Song 2. Week 5. Whoo Hoo!

Hello. I can't wait to tell you this. This song is how I feel when I start running. Every time.

Song 2 by Blur.

I am at the business end of the Couch to 5k programme now, I just cannot believe how far I have come. I am on week 5 which is three different runs:

Run 1,
Warm-up 5 min walk
5 min run
3 min walk
5 min walk
3 min walk
5 min run
5 minute warm down walk.

So, I completed this run at the beginning of last week and was totally elated at my progress, so couldn't wait to start Run 2 which is supposed to be after the warm up,  8 minutes of running, 5 minutes of walking, then another 8 minute run. However, I updated the phone to whatever the latest operating system and the only thing that disappeared was my C25K podcasts so after a reload I accidently stared running Week 5, Run 3 which was a huge jump to 20 minutes of running!  Well, I can't run for 20 minutes non-stop but I nearly did it and you know what just a few more runs and I know that I will be able to do this. When I think of this in my future I feel like quite emotional. The icing on the big fat cake was a collegiate nod from a proper jogger, or perhaps he was just acknowledging the cuteness of my happy furry running companion. I swear that dog wears the most enormous grin when she is padding alongside.

Week 2, Run 2 is proving to be a right killer though so until I can master this set I think I am going to be sticking here for a bit.

Due to the school hols, I have had to tweak my routine around the kids so have been running at dawn and dusk. Apart from needing to nod off after lunch, this has been a really great experience, a wee bit of alone time in the busy day. At dawn, I was surprised to see quite a majority of women out, jogging and power walking. At dusk I keep my eye on the horizon and run towards the beauty of the cloud formations as the sun sets. I know I have been complaining about the Irish weather but, you know there is a quality about the drama that plays out in the contrasts of the sun and rain keep me here in this sometimes soggy but always beautiful little island.

So in-between all that someone recommended that I listen to some 'Philosophy Bites' podcasts in preparation for this years Open Uni module and 'course had to listen to this guy Mark Rowlans on Philosophy and Running. Mark Rowlands bought himself a wolf - as you do - and to avoid the destruction of his home by this noble creature, began to run to exercise the wolf into exhaustion and is now hooked on the action. Rowlans (I think!) sees an existential purity when the reasons for running fall away,- losing weight, getting fitter, being able to dance when 80 - and what is left is joy in the action for its own sake, for "it's own intrinsic value". I am beginning to see the value of running for pure pleasure, to "be in touch with the intrinsic good in life" which is a Good Thing and not just because I haven't lost a single ounce yet! All the best! xxxxx

Between the showers.

Hello! Welcome back to Oriel. How is your summer going? Ours has been a tad miserable to say the least. I guess we should have known, toying with The Weather Gods in such a cavalier fashion. So since our purchase of some garden furniture at the end of May in a joyous burst of enthusiasm for the hot promise of a Summer, any Summer, we have used the set approximately twice and the view to the garden looks mostly like this. Sodden. Abandoned.

Met Eireann, the Irish Meteorological service has been monotonously persistent with it's daily depressing forecast of 'thundery rain moving east'; this has been the worst summer since I moved to Co. Louth and that year it rained for a biblical forty days! Nevertheless, we have been trying to make the best of it, embracing the excuse to catch up on our favourite house pursuits, crafting, baking, reading, colouring and watching as many films as can be squeezed into a rainy afternoon. I am making steady progress with O's Autumn Sunburst blanket and Rosie likes it too.

She is a very crafty dog as you can see, these are a pair of PJ bottoms that I made for E from the fabric I bought up in Belfast and blogged about here. I followed this brilliant tutorial from the completely marvellous Countryside Tales blog and managed to run them up in about three hours!

 

The sun did make an appearance briefly and conveniently for a little photo-shoot. I miss you Sunshine.

 



E is delighted with them and I cannot wait to make some for myself as soon as a little bit of fabric cash manages to settle in my purse. When we were in London, I couldn't help noticing that those colouring book for adults were all over the place, despite being an avid colour-in-er in my youth, I didn't really 'get' the concept at the time but of course now that we are At Home, they seem like such a good idea and not just for the grown ups either. I love the intricate detail of the Secret Garden one but thank-fully for our diminishing summer budget, you can print out some free sheets from Red Ted Art and I just love how the kids approach the same picture in their own unique way. Sadly no pics of our art, it is just too feckin' grey for photography.

