Punctuation please!

 This morning's walk was a head space necessity.  I work from home on a Tuesday and it felt chilly so I made it a walk with a coffee in mind.  A long walk - 6,000 steps at least.  All before my 8.30am start.  The daffodils and cherry blossom made it pleasantly springlike and frosted foliage reminded me it is still early March. 

Looking in the mirror tonight I see I have a red face - and nose - and probably should have found suncream.  My morning smile - and blog title is the greeting on the coffee shop wall "Hello free coffee"

It caught me off guard - hello free? They are ok and friendly in there - it's Starbucks on the A30 near my old work - I rarely go there as it's expensive! Hello, free coffee!! Aha, I obviously wasn't awake.  Not sure how you get the free coffee but, if it is anything like costa points, it is most definitely not free.

I'll leave you with my smug smile having received my virtual walking medal - a heavy piece of metal and enamel, a nice legionary standard for a Roman army enthusiast like me.

Romans

 

I did it! 4.9 miles walked over a day, around tesco, along the beach with a friend, has taken me over the virtual finish line and I have my virtual certificate.  The much more real medal will arrive at some point.

It has been a great way of ensuring I get a walk each day - some days more than others! It's given me a bit of fun looking at the APP and remembering the real wall, the camaraderie, the bruising 18 mile finishing leg which was done in hot sun and the delicious cooling pint to celebrate!

Yesterday was a wistful day - I met a good friend, to walk in the rain - she has come to live in the UK after several years in Germany, and we couldn't hug. So frustrating.  I noticed that her German accent is stronger - obviously - it's a lovely one, soft southerner that she is.  She laughed as she has never seen me with such long and wild hair - can't wait for a haircut, who needs pubs opening, open up hairdressers or I will soon look like an equally fluffy dark version of Boris.

We caught up - she jumped down the seawall, I didn't - no way I am re damaging my back - and then, as it always was, she got tired and her back hurt (we used to swim together, she would do 10 flashy, fast lengths and crow at my slow steady progresss - then she'd flop and groan all the walk back) Sometimes caution is ok, but I felt sadly old! Last year's excruciating sciatica is not something I wish to return to.

So now I can concentrate on putting miles towards the other virtual challenge - Lands End to John O' Groats.  Or LEJOG as it is fondly known.  The wiggly route on the APP is just over 1000 miles and I am currently at Torpoint, actually here - HMS Raleigh. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunshine yellow sort of day

 It's not a sunshine yellow sort of day by any means.  I have soaking socks and damp hair just from ploughing round tesco and finding the car in the car park.  

But:

A day to notice and smell the yellow frilled trumpet glory of supermarket daffodils in the front room

A day to notice the splash of blackbird beak yellow crocus against the grey green brash on Heavitree Road

A day to give way and let people out, to thank the costa barista and spend a moment chatting

A day to put on cleaning out the freezer (I hate this job) and put off being a grumpy sod..

A day to notice the weary, inward looks of the shoppers in Tesco - and try to be a little cheery

A day to walk in the rain with a friend even though I hate walking in the rain 

So that's the day so far. My kitchen floor is now soaked from sweeping ice out the freezer and there is spilled wine in the fridge - because I forgot I had a mug of it in there for a casserole.  It's raining and I can't wait for Monday's announcement even if it is a tiny concession to normality.  Like most people I am doing my best but sometimes that feels not good enough.  I watched half of (zoom call with a friend) Kate Humble's walk on the coast path TV programme last night.  I didn't realise you could physically pine for a landscape.  She walked the coast above Lynton and Lynmouth -and the Countisbury Hill and foreland.  And I had an aching heart - I love this landscape and miss it, and Lee Abbey, my refuge when I feel in need of a bit of time out.  Hope - I will definitely walk the valley of the rocks as soon as we are allowed to travel and whatever the rain may throw at me!

Sunglasses On

 

Not me in the photo.

But definitely sunglasses on.  I had to go to the tip with parents' broken plastic chairs and my own "been spring cleaning" tat.  A good excuse, should I have been caught, to go for a walk along the canal.

 I couldn't get enough of staring at the blue of the sky after so much seemingly endless rain.  It was a fast walk - I had a deadline but so good to take time out to watch robins and long tail tits, listen to the hustle of moorhens creaking along, and rejoice at that "being let out for a while" feeling.

