Horses are not meant to be sat upon.
Too high and fast. Large herbivores –
small brain, strong flight instinct.

The problem here (apart from an approaching rattly lorry,
narrow high-hedged lane, attempted evasive action
and two highly unexpected wheelie bins)
was more the equally small brain,
and total lack of skill or co-ordination,
on the part of the rider.

The lanes are normally very quiet.
We’d mostly been riding in the forest
(though that is full of scary squeaky branches,
suddenly erupting birds, unpredicted falling twigs).
Ah, but those are nature noises.

Machinery represents a threat of a different order:
a parked helicopter,
sabre-toothed bicycles.
And tractors. And buses.

Plastic carrier bags in hedges.
They are the most scary and dangerous of all.
They can eat a horse whole, apparently.

From the Facebook discussion of some riding enthusiasts. By Angi Holden.

You can get a cold drink of water from the top,
without waiting for it to run cold.
Hats.
When it snows you can pretend it’s Narnia.
Putting the heating on,
feeling like you’re defeating winter!
Soup, hotpot, stew, all those slow cooker meals
you don’t make when it’s warm.

Dark nights, running in the rain,
moonlit walks up Shining Tor
(best with frost or ideally snow on ground),
sitting in the warm playing music
watchin the ‘weather’ outside,
wrapping up warm to go out,
drying out again when you’ve taken the dog out,
cold winter days up in the hills
with views across Cheshire.

It is acceptable, nay encouraged, to eat meals
that consist entirely of carbs and cheese.
Boots + woolly tights.
CRUMBLE.

Snuggling by the fire under a duvet
with a baileys hot chocolate
Sledges.
Your winter festival of choice.
Scarves and gloves. Snow.
Snowball fights with people who are too nice to play evilly.
Building snow creatures.
The snow silence. The icing look of it.

Hot chocolate. Marshmallows optional.
Haw frost on spiders’ webs.
And on the edges of leaves. And coating long grasses.
Oh, and the return of geese from warmer climates.

Moaning about the weather.

From a Facebook discussion about the onset of winter. By Angi Holden.

Sometimes I eat that ‘plastic’ ham or cheese singles.
I’ve also read some really (so-called) trashy books.
I have a fondness for Harry Styles and quite like Cheryl Cole.

I must be pretty thick and uneducated,
or so it would seem, despite the fact that
I often eat in ‘high-end’ restaurants,
read (so-called) literary fiction
and regularly go to the theatre.

I don’t want to read 50 Shades,
but don’t give a monkey’s poop who else reads it.
Read what you like I say, just accept that maybe
I don’t want to read it. I have no interest
in reading Austen, Trollope, Eliot or Dickens either –
so my disinterest crosses many boundaries!

As yet, I have not watched Gogglebox,
but I expect that if I do, I may be hooked.

My cranberry sauce usually comes from B&M.
I have cider in the salad drawer,
and I also like my red wine cold – yes, cold –
and usually the bottle has a screw top!

There are loads of books that I don’t want to read,
things that I don’t want to watch
and places that I don’t want to eat in.
However, lots of people do – and surely that’s fine?

I like my life, my food and my books to be diverse.

Text from a friend’s facebook status, and from her responses to other people’s comments on it. By Angi Holden.