- time spiralling away into spring…
At the start of March, I spent a week with Morph at Monkton Wyld Court (main house above) as a volunteer - a very interesting experience. It's always a treat to spend time with friends, and any new experiences are opportunities to learn - or be reminded of things you knew, but had forgotten! I was disappointed not to have more time to write; maybe I'm too conscientious. Next time I take a busman's holiday I'll remember it needs to be when there are enough daylight hours so that I can bookend the day with walking...We managed a couple of visits to Lyme, though, which is always a treat. My day off was probably the ONLY sunny day that week... But it was spectacular.
Retreading a favourite training walk from the trek year - above, the approach to Golden Cap - was utterly fantastic. Bitter cold, but brilliant sun. Most of my photos have a skew-whiff horizon - either because it was so blustery, or because I still haven't adapted to using the digi-screen blind (i.e. in bright sun) instead of a viewfinder.
One of the best things about our Dorset/Devon trip was spending time with Ath on the way there and on the way back. Time to meet the new member of the family... big soppy softy.
Last weekend Ath's girlfriend Jemma let me ride her horse through the Longleat Estate. Here's Jon, standing beautifully for his picture - shame we cut his feet off, or it would be a perfect pic (aside from his scruffy rider, of course). I've only ever walked or driven through Longleat before, the extra elevation gave me a whole different perspective on the landscape. Amazing what a change in perspective can do. Such a thrill to be on horseback again... Next visit, I'll take my jodpurs and riding boots - just in case.
The woodland paths along from my house have been too waterlogged for my woods circuit walk for a week or two, but the bluebells are on their way - it'll be a riot of blue...
I would have expected that frosty morning walks (as above) belonged to memory by April... but not this year. The clocks going forward created a blip in my early rising pattern - as did picking up a virus in my joints just after I signed up to 'training' (aka trying to prepare for running with Karen in the Race for Life), but I'm adjusting again slowly. A couple of late night creative sessions threw a spanner in the waking works this week, but I think I'm rested again...
Stumbling downstairs on Sunday morning, half-asleep, the picture above shook me into full wakefulness - snow!!!
Too good a picture opportunity to miss...
The novel is 'rolling' again - 3,000 words at the weekend. I'm chuffed to bits. Twelve hours work, with another thirteen hours preparatory work to make those productive twelve possible.
Doing the numbers game;
168 hours in a week.
- 56 hours for sleep
- 50 hours for work
- 10 hours travelling to work
leaves 52 hours.
32 of those are at the weekend, leaving 4 hours a day for shopping, cooking, washing up, laundry, walking, admin, etc.
So to manage 25 hours out of those 52 for writing last week was miraculous. Sustainable? I wasn't walking much - still recovering from that virus, so we shall see...
My GP got my LFTs back, and didn't think they were mine - they were easily in the normal range. So I'm doing something right, at least - in spite of that 50 hour plus week - because my ALT levels were pretty high just before I moved here...
Lucy's 40th at the weekend will probably push them up again...
