It's been all change this week here at Perratt towers, not only has the sun managed to come out on more than one occasion, but I've finally started my new job and along with it, a return to commuting to work by bike. It's only 11 miles each way so nothing to taxing, but at the end of the day it's free training, free travel (if you ignore the extra breakfast and wear and tear to the bike) and a great way to start the day. Well, I say it's a great way to start the day. It's great when the sun's shining and the birds are singing, like they have been this week. Maybe not quite so good when the winds throwing the rain in your face or there's snow on the ground. It's all good character building stuff though and well worth getting up 20 minutes earlier for! Having just said it's 11 miles, by taking a slightly different route and using a couple of footpaths you can get it down to exactly 10 miles and that brings it into early morning running territory. By Juggling car's and bikes during the week (not literally) I'd managed to line things to be able to run in on Friday morning and still have a way to get back home again, avoiding the normal, "now how do I get back home again issue". It's not every day that your cards come up trumps, but when I peered through the curtains at early O'Clock Friday morning I knew I'd got lucky. The wind that had whistled round the house all week had died away and there was a light frost glinting in the waning moonlight. Out of the house just after 6, the sun was just starting to make it's appearance in the Eastern sky, with the cold crisp air and limited lockdown traffic leaving the world still and calm. As I slowly headed towards work the sun slowly rose in front of me, glinting through the trees and bringing life to the frost covered fields, slowly probing with it's warming fingers into the shaded areas. Taking the quiet back roads through the sleeping, almost traffic free countryside left me with plenty of time to daydream and ponder the day ahead whilst admiring the world around me. Getting into work an hour and a half later I couldn't think of a better way to start the day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and I'd got 10 miles in my legs before most people had even got out of bed. What's not to like about that? And what a great way to start your day! Unfortunately, that's about it for this week as other commitments have prevented any adventuring or work on Project Patio. Typically, having slogged away out on the rain all winter, the week when I can't get anything done at home or on the allotment is the week that spring finally decides to rear it's head and we have a dry, warm and settled week. You couldn't make it up could you.
Oh well, there's always next week and things can only get better from here on in.
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Unusually Saturday saw both "The Emma" and I at home in the morning which presented the ideal opportunity to get in a bit of long running. "The Emma" was due at work in the afternoon, so with the weather looking better than it has done for ages I turned on all my charm and persuaded her to drop me off at Winchester on her way to work. From Winchester you can pick up the South Downs Way for a couple of miles, before diverting off to Alresford, from where you pick up parts of the Oxdrove Way and Wayfarer's Way, getting you almost all the way home. By the time you've actually got home, it's pretty much bang on 26 miles, the majority of which is off road and thus seemed like the ideal route for February's Marathon A Month effort. I'd walked this route back in 2019 on a cold and dark November evening, with a cheeky wee overnight bivvy (see Blog post) and from what I remembered it was fairly dry and not too muddy at the time. Having rained incessantly all week though I was prepared for the worst and with the later than usual start was fully equipped, with not only my normal first aid kit, extra jacket etc, but had lunch safely stowed in my back pack. It's not every day that you set out at the start of a Marathon planning to stop for lunch, but as far as I'm concerned any excuse to turn the normal into an adventure is worth taking and in the middle of winter, with the current lockdown restrictions in place, you need to grab every opportunity! "The Emma" kindly slowed the car just enough to push me out without major injury shortly after 11:00 too shakes of her head and shouts of "Idiot", before heading off to work, and I slowly picked my way through the car parks and housing estates to my planned start line. It's quite a climb from the start of the South Downs Way up onto the far end of the South Downs but once your up there it's worth it for the far reaching views back towards Winchester. With the cathedral poking it's head above the surrounding town it's quite a view when the weathers good. These magnificent buildings must have been quite a sight when they were first erected, standing tall and proud, against the skyline. No time for sightseeing today though, it's time to get moving. Following the South Downs Way for the first 6 or so miles, before diverting off towards Tichborne and it's 11th century church is pleasant running with the wind on my back. I've commented before on the difference the wind makes when your running, turning a pleasant jog into a real slog if it's in your face. No such problems today though and the miles are gently ticking off as I take in the views in the weak afternoon sun. The River Itchen flows steadily through Tichborne on its way to meet with the sea at Southampton and from there I briefly follow the Itchen Way an my way into Alresford, (another path that's on my to do list once the coronavirus palaver allows again). Alresford