Getting back out there

This really has been a challenging year in so many different ways and my love of blogging has diminished somewhat but hey, there are things to share although nothing special on the crafting front as my knitting has been abandoned for a while.

This is because our darling, sweet Tilly cat did not receive the good news we'd prayed for. Her tumour was malignant and the disease can only be kept at bay for a finite time, poor darling. The knitting has been abandoned because every time I sit down she appears and snuggles onto my lap and although it was easy to knit with her there when the jumper was just started it is now too heavy to hold above her. For the moment she is still reasonably bright but it won't be long until she starts to fade and we have to make the dreaded phone call.

Whenever the weather has been bright and sunny we've taken a short walk together outside so she can nibble at some grass and roll in the catmint.

On the running front I've now managed 2 marathons since I last posted and each time, although it grumbles a bit towards the end of the run, my foot has recovered by the next day which is very encouraging.

Marathon number 164 was the Funky Pants Challenge so I wore these new leggings showing London Landmarks 'cos they're suitably funky! They're from Tikiboo who produce all manner of patterns. I don't normally go for anything especially funky but I wanted these as a memento of the London marathon.

My foot behaved quite well and only started to get a bit niggly in the last few miles, even better it felt fine the next day and this gave me a huge confidence boost.

When I saw Mary Massage lady a few days later I thought she might tell me off but she was delighted that it had gone so well. That being the case, I decided I needed another one just to be sure and this was down at Samphire Hoe which meant each lap was 2/3 concrete, 1/3 trail x 8 laps for marathon distance. You couldn't really get a better test!

It was lovely to catch up with some more running chums, some of whom hadn't seen me for 3 months and they started calling me "Half-a-Susie" 'cos of my change in shape from the 90 day challenge I've been doing (more on that in my next post as there are only 5 more days to go!). The weather was fine but cool with low cloud for a few hours and the usual bitter wind in one direction along the seawall. I wore my cowl over my mouth to help my breathing as that's one area in which I'm struggling at the moment as I seem to have lost some of my lung conditioning.

My foot let me know it wasn't especially fond of the concrete but didn't hurt enough for me to stop and it felt fine after an ice-bath followed by a hot soak.

The name of the event was the Crispathon, hence the cute medal, but I'm not allowed crisps so I made sure I stayed away from the aid station on each lap!

On the brighter days I've been enjoying making inroads on all the garden jobs I need to do but there really aren't enough daylight hours!

Corylopsis pauciflora, one of my favourite Spring-flowering shrubs

I love watching the fruit trees budding up and coming into flower:

Our clumps of Leucojums, aka Spring Snowflakes, are so big they need dividing when they've finished flowering

Pieris 'Mountian Fire' looking magnificent in the shady part of the front garden

Berberis Darwinnii is a magnet for pollinating insects

Around the patio I'm having a clear-out as the herb garden needed some serious rejuvenating. The only thing I've left in-situ is this prostrate Rosemary:

Tilly helped too!

Now I'll just let the soil settle for a short while before I plant some new goodies (all waiting patiently in their pots)

In fund-raising news I'm not far off my target now which is a relief as it's so hard to keep going back to the same people time and time again. However, I am blessed to have the most amazingly supportive friends and neighbours. I've also had a really good clear-out and sold my old coin collection which fetched much more than I'd expected plus I've received a couple of fees for speaking and doing market research.

We had to do a quick photo-shoot for ARUK as one of the photos they were using for a newsletter wasn't high res enough so I had the idea of me sitting underneath my medal haul 'cos the aim was to inspire others to have a go at fund-raising. I can't tell you how long it took to get a few photos 'cos the camera was playing up and Mike couldn't get it to focus properly so I was sitting there with a big smile on my face grumbling "Please hurry up, I can't hold this smile much longer!"

Next weekend I've got the Brighton marathon so I'm hoping the weather doesn't suddenly get too hot - last time I ran it they ran out of water early on and some of the slower runners really struggled.

Friday is the very last day of my 90 day challenge so I expect I'll be writing about it very soon and showing my before and after photos (eek!).