Purple Rabbits!

Thought it's time I got this blog moving again with a curiosity. We are currently staying in Northamptonshire and found a pub last night called the Lilacs. We expected a trendy wine bar but no....it was a real village local. The name Lilacs has nothing to do with flowers but is the name of a local breed of rabbit which is evenly coloured lilac all over. These were bred over 100 years ago by a lady called Mabel Illingworth who also developed the Blue Imperial rabbit. Heaven's above, I wonder what they taste like! By the way the pub was OK - the Taylor's Landlord was not quite up to Keighley standard but the pub landlord was fully kilted up for a Burn's Night supper.


Been keeping up the running with a series of parkruns here there and everywhere. We were aiming for a parkrun in Huddersfield to join Vicky's sister on her parkrun debut (New Year's resolutions and all that!) but got well slowed down on the M62 and pulled off into Oldham to make the local parkrun reaching the start line with seconds to spare. Also managed parkruns in Warrington, Conwy and Bedford. In an attempt to get out of the parkrun rut, I located a Wednesday lunchtime cross country in Northampton (in January!!) I took my green Denbigh running vest along and duly entered at the specified location (Northamptonshire Police HQ) and found myself on the start line surrounded by over 100 runners with Northants Police, RAF, HM Prison Service and Fire Service running vests. This was a services/forces cross country league fixture, and I told them I'd run at Wormwood Scrubs a few weeks ago. I was quite happy to go up and collect a trophy at the end of the race; this was for second place however - the only other runner I knew there was former international Mike Hager, he won the British V60 5K last year in a time of 16.43 so no shame in coming second to him! He came 7th in 42.44, I was 53rd in 51.24.