Shepton Mallet Lido

Today we checked out Shepton Mallet Lido which is near the Anglo Trading Estate.

As it's just around the corner from where we live I plan to take Oscar swimming a lot this summer, much better than taking the bus to Wells to the stuffy indoor pool.  He was desperate to get into the water and they have a baby pool, fountains a play area and a picnic section; lots of lovely summer fun!

Westbury Wander

Today we went to visit Mick and Helen in Westbury. I took part in a really enjoyable run around the hills called the Westbury Wander, the others went for a nice dog walk in the pouring rain. Super fun!

Oscar had a great day, he loves going to see Nanna and Grandad (as you can see from the picture he had lots of fun) and it was a chance for George to meet the canine side of the family.

The run was quite a small event run by Stampede Sports around the Westbury hills near the White Horse. The organisers did a great job and the participants were all very friendly and welcoming.  There were some families, a range of ages and faster runners which meant there was a mixed group; which was reassuring for slow coaches like me.

The checkpoints were well positioned; slow runners could go for a meandering route collecting as many lower scoring checkpoints without going too far a-field. Faster entrants could test themselves and go for the far reaching red flags but I don't think anyone could get them all in the time limit.  The weather was really wet and visibility was tough, all of the flags were put just out of line of sight but not stupidly hidden and their positioning on the map was spot on.

I was surprised that I'd not done so badly on the ranking table and really had a great time. I was convinced that I'd come last so just concentrated on enjoying the run. I planned a route for all the yellow flags and all but one blue, but couldn't find one yellow flag and must have run straight past in a post hill climb confusion ;( but did finish, quite a lot wetter than I started, just inside the time limit.  My phone GPS went crazy when I started recording so a bit of misleading data but here's the google map that I recorded on My Tracks http://goo.gl/maps/jCW3. I've put a copy of the race map with the other pictures.

I passed an awesome chalk pit which the army use as a firing range for training, I took a photo that you can see below. I got snapped by the event photographer, the proper pictures are listed on the link above but I've taken a screen grab of the low res picture for this post.

Ham Wood

We've had a lovely weekend at home decorating the kitchen, we went for a warm Mediterranean theme to contrast the softer cottage style in the adjacent front room.

We finished the kitchen and then went for a nice walk from our home in Shepton Mallet, past Bowlish and into Ham to walk back through the woods.

It's such a lovely time of year with all the spring growth, the woods smelt of fresh wild garlic which have sprung up since the bluebells have finished flowering.

Nicky planned the route from our OS map and fortunately, as you don't always know how well maintained the public footpaths are, she took us neatly into Ham and through a farm (past an impressively built defensive looking bull) into the woods. I recorded the track with My Tracks and you can see the route here.

Leaving the woods we passed some unusual undulating terrain as a result from old lead mining with exposed limestone rocks due to erosion so took a couple of photos.

You can see that the climb up the steps out of the old mined area was pretty steep, but the view across to Glastonbury Tor from the top made it worth it!

I think we'll all sleep well tonight, I'd better get some rest as I'm taking part in a 90 minute trail run tomorrow called the Westbury Wander. I'm sure I'll be Mr. Jelly Legs by this time tomorrow ;)!

Yucky Mucky

Oscar alternates between screaming when he's got a little bit of muck on him until it's cleaned off and just getting plain old dirty.

A walk round Priddy Nine Barrows

We just finished a nice five mile walk around Priddy.  Parked by Stockhill Forest and then took the open ground by Priddy mineries by St. Cuthbert's Swallet and then up to the rows of tumuli where there were lovely views.

It's the sort of place that if I knew anything about nature then I'd be able to find all sorts of interesting flowers and fauna.

There were some interesting stone constructions poking out from underground which, we assumed, were part of the old lead mines.

George, as is becoming the norm with our walks, found some smelly poo, probably fox, and rolled around in it.  He still smells of it as I'm sitting in the back of the car home writing this with the aroma all around me.

I recorded the track with Google's My Tracks so when I've uploaded it I'll add the link to this post. Here's the link to the track we recorded http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=210918956449555810467.0004a353a8d40b913a248.

It was lovely and very beautiful, I'm just looking forward to putting my feet up with a glass of wine!

When Clara met George

I took George out for his afternoon walk just now and bumped into his mum, Clara, and her owner so went on a walk together.

You would think, that both living in Shepton Mallet, we'd cross paths more often but this is only the second time in 5 months.

They had a lovely run together in the fields by the cider factory.  Not the best photos but they wouldn't stay still...

Shedenstein and friends

I finished building our shed!

When we moved in there was a big foreboding green fence separating the garden into a gloomy courtyard near the house and an expanse of gravel by the road. I had a number of bicycles and all the tools from the allotment so we had to pile them all up in the courtyard under a sheet of tarpaulin.

Once the snow passed in January we had had enough of the looming fencing so took it all down. I'd looked into small sheds and storage boxes but now we had a pile of timber decided to use it to build a shed to measure.

Quite a bit was rotten so cut off all the bad ends etc. and used the posts to make a frame with the heavyweight timbers as a base to weigh it down. I clad the outside by overlapping the fencing. Unfortunately about half way in we realised the wood would run out, fortunately Nicky had the idea to use some wardrobe doors we salvaged so we only had to buy chipboard and felt for the roof and a small amount of feathered boards to finish the job.

We've put the trellis on the wall by the door and I also made a trough to use as a planter from the fencing off cuts so none went to waste.

This all fits in with the bedench (bed + bench, gettit?) that I previously made when we were in London by cutting down Nicky's old bed and flanking it with square planters made from a single futon frame that someone had chucked out.

We've still got some painting to finish, carrying on with the cream and red theme, but pretty chuffed now all the major work has been completed.

A little eccentric, I know!