Beautiful blossom, lakes, fells and books

I'm back and scheduling some blog posts, and I thought I'd share a photograph of the beautiful blossom we are lucky enough to have in the garden at the moment. I love seeing the blossom out and there are some beautiful colours around. 

It was a wonderful, warm sunny bank holiday Monday here in our part of the UK yesterday, which is quite a rarity, and we worked hard in the front garden; we're trying to remove all the grey concrete slabs and begin to create a cottage garden. Daisy was of course on hand to offer her help; well, actually she was quite sensibly sleeping peacefully in the shade most of the day. 

She, along with us, enjoyed the break we had in the Lake District. We even had lunch outside one day near to Ullswater with the fells around us as a stunning backdrop.

Such a wonderful part of the world. We did some lovely walks and enjoyed the fabulous scenery. I also found time to browse around some of the bookshops, of course, and in particular I enjoyed looking in Fred Holdsworth's, an independent bookshop in Ambleside. Here's a photo of the notice in the window highlighting the books that have been selling well there. The Reader by Bernhard Schlink was one of their World Book Night books which I thought was an excellent choice as that's the one I gave away too! 

I'll leave you for now with a photo of Grasmere and the surrounding fells. The one on the left of the dip is Helm Crag which we have walked up on a previous visit. 

The Paralympics and the summer of sporting achievement

Bright and early at the Olympic Stadium

After enjoying the London 2012 Olympics so much, both on television and when we went to the Olympic Park - read about our day here - I was so glad, like so many others, that we still had the Paralympics to come, and I wished that I had tried to buy tickets for these Games too. So, after many hours of fruitless attempts, I finally got lucky on the ticket website, with some tickets for an athletics session in the Olympic Stadium. I was thrilled with this, and we had a wonderful morning. 

David Weir in the 800m T54 heats

We were able to witness the brilliant GB wheelchair racer David Weir commandingly win his heat in the 800m T54 qualifying and then proudly cheer for him as he received his gold medal for his victory in the 1500m only the evening before - thus he was back in the stadium competing in the 800m heats after only having about five hours sleep! Alongside his feats, we saw some exciting field event finals, other track heats, and it all made for a very enjoyable experience watching these fantastic, determined competitors. 

David Weir 

I loved watching the Paralympics on tv. All of the classifications became easy to follow once explained. Whatever barriers there may have been, or seemed to have been, to watching Paralympic sport in the past seem to have been broken down. These tremendous competitors are famous sporting heroes for us now too, and quite rightly so. Not least 100m T44 gold medalist Jonnie Peacock who is a local hero from our area. It was marvellous watching the parade through London on television, with the athletes all together as one giant GB team.

As for the tennis well, as a fan of Wimbledon ever since I can remember - my hero was always Boris Becker as I remember him winning the tournament for the first time as a youngster - it has been my dream, like that of so many folk, to see a British winner in the singles tournament. It was therefore sad to see Andy Murray come so far and then lose in the final here this year. But, to then see him come back in the Olympics at Wimbledon and take that gold medal, and then, the day after the Paralympics finished, to hear that he had won the US Open, what a superb achievement. 

This has been such a marvellous couple of months. I hope we can keep some of the momentum and postive lifting of spirits that it has brought, both personally and as a nation.

One thing though, how on earth are they going to decide the Sports Personality of the Year this year?! 

Our day at the Olympic Park

In the Olympic Basketball Arena

What an amazing experience. I feel incredibly lucky to have spent a day at the London 2012 Olympic Games. It was an atmosphere to savour, and an experience to cherish forever. Such a wonderful day. The Games Makers were so helpful, everyone going out of their way to make the experience a friendly, memorable one. The Javelin train from St Pancras station through to Stratford International, the welcome at the park, the volunteers, the army, everything went smoothly, was impressive, with everyone adding to the great feeling of celebration. 

The Olympic Park itself is mightily impressive. Beautifully planted flower beds surround the paths between such impressive stadia. We had a great time wandering around, exploring the place, and then we made our way to the Basketball Arena, like a giant sprung mattress, to watch the womens teams from Australia play Brazil, and then Great Britain take on Russia. Both matches were exciting from start to finish, non-stop action, such an exciting sport to watch, it really whet my appetite to watch more basketball. Both games were also much closer in scoreline than I had thought they might be.

Team GB

It was something else to be able to support Team GB at home. The roars, cheers of support from the packed stadium were deafening, such spirited support for the women's team from the crowd. Alas, GB lost by a narrow margin, ending the match with a 3 point shot though, a fabulous finish. 

I would do it all again tomorrow! It feels amazing to have been to an Olympic Games, and in our home country, and so proud to see how well done it all has been.

I will miss watching the Olympics on television too, and seeing all the talented sportspeople, following the drama, hearing the stories. It has certainly been inspiring. I'm looking forward to the Paralympics starting soon.

Congratulations to everyone involved with London 2012.

The Olympic rings outide the Basketball Arena

Scenes from life - a birthday spent in the Lake District

Whilst I am busy reading, and writing reviews for the books I've recently finished, I thought I'd post about our holiday. We visited the Lake District last week, and were blessed, apart from one day of rain, with lovely weather, some days were really warm and we enjoyed lots of sunshine! Quite an achievement for a place where a visitor should always be prepared for mixed weather. (A keen walker friend always tells me, 'there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.') Ironically, back home in Cambridgeshire, many parts of which are currently in drought conditions, and where we hardly ever have any rain, it actually rained most of the week we were away, and we came home to find the pond at it's highest level yet! The Lake District is one of our favourite places to visit, and we try and go as often as we can. I love the sense of achievement after reaching the top of a fell, standing and admiring the view. The lovely weather and beautiful scenery all made for a special birthday. 

I thought I'd share a few photographs from our trip.

One of the many little feathered friends stopping by at Whinlatter Forest Park.

Boats at Derwentwater by the launch for the lake tour boats, with Skiddaw in the background.

We've walked up Skiddaw before, it's a marvellous view from the top on a clear day.

A lovely local Herdwick sheep with a new arrival.

Daisy pup seems to be enjoying it.

We had a lovely walk around Loughrigg Tarn. Yes, that is blue sky and sunshine :-)

The Langdale Pikes can be seen in the background.

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