King Curtis

A lovely weekend in the country!

We spent the weekend at Dave and Sara's house-sitting and looking after the animals on their smallholding. They have two pigs that needed feeding twice a day (my favourite job), geese to feed in the morning, two farm cats to keep an eye on, plus chickens (we had fried eggs for breakfast on Sunday, which were still warm when we collected them and had the most wonderful golden-yellow yolks)

On Sunday we went out for an hour and half run over Pinhaw Beacon and it was perhaps my running highlight of the year so far. The views from the top were amazing in all directions (Ingleborough, Simon's Seat, Beamsley Beacon and the Lakeland fells could all be seen). It was Stef's first run over this way and I doubt it will be her last!

There are loads of birds around over the weekend including green and greater spotted woodpecker, buzzard, bullfinch (a really handsome pair), meadow pipit and a noisy nuthatch. We also flushed a flock of maybe 80 to 100 curlew on our run when I got us temporarily mislaid in a mass of tussocks not long after setting off. In my defense I usually do the run in the dark with Dave and Stef loves tussocks, err, honestly she does

King Curtis

Withnail, Wheatear and I

I didn't meet my old boss on Friday evening but stayed in watching Withnail and I instead. Drinks were taken, although not at the same rate or in the same volume as demanded in the infamous drinking game I also watched my newly arrived Bedlamites DVD a couple of times

On Saturday morning I went over to Skipton and bought a new pair of Walsh PBs. On the way to Stanfords one of the town's top-rated pie shops, I bumped into Chris, an old mate from K&C. He's a nice guy and it was good chatting with him in the spring sunshine. In the afternoon I went up to Starbotton and did around 10miles and 3800ft crossing over to Arncliffe in Littondale, onto Kettlewell, then returning the way I went out. It was a stunning afternoon and I had the good fortune to see several wheatear, along with curlew, oystercatcher, meadow pipit etc

Yesterday I went back up the dale and did the first climb over to Arncliffe again (the bridleway over is wonderful, in particular the steep, bottom stretch). After running back over I then climbed Buckden Pike. If anything there were more wheatears on the way up and down the Pike than there were on the ridge between the two dales

I'd intended to have an easier week training this week and did, but still managed 10,000ft+ of climb without having a big day out; my fifth consecutive 10,000ft week