I once rode a horse as it swam in the sea, off Holy Island. Surprisingly difficult but great. Thanks for the encouragement.

I liked horse swimming but it's a bit dangerous, all them hooves swinging about.

I think two considerations apply to whether or not to ride:

- have you the money ($200/month to infinity)

- do you enjoy it.

I routinely see people aged 3 to 75 on horses, they're all fitter for riding and they're all doing it because they like it. If it appeals, give it a go, there are no end of lesson barns over your way.

I started this morning with a spot of heating, just to bring the house temperature up a bit as it wasn't going to warm up until much later.

Right now I have the AC on because the house got warm quickly this evening and opening windows didn't help.

It's just to cool off for bedtime and then the overnight fall in temperature will do the rest.

But morning heating and night time aircon.

We had our AC on yesterday. It was 28 degrees. I am NOT complaining.

I missed spring in St John’s. It was last weekend which was unseasonably warm. I was in Blightly which wasn’t. Today we have our more usual low single digit rain drizzle and fog misery which generally goes on until “bloody black fly” season.

There was a day this week when the car thermometer showed -2 in the morning and +22 in the afternoon. Snow steamed. The evening before I had been on summer tyres so in the morning I whipped them off and reinstalled them at lunchtime.

This afternoon we are promised thunderstorms (it's already raining hard) with the chance of a tornado. I just don't know what rubber I should be rolling on.

Unless it comes with a free umbrella, I would use whatever one you normally use!

Like many in Ontario we have no power after the thunder and gales yesterday. No dmaged to anything so all is good. I enjoyed the early evening with the power out just listening to the wind.

Our generator was $750 from the scratched and dented section at Lowes. It's literally a lifesaver as the occupants of the fish tank can't go for a day without power and we usually lose power for a few days at a stretch each winter. I'm not sure but I think frozen food probably should go in the bin after 12 hours so, with several power cuts each longer than that per year, we've likely saved the cost of the generator in food not thrown out. The cost of the wiring for the generator is another matter but, if your supplier is Ontario Hydro, you need a back up.

We have a generator, bought it a few years ago when the power was out for four days. ItsItbeen uaednseveral times since though we only use it if the power is out overnight. The main problem for no power is that i use a CPAP machine and without it I'm really very very grumpy in the morning, and that's apart forf the whole risk of sudden death thing. The septic has a pump to the leaching bed so no power means risky flushing. I'm saying this this but we haven't as yet wired the septic pump into the generator. Should look into that.

We have a switch at the supply panel; either the whole house runs off the mains or it all runs off the generator. There's no need to connect up individual appliances.