In common with so many people, my life has been through many different phases. In 35 years of marriage we've lived in about a dozen places - sometimes in our own house and sometimes in accommodation linked to a job, and had several different occupations.
30 years ago now, we lived in a house with 25 acres of land on the Surrey-Sussex border and my life was filled with dogs and horses and chickens. If I were to do a 'what you don't know about me that might surprise you' meme, I could list the rusty abilities to ride, judge a horse and a dog, look after a brood mare and deliver a foal and choose a prize winning puppy from a litter in several breeds. I amused my daughter no end at the Three Counties show by picking the winner out of a class or two-three year olds shown in hand and correctly placing the rest of the field, (as she bet me I couldn't). As she can barely remember our horse keeping/ dog breeding days, she regards her father's long lost skills in dressage in the same light as his ability to translate Anglo-Saxon - she knows, logically, he can do it, but .....!
I remember feeling the same slight incredulity at my parents' tales about cycling all over the West Country on a tandem in their courting days! In their fifties and later they couldn't imagine riding a bicycle and we can't imagine running a stables or showing a dog. Who were those people and where have they gone?
We were very young and full of energy then, I wouldn't want to do it now, but I do treasure the memories. We've had house cats and dogs since, but we haven't any animals except an occasionally visiting cat now. I think it's an illustration of how we are changed with age and circumstances and our priorities change too.
* Mis-quoted, as it often is, from the opening line of L.P. Hartley's The Go-between.
