Galas, Chocolate and Lots of Exercise

Every year, our village throws an event called Goulceby Gala and this year, we visited it for the first time.
Since Goulceby is a tiny village hidden away in the countryside, I wasn't expecting much. However, it was actually quite busy! There were people everywhere enjoying the live music and chatting to their neighbours. Since we only moved recently, it was a great opportunity to make some friends.
The owner of the ponies from my last post was there challenging people to different types of board games, so I decided to play an intense match of Connect4 with him. He took the game very seriously, thinking out every move before he put his chip into the board. He is a maths teacher and he's very competitive! Even though I tried my hardest, I couldn't beat him. Maybe I should practice for next year?

Dad took up the challenge!

I was better at "Hook a Duck!"

On Friday, I took a trip to a nearby chocolate shop for a Chocolate Making Workshop. There were lots of other home ed children there and I ended up making friends with a girl called Alyssa.
I made a delicious looking multicoloured chocolate house. I was going to save it and take some pictures of it, but I just couldn't resist! It was very tasty.

We had to wear hair-nets!

New Friends

I managed to get a photo of my chocolate house before it disappeared!

At the chocolate workshop, I heard that there was some casual home ed PE lessons going on that were followed by 'rookie lifeguard lessons' at a nearby leisure centre so I decided to check it out. The PE was a bit too mcuh for me, I felt like I was going to pass out! Alyssa was there as well so at least I wasn't suffering alone.
I did a lot better at the rookie lifeguard lessons - I've always been a really good swimmer.  We were taught how to do CPR, carry another person through the water while swimming and jump in without going completely underwater. I couldn't quite figure out how to jump in properly so I might need to practise a bit more!
Even though the PE was exhausting, I'll definitely be going back next week.

Cadwell Park!

I've never really been into car or motorbike racing but when I discovered that there was one of the UK's biggest racetracks just 5 minutes down the road, I just had to go and see what all the fuss was about.
On Saturday, mom, dad and I went to Cadwell Park to see some of the qualifying races. I'm not actually sure what they were qualifying for, but it was a  lot of fun to watch them!
The Side Cars had just started to race when we arrived so we sat down to watch them first. There's one person driving the car and there's one person  hanging on to the back without anything strapping them in. His job is to jump about from side to side to help steer the car around the corners. Mother was absolutely terrified he was going to fall off! I don't think I could have done that job.

Now that we know we have such an exciting place right at our doorstep, we might start going more often!

Tiny Ponies and Medieval Horses

Just around the corner from my house, there's a stables that has 3 huge horses and 2 tiny Shetland ponies. The owner of the farm, Emily, told me that I could come over whenever I wanted to groom the little ponies! Mom is scared of horses but she bravely entered the ponies' enclosure to groom them!

Emily has said that I can ride one of her horses as long as I ask her first. I'll definitely be going over there to see them soon!
There are also rare-breed sheep who are very good at jumping the electric fence, lots of chickens roaming free and 2 gorgeous spaniels. One of the spaniels is deaf so he needs looking after, especially when there are tractors around as he doesn't hear them coming.


Last Sunday we went to the Medieval Horse show at Northcote Heavy Horse Centre. There, we spotted a very serious looking Lipizzaner horse. On his stable door, there was a sign that said that he loved back-scratches. When people scratched his back, he made the funniest face! Of course I had to scratch him and mom took some great pictures of his funny face.

Before......

After.....

He Loves his back scratched.

There was also a Medieval display on horseback where 4 people competed in different games like jousting.

There was a jester but he didn't have a real horse; he was riding around on a toy hobby- horse. He was really funny! The crowd instantly fell in love with him, so at the end of the games when the crowd had to choose a winner, they went straight for him!

Looks like the Jester is riding on the horse's nose!

It was a great day. There were lots of lovely horses, birds of prey including a naughty vulture who just didn't want to perform and an amazing falcon who swooped in and out of the crowds.

 

Sweet little pony.

My favourite was definitely the funny faced horse...

Revesby Festival and my first fall!

Elise's Birthday Party

This is a bit of a catch-up since I haven't posted for a few months. Lots has happened including moving to a new house in the country, sitting exams (piano, ICT and Pony Club) and making new friends.
We have visited the summer shows in and around Lincoln but the weather has not been good.
After the muddy disaster that was Heckington Show (it was so muddy we didn't even get past the ticket gate!), mom, dad and I were reluctant to go to another country show.
Thankfully, the weather cleared up, so on Sunday we went to check out Revesby Country Show. It was more like a dog show than a normal festival as there were dog-themed events going on everywhere! They had dog racing, dog shops and even an army cross country course just for dogs!

There were also lots of horse competitions. We stopped to watch one of them and judge all of the horses. My favourite was the Gypsy Cob with it's beautiful main and tail reaching down to the ground.
Revesby was a lot of fun so we'll definitely be going next year as long as it doesn't pour with rain!

The Lincolnshire Show.
It's raining!

Glad I brought my umbrella

I'm pretty famous at Pony Club for being one of the only people there that has never fallen off a horse. Unfortunately, I lost that title on Monday! There were harvest flies everywhere and they were constantly bugging the horses. I was quite happily trotting along when all of a sudden the horse put his head right down to scratch his leg and I went straight over the top of his head! It was a bit like going down a slide since it didn't hurt much. It was actually quite fun!

Ready for Pony Exams!

Snake!!

After we finished riding, my instructor, Lora, got out her pet corn snake. Normally I'm quite nervous around snakes, but this one had such a cute face that I couldn't help myself from holding it and letting it slither all around my arms! Maybe my next pet will be a snake?

