Getting Ready for Christmas

She's fourth from the left - if she'd put the beard on I wouldn't have known!

Vicky decided to do the local Bovey Tracey Santa Run instead of a parkrun - here she is in suitable attire with some of her friends. Several hundred santas and elves raised money for Whizzkids and the local lifesaving club.  This was a Santa Run with a difference as the run was followed by a dip in the open air swimming pool, heated specially for the occasion. Oh and lucky Vicky won a prize in the raffle - Mango Bathsalts!

Iceland's gone up in my estimation!

Two days to Christmas and we've got everything haven't we? Oh no where's the Christmas Pudding. Trip to Morrisons found us walking down an almost empty aisle looking up at some tiny, one mouthful puddings on the shelf. Oh the M and S Foodhall will have some surely..........nope, all that was left were some very expensive prosecco Christmas puddings. What a disaster, we walked back towards the car past Iceland feeling rather despondent, in desperation I turned back to Iceland and what a surprise! Not only did they have a great selection but there were plenty in store - we plumped for the brandy, sherry and cognac 12 month matured pud. Saved by Iceland!

Burning Cakes

What a nice day - not had many of these lately!

Whatever next? This is the Willow Cathedral at Longrun Meadow in Taunton. We'd just done a parkrun on a route that led straight past this tangle of willow trees artfully woven to form an outdoor function area. The willow was harvested from the Somerset Levels, an extensive area of marshland nearby, in the middle of the marshes is a bit of an island called Athelney - this is where King Alfred took refuge from the invading Vikings in the ninth century and burnt his cakes; however he returned rekindled in spirit to defeat his enemy and bring peace to the country. Needless to say I'd not spotted the Willow Cathedral as I ran past but we took Skip for a stroll round and here we found it. It must look quite different in its summer plumage - which of course gives us an excuse to come back, it's a nice flat run although the trail is a bit lumpy - there's a good cafe as well!

White Nancy, a famous Cheshire landmark,  sticks out on the top of Kerridge Ridge near Macclesfield and is visible for many miles across the Cheshire plain. It was built to commemorate the victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1812 and every year the Moscow Symphony Orchestra assemble here to play the 1812 Overture using real cannons aimed at Liverpool. No I made up that last bit sorry; the date of Waterloo was 1815 and White Nancy was built in 1817 to celebrate the end of the Napoleonic Wars. We'd been in Macclesfield for a particularly sad funeral and I'd revisited old haunts with a run up the hill to raise my spirits. The photo was taken by a couple of runners who'd had the same idea and they were able to save me having to take a selfie. As an aside White Nancy is not always all white and in 2014 there was a red poppy painted on its face!

Winter comes to Devon

Right where's me skis!

So back to the UK and away from that lovely tropical climate down under - and 'Oh Dear!' we've come across some interesting weather in early November, this is Dartmoor at Haytor Rocks (in the background in this photo) on the Eastern side of the moor. I was well wrapped up and the climb warmed us somewhat but the feet got a bit cold. I had decided to wear Inov8 X-claws which were great for grip especially coming down but my extremities were clearly not yet acclimatised to the rigors of our part of the Northern hemisphere. And of course we've returned to the weekly grind - several very wet and windy parkruns in the past few weeks have seen us getting soaked and slathered with mud - still we have to keep at it - use it or lose it!

Plug through the mud!

But what's this - a ray of sunshine and a run in the sun. The Templer Way is nothing to do with the Knights Templar, rather it's the route by which Dartmoor granite was taken down to the docks at Teignmouth on the coast, (Templer was the name of the chappie who built the route and owned the quarries). And part of the trail is used as the basis for the Templer 10, a regular off road November race popular with local running clubs - and the first time I wore the local colours of Bovey Runners. Arriving at the start we found that the race was being shortened to 8 miles due to part of the course being flooded - no skin off my nose however as I enjoyed the mud and sun, and I managed to pick up a dinky trophy for being second in my age group. Strange to pass spectators saying 'Keep going on Bovey!' and 'Come on my lovely!'

The best pints we've found down here so far have been at The Taphouse in Newton Abbot - and here's a picture of it. Well the pub actually occupies a small segment of this magnificent building. This is Tuckers Maltings which sadly closed down last year after over a century of sprouting barley to create malt for brewers in the South East of England and further afield. Fortunately for us the bar serves a range of fine ales - can't be bad!