Autumn Walking

Well, there goes my intense training for the marathon! I have hurt my ankle - a combination of too much enthusiasm over a short space of time, too little stretching and recovery time and recurring sports injuries from glorious sporting days gone past. But my spirits are not dampened. I am aiming to walk at least 35km around Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra at the end of August so still have a way to go to improve my walking/running. I have read that 1.5km of cycling to 1km of walking is great for cross training so I am going on a bike ride tomorrow morning as cycling doesn't hurt my ankle.

I have it all strapped up and have been feeling really antsy about not being able to move much so decided to go for a stroll today while M was training trampolining. There is a new walk in Lake Macquarie that goes out over the water which has only just opened so we packed up K's bike and headed over.

We are so lucky to live so close to such lovely walks, scenery, cafes, etc.
Miss K's obsession with all things puppy came out today with us stopping for EVERY dog to have a pat - about ten all up. So it was definitely a stroll! It was lovely to be out in the fresh air again.

Comments

I have had a few people emailing privately about wanting to leave a comment so have changed the settings. I am very new to blogging but loving it and learning about it as I go. Thanks for your patience.

Love Karen

Spring Cleaning

I have spent the Easter holidays spring cleaning the whole house and today it was K's room. We rearranged the whole room, moving the bed to underneath the window so she can now pull her table out (it slides under the bed) and creating a lovely space under the bed as well as room for her to colour in, draw and create on her table.

I decided to put one of her bookcases under the bed, along with her little lounge, some pillows and a snuggly blanket so she can creep under there and read in her "library". She loves her new hidey-hole.
Her toys were sorted into bin, keep and give aways and reduced and tidied dramatically. It was fun for her rediscovering things that have been hidden for ages, giving new life to old toys and favourite things reappearing. All in all, a very satisfying day.

Inspired by The Biggest Loser

I have to admit I LOVE The Biggest Loser. I don't watch much television but I love seeing those unhappy, overweight people go from life threatening obesity and depression to thinking more positively, changing physically and mentally completely, overcoming their biggest fears and achieving massive goals. It really inspires me. I was watching this year's competition and their goal was to run a 42km marathon after 12 or so weeks. Some of them couldn't even walk 4km at the start without throwing up so to see them achieve a marathon had me in tears over and over again as they crossed the finishing line. I was so excited for them.

Which gets me thinking. I know I don't have masses of weight to lose. I know I am quite fit and healthy compared to many women my age but I look at those people on the television, some who are still 20 or 30kg heavier than I am and they are finishing a marathon!! While that sounds like a doable task, while I was watching the marathon episode, I hopped on the walker for an hour and walked what I thought was quite a good pace and only walked 6km in an hour. That means it would take me at least 7 hours, that's if I could keep at the pace of 6km an hour the whole way, let along getting through the mental barriers. My admiration for these competitors increased immensely as some of them finished it in 5 hours. I was amazed.

So I have set myself another goal. I want to be physically and mentally strong enough to walk/run a marathon. First of all, I thought about doing it on my walker and just plod along. Then T suggested I do it around Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra which is 35km around and would be not only different scenery so I would get less bored but I would be out in the fresh air as well. I would just have to make up the other 7km by doing a bit further.

I have googled beginner marathon runner websites as I have never been a runner, the furthest I have ever run is about 500m (gulp!) but I don't mind walking as much as I can and then break into a run where possible. I am going to train for the next three to four months and see what happens. Anyway, it's good to have lofty goals - even if I make half a marathon, it's more than I have ever done. I'm really excited about this and have the support of the kids and T so we'll see!

Great North Walk Hornsby to Crosslands

Yay, we started back working on one of my goals - to walk the Great North Walk from Sydney to Newcastle. The last time we did a leg of it was about 18 months ago. Last year we were quite overwhelmed with the trampolining commitment but this year we are determined to get quite a few legs done. After yesterday we have completed 51km out of 250km so a fair way to go.

We were laughing about our "date" as we had K minded and the boys just stayed at home. It was so lovely to have a day just the two of us, in the bush where it is so peaceful and quiet and just talk, walk and exercise without being interrupted.
The scenery as usual for this walk passed by and over a lot of water which always makes it a pretty walk.

This walk had a few extra challenges with a ladder helping us go down this tricky section.
Even though it was overcast most of the day and a lovely temperature, it was still humid and this little waterfall was a welcome relief for cooling us down.
This was the last section of the walk, lovely and flat, a nice stroll alongside a river. We really enjoyed it after the medium to hard grade up and down sections we had been through. This was the hardest leg of the walk so far, being 14km long and through Galston Gorge but we really enjoyed it. My perfect date - great company with my favourite man, exercising physically and mentally and walking surrounded by nature.

Random Acts of Kindness

I love random acts of kindness. I always get feel-good hormones rushing through my body when I see one and wish I had done it myself. I would love to become more creative when it comes to helping others. Apparently it has been scientifically proven that feel-good hormones are released not only by the person receiving the random act and the person doing the act but also by people witnessing it as well. So get out there and spontaneously give, you never know how many people are watching and are being made to feel better. I think this is especially relevant to our children watching us. The seeds we are sowing today will show up later in their lives.

