Wednesday 17 November 2010

Of squirrels, bears and breakfast

Busy, busy, busy. I've been working in Chester so haven't blogged. Sorry. I must tell you about my Sunday run. It was early, before breakfast and it was cold. In a Three Bears kind of way, the cloud was really low on the hills above me and the mist lay wet and heavy in the valley below me, but where I was it was just right!
I stayed on the road because everywhere was knee-deep in mud because of the recent rains. I ran up the hill, into the cloud - where the temperature dropped noticeably -  then contoured along a hill high above Kendal. The lane was running with water and it was littered with stony debris that had been washed from the fells and verges. The lane is bounded by moss-covered stone walls about shoulder-high. As I plodded along my eye was caught by a flash of movement. It was a grey squirrel, that ran alongside me for about 20m until the wall snaked round a tree, at which point it decided it had had enough of my wheezing and it disappeared up the tree. I tottered on. The lane steepened downwards and the air was full of the sound of streams rushing off the fell.
As I turned for home, the low, brassy, sun finally emerged from behind the cloud and backlit the mist, turning it into into sheets of gold. Beautiful.
As for the run? Well, I did it. It wasn't fast, my backside muscle still hasn't settled down and was aching a bit, but it is just such a delight to be out that I didn't really mind. I felt I'd earned my bacon and eggs!
Smileyrating: 7/10

3 comments:

  1. You were running before breakfast? Crikey, you're getting keen.
    Once when I was out running the guy in front of me frightened a grey squirrel that was feeding on the ground. It set off in a panic, ran up my leg, onto my shoulder and jumped off into a tree. An unusual wildlife 'encounter'!

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  2. sounds like you deserved a wee sausage to go with too

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