Rosedawn Ramblings

2022 went by in a flash; a year on fast forward. I think it was November before I realised my wall calendar still said July. Lots was happening - the Commonwealth Games, a holiday in Madeira, getting stuck in to my new job - but at the same time, it feels like not much happened at all. It's definitely hard to be specific about dates, activities, occasions. All cake and cocktail memories seem to merge into one. 2023 has already started ... and I'm still trying to reflect on 2022?  Perhaps I should just skip last year and and focus on 2023 instead - I've got a big birthday coming up, a trip to Rome planned and lots of family celebrations to look forward to.  2022 could just be a footnote? But that doesn't seem fair?  There must be lots of things to remember, celebrate, reflect on, laugh about, cry about? Not everything has to a big moment of wonder, sometimes there is joy in the little things too. --- Over the last few months, I've been working on a new blogging proje

I'm sitting on the balcony watching the world go by, the bottle kilns my ever-present backdrop.  It's early on Sunday morning. The sun is shining, there is a refreshing breeze. Every now and then, the sound of traffic replaces bird song to interrupt the peace and quiet. A couple walking their dog pass by on the bank opposite. The same man who runs by everyday has just appeared. Someone is fishing up by the bridge. A child is feeding the ducks. The coffee tastes good.  I've got a new book to read. It's my happy place ; my place to reflect and re-set. In the nearly 12 months since my last blog post, my new job has continued to be just what I needed, we've had some mini-adventures and lots of fun-filled days. There have been a few bumps in the road, especially when it comes to blogging and running, but I've been doing my best to live up to the intention to  start again . First there was Tailenders Live, which definitely brought the laughter back... Then

I've been having an argument with myself for the last few weeks... deciding whether to run or not? Time is a bit short. I've had meetings and appointments and social events booked in. A new job to occupy my brain. The friend I was supposed to meet can't make it anymore and I don't really want to run on my own. The weather has been grim and evenings getting darker. I'm a bit tired and know I will feel like I am running really slowly.  Is there really time for a run? Can I really fit it in? Is it really worth it? The downside of having trained for and run ultramarathons is that my brain sometimes tells me that if you are not planning to run for 3 hours, is it really a run at all? To run or not? Well I don't have 3 hours and couldn't run for 3 hours anyway... so .... not? ----- Last Sunday, I went along to a performance at Etruria called ' Grit ' - a canal side performance about "women who stride, walk, jog and run" hosted by Urban Wilderness.

A few months ago, maybe even a year ago, I wrote a list.  A list of what I wanted; a collection of connected words and phrases describing how I'd like to spend my days at work.  I'm not sure exactly what event prompted me to start writing the list... perhaps it was the arrival of a new Moomin notebook, perhaps it was after a really challenging day at work, perhaps the announcement of yet another variation of lockdown being implemented.  But I wrote a list.  I'm not sure if I wrote the list all in one go... or came back to it over several days and added to it.  But I wrote a list.  And then forgot about it. The notebook wasn't written in again and remained lost under of pile of "filing" until just a couple of weeks ago. But during the time since writing that list, quietly and almost without realising it, I was finding a way to make my wish list a reality. I was looking at new opportunities.  I was thinking about how I wanted to spend my time

There have lots of moments in the last few weeks when life felt like it was back to normal, making it seem like starting again has become a real possibility. The sun has been shining, There has been time for catching up with friends in real life (no screens involved), Mr T got a haircut, coffee and cake at a cafe, watching the newly-hatched ducklings swimming along the canal, blossoms on the trees, answering parkrun emails about barcodes, buying a new front door, even booking a few days away for a holiday .  Back to normal. Almost. Probably the most normal thing of all has been the return of club runs with the Potters Trotters.  For an hour or so at a time each time we meet, we have returned to our old routines - lots of chatter as everyone arrives, tentative questions as we set off about how far we are running and how many hills are likely to be involved, conversations as we run about what races we might do, what's happening in Line of Duty, or what is for tea when th

A week in the Turks and Caicos? A month in Toronto or Melbourne? Maybe a long weekend in Rome? An overnight stay in York? Island hopping in the Med? Following the civil rights trail across the American South? Whale watching in New Zealand? A safari in Botswana? If we could go away tomorrow, where we would go? What would we want to do? Where would we choose to stay? Big trip or long weekend? This is a game we have played all through lockdown, a way to remind ourselves that was a big world out there, even if we didn’t feel part of it at the moment. The answer has changed depending on the time of year, the weather outside or how stressful a day we have had. It would be prompted by a TV programme, a news report or, more usually, a 60 second vacation on CNN . Where would we choose? Somewhere new? Or an old favourite? And once the game has started, it can last for hours. We have debated which restaurants to visit, museums to explore and parks to run around. We have found about festivals and