Grin

This makes me smile every time I drive past

Maybe it is the work of Bansky’s country cousin.

Pushing Up Daisies

From the grave yard of a little chapel, built in 1673, that’s tucked away, between the forest and the hills; a beautiful place on a beautiful summer evening: pushing up daisies? to be dead, buried beneath the ground.

Birds Eye View

And now for something completely different, a little chicken anatomy and physiology

 

Chickens have a third eye lid a  nictitating membrane it moves sideways across the eye, from the inner  corner of the eye to the outer; here is one of the white leghorns taking a drink from the pond,

I’ve unintentionally pressed the shutter when the  membrane was across her eye, she normally looks a bit brighter eyed than this; we humans have a vestige of the membrane still remaining in the inner corner of our eyes, isn’t evolution clever.

 some birds fly with the membrane closed, it’s thought that it helps protect the eye from dust and grit, its transparent so they don’t crash, sort of Biggles goggles for birds

The lower eye lid of the chicken is more mobile than the upper, they ‘blink’ with the membrane, closing the eyelids ‘proper’ for sleeping, this is Thing One basking in the sun.

  

Birds have developed a flock of adaptations to suit their needs Woodpeckers tighten their nictitating membrane a millisecond prior to their beak impacting the trunk of a tree in order to prevent their eyes from leaving their sockets

I think that is so cool,Tom thinks it is ‘mint,’ as I imagine, does the woodpecker.

Keep on Running

 

Only one who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go. -T.S.Eliot

 

Well it’s done, the big one the Bob Graham Round, or as it’s become know in this house simply the BG. It’s not just Mr Uhdd that’s exhausted, whilst he has more reason to be so than the rest of us, the boys and I are never the less, totally pooped.

How to tell you what it was like, I think we might have to have a guest post from Mr Uhdd for that, I can only tell you what it was like from the bottom of the hill. The weather was bad, out off the 44 peaks climbed, there were no more than a handful that weren’t shrouded in low cloud and whilst we are delighted, relieved that it went so well for Mr Uhdd and ‘Laid Back Runner’ others didn’t have it so good and had to retire, I was a bit of a loss as to what to say to them, you could see they were gutted, I suspect they will regroup and give it another go. And there were a lot of runners out there, the challenge starts at the Moot Hall in the centre of Keswick at midnight on Friday night, and there must have 50-60 people gathered to give them a good send off, in addition to the towns Friday night revelers, who seemed to think we might be the start of a party.

After they had gone and we went back to the climbing club bunk house that was ‘mission control’ I tried very hard not to think of them out on the fells, running in the dark, rain wind and low cloud, but as I heard the pacers come and go through the night, my GCSE geography, from long long ago, came into mind, hanging valleys, truncated spurs, U shaped valleys, scree slopes; which ever way you look at it, bloody big things to fall off and into.  So it was a relief when it came light, it seemed to me like one hazard  out of the way; we went to the second road crossing at Dunmail at about 7am, there were a lot of support vehicles and supporters there, not just from our club.

Looking, waiting with the kettle on, hot food ready, the next pacers ready to take over

 

There were many miss-sightings, ‘here they are, on the ridge, look’ only to realise on closer inspection, the dots were in fact sheep not runners, but on schedule, they came over the ridge

for a the briefest of stops, in the whole event, all 23hrs and 8 min, Mr Uhdd stopped, to eat drink and rest for only 38 min in total.

The running club are poetry in motion, so slick and prepared, everything is done to allow the runner to do just that, to keep on running. I’ve posted more photos on my Flickr site. The willingness and effort by club members, to help other  complete this challenge is impressive, sportsmanship and camaraderie at it’s best.

