Into the Smallest County

'Multum in Parvo' as any young Latin scholar should know (i.e. me, the Salford schoolboy from the sixties) basically means muchness in smallness. This is the motto of Rutland, the smallest county in England, and it was a delight to stay down here for a few days cos there is a lot here in a small space. Right in the middle is Rutland Water which is quite a large expanse of wetness that is home one of the few UK populations of breeding Ospreys - and, lo and behold, we were very privileged to see one! (This is not my photo I should hasten to add because I was driving as it flew close overhead - didn't look like a buzzard to me, much bigger, it wasn't a kite and our Lyndall confirmed our first sighting of an Osprey!)

Managed to get most of Peterborough Cathedral into this picture but it wasn't easy. This is right in the middle of a busy city full of shoppers and Peterborough United supporters on their way home, a little disgruntled after a final 0-0 draw against Port Vale - Alex Ferguson's son Darren's team have made the play offs but they've clearly got a lot to do to get past Orient, Rotherham and Preston to make it to the Championship. Not many people wandering round the very nice cathedral grounds though - more or less had it all to ourselves!

This is clearly a Dutch barge, how it ended up on the river in Peterborough as an Oakham Ales pub is anybody's guess but we were very happy to take full advantage. Oakham beers tend to be very hoppy and we weren't at all disappointed. Couldn't drink too many as we were on the run the following day (see below). This young lady posing in front is Scout, Lyndall's English Shepherd dog, a very proud individual who we babysat for for five months back in Llangynhafal and, once we'd cured her of her desire to make the acquaintance of sheep became my perfect running dog.

And here's the proof of the pudding - the Langtoft 10K prize mugs, Vicky was 1st L60, I was first V60 and Lyndall and James also had great runs out. I didn't quite manage to get under 42 mins but this was my quickest 10K for over 2 years (not that I've done many recently). Flat course but it was unexpectedly warm and humid. What we are enjoying is running where we haven't been before, on new courses where we don't know anyone else which sort of takes the pressure of and the race more enjoyable - next week we're racing in Devon!

And what else is there to do on a Bank Holiday but go to one of the stately homes of England. Burghley House near Stamford is one of the best. Here you can see that the very rich Lord Burghley has decided to economise with a very nice fuel efficient Hyundai Santa Fe which is parked outside his front door!

And finally to show that Smurf is still trolling around with us............