family doings

The break from running is working well and I am beginning to itch to get out again.  I was hoping that would happen and it has.  Going to leave it another week or so and then go out again.
Had a very busy time again recently though, including a great week at the Keswick Christian Convention in the Lake District.
We attended a lovely wedding on 19th July of the daughter of some good friends.  The bride is also one of the coaches of the swim club where our three young children swim and the photo below shows some of the club with the happy couple.

It was a really hot day and we all went back to the bride's parents home for photos and drinks.  It was really hot in the garden and I wondered how the groom managed in his kilt.

The photo below is of our friends and all their family.  The bridesmaids dresses look orange here but they were really a lovely coral pink colour.

The reception was at a local hotel.  Rick and I attended the meal and then 23yos, 14yos, 12yod and 7yos came to the ceilidh in the evening.  Below is 12yod with the couple.  She really gets on well with Ruth and was delighted by how lovely she looked in her lacy dress.

23yos met some friends he hadn't seen for a while including one who had just had this lovely baby.  23yos has spent a lot of time with babies over the years, having so many siblings helps with this........

The day after the wedding we went to the Keswick Convention and had a great week with lots of good Bible teaching and good times with friends.  The weather was great, if a bit too hot, with a couple of great thunder storms.  What a great week....really refreshing.  Below is Rick making an unusual use of an umbrella in the UK.

8 yos had his birthday the day we went to Keswick.  He got this football strip as well as other things.  Here he is enjoying his birthday cake, even though he couldn't blow out the candles because the breeze kept blowing them out!!

Here is our tent, up and ready for action.  Our friend Sheila came with us as usual.

8yos made friends really easily as usual and spent lots of time playing on the field in the middle of the camp ground.  

Rick making the tea.  He is such a good man.

Below is the view from our tent.  Sitting outside the tent in the late afternoons, I really appreciated being there and the great outdoors.  Part of the Bible teaching was on Creation and where better to learn about that than in the beautiful Lake District.

My Ultra Hubby

We have had another extremely busy week but good and fulfilling as well.  We are certainly enjoying the good weather and long may it continue.  Next week we are away camping and it would be great to have good weather for that.

I had the first two days of the week off work and we managed to get lots done.  It was great to be at home with everyone as well.  

I really like the photo above.  They are great pals.

19yos left on Thursday to work in an international summer school in North Yorkshire for three weeks.  He will be helping with all sorts of things, as well as using his lifeguard certificate to keep the children safe in the swimming pool

On Friday evening we were at a 21st birthday party of a friend here in Newton Stewart.  It was a ceilidh and we had a great time.  I LOVE ceilidhs.  It was great to see our friend in her wheelchair managing all the twists and turns.  We all had a great time even though we had to leave a little early as we were heading off at 0600 the next day.

The next morning Rick and I and the the youngest children set off for Glasgow.  Rick was running a 40 mile race and I and the 3 children were helping 22yos to move from Glasgow to his new flat in Edinburgh.  We dropped Rick off at his race start and then headed over to the student accommodation to move 22yos out.  It didn't take us long as he had already packed up.  Here he is outside the building.

When we are near a city we always have to cram some shopping in as I don't like shopping and would never travel up there just to shop.  So we did our essential shop and then went to the Riverside Museum for 7yos to see the transport part of it.  We only had about 45 minutes there unfortunately before we had to set off for Edinburgh.

We then took 22yos to his new place in Edinburgh, sorted out the paperwork with the landlord, which seemed to take ages, off loaded the van and then headed out to pick up Rick from the end of his ultra marathon.  He had run an incredible race - came 4th out of about 120, and in a brilliant time which I think even he was pleased with.  It had been a scorching hot day and he had been running into the sun the whole time so it wasn't the easiest ultra he has run.  He is amazing.

So it was a very busy day with lots of us doing lots of things.  We went to McDonalds for tea which is a rare event for us, and got home really quite late.
Thankfully, on Sunday, we had been invited out for lunch to friends and to take advantage of the lovely summer we are having it was laid out on the lawn.  I so much appreciate and enjoy going out to friends for a meal as it means I don't have to cook!  Lovely time.

