Jim Haka

Riding school fete today, but first there was Katherine's French lesson, some urgent errands for me, cheering on Scotland in the rugby (cue sad faces) and tearful farewells to Mr B who is off for a week in England.

The fete was great fun. Lots of local farmers showed up with meat for the barbie, duck, cheese and charcuterie. (And beer, and even a wine tasting, though I didn't indulge.) There was jumping for the older kids early on (as above) and then Katherine's lot did a fun and shorter version of a normal lesson, showing off tricks like turning 360 degrees in the saddle while the pony is moving. The 'get off and get back on again without help' trick didn't quite work out, with most of them jumping ineffectively at the long-suffering ponies without any hope of getting back on, each attempt rendered less effective by the constant giggling. Katherine, as usual, made sure her competitive streak overcame the penalty of having a slow pony, and her team won every relay (the child next to me shouted excitedly 'oh yes, now she's on our team we'll win' when K switched sides - and he was right.)

So, stuffed with local produce (I had ordered the food yesterday when I was hungry) and made slightly woozy by the sun (30 degrees today) we wobbled home for a rest before the latest onslaught on the homework mountain. One of Katherine's tasks (finding feminine nouns for words like poing, sang, etc) has me a little foxed, but I think I'm getting there (though if anyone can help with le sang as a feminine word that would be appreciated.... I think I need to get a better dictionary: my O'level compatible one from 1985 just isn't coping!)

EDIT: Jim Haka, just to explain, is Katherine's interesting pronunciation of the English word 'Gymkhana'. You know how it is with words you've only ever seen written down.