Bluebell Drive along the Shenandoah River, VA Looks like we rolled directly from fall right into spring, and Ma Nature is fast-tracking all of us - flowers, trees, grass, animals - into summer even before we've had much of a taste of spring! Not that I mind - the early blooming of the trees and flowers was spectacular and quite unexpected. But we were worried that the first drive of the season, the much enjoyed and always beautiful "Bluebell Drive" down along the Shenandoah River, would be too late to enjoy the bluebells this year due to the early blooming. The champagne rest stop along the way However, we were in luck - while the peak bloom was the week before the drive, there were still enough late bluebells to dress the sides of the road in a pretty splash of blue. A total of 10 carriages partook of the drive - 4 pairs, and 6 singles - witness to a spectacular day. It was so pretty to see that most of us had dressed our carriages in flowers - one of the drivers even dressed her hat to match her carriage's floral display. I was told by our hostess that the floral carriage displays were all thanks to me! Apparently, everyone had so much fun dressing their carriages for my former floral drives that they decided to just keep dressing them for every drive! All the pretty carriages with splashes of bright flowers made for a very photo-worthy, and quite delightful, picture!! The gravel roads were nicely groomed for our drive, although a bit dusty from a few weeks of no rain. The March wind - which had not gotten the memo that Spring had been pushed up one month and now was subsequently a month behind in its appearance playing catch-up - played havoc with the big, wide-brimmed hats on the ladies, threatening to whisk the entire lot of pretty chapeaux into the river if the drivers didn't have one hand firmly planted on the head. It was NOT an "Ascot hat" type of day, and hat pins were at a premium. Fortunately, I had selected a darling short-brimmed fuschia-colored hat for my ensemble - a hat that was strong-willed enough to remain right where I had placed it on my head despite the most persistent wind. My harness was not so lucky with the wind-blown road dust - in short order the beautifully cleaned harness and sparkling brass had gathered enough dust to look as if it had been left lying around for 100 years. The drive alongside the Shenandoah River Not that I minded - it was too pretty a day, and the river was simply stunning, to think about anything other than how fabulous it was to be trotting alongside this Virginia treasure of a river, on a lovely byway, enjoying the scenery. More drives are planned this month, as well as some hunt trail rides. Sadly, we won't be doing any endurance rides until perhaps June. Drummer picked up a stone bruise in his back hoof while training on the mountain, and it took forever to heal. Far too long to make me comfortable about doing the tough, mountainous No Frills with him. His foot is now healed, so he'll be on trail ride duty while we start up training again for June. Itchy is off work until the fall. His only job is foxhunting now, so he gets the summers to just hang around, eat and sleep. Nice life, huh? More to come as the month moves on....