Race For Life - I did it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* Special Announcemnt *

*Just a little note to let you all know that the winning bid for the FCS was £30:00. The winning bidder won't be on-line again until Monday, but that will take my total to well over £200 which is an improvement on last year's total so thank you to everyone who has helped by either donating or commenting. Your contributions have been much appreciated.

My Race For Life widget is going to stay where it is for now, as it will remain open until 9th September.*

Yesterday evening finally saw me take part in this year's Race for Life at Malvern's Three Counties Showground. This was my first Malvern Race, this is a relatively new venue ( this was the third year ) but it makes far more sense to take part here rather than go to Worcester.

The skies had been heavy and threatening all day, with quite prolonged heavy showers all afternoon, so it was encourging to see the sun's rays above the hills when I arrived.



Here I am before the start.

Getting ready for the big "warm up" - just look at that cloud!

And we're off! The lady to my right on the photo is another "Joy" and former work colleague who lost her mother to cancer a few years ago.

Being a "bag lady" only I could take part with a Kipling bag on my shoulder ;-)

And here I am at the end of the race.

I am so thrilled this morning. Not only do I not ache ( much ) I bettered last year's time of a shade over an hour to 48 minutes and 23 seconds which is quite overwhelming - well it is to me anyway ;-)

As ever this was an emotional occasion. As a family, and a large one at that, we have been relatively unscathed by cancer. However, it's been my privilege over the years to nurse many courageous and wonderful people, and to support their familes too, and this is my way of giving something back to all of them.

Please don't forget about the Forest Canopy here . Bidding currently stands at £16:00 over on CTNY.

Race For Life FCS

It's that time of year again :-) Tomorrow evening will see me once again walking the Race for Life, only this year I am taking part in the Malvern race and not the Worcester one. I am auctioning this shawl on the Crafty Threads and Yarns board ( I have permission from Susan to do so ) see here for details but if you are not a member there but would like to bid please let me know by commenting here and I will make the bid on your behalf. There will be no charge for p&p.

This Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl was knitted using Posh Lei yarn, the colour is Hypnotic and I used one skein and 4.5mm needles. There are two extra pattern repeats and 10 rows in the border. Once again, pink yarn has proved very difficult to photograph, but the second, third and fourth photos, on my screen, are very true to the colour. In spite of the odd tendency to split, the yarn has a lovely drape and was a pleasure to work with.

Woolfest 2008

Well, it's been that time of the year again - Woolfest :-) and what a lovely day Saturday was. A true fest of sights and sounds and smells ;-) and a wonderful opportunity to meet friends old and new.

I'd like to introduce you to this wonderful fire elemental, made especially for me by Ambermoggie :-) she is now one of my most treasured possessions, thank you so very much and it was lovely to meet you.

I was very restrained. I went to Woolfest with £100 in cash and was determined not to use my credit card. I had around £4:00 left at the end of the day. I collected my Yarn Forward sub - a great issue this one, and treated myself to some Lantern Moon 2.5mm dpns, a lovely shawl pin from Twistfibre, and some Rosewood 4.5mm dpns from Scottish Fibres.

And my yarnly purchases, from left to right, some Opal Rendez-vous #6 from Twistfibre , superwash Merino/Bamboo from KraftyKoala, two skeins of Lochan Merino/Tencel from The Yarn Yard, Mirage Merino/Tencel from The Natural Dye Studio, Sock Yarn from Fyberspates, and finally a sock project bag in William Morris Honeysuckle print from Nics Knots.

Sorry this is picture heavy - I thought that those of you unable to go might appreciate a flavour of what Woolfest is all about.

It was lovely to be able to sit and listen to some wonderful folk music.

Sheepies ;-)

The Natural Dye Studio

A sock machine in action. There was a wonderful array of things here.

This lovely man and his basket weaving was fascinating.

Spinning in action.

Krafty Koala and Nic

Lou and Kerrie

Fundraising for Breakthrough Breast Cancer

The view from the bridge in Cockermouth

And finally, Tarantella, where we ate on Saturday evening. Wonderful Italian food.

It took forever to get home yesterday via Keswick, Grasmere and Windermere, through some dreadful weather conditions and via MIL in the Nursing Home in Chasetown. But it was a wonderful weekend, and well worth the effort and all the travelling.

And did I say how wonderful it was to meet so many lovely people?

SW19

FIL is no worse and no better. He has however finally been moved to the ward from CCU which is so encouraging.

Guess where I have been ;-) I have spent two nights in London with my eldest son, which sadly went all too quickly. The weather was kind, and we had a real treat on Centre Court.

Here is yesterday's order of play

But first of all we had a lovely picnic. It may be busy on Henman Hill.......

.......but we know a lovely secluded area in the shade.

One bottle of French Chenin Blanc and the best sandwiches money could buy in Sainsbury's :-) and it was time to head off to Centre Court for Djokovic and Safin.

Safin

and Djokovic

I love these new scoreboards!

Safin leaves victorious. Djokovic was never in the match. He looked lacklustre and out of sorts from the word go really, and half way through the third set I said to my son that I had switched allegiance and wanted Safin to win. He certainly deserved to.

Kuznetsova and Bondarenko

Federer and Soderling

I'm a Nadal girl and not a Federer fan, but he looked good yesterday I have to admit. He was clearly enjoying his tennis that's for sure.

And the great Fred Perry.

Since I came back this afternoon, it's been washing, ironing, shopping and packing. DS2 is leaving in two hours time for a trip to Disneyland Paris with school.

See you all at Woolfest, where I am quite sure I shall turn a corner and see myself coming towards me ;-)

Thank you

Thank you all very much for your good wishes. FIL remains in the Coronary Care Unit, and although he still has had some breathing difficulties is making progress.

We have sorted ourselves out a visiting plan, so that someone is able to pop in for half an hour ( more than enough time really, he needs his rest ) every day, so we are trying to carry on as normally as we can

This enabled Mr A and our to make our long-planned trip to London yesterday. I booked tickets for Never So Good back in March and we were so looking forward to it. We took the train, then the tube and got off at Embankment, which allowed us to walk along The Strand and then wonder around Covent Garden and the street stalls. A quartet was entertaining the crowds which we stopped to listen to for a while.

We then had lunch in little Italian restaurant that we know and love, walked along the Hungerford Bridge to the South Bank and browsed the street markets there before heading into the National Theatre to watch the play which was wonderful. We even had time for a walk through the Victoria Embankment Gardens in the early evening London sunshine before returning to Paddington.

It was a wonderful day, which has done us both the world of good, and hopefully more able to cope with whatever life throws at us this week!

I really do appreciate all your thoughts and good wishes, they really mean a lot. I still intend to go to Woolfest - Mr A is due to be coming with me, and I want him to have some time away. It will also mean we can call in and see MIL on the way back.

Kathryn - that is very kind of you. If you click on the Race for Life Widget it will take you to a page where you can make a donation. Thank you.