Summer is coming

Summer is on it's way here in Denmark now, it is getting much warmer and the mud is drying up. The horses are enjoying it a lot. The horse above is Gallahad, a PRE that Bent has in training.
The days have been as normal here on Lindegården since i last wrote, with only a few happenings: Emma and Tom have gone home, and a new practicant from Germany, Manuela, arrived a week ago.
I was away on a short holiday to Netherland for 4 days meeting up with friends and relaxing and going to conserts.
After that i got a bad cold and was sick with fever for a week. Except from that not much is new.

The riding is going well on Blåi, she is now sure on the aids and the shoulder in both on the circle and along the the wall. The quarter in is getting better and better on the circle.
The trott is also coming along nicely now, and i have started to collect her a bit more.
I trott we are also working on the shoulder in. She is a good girl!!!

Mulle was just about to get back to old form and doing all the sidemovements and collection nicely, but last weekend she started to lame slightly on her left front leg.
It has gotten better through the week, and i rode her a bit yesterday, but 'i'll take it easy with her for a while longer.


Filur is doing well, he likes standing outside sleeping in the warm sun, i have not been riding him so much lately, but always in the weekends.
But he has a new little habbit which i find very cute!!!
In the mornings when i come to brush him he has desided that it is a lot more cosy to get comfy in the straw and be cuddled by me, that to be brushed. So very often he has layd down when i come in to him, sometimes a cat, or Kimo comes in and joins us as well.
I love it, but it does mean that i get a lot of stress getting all my other chores done after we are finished with our morning cuddle session :-)

Another Mulle video

Here is another video from todays lesson. What Bent is saying here is that he finds it very interesting how Mulle has developed. Because when he first saw her she was VERY high in the hind quarter, even for a Quarter horse, and this training has helped her a lot to lift the shoulders and move more freely with the front legs. And that you almost don't notice that the rear end is any higher then the front any more.

So that means i must be doing something right :-)

I am sorry to say that I have not managed to upload the once of Blåi and Filur on Youtube yet. Bot i have not given up.

But i will put one more video from today's lesson in soon, where you get to see a little bit of trott as well.

Oh, and by the way... I get the morning off tomorrow. Now that is luxury, not having to be in the stable at 6 in the morning. YAHOOOOO

Good night and sleep tight!

Uploading videos........

Hello
I am still trying to upload videos....
The once we took of Blåi and me on the lesson yesterday is too long to upload here in the blogg, but I am now trying to upload those on Youtube so that i can link to them from the blogg.
But it has been loading for almost 4 hours now the one that is 9 mins long, and still it is not even half way loaded. So i don't know if this will work :-( I am really not good with computer stuff.....
But I will continue to try.

My lessons today went very well, had one on Mulle and one on Filur. Yvonne filmed me again, but did many short clips instead of one long one. So I am right now trying to upload a video of Mulle and me here in the blogg. Really hope this is gonna work!!!!
If it does i can put in more videos of Mulle and Filur here :-)
Sitting here waiting impatiently now.......
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Still waiting...............................................................................................................................................
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Have made myself some food now. and still this little video has not loaded........
Well, well, i'll keep waitin........................................................................................................................
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Yes!!!! Finally!!!!! Now it worked!!!!

So this is Mulle and me having our lesson today. The format is a bit strange, but i don't know how to edit and stuff, so you just have to live with that we look a bit long and strange...

Will upload some more videos soon!

201 and a video

Good evening!

What a wonderful day!!!!! I have had a super riding day today.

I got 2 lessons today. I rode Blåi on the first one, where we worked on the pliee ( slight shoulder in) and the versade ( shoulder in). Blåi's hind legs have now gotten really good, but her shoulders and front legs still need work. The thing that is happening is that her front legs still push a bit too much backwards, and because the stride from her hind legs is so good now, the hind legs sometimes hit into the front legs. This is a normal situation in the education, and the way to solve it now is to ride her in a slight shoulder in so that the hind leg gets space to be set down in between the front legs. The shoulde in also teaches the horse to start lifting the shoulders and the front legs more and move them more freely. So that this problem of her sometimes stepping on her own front legs will go away when she is stronger and more supple. So this is just part of the prosess. Thanks to a week student who has a digital camera we filmed my lesson on Blåi today so that you can see us in action. Thank you very much Yvonne!!!!

