In an English Country Garden (plus bits and bobs)

Did you read that and start singing the song?  I certainly did as I typed!  This is a mish-mash of a few garden visits and other random stuff starting with a tank:

Traviss likes to stick a small tank somewhere on any of the girly type medals to make them more manly so Rachel let him have a whole series of different coloured tanks for this event!

Traviss and Rachel had organised a 10in10 event which meant people could choose to run as far as they wished within the time limit each day for 10 days.  Yes, of course it's bonkers but there were nearly 40 takers who achieved epicness.  I was not that bonkers and had planned 3 days of ultra marathoning until life intervened and I ended up doing just 1 marathon on a very hot and humid day which I found quite tough as my breathing was rubbish.  It was nice to catch up with some friends though and it took me to marathon 155 in a sluggish 5:42:59.

I've been doing a lot of work in the garden which has caused the arthritis in my fingers, wrists and ankles to flare up with a vengeance but I'm determined not to let it beat me so I made a start on my next knitting project of the Allie Shawl which I mentioned previously.  There isn't much to show yet but as a 'process' knitter (I actually enjoy the knitting itself more than the finished article!) I'm enjoying the mosaic stitch enormously.

This is the right side - I used an i-cord cast on, rather than the picot edging in the pattern, as I noticed someone else had used that and although it takes longer to do it looks so neat and I'll do an i-cord bind-off too.

Wrong side

I'm trying gypsythedog's (great nickname!) 3 stitch edging as I thought it looked nice

Now for some glorious gardens we've visited recently.  I'll have to keep the words to a minimum or I'll never get through them all:

Great Maytham Hall

These gardens are famous for inspiring Frances Hodgson-Burnet to write 'The Secret Garden' and we've been meaning to visit for ages.  I also took part in a mystery KAL back in 2014 when I produced these mittens inspired by the story.

If you click on the link in the heading you'll see that it has been divided into luxurious apartments and you get some views of the gardens from above.

Converted stables and outbuildings

Entering part of the beautiful walled garden which was the inspiration for the novel

A very friendly cat, obviously used to seeing strangers in his patch

Oooh, I could have a sewing room there!

The walls were smothered in massive Wisterias and I'd never seen to many huge seedpods before

Look at the thickness of that trunk!

What a fabulous pergola walkway

I haven't grown Limonium, aka Sea Lavender, for many years and I took this to remind me to sow some for next year as its great in dried flower arrangements

These Anemones were nearly as tall as Mike grown in this protective environment (I had wall envy after this visit!)

The back of the house - there's a miniature golf course on the lawn!

There were 3 brick columns which looked as if there should have been a sculptures on top

I took this to remind me I liked the contrast of the variegated Iris against the dark Bugle underneath

There quite a few areas marked 'private' and I loved peeping into intimate areas such as this one

Two local gardens open under the National Garden Scheme

There were 4 gardens open in a village nearby; 2 of them interested me very much whilst the other 2 not so much and as it was a very hot day we just did the most interesting ones.

Our first visit was to Frewen College which we've visited to hear classical music concerts but had never seen the gardens.  It's a beautiful building, see below from the rear.

The gardens weren't exceptional, but it was nice to explore them, however, the next garden most certainly was!  To reach it we had a short walk along the main road and then we entered a garden I've peeped into each time I've run past there but I had no idea just how gorgeous it was:

What a beautiful lace-cap Hydrangea with florets bigger than my hand

Viburnum Opulus, the aptly-named 'Snowball tree'!

This Rhus typhina, aka Stag's horn Sumac, stopped me in my tracks

Isn't that gorgeous!  The leaves turn a brilliant red in Autumn too.

I've got serious conservatory envy here!  I also got Greenhouse envy later on but didn't take a photo of them (yes, they had more than one and they were beautiful).

There were fabulous touches like this everywhere - just a small recess in a close-clipped hedge

I managed to catch this Dragonfly ovipositing her eggs on some pond weed

I took this to remind me to transplant our Thalictrums in Autumn as they aren't happy where they in the front garden.

That was a real gem and I'm so glad we got to look round it at last.  There are more to come but this post is getting far too long so I'll save them for another day.

A bit more running.......

Time is slipping through my fingers so quickly at the moment and I really can't keep up with everything.  Garden visits, marathons, speaking about dementia to small groups, home stuff.  There's just too much to write about so I shall have to be selective.

First there was an unexpected trophy - I came first in my age category at the Chislehurst Marathon at the end of July!  I spotted it in the results and I also saw that one of my running friends, Theresa, had also won her age category and as she lived nearby she very kindly collected it for me and saved it until we met up again.

It's about 22cm high

Then there was an unexpected marathon.  One of my running chums posted a link to the event on her Facebook page and as it was only about 20 miles away I went and had a look and decided that I'd do it if the weather cooled down a bit, which it did and so I found  myself at the start of the Owler marathon on the 12th August.

I'd never come across the organisers, Tri spirit events, before but they seemed nice and friendly so as it was a bit cooler I headed off there to enter on the day.  It started and finished in a sports stadium and I wasn't expecting to see anyone I knew as I knew many were up in the Midlands doing a series of marathons so I was delighted to see 6 familiar friendly faces 4 of whom were 100 Club members.