The joys of summer.  Another busy week ahead but it keeps me out of mischeif!!

More family happenings and too hot to run!!

I haven't managed to get much running in at all recently.  I worked 38 hours last week and this week it is just too hot.  I have two days off this week after working both Saturday and Sunday.
We have had some great times though.  I love this weather where we can eat all meals outside and just leave all the doors open.
Last Tuesday Rick did some painting on our outbuilding and back porch and 12yod helped him.  I decided to spend the afternoon giving new life to one of our old chairs by decoupaging it.

I am loving this hot weather....long may it continue, even if I can't run in it.  We went to the beach last night and had a BBQ.  Lovely time and by the time we got there at 1730 most people had gone home for their tea.  That's definitely the way to do it......wait until the holidaymakers have gone home and then head down to the beach!

I wasn't working today and so this afternoon we decided to head out and get some elderflowers so Rick and the children can make elderflower cordial tomorrow while I am at work.  We gathered over 200 heads......

.The two pictures below are of parts of our garden.  I love summer

my longest run yet and other events

It has been a good week again.  Work has been busy but thoroughly enjoyable.  The weather has been more mixed but that hasn't mattered really.  14yos had his last week in school before the summer holidays and seems to have settled in really well.
I did a 5 mile forest run with my friend Marie on Tuesday evening which was good.  My hip seems to have fully recovered now so I am pleased with that.
The highlight of the week was yesterday.  All the younger children were either going to camp for a week or staying with a friend.  We set off early on Saturday morning to drop them off to make the journey to the camp and then Rick and I headed up north to Balmaha so we could do a long run on the West Highland Way.  We had a wonderful day.  We set off from Balmaha together, although of course didn't stay together. We were to run for 5 hours - 2.5 out and 2.5 back.  It is quite a tough run - lots of rocky ascents and descents as well as some lovely stretches right along the shore.

This picture is one of the first I took where you run near a campsite next to the loch.  This view is north.

This view is south from the same spot.  The weather was ideal for me running.  It wasn't too hot but it didn't actually rain at all.  At first I wondered if the cloud would be low so I would miss the views but that wasn't the case.

The photo above is the only one I got of any part of me.  I meant to ask Rick to take a photo of me at the finish but I was so shattered I forgot.  I also forgot that I can turn my phone around and take a photo of myself but then it might not have been a pretty sight!

This photo is just after quite a rocky steep ascent which wasn't at all easy.  When I was going through these forest areas, quite alone, the sounds of the birds were amazing - some I really could not identify.  It was almost like the sounds of a rainforest.  The wild flowers were lovely too.  I cannot really describe how much I loved this run.  There were a number of walkers out although there were long periods where I didn't see anyone.

I ran out for 8.75 miles and then back again.  This photo is just before my turn around point. The midges were out in force but they left me alone until I stopped.  I had my 2 pieces of cadburys dairy milk here and then pushed on to the turn around point.

Running back past the lake I took this photo when I had my cereal bar but didn't stop long - had to out run those midges!!

On the stretch above I didn't see anyone for around 6 miles and it was a wonderful feeling to be out alone in these conditions.  The views were lovely although by this time the mist was starting to come down.  There was lots of thinking time which I enjoy and I sure do love heading out alone and just doing what I can, enjoying the solitude and the beauty of creation.  The West Highland Way is a wonderful place - almost magical in parts - away from the campsites and visitors centres - and I would love the opportunity to run more of it.  One thing I have decided is that, for now, I just want to go on my own long runs, probably while Rick is training.  I am so busy with work and it is not fair on the children for me to devote serious training days, and actually, I was feeling the pressure of that.  So I made the decision that I will just run without the pressure of doing an official race.  Therefore, I will marshal at Rick's ultras and try and run some training runs at the same time as him for the sheer pleasure of it.  Next year I will run in a relay on the West Highland Way and take it from there.  Pressure off and enjoyment on!