Yes. And also that there’s good reason to be happy. It’s very exciting galloping in the snow, Betty the horse seems to enjoy it too.
There’s quite a lot of what I consider to be drudgery at a stable: taking all the horses out in the morning, taking them all in at night, sweeping up, giving them birdseed and water; and then there’s all the brushing of your horse, shoeing it, riding it in the dark when it’s pouring with rain, and paying all the bills. So sometimes I wonder What’s the point? It’s like a friend of mine in Germany said: “Sailing is like standing in a cold shower, in all your clothes, tearing up banknotes”, but he still does it every chance he has.
I know this very well. I can’t say I support it or completely understand it, but at least about sailing I knew it since I was a child.
Even though I think that with horses I would enjoy it and bear the “burden” with much happiness. I rather feed an animal, feel its company and take care of it than fix, varnish or clean a boat.
For me the weather is really important for sailing and riding. It probably means I’m not serious, but I find that most of the unpleasantness disappears when the temperature goes well above freezing and it’s not raining.
With the top three marvelous photos here, one conceived that they might have been taken from a “moving station”, such as, e.g., whatever it was that made those wide-tread tracks in the snow.
Someone here countered, perfectly sensibly, that they were probably taken with a long range lens from a stationary position.
Someone is right: I used a 24-70 zoom lens. The tracks are from the farmer-with-the-stable’s tractor; using the snow-blower attachment he’s made a proper race track around the perimeter of the field. I’m dying to try this track now I’ve found out about it, but I doubt that I’ll be allowed (crap rider).
The blog title sounds a bit like that of a Trollope novel: “Can you forgive her?”, “He knew he was right”, “Did he steal it ?”, “Not if I know it” etc.
But now 1984? Just part of the decade when everyone had padded shoulders.
But that was way retro in the ’80s. Didn’t padded shoulders first swagger onto the scene in the ’30s or ’40s ? I don’t remember that many padded people on German streets in the 1980s. You saw them mostly on MTV – Grace Jones and that lot.
Stu, I did have schoolmasters who wore double-breasted blue serge striped demob suits (i.e. from WW2 demobilization) with enormous padded shoulders. Dunno bout Germany, but I saw a lot of padded shoulders living in New York in the eighties. I think the Statue of Liberty had padded shoulders.
Super photos of your wee lass, Crown: just tremendous. But I have to warn you that one minute wee lasses are galloping about on horses and then, in the blink of an eye, they’re handing you a video of themselves jumping out of an aircraft thousands of feet above a glacier, and not pulling the ripcord.
Oh, these are just wonderful, Mr Crown! I broke out into a huge grin just looking at them!
Also laughed at the sailing analogy.
Julia: There are great pleasures in cold weather. Here in Moscow we’ve had a cold spell for three weeks now — in the -20 range. But the sun has been shining, and there is something invigorating about the chill and the bits of snow swirling around in the air, turning it silver. The squelch-squeak of your boots of the hard-packed snow… on the other hand, whenever I wax poetic about the cold, a warmth-loving friend always points out that these are all pleasures IN SPITE OF — in spite of the freezing nose, the 15 minutes of dressing before you go out the door, slipping on the ice, dodging falling icicles… The other night — while stuggling into my longjohns and three pairs of socks — I was even considering (head hangs in embarrassment) retiring to Florida.
Mr Crown, I am going to send your sailing quote to all my sailing friends, and possibly WRITE IT OUT for some of them. Unfortunately, writing out quotations without attributions is anathema (students fail for it); so can you attribute the quote? And initial and surname, or even an alias would do. “Anonymous” doesn’t deserve the credit, and “Uknown” smacks of laziness on the part of the writer-outer. ??
@catanea: “Sailing is like standing in a cold shower, in all your clothes, tearing up banknotes” is a joke told to me by my father. So it was probably old in 1960. (He also liked the one, American I believe, “If you have to ask what that yacht costs you can’t afford it”.)
I googled. The cost one is attributed to J. P. Morgan. The cold shower one seems to be accepted virtually as folk wisdom, but with deeply implausible attributions to Ted Heath ( PM, not bandleader), Harold MacMillan and William Buckley. I’m sure that if I kept looking I could find an attribution to Ben Franklin or Mark Twain. Or Churchill or Oscar Wilde…..
Ah. Hm. Well, that’s not LAZY. Perhaps it was first said by … who first sailed FOR PLEASURE? Cleopatra probably was neither wet nor uncomfortable on her barge. Anyway, that’s a barge. Hardly sailing… Must seek more wisdom.
Dearie: in the blink of an eye, they’re handing you a video of themselves jumping out of an aircraft thousands of feet above a glacier, and not pulling the ripcord.
