Doing the best that I can, at writing, running and living
What is written on the house are the first verse and last lines of the John Donne poem, 'The Sun Rising'. The house looks out to the east, just up from the tip of Dungeness, so they are fitting. You get the words as if in a whisper: they’re written in black letters against a black weatherboarded… Continue reading Kent – Prospect Cottage, Dungeness
Without primogeniture we would not have had the delightful grounds at Sissinghurst. So that is one tiny plus point to an arcane law that still exists for some English titles. Having spent the last half hour trying to work out if Vita could inherit Knole House if she were alive today, it appears that this… Continue reading Kent – Knole House
It’s a long drive down to Kent, especially when the heavens intermittently dump great vats of rain onto our little Toyota Yaris so that we need to crawl along with the wipers swishing diabolically. It was sometimes so loud that we had to pause the audio book that was playing in the car. It was… Continue reading Kent – Sissinghurst and Biddenden
I should have written last week’s efforts up in a blog of their own. At least then I could have had an upbeat training diary entry. I had happily managed around twenty-eight miles simply by knocking out lots of snail (Zone-2) running. I had felt no extra fatigue, and I had two pretty good threshold… Continue reading Half Training – Weeks 12 and 13
Alright. It is safe to say that I know diddly squat about running and how to work towards anything. Last week I was feeling somewhat sorry for myself in my blog and then this week I pull off something unexpected. (Sorry, I know that I’m writing this on the following Wednesday, because I’m a slacker,… Continue reading Half Training – Week Eleven: A 5K Race
‘You guys carry on. Please don’t wait for us.’ ‘Are you sure?’ asked Dave (Green I think or it could have been Dave Craddock). ‘Absolutely,' I said, and John was nodding vigorously in agreement. The thing about running in a group is that either you’re all going to be of a similar ish ability, or… Continue reading Half Training – Week Ten
It’s Monday. Two weeks since we drove down to London town to mind the dog, and two days before we drive ourselves back home again. I had enormous ambitions to stay on top of my running and my weights and my writing, and two of those ambitions have fallen by the wayside. Yet the dog has… Continue reading Half Training – (not really) London Town
On slow runs you have the time to admire the view - the 'Swiss Bridge' in Birkenhead Park Cut back week. Or is it? The mileage is down from last week but is knocking around the same ballpark as the previous two. I’m not quite sure if I want to increase to much more than… Continue reading Half Training – Week Seven
A tired smile at the end. I am currently lying down in a dark room with a wet flannel over my forehead. It’s not the most flattering look but it is, by far and away, the most comfortable place right now. A little recompense for putting my body through an almost literal grilling. The weather… Continue reading Half Training – Week 6 – Cheshire 10 Miler
:The Remarkable Fellowship of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien There is a poster on the wall in the downstairs toilet. It’s framed now but has the creases and watermarks from a long past and some rough handling. It advertises a radio serialisation of 'The Lord of the Rings' by the BBC in 1987. When our… Continue reading John Hendrix – The Mythmakers
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