quickly arrives and along with it the first bit of road since I left Winchester. Coming shortly before the half way mark, Alresford seems like the first major milestone of the run ticked off. But it's a false sense of security, as I know from previous adventures that whilst I'm nearly half way, somehow it's all up hill from here! Picking my way through the throngs of Saturday shoppers and those wandering aimlessly around town, I briefly wonder if meeting your mates for a coffee whilst wandering around a packed high street strictly fit's into the meaning of going out for exercise? It's only a brief interlude into civilisation though and before long I'm heading back into the peace and solitude of the countryside and the Oxdrove Way. Once on the Oxdrove Way the routes a bit more familiar and I know that I'm onto home territory, with it being less that 13 miles to home from here. By now time was getting on, and having missed lunch (one of my 3 favourite meals of the day) my thoughts were lingering firmly on food. Cresting the first of the many climbs on this part of the route seemed like a good enough reason to give in to the hunger pangs and I paused for a few minutes to take in the view and grab a sandwich and hot cross bun (the running food of champions) from my bag. Hunger briefly sated and back on track, it's soon time to turn off the Oxdrove Way and onto the Wayfarer's Way. The Wayfarer's Way takes me to within a couple of miles from home, so although there's still a fair bit of uphill to come, it really feels like were on the home stretch now. By the time 22 miles came along I was starting to suffer. I definitely run better in the mornings, finding it a bit of a struggle mentally to keep going in the afternoons, and these big efforts are all in the head. I think that in the mornings not only does my body cope better with the eating and energy burn, but I seem better able too convince myself that it will soon be over and I'll be home for lunch. With a lunchtime start, the lack of a proper lunch, a lazy morning and knowing that there's not enough day left to do anything else, all conspire to make my mind think "enough, there's no point in this" and it becomes increasingly hard to put the suffering out of your mind. Once those dark thought's of "enough and stop" get a hold it becomes increasingly hard to push on! Push on I do though, and before long I'm on the outskirts of town. Just a couple more miles of road running to go and it will be brew O'clock. As I plod through the 24 mile mark I see the time click over the 4 hour mark, no PB today then, but considering the route, the stop for lunch and time of day I'm quite happy. As I reach home and slow to a stop one of the neighbours is just heading off to walk their dog and greets me with a cheery wave and a "been far"? I can see my nonchalant response of 26.5 miles slowly sink in as they start to say something else and then realise what I said and come back to check they heard me correctly! Maybe "The Emma's" not the only one that thinks I'm an idiot? But at the end of the day, and despite tired legs, that I know will be stiff in the morning, I've had a great day out. I've got muddy and wet in the couple of short showers, I've worn another hole in another pair if socks and I'll sleep well tonight (actually that's a lie because I never sleep that well after a big effort). But, I've been out in the fresh air all afternoon and maybe one day when I'm old and can't run anymore, I'll sit in front of the fire and remember the February day when I ran home from Winchester just because I could! After Saturdays efforts an easy day was on the cards for Sunday and with the weather unseasonably warm and dry for a change, a day on the allotment seemed like a good idea. Having lugged all the old paving slabs from Project Patio up there as they were removed from the back garden, I spent a couple of hours in the morning roughly laying them along the main paths and putting in a couple of new paths through the fruit cage. It's all a bit rustic and there only laid on bark chippings, but I'm hoping that as it settles I'll be able to level it out a bit better. Either way the slabs seem more stable than when they were in the back garden and being laid on a full bed of chippings are probably less likely to crack! I've taken a bit of a punt and sown the first of the spring seeds too. One of two things will happen, either they will germinate and I'll be ahead of the game, or they won't and I'll have to re-sow them! It's only Sweet Peas, Early Cabbage and more Broad Beans to replace the overwintering ones that have been annihilated by the cold snap, so nothing worth worrying about if they don't come up and there's plenty of time to sow them again if they don't germinate. To be honest, I'm quite pleased with how the plots looking this year. I seem to be on top of most of the little jobs that always need doing, and having got all the ground well dug in the Autumn it shouldn't need to much work over the coming months to get it ready for planting once the Spring finally arrives. In fact it was a lovely day to be up there. It was warm enough working in the winter sun, to be down to just my overalls and base layer at times, and with a couple of Robins hopping around for company, the local Red Kites soaring on the thermals coming off the nearby houses and the other little birds busy in the hedgerow it was a beautiful and productive day. In other news and as predicted last week, the cold snap played havoc with works on Project patio. As I'd mentioned it looked like the frost had got into the brickwork on the steps I built a few weeks back and on closer inspection things were worse than I first thought. I'd initially hoped that we would