I was a bit nervous at the start when I saw how few runners there were - 21 and one of them dropped out so only 20 of us finished!  The event hadn't appeared on the list on the club page so I suggested to Liz, one of the team, that she let one of us know when they hold their next event as they would get many more entrants that way.

I made the decision not to take my camera with me as I knew I'd waste lots of time taking photos and I also realised that this might be my first finish in last place and I wasn't wrong!

I positioned myself right at the back and when we set off at a much faster pace than I would have liked and after the first 3 miles I made the decision to just run my own race at my own pace and let the speedy people do their own speedy thing.

The following photos have all come courtesy of Gavin, aka Pit Stop Crew who I hadn't seen for many years.  11 years actually at the Kent 50 where I was doing my 50th birthday challenge and his young lad took a lovely photo of me.  If you follow the link you'll also see Gavin sporting his PSC tee shirt in one of the last few photos.

I ordered several photos of this event to put on my blog and he very generously declined payment and even threw in some extras because sadly his life has been touched by dementia and he was pleased that I'm still fund-raising for ARUK.  Thank you so much Gavin xxx

This is the smallest field of marathon runners I've ever been with (21 started and 20 finished)

Off we went along a small section of the track then headed off across some fields

As we left the stadium we entered Conningbrook Lakes Country Park where there was a huge lake which used to be a gravel extraction pit.  There was plenty of new build houses alongside which looked interesting but the downside was the noise from the M20 was really loud.  There was lots to see in this part but I had to keep my wits about me as there sere sections of tree roots and that means faceplant potential in my book.

The route was remarkably well marked with very friendly marshalls at key point together with lots of aid stations supplying water/coke/jelly babies/etc.  Although I had my soft flasks full of water, for some reason I picked up a cup of Coke and some jelly babies each time so was absolutely buzzing with a sugar high by the end of it as I never usually partake of either!  It was 2 laps for a marathon  and there was a half marathon and a 10k going on at the same time so there were plenty of people around.

After we'd left the country park we were on quiet, mostly gently undulating lanes, with a couple of steeper ones thrown in for good measure, and there were some lovely views.  I was delighted to spot the cross on the hillside that I saw at the A20 Path 'n' Downs marathon back in 2016.  We also passed through Brook village and I had a moment of deja vue as I ran past a house we'd looked at before we moved to our current house.

It was rather humid and I noticed that my breathing was a bit laboured (stupid asthma doesn't like high humidity!) but I refused to walk up the hills even though some people did but I changed my mind when we got to a much steeper hill!  That's where I caught up with Vicky and Cara who were run/walking and we played leapfrog throughout (I overtook them when they walked and then they overtook me when they ran) and they very kindly kept checking I was OK and even waited to see me finish which was nice.

I mentioned earlier that I thought I was going to finish last and I did but, do you know what,  I got the best reception ever from all the marshalls.  As I passed each of them at their respective positions I apologised for keeping them waiting and they were all really supportive and kind.  Liz, the Race Director, was driving round checking we tail-enders were OK and as I passed each aid station they were able to start packing up but they didn't make me feel awkward, quite the reverse.

At the finish we got to run around the track and not surprisingly the stadium was empty except for Vicky and Cara together with an elderly man and woman so I did a bit of showboating to the empty stands which unbeknown to me was captured by Gavin!

All the marshalls gave me a massive cheer as I rounded the corner

We got a useful cloth bag with some goodies inside together with an owl medal which was sweet.   When I saw the bag I immediately thought 'knitting project bag' as it's a good size!

That was marathon 154 completed in 5:19:48 so although I came last it wasn't too shabby a time.  All in all a very nice and well organised event which I would do again.  There is another one in Autumn but I've already got something else booked. 

I will try and add some other things next week as there's already another marathon done with one more to do this weekend and we've visited another garden that was open for charity and and and..........  I'll leave this post with some photos of a beautiful golden sunset we watched as we sat outside waiting for Mr Snuffles the badger to visit:

Gotcha!

My quest to actually get a decent photo of our foxy visitor is finally over.  He appeared out of the blue as Tilly was lying in the doorway of the music room with the patio doors flung wide open and I happened to walk past on my way to grab a coffee.  He stood in the middle of the lawn and stared at us.  We stared back, trying not to move an inch, then as quickly as he'd appeared he disappeared into the undergrowth   I didn't have the camera with me so I thought it was a missed opportunity.

I grabbed my coffee and stuck the camera in my pocket just in case he reappeared then sat working on my Frida's Flowers (photos later).  Soon after I'd sat down he made his appearance (sorry they're a teeny bit fuzzy but I was on full zoom):

He loves going scrumping for windfalls in the orchard but he also enjoys jumping up at the lower branches to make the fruit fall!

Now back to Frida's Flowers which is all joined together and just needs the edging finishing:

After trying several different joins I opted for a flat seam as I felt the raised/decorative joins made it look overly fussy

This is what it looks like on the reverse as you just work into the bottom loops and don't see any of the stitches on the right side.

We draped it over the back of the chair to see which way round we preferred it:

Can you imagine the fun Tilly the cat would have with dangly tassels hanging from the points?!

This was our preferred orientation

I wondered about doing a fancy border but thought it would take the attention away from the motifs so am just doing a plain stripey border as Jane's instructions suggest.  I'm using the navy for the first and last stripes with bright red and salmony pink inbetween.  It's nearly finished so just needs a quick soaking and blocking.