We have moved to a new house in a lovely village with a ford at the bottom of our road. Maisie loves her dog walks!

Rockingham Horse Trials

Every year mom says that we're going to buy some wellies for when we go to shows and events when it's raining. Unfortunately, we never do and we definitely needed them on Saturday when we went to Rockingham Horse Trials. It was raining on and off all day long.
Despite the mud and the rain, it was a lot of fun to watch all of the showjumping and cross country. I managed to get one brilliant picture of the horses going over a massive xc jump!

In other news, I had my ICT IGCSE exam on Wednesday. I travelled up to Coventry the night before with mother and stayed the night in a hotel. The exam was split into two parts: a one and a half hour written exam and a three hour practical exam. I found the whole thing very stressful, but I think I did okay! I should get my results in August so I'll make a new post then to tell you them.

Quick Catch-Up!

White Chipmunk!

The other week I visited The Ark. Not Noah's Ark, but the Ark Animal Rescue! The rescue had a lot of animals from Lynxes to Ponies!
By far the most entertaining animals were the meerkats. For £1, you could buy a plastic cup full of meerkat food. As soon as the meerkats heard rustling, they all came bounding over to the side of their enclosure to stand on their back legs and squeak at you! It was very adorable. I was about to pick up some food for them when I realised that the food was actually live mealworms! I used to feed my hamsters dried mealworms but I'm definitely not used to touching ones that wriggle around. Instead of picking the live mealworms up, I just tipped them into the enclosure. All of the meerkats swarmed around to try to eat as much as they could. Some of the babies would be pushed away by the bigger ones so I tried to spread out the food as evenly as I could.

In a separate field , I discovered a little black and white Shetland pony. I instantly fell in love with it! I stood by it's enclosure scratching its mane for ages until it was time for lunch.

In the centre of the rescue, there was a big enclosure with a group of Racoons in it. Some of the racoons were climbing about and hanging upside down from the roof of their enclosure but one of them was sitting washing his feet in his water bowl! He washed his front feet first then turned around to wash his back ones. It was very entertaining to watch.


Last Sunday, me, mom and dad took Maisie to the All About Dogs show in Newark. Even though she hates dogs, she was very well behaved. Normally when you go to a dog show, you come home with something that you bought for your dog like a new collar or a harness. Instead, we came home with a little wooden bridge for the garden! It is very pretty, though.
Maisie seemed to enjoy the show, even if she was a bit stressed out by all of the dogs. We'll definitely be taking her next year!

Maisie with a flower on her head!

New Year Catch-up!

Swimming with the fish in Skegness!!

As you can see, I haven't posted for quite a few months now. This is because I have been very, very busy! I have been studying for exams, riding ponies and learning about important events in History. In this post I'll tell you everything exciting that has happened since my last post in December, so here we go!

The Assosiation of British Riding Schools (ABRSM) has a set of tests that you an take that are rated A-E, with A being the beginner test and E being the most in-depth and complicated. A few months ago, I entered for the A test at my Pony Club and last week, I got my results. I passed every question with flying colours! I probably could have passed the C test easily, but unfortunately you can't skip a test out and just jump straight to the test you want to take.



Speaking of tests and exams, I've been studying for my IGCSE in ICT for the past few months now. I'm booked in for the exam which is in May so I have been doing lots of practice papers and excercises. I'm aiming for an A* since mom has bribed me with money and said that if I get an A*, she'll give me £250! I really don't believe that she'll give me that much money, but there's only one way to find out.











In a few months time, I'll also have to do my Grade 4 piano exam and my first ever piano (Grade 5!!) theory exam! To prepare for the theory exam, I've joined a small group of three other girls to see my piano teacher once a week for an hour long theory lesson. We compose music, answer questions on music, rewrite music, etc. It's a lot of fun! It's  helping with actually playing the piano as well.

Last week, me and mom took a trip to the Holocaust Centre and Museum for a Home-Ed meet up. For those who don't know what the Holocaust was, it was the time when Hitler and the Nazis were persecuting Jews and other minorities. Over 6 million Jewish men, women and children were systematically murdered.
There was a 93-year-old Jewish man called Bernard who grew up in Germany around this time and he gave a talk at the Museum. He was telling all of the parents and children about how lucky he was to not have been sent to any of the concentration camps. He also told us about his family and what it must have been like for them in the camps. Bernard was only fifteen when his mother, father and sister were murdered in the concentration camps. He was only saved because he was put on the kinder-transport and sent to live in England. His father jumped on the train to give him a last hug goodbye, and that was the last time Bernard saw any of his family.
 Only very recently Bernard found out how the rest of his family were taken to camps where they suffered terribly and they too were murdered. All these years later he was still very traumatised by the events of the Holocaust. Despite being 93, he had an incredible memory! Bernard spends his time talking to groups and schools in England and Germany about his experiences to educate them and so that people never forget.

We had a tour of the memorial gardens. There were lots of white roses planted. Each rose was dedicated to the people who died during the Holocaust. At the edge of the garden there was a stone trough filled with round pebbles. Each person that visits the centre I asked to take a pebble, hold it in their hand and take a minute to think about all the people who lost their lives. Next, you are asked to place the pebble on a platform in remembrance. As you can see, the pebbles have formed a hill, like a monument to the people who suffered and died.


After the talk, me and mom split off from the main Home-Ed group and wandered around the museum-like part of the centre ourselves. There was so much there that we didn't get a chance to see most of it. We'll definitely be returning for another visit soon!