get away with cutting out the damaged pointing and reworking it. But, as I started poking around it became clear that the remaining moisture in the cement had fully frozen, cracking out the brickwork and leaving it loose and unstable. With no other real option I spent a good couple of hours at the start of the week knocking it all apart again and cleaning everything back to the foundations before rebuilding it all again! Not something I wanted to be doing and massively frustrating, the only saving grace being that as the cement had never fully set it was easy to clean off the bricks for reuse! In my annoyance I didn't get any pictures of the destruction and as it now looks exactly that same as it did before you'll just have to take my word for it. On a more positive note though, this weeks warmer weather seems to have done the trick and it looks and feels a lot better set this time around than previously, so hopefully that will be the end of that palaver! This will teach me won't it! A couple of weeks ago I commented on the fact that Spring appeared to be just around the corner and things were looking up (Blog - 31 Jan). Well, next time I open my big mouth will someone please tell me to shut up, as it would appear that as per usual, I was wrong. I don't think that the temperature has actually got above freezing this week and it's severely limited my adventures. In fact looking at the recently completed parts of Project Patio it's probably set things back quite a bit. I won't know for sure until it's fully thawed, but some of the pointing on the recently finished steps doesn't look too clever and the newly laid concrete around the gates taken a bit of a hammering. I'll get a better look once it warms up and dries out a bit but I suspect I will need to cut some of the pointing back out and redo it as a minimum! Oh well, these things are sent to try us and that's always the risk of trying to do any building work in the winter. So what have I been up too this week? Well, mostly hiding and shivering is the honest answer, although the cold, crisp and dry days have presented opportunity of their own. With it being so cold, a lot of the tracks and paths that are usually water logged and overly muddy at this time of year have frozen over, giving me the opportunity to get out and about without getting wet! Saturday, was a prime example of making hay whilst the sun shone (or in this case the ground was frozen) with an early start in the still freezing conditions presenting the opportunity for 16 miles of off road running fun, around what is normally a summer only route. The problem with these particular tracks in winter, is caused by the "off road driving fraternity" insisting that as its a Byway Open to All Traffic "BOAT" then they need to drive their off road cars and motorbikes down it as fast as possible, no matter what the weather or ground conditions present. Now don't get me wrong, I've got no problem with people enjoying the countryside, no matter how they choose to do that; be it running, walking, cycling, driving or on horse back. But when your chosen option is purposefully driving down a muddy track, wheel-spinning and turning the whole thing into a swamp and thus rendering it unpassable for anyone else, then personally I think that's a bit anti social! Anyhow, with the temperature at -4 a whole new world became my playground for a few chilly hours and although the wind was cold when it caught you in it's icy embrace the low humidity and the weak sun shining through the cloud cover actually made it quite pleasant out. Taking it slowly for fear of falling or breaking an ankle on the deep, frozen ruts and ridges, and tip-toeing gingerly over what I knew to be the deepest of the frozen puddles I was out for a good couple of hours and I don't think that in all that time I saw another person. I guess that I was the only one stupid enough to be up at an unreasonably early hour on a Saturday instead of hiding away watching TV and eating biscuits in front of the fire like the sensible people! It may have been cold, my fingers and toes certainly felt it, but it was certainly good to be out and made coming home to a brew and the chance to warm my chilly bits in front of the fire all the more enjoyable. Where shall we start this week then? How about Jam? Specifically Jam that probably counts as antique. What am I on about I hear you say? Well, hunting around for some Jam to put in my porridge Saturday morning I unearthed this little jar of home made Raspberry jam from the back of the larder. Now there's nothing unusual about old jars of jam being hidden in the back of the cupboard, I get as much enjoyment out of making things as I do eating them, so there's often a glut of things that get pushed to the back of the shelves only to be unearthed some time later. What's unusual about this one though is how old it is. I'd have to guess at an actual year, but I suspect this jar of jam is at least 10 years old! Whilst there's no date on the label, I know for a fact that I stopped using those labels, as they were a bugger to get off and expensive, and moved over to plain paper with a Cat logo for everything, at some point before 2011 and I suspect before that. So the big question is, is it still edible? Well, I'm still alive, and to be honest, it's delicious. I gave the jar a quick wipe to get rid of all the dust and spiders that were calling it home, popped the lid off and lifted the wax circle off the top and it looked and tasted just like it did the day it was made. As far as I'm aware the whole point of jam is to preserve the fruit and make it storable for the long term. Modern shop bought jam has a sell by date, a use by date and often instructions to keep it in the