Sunny Bank Holiday!

I can't remember when I took these but it wasn't too long ago. A lovely sunny evening dog walk.  It is one of our standard quick walks 40 minutes or so round the fields and back through the village. I love it, especially in the sunshine. 

I stood for ages at the stream watching a pair of dippers then realised that Minty was mesmerised by something in the other direction.  When I watched carefully I spotted a water vole paddling through the the plant life at the water's edge. Magical.  

Then up the hill to the stile before we cross the fields.

No sheep that day so the girls could stretch their legs.

Look at that sky!

Then we hit the village, cross the brook and walk back along the main road. We're so lucky to live here.

We played golf this afternoon in the gorgeous sunshine in the Bank Holiday mixed match.  We played with a married couple who we've played with before. She is a new golfer and he is a tad overbearing. She is well able to deal with him but golf is a funny game and leaves you curiously vulnerable and tetchy. So they had spats all round the course, mainly 'cos he kept telling her what to do then putting her in another bunker. It was quite funny (mostly) and I think we helped defuse some potential rows!

We don't row (much) on the course and, apart from a couple of poor holes, did pretty well so we were chuffed with a solid second place.

Combine that with fun company, an excellent meal and nice wine - well, it makes for  very pleasant Bank Holiday Monday.

Back to work tomorrow and meeting my pal Kerry for a walk afterwards so I'll try not to cry too much.

I'm still very jealous of Seren on holiday in Scotland. ...sulks....

Missing you

I've been thinking about my blog a lot over the last few weeks and have been getting closer to actually digging my laptop out of its pile of dusty rubbish and logging on again.  And now, here I am!

So, what's new??

My weight has "ballooned" I tells ya - over a stone on since my last weigh in although still over a stone off since the beginning of the year so I suppose that is progress of sorts.  I seemed to have stopped the rot and don't seem to be gaining on a weekly basis any more and in a week or so I'm starting a 12 week diet and exercise bootcamp so hopefully will start to head back in the right direction.

I'll update you on bootcamp once I get a proper handle on what is being required of me.  While I've read the rules, I suspect the true impact has not yet sunk in!  4 hours of tough exercise each week (2 of which must be with the bootcamp leader), no booze apart from with "treat meals" and a diet plan which I've not received yet.  Gulp.

In other news, my golfing handicap has "plummeted" I tells ya - I started the year at 16 and am now at my lowest ever - 13!!  As a result I'm loving golf and wanting to play all the time.  As a result I have a sore elbow (like tennis elbow but the other way around)!  Bloody typical.  So, I'm trying to limit my play and nurse the elbow through into winter when it can recover properly.  Boooo.

We haven't had a proper holiday this year yet but have managed a few weekends away and a long weekend in Portugal (Albufeira) a few weeks ago.  We had been wanting to go somewhere when Sheffield Wednesday announced their pre-season tour to Albufeira - well, it would have been rude not to! We sunbathed, ate (gorgeous food!), drank, played a couple of rounds of golf and, on the Sunday, dressed up in our Wednesday shirts and took over the main square with hundreds of other Wednesday nuts before heading out to the game.  It was great.

So, today's photos are of our pre-season trip to Portugal.  Aah...