It was actually rather nice to have a weekend off from racing and time to catch up with various chores on Saturday and then lovely to see Joseph, Sophie and the little 'uns for Sunday lunch.
It was frozen this morning but we still managed to get most of the horses on the hill gallop before boxing up Budge, Jake and Rock for a gallop at Lambourn. It is a really good prep before a race, not so much for the gallops but  also to take the stress out of travelling, particularly with the new Irish horses, who may have bad memories from their last couple of journeys, either coming over the water or from their last race. Anyway, it worked wonders on Murphy (Glory Hunter) who for his first journey to Lambourn was a sweaty mess and would have run his race on the lorry if we had been going racing. As it was, when we actually took him to the races he was really chilled out and run a cracking race.
We can only hope that the other two (Sea Rock on Sunday and Don't Budge Me on Saturday) run half as well and we will be happy. We have double entered everywhere but are more likely to go to Cottenham on Saturday and Brocklesby on Sunday weather permitting.

Now, for my favourite time of the day when I turn the lights off and leave the office to walk back to the house and almost without fail I am greeted by the wonderful sight of our barn owl silently swooping out of the barn and doing a graceful circle around the yard before he disappears into the night.
We have put a Barn owl nesting box up right next to the beam that he always sits on but as yet he hasn't managed to find a mate to share it with. I will be ridiculously excited if that ever happens...