Be warned though you'll have to come early or be lucky, there's less than a dozen even when double parked.

Since cost cutting is by necessity the order of the day I yesterday thought that I would do a home hair dye job to rid myself of the grey onslaught. I'd love to have fancy blonde highlights, though maybe not done in France where there is tendancy for people to come out looking like Tony the tiger.( If you ever saw a supermarket  checkout girl round here you'd know what I mean). It is well beyond my meagre means at present however, so considered,' how wrong could I go with a natural henna home dye?'



Very wrong it seems. But Turnip and Red thinks it's cool I'm in their club even if noone else likes gingas.

Ps.
Turnip is is detention since he buggered off with Charlie at Brecey today. I'd just had a little jump on the both of them  and was heading back to the trailer with one in either hand while the dogsbody made payments etc. when all of a sudden a dog ran over the bank. Turnip and Charlie reeled together and took off up the road, paused at the recycling bins to discuss direction then galloped off together towards the main road, and then straight on over it, (gratefully I hadn't yet caught up),  away up the chemin, bore a right along the road at the top,  then paused for breath and a snack. Watched approach of puffing council worker (who'd just legged it up the chemin to attempt rescue), decided unanimously against being rescued and took off  again in full flight down the road for another mile  or so with council worker's mate's van in hot pursuit, tailed  eventually by us with the trailer. At long last the pair decided road running was dull and peeled off for fodder hunting. They then saw approach of my one angry self and had a row over next plan of action. Turnip wanted to gallop more, Charlie wanted to fill his  face. Turnip dipped out of running further alone, so Charlie got caught. Turnip cussed him under his breath. Both frog marched back to trailer and loaded quickly and crossily under barrage of abuse. Had jolly big belly laugh together all the way home.