Dearie, did this happen to you & Mrs Dearie? Please explain, so I can avoid this happening here.
“Dearie, did this happen to you & Mrs Dearie”. Oh yes; the nipper had gone “travelling”, had tired of galloping about in the Oz outback – she had had to do an awful lot of cleaning work to earn her hours on horseback – and thought that she’d move on to enjoy the NZ winter. It occurred to her that free-falling out of a plane above the Fox Glacier was just the thing. The whole affair was filmed by a camera on her wrist. It made an excellent, if heart-stopping, movie; we cheered when at last she opened her ‘chute.
Or maybe it was the Franz Josef Glacier; and maybe it’s not “free-falling” but “sky-diving”? Who cares? That’s my ruddy daughter plummeting with two bloody chutes, neither open!
Oh, dearie! I’ll love to see that video (and never show it to my younger daughter, the other, luckily has vertigo)
I fear more the day when my youngest appear with a gigantic tattoo all over her body… But it’s true, I’d rather see her like that than jumping from a plane.
That certainly is a hopeful thought, thanks!
She wants to be an artist, you know? And I do appreciate her taste in art. Her dressing and grooming style may improve with time.
A Bad Guide
Of course the happiness in her face is the answer why.
Yes. And also that there’s good reason to be happy. It’s very exciting galloping in the snow, Betty the horse seems to enjoy it too.
There’s quite a lot of what I consider to be drudgery at a stable: taking all the horses out in the morning, taking them all in at night, sweeping up, giving them birdseed and water; and then there’s all the brushing of your horse, shoeing it, riding it in the dark when it’s pouring with rain, and paying all the bills. So sometimes I wonder What’s the point? It’s like a friend of mine in Germany said: “Sailing is like standing in a cold shower, in all your clothes, tearing up banknotes”, but he still does it every chance he has.
I know this very well. I can’t say I support it or completely understand it, but at least about sailing I knew it since I was a child.
Even though I think that with horses I would enjoy it and bear the “burden” with much happiness. I rather feed an animal, feel its company and take care of it than fix, varnish or clean a boat.
For me the weather is really important for sailing and riding. It probably means I’m not serious, but I find that most of the unpleasantness disappears when the temperature goes well above freezing and it’s not raining.
Truly, I can’t imagine doing these things or living in such a cold climate.
With the top three marvelous photos here, one conceived that they might have been taken from a “moving station”, such as, e.g., whatever it was that made those wide-tread tracks in the snow.
Someone here countered, perfectly sensibly, that they were probably taken with a long range lens from a stationary position.
In any case — exhilarating to feel the snow.
Someone is right: I used a 24-70 zoom lens. The tracks are from the farmer-with-the-stable’s tractor; using the snow-blower attachment he’s made a proper race track around the perimeter of the field. I’m dying to try this track now I’ve found out about it, but I doubt that I’ll be allowed (crap rider).
I knew it. Someone is always right.
The blog title sounds a bit like that of a Trollope novel: “Can you forgive her?”, “He knew he was right”, “Did he steal it ?”, “Not if I know it” etc.
I was thinking of Orwell’s “Why I write”.
It’s good to have someone around whose always right. As long as they don’t remind you too often, which I’m sure she doesn’t.
The one that really has an all-purpose, suitable-for-any epoch feel to it, I think, is “The Way We Live Now”.
(Another Trollopean possibility I thought of, here, was “Did She Fall Off?”)
Artur, I am often reminded… of the truth of what you say.
Haha!
Thank you & likewise.
“1984” worked pretty well for a short period.
Likewise, “2001”.
Also, thinking of the residual attentions paid royals hereabouts, Prince did quite well for a bit there with “1999”.
All those dates sounded a bit frightening when the works came out. But now 1984? Just part of the decade when everyone had padded shoulders.
But now 1984? Just part of the decade when everyone had padded shoulders.
But that was way retro in the ’80s. Didn’t padded shoulders first swagger onto the scene in the ’30s or ’40s ? I don’t remember that many padded people on German streets in the 1980s. You saw them mostly on MTV – Grace Jones and that lot.
Stu, I did have schoolmasters who wore double-breasted blue serge striped demob suits (i.e. from WW2 demobilization) with enormous padded shoulders. Dunno bout Germany, but I saw a lot of padded shoulders living in New York in the eighties. I think the Statue of Liberty had padded shoulders.
The Statue of Liberty has to brave all kinds of bad weather. It probably wears thermal underwear as well.
Lots of padded shoulders around here by that time (among many hideous objects)
I’m glad you two have someone who’s always right at home. I can say that Diego is very grateful for the same thing…
Oh, I thought you were going to say Diego’s always right…
What about a naked Statue of Liberty? It gets pretty warm in July &August.
