Walk to Work Week

Today I had a micro-adventure as I walked from Chorlton to my studio at Hot Bed Press in Salford. It took freaking ages and wasn't very scenic as I didn't want to have yet another strange canal-side experience. I did enjoy it though, I saw some new sights and popped into Ordsall Hall on my way past, I'd never been there before, pretty amazing building.

I drew for a few hours in my studio then walked to the Craft Centre. It was a gloriously sunny day by then, typical eh? I'm an now exhausted. I don't know how many miles I walked but it was enough! I escaped town via tram to avoid the City parade. Silly football.

This is a very picture-heavy blog post. Also hyphen-heavy, I'm not really sure why. I think I need to brush up on my grammar skills. Now I'm off to be warm and dry, I'm still ill and I have a 10k race on Sunday. Wah! Vicks Vaporub, don't fail me now!

I thought I'd walk down my old street to stir up some fond memories and then through Longford Park for scenic fun.

It started hailing about 10 minutes after I leave the house.

 A patch of blue sky!

 The gloomy glory of Longford Park.

 Criss cross patterns caused by a tree growing into a fence

 Old Trafford cricket ground

 Kellogg's factory. Nice, isn't it?

 Polis.

 Throstle's Nest Bridge

 Ordsall Hall, Tudor manor house

Ordsall Hall

 Slightly spooky exhibition in the roof space. I was a tiny bit afraid.

 Quack quack.

New sketchbook joy.

Local History Month

I live in Chorlton, a suburb of South Manchester. It's very nice and I feel extremely fortunate to live here.
A few groovy things about Chorlton - Cosgrove Hall used to be based here and I know a couple of people who worked there on various animations, notably the lovely Andrea Lord of &made and Luke Marsh.
I once queued up behind Bez at the fishmongers. He was buying salmon. Badly Drawn Boy once nearly mowed me and my friend down in his car.

Aside from that, I don't really know that much about the history of the area. There's a really beautiful park about 10 minutes away from my house called Longford Park, which was founded by John Rylands of John Rylands Library fame. He used to live in a big old grand house which he built, it's no longer there, just an archway remains. I like to go running there, it's so pretty, birds a-plently to be spotted. There's also a gym and athletics track, where I have spent many a painful hour being shouted at and doing multiple weak lunges. My house is very close to Chorlton Ees too, great for walking, running and cycling. You can get to Dunham Massey and Lymm via the Trans Pennine Trail, it's flipping great!

 The canal at Stretford.

River Mersey.

Chorlton Water Park last Summer.

The end of Juneathon, but not the end of the road!

The last day of Juneathon! I've really enjoyed it, despite a slight wobble last week. But even in the wobbly times, there are things to be learnt. Setting goals, achieving them, then moving on to new ones. Realising that I can do it, that I am strong. Thank you legs! Joining the Chorlton Runners was the best decision, it has really helped me to run further than I've run before - 14 kilometres this morning to be precise! Juneathon may be over, but my training is not, I hope to keep up the motivation and positivity over the next few months until the big day arrives.

I just need to remember that when doubts and excuses rise up, the best thing to do is put your trainers on. And go for a run.

2 weeks in to Juneathon!

Did my 8k route slightly faster than Wednesday this morning, hurrah! Then I went to a much-needed Pilates class. My hip gives me quite a lot of pain, so it's becoming more important to keep limber with all the running I'm doing.

I go to a beginners/mixed ability class led by the very lovely Jo Murphy. Feel so much better after a good stretch!

Feel pretty proud of myself for getting 2 weeks into Juneathon - I've only missed one day of exercise! To be honest, keeping up with the blogging feels more challenging than getting out and doing something. Remembering to take photos, uploading them and finally thinking of something interesting to write! I always seem to think of lots of things when I'm out running, then they all escape my mind when I sit down to write. Hey ho. Anyway,this seems like a good juncture to remind anyone reading that I'm doing all this to help my training for the Great North Run and to put up the link to my JustGiving page! I'm raising money for Diabetes UK, a very worthy cause. Any amount is very much appreciated and will spur my little legs on!