fridge and use within a week or so of opening. Not much use as a means of preserving then! But it just goes to show that if you make it properly, jam lasts indefinitely and still tastes as good as the summer day it was made, no matter how long ago that may have been! The weather forecast for Saturday looked like the best bet for getting in a few winter bike miles, so with a thermos full of porridge and antique Raspberry jam, I was up and out early, on what looked like it was going to be a lovely morning. The sun was shining when I left home, just starting to melt the overnight frost and with no wind I thought I was going to be in for a lovely day out. Unfortunately, by the time I'd got away from home and headed down towards Andover the mist had rolled in and the temperature had dropped considerably. In fact by the time I'd got as far as Whitchurch I was covered in a thin layer of frost. Now I'm not saying it was cold (in fact last weekend felt worse) but come on. I'm not the fastest or most energetic cyclist out there, more of a plodder than a racer, but surely I'm not supposed to be covered in frost! The mist hung heavy as I transited around the outside of Andover and the temperature dropped still further as I picked up the low laying Test Valley giving my winter cycling boots and gloves a serious testing and making me question my own sanity at times. Typically though, as I got back within a couple of miles of home the sun came back out and the temperature shot back up with it. I just bet that if I'd gone North instead of South I'd have had the sun all morning instead of 60 miles staring at a grey wall of mist. Oh well, character building stuff as they say! In other news, this little lot arrived courtesy of the postman this week. Give it another couple of weeks for the days to draw out a bit and the temperature to start creeping up and we'll be all systems grow. On that note, I'm still picking Leeks, Parsnips, Kale, Chard, Carrots (from tubs which I moved into the greenhouse before the first frosts), Sprouts, cabbage and the last of the beetroot. The freezer and store cupboards are still well stocked with allotment produce too, so we've not done too badly this year. Despite the combination of rain, snow, frost and just about everything else the God of weather's thrown on us this week I've still managed to get a few bits of Project Patio done. Once the concrete finally sets (if it ever sets) we will be able to get from the back door to the back gate without getting muddy for the first time in months which is real progress. I've also spent a few hours turning a pile of wood into a log store, which clears a bit of space to allow me to move onto finishing off the final area of garden. It's taken a while but I finally think that the end is in site now and another few good sessions will really see the back broken on this mammoth project, just in time for the better weather and a chance to enjoy my endeavours! It's not very often that I concede defeat or let the weather get the better of me but by Jove, Sunday was cold. We'd been forecast Rain and Snow overnight, so I was pleasantly surprised when I woke up to find it dry, overcast and cold. I lay in bed for a few minutes, trying to find the enthusiasm to drag myself out and start the day, listening to the wind whipping around the side of the house and whistling across the chimney pot. Despite the lack of snow it sounded cold out and leaving the safety of a warm bed took a bit longer than it does on a warm, sunny, summers morning. If I was going to get a run in before the rain arrived I needed to get on with it though, so I eventually dragged myself out of the warm bed and immediately considered getting back in. Taking a punt on the fact that the weather would be keeping most sensible people at home, I made the short trip up to Kingsclere for a few off road miles. My hunch proved correct, as the wind was blowing a hooley across the high ground, driving the already cold temperature even lower and making me think twice, let alone the normal people! I'm here now though and that's half the battle won, so hat, gloves, neck warmer, wrist warmers, leggings, thermal top, windproof jacket donned and a spare thick jacket in my bag along with first aid kit just in case, and I can't put it off any longer. It wasn't too bad with the wind on your back and in the sheltered bits, but by God, when the wind caught you head on or from the side you knew about it. I think the phrase "eye wateringly cold" was appropriate! Frozen fingers and toes and the thought of a brew and bit of lunch finally drove me home with 12 miles under my belt, so not a wasted morning by any stretch of the imagination, not the warmest of mornings either though. Back home, with thermals back on and a warm brew, I spent a while trying to summon up the courage to venture back out for a couple of hours on the allotment. Eventually running out of excuses I could put it off no longer. I'm pretty sure that it had got even colder and even in the sheltered corner of my plot it was just too much. I'm not ashamed to admit that I grabbed some carrots and parsnips for tea and beat a hasty retreat. Bravely legging it back home to sit if front of the fire warming my toes and dreaming of future adventures once the weather returns to normal service. It's pretty unusual, but on this occasion it's weather 1 – Paul 0! |
Paul PerrattOld enough to know better, young enough to still feel invincible, stupid enough to keep on trying the same thing again and again. Cyclist, Gardener, Runner, Hiker, Cook, Woodworker, Engineer, Jack of all trades and master of none, Anti social old git and all round miserable bugger. Archives
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