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Sunday 25 December 2011

Endomondo Walking Workout

Endomondo Walking Workout: was out walking 12.74 miles in 3h:42m:21s using Endomondo.

Had quite a good 'Christmas Day' Went out on the bike this morning and did almost 8 miles, but it was very wet, so I gave up.

Decided instead to take Archie for a longer walk and we ended up going around Lonscale Fell to the back of Skiddaw, The rain kept off, but it wasn't half windy! At times it was difficult to keep upright, but was quite mild in the shelter of the fell. went a little bit further than intended, but enjoyed it - invigorating!!

And for the second year in a row I have successfully managed to use more calories than I've consumed. My Christmas lunch was a delicious ham sandwich in the shelter of a massive rock. and because it's Christmas I never met a single soul out there - could have been on Mars!
IT was great.

Here are a couple of pics (if I can upload them from my phone)







Roll on tomorrow - another walk is calling....

Friday 23 December 2011

A good week

Considering I've been dreading Christmas, this has been a pretty good week.
Firstly the days are now getting longer again, albeit very slowly.
Then I got news that I have been accepted as a volunteer for the olympic games next year in London.
I am excited about that - it's never going to be as close to me again in my lifetime, so what an opportunity to be involved with the games!

Yesterday, a parcel arrived from New Zealand containing a jacket that I left behind in Waitomo in August. I am very, very grateful to a friend for posting it back. she was visiting Waitomo recently and kindly popped in to rescue my jacket. A lovely surprise yesterday when it arrived.

And finally, I am now on holiday until January 9th. A long break during which I intend to start getting fit for the 100km bike ride in June. I just have to hope we get pauses in the rain that are long enough to get the bike out!



Tuesday 20 December 2011

Not keen on this time of year. Those dark days. However, on the positive side, the shortest day is this week, so things will be getting better by the day from now on!
It'll be spring before we know it.

I also decided this week that I'm not getting enough exercise. Still walking with Archie of course, but the dark nights have stopped me doing so much.
So I have signed up for a 100km night cycle around London in June. for charity of course, but it will give me the incentive to get fit again.
Then following that, if it goes OK, there is a 40 mile cycle around Cumbria - the Jennings Rivers Ride, which I'm also planning to do.
Better get the training started now.....

No chocolate for me this Christmas. :)

Monday 12 December 2011

Missing the blogging

I am missing writing down my meandering thoughts on here.
Should I start to write again?
Or not?
That is the question...

Oh dear, too much Shakespeare this weekend I fear!

I'll think about it and if anyone views this, then I may do another post or two....

Sunday 10 July 2011

Flora and Fauna

I go for quite  a lot of walks in the Lakes. Sometimes round the lakes, sometimes up the fells, sometimes along the valleys. And most of the time I am looking at the big stuff – the magnificent views from the top of the fells or the reflections on the water. So this time I decided to focus on the little stuff – the things that people don’t notice so much when faced with the large scale views. I turned my attention to the flowers.
Actually, it was supposed to be flower and wildlife, but strangely I didn’t see any animals. There were a few insects, one butterfly (that wouldn’t land), and a couple of birds, but I didn’t manage to get any pictures of them.
So it’s just flora.


I set off through Brundholme woods, where there weren’t many flowers, as the light is limited through the trees. But emerging from the wood, the hedgerows were full of flowers, a wide variety of wildflowers of all colours.
This album show the array of some of them – there were more!





We stopped off at a couple of Archie’s favourite watering holes – he loves to lie in the streams. He won’t swim, but loves to cool down in the water.



I was intending to go up Lattrig, but decided that there wouldn’t be enough flowers up there – and also no waterholes for Archie, so we detoured into Derwetnfolds and then met up with the old railway line path.



We didn’t stay on the line for long though and set off up the bank towards Castlerigg Stone Circle. Before we reached the circle, we took a short cut across the fields to Low Nest – the Stone Circle is too busy in summer. There are loads of cars parked around the field and people just get out to take pictures of the stones and buy ice-cream! To be avoided.
We had  a nice view of high Rigg from the fields


The walk was over 8 miles for me, but Archie must have done double that with all the running about he does!
A lovely day for walking and some beautiful flowers to enjoy. What could be better?

Tuesday 21 June 2011

First blog

So, I decided to start writing a blog.

I don't expect anyone to be remotely interested in reading it, but I'm going to write it anyway...
I hope it will be exactly what it says in the title - some mundane mutterings from a middle-aged maniac.
I lead a pretty boring life, all in all, so there won't be any excitement contained herein and I'm not even sure yet what topics I'll be writing about - I'll see how it goes.

This morning I woke up with a mammoth headache, feeling really sick and dizzy - migraine. I don't get them often, but when I do they're dreadful. I always wonder what triggers them but one theory I have is that it may be Chinese food. I had a Chinese takeaway the day before yesterday, so it's possible. Another theory is that I didn't drink enough water yesterday and got dehydrated and maybe that could have triggered the headache. Well, whatever the cause, the bloody thing was awful - and a nuisance too as it meant I got to work 2 hours later than I should have done. That's really annoying cos I've had a bit of time off this year and I could do without any more time missed.
The dehydration theory is probably the one I favour at the minute. I was at a rehearsal of Fiddler on the Roof -a production I am part of. Just joined an amatuer operatic group this year and I'm enjoying it so far. Last night we put the first song into action - started moving and singing at the same time. Now I know women are supposed to be good at multi-tasking, but I find singing and moving at the same time quite challenging. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it, but it was so hot in there and I didn't take any water.....
All good fun.

I still have a slight headache this evening, but nothing compared to earlier. think I should have an early night though all the same.
Oh the excitement of life :)

Anyway, I'll be back....