October

Riding – Violin – Bowls – Leaks – The Name of the Rose – Evesham – Halloween

The Mill Farm dressage gala took place on Sunday 2 and Clyde did very well to come second in both the classes entered. Teresa was roped into service as a steward, which meant a long day for her, as well as the difficult task of checking the legality of competitors’ tack. It’s surprising what even experienced competitors don’t seem to know, leading to some potentially embarrassing moments.

Then back to Allens Hill on Sunday 9 for mini show jumping, for which there is always a strong entry: Clyde, unusually for him, had a refusal in one class, and missed a place by fractions of a second in another. But he came fourth in the 70cm class, in line with previous performances and another rosette for him.

Clyde going clear in the 70cm class Clyde in his new travel boots

On Sunday 16 Jay had a day out at the Horse of the Year show at the NEC in Birmingham, an outing organised by her local stables. As you can imagine, she had a wonderful time. Her main purchase was a set of clip-on travel boots for Clyde. Up to now he has been protected by old polythene foam and bandages, so the boots will save a lot of time.

Horse of the Year Show

Back to Allens Hill for the last two Sundays of the month, Clyde again being placed in both dressage and jumping classes. Indeed, he has done so well since starting to compete regularly in July, that Juliet and Clyde were among the nominations for the end-of-year awards based on the cumulative total of points scored in all events entered. However, there are still a few weeks to go, and obviously the half-dozen or so competitors still in the running are now making a determined effort to boost their totals.

Jay got a new violin teacher. She started weekly lessons at school, with a teacher she had previously met at the Beauchamp House summer courses. Jay will join the school orchestra when it starts rehearsing after half-term.

Roger has started his first season of indoor bowls at Malvern. Playing on the carpet presents a new challenge, and he is still struggling. Luckily, the rest of his four played well in their opening match, which was won, but the next match was a heavy defeat by last year’s league winners.

The Overbury connexion has not been totally severed for the winter, however, as Roger agreed to audit the club books this year, before the AGM in November.

The autumn plumbing problem turned out to be a leaky joint in an easily accessible pipe, and we think it has stopped since we tried to tighten it. As the drips had been going straight to ground and the first signs were a damp floor, we put two and two together and made five, thinking we were on the track of the central heating leak we had last year and never found (luckily the sealant seems to have done the trick). The plumber never did arrive – just as well really as our faces would have been red.

Roger tried to make amends by tracking down the sources of two damp patches in the bathroom; in one case it was faulty tiling in exactly the same place as had caused trouble in Juliet’s bathroom the year before and requiring a similar repair.

Helen visited for a long weekend 22 – 24; she needed the break, having had a fraught time in her bookshop, being continually short-staffed, and further hampered by rain penetration which has taken out their computer installation. We relaxed at home, in part by watching on DVD the powerful 1985 film The Name of the Rose with Sean Connery, based on the novel by Umberto Eco. Roger had watched it before, but, being new to DVD, had managed to skip a vital scene, so it made much more sense the second time around.

We visited Evesham a few times in the month – new tyres for the car and new school shoes for Jay among the utilitarian needs, but a wonderful old-fashioned pick and mix sweet shop in the market the undoubted highlight.

Halloween brought the month to a close. We no longer celebrate, so locked the door tight and stayed put all night. We need not have worried. The following day we saw the neighbours had deployed no fewer than three Jack O’Lanterns to protect the property.

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Calendar 2005