Picture me, if you will, sitting peacefully in the tea-house, lap-top on lap, cup of Earl Grey to… er, hang on just a minute. As I was saying, picture me in the tea-house with a cup of Earl Grey to hand, penning this very line and appreciating the fruits of yesterday’s labour: The big hedge which I gently manicured (with the aid of a hedge-trimmer), the clear roof of the tea-house, which I washed and hosed down, and the tall bamboo panels in the corner ahead of me as I sit, which I removed and replaced straight as they had been knocked sideways by my neighbours replacing their own garden fence.
I did one or two other things and the general combination sent me to sleep on the sofa around 8.30pm… from this point, aside from getting up and going to bed, I slept for 11.5 hours straight and woke this morning in a slightly groggy frame of body.
Nevertheless, after a banana, a good strong coffee and an hour spent reading the Economist, I sallied forth in my liveried running kit. Cliff had been unable to run this morning and while I briefly flirted with the idea of driving to Jack & Jill, it was simpler to run straight from the house. Mindful that my last two runs were short ones around the same circuit, I determined to go a different way and for slightly longer.
I ran out past Ote Hall and to the small hamlet around Wivelsfield Church, where even the public footpaths are well kept.
I then ran past the quizzical Alpacas (although I always think of them as Debbs Pyjamas, so convinced was I that this American friend of Darens was hallucinating about what she had seen on a walk around the local countryside!)
As I ran to Wivelsfield itself and out the other side, I reflected how beautiful the countryside around here really is.
I ran most of the way down Hundred Acre Lane before cutting across to the industrial estate and on down the Magical Path.
From here it was only a short way home across the common.
Overall it was a very pleasant run indeed and though I was alone (as you can be with dog-walkers, cyclists and other runners on a warm June day), it was gratifyingly less like the target-driven training runs that typified the first four months of the year! This was reflected in the 1.13 that it took me to cover 7.45 beautiful miles (a slumberous 6.12mph).
Tea finished, I must away and find a chore or two to do, lest I can’t get to sleep on the sofa this evening.