Then, in the afternoon today Bent gave me a lesson on Filur. It was ride # 201, and today it finally went a lot better. Bent helped me a lot and incouraged me and i managed nice shoulder in and quarter in in both hands. In both collection and forward down. He was carrying nicely on his hind legs and was nice in my hand, working propperly over the back. It all felt smoth and soft. I was in the seventh heaven after my lesson. It felt sooooooo nice to manage to ride Filur a bit better again. Yahoooooooo!!!

Then after evening work i had another training session with Blåi. Yvonne, the week student who is here now was so kind to help me. She had Blåi on the longje while i was riding her. In that way she could help me to explain to Blåi exactly what my aids mean and what i want. The shoulder in's were all really really good, and she also got a lot of nice steps in quarter in. I think she understood the quarter in a lot better now when Yvonne could help her a bit as well. Will work her like that a bit more in the weekend. And then i think that she will master the travers in no time as well!

Mulle was the last one to get ridden today. She made very nice versade and travers in forward down and in collection. And we did a bit renvers as well. The trott is also getting better and we worked a bit of shoulder in in the trott. Tomorrow Yvonne is gonna film my lesson with Mulle as well, so then you will be able to see her in action as well. She is very positiv and has a nice energy when we work together. She really does her best all the time!!!

Will upload a video of Mulle video tomorrow ( if i manage to upload the one i am trying to upload here today that is, it takes a loooong time to load....)

Nope, the files were to big to upload here. Working on the problem and will try show it to you soon!

Hugs, good night and stay in the now!

Fencing cats, Blåi's shoulder-inn and a bit of a rough time

Hello
Hope you enjoyed Kimo's little entry the other day!
No wonder he respects the cats now, i got this picture of Madelen and Petrine as they took a break between fencing practice....( The fencing gear is here because we sometimes train it to get better body coordination and balance for the riding)

I have had a bit of a hard time the last few days, bad riding days, feeling tired and aching a lot in my body from the work. Yesterday i rode Filur for the 200th time. It did not go very well, so what was supposed to be a celebration with cake and champaigne ended up making me feel as a useless rider. But hopefully things will get better.
Today has been very busy because we have to get everything ready for tomorrow when it is public evening work. We have cleaned tack, raked the whole yard and set out chairs.
Tomorrow all the horses have to be washed and cleaned til they are spotless ( of course the Knabsrupers get to keep their spots...) and shiny.

But, i do have some good news too:

Blåi has made huge progress the last few days and does now understand the shoulder inn on the circle. The quarter in is coming along a bit slower, but i think she will understand that very soon as well. She is a smart lady and learns very quickly. She is very even at both sides now, and i can't feel a difference in quality between the right and the left side, which is very good!She has a lot of energy and uses it very positiv by trying her best all the time.She did some transitions from walk to trott today, and they were very nice, even though that was not what i asked for. I had to take her back down to walk, and could not reward it because it was not what i had asked of her. BUT: Those transitions showed that she has strenght and balance enough to carry herself nicely in trott as well soon.

Mulle has a lot of energy at the moment and is coming along nicely. This evening i worked on versade-renvers and travers-travers transitions, which went ok. We are still a way from where we used to be, but we are getting there. Will ride her on my lesson tomorrow.

More pictures of her are coming soon!

Hugs m

A dogs life

Bark and hello!
I am Kimo, i think my mom has told you about me before, but now i think it is about time that i write a bit in this blog myself. At the moment i am a practicant dog in Denmark. You would not belive how hard work it is and how much there is to look after.... But i have been on this farm before, so it has been easy to get into the work routines again.
On this farm there are a lot of horses. Here is a picture of me together with old spotty as i call him. He is one of my moms favorits and quite a nice bloke. I actually met a dog once that was as spotty as he is. Strange really.
I think the horses are ok, but i don't like when they make a lot of noice at feeding time.
I like my moms horse a lot, sometimes i even give her a lick on the nose.
But horses can be very boooooooooooring to. When the humans are sitting on them in the riding arena i always have to lie down and keep quiet. Even when i have my ball with me i'm not allowed to play in there. That is not fair! The horses get to run and play....

