Something creative that is! Here’s just a few snaps, can’t stay long - should be getting on with it… Will be back later on though, I’ve got more running rambles to tell you about!
This one's all about the squares
And a bit of colour
And is being basted ready for some hand quilting :)
I’m more than just happy, I am BEAMING, positively glowing, flushed, filled with joie de vivre!! Over enthusiastic? Ha, nooo! Fellow blogger and reader Jo Avery of Bearpaw has given me the above Beautiful Blogger Award. It’s probably the nicest thing that’s happened to me in blogland since I started this blog, oooh sometime ago - well apart from your generous comments of course. What a lovely, lovely totally unexpected thing to receive, thank you so much Jo! And the great thing is that now it’s my turn to nominate 7 other bloggers for the award - I hope it makes them as happy as it’s made me 
Naturally, to accept the award there are a few rules:
Link to the person who nominated you. Jo’s lovely crafty blog is over at Bearpaw, click on the image link below
Errrrm! Well, this blog is where I tend to let it all hang out, so I wonder if there’s anything left to say?! Let me know if you’ve heard any of these before and I’ll see if I can come up with something else!
So, did you learn anything new?!!! Let me know
These are all blogs by women? ‘Twas a mere coincidence I tell thee. But it IS International Women’s Day, so really rather fitting. And ’tis no mere coincidence that they are all really rather deserving of the title ‘Beautiful Blogger‘. Go see! And thanks again Jo :).
PS. This list reminds me I really must update my links on the right - if any of the lovely blogs above aren’t already there I do apologise and will redress asap - in daylight hours!
Well, back on the drawing thing again. Several people, no not just the one, have suggested that I make myself look like my grandmother in my drawings. I take that to mean that I make myself look 30 years older, whereas in reality I’m told I look ten years younger (It’s true!). I’ve thought about this and wondered why. I try to draw what I feel like, rather than what I look like, so maybe I feel two generations older? Er, no, I definitely don’t feel like I belong to my mother’s mother’s generation. Maybe it’s just what the depression looks like. Not good. Anyway, I decided to take some photos as I worked on a drawing, to see if there was any point in particular I become ‘old’! I think maybe I just start that way - what do you think?
Just before I started drawing - really do I look that old?!
Stage 1, just scribbling to get a feel for the paper
Stage 2, not looking too old yet?
Stage 3, er no...
Stage 4? Seriously, get rid of it
Stage 5, try again - getting older yet?
Stage 6 - obliterate it (and me) completely
Stage 7 - getting older...
Stage 8, oh god just look at it
Stage 9? Right that's it, I'm bored with this now. It didn't go the way I wanted; it went lots of different ways, none of them the right way. Meh. Trying hard to suppress urges to bin this one.
Just before I started drawing - really do I look that old?!
Any resemblance between the last drawing and the photo then, I don’t know! Does it matter if I look 50 years older in the drawing? You can of course leave me your honest comments!
Hap, hap, happy birthday to you!!
Not me obviously, if only I was 12 again. Well, no actually forget that and switch the 1 and the 2 around - that’d be okay (well, erm, probably!). It was 12 years ago today that I had a caesarean section and my one and only child came rudely into this world. This time every year I have a little ritual that I go through: I take out an album filled with ephemera from the time of his birth and remind myself of the agony and the ecstasy!
Kim's first ever wash - he hasn't had too many since! He was 8 pounds 4 and 1/4 ounces :)
I've kept scan images from 12 weeks gestation;
records of my pregnancy made by my midwife Tina,
even details of what I had to eat during my stay in hospital!
Which brings me neatly on to what we'll be eating later today! Mmmmm. want some?!
Happy birthday Kim, my beautiful boy, I love you! xxxx
Yesterday was meant to be an easy run, but once I got started I couldn’t stop. I’m going to have to get one of those measuring things that go on your chest (or wherever!) because I don’t actually know exactly how far I go! I know one particular road stretch is 1.5 miles because I’ve checked on my car’s mileometer; I know one of the cliff paths I take is 1.5 miles, ‘cos there’s a sign that says so at the beginning, but anywhere else I go is a bit of a guess, a bit of a comparison to the other routes I mentioned. Not very scientific, but hey I’ve never claimed to be a scientist! Hm, just thought I’d have a look at one of those map sites and this one’s pretty good, according to this yesterday’s run was roughly 4.5 - 5 miles; not bad! I ran solidly for about 3 miles and then jogged/walked the rest. I’ll call that ‘interval training’. You can call it what you like!
This bridle-path was on my last stretch home
When I finally got back I kicked off my trainers and fell asleep!
Well now, this was a killer, but oh so worth the rewards. My limbs were a bit achey from Tuesday’s foray into road running, but I ignored that inconvenient truth and headed for the rocky cliffs of the north Cornwall coast in the UK. The wind was blowing an arctic gale that morning but I felt determined to brave the elements and push myself a bit. I donned my sensible running clothes (see last 2 posts!), hat and ipod and off I went.
The first part of this 3m run is up a fairly steep cliff
I made it 1.5m to Porthtowan, but I have to admit some of the very steep parts of the cliff path became a real slog and I had to walk up those! I cursed my aching limbs. At this point I did a (planned) u-turn and ran back.
I keep forgetting to stretch after a run, so I decided to go down to Chapel Porth beach and do some stretching there, before getting in the car and heading back home (3m or so). That cliff is the first (and last) part of the run, you can see how steep it is!
But I was distracted by something that had been washed up on the beach.
It had a surreal beauty that I found completely fascinating.
I poked and prodded it
I smelt it
I inspected it
I marvelled at the structure of it
I stared in awe at the scale of it
I wished I could take something home of it.
This beautiful fin whale, 2nd largest mammal on earth, washed up on my local shore, was a wonder I would never expect to surpass on any other run.
I took a day off from running yesterday, not intentional I just kind of run out of time, but I went for a good walk, which compensated a bit. My plans for today are another road run, around 3 miles or so. Taking it easy at the moment, edging myself back into it before any serious training regimes are thought about…
Tuesday's sensible running clothes were a bit of a boon!
All this running, it’s a great distraction. Maybe its just a distraction. Whatever, Tuesday’s run was different. On Sunday there were a good number of steep hills, on Tuesday it was relatively flat which meant I could easily keep up a regular pace and an even, normal-coloured, facial skin tone. This was a blessing because I was road running early in the morning. It meant I could flash a smile at cute drivers, as they waited for me to pass on the single track road, without looking like I was waving them down for a medical emergency I might be having. Hmmm *slips into daydream*. Note to self: remember particularly cute passenger who gave a full on smile, and run along same road at same time tomorrow 
I ran down the long the road until I came to a footpath that crosses the fields to Chacewater, where I couldn’t help but slow down to take in the view. I mean you have to, it’s obligatory. What’s the point in running otherwise? Take a look for yourself and you’ll see what I mean.
I love this view, but I don't know why - I just keep going back to it!
Daffodil fields fall away into the misty distance
An old water trough and wonderful morning colours
with plenty of time to run around the grass, being a plane!
When I got home I felt so energised I even had enough beans to bounce around the kitchen to The Supremes! Then I had a shower. Yes. A shower.
Not my favourite running garb!
Yes, I’m still keeping up with the running thing, though it’s been a bit sporadic this last week. The motivation to move can be so difficult sometimes, nigh on impossible when you’re feeling down. I was lucky for a while because I had a good friend to motivate me. I’d never been running with anyone before, but it’s so true that it’s easier when you’ve got company. You could talk about the birdsong, or your heart-rate, or your love-life or a possible half-marathon while you tick off the minutes or the miles. But, my friend’s suddenly got a lot of difficult stuff to deal with, and understandably her thoughts are elsewhere at the mo. So the motivation is totally back in my court. Oh dear. I think I need to get a plan together, a training programme. Maybe that would help, goals and progress, all that stuff. But really, can I be arsed?
I’ve run on Sunday and Tuesday this week, and today too, so far. Actually not far in any case, but the running has been more consistent with less ‘walking’ in between. I don’t know if I should really call what I do running. It’s probably more of jog. Thing is, I have stamina and know I can build it up to ‘run’ for a long time, but try and sprint or run at any kind of speed and that’s it, I’ve had it. I’ve got another friend who’s planning to run the Boston marathon later in the year, he seems to have a full on training programme worked out. He’s even keeping a blog about it! At the moment he’s running round and round a cemetery in LA. Think I’d probably end up in it earlier than I was meant to Still, thinking about Jon and his cemetery reminded me that I’ve often run to a cemetery myself in the past. It’s a tiny little churchyard in a village called Mylor. And it’s where I ran to on Sunday.
Sunday was a bit of an impromptu effort. I’d taken Kim over to his dad’s and when I got there and my usual pancakes weren’t on the table (slack service or what!), I thought I’d leave Paul to his cooking and go for a walk down to the church and the harbour. It was a beautiful morning. And once I was outside, I thought I’d run instead of walk. Sounds ok, but take a look at the picture above: that’s what I was wearing!
Not pretty, but you have to understand that being in Paul’s house is akin to being in a fridge, and when you go there you get dressed up for the occasion: trousers, t-shirt, long-sleeved dress, jumper, winter coat and scarf. And trainers. And you don’t take your coat and scarf off the whole time you’re there. I thought a bit of a run might warm me up. I got that right. Good god, now I know exactly what’s meant about running with extra weight - it was so HARD! Normally I’d fly along the creek to the churchyard, but on Sunday I was labouring along getting redder and redder and wondering if I might need a coffin by the time I got there. It was an absolute killer. Normally I’d have just kept running, but that day I had to take a break at the churchyard. It was a long break - at least half an hour if not more. It made me realise that it would make life even easier if I got rid of the extra weight I’ve been piling on over the last few months as well. Now, there’s a goal forming in my head, but I’ll tell you about that later, probably. First, I want to show you some of the stuff I found in the churchyard during my much needed rest. Some of it seemed so bizarre!
This is Mylor Church, picturesque isn't it, with the sea as a backdrop?
The white building on the right is the separate bell tower!
I was lucky enough to see my first primroses :)
and a bright patch of snowdrops.
I wonder if you can you guess what this might be? Beautiful isn't it? It's a cone, from a monkey puzzle tree!
And what's this, Rosa fabricus?! Not the right time of year for roses surely?
Or maybe it is...
Oh and the birds!
Well, they weren't as 'cheep' as some of the memorial flowers!
But just look at this! How perfect is this with it's rusty colour and cobwebs - just what you'd hope to find in a grave yard! I wonder what's inside...
After my rest I ran back to Paul’s where the smell of pancakes was divine. “Where’ve you been” he said, “they’ve been ready half an hour.”
Get the latest news from Narrative Self delivered for free to your reader or your inbox:
RSS Feed Email Updates Twitter
Tweet, tweet - follow me here!
