August passed in a whirlwind, but fortunately not all work-related – most noteworthy was my annual trip to Fealar, this time falling immediately ahead of Blair.
It remains breathtakingly beautiful, although we had rather less sunshine than last year. Not only did I discover that the coat I had taken wasn’t waterproof, I also very nearly disappeared into a peat bog – fortunately there was a strapping young man close at hand who caught me and pulled me out. The highlight of my, as ever abbreviated, stay (due to Blair commitments), was again seeing the golden eagles, as well as half a dozen stag less than 50 meters away. My last night there was after everyone else had left – to be alone in the most remote lodge in the British Isles was fabulous.
The only drawback was that I was in the Highlands (with no phone/internet/tv) during the European Championships. I hared in to Pitlochry on the final day to catch up with the live stream, courtesy of the Atholl Palace Hotel, for the last few showjumping rounds…. and was delighted to see Oliver and Ros collect their team gold medals.
On to Blair, which was great fun. I had two new team members keeping me on the straight and narrow, Sue Polley and Molly Shepherd-Boden, who both worked their socks off. We had a few excitements, starting with an unexpected overnight (and unknown) visitor in our static caravan on the first night – I’m not sure who was more surprised at 6am the following morning. That rather set the tone for the week…
After 48 hours in Norfolk it was time for Burghley. I was definitely dribbling by this stage, but the joy of Burghley is staying with ‘Growler’. It’s almost impossible to believe that exactly a year ago, the day I 
turned up, she had been diagnosed with the Big C. Twelve months on, and currently the picture of health, she was in celebratory mood and we planned a picnic with Manners Media’s Trevor & Lorna.
The sky had been blue, the temperature balmy… until we set out to the cars to extract said picnic. Thunder crashed, lightning crackled and the rain came down. Net result – a very funny, rather cramped supper in the car… the mirth continuing back at base, aided by a bottle of Toffee Vodka 🙂
Burghley was fabulous – more so than ever because Manners Media clients posted a 1-2. Oliver took his second title (the last one 8 years ago), finishing a couple of points ahead of Piggy, for whom the runner up spot was a best Burghley result so far. Totally deserved results and I have yet to stop smiling.