Play-doh is another 'old' toy that is also making quite a come back in our house, of-course we had to try the allegedly fabulous no-cook make-your-own recipe but oh my goodness letting two over-enthusiastic kids loose with bright red food colouring is not for the faint hearted. My lovely old farmhouse table is now covered in great globular red stains which no amount of elbow grease can shift AND the resulting 'playdoh' was deemed Far Too Yucky and promptly discarded and Mr S cajoled into buying some real stuff from the big supermarket.

Some days, it has been too wet for some people to even get dressed and Baking in Onesies and Licking Bowls in Pyjamas has become quite a weekly event. I don't think Mary Berry would approve.

Mr S has been getting all creative too.

 

Can you guess what it is yet?

 No?

Mr S is attempting some serious pallet reconstruction. Hopefully, I will be able to reveal the result of his endeavours before next summer...! Bye for now. xxxxx

London snapshots.

 

Old Spitalfields Market.

 

Kew

 

 

Hampton Court

 

We went to London and for the first time in a long time we became tourists in our former home city. All around the heat shimmered and we moved in a determined slow motion, there was a tube strike and we were disorientated and amateurish when trying to navigate our way around the cashless oyster card system. We glimpsed new tube stations, great soaring apartment buildings - too ubiquitous to become landmarks - new pathways and directions -my previously sharp London map slowly remembered and eventually restored. We checked off some places that we had never been and places half-remembered since childhood - the maze at Hampton Court has drastically shrunk!

I saw the ghosts of lost friends in many faces and felt 21 again as we danced, reunited with some old ones. We celebrated with our growing extended family, precious new-born babies and beautiful bumps. I marvelled at the shift in our parental journey, it seems like minutes since we were the distracted parents of small infants and focused on the mindful vigilance that accompanies the fast-moving toddler. In the face of the mighty force that is Grandma, myself and Mr S became slightly redundant, some unusual hours of child-free time opening. We had enormous fun but I got my cure , it was probably no accident that I bought this book. (The background is a 1970's shopping bag that had to be bought in no small degree because of the texture and the smell! It takes me back to a hot 1970's summer, my wee pram with a similar plastic cover.)

I went clothes shopping on a Saturday morning, all the shops packed with people, sales stock strewn into a bemusing mass, stale air-conditioning in the giant shopping centre. I wanted to give up almost immediately, forget about the new shoes and join the kids in the park. The old seduction of London  was still strong, the brisk efficient mass of commuters, the endless number of undiscovered streets; the potential for people watching, the stories writing themselves as the actors in each tube carriage  shifted, emptied and refilled. The teenagers kissing at Harrow-on-the-Hill, the old Punks with chiselled features at The Angel, the beautiful twins with immaculate hair and light graceful dresses at London Bridge, a vivid 1960's painting for a dream house in Old Street. A lovely exhausting time but an interlude, I missed my space. We went for a lazy pub lunch in the pretty village of Sarratt, strolled part of the Chiltern Way and it was here that I felt most still and content. I saw the sky and the distant fields, and breathed out.

 

A most fortunate rabbit.

 

Sarratt Bottom. Address envy. xxx

Endorphins and Siesta's

Hello! I'm so excited I just had to pop into blog-land and tell you all that I managed to complete Week 3 of NHS Couch to 5k and am buzzing on the endorphins. OK now, it is not my third week of running but I feel delighted with myself for getting this far and feel so much fitter.

So, this week or stage involves:

1. 5 minutes of warm-up walking
2. 90 second run
3. 90 seconds of walking
4. 3 minute run
5. 3 minutes of walking
6. repeat sections 2.- 4.
7. 5 minute brisk wind-down walk.

So, written down in unforgiving black and white that lot looks quite easy, well I have to admit, now the 90 seconds of running are! A few months ago I could not run for more than one minute without feeling as though my lungs were going to burst and my eyes were to detach themselves, now not a problem. I'm annoying blasé, in fact. Until it comes to the three minute run that is, I'm feeling the force of gravity now all right, I'm feeling my own weighty mortality in fact but somehow me and the dog get to the end of the run. We get to the end of that run, three times this week. Running with the dog is such a fantastic laugh, her jolly lolling grin as she trots alongside me is so sweet and when we go running in the fields off-lead she bounces through the corn like a mad golden lion.

