AAA Days

That would be me feeling Aged, Arthritic & Asthmatic! I really do not like triple A days and I wish they'd go away soon please.

Not a happy girl at the moment as my running is a bit of a battle between my will and my body. To take my mind off my poor running abilities I've been taking even more photos than usual. On my long run last week, 16.25 miles of cross-country, I thought about light and lines so the photos I'm sharing reflect those 2 themes.

An arc of light highlighting an archway

Pools of light peep through the barer branches

I love the way the branches form a tunnel on this downward section (that's never good as it means I'll have to come back up it on the way back home!)

I always enjoy this wooded pathway as it means I'm only 1 mile from home! The reason I've included this tree stump is because last winter the tree, a Sweet Chestnut, came down in the storms leaving this huge stump behind. Now it's resprouting. Clever old Nature!

This is what it looked like earlier this year 

I loved the light and shade on this old tree stump covered in moss

Looking down into a fast-flowing stream as it approached a weir and loving the movement of the grass

On the other side of the weir the patterns in the water were beautiful

I took this on my way out for my run which took me down into the valley and up the other side, way beyond the trees on the hill in the distance (it's always scary to see how far I've got to run!)

Taken at the point I was aiming for in the previous photo but this time I'm looking back towards home which is beyond that big clump of trees middle-left

The stripes of this apple orchard looked so perfect

These apple trees are completely different as the apples are for cider and so they aren't pruned in the same way.  When I first started to run off-road marathons, my first being Beachy Head which is HILLY, I asked permission from the owner to run up and down the lines of trees as practice and he agreed - there are 43 rows and it was jolly tough!

A juvenile planting of grape vines. It will be a few years before they are productive.

Rows of sweetcorn standing tall

Cobs ripening

Row after row of Hop bines. This area was mostly owned by Guinness, our land included, and hops were the main crop. The local steam railways still holds 'Hoppers weekends' each year for people who used to take their holidays here to pick the crop to come and reminisce

Close-up of the beautiful hops

On my way home I took a little detour around beautiful Bodiam Castle where the ducks were all sunning themselves

I was struck by the patterns on the top of this wall

Oh those beautiful reflections in the moat, along the side! The entrance to the castle doesn't catch the sun but early on Spring mornings, especially when it's misty,  you'll find a whole load of photographers trying to get that perfect shot of this view when the sun rises.

Now these photos were all from last Sunday when I really did have a tough run. Today I ran 19 miles, and hilly ones at that, without any problems. Fingers crossed it stays that way!