This is where I go to Pilates class!

Chorlton Runners

First ever club run! I flipping did it you guys! I got up early and had a smoothie and lots of water. Cycled down to the waterpark car park and waited around nervously. A group of super-fit guys came running in, so I commenced lurking. Then a nice lady came over (Nicole?) and introduced herself. I was in! Then my pal Paul arrived and I started to feel better. There was quite a big, mixed group of folk, we did a gentle warm up and a mile trot round the lake. Then the group split, I went for the short run round Sale waterpark, about 5 miles I think. So a pretty good distance, more than I would have done on my own and a lot more enjoyable, chatting to new people. I'm going again on Tuesday night and am pretty tempted by track Fridays! Good to try something new eh?

My sister recommended Running Like a Girl by Alexandra Heminsley, really enjoying reading it so far. I just read on Twitter that there's a Mexican street food van around today, so think I'll go grab a quesadilla and sit in the park reading. Happy Sunday!

You can just make out a swan with cygnets in the background.

Thank god Gino was still waiting for me when I came back. He doesn't usually live outside, too precious!

Really lovely, friendly group of people!

Summer time skive.

I was naughty this evening and skipped yoga class in favour of a walk down the river and glass of wine outside the pub with Andrew. But that doesn't mean no exercise! I cycled to and from the studio today, it's about 5 miles each way, so I don't feel too guilty! Stupidly forgot my camera and tripod, so couldn't do any photography experiments, what a dunder head. Ah well, mañana.

As we were walking home, we both noticed lots of massive webs in the trees, at first I thought they had huge spiders in them, but they were actually full of tiny caterpillars, writhing around. Mmm, good old nature!

Hiya! 

Peaceful times.

Late summer sun on the Mersey.

Lovely pink hawthorns.

Creepy crawlies!

Extreme close up. Shame you can't see the writhing action.

Gotta make the most of summer days while they're here I say!

Wednesday Whizzy

After a slightly later start than intended (crap nights sleep) I chugged down some sort of super-smoothie and laced up my sneaks. I'd already mapped out an 8k route by the river, round Chorlton Water Park and back. I started out thinking, 'hmm, maybe I could just do 6k and work up to 8', but I kept going and started to actually enjoy it! Woo! My reward was spotting some little mystery fledglings, goldfinches and a heron! One of my personal favourites. I didn't want to stop running in case I crumpled to the ground, so no photos, but here are some snaps of things I've been working on. I'm excited to go to the studio tomorrow as my light tent and lights have arrived, fingers crossed for mega professional photos!

Monsieur Le Fox in printy progress

Monsieur Le Fox bibs

Printing up little robots

It's a...FROG!

Froggy bibs

Printing bunnies

Fox posters, freshly printed!

Juneathon No. 1!

 Good morning! Today is the 1st of June and thus the beggining of Juneathon. I saw it mentioned on Twitter and thought it seemed like a bit of fun (?!). Maybe I was still on a high after the Great Manchester 10k. Basically you do some form of exercise everyday in June and blog about it. I'm training for the Great North Run in September so it will hopefully spur me on for my first ever half marathon and also breathe a bit of life back into my poor old bloggy.

Beautiful day for it! I got up early and set out for my 5k route - walking 5 minutes from my flat to Longford Park. Not a cloud in the sky! I decided to run free and easy, with no headphones so I could enjoy the birdsong.

If only my legs were this long in real life. I headed up towards Streford to get onto the canal.

I didn't see my old pals/arch enemies the Canada geese this morning, so didn't have to fear ending up in the canal.

I always think this looks very British! Anyways, I popped off the canal onto Hawthorne Lane and through the ees then back home. An enjoyable 30 minute jog.

If you would like to sponsor me for the Great North Run, my Just Giving page is here. I'm raising money for Diabetes UK.

Off to Darlo today, as my Auntie and Uncle are visiting from Mexico! They only come over about once a decade, so I'm very excited.