But outside and everywhere else on the farm i can play as much as i want to. I like playing!!!
A few days ago i found this brilliant little ball outside, and i have had a lot of fun with it.
Sometimes mom plays with me to, but i run much faster then her, so i get to have the ball most of the time. She is a bit silly though, because every time she does get a hold of it she just trows it through the air, and i always get to it before her.
When i am not playing i am working. Here i am looking after that mom is ok while she is getting straw. I like jumping up on the big bales. From there i can see the whole barn and keep an eye on everything.

And then there is the mucking out of course, always mucking out. Those horses poo a lot!!!

But i do like to catch a ride when i can!!!

Whenever we go inside i always feel very tired and try to have as many naps as possible. To begin with i had a few problems though as the cats always seemd to lay down on my bed or in my sleeping cave. But now we have settled our differences. The cats are actually not so bad when you get to know them.

The other day we all had a nap together on the sofa, when Petrine ( the black cat) told jokes to Matilda and me. But we did not quite understand them, so we ended up looking at her in wonder while she was the only on laughing her head off:

Matilde scared me a bit the other day, i seriously thought that she had broken her back and died.

As i came in she was laying like this on our pillow:

But luckily she was only sleeping, i can't understand how that can be comfortable?????

Well, well, now i sometimes lay down beside her to make sure that she stops sleeping in such a silly way!

All in all i guess it is quite good living her. And there are many humans who like me and pet me here. It is actually quite fun being a practicant dog!

Bark and lick from Kimo :-)

A little update

I'm sorry, it has been a while now, hasn't it? Well, here i am, and here is a short update on the happenings the last week.
Mulle has finally started to settel in a bit, and she feels a lot more supple and relaxed than she has done. I am glad that i have 4 month instead of 3 here, so that it does not matter so much that she needed the first month just to settle in. We still have loads of time to learn and get better together. Mulle is such a brilliant horse, so kind and well behaved always.
An though her body is built slightly unfortunate she always works hard and tries her very best.I am so proud of my little horse!!! We are working on the quarter in and the shoulder in on the circle right now, in forward down and in collection. I don't think it will be too long until we are back to were we used to be.

Blåi is doing very well. I had a lesson on her today, and for the first time her right hind leg was acctually better then the left one. This is normal when focusing on excercising the weaker leg for a while, it suddently ends up beeing the better leg.
So now she knows the aids for making the cirkle bigger and smaler on the circle in both hands.

Tomorrow we will start working carefully on the sidemovements on the circle. And soon also try to trott a little bit. She is such a sweet hearted and kind horse, always very polite, but in a playfull and happy way. She seems to enjoy the training a lot.

Both Mulle and Blåi have gotten used to the mirrors as well now, so that is good.

I have not ridden Filur so much this last week. We are still only on time number 197, but hopefully I will get to work him more again now. I already have a little bottle of Champaign in the fridge for the day we will celebrate our 200. ride together :-)
I feel that i still need some time to get into riding him propperly again. I have not been riding regularly for 1,5 years before I came her now, so ot takes time to relax and start feeling through the horse again. But we will get there!

From Thursday til Thuesday I had a visit from my boyfriend. It was great, he helped out with all the chores every day and made great food. On saturday we all went for a ride in the wood together, we were 6 horses all together. It was a great day, and we all enjoyed it very much!

Will put in more pictures of our hack if Tom or Emma have some nice ones.

Now i have only 2 days left being the extra practicant. From the first of next month I will be a normal stable practicant, and i am really looking forward to it.

Until now I have helped out with the normal stable duties on top of doing the other chores that i have been given this month. Yesterday and today I have fixed the stallion padock, and before that i worked a lot on the old barn. Will show you pictures of how nice it all looks now soon!

I'd better get to bed, will write again soon!

Sleep tight and stay in the now!

m x

Kimo and the cats, and a bad riding day

This will be a bit short today, as I don't really have a lot to tell right now....
Kimo has now lost yet another of his sleeping places to the cats. On saturday when we came in from the stable the first thing that met him was two cats on HIS doggy bed :-)
Poor boy! He settled for a place on the floor as close to the bed as possible, hoping to reclaim it if the cats moved. Blææææææ! I had a really bad riding day today! Rode Filur, worked Mulle in hand and Blåi on the longje this evening, and nothing really worked. It's all my fault off corse, but hopefully tomorrow will be a much better day!

