Two days of summer......

Summer passed through Yorkshire last weekend in the form of two days of warm sunshine. We'd hoped it was here to stay. Lambs were frolicking in the fields, mountain pansies were opening their little yellow faces to the sun, seedlings in the garden grew a couple of inches, bluebells flourished in nearby woods, a cuckoo called and I was out running the riverbank in nothing more than shorts and vest. It didn't last and yesterday I'd to wear a warm thermal along that same stretch of riverbank. Whatever happened to those long hot

Another of my poems......

summers of yesteryear? A good friend of mine, now sadly deceased, reckoned it was a bad summer if he hadn't acquired a good healthy tan by the end of May. He'd have little chance now! Nevertheless, over the May Bank Holiday period I stuck another 27 miles into the running bank, though I was flagging a bit over the last six!  After an easy 4 mile run over the gorse clad slopes of Castle Hill on Thursday, Saturday was a shorts and vest day when I set off with my wonderful partner to run 4 miles along the road to Howgill, where I left her, and 4 miles back at a faster pace by the river path. The latter section was teeming with weekend walkers, and their dogs. Most dogs were leashed and under control but one had been allowed to roam loose and chased sheep into the river. The farmer, normally a very quiet and well spoken person, was venting his wrath in language I'd never have previously associated with him - as I told him later. But everything got sorted and he was back to his smiling self two days later. 

Running by that sheep trod in THAT SHIRT.....

Whilst my wonderful partner was patrolling a section of the Yorkshire Dales National Park on Sunday I was revelling in the deserted wide open spaces of Grassington Moor. I chose a tiny sheep trod I haven't used for some time - and neither have any sheep for it has almost disappeared into the rough grass. Not long ago our local gamekeeper set fox snares along this trod but I'm glad to say they've now been removed, making it a safer place to run.  For the benefit of 'The 5K Challenge' running group I took pictures of the free shirt they sent me for being its 100th member, but most of the time I ran shirtless in just a pair of shorts, enjoying the sun, the warm breeze, the plaintive piping of golden plovers and curlews calling. Amazingly, on this well keepered grouse moor, I neither heard nor saw a single grouse. I'd planned to run 8 miles but made a slight deviation that added another mile and was reluctant to go home. I wished I'd taken some lunch and something to drink.

On Monday we did a short recovery run together in deteriorating

Running the Appletreewick loop......

weather round what we call the Appletreewick loop, six miles round the busy campsite, through Woodhouse farm that had all the trouble on Saturday and back by Burnsall where the holiday crowds were starting to gather. There was a sneaky cold wind and we were glad to have been wearing hat, gloves and thermals again. We were home before the weather broke, had a good lunch and settled down by a warm stove as walkers went by, licking their ice creams - in the rain.