I have been trying to think of a way I can discreetly help our next door neighbour who has just lost her husband to a brain tumour. She has gone away for a break to visit family and I am looking after her chooks and getting her mail, but I do those every time she goes away (although she hasn't been away for a long while with her husband so sick). I can't cook and she is gluten free anyway so on a very specific diet, she was overwhelmed with flowers, even giving me some as she had too many and I really don't know her that well to get her something small, just enough for a quick chat over the fence.

Today I wanted to let the chooks out for a run as they are in a rather small coop but there has been a cat stalking birds in her back yard and there was no way I was going to let them run without me watching them so I started to pull a few weeds out of her garden. It turned into a two hour job with the place looking really tidy when I had finished and I really, really enjoyed it. I'm sure she will notice but if she doesn't that is fabulous. I know I have done something little to help as at the moment she is quite overwhelmed with the grieving process, writing thankyou letters, etc. At least this is one job she won't have to do for a while. I am also going to mow her lawn in a couple of days, if it doesn't rain.

I would love to incorporate more random acts of kindness into my life and want to be really creative with it. T and I have already discussed putting a tidy sum of money in an account next financial year to give where needed (paying others' bills anonymously, donating equipment to sports clubs and other things dear to our heart) and I am really excited about that but often it is not just money that makes a difference but time as well. Listening to someone, running them some place, helping out, having a coffee and a chat. Not just strangers, family as well. I will post more random acts of kindness (where possible, if not anonymous) as they occur. I like the whole pay it forward concept - instead of a fuss being made and people finding it hard to accept that someone would be kind to them, think of some way to help someone else. I get kind of embarrassed when people make a fuss, just something else I need to work on :)

Spit Bridge to Manly Walk

Well, I have rediscovered one of my blisses in life - bushwalking. I love, love, love it! When I haven't done it for a while and come back to it, I remember my passion for it but it often gets lost in the day to day family life. The energy of the trees, the tiny flannel flowers poking through the underbrush, the lizards, the birds' singing, the views, the sunlight dappling through the canopy onto water, the aching muscles after a long walk. I absolutely love it all, but I said that already :)

With the Easter long weekend we had a couple of days to work around the house (and squeeze a great bike ride in plus dinner with a couple of friends), a day to visit my parents and still a day spare. I couldn't resist and have been wanting to do the Spit Bridge to Manly walk for quite a while. T has been feeling a bit under the weather since our holiday (no more holidays for him!) so he decided to drop me off and then take K to Manly for a play while I walked the 10kms.

Of course, we had to stop for a delicious brekky and stumbled upon this great little cafe just under the Spit Bridge. K ran around on the beach while we soaked up the autumn sun, watching the kayakers pulling up on the beach and coming in for a morning coffee. Kayaking is on my to-do list as well.
I started the walk at about 10am and this was one of the first views from the bridge. While I love walking with T and K, I would be lying if I wasn't a bit excited about not having to worry about pushing K on the walk. She could have made it but I would have had to piggy back her a bit, fed her continuously and spent my time encouraging her rather than absorbing it all myself. It would have been great, just a different experience than I had.
It was a perfect day for walking, 23 degrees and overcast with a slight breeze blowing. The walk has a lot of natural features as steps and part of the track, all sandstone. I passed Aborignal carvings and plenty of caves which may have been used as shelters. There is a combination of seaside plants, rainforest and dry sandstone scrub.
There are a lot of boardwalks throughout the track. I love being on a boardwalk. I feel like I am in nature without intruding upon it. Yes, the boardwalk is intruding but the number of people who use the track would damage the landscape too much if they actually walked on it.
Beautiful views of the city.
My first sight of Manly ferry.
Time for a play in Manly mall after getting back. T and I will do the walk again soon, maybe with K, maybe not. The next walk will be continuing the Great North Walk from Sydney to Newcastle next Saturday. We are up to Galston Gorge area. T and I are going on our own as the section is 14kms so a bit far for K, although she has done two of the legs around 10 to 12kms. Can't wait to get back in the bush :)

Learning Snippets

K is always asking what colours mix to make other colours, you know, blue and yellow make green, etc so we got out the paints so she could work it out for herself.
It started off with mixing the primary colours to make the secondary colours and then, of course,it ended with one of her "masterpieces", displayed proudly on her easel.







We took her to an art class at the Newcastle Regional Art Gallery, part of the school holiday program, and she did printmaking. She made three different types of prints and loved it. I had to stay with her (I was the only mum) but I much prefer her to be comfortable, the alternative is she doesn't do it. Next week we are doing ceramics.


She was thrilled to spot Australia in her pancake and insisted I take a photo of it (minus Tasmania, sorry Tassie).
We started an alphabet challenge, with her drawing three things starting with the letter put up there - an apple, an ant and an alligator are her first answers. She is barely starting to recognise words but most of the letters she is familiar with the sounds. She runs her fingers under the words though as I read and often is up to the right one so we'll see what happens over the next couple of months.