Other then that I have had a great weekend. I was in Hamburg to go to a concert yesterday evening, and came back again today, so I've had a mini holiday away from the farm.
So the horses got a day off yesterday, which I am sure they enjoyed out in the sun!

Before the weekend the riding went well. I've had one lesson on Blåi and one on Mulle since I
wrote last. Taking it very easy with them both still and don't ride more then 10-15 minutes on the lessons. On Mulle my focus is to get her relaxed and supple again after the journey here.
And with Blåi i am working on strenghtening her right hind leg so that we can start the side movements when it is a bit stronger.

I train Mulle and Blåi mostely twice a day. Morning and evening. Filur I ride once a day.
I am looking forward to getting lessons on Filur again as well next week, now that I won't have to babysitt any more. I'll try to get someone to take pictures of me when I'm riding again this week.
Will write more when I got more to tell :-)
Love horses, listen to Marillion and stay in the now!
Hugs m xxx

Babysitter Blåi and Mulle Pilar horse

Time for an uppdate again :-)
Kimo wants to start off today by showing the world how rude these stupid cats can be:
This is what he found when he came inside yesterday and wanted to take a well deserved nap in his favorite spot after a hard morning of being a dog: HOW RUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But being the gentle man that he is he let the cat sleep and layd down under the table with a huge complaining sigh.

Mulle has found out that this place is acctually quite cool, and has desided to start her career as a
high school horse now. So what better way to start then a foto session of her in the right surroundings?
I rode Mulle on my first lesson yesterday ( I did not have to longje her).
It went well, she is still a bit stiff after the long journey, so we took it easy and worked in long and low most of the lesson. She is wonderfull my little horse!!!
Here she is between the Pillars:
Blåi seems to enjoy herself here even more then Mulle. She is always very positiv and wants to work and tries her best. The last two days she has started to come to the gate of the padock when ever she sees me. I rode her on my lesson today. We worked on the circle, teaching her the aids and getting her hind legs to stride good forward and carry and for her to seek forward down.
She did good! Her right hind leg is a bit weaker then the left one, but she is starting to use it a bit better already. This is gonna be fun!!!

Bent's children are here to visit him this week, so that has ment a lot of babysitting for me.
It's okay, but a bit sad because I miss out on seeing all the others ride. And yesterday and today I didn't get time to ride Filur :-(
But today Blåi desided that she could help me out a little bit with the babysitting, and she did a brilliant job!!!!
We went for a little hack together all 4 of us and Blåi was wonderful.
The children really loved riding her! And I thought it was nice too!!!
That's all for now. Will try to get someone to take some pictures of me riding Filur, Mulle and Blåi over the next days so that you can see what it looks like at the moment. :-)
Take good care and stay in the Now!
m xxx

A busy weekend

Time for a little update again! It has been a busy weekend with lots to do.
Hmmmm, were shall I start? Lets start with the horses first:
Filur and I are starting to work better together with the riding now and get used to each other again. We are both far more relaxed, and manage the things we have been working on in walk
okay. The count is up to 191 now, 9 more days now and we will have cake and carrots to celebrate ride nr 200. He is wonderful and lightens up my day a lot! Blåi is doing well! On saturday I worked here on the longje and in hand, and on Sunday we went
on a short hack out in the sun and I rode her a bit in the arena in the evening. She is well behaved, and a joy to work with.
Today was our first lesson for Bent together. On the first lesson here the practicants always have to longje the horse, to show that it has the basic education, and that the practicant knows how to longje. Blåi is really very very good on the longje, and I think she really likes it.
She did it all perfect and Bent had no corrections on my work with her at all today.

Mulle on the other hand does not find longjeing very much fun at all, she hates it.
All is well when I work her in hand or ride, but this thing with going around me in a circle she finds daft and dumb! So she gives it a half hearted effort so that her mom won't get too upset, but that is all. I will show her on the longje on my lesson tomorrow, and I really really hope that Bent will except our work and agree with me that she simply hates it! I will work her a bit in hand after longjeing so that he can see that she does a lot better there.

Poor Mulle, it's a hard life! I rode her yesterday evening though, and that is totally different.

She was energetic and did all the side movements very nicely. Looking forward to our riding lessons, and learning more together!!!

