A May Medley

Woke at 3:00 am feeling hot and thirsty and realised I had left the central heating on. Got up, turned it off, and once the bedroom cooled off, slept soundly until a quarter to seven. Outside is a grey day, light rain forecast by ten, make a full English breakfast minus fried tomatoes, I'm out and will need to shop later. After breakfast drink my coffee in the garden room, then shower and dress and drive to Cherry for 8:25. Louis is still full of yesterday's adventures, so we arrange for him to visit again on Saturday as we make our way to school. After dropping him off, return to Cherry, collect Dolly and Teddy and drive to the Westwood. The forecast rain has arrived, but it's very light, just a few spits and spots. The common looks glorious, the pasture emerald green, dotted with buttercups, and the hawthorn at last with a real show of creamy white may. Teddy, is first off the lead and dashes about between bramble bushes chasing rabbits, but fortunately to little effect today, he comes back by the top edge of Newbegin Pits, and we swap over and Dolly gets half an hour off the lead. She knows to come back at Black Mill, and does so happily, both of them love the Westwood,as there are other dogs to meet and play with. On our way back to the car we stop and visit with the baby owlet in Limekiln Pits, he's both very curious, but at the same time shy, and pops his head up to see who's there, before bobbing down again. Probably remembering what his Mum has told him. It's not so cold today, the north wind giving way to a mild southwesterly, hence the rain. After taking the dogs back to Cherry, pop into