The snow of '63 returns? No way babe!

Told you to get the old woollies out of your wardrobe didn’t Blog I Blog? Was I right or was I right???

I thought you might be interested to see where I decided to turn round and abandon my session. You can appreciate the exposed position in a snow storm with the wind whipping the down fall into drifts with alarming speed. Although I was about seventeen I was worldly wise to the vagaries of the weather over the moors. Not very high as hills go, but with nothing between where the photo was taken and Lancashire (cough, spit and three ‘Hail Marys’) it was no place to be in bad weather. Under normal circumstances, a return route would have been moorland paths involving a little more climbing, then about four miles down the valley back to civilisation. I shudder to think what might have been the consequences if I had been foolish enough to continue my planned session!! So the snow comes down. It is funny isn’t it Blog. A covering of snow, out for a trudge over the fields … and suddenly a man has got to do what a man has got to do!! Something deep in the psyche from primordial times about animals marking out their territory I suppose? I remember on a previous occasion when the snow was deep and thick and even, I had just got as far as the ‘r’ in ‘Kirkham’ when a group of hikers suddenly appeared around the bend in the pathway … How embarrassing was that Blog? There again, it is something the female of the species is incapable of???

Birmingham League winner January 2013

The Birmingham League Division 1 / Women’s League on Saturday was as near as we get these days to the old fashioned cross country course with plenty of climb, plenty of mud, and a respectable distance for a blowout … well almost. Interestingly it was as near as damn it to where club member Bas Heatley won his first National Cross Country title. I was a little surprised Bas wasn’t there watching – he was at the Warwickshire County Championships the week before taking the mick out of me while I was trying to do a David Bailey with mud up to my fetlocks trying to get an atmospheric photographic shot of my daughters going through the nasty ditch. Now Blog, ‘Quiz Time’:- where and when did Bas win his first National Cross Country and where did Godiva place in the senior team race?

Today I wore one of my Christmas presents for the first time, a gift from my nephew and niece who live in God’s Own County. A thick pair of black thermal socks. Excellent. Working in the snow and slush on the estate driveway (it’s coming along nicely thank you Blog) my feet were like two snug bugs in a rug. That is the good news. The bad news is that they are so thick that I now need to invest in a new pair of boots for my feet to fit in. With my Christmas present socks on, my present pair is a size too small.

I’ll tell you what Blog. This red dot business on the television set is clever, isn’t it? The man in the postal office never mentioned it when I last renewed my television licence. The big question of course, is now … how do you recognised the red dot is a red dot if you desire to find out what the weather is and you still have a black and white television set, which would probably be the case with me if I hadn’t won a colour television. Interestingly, the black and white television which the colour television replaced which I won in a marathon race, replaced was the won I won in a marathon race which incorporated the first National Marathon Championships Race for Women in this country. Now Blog, ‘Quiz Time’:- where and when did the first National Marathon Championships Race for Women take place and who won? Who was the marathon runner who did the organising?? Interestingly, I think he came second in the first marathon I ever ran. Now Blog, ‘Quiz Time’:- where and when was my first ever marathon race? What was my finishing position and what time did I do? …… and what’s round comes around => it snowed in my first ever marathon. SNOWED. Blog I kid you not.

                                                               Colin