There is one little problem with both Mulle and Blåi though.......

They are totally and utterly in love with their own reflections in the mirrors, and every time we come close to them they lose their consentration and want to go over to great that amazingly beautiful horse on the wall. But I guess they will get used to it in time....

Maybe....

Hopefully....

Kimo is fine to, he is starting to get used to being outside all day long again and seems

to be less tired. But he still goes to sleep as soon as we get inside for a rest. When I am working on the barn or with the paddocks he mostly finds himself a nice spot where he can sit and keep an eye on me to make sure I'm ok and that I do my work propperly.

The cleaning out of the old barn is going quite smoothly, I am finished with half of the room now,

and it starts to look a lot better, but there is still a lot left to do.

Here is the part where I am almost finished, nice eh???

So I have had a quite good weekend and kept busy. My friend Maria came and visited me both Saturday and Sunday. She sometimes rides Hugin in the weekends. On Sunday she rode Blåi and I rode Mulle when we went out for a hack.

Hugin and Maria:

There, I think that was all the news for now. Even though today has not been my day at all, the first week here at Lindegården has been nice. It is wonderful to ride so much again and to get lessons and be around the horses all day long.

Sleep tight and stay in the now!

m xxx

A great day!

This day has been brilliant!!!!
The stable work was easy and quick this morning, and ride number 188 with Filur today finally went a bit better. I managed to sit down and relax and ride him propperly in the things we have been working on in the walk.
And then at 11.45 Mulle and Blåi arrived. They where both calm and looked good when I took them out of the transporter. Mulle had not been drinking a lot during her journey, but except from that all was well with them. Bent came out and had a look at Blåi which he has not meet before and thought that she looked good and had nice movements. I let the out in the padock at once, and I think they really enjoyed beeing able to graze. Must be strange since it is snow and full winter where they come from. Blåi arrived as a white horse, but looked rather brown after having a good roll in the mud.

At 3 I took them both for a walk in the sun. It was wonderfull how well behaved they both walked with me and they seemed to enjoy our walk as much as I did.

When we came back to the farm I showed them the indoor riding arena before I let them back outside.

I took them in when I had finished my stabel duties this evening and gave them a litttle brush.

They seem to like their stables and standing on straw.

Then I first took Mulle into the riding arena for about 5-10 to do a bit of stretching and bending with them from the ground after the long journey. She was fine, but a bit stiff in the neck.

Blåi was next, and she seemd as if she had never done anything else then be here in Denmark and work with me. She was calm, supple and consentrated.

They are both such brilliant horses, behaving like this after a long journey and being on a completely new place.I am very proud of them.

Gonna go out and say good night to the 3 beautiful angels now and check that they are ok :-)

Waiting.....

Hi again!
Now my 4th full working day here at Lindegården has come to an end, and all is fine.
My working days have been divided between stable work, repairing paddocks and starting the huge project of cleaning out this room completely:

Everything has to be taken out, so I have my work cut out for me.... But it'll be ok:-)
Will show you pictures about how I get on.

The riding has gone sort of ok. I have now ridden Filur time number 185,186 and 187.

But since I have not ridden propperly for such a long while now I need time to relax, start feeling again and get into how to ride Filur good. We are only working on getting the walk good, forward down, in collection and in the side movements. And I feel like a total beginner again. He is not an easy horse to ride, but i really enjoy it!!!

I found these wonderful two black furry friends this evening. I know it's a bit hard to see on this picture, but the left one is a rabit, and the right one is a cat. Just found it so cute that I had to show it to you all.

Mulle was transportet to the stable where Blåi lives on Wednesday and spent the night there together with Blåi. Mulle (as always)cared more about the food then about Blåi the first time they met, but they got along ok. Today they have left a cold and snowy Norway and are heading

to Denmark as I write. I am very exited and a bit worried about them.

It's gonna be wonderful when they finally arrive here tomorrow!!!

Mulle looking gorgeous for the camera :-)

Here you see the first pictures of Blåi as well. I don't really know her very well jet. I have only

met her a few times when I have given her lessons together with her owner Unni.

But she is wonderful, and I can't wait to get to know her and work together with her!!!

Will write more soon :-)

Take care and stay in the NOW!

