The four of us at La Volée got along really well. We laughed a lot, shared many cups of tea and a few delicious dinners, went for many trail rides and hikes and generally had a wonderful time together. The sun even came out for a few weeks! It was glorious!
– Train art, Normandy style. –
– Luka and I laughed together all day long. –– We even witnessed a miracle… horses have a strong sense of hierarchy, and they usually get very fussy about who eats together. Six horses eating from one hay box was some kind of miracle that only happened once the whole time I was there. –– We continued to take Sarah’s young horse, Eos (left), out for training walks with Sweetie (right), who calmly showed her the ropes.– Erica and I did several trips to scout key sections of a 40km ride to Mt Saint Michelle that she would take clients on in May. Here we’re visiting Zoe Power Salad‘s magical garden which had a spectacular view of Mt. Saint Michelle. Wow. –– This is the back of the seating area looking out at Mt. St. Michelle. You can see the seat and the view from it in the previous photo. –– Erica and I took many a lovely walk. This junked car has a sign that reads, “Used Guaranteed for 1 Year” Haha. –– On weekends, Luka and I continued to venture out… this time we ended up going totally off-map and found this tiny Cherry Orchard Chapel… –
– Complete with the requisite cherries. –
– And we met this fuzzy little guy. He was a bit unsure about us, so I said, “Don’t worry, I’m harmless.” Without missing a beat, Luka, a vegetarian, shakes her head and points at me, “She eats meat!” Then, I laughed so hard he ran away! –
– Another beautiful hike. –
– The sun came out for a few weeks! It was glorious! –
– We did lots of this! –
– And some of this. –
– And of course, more of this. –
– And in between coaching tournaments, Benoit came for the weekend! Yay! –
– He rode twice. He asked to ride bareback, which he loved! As usual, he takes off before knowing how the brakes work. LOL. Part of his charm. Don’t worry, these bridles are bit-less. –– Scouting out one of Erica’s long distance trail riding destinations. –– We have a spot of local cider. –
– And discovered more woven branch art! –
– When it was time for Benoit to leave, Erica took us for a goodbye glass. Hello Rosie! –
– Back at home, everyone loved the sun. –
– The warm weather saw leaves budding…. –
– … around the upper pond, which is home to some rather large carp. –– And we finished preparing the garden for spring! We even shored up the sides that had rotted. –
– Hanging out with Demelza. –
– One day, I cleaned tack, which I haven’t done since I was a kid. So many memories! –
– And, I remembered to take a photo of my room during the day. –
– Meanwhile, we kept riding. By now, I’m riding Angel and Darcy. This is Darcy. –
– This is Angel. –
– And then, one morning Gaia greeted us with more mist and chilly weather… I stayed in and cleaned this huge beautiful window. –
– A few days later, we had every type of weather – all in one day!… sun, rain, hail, snow. SNOW! –
– It was young Rosie’s first hail! She loved it! –
– Near the end of my stay, a new volunteer arrived, who was incredibly timid. We took her for rides, too. –
Soon, Luka parted and the new volunteer and I took over the farm chores. After all of the hilarity with Luka, I took this time to be in my own energy, alone for my part of the chores.
For my last week, beautiful weather returned, sunny skies and warmer days. It was quiet and nice.
– Erica, Hannah and I went on a lovely ride and had a picnic. We stopped in this fenced in field by a large creek. It was a beautiful day. –
– All 6 of us ate lunch. –
– Darcy in all her glory. Her bit-less bridle, allows her to eat with ease. –
– On the day I was leaving, I went out to say goodbye to the horses. They are very sensitive to energy, so even before I could see them, I said goodbye and that I loved them. There were 11 of them, so that’s a lot of emotion coming back… I cried. We had made beautiful bonds and we would all miss each other. Horses are such lovely animals, inside and out. –
It was time. I said goodbye to everyone: horses, dogs, people and cat and drove back to Freneuse.
We packed up the van, Benoit said goodbye to his parents and drove Belle, our little Fiat Punto, to Annecy. I stayed a few more days and put the finishing touches on my French to-do list (passport, dentist, osteopath, new Mac battery and cable…) and then drove the van to meet him.
We spent a few days in Annecy and headed to southern France to a friend’s house to do much anticipated van conversions! This was really exciting… we’d been planning the renovations for months.
– Packing up the van in sunny Freneuse, and saying goodbye to Benoit for the moment. –
And, we were finally off! Transiting from one dream to another! Wahoo!
