Workout Wednesday - Hitting my stride

I thought that Sunday's little effort with my son was going to be the only run this week with it being half term. It as never going to break any records:

Today my dad had offered to have the children for an hour then promptly went out leaving my mum to have them! It seemed like freedom gave me wings as I was very surprised that my Garmin kept telling me I was going under 6 minutes per kilometre to start with. Needless to say I couldn't keep this up but it was my fastest run for a long time:

Strava had a wobbly over a run I recorded via iPhone a while back so this was actually my fastest mile and 2nd fastest kilometre! I just have to hope that I can replicate these times and improve on them next week.

Reasons to be Cheerful Week 21- 2014 #R2BC

My last week a host as its back to the lovely Jo for June. Thanks everyone for joining in this month and I will see you back here in July! Here are the things that made me cheerful this week:

1) School Holidays

We are all off for the week, no alarms, school runs... bliss. It makes such a difference being able to do things at our own pace. Popping into town if we want to or just chilling at home. We haven't as yet even left Kendal its been so laid back:

2) Running with my son

It's hard for me to train for running when the children are at home. This week I took my son on a nearly 5 km run in preparation for our 5.7 km event in 2 weeks time. He did well once he had drunk all the water and got his energy levels up! I reckon he will complete the race and we should still be faster than I was last year:

3) Enjoying the garden

After all my work on Monday we have been making the most of the good weather to be in as much as possible. This was children enjoying a boogie to Steeleye Span on Monday night:

Hope that made you smile! Please join in and share your happy things with us:


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#CountryKids Dens in the garden

We were very lucky again today and had another dry day, not as hot as yesterday but good enough to spend a large chunk in the garden. There was a scary moment early on when we discovered that the new guinea pig run wasn't completely cat proof:

Luckily just one freaked out cat and two not too sure guinea pigs! My daughter had to climb in to get the cat out... Think we need to work on a more secure compound...

Then my daughter started asking about constructing a den in the garden requiring purchasing new bits. She wasn't too happy when I said she had a perfectly good den kit and kept on insisting on building something more like a mini shed. I wasn't for heading down to a DIY store so instead I got out the camouflage tarpaulin and rope that my son got for Christmas: 

I looped the rope between a tree and a fence post and borrowed pegs from other tents. Then we put the picnic rug inside to make him a sun shelter:

His kit is one that can easily be put up and down anywhere and it turned out to be a great spot to eat meatballs and spaghetti:

Let's hope it gets a lot more use this summer with plenty of dry days. Not sure its a place to sleep out in though...

Tackling the Garden

Every year I pledge to get on top of the garden and every year I fail miserably! For one thing we have had so much rain that its too boggy to walk on for months on end so the weeds just multiply. For another I am so not green fingered which is why I do so well at weeds...

Today my dad was coming round to cat proof the big guinea pig run and I was looked out of the window I knew that I had do something about the weeds:

It's not all doom and gloom as I seem to do well at keeping the roses I inherited alive and they open at different times. At the moment it is the purple roses turn:

Whilst my daughter helped gramps with the chicken wire I pulled up most of the weeds down this side of the garden. It was much improved:

#SilentSunday

#CountryKids Meeting Owls

Today we walked into town as it didn't seem to be as wet as forecast:

All set for a walk

Suddenly my tween daughter has started being fashion conscious and carefully chose her wardrobe for a trip to the shops!

When we got into town we had a surprise encounter with Oscar:

He and his friends live at the Owl Sanctuary and are regular visitors to Elephant Yard in Kendal where people can learn more about these beautiful creatures. My daughter was keen to have a hold of this little beauty Star:

Of course I wasn't allowed to get away without getting up close to Oscar! I have to say when he flaps his wings its a wee bit scary.. luckily his claws were safely on the far side of a leather glove:

On this occasion my son declined to have a hold. He has been braver in the past though! 