Hugs m

Finally arrived in Denmark

Monday evening and I have finished my first Practicant day in Denmark.
I arrived yesterday evening and my long travell from England went well.
The weather here is freezing, and I am looking forward to all my winter clothes arriving.

It was amazing to meet Filur again yesterday. I ran from the car and straight into his stable,
rather rudely ignoring people who tried to say hi to me while running by.
I had a dear friend I had to say hi to before I did anything else!
And the reunion was great! He greated me with joy and love and forgot about the eveningmeal I had interupted. It was wonderful.
Today we have spent some time together in the window as we always used to do before.
He always manages to bring me into "the NOW" and make me forget about everything else when he hanges out with me like that. I love every second of it!
And it feels good that he really wants to be with me and seem to enjoy it to.

Bent rode Filur today so that I could see how he was doing, but he was a little bit tense today because of the strong winds that seemingly tried to move the whole riding arena.
But of course he was as beautiful as ever :-)
Tomorrow I will start to ride Filur myself again, and I simply can't wait!!!
It will be time number 185 that I get the honor to ride him!
The rest of the day has been quite calm, I have helped out the regular stable practicants today, and with 3 people instead of 2 everything goes very quickly.
But since I have arrived here one month early I will be a handy man, no, handy girl around the farm and work on fixing fences, cleaning up some old stables, that are gonna be renovated, helping out with a bit of baby sitting and doing all sorts around the stables and farm.
But I will take care of Filur myself and help the other practicants with the stable when I have time. I think it will all be good.

There are a lot of people and nationalitys here on the farm right now.

There is German Ute who is a week student here for 4 weeks.

There are the Swedish familly Christofer and Rebecka Dahlgren and their two kids who are here as week students for one week.

Then the two practicants: Swedish Emma and Norwegian Tom

German house practicant Bianca.

And of course Bent who is Danish.

So I am very glad that I am fluent in all these languages and can be a bit of a interpreter for everyone, but I do get confused sometimes.

Mulle and Blåi are arriving here on Friday, and I am really looking forward to it!

I'll write again very soon, take good care and stay in the NOW!

m xxx

7 great days

Now i've got back to England after 7 great days of teaching in Norway.
The clinic up on the mountain was great fun and everyone seemed happy and inspired by it.
There were 8 riders attending the clinic with all sorts of horses. We had 3 Arabians, a Paint horse, a Shire horse, a cold blood and 2 warm bloods. It was brilliant!
Most of the riders had their first meeting with the Academic art of riding at this clinic, and they were very interested in the methods and the basics.

The weather was not as bad as I thought it would be. I had borrowed loads of clothes and did not get cold at all. The only times both humans and horses had to take short breaks during the lessons was when the wind got a bit too strong. But all in all the weather was no problem.

We were so lucky to have our theory sessions and our lunch in the lovely Hjerkinn Fjellstue,

and it was wonderful to come in to the cosy heat after being outside in the cold.

Here are some pictures of the surroundings:

The stable:

Hjerkinn Fjellstue:

And the mountains around it

The rest of the week I spent teaching my regular students, whitch was great fun exept from all the snow and the difficult driving conditions. Strange that this will be the last time I see them all for 4 month, gonna miss them!!!

Only one more week to go now before i head of to Denmark. A bit stressed out with everything that needs to be arranged, and that I only have 7 more days left here in England.

But I guess it will all be okay. I am very excited about it all!!!

Will write again when I arrive in Denmark!

Hugs m

Bedtime on the mountain

I's been a lovely day!!!!!!!

I started up with giving 2 lessons this morning whitch I enjoyed very much.

After that I got on the train to Hjerkinn where I got to enjoy 4 wonderful hours relaxing and watching movies ( Mamma Mia and Arn).

I got picked up by the clinic arrangers Mari and Nina at the train station.

I am staying in a cabin at Mari's farm this weekend while I give the clinic up here.

We had a lovely evening, with Taco, Wine and horsey talk.

But I'll better get to bed now. I'm gonna work from 9-21 tomorrow, so I better get some rest.

Really looking forward to giving the clinic though!

Always fun being in a new place and meeting new people and horses!

Norway is a beautiful place in winter.

Will tell you all about the clinic and show you some pictures at the end of the weekend!

Sleep tight!

Hugs m x