Three guests and a run....and a walk

Three guests today which is awfully good for the finances in the lean old month that is January. The very dear Howard and Myrna, horse riders extraordinaire and a chap doing something electronic to several Post Offices in the area. From Hamilton his English head office had bizarrely chosen Claonairigh for him to stay in despite it being at least an hours drive yesterday morning and again this morning...still the pound notes are better in my hot sticky little paw than in someone else's. A very typical January day, a wee bit of chill and mist and and on and off drizzle. Perfect for a run... I am having to try to get myself into gear as The Mighty Deerstalker beckons at the end of March. I have to be competent if not competitive at running up two blooming great hills, the second one a scree surface, run 1/2 a mile up a raging river ( very fast running wide stream but still...) and for light relief crawl through a few water filled tunnels. Last year the final few yards of the 10k (ish...nearer 10 miles) was covered by a cargo net which in my innocence I thought would be quite light. Had I had any breath left the Marshall who cheerfully urged me to " just crawl!" might have had a case for disqualification due to "marshal abuse". Back to this year...we shall just say that I am a work in progress. A pesky hamstring at the back of my weaker left leg is being troublesome but despite this I managed a cross country 8:08 miler today with Liz and Denise. The last mile was quite fast and I am loving my new trainers which have hooky things underneath especially for the downs. Home, a bath and huge amounts of food cos I deserved it and then the gradual dawning that I had a puppy that needed walking...different set of clothes and shorter route. Quite nice to get out walking (or falling into steams for both of us) through the rough bits of the woods instead of sticking to the tracks. Pizza Friday for four Corners this week as Freya is on an weekend sleepover. At present I am waiting for Rosie to appear for a movie after her revision ( so much nicer when the carrot is more acceptable than the stick.....) whilst Toby at long last appears to be mucking out his room prior to being bought his first driving lesson tomorrow.





Ps the photo is winter lichen.