parsnip day

After a 5 mile run , which was a little nippy this morning but a great pleasure in that I have now done 2 days consecutive running (long while since I've managed that). I decided to check out the parsnips now the snow is gone and the soil can be entered with a fork,and low and behold a great quantity of parsnips . looks like everything is going to be accompanied by them now.
Jac made a very wholesome and tasty parsnip soup ,the food of the gods.

Been working around the house on little jobs ,and fetched compost to start and grow on crops for the allotment.

My bike I was gifted has been re-assembled but sadly I cannot use it as a donor bike for my parts of my GT as they are not compatible ,so will be gifting it on free cycle.

Hoorah - a running day!

While Col, went to discuss his new tattoo, I decided that I needed to do a long run of approx 14 miles in preparation for my kilomathon in March. Not liking to use any gizmos such as garmins which have GPS and therefore tell you how far you've run, average and fastest pace, and calories burnt, I decided to guess how far 14 miles would be, and armed with water and jelly babies I set off along the old disused top canal to the garden centre with the aim of the running over to shipley country park, which is actually in the other direction ;o). The fact that I came back still having over half my water and only having eaten 4 jelly babies did make me think I probably hadn't run nearly enough, but Col plotted it on "map my run" and I'd managed 13.6 (albeit slow) miles, so not too bad, and I have about 6 weeks to take it up to 16.
Col also managed a run today (hoorah) he did an off road very muddy 6 mile route through Shipley in the afternoon while I carried on with my textile course (I'm sewing an orange!).
Late afternoon it was still really sunny (albeit cold) so we took a walk down the allotment, to continue to dig and weed. The birds have already eaten the two lardy/seedy things that I'd made and taken down on Wednesday - no shortage of birds in our allotment despite the severity of the winter and the national concern that there will be a bird shortage.
The allotment is looking good; fairly tidy, we just need to do a bit (well a lot) more digging, have a bonfire (easier said than done, neither of us can light fires) and lay the last bit of hedge, then we're ready for the spring !

Busy day time

Today is the first time in a while that I have attempted to run ,and the thee miles I covered were hard work . This is causing me to wonder if doing 29.2 miles on a saturday and then a sunday at the begining of march may be a problem. I suppose it will have to be a wait and see game.
Also managed to get to the allotment with Jac , we are still turning over the soil and clearing it of bramble roots . We also got some little potatoes out as well which were probably not the best value for money to what we planted but was nice to see and take out the ground something we had grown. Looks like the onion's are doing OK and hope to see some shoots from the garlic in the near future.
Been to the Physio today ,that man knows how to inflict pain with his thumbs, got to say though he does make you feel a whole lot better the day after . hoping tomorrow I will feel on top of the world, he worked on my bad leg and the nerves twitching as he removed the tightness was very strange. Hopefully he's caught my back in time as it was starting to get that doggy feeling when I have worked it to much.

Jac went into Beeston while I was at the physio ,she's well happy found a good second hand book store (came away with 3 craft books), nice deli called Deli (got some pesto), great bargain's at a fabric store and wools from another shop.

great nights and days

Well its been a great weekend for us both; no running ,no studying, just chilling with our friends. Our friends, who we met when travelling to Antarctica a few years ago, managed to find and get safely to us (no mean feat when we've been trying to arrange a mutually convenient date for a year, and considering that whenever we meet up something tends to go wrong at the travelling stage).
On friday night we had a leisurely meal, and found out that Jennifer from our group was the first ever female finalist on the Krypton Factor - wow! On Saturday we had a wander around Rufford Country Park and Abbey, its an amazing place; sculpture park, ruined abbey, orangery, and lake, in the Saville Restaraunt we saw an Ilkeston and Beeston clay jug which tied in quite nicely, as we'd pick some of our friends up from Beeston, and we live in Ilkeston- neat!. Our meanderings over the weekend helped us to see many birds (we went to Attenborough Nature Reserve on the Sunday) and had a walk along the river trent and then back to the tea shop. And we think we've managed to persuade Marg, another of our friends, to do the Yorkshire 3 Peaks with us in the summer - Marg also has an interesting story (well to many to mention really) but we'd never realised that shed been held up at gun point in an armed robbery - makes the Krypton Factor Assault course sound enjoyable!
sorry to see everybody go on sunday afternoon, cos we had a really good time, good laugh and it makes us realise that we have some really special and interesting friends.

awaiting friends

We are awaiting our friends. looking forward to catching up ,have not seen them all together since we met up at Malvern . Some off us caught up down in Epsom but that was a long while ago.

A better day

I have had a much better day today than yesterday. (Jac probably feels the same as I probably made her night miserable last night).

We've both been out on run's, Jac a 5 miler me a boggy 5.75 miler and with a little less pain . There is still ice around and about ,I expected it on the ponds but was surprised on some of the fields how much is still around. Jac got back at about the same time I did and said that there was ice on the canal too

Was nice around Shipley Park as not many people around and in areas it felt like I had the place to myself, not often it feels like that unless its late on and cold.

Jac's managed to get a necklace finished (pictured) and shes also been studying as normal (obesity course) . Some of the explanations on how to lose weight are a bit desperate and must make you really miserable, its not even certain that they work in the long term.

Today's also been a day of re-arranging the house so we can accommodate our friends coming over at the weekend , it also makes me do jobs I've been putting off.

At the moment not having much look getting bottom bracket out of the bike I was gifted, which is a bit of a problem as its grating when you turn it and is in need of some TLC. I'll go back to scratching my head and WD40 ing it tomorrow, one day I hope to be able to grease it properly and have smooth running bearings.(wish I could do the same with my legs).

Blood letting Day

I've just come back from the blood donors, I had hoped it might lift my mood (not sure why I'm down today, but cant shake it off) anyway Jac had persuaded me that letting blood, might make me feel better and likened it to the olden days of quack medicine and leeches. Despite them taking nearly an armful I can't say that I recommend blood letting as a cure for being fed up, still I know I should do it, and as much as I hate needles, it does help save lives and the choccy biscuit selection wasnt too bad - see it isn't all for altruistic reasons!
Jac went for a run, and came back complaining that the potholes in the pavements are as bad as those on the roads, and more difficult to see, and shes finnished one assignement on her obesity course, and has now moved onto the next module which seems to focus on energy requirements. Its pretty impressive to know that walking (at 3mph) for an hour per day will burn off approx 9.8kg over a year - unless of course you eat more as a result of feeling hungry after the walk