Wildfires

Wednesday morning seven a.m.

 Kate looked so sweet lying there. I'll let her lie in. I got up had a shower and got dressed. I went over to the stables and tended to Smokies leg. It didn't look so bad as yesterday. Got some salt water, bathed the wound and bandaged it back up.

 While waiting for Kate to stir, I switched on the news. Life came and watched the television, she was curious of how the people got in there. Well it seemed that way to me. The newscaster off CNN, Ted Tanner spoke....'Fire fighters are at this moment battling to contain a series of wildfires across south California. Strong winds and hot temperature following one of the driest winter in years, have turned swathes of wilderness into a tinderbox...'The screen cut to a scene of helicopters dropping loads of water to protect properties down on the ground...'A ten mile section of the Pacific Coast highway has been closed for a while west of Malibu, because of the Camarillo Springs blaze...' again it cut to a motorist by the name of Zeke Jaquez , " It's unbelievable..." he says,"...several homes have already been destroyed."...and then it cut back to Ted Tanner at the news desk, '...and on a lighter note...' I switched it off. Life had disappeared. I needed the bathroom. While in there doing what a guy does, a knock came on the door. On opening it Kate...sweet Kate stood before me. I planted a long kiss on her lips.

Kate blushed. "I need the shower. Your dog drooled all over me, waking me up."

 "Yeah, she...has a nasty habit of doing that," I smiled and moved out of the way to let Kate pass."You want to eat out for breakfast or what ?"

 "Whatever you want Kyle." 

 "Okay, but lets eat out first." A slow easy smile spread across my face. "Last night was special wasn't it ?"

 "Yes," she whispered, blushing again, "you seem to have only one thing on your mind Kyle."

Eventually Kate appeared and we got into the car and drove to the Stroppy Mare diner.

As I drove out of my drive, a for sale sign was being erected on the small property to the left. It got me thinking. If I bought it, I could use it for a holiday let or, if any of my family came to stay.

 We both had coffee and pancakes with syrup. Oh! and eggs over easy. I payed the check and left.

Kate relaxed into the car seat, "You're quiet?"

 " I was just thinking about the wildfires. Let's hope the winds stay down south and don't change course. Oh, and that property on the corner of my place. I wonder if I should buy it, what do you think Kate ?"  

 "It's up to you. Can't help you there Kyle."              

 Back at the farm I tacked Drifter up and mounted him. After a short while He reared up and I fell off.   Kate stood there, laughing at me while I brushed the dust of my pants. My cellphone rang and a female voice spoke, "I want to speak to a mister McCormack."

 "You're speaking to him. How can I help you ?"

 Well it turned out the female voice belonged to a Sofia Martin. Um, you may recall that Johnny Denver had scribbled down a garbled message yesterday. I told her to come over and take a look at Lady. I wasn't sure she could train her to the western style of riding, as she was eight years old. So far all of my clients wanted to ride western style. Can't blame them. I had paper work to enter into my laptop, ringing around and one thing and another, and a jumping lesson to take in an hour, so Kate volunteered to see to Sofia Martin when she came.

I was still on my laptop when Sofia Martin came. I saw Kate talking to her...well I presume that's who she was. Yes, now Kate is getting Lady for her and tacking her up. They go into the manege and Sofia is riding Lady over the cavaletti trainer jumps in there. I know Lady can do these, I've done them on her myself...and the green and white inclined triple bar jump. Sofia was about late thirties to early forties. She had thick black wavy hair done up into a French Plait  and tied with a band of some kind. I finished on my laptop so went out to watch Sofia ride. I had ten minutes or so before my client would arrive.

 "Well what do you think, um, Ms. Martin ?" I didn't know whether she was married or not. Couldn't see a wedding band as she was wearing gloves. Kate went and made us a coffee.

 "Won't take a lot to put her right. I think she was originally taught to the western way of riding before. I can do a little with her every other day for three months. May be less."

 "Okay, let's agree on how much it's gonna cost me."

 We came to an agreement.