Winter... or was that spring??

The weather has taken a freakishly springlike turn these last few days, culminating in today's almost complete melting of the snow around these parts and near-flooding of the local stretch of the Danube (the river that runs through several European countries).

The waters are apparently now receding so no towns will have to be evacuated or anything but the other days they did have to close a few areas and divert traffic. I like to think it's just Australia saying hi.

G and I took an outing to the next biggest town, St Pölten, to see about getting my fucked digital camera fixed (result: no) and grab a few other things. We drove via an old 12th Century castle ruin on the way back, and I jumped out and took some snaps - firstly, on my brother's camera that ran out of battery then on my shitty broken one that has no flash and no screen display. So I am interested to see what I actually took photos of.

I almost fell asleep in the car on the way back but still said yes when she asked if I was still keen to ride. And it's a good thing I did, because for the first time the weather allowed us to leave the paddock and venture into the back forest.

This farm actually has a massive piece of the forest attached to the back of it - it goes a couple of generations back and has for the whole time housed a menagery of animals (although I'm pretty sure the camels are an addition from this generation!). The elastics factory was G's dad's and she's continued it - some of the people have worked here their whole lives. Can you imagine??!

Another girl came to ride with me, and we took the young horses. I, on Barack, of course got bucked again but was all good. G just keeps getting me to ride him so I must be doing something right. I hear he's from a zoo so maybe that's why he's a bit mental. And why I suit him.

When we'd unsaddled and done all the nightly animal duties, another girl arrived keen to ride so we saddled up another 2 horses and went back out as darkness closed in. Lucky my horse and the girls knew where they were going cos I had no idea. This time I rode Hafi, the other Haflinger that isn't Barack (and nowhere near as pretty).

G has lent me her wrist support bandages, so now it's a little easier to do the hard work but today I had help again so it's not so bad. I will keep wearing them riding and working, and hopefully I won't do any permanent damage to them. Damn my old cranky joints!

I have had to change heavy jackets because the one I was wearing now smells like tramp. Gross.