NEVER! That’s our privilege… A burden and big responsibility, in fact.
Denial of gender to the Statue of Liberty has to be the ultimate cut.
Admittedly though “She probably wears thermal underwear” would be even more unfortunate.
(There are probably national agencies appointed to defend these things — values & c.)
Super photos of your wee lass, Crown: just tremendous. But I have to warn you that one minute wee lasses are galloping about on horses and then, in the blink of an eye, they’re handing you a video of themselves jumping out of an aircraft thousands of feet above a glacier, and not pulling the ripcord.
Oh, these are just wonderful, Mr Crown! I broke out into a huge grin just looking at them!
Also laughed at the sailing analogy.
Julia: There are great pleasures in cold weather. Here in Moscow we’ve had a cold spell for three weeks now — in the -20 range. But the sun has been shining, and there is something invigorating about the chill and the bits of snow swirling around in the air, turning it silver. The squelch-squeak of your boots of the hard-packed snow… on the other hand, whenever I wax poetic about the cold, a warmth-loving friend always points out that these are all pleasures IN SPITE OF — in spite of the freezing nose, the 15 minutes of dressing before you go out the door, slipping on the ice, dodging falling icicles… The other night — while stuggling into my longjohns and three pairs of socks — I was even considering (head hangs in embarrassment) retiring to Florida.
mab: hahaha!
Mr Crown, I am going to send your sailing quote to all my sailing friends, and possibly WRITE IT OUT for some of them. Unfortunately, writing out quotations without attributions is anathema (students fail for it); so can you attribute the quote? And initial and surname, or even an alias would do. “Anonymous” doesn’t deserve the credit, and “Uknown” smacks of laziness on the part of the writer-outer. ??
@catanea: “Sailing is like standing in a cold shower, in all your clothes, tearing up banknotes” is a joke told to me by my father. So it was probably old in 1960. (He also liked the one, American I believe, “If you have to ask what that yacht costs you can’t afford it”.)
I googled. The cost one is attributed to J. P. Morgan. The cold shower one seems to be accepted virtually as folk wisdom, but with deeply implausible attributions to Ted Heath ( PM, not bandleader), Harold MacMillan and William Buckley. I’m sure that if I kept looking I could find an attribution to Ben Franklin or Mark Twain. Or Churchill or Oscar Wilde…..
As one of my lecturers once remarked: “You’re at University to learn the wisdom of the ages, and this is part of that.”
Ah. Hm. Well, that’s not LAZY. Perhaps it was first said by … who first sailed FOR PLEASURE? Cleopatra probably was neither wet nor uncomfortable on her barge. Anyway, that’s a barge. Hardly sailing… Must seek more wisdom.
What I’ve always heard is that a boat is a hole in the water for throwing money into. I think I like the “shower” saying a little better.
On the subject of domesticated species – horses, daughters, that sort of thing – I draw your attention to this.
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2011/02/23/the-parrot-of-atures/
Great anecdote, dearieme!
Dearie: in the blink of an eye, they’re handing you a video of themselves jumping out of an aircraft thousands of feet above a glacier, and not pulling the ripcord.
Dearie, did this happen to you & Mrs Dearie? Please explain, so I can avoid this happening here.
I like your parrot story too.
“Dearie, did this happen to you & Mrs Dearie”. Oh yes; the nipper had gone “travelling”, had tired of galloping about in the Oz outback – she had had to do an awful lot of cleaning work to earn her hours on horseback – and thought that she’d move on to enjoy the NZ winter. It occurred to her that free-falling out of a plane above the Fox Glacier was just the thing. The whole affair was filmed by a camera on her wrist. It made an excellent, if heart-stopping, movie; we cheered when at last she opened her ‘chute.
Or maybe it was the Franz Josef Glacier; and maybe it’s not “free-falling” but “sky-diving”? Who cares? That’s my ruddy daughter plummeting with two bloody chutes, neither open!
God God! I hope she never did it again.
Oh, dearie! I’ll love to see that video (and never show it to my younger daughter, the other, luckily has vertigo)
I fear more the day when my youngest appear with a gigantic tattoo all over her body… But it’s true, I’d rather see her like that than jumping from a plane.
Unfortunately, it’s not either – or. It’s jumping with tattoos.
¡jajajaja!
Oh, you made me cry, actually!
I’ve no problem with tattoos per se, but I definitely fear her aesthetic taste…
Maybe she could get Banksy.
That certainly is a hopeful thought, thanks!
She wants to be an artist, you know? And I do appreciate her taste in art. Her dressing and grooming style may improve with time.
Please, you have to see this!!
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/fullysic/2011/02/28/spare-me-my-life/
I don’t know where to begin.
Surrealistic, don’t you think?
Yes. I don’t know why anyone would want to do this.