Changing horses

There's a new horse in Abi's life - a certain 16.2 gelding named Ringo. We got introduced last Sunday morning out at Redlands and you can tell it's going to be a match made in heaven for these two.

 

This is a family affair too, with all of us learning as much as we can about being a part of Abi's horsey world - but especially Josh and Jody for whom it is rapidly becoming a way of life!

Ringo is a keen jumper which matches Abi's emerging skills and interests and being only about 6 years old he's got a bit more get up and go than Harry the Brumby pony.

The handover to Ringo is still a little way off so in the interim Abi is riding Promi and Holly. We were out at Redlands with Abi on Monday afternoon and enjoyed watching her round the ponies up ready for her lesson with Victoria.

Abi always gets a welcome when she opens the paddock gate.

This is Promi, a sweet natured and finely built pony - easy to catch too!

Holly is a much more stockily built pony but she's good natured too and a sure-footed jumper.

Abi knows that the hay bag ensures an easier tack up session before the lesson.

Prepping the ponies takes ages - Abi is so confident and able with every part of the process - but being able to clean the ponies' hooves like this always impresses me.

We're taking Abi out to a Showjumping League (competition) at Redlands for the next five Monday afternoons and we're very excited about it!!

In between pony/horse dates we're still doing our Mt Ainslie (843metres) walk most Sunday mornings. We walked back down from the summit through the bush last week - not on the graded path - and were rewarded with this close up view of one of the local mob.

Beach break - last days

We couldn't have had a more perfect winter day for our last day at Coolangatta last Sunday. It was obviously a great day for surfing the waves too, making for great spectator sport on our morning walk.

Perfect winter beach weather ....

and the surfers were still out working the waves on our sunset walk too .........

We drove back to Coogee from Coolangatta on Monday - 800klms on the coast road is a pretty easy stretch for us these days. It felt cold in Sydney though and we hadn't brought our winter layers. But we did manage to find a cosy spot at the bar of the Coogee Bay Hotel for a celebratory drink at the end of our day's drive.

We admired this little "public library" on Dudley Street, opposite Baker Park, on our walk down to the Coogee Bay Hotel.

We spent Tuesday afternoon in Sydney at the Art Gallery of NSW - admiring the works in the annual Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prize exhibitions - always a fun experience for us.

James Powditch's portrait of Sam Neill was a standout ......

.. as was Anh Do's large-scale portrait of dear Archie Roach (RIP).

On Wednesday we saw the wonderful Tina Turner - The Musical at the Theatre Royal - a fabulous, stunning show that we LOVED. Lucky us!!!

And we did lots more walking in Coogee too - to keep us warm and full of wellbeing on what were cold wintry days for Sydney. We walked southwards .....

....and northwards too, past Clovelly Beach on a big open blue-sky morning ...

All in all, a wonderful winter beach break for us - but good to be back in Canberra now, especially with our central heating and full wardrobe of puffer jackets scarves and beanies too .....

Winter beach break

Although our planned catch up with family in Brisbane has not worked out, it's still been rather lovely to have some mid-winter time at the Gold Coast over the past few days. We started the road trip North with a stay at Coogee on Monday night, getting down to the beach just in time to catch a rainbow sky over the iconic Rainbow Walkway ............

 

We drove 800klms along the A1 on Tuesday, arriving at Coolangatta around 3.00pm - a pretty easy drive for us seasoned road trippers. After a long day's drive though we were very happy with the view from our room 405 at Mantra Coolangatta.

The light was just amazing on our first night - perfect for a sunset stroll along the beach .....

..... a walk we've repeated every night since - winter sunsets are the best!!!

The view from our balcony is stupendous no matter what the time of day.

We've had beach and water time too most days. Not really swimming (the water is mild but the air temperatures are a bit cool 19-20oC for us to get fully immersed), but we've been able to dunk a few body parts in the water and survive. It's mid-week and mid-winter so the beaches are almost empty and the water is so calm and clean .......

Rob took this unposed picture of me on the beach yesterday - I had to get my phone out to check on reactions to the announcement of the new RBA Governor (isn't it tragic to be that interested in the current news cycle?). But I was very happy to hear that we now have our first female Governor of the Reserve Bank!

This is a great spot for long walks too - both north, along the esplanade towards Kirra and Bilinga Beach, and south, past Rainbow Bay, Greenmount, Snapper Rocks and Point Danger - all beautiful walks.

Not every day has been blue sky sunny; we've had some cloudy, cooler weather too this week ......

We've spent two mornings at Burleigh Heads - Thursday we did an oceanfront walk and enjoyed a nostalgic coffee at our fave Commune Cafe near Fourth Avenue. This morning we had a longer visit, checking out the excellent Farmers Market in the grounds of the Burleigh Heads State School. It took us ages to select our breakfast menu from the excellent foodie offerings while admiring the mountains of fresh (cheap) strawberries crowding the fruit stands. I wish they sold them loose like in the French village markets - but even packaged up like this the fresh strawberry fragrance was still heady and strong (irresistible).

On our first morning walk we gravitated to Cotton Patisserie in Kirra for our coffee fix. That was our fave "local" last year when we shared a holiday at X-Kirra with Ros and Pete, but we were happy to find an even better coffee fix closer to us here in Coolangatta at Three Sons Coffee Cartel. That's made a real difference to how we approach each morning!  We'll be heading back to Sydney on Monday for a few more days there before heading back home. It's a good break for us from Canberra's winter cold.

Canberra Mid-Winter

It's been cold back in Canberra - so goodbye to the Broome/Darwin tan and the daily swims - and back to the joys of Canberra in July. 

Despite the cold, we still enjoy a social life, including mid-week lunches with old friends in the country. Last Friday we were out at Wallaroo, near Hall, to try Nick O'Leary's new restaurant and cellar door at his Heywood Winery on Brooklands Road. It's an impressive venture which looked extra good in last Friday's clear sunny conditions. It's the kind of place where guests can land in their helicopters - making a great photo op for other guests too (by invitation of the kind helicopter pilot)!

We took this pic of me and my old friend Dennis to send to Marilynne Paspaley in Broome - who is also an old friend of Dennis's (He's renowned for knowing almost everyone in Australia!).

No matter the rain, cold, sleet or snow Abi continues her love affair with horses, and maintaining serious contact with them, up to 5 days a week these days.

Saturday was her last lesson at Forest Park for a while. She rode Gus, a sometimes excitable (bucking!) pony who was super calm and chilled on this particular day.

Tinker is one of Abi's favourite ponies at Forest Park but she hates getting her bridle on. Abi helped Tinker's young rider by getting the job done - with a very confident move!

 Being the last lesson of the term various prizes were awarded to the horses and riders. Abi won the best rider ribbon with excellent and detailed feedback from the coach - very well deserved of course.

We made sure we gave extra treats and scratches to all our favourite horses and ponies at Forest Park too: Belle, Ex-ceed and Ex-claim, Louis and all the rest. We're going to miss them .... time for us to get out to Redlands more and build our relationship with Harry and Rocky and the team. All we need is Abi's OK, our puffer jackets, mud proof boots and a full tank of petrol and we're set to go!

Abi and Ella prove that toasty marshmallows are a great way to end off a busy winter Saturday of horses and gymnastics.