The experience of the endorphins are very strange -not having tried any strenuous exercise before apart from hill walking -I am quite surprised at the strength of the elation that accompanies the end of the running, this occurs for me in two stages. Once immediately after completion and then after about an hour or so I feel again completely energized and am strongly compelled to go out and do it all over again! Weird. Ok, so come the evening I am completely shattered but it is a good sense of tiredness, of contentment almost.

Last week myself and some of the Crazy Dog Ladies accompanied by assorted dogs, children and husbands got up at the hideous hour of 2am and ventured out into the wilds of Co Meath to 'do' the Tara Dawn Run, a 4k run starting at 4am around the beautiful mystical and historic Hill of Tara, seat of the High kings of Ireland. So, the idea is, starting in the dark you race around the hill finishing up as the morning sun illuminates the valley beyond. We didn't run so much as potter around while the kids threw grass at us and each other, my dog stopped to eat all the sheep pooh and M's dog stopped because he didn't want to walk without my dog and S chatted and I tried vainly to take lots of photos in the dark! Great fun and all for a good cause. I hadn't been to this amazing place before and oh my goodness it is so beautiful and there is a bookshop close by! I cannot wait to go back. Maybe I will even run it next year...

This week the kids are finishing up school and for O, last days at his after school crèche, so it has been a bit hectic at times, sorting out last minute thank-you cards and presents, summer play-dates, and baking for the end of term functions. Our Principle is retiring and moving abroad which is very sad as he has been in the role since the school opened - just seven years ago and we have seen the school expand from 62 students to 375 for the forthcoming academic year. We wish him well.
Do you give Teacher's presents? I used to give cut flowers or sweets but this year I wanted to give something that was more sustainable and when I spotted these pretty Dahlias in the market I bought a couple. Very inexpensive, just add some tissue paper and tie with raffia and with a bit of TLC they should come back every summer. Tah Dah, a nice reminder of the little angels (ahem!) that gifted them.

So, instead of adhering to the List of Jobs that was supposed to be completed before the kids are set loose - jobs like painting all the woodwork and deep cleaning the kitchen and finally booking my driving test. I have instead been indulging myself with a couple of hours of reading, crocheting and watching old movies and the odd few minutes of siesta time. Oh, the luxury of being able to close ones eyes for a few minutes and day-dream in peace and quiet! I wanted to show you some pictures of the progression of O's Autumn Sunburst blanket but it has gone so dark and grey here it is impossible to take any photos now. The blanket was inspired my the colours in this walk and the first few circles photographed here.

I will leave you with some of the less (sic) blurry pictures from the Hill of Tara. Bye for now! xxxx

Rest and relaxation.

Well hello! It is so nice to be back with you again after what feels like a very long time. It has been just over a week since my very last Open University exam and only now does my poor head feels like it is getting back to normal or what I perceive to be normality anyway! The exam was a mixed bag all right, I think I did relatively well in the first two questions but on the third part my mind just went blank. It didn't help that I could barely hold the pen straight as I was trembling so much.

Thank goodness, I have one last module to take next year which is all on-going assessment so if I do badly in the History exam my degree classification will not be unduly affected. I was left with the feeling that to assess in three hours; a whole year's worth of  analysis and synthesis of 20th century history AND all the many historiographical debates and controversy's that surround the events of such a tumultuous century is quite unfairly demanding. Ouch. I did manage to have a chuckle in the wonderful Oxfam Books on the vibrant Botanic Avenue, Belfast the afternoon before exam day though. Look who was sharing the top shelf:

However for the very first time in five years of Open University study I was left with a curious feeling of anti-climax and disorientation. My nights punctuated with dreams of redoing the exam with bleeding fingers and my days ran slow with lethargy. So when feeling like this I always turn to the kitchen:

 

Green herby soup.

Food for the comfort of the bruised soul.

Fresh parsley, chives and spring onion.

Garden peas, celery and broccoli,

whizzed up with home made chicken stock, crème fraiche and perhaps some flaked almonds for the top. 

 

Then I finish all the niggley unfinished projects that have been hanging around:

 

 

Two A-line skirts finally finished and while not perfect sewing by any means, I made them and I have been wearing them with pleasure. The flowery one is the deconstructed skirt used as a toile and was the source of much annoyance for the Rookie Sewer. The denim fabric was purchased in the excellent Paragon Fabrics also in Belfast a little treasure trove of fabric to dye for. Paragon fabrics is conveniently next door to this amazingly chaotic junk/antique shop which is just crammed with good treasure hunting possibilities.

