I started doing this diary in June, it's quite new. If you haven't been following have a look at the Cast of Characters which gives a quick low down on the essential day to day characters who are mentioned here...it will make more sense if you do.

No evidence of Clare when I got up and was beginning to think that she had sneakily asked someone else for a lift to go gardening. However when I went up to check on the horses (which were in the field by the way) she was up there loading horseshit into the wheelbarrow. I didn't even like to ask how long she'd been up there. After some lunch she decided not to go do heavy stuff with pianos all afternoon, much to my relief. We then started talking about the training ring we want to build for the horses and worked out the number of posts we would need etc and thought we may as well go and get them. Hopefully the hay can be cut soon and then we can get on with building it, so I made a mental note to phone David, our friendly farmer to see if he thought the time had come. Between us we also managed to think of a way of shutting the gate whereby the horses wouldn't be able to open it but I would. I had a large clip fastner in the barn and so with a length of chain and one of the plates the blacksmith made yesterday it should be secure.

Set off for the woodyard with a stopover in town to buy a bit of chain. At the woodyard we also looked at various types of wood we could use as rails, although we were only getting the posts today. Great woodyard, all sorts of usefull stuff there, we will have to go back with the trailer to get the longer rails. Bought 50 posts, about 35 or so for the ring and the rest as spares or reinforcements for the existing fencing. Came back via a series of country lanes, and could have chosen any one of a number of routes but somehow managed to run into David playing in the road with his JCB. Stopped and had a chat to him about the hay, which he reckons could maybe be done in a week or so, he can also put in the posts after he has taken the hay off the field, which makes that whole job a lot easier, I had been imagining several days in the field with the sledge hammer. That was one of the reasons I had bought it actually, apart from the fact that I just wanted one. On the way back we stopped to see if Clare's car was mended which it wasn't so I took her home. Nobody was home when I got back and so I just had to unload the fence posts, which took awhile but it does seem like the weather is getting a bit better here and its been quite nice to be outdoors for the last week or so. It will be good to get the ring up, I don't feel confident to take Princess out on the road or let anyone else take her until she has learn to co-operate better, it's just too dangerous now.

I wanted to put the new gate fastner up but I couldnt get the bit fixed into the hand drill on my own and I needed someone to brace the gate so I spent a bit of time toying with the Absolutely Campus logo... not getting very far. Around 6.30 I thought I ought to cook even though no-one else was around, driven by the new target dinnertime. Irene did phone to say how late they would actually be at some point. Anyway I think we ate around 9.00ish. And the good news is...the horses are still in the field.

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