Tree Range Egg Cosies

Ta daaa - The Tree Range Egg Cosies are now available from http://www.treehuggery.co.uk/ - for people who want to keep their eggs roaming free for as long as possible!

And I've only just got them finished in time, cos I'm planning a muddy off road run with my friend in an hour - its all go here!!!

its a small world

Until last week, I'd never heard of the pretty little village Holloway, and then I went up there a few times to get my giclee prints sorted, and do colour checks, then today I find out that Holloway is the place where some of my friends have rented a holiday cottage and are staying.  Its a bit like the time when we got lost coming back from a holiday in Yorkshire and ended up in Harrogate, we'd heard of it before, but never been, then after we'd gone there it just kept cropping up in conversation again and again. 
I'm wondering at what point the 6 degrees of separation (the number of people we're all separated by) will officially drop.  It must already be less than 6 as a result of social media; there's no end of times I'll see that some of my friends, who i didn't know, knew each other, are linked to each other on facebook.
Its a small world

And he's a runner up

Colin is far too modest to share his achievements, he didn't even tell me, until I asked him, but he's currently third in the leaderboard for this years Accelerate series of fell races in the peak district.
It's even more amazing when you know that the only fell running he does is at races, so no opportunities to  practice the hills or the technique; that he only started doing a few fell races last year, and that he's so busy working on the Brinsley wreck, that this year, he'd hardly been running at all since last August 
Personally I wouldn't recommend this approach as a model training programme, but he seems to be doing quite well out of it!

I've just returned from Holloway

I've just returned from Holloway (the village in Derbyshire, not the prison).  Its a beautiful village, near to Crich, which, if anybody is familar with Crich Stand will know, means extremely steep single track windy roads!
As well as a really beautiful village, scenic route and pretty canal, theres a lovely gallery, there called Studio 61. (http://www.studio61gallery.co.uk/) and I went to meet the lovely owner, Karina, to discuss getting some of my images giclee printed as cards and limited edition prints.
I'd popped back to approve the test colours, and I'm really excited, because the print and paper is really high quality, you can see all of the textures of the original pieces.  Here's a sneak preview of whats, very shortly, going to become cards and prints, and I'm already planning some more!

Wilde Woods

I've just had some brilliant news today, my collection of silver birch cushions have been accepted by the lovely online gallery "From the Wilde" (http://www.fromthewilde.com/), I can't believe I'm lucky enough to be featured on there, although in true understated  "Ward" style, I texted Colin the good news, he responded within seconds, which I was pretty impressed with, until I read what he'd put "No, I don't think so"  - It's a good job I realised that he was responding to an early question, of did he want me to ask for something from Freecycle.

What else.... as a result of customer feedback I'm going to start making the old Summer and Spring cushions again, and these will sit alongside the newer more tactile Spring with Blossom and Summer leaves!

Great hucklow fell race

Another fell race to try? Why did I go I wondered at the end, well the reason was it's part of the accelerate series ,I've now completed 5 races so am now eligible for a score in the series. But the main reason was it was a great day for racing. It was a lovely day with a good few hills to negotiate , Boggy under foot and narrow in places .The route was well marked and well marshaled .At six miles it was enough for me as I have had limited running since the last race. It took me just under 58 minutes  and was 11mins behind the winner,but I felt that was the best I could do,achy lungs and wobbly back legs meant it was as hard as I could push today.  I managed to see people who I have not seen for a while.
Fell racing is more sociable than road in my opinion. Although some competitors were berated by others for not using the stile and climbing over fences. You need to respect the farmers fields as that's there lively hood there trying to protect.
I also had my fingers trodden as I slipped and the following guy was eager to get on ,only trouble was he went  down the bank in his haste and ended up further back. 

Albert

It's pretty impossible to wash the pots and keep both hands dry, but since one of my hands is cut from falling over last week, whilst out on a run,  and my other hand is now bandaged after grabbing a saucepan handle that had been to close to the flames, that's what I'm doing.  Right now I'm feeling rather like Albert, the one armed pot washer, from the 1970s comedy Cuckoos Nest, and am starting to wonder if I should get my hands insured, although I'm so accident prone, it would probably cost a fortune.... Here's hoping I'm a bit safer tomorrow when I use the heat gun and soldering iron. I've got the Moorgreen show coming up next month, and so I need to make  more Silver Birch cushions