A real mix of a day!

It's been a fun day today. I started with enjoying the early morning light from my kitchen whilst persuading my children that one of them had to feed the guinea pigs:

After a day discussing the teaching of reading and phonics plus how to write Masters level essays it was a nice surprise to find owls at our local Pets at Home:

Workout Wednesday: back out running

It's been such a busy time I hadn't been able to run since the Herdwick 10km so it was a relief to hit the tarmac on Monday. I did my lovely cross country run from Staveley to Kendal and enjoyed just being out for a run and not on a training programme! The river was very low at Barley Weir as I started my warm up walk:

The back lane was very inviting and one day I will go for a run all the way down it to Bowston..

There was no pressure on me and I didn't push myself too hard.  I went off at a good enough pace and managed to run up my old nemesis hill though I did let myself take a short recovery walk at the top. By the time I got to Burneside I had done the route in my 3rd fastest time to day - go me. It was nice to get to the stile on the field and know that I had got to the end of the run:

It was a pretty reasonable distance after a break:

And the race results are finally in and I was 131st with 18 people after me including several younger runners!

#CountryKids at Staveley Carnival 2014

This weekend was the biannual Staveley Carnival. The carnival celebrates creativity and reclaiming the streets from motorised vehicles. After weeks of preparation the day turned out to be hot and sunny as we arrived at the recreation ground which was full of 1000s of people there to celebrate and enjoy the atmosphere. 

With a tight budget after the weekend before my children were told to choose their one fairground ride with care. They both opted for the tiger inflatable and had a lot of fun for the 5 minutes allowed:

Into the tiger's mouth

Leaping through the ring

It was an energetic 5 minute and I think they chose wisely in the use of the money! Then it was time to take up position to watch the carnival parade which loops its way through the village. It first of all heads over the river Gowan:

#CountryKids After school tea in the park

It's been another stunning sunny day up here in Cumbria and when I got in the car after work it had an unbelievable number on the temperature gauge:

So I went home, grabbed my shorts and a picnic rug before collecting the kids from school. We bought a take out from the chippy and headed for the river in Staveley park. Once we had eaten the children didn't take long before getting in the water. Apparently it was still rather cold in there!

Meanwhile I laid down and enjoyed my Kindle with a lovely view:

Eventually they grew tired of the water and headed back to the playground on the other side of the park. It was lovely watching them help each other on the basket swing:

What a lovely relaxing way to round of our week and get us in the mood for the carnival on Sunday:

#Juneathon day 24 - a walk up and run down Craggy

You know I said today was a rest day? Well I decided to make most of an hour of freedom this evening to attempt a run up and around one of the hills in Staveley. The evening was cool but dry so an opportunity not to miss:

River Kent, Staveley

It's not a long way but boy is it quite a climb as it includes 98 m of ascent over 1.5 km which Strava reckons is category 4 climb! I have to admit that I walked more of this ascent than running it.. but I still was a little faster than my last attempt a year ago and apparently I'm the fastest female on Strava... It's a lovely walk if you don't fancy running it:

Nearly at the top

#Juneathon 16 A long country run and a few short walks

It is perfect timing to have Juneathon to encourage me whilst I am working my way to 10k running fitness! Really helps to get me out there and working on my stamina. Monday's are my country run day when I leave my car near the children's school and make the most of the just over 5 miles back to our house!

I start off with a nice warm up walk over Barley Weir bridge in Staveley:

With a lack of rain the water levels are pretty low but you can see why they built mills along the River Kent throughout the village:

#CountryKids a sunny afternoon in the park

With the unreliability of the British summer we have to grab all the outdoor opportunities we can! So yesterday being so hot we went straight from after school club to the park, only nipping into the Spar to buy ice creams on the way.

At first the children were content in the play area whilst I read a book. Then the river lured them across the recreation ground:

Staveley recreation ground

Luckily there is a convenient bench for a grown up to relax on whilst the children enjoyed the shallow waters. They lasted an amazingly long time in water that gave them goosebumps:

The only thing to be done was run back across the grass to warm up and dry off:

Barefoot on the grass

They both needed some more play time in the park before they finally let me take them home for tea at 7PM! Let's hope we get more post school play times like this, think I need to carry towels and spare clothes in the car just in case...

Workout Wednesday: February 12th 2014 A Walk/Run around Craggy

So relieved I've finally had a workout after my hamstring injury. It was so frustrating having to wait for my leg to be up to up to exercise... Therefore I donned my running kit and after fuelling up on flapjack at the coffee morning I set off to do a long warm up around Craggy. It was beautiful as I crossed over Barley Bridge:

It's a good climb up the hill on the road so it was a good place to test out my leg without over doing it. I was very lucky that the sun was shining when I got to the top:

A beautiful day in south Cumbria

A frosty start

sheep grazing in morning sun

a tranquil River Kent

our mighty oak now leafless

Kendal parish church stained glass

Kendal parish church stained glass

#WordlessWednesday Frosty Day

#CountryKids Snatching our outdoor moments

A combination of clock changes, wet weather and illness has curtailed our outdoor adventures over the last week or so. I am really missing being out in the fresh air with the children... Today I managed to squeeze in a few minutes with a walk through the village to school.

There weren't time to take photos but we managed to park up and walk the last 1/2 mile to school and still get there in plenty of time. The lucky thing is that the village is lovely safe place to walk to school in and we can do it whatever the weather:

In fact walking to school in the snow is the only option as my car can't get anywhere up the lane to school. It looks magically when it is completely white:

I just hope that we can have some proper outdoor adventures in the coming week and not just make do with a quick walk to school! How do you keep your children outdoors at this time of year when things aren't so easy?

#CountryKids in the River Kent

With the end of term approaching there weren't going to be many opportunities for after school swimming in the river at Staveley so on Tuesday I made sure that the children's swimming things were in the car. It was another hot day so they were very pleased to get in and cool off:

There a couple of tempting rope swings that others have put above the river:

My son hasn't yet had the confidence to have a proper go:

Big sister has no such fear:

He did get brave enough to get this far into the water:

Big sister went further and actually swam:

We are very lucky to have a safe swimming spot that the children can use in hot weather under adult supervision. There are plenty of stories in the news about people dying when swimming in unsafe places but hopefully my children know to watch out for warning signs.

Reasons to be Cheerful Week 26: Midsummer Edition

Whilst Michelle has found plenty of reasons to be cheerful I am celebrating midsummer with my own! Well not sure it is summer as once again it rained today but here we go:
1) Beautiful Buildings
We live in an area with lots of beautiful buildings such as St James' Church in Staveley. It always lifts my spirits to see the church especially when the sun is shining:

2) My Big Boy

It was lovely watching my son playing at his Little Kickers football class this week. They are now playing mini matches and it looks like proper football and not just ball skills:

When autumn comes we will have to look at getting him into a proper football club!
3) My daughter
She seems to be more even tempered at the moment and its been delightful watching her playing outside with other children. Let's hope the summer brings more of the same. Meanwhile here she is enjoying the view over Windermere:

I am sure there are many more reasons that I am smiling but I'll stick with those! Why is everyone else cheerful this week: