Blurry eyed

I've got an art and craft fair today at West Bridgford, so have set my alarm clock nice and early, trouble is I'm not used to doing early mornings - I've just gone and put a slice of lemon on my museli, and milk in my hot water - hope the rest of the day gets better!

11.15

11.15 is the question, what is the answer, Is it
(a) the time I got back from the Brinsley wreck.
(b) the amount of plasterboards I got on the walls tonight.
(c) The cost of a Vegetarian curry (inc delivery)
or
(d) the amount of miles that I have just run.

If you ansrewed d then you were correct . I went out for my first run since my massage and was planning to take it easy and not get carried away. Going to the running club has an amazing way of pulling you around a run with out you realising your doing  a faster pace than normal or further milage than you thought you could do. 
So go on join your local running club and find like minded people who can pull your standard of running up and believe me when I say you don't need to be fast to join a club, they cater for as many people as they can.

Colin

If you go down to the woods today....

I've seen quite a few exciting things while I've been out on my runs; foxes, owls, a pot bellied pig called Elvis being taken for a walk, but today we got see a proposal - almost.
My friend and I parked up in Colliers Wood, and was a bit suprised to see a bloke there dressed up very smartly with bow tie and all, and a nearby picnic table was festooned with helium balloons and champagne, and then when we told him that it all looked very exciting, he said that she'd be there in another 10 minutes or so, and he'd know the answer then/
We went off and left them to it and completed a lovely run in the sunshine, and when we got back some two hours later or so, they were enjoying a picnic hamper - aaah .  We gave them a big wave, and then headed back home.

Can You tell what it is yet

I've been working intensely on this piece for the last week; swealtering in my attic workshop with my heat gun, while the sun's been shining brightly outside.  I'm  hoping that it will be good enough to be acceoted for the Derbyshire Open Art Competition, I've not entered a competition since I was at school, so I'm really nervous.  The piece incorporates my silver birches, which I love making so much, and which I think are typical of much of the rural landscape where I live, and as I was keen to emphasise the  Derbyshire feel, I've worked on the weather worn stone wall, but was struggling to think of a name....., then on Friday night, my friend's boy saw it, and was like "wow, is that Drum Hill?"  It turns out that unknown to me I'd created his favourite scout camp, which IS in Derbyshire.  The name then became obvious "Scout to the top"
Its nearly finished now, I just hope Colin has some time to frame it, obviously its not a priority given the state of "The Wreck", so we'll just have to see.....

It would be quicker to build it...

I'm busy trying to create a mixed media landscape picture for submission to the Derbyshire Open Competition - its taken so long to create my 5 bar gate and dry stone wall that it would probably have been quicker to have actually built them.  This afternoon I allowed myself some time off for a run, with the excuse that I was researching viewpoints and thinking about how best to compose my picture.  Its been a lovely day for a plod around the woods, although in places it was much muddier than I anticipated and at one point I did wonder if I should retrace my steps, but decided muddy would be more fun!
The provisional results are out for the hilly 100, and as always Col did much better than he said he had - he actually did his very hilly 10mile stretch in 61minutes 49 secs - its one of the hardest legs of the race, and he was the quickest for team Ilkeston, and thats on the back of hardly any training - whereas I will train and train and wouldn't even be able to pull off a 6minute mile pace for a mile ..... not fair!
Jackie

Hilly 100

I was up at 4am and picking up another willing volunteer to run leg 2 and 3 of the hilly 100 relay around Stratford . It is as it suggests hilly and some of the runners who are making up our team I think are in for a surprise?   Well it was a little misty but not Windy like last year. I was running leg 3 the same as the previous year ,but with not much training under my belt was looking for a time of hopefully under 70 Min's . I actually managed under 72 Min's which is great .Also this year I didn't lose my support team as Mr Sharratt was made to go in the car than try and keep up on his push bike .The other bonus was that he wasn't offering cheese sandwiches on the way round (whats that all about) I now going for a cold bath to revive the legs. 

Colin

Singles night!

I'm feeling very old - a fellow freecycler has just requested some singles from the 70s and 80s because she's a teacher and her class are  going to be doing a project on "that era", and....  I'm guessing that a few of them are going to be thinking "a single what?" .  Me n Col have still got most of our old records - I threw a few away that were a bit embarrassing, and I swapped some for others, and still much regret swapping Blondie's Parallel lines, I can't even remember what for now.....  We re-invested in a record player a few years ago, its funny how records still hold their charm, even though there's the inconvience of having to change sides after only a few tracks, but even though most of my favourite stuff was on cassette, it doesn't hold the same magic....It seems a shame that we live in such a disposable era, most young people growing up today, won't even have a collection of CDs, even people of my age group seem to have chucked out their records for cds, and chucked out their cds for ipods.....  We live in an era where we know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

nearly there.

The thistle design is progressing - I've substituted wool for threads and I think it looks a lot more tactile - its been interesting to see, how even in a few days, the design has progressed from a clunky somewhat childish dandilion to quite a textured thistle - the basic idea is the same, but its much more pleasing to the eye.  I've only recently started sharing my ideas that don't quite work out or go wrong in some way.  We all make mistakes and backtrack at times, whether its in something like this or something completely different, after all if it was so easy to get things right straight away, I think it would hold less value to us.....

scarey news!

Very pleased to find out that Treehuggery has been selected to have a stall at the West Hallam Well Dressing and Art Market on the 14th July - the atmosphere there is fantastic, the well dressings are beautiful, there is a really big scarecrow trail, and the sun always seems to shine.  There's a lot of things coming up for Treehuggery at the moment - its exciting, and all a bit scarey too!

