This was just one of the accident/near-miss investigations I read from the RAIB site, thanks to Mike D sending me the link. It’s an excellent example (so were others, but this one had colored images enough to really “feel” the whole accident and its precursors on both the train side and the signallers’ side.) Read More…
Author: Elizabeth
Writer, photographer, married, mother. Also native plants, wildlife, music, horses, curiosity unlimited, time limited. Pronouns she, her
Ride 16: The Other Half of West Grass
Last week was a cold, wet, muddy, colder, icy mess. This week was lovely, but the horses had a hoof trim in the middle of it. I was still trying to get all the caked mud off their coats and out of their hooves…once it dried neither horse felt I should be tugging at the Read More…
Sunny Week Ahead: But Will It Last?
Climate change right here has *generally* made winters less severe, warmer, but has also shifted the dates of first and last freeze, and first and last 100F days of summer. When we moved here, just over 40 years ago, the first cool break came in late August–not much cooler by day, but “crisper,” with a Read More…
Winter Storm 2022: Still Here
We’ve had the first burst of sun (about half an hour ago) and though clouds covered again within a minute, they were thinner. I see occasional streaks of blue as they blow past. We’re fine (but gee whillikers is it cold outside with the wind…!) It’s up around 20F now, but if the sun does Read More…
The Hard Question: How?
I’ve mentioned before that my mother was trained as an engineer–architectural, mechanical, and–later–aeronautical. As a result, my childhood was shaped by, among other things, her engineer-brain, which operated across domains usually thought of as engineering (machinery, buildings) and usually thought of as “women’s stuff” (needlework including designing garments, slipcovers, curtains, etc., storage of household things, Read More…
Ride 15: We Circumnavigate a Field Section
Not a “section” section (640 acres, a square mile) but the north half of the West Grass, from Center Walk to the treeline along the north fence, bordered on the east by the dry woods and on the west by the creek woods. A much warmer afternoon, with a SW breeze, clear blue sky, bright Read More…
Ride 14: Rough start, good overall, patchy
I did groundwork with Tigger first, with Rags tagging along and wanting to do to Tig what Tig does to him. Made for some annoyance on my part, trying to get Rags NOT to do things that would get him kicked. Tigger, however, objected to my shaking the dressage whip at Rags (Rags didn’t look Read More…
Ride 13: Lessons to learn
I did ride today–bright, sunny, chilly day–but not until later in the afternoon than I wanted, due to a site visit from the solar people in the morning and some internal upset. Finally all that was out of the way, and I got on Rags with some difficulty but measurably less than when I started. Read More…
Jennie Loriston-Clarke and a Sour Horse at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, 2003
So, to the Royal Windsor Horse Show. Beth Ann and I were wide-eyed tourists for sure, no real clue what we were getting into–not like any US horse show in SO many fascinating ways. We didn’t have nearly the time we wanted at the show but enjoyed every minute. The last class we saw was Read More…
Pancakes for Supper
A dank, drippy, chilly day. Dull…misty among the trees in the distance, raw in the nose and throat up close. We had my homemade Survival Soup at lunch and R- came in where I was reading and asked if he could have soup for supper. I thought a minute and said yes, but I wanted Read More…