After we watched them leave Dunmail, there then followed a long drive (for us) around the mountains, to meet them at Wasdale,

they had a rough time on this leg and lost some time, we watched and waited

  

And saw some very nice sheep

When they came in to this check point, Mr Uhdd looked rough, he skin was grey and you could see from his bloodshot eyes he was dog tired

The climb out of this valley is murderous and I wasn’t yet confident he was going to make it, it wasn’t till he got to Honister that I felt, he could, and would do it. As they came towards Honister they decided to split up and ‘Laid Back Runner’ and his pacer went on ahead,

We waited  for them at the finish in Keswick, this time with Saturday nights town centre revelers, they both made the last push, up the main street, accompanied by much cheering from from family, friends, supporters, and anyone else who was around, to slam into the doors of the Moot Hall, job done. There were a few folk swaying around Keswick, who looked ready to slump to the floor on Saturday night,  but some have more reason than others:  ‘Laid Back Runner’ makes it to the Moot Hall

Back at ‘mission control’, the guys had to be assisted out of their running gear, showered and put to bed. The support team on the other hand, had a beer or two, it was very late, or early depending on your perspective, when I found my bunk

Hacked Off

In more than one sense of the word. A walk to one of my favourite spots,

revealed some tree stumps all that remained of some handsome Scots pines.

it’s National Trust land (that’s leased for grazing) so I wouldn’t have expected to see such crude forestry management,

Walking deeper into the stand of trees, I found the reason. Someone’s idea of ‘al fresco’ dining on a summers evening.

Kid’s? well probably older than that, as I suspect they would have driven up there and parked in the layby, after all you wouldn’t want to walk far carrying an axe, booze and BBQ food, but who ever, it really hacks me off. I live in hope that next time they will get more than they were looking for

Numbers Game

 

Preparations continue for Mr Uhdd’s attempt on the fell running challenge ‘The Bob Graham Round’ and whilst there has been a lot of training on the fells, there has been an awful lot of work in the planning, it’s like a military operation, and Mr Uhdd’s running club are seasoned campaigners. You are not alone in this assault on 42 of Lake District summits, each runner has the fell runners equivalent of a Doula, better known as a pacer, well several in fact for, at least one for each of the 4  legs of the attempt, they keep the runner on track, carry gear, navigate and provide support, company and motivation (it’s is as  much a mental challenge as a physical one.) The attempt is an impressive team effort. As well as the pacers there will be welcome support where the route crosses roads, here preferred food and beverage along with pre-packed bags of spare clothes, back up fell shoes and other goodies will be available.

I am struggling a little with the catering, for one thing I can’t quite get my head round how your guts can cope with eating running  and digesting at the same time (and we have planned for the eventuality that they can’t) and then there is the issue of what your body will crave, under such punishing conditions, my brief is tuna sandwiches (tuna, canned in brine, he’ll need the salt) with extra mayo, to hold the thing together, energy bars and gels, cereal bars. But the feed back we get from those who have ‘been there’, is you might ask your support team to prepare a bowl of hot porridge with honey at the road crossing, a plate of pasta, or a bowl of stew; but when you get there you are likely to want to eat things you normally hate, so I am tasked with going shopping, for thing Mr Uhdd would normally never eat, ‘Cup a Soup’ and ‘Pot Noodle’s’ being my starting point.

And what to drink, well this lot for a start

We don’t as a household, use ’sports cap’ mineral water bottles as a one off disposable item, we refill them with tap water until they are worn out, and as there is no way they are going to get left on the fells, the majority of these bottles will retuning home after the event and will be falling out of the kitchen cupboards with annoying regularity for many moths if not years to come

 

Our PC has been groaning under the strain of keeping up with the barrage of GPS way points, maps, spreadsheets, schedules, emails and attachments. So here are some numbers for the geeky.

24 hours to run and climb;

42, peaks, that means if you spend a  minute at each summit, admiring the view it will add you add 42 minutes to your overall time, you can’t afford to fritter that amount of time away, some of last weekends ‘BG’ runners finished with only 5 min to spare; if you want to look at the view, go back another day and take a picnic on this occasion only running and time matter.

66miles to go, at a guesstimate of two thousand strides to the mile that equals 128,000 strides, that’s an eighth of a million

26,500 feet of ascent, not far short of an Everest, from sea level.

Its not a big job it won’t take long.

Unwrapping the present

It was my birthday last week, I was given some beautiful scented lilies and a lens for the camera, I haven’t yet got to grips with the lens, the sensation is not unlike like swapping the family hatch back for a high performance sports car, I am not in quite in control, but I can ‘feel’ it’s potential. More test drives required.

Uh Oh, it’s windy, duck is going for a walk.

I’m sorry I digress, ‘Uh Oh; it’s windy, duck is going for a walk.’ comes from the children’s book, ‘Duck is Dirty’ by Satoshi Kitamura and it was a favourite book with the boys when they were very small, I wonder just how many times I read it to them, I know it was a lot.

The words came to mind yesterday when I went for a walk, it was wild, gale force winds, brining down sizeable chunks of tree

and turning the leaves inside out, I made a hasty pass of a derelict farm building, the roof of corrugated iron looked ready to let fly at any moment

But whilst the wind was buffeting, it wasn’t unpleasant, up on the hill the wind was scented with the smell of bruised bracken and it was sunny and warm. In fact it was a ‘right good drying day’ if you could keep the washing on the line as there was a high risk of your laundry getting snatched off and turning up three fields away. Mr Uhdd did a sterling job of pegging the washing firmly to the line, so much so, the pegs stayed on the line and our duvet cover shredded like an old flag, ‘Perhaps you could mend it’ he suggested ‘But to mend thing’ I pointed out ‘you have to have something of substance to sew the repair too’ and this I am afraid is a no hoper. But then again, yesterday wasn’t windy; this is what proper wind can do

Double delight

 

This evening at 8:30. Why is it always lighter  on the ‘inside’  of the rainbow? the answer may be in here but I’ve yet to read it all; as this is a post it in the moment sort of post, you will have to work it out for yourselves.

One of my favourite painters, Joseph Wright of Derby, I have written about him before,  must have been a bit quick with the brush, seeing as he didn’t have a digital camera in 1794

Perfect day

The wedding, was wonderful, the ceremony was all the more meaningful for it’s simplicity, so many of the fripperies  of a traditional church wedding are cleaved away in a Quaker ceremony, leaving the bride and groom, and what we have all come to witness, their commitment to one another, at center of the occasion, it was very moving. Having spent over two decades dealing with the hype and drama of other peoples weddings, when I worked in the flower business, where I am sure many couples had given more thought to whether or not the colour of the bridesmaids dress clashed with the best-man’s cravat, than to the reason why they are getting married in the first place, it was like a breath of fresh air. Most of the ceremony is conducted in silence, this was a bit of a challenge to some of us, in spite of the fact I had checked three time that I had turned my mobile phone off, I still wished I had left it in the mini bus, just to be on the safe side.

We could not have been made more welcome at the ceremony by the other friends at the meeting house, they made us a splendid tea that included my all time favourite cake, ginger cake

After tea, cake and photographs in the garden, we went on to the reception, did I mention I thought some care might have gone into the selection of the reception venue and that real ale might be involved?

 

The meal  at the Thatchers Arms, Mount Bures, in Essex, was divine, I had rack of lamb with rosemary mash, served with a rich gravy, as dark as Tudor oak; the wedding cake was chocolate, with just a hint of something, alcoholic and citrus in the cream, the boys ate two servings, well most of us did actually, truth be told.

We sat out in the sun for a while, and took part in one or two ‘activities’ that had been arranged for us, (I may post more about that) to allow time our ample meal to digest and the band to set up. A cracking band, brought about much dancing, (even Tom felt moved by the music, to get up on the dance floor and he was particularly impressed by the drumming) there was just a little disappointment that the band didn’t have ‘Tiger Feet’ by Mud, in the repertoire but they did have this Elvis

One of the things that made it such a special day, was not only seeing the bride and groom so very happy, meeting old friends, but in addition to that coming home having made some new friends too.

I don’t normally post personal photos on my blog, and I’ve not asked them if they mind, but I’ll chance it: here you go,  ladies and gentlemen, please raise your glasses, a toast.

  ‘The bride and groom wishing them health and happiness, always.’