Somewhere out of Exeter even if only for an hour.

Taking time out

 Yesterday was a pig of a wet day. It started with Saturday joy but I felt as soggy and tired as a wet raincoat.  Even a takeaway coffee, consumed in the car with my nose out the window, sat watching the clouds as they drifted past the car park didn't wake me up.

Mum and Dad's shopping arrived, minus a few items - veg, bread, but, thankfully with Dad's whisky.  Loaded up, and with a pile of books to keep Dad happy I drove to Sidmouth.  And the rain seemed incessant - we stared at their wet garden as I beat them - a fairly rare thing at Scrabble.  They've had their jabs and were like excited children.

So much for virtual walking challenges!  I sneak out, early today, avoiding church, feeling like a wet raincoat again - and wearing one! Mum and Dad have no fruit - they didn't order any, no chocolate - they pined for some, and no colour in the home - I tell them the plastic flowers are wilting!  So, because I can't bear the thought of them having no fruit and because they were so wistful, I took them some and a bunch of bright, cheery tulips. Oh and biscuits and chocolate.  Dad will eat them very happily (not the tulips) and he never puts any weight on, lucky man.  I walk along the seafront, well actually get squall blown along.  It's littered with pebbles the waves have throw up over the wall.  The sea is foaming milk chocolate, really January storm rough.  The few of us braving it have hoods up and takeaway coffees in hand! Because it is biting cold.  I have a new hoodie, black with colour across it, I look like a monk with the hood up under my jacket hood. It's keeping my ears warm!

And a lazy evening reading Kate Humble (a lockdown favourite) " A year of Living Simply" Real comfort food for the soul.  I have two bunches of daffodils in my cheap and nasty vase - they look like fat yellow paintbrushes, colour laden but tightly furled up as yet.

Sitting at my kitchen table working for a living isn't my idea of fun, but I am so grateful I have a job this year, one where I am appreciated.

Two Twenty Three Virtual Reality

 Currently I am reading my way through Hosea.  It's probably something I should have thought about but my Bible notes suggest that Hosea's poor wife "has been set up to fail" perhaps - they are the sort of notes that ponder, gently. They suggest looking at the chapter through our own lens is probably what we all do - and how might it be through an abused woman/trans/non binary lens. Never occurred to me. Chapter 2:23 is the verse used for the LGBT gathering that I have had the privilege of attending once in person and now a few times online.

I was out most of the day yesterday, putting 10 miles down for my walking challenges, but early evening I caught up and was, as usual, moved by the talent, sensitivity and sheer joy in the worship and words of those whose hard work makes this possible.  Beautiful coloured candles and prayers which reflected their way through them.  I feel a part of this community somehow.  It's an honour and privilege to hear and see.

This morning I woke stiff from the walking and also from a week at a laptop seated on a kitchen chair.  Despite weekly pilates - I needed a good hot soak.  It was a dark, freezing morning. Sod it, I thought, if I park up in Sowton, I can go get a coffee and walk round the estate, try and get a couple of photos, put a mile or so more on the challenge pre church today.  It wasn't either exciting or safe - the roads and pavement were shining black ice - my car slid, I slid, mercifully the coffee didn't (did I mention the pain au chocolate that I couldn't resist?) Here are a couple of the fun things I saw.

A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step

 Not content with starting one challenge, I decided to add another, set to end on 31st December 2021! Lejog or Lands End to John O Groats strikes me as the sort of epic journey that friends with bikes or more leisure time and resources than me make.  But here I can virtually walk the length of Britain, which, as you can see from the postcards, is a very long way indeed.  

It's fun, during lockdown, to have something to aim for, something challenging and larger than the everyday round of wake/eat/pray-read/walk/work/watch TV/read and eat a bit more! SLEEP is the one I missed out here..

Whilst walking around town and then up above Pennsylvania on footpaths, about 8 miles in all, which I split between Hadrians Wall and Lejog challeges, it is nice to picture I am back walking along the wall as I did 5 years ago, or escaping the tawdriness of Lands End which I visited about 10 years ago on a walking holiday - in pouring rain, not even the miserable cafe was open. We walked on.