 

After I had bought the fabric above, I gingerly stepped in and as I carefully explored I heard someone come down the stairs and go out to stand outside in a haze of cigarette smoke. It was the proprietor, small of stature and dirty of mac, he was coming back in as I was leaving.

'Oh no!' he exclaimed when he noticed me, 'I thought you were the ghost!'

'Really?' sez me, 'I'm not surprised you have a ghost.'

'Yes', said Himself, but it is a Man Ghost. I wouldn't entertain a Lady Ghost.

'No', retorts (a slightly indignant I) 'She would probably make you organise your shop. And get your duster out. I do like those Bristol blue bottles there...'

 

The next critical stage of recuperation is to Go Outside:

 

This is the way in to our walk in the fields. The ground is hard and dry now and the barley (?) makes the most beautiful rustling in the wind.

 

Across the golden meadow.

 

A carpet of bee buzzing clover.

 

 

In some of the fields, the maturing grain is slowly turning to gold and is waist high. There is a beautiful hot-dry fragrance of the grass and the dog picks out choice morsels to eat.

 

We return home and do a little gardening with the children:

 



 

Plan our next sewing journey:

 

 

I can't wait to get started with these fabrics, aren't they cute! (Again from Paragon) The blues are for E's quilt, and the butterflies are going to be Pj's for her. Do you remember Holly Hobbie? The most excellent Star Wars fabric was also going to be pyjamas, this time for O but according to the shop they are nearly on their last metre of this and may not get it again so I might persuade his to have pillow cases. He won't grow out of those.

 

 

The final stage in our restorative journey is to curl up with a good book and a beautiful thrifted collection is sometimes the most satisfying. I'm just mad about vintage children's books and I was so pleased to have found these ostensibly for E. I think the covers are stunning and the stories sound so imaginative. 'Oh dear Mammy!' said E, upon presentation of these books, 'They are very old-fashioned, like something you would read.'

 

 

 

Looks like everything is back to order and balance! :)

 

It really feels like proper summer now. What are you all looking forward too over the next few months? xxx





 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

We interrupt this blogging hiatus

 

'Woman at her toilet' Jan Havicksz  (www.riksmuseum.nl)

 

To bring you unprecedented news, this morning my wonderful children got dressed, independently in their own rooms which meant that I was allowed to get dressed, ALONE in my own room. No inquisitive remarks about the state/size/colour of bits of my body, no stealing my bra and putting on the dog, no long stream-of-consciousness discussion of the latest Sponge Bob plot. It was nice, quiet and almost relaxing, five minutes just for me that I had so often craved when they were toddlers and hanging off me like baby gorillas.

 

 

(image from igcp.org)

(Baby gorillas! So beautiful.)



 

 Maybe if I am really honest a teensy bit too quiet. It is every Mothers dilemma isn't it? It is our life's work to prepare our little ones to become able and independent adults but little by little the wee caring tasks that mark babyhood then childhood, like feeding, holding hands when walking, tying shoelaces and the like slowly diminish. The rhythm of family life adjusts and while we are lucky enough to feel that fierce pride as we seen them growing up, it is a somewhat bittersweet journey, deep underneath we experience the acute loss of their early childhood.

 

In other news I am pleased to report that I went out for a run this morning and did not experience an agonising stitch in my side! I am still running the first week in the couch to 5k plan, as my running has been interrupted regularly, firstly by sore feet, then writing up my last essay for the OU and then a low-level virus that made me feel wiped for a couple of days.  I am feeling more confident though so hopefully, I shall be moving on to the slightly more strenuous Week2 plan next time.

 

As I jogged up the last hill towards home, myself and Rosie bumped into Mr E whose black Labrador Benjy is very fond of our Rosie so we had to stop for a sniff and a weather update.

Almost but not quite managing to supress his astonishment at the unexpected sight of my breathless, puce-faced lycra-clad self;  Mr E -after cheerfully delivering the doom-laded news that the week-end was going to be a wash out, softened the blow by leaving me with this jaunty riposte, 'Sure we are not doing too badly so far, are we?' Thanks, Mr E, we are doing just fine!

Hope all of you are too.xxx