Coniston Triathlon

On Saturday night my son and I camped out in our car at Coniston so that we were able to be in place for volunteering at 6 AM! We went to sleep with the Old Man watching over us:

I was up at 5 and made myself a coffee before waking my son and heading down to the event organised by Epic Events. It was so peaceful and tranquil in the early morning light:

Our first job was car parking and we made a great team ensuring that everyone could park safely and get their bikes off their cars:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Summer time #R2BC

A slightly delayed reasons to be cheerful as with the heat I've been too shattered to blog after work and after school activities! I am writing this sitting in the garden whilst there is still some shade and letting the paddling pool warm up a bit for a dip later... Hopefully the warm weather is a reason for everyone to have something cheerful to share with us all this week.  Any how here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:
1) Last Primary Sports' Day
It was my son's last ever Primary Sports' Day so I made sure I was there having not been to one since he was in Year 2! I was right on the front row to watch him in action. He came away with one 2nd place for the team obstacle relay and his house was 2nd overall so it was a good result:

2) Sunrise over Coniston Water
We were on the shores of Coniston Water at 5:45 AM on Sunday and the reward was such a beautiful tail end of the sun rise:

3) Volunteering

We were there because we were volunteers at the Triathlon. First of all we did car parking and then my son gave out medals whilst I helped with tags and marshalled at the last gate:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Blooming Lovely #R2BC

A slightly later than normal Reasons to be Cheerful but at least its on the right day! Plenty of reasons for me to be cheerful and I hope that you have plenty to join in with too. Please link in and share the linky love.
1) Going greener
I am trying to be more eco friendly so I have bought some Soap Nut Shells for the laundry. They definitely take the smell out of our clothes and they seem to be clean. So that's one little bit to reduce my plastic usage and the amount of chemicals I put into the environment:

2) Blooming lovely

My roses are at their peak at the moment and looking stunning:

Having family help to trim the hedge and give the grass a proper cutting has improved the rest of the garden too:

3) Lunch with my girl

FRA Juniors Clougha Pike and Quernmore Sports

This Saturday saw the penultimate fell race of the FRA Junior Championships at Clougha Pike as part of Quernmore Sports. This wasn't too far from Lancaster in the Trough of Bowland so relatively local to us. 

The first group to tackle their course were the under 9's who had to complete one lap of the field:

Then it was the under 11's who had to do a bigger lap of the next field as well as the first climb:

For the under 13's, such as my son, had a longer course than normal with 3 km. This meant two big laps at the top which was tough on the younger ones:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Cumbrian Edition #R2BC

I am writing this on the coldest day we have had for weeks in Cumbria! A brief hiatus in our hot spell that seems to have lasted for ages... Hoping that the warm weather has made many more reasons to be cheerful and that lots of you will join in this week... Here are my Cumbrian reasons to be cheerful:
1) Proud Mum
My son did his last school fun run as he is in year 6. Luckily I was there to support the event and could capture him on his way to 20 laps which equated to 10 km in 1 hour!

2) Keswick Mountain Festival

I got to spend my weekend soaking up the festival whilst volunteering in this stunning setting. Two blogposts about it already with more to come!

3) Record Breakers

Whilst in Keswick I was able to witness and record teams from Helm Hill completing the Billy Bland challenge of running the Bob Graham round in a pairs relay. Both the men's and mixed teams beat the existing records and the ladies weren't too far off:

Keswick Mountain Festival Junior 5 km

On the weekend 9th and 10th June I attended Keswick Mountain Festival as a volunteer. Before I had any tasks I watched the Junior 5 km trail run as they raced from Crow Park. Here are my photographs:

This was before the fabulous music concert I blogged about from the Saturday night.

Keswick Mountain Festival Music on Saturday

I was volunteering at Keswick Mountain Festival this weekend and one of the perks was access into the music. This gives you a taste of The Farm and Melanie C plus the atmosphere and stunning location. Can you spot the man on his stag do?:

Chateau and Velo Rail at Commequiers

One of days out was to the Velo Rail at Commequiers. We first discovered the joys of the Cycle Trains when staying in Seine et Marne in 2013 and so were keen to have another go now that my son was tall enough to pedal! 

We allowed time to picnic on the way having pre-booked for 2 pm (be warned its very popular so you have to reserve...). So we hunted down the Chateau Commequiers:

Unfortunately due its state of disrepair the castle has been closed for access since 2014 and they are raising funds to rescue it. They still use the grounds for a medieval spectacular in August:

Hidden in the woods we discovered a children's play area:

Reasons to be Cheerful A French Holiday #R2BC

Its June already - nearly half the year gone - so the hosting baton passes back to me from Michelle. She and I have both just returned from France so I am sure we will have similar reasons to be cheerful! I hope people will find plenty of things that have made them smile over the past week and can link up and visit each other. I will comment and share all the posts that join in.... 
Meanwhile here are my French reasons to be cheerful:
French food 
I love French food and had a chance to sample from yummy desserts and gallettes whilst staying in France:

Beautiful Beaches

I have already mentioned the beautiful beaches we visited at Les Mouettes and Noirmoutier. The Vendee coast is mostly unspoilt and so clean:

Chateaux

Some chateaux we only saw from the autoroute but we did get close to a few although Commequiers chateau is in danger of falling down:

St Jean de Monts - Panoramic Wheel

On our way back from Noirmoutier we stopped in St Jean de Monts for an ice cream. As we parked up we spotted the panoramic wheel:

Now as a family that is scared of heights some of us are mad enough to confront those fears when it comes to giant wheels! My son has now grown up enough that he will do things that scare him:

This was a video I made as we went up to the top of the wheel:

#CountryKids Ile de Noirmoutier

On the second day of our stay the adults voted for an exploration day by driving up the coast to the Ile de Noirmoutier. The island can be accessed by 2 methods in a car. Traditionally the only way was to cross on the tidal road at low tide (unfortunately we had the wrong year's tide table so missed our chance!). Instead we had to cross over on the modern bridge which is one of those wonderful bits of French construction:

The island is a thriving salt producing area and we drove past many of the salt fields:

As its low season for tourism we found it easy to park up in the market place and it was only 50C for 3 hours parking! Then we wandered down along the harbour to look around:

#CountryKids on the beach at Les Mouettes, Vendee

It's been all quiet on the blog as we have been in France enjoying the camping break I had partly won from Canvas Holidays. On our first full day at the site it was extremely hot and sunny so we headed down to the beach (it turned out to be a longer walk than advertised!). It was almost deserted as was not French holiday season:

My son lost no time in heading down to the waves whilst the adults set up base:

It was so peaceful and quiet as well as being very clean. I suspect that in August it is packed out with holiday makers:

My son soon started work on building a marble run to see if we could make videos like some of the ones he has been enjoying watching on YouTube: