cute goats and illiterate horses.

We had another downfall of snow last night, which left everywhere looking beautiful; seeing as it's already starting to melt and rain is on its way, we decided to make the most of the winter wonderland on our doorstep, and took the cameras and went for a short walk over the fields.
We had thought of going over to the second hand record shop, but as we did a short detour past the Brinsley Animal rescue centre, and then decided to make the most of a beautiful snowy and sunny Saturday afternoon.  Hence all of the photos of a very photogenic goat, I couldn't just pick one photo of him!, then later in the walk, the illiterate horses, oh yeah, and some scenery shots, seeing as how I was supposed to be taking photos of the snow!

Long faces

room at the top

heaps of sheeps

why the long face

It was too snowy to do a long run today, so we just did a short run around Brinsley.  To be honest we both thought it would be more scenic than it was, but to be fair the snow has been down for a few days now, andthat said, we still got some cracking views, and were lucky enough to have three horses, all stick their head over the fence and post for a photo - much nicer when they're the other side of the fence

cross country in the snow

Had a reallu good cross country run in the snow yesterday, around Shipley park.  To be honest cross country races can be a bit boring, they have the potential to be fun muddy affairs, but all to often the routes are fairly dull.  Yesterdays though, was great - up and down hill, and then up and down again, and then again through sections that were so steep and so muddy that you had no choice but to walk up, and then good steep down hills where you lose control of your legs and just hope for the best, 2 laps, and then a down hill all the way to the finish line, and so tired at the end, that I even considered being a snow angel.  The weather yesterday was great, beautiful and snowy, and yet lovely and warm, with the winter sun. 

It's not often I'll rave about races, especially cross countrys, but this course set out by Heanor RC was a corker!

Synchronised Kiting

Well we had a treat today, we were just stretching out after a run around Shipley Park, when we noticed about six stunt kites in the field ahead, all sweeping and diving in synchronicity - having tried, unsuccessfully, to do anything other than keep a kite in the air for a few moments, made the actions even more impressive.
And it didnt stop there, later, saying our goodbyes, before going our separate ways, we had a robin come up, really close and stayed there, unbothered by us, for quite a time.
Well worth going for a run on a bitterly cold day

Hunky Dory

Hurrah - David Bowie has a new single out - which is fantastic, not unlike a track you would expect to hear on Heathen or Reality, and even better than that, in the world of media frenzy, he managed to keep it a secret, and release the news when he wanted to, and without all of the hype that most "stars" seem to need.

Textile dyeing has been pretty hunky dory too, I've been using procion dyes on silk - photos soon - and while I struggle with dyeing as an end in itself, I'm pretty pleased with how these samples are looking.
I'm still hankering after buying  a felting/embelishing machine though - and am imagining the possibilites of combining materials with that - hey ho, maybe one day..... for now though, it's been a pretty good day

Its a small world

There must be less than 6 degrees of separation (the number of people we are away from knowing everybody in the world) since the introduction of social networking.  I have an old school friend, who is now living in Australia, Col has never met her, but yesterday, he heard her name being mentioned on Mansfield radio, cos she was unhappy with the way that Liverpool had beat the Stags in the FA cup game.
I've lost count the number of times on Facebook, that I've discovered that 2 of my friends know each other, and I didn't have a clue.
The world was proved even smaller later in the afternoon, when one of my friends facebooked me, cos she'd heard that I'd had a smurf like shout out on radio 6 - I've got blue hands from dyeing again - and interesting fact, for me anyway, I have found out that I can dye sheep wool with dylon dyes - I'm not sure how colourfast the dye is yet, but hopefully I've struck on a very quick and easy way to dye fleece.

Running up that Hill

It was my and my friend Helens first Training run for Eyam Half today, I chose a hilly 8 mile route that would be challenging but not to difficult, mainly on paths but with a bit of off road running - thank goodness that the fog masked the worst of the hills and that we couldnt really see where the top was.  Col chose to do a fell race around shining cliff woods, and came in, in 15th place, which is good by any stretch of the imagination, but especially considering that, like me, his recent runs have just been plods.
No rest for the wicked in the afternoon - me painting fabric, I'm going to do something similar to the piece I did inspired by the allotment door, and also a piece inspired by dry stone walls, and Col fitted the cooker hood -
Next weekend we have the local league races.

The Hounds

Some pictures of my sisters dogs,  - the big one Frankie is also known as Scooby Doo, she's scared of everything, and ralph the scruffy pup is fairly like Scrappy, and really are little and large. 

Fenton

Nearly had a "Fenton" moment today; was walking my sister's dogs around Felley, when 19 deer ran across our path - thankfully Ralph was already on a lead, and we managed to grab Frankie just before she saw them - had visions of going viral!

new year new start

It's been a busy few weeks for us, we've had a really lovely Christmas; spending Christmas day in our new house and going for a walk over to Felly and seeing a rainbow, and over the rest of the holiday period catching up with family and friends, while still managing to work on TreeHuggery (I have a new tablecloth to make up the one way that blew away while I was doing a craft fair in the storms, doing up the house and going for some runs)
Our running leaves a lot to be desired at the moment, we've been so busy, and so much of the local area is flooded that its been really easy to put if off, still, we're both determined not to have a lazy year, and while not exactly a new years resolution, we both have our eye on races in the spring, that will mean that we need to start training up
I'm going to do eyam half marathon, I've done it twice before, its beautiful but very very hilly, and has the strapline "if carlsberg made half marathons" ... you get the drift...... while Col is going to do a leg of the Hilly 100 relay, he's done this a couple of times too, and always seems to get saddled with one of the hilliest legs .... I think we both need a challenge that is do-able but tough enough that we have to get some serious training in! 
As for fitting it all in, I think the mantra "if you want something doing, ask a busy person" works just fine!