Post Caviar... let the Spring commence

Ok.   So technically we are still 2 days away from the 1st day of Spring.  But that's beside the point.  Canberra, and it would appear the Eastern seaboard, is bathed in mild and warm weather.  20 degrees!!!  I am sitting have a cup of tea at Canberra Airport, flying my usual route to Melbourne.  

Today is the first day I have flown with my new camera bag.  And ok, I'm not sure in the plane yet, so I can't tell exactly how well it fits in the overhead locker, but it looks right.  I keep thinking I have left something behind, because strangely, I have only one bag.  I've rearranged it slightly, and I've put my 500mm in the bag without a camera body attached to it, and the bag is just long enough (which is what  hoped when reading the specs, as it's supposed to fit up to a 400mm f2.8 lens in it.  What I've left behind, somewhat grumpily and moodily, is my 300mm f2.8...  I know, I know, I can hear you saying to me "Bronnie, you won't use it, you can't bring everything", but that mutinous voice in my head wants to say "but I like having it with me.......".  But I took a deep breath, patted it sadly, and put it away, and it has stayed at home.  Am I trying to apply some logic, and save my poor sore neck a little bit as well??  We'll see..  I still haven't come up with a solution for my D4's battery charger yet though, as no one has responded to my pleas for help..  The bag has a cool front pocket though, which my sleek and thin MacBook slides into though, and that removes the need for an extra bag.  But I keep feeling as though I have forgotten something, and everytime I move, I glance around thinking "where's the other bag???"

My tea is nice.  I am still avoiding coffee, particularly after the weekend's effort to get home.  I've had a banana for breakfast, and will board in about 15 mins.

So, as we emerge from the winter gloom and cold, what does Spring mean to you?  Does it make you want to stretch, and lay in the warmth of the sun, on the fresh green grass?  While you talk in soft voices about what you will do for the day?  Does it remind you of the jangle of bits, of horses snorting and neighing, and prancing with a little bit more of a spring to their step, as they too feel the warmth of the sun as a welcome change on their back?  Does it bring back memories of the sounds and smells of horses?  And of their nostrils blowing out steam?  Do you remember laughing fondly at their still wooly coats, and unsightly winter clips that haven't grown out, and think impatiently that you still have to wait at least another month before their muzzles are sleek and dark again, and not coated in that fine, brown hair that they grow around their eyes and mouth, that changes their appearance so much?  Do you want to gently ask the strapper if you can take your clippers to their horses' beards, that for some reason they haven't thought to trim back, just saying that you want to see the beautiful shape of their horse's head?  

I think of all these things.  Not quite as acutely now, because I am back riding, and so have been getting far more regular horse 'fixes' for myself (and what girl doesn't need that???), but these are the things that Spring means to me.  It means I begin counting how many sleeps until the Cox Plate, and watching the papers, and groaning at times at the determined use of wide angle lenses on horses by unsuspecting photographers.  Will they ever learn?  Do you miss the horses, do you miss all that it means?  Do you breath in deep breaths of the freshly cut grass, and the warmth in the air, and the smell of blossoms?  And does it make you want your horse to turn into you, place it's head in your arm, and ask you to kiss it's eyelids?  

I feel all of these things.  And this Spring, I also ponder a life where constant air travel, and packing and unpacking becomes a thing of the past... I pause to remember So You Think, who won the Memsie 3 years ago.  I didn't see him last weekend, as getting to Coolmore proved impossible to fit in.  But I should be seeing him in September, as the details of my 5 day stallion shoots become clearer.

Atlantic Jewel.  Resumes tomorrow in the Memsie Stakes...