Coming through to the other side......

I've been ill.

Very ill.

Not sick enough to be admitted to hospital but enough that I've lost a week of my life.

S&D really hurts when your tummy has been empty for 4 days.

I've lost 9lbs in weight in 7 days.

So now I am really trying to eat to get strong but have no appetite.

The dogs are in kennels for another week and I'm missing them.

DH isn't doing too well either but then again he gets 'Man flu'.

He sucks at being a nurse.

A walk in the park

This morning DH & I took the dogs out for a gallop. We were walking as I ran yesterday so DH was able to take some photos. We are fortunate to live close to a really beautiful park.


Woodland Park

It is about 20 minutes walk from our home but I normally take the car due to time constraints as I'd rather give the dogs more time to run off the lead.


Oscar & Annie


Oscar ready to pounce on Annie


Oscar


running as a pack


Oscar & Rusty

There is lots of wildlife but luckily so far neither dogs have noticed any of the rabbits.


Robin catches his breakfast

It is an active conservation area & fallen trees are often left to encourage insects:


fallen tree trunk


Oscar Airedale meeting Oscar the Siberian Husky


and Eric who was even bigger


Oscar back on the lead as he really likes Huskies.....


Oscar running


Annie chasing Oscar


home, breakfast & bed

So this is our local park where I'm running every other day. I think you'll agree that it's a lovely place to walk/run & I really enjoy going early in the morning or mid afternoon when it's relatively empty.

Hip Hip Hooray!

It's my birthday today & as always St George's Day to boot. I really wish it were a public holiday & then I won't have to use a days holiday to ensure that I don't have to work every April 23rd.

When I went on the Rowan course I took advantage of the £1 balls of yarn & access to hundreds of books & came home with my birthday present(s):


RYC Cashcotton DK in cool


RYC Cashcotton DK in pool

I have a variety of patterns earmarked for the Cashcotton DK in both RYC Summer & Cafe book one.


Jaeger Extra Fine Merino Chunky in Mink to make Hardy from JB38


Jaeger Aqua cotton to make Annie from JB34

I also picked up some books from Rowan for my birthday:


birthday books

and more from Up Country which weren't for my birthday but had to come home with me anyway.

I've just got to shift more weight so that I can start making all these garments for myself! I've been running 4 times now & am enjoying it DH & DD got me a pacer watch (in addition to the yarn above) & I'm now running 90 seconds at a time. Oscar is still walking but I'll get there in time for him to run with me properly when he's a year old. I'm off now to have a shower before making the most of my day off work & will be visiting the LYS this morning

I did it!

It had just started to rain by the time I got the dogs out of the car but I didn't chicken out & have started running! If you can call it that. Oscar loped alongside me without breaking into a run but speed 'might' come once I'm fitter I hope I can get out of bed in the morning.


I'm not stupid: I stay inside where it's nice & warm when it's raining!

'Must have' pattern

I'm pleased to report that my weight loss is continuing & I've now lost just over 3 stone As a reward for when I finally reach my target weight the patterns are still coming in thick & fast. Recently I was chuffed to bits to be able to add this to my library:


Patons street smart

Due to The Yarn Harlot effect and Brooklyn Tweeds' adaptation of The Urban Aran it is very hard to get hold of & even worse it's not available here in England However I was able to buy it from Yarn and Thread by Lisa & after paying by paypal it arrived from the States in just 5 days
Lisa kept in touch me with via email & the whole transaction was very smooth & effortless & I'll be using her shop again. She can be reached here.

The postage for two copies was the same as for one so I bought two & split the postage with a friend which made it more affordable.

Now that I've lost a substantial amount of weight I've decided it's time to 'up the pace' as it were & start exercising more. I already walk the dogs for an hour every morning before work on the lead & they get either half an hour on the lead or running free when I get home mid afternoon. It's in this 'time slot' that I've decided to start doing more as I can't fit anything else in due to DDs' busy sporting & social schedule. I'm going to follow this plan when the dogs are off the lead so that Oscar doesn't do too much as he's so young & will start tomorrow as long as it's not raining. Now I've announced it on here I've got to stick to it!

The Dark Side

I spent a very enjoyable weekend at Rowan on a crochet workshop. Much fun was had & apart from being late as I got hopelessly lost (and very stressed) it was a lovely relaxing time. A couple of small projects were undertaken:


Crocheted felted bowl in Rowan Big Wool

The fawn colour was quite plain so I added two rows of a beautiful chocolate brown which i think just lifted it a bit:


Crocheted felted bowl

I'm considering filling it with lovely things & giving it to my SIL for her birthday next month but then again it might stay here:


Crocheted felted bowl

and still in progress a curly scarf:


Curly scarf in Rowan Tapestry Highland

I haven't made one of these for ages but the colours in the yarn are so subtle & I'm really enjoying using it. I've never had the chance to squidge this before as I don't have a local Rowan stockist & I love it. Then to edge it a ball of Kidsilk Spray, or Kidsilk Crack as Susoolu calls it, to finish it off:


Kidsilk Spray in Regal

Arianwen & I shared a room in a local hotel but didn't get much sleep thanks to an over enthusiastic DJ celebrating an 80th birthday party downstairs. Then my rather loud phone woke us up with a text from DH at 6:20 a.m. informing me that the dogs aren't ever going to have a raw bone again, as they'd both been rather ill during the night & he'd had a lot of cleaning up to do I think I had the better weekend don't you!

First spring

Spring flowers


Oscar 5 months old


Oscar


Oscar playing


Lyra: 7 1/2 months old


Ginny 7 1/2 months old


Ginny stalking a fly


Oscar & Annie playing