Flower Friday

It's Friday so here are this week's flower photos:

Reasons to be Cheerful Week 20 - 2014 #R2BC

A dozen lovely bloggers joining in last week thanks everyone! Hope it makes you smile to read about all the the things that are making other people smile? There is definitely something contagious about happiness. Here are the things that made me cheerful this week:

1) A Movie Gala 

We all had an amazing time at the Postman Pat gala performance on Saturday. Not quite Hollywood glamour but it was an amazing experience:

Being interviewed by the BBC!

2) Sunshine

We have had to dig out the sun tan cream and hats this week! A taste of what summer could be like?

3) Celebrations

Its always great news when friends get engaged and we have a chance to celebrate:

Keeping it short this week as spent much of Wednesday night at casualty with my daughter who luckily hadn't broken her leg before being a bridesmaid! Why are you smiling?

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Workout Wednesday - Hot stuff!

I need to get used to the warmth again as running in the sun is extra hard I am sure that it must burn so many more calories! A good week for running with the training programme really pushing me but not over extending me. 

I broke my record on my countryside run from Plantation Bridge to Burneside:

That run took me to over 40 km of running in May! Then I had to up my game and run 25 minute non stop (well I sort of did as I only got half way up my nemesis hill..):

Today was thankfully cooler and I ran around Kendal on my town loop:

So I am feeling quite pleased with myself! Not only is my stamina coming back but my overall speed is slowly increasing too - not yet repeated the under 6 minutes per km I managed for part of my last race but I am sure I will get there.... eventually..

#CountryKids Helping in the garden

On Sunday we were round at my parents' house and my children helped to clear up the grass cuttings from a fortnight's lawn growth! Its one of those simple yet hard little jobs that they seem to enjoy and it all helps to get the grass clear quicker. Although my daughter seemed to think that creating a nest with the cuttings and having a snooze in the sun is part of the plan:

So little brother took over and manfully brushed the cuttings off the grass onto the path for granny to put in the compost bin:

Then he was lifted into the compost bin to trample it all down as the bin was rather full. It made for a cosy little nest:

And he could pretend to hide in the bin:

As he was being supervised too he had a chance to see what it was like inside the bin with the lid closed!

What jobs in the garden do your children help with?

#SilentSunday

Postman Pat The Movie - Kendal Premiere

My children's school was invited to take members of their film club along to the Kendal Premiere of Postman Pat: The Movie today. The author of the stories wrote them whilst living in Kendal and based them on the surrounding area so Kendal was chosen as the second place in the world to have the movie on screen after London! We donned our glad rags and headed on down to the Brewery Arts Centre to soak up the sun and the gala atmosphere.

One of the most fun bits was a chance for people to pose with Postman Pat himself (I wasn't the only adult!):

There were TV crews, photographers and journalists there to capture the event and to take opinions from the crowd. My daughter ratched up several interviews. First of all from BBC North West (we saw this one tonight!):

Then ITV Borders/Granada:

Flower Friday

Time for a return to my occasional Flower Friday photo series!

Reasons to be Cheerful Week 20 - 2014 #R2BC

So pleased to see even more lovely bloggers joining in last week! It makes me smile to read about all the the things that are making other people smile. There is definitely something contagious about happiness. Here are the things that made me cheerful this week:

1) Weekend away

We had a super time camping in Derbyshire at the weekend. There were so many smily moments like this:

I've already written about what we got up to on the Heights of Abraham and in Buxton. Camping for us is definitely a reason to smile even if the weather was horrendous!

2) Blue Skies

We briefly had some blue sky yesterday morning:

and today was almost wall to wall blue sky which enabled us to have a picnic tea in the park! Definitely smiles all round there.

3) Running

Today I achieved my longest ever workout of just over 11km including walking intervals with a total of 9km of running. Makes me feel that I am really getting back on form

What is making you smile this week? Post your links and grab the badge if you would like:



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#CountryKids Poole's Cavern and Buxton Country Park

On our drive back north from Ashbourne we stopped in Buxton at Poole's Cavern. This is one of Derbyshire's show caverns as it contains stalactites and stalagmites. When we went there when my daughter was a toddler she impressed us all by pronouncing these properly! This time both of mine were old enough to appreciate the cavern:

Amazing looking calcite formation

The river was high enough that a whirlpool formed