Inspiring

Col dropped me off at Bramcote this morning so that I could run from there to home - listening to the radio on the way there, I really liked the Sunday morning quote "don't follow the path that everybody else takes, take a new route and leave a trail"  - obviously not a quote to take literally while running - not only would I get lost and probably be trespassing, but also the countryside would be destroyed by everybody's selfishness. but literalness to one side, I think its really inspiring.  It was well worth getting up early for my run too, as well as my usual friends of rabbits and squirrels, I had the rare an unexpected pleasure of seeing a fox.
Inspired by a lovely sunny morning, there's been far too few recently, I came home and carried on with the thistle idea, there's still room for improvement, but here's the first attempt

If at first you don't succeed.... change the colour

Try as I might I cant stop my dandilions being a: too clunky and b. looking more like thistles.... In desperation to doing something productive, I've just decided to go with it, and see what my dandilions look like if i change the colour to purple - If only all of my problems were solved by having a bit more purple in my life....

work in progress....

Cols still plasterboarding at the wreck, but at least the house feels like its moving forwards, and that things are finally starting to be put in rather than being taking out.  After dyeing with dandilions i felt inspired to work on a dandilion piece  - they dandilions still need some work on them yet, they're still a bit too clunky and I want them to be more delicate..... I made the bizarre choice of using rhubarb leaves to get the green colour - rather than dandilion leaves - no idea why.....  I'm going to work on this a bit more so that they more pleasing to the eye,

Rhubarb Rhubarb

I'm dyeing with rhubarb leaves and stalks, and then using the rhubarb to make crumble and vodka (although not together).  Apparently you should be able to dye with the roots too, although that leaves me with a moral dilemma - digging up the roots means less rhubarb next year, but we wont be living here next year, we'll be in the brinsley wreck - still it seems such a waste to kill something off just for a bit of dye, and I just can't allow myself to do it .....can I.  (Seeing as I couldn't even kill one of the harlequin ladybirds that found its way into our house - they kill our native ladybirds - I passed on the dilemma to Col, who had less qualms than me, its unlikely that I'd be able to sleep at night if i destroyed some rhubarb just for the sake of some colour in my life!)

Jackie 

Burbage skyline

Went to the peak last night to do the Burbage skyline. I know the area from rock climbing but not as a running area.  I'm still getting into fell running and don't let myself go enough down hills. Uphill I'm fine with and this is where I make places. I started in the middle of the pack and it was a slow start and then it got going with a few ups and downs and a bit of bog and a couple of streams to contend with I managed a time of 48.30 and a position of 77th out of  379. I'm happy with that as I'm still getting going after a break from running with doing up the Brinsley wreck.

Colin

Feel like running again

After months of us both struggling to run - Col not enough time cos of working on the Brinsley wreck, and me just feeling demotivated, we're both quite eager again.  I think following the Joggle (a 14 day running even from John O Groats to Lands End has inspired me again.
We went for a lovely run together on Sunday following the Nottingham's Big wheel which is a circular route of  footpaths along the River Trent and Nottingham and Beeston Canal. It was lovely and sunny, and despite me thinking I'd struggle with 10 miles - I haven't run more than 8 miles for months - it was enjoyable and easier than I'd expected.  Tonight Col has gone for a fell run (more later) and I did another 10 miles along the local canals -again it was a lovely day, and I saw the first of the years signets and baby coots, and it reminded me of why I love running..
After not wanting to race for the last couple of years, I'm even toying with the idea of entering a summer or autumn half  .....

So much to do, so little time

Col is overboarding the ceilings at the Brinsley wreck - not easy on his own, he's devised a prop system which is slightly better to use than holding up the boards with his head.....  We managed to find time to go for a run on Sunday morning - and I was quite pleased to find that 10miles is still quite do-able, so hopefully I'll start up-ing my speed and mileage again soon, I've spent too many months just plodding - although that might be something to do with my choice of footwear - I realised on Sunday that I've been wearing odd running shoes - the same make, but slightly different style - doh!
I'm also trying to work my way through some of my stocks of fabric - theres a lot of stuff that I've been given which isn't thin/fine enough for my style, but incorporated into patchwork, its a good use of it, - if I can get some double quilts from the charity shop/freecycle I'll have a good (and cheap) backing

Video hasn't killed the radio star

It's been a good day today, after taking delivery of 100 cushion inners (I don't know where they're going to go), me and my running buddy embraced the wet windy weather by going for a muddy run in spikes.
After that it was time to crack on with treehuggery with the radio tuned into Radcliffe and Maconie on 6 music.  I always enjoy the challenge of trying for a shout out, so when they asked for rules and regulations,I couldn't resist emailing in to tell them about the pharmacy shop where I'm working part time to make ends meet - the first rule of the pharmacy shop is, in fight club style, not to talk about the pharmacy shop, and then the second rule is "you work here, enjoy it"  - call me childish but I never think that enjoyment can be commanded and subsequently I'm determined not to, and am currently awaiting to see what  the punishment might entail....  Later on in the show the teatime themetime was from my hometown, and now I'm listening to Steve Lamacque who has just played the tune with the daftest lyrics "Tonight there's going to be a jailbreak, somewhere in this town", and someone else has just emailed in to share the same bemusement.  I love radio, in a world where everything tries to be so interactive, radio just does it naturally.