Things to marvel over on a Tuesday

• White horses carved into the hillside. I'd be hard pressed to draw that on a piece of paper.
• Impromptu acts of kindness. My new neighbour bringing me a bunch of sage from her garden this evening.
• The genorisity of those you have never met. Like Jules who is sending graham crackers and julochka who is putting up a host of bloggers for Blog Camp.
• A burgeoning sense of community. My street has decided to organise a street party this summer. Road closed, bunting, sausages, homemade cakes, kids activities, music - the works.
• A burgeoning sense of belonging here. In the blogging world that is. Looking forward to reading your comments and hearing what you are all doing, what you are laughing at, what games you are playing, what is making you sad or happy, what creative things you have been up to.
• Growing stuff. How something that looked so dead I was going to throw it away can now be so green and full of life.

• And how amazing the raindrops are on the leaves.

So tired I forgot to give this a title originally

As I write this post my feet are in a bowl of salted water. My brain has officially already gone to bed. I walked all day today. I ate two breakfasts, one lunch, one cake(I mean a whole cake not a slice of cake or a cupcake), one bag of crisps and I drank more than my own body weight in water. I have four blisters. I saw a white horse carved in the hillside, two lighthouses, some partridges (I think) and fields of poppies and daises. I am so tired that I can hardly think but I have all the happy endorphins rushing round so I am a little blissed out.

In this happy catatonic state I give you a short video clip of our very own Rambo hamster practising his maneouvres taken this weekend .

More coherent thoughts and words tomorrow.

Wild garlic and ducks

Black dog mood has completely dissipated. Walked it off. Swapped stories and laughter and gossip as we walked through the Sussex countryside. Tested our legs on some really steep climbs. Took in the views from the top which went far out to sea. Attempted to name the wildflowers and made up names for those we didn't. Got lost. Climbed through barbed wire. Laughed some more. Ate sweets. Ate bagels. Ate pasta. Ate crisps. Disturbed a flock of ducks in the long grass. Put on suncream. Put on jumpers. Put on sunglasses. Ate more sweets.

Found a wood filled with wild garlic. The white flowers climb the banks and carpet the floor. The deep smell of garlic hangs in the air sharpening our senses. Making us crave the taste.

Walking worries

I received a very disturbing e-mail today.

But before I launch into that I need to set the scene. I am a member of a walking group. Actually that sounds a bit formal. Me and three good friends go walking once a month and once a year we like to set ourselves a walking challenge. We kind of peaked the first year when we did trailwalker. The aim being to get your team of four 100km over the South Downs in under thirty hours. That's 63 miles with no sleeping. We did it in just over 29 hours. At this point I could wax lyrical about the highs (the camaraderie, the sunrise over the mist in the valley, the enormous sense of achievement) and the lows (the state of the toilets, the cramps, the blisters, the silent sobbing at 4am, what extreme endurance events do to your stomach hence the state of the toilets) but I shall refrain and simply say - great to have done it but NEVER EVER AGAIN.

Last year we attempted the Yorkshire Three Peaks and for the first time in the history of our walking challenges we didn't complete it. The weather was appalling and half way up the second peak I was blown over. Literally. At that point we decided to call it off after having visions of being trapped up there with only a dry stone wall for shelter and our rations dwindling to a bit of squashed Kendal Mint Cake which was sure to be lurking at the bottom of someones rucksack. We limped off the mountain in the driving rain (it almost goes without saying that we were at the furthest point away from the car)and began a very long, very wet, very depressing trudge back.

Safely back at the hotel, warm, dry and armed with a large tooth mug of wine each we vowed to return. So we are going back this year. The aim is to do the three mountains (23 miles) in under 12 hours. And this is the point where we get back to the e-mail. It transpires that my friends have been doing extra training. I am almost tempted to say extra secret training although to be fair they have all mentioned it before. Its just that its only just dawned on me that I have done nothing extra. Unless you can count my clothes shopping trip with eldest girl at the weekend as some sort of cross-training on the basis it involved walking round the shops and holding shopping bags?

We have a fifteen mile training walk on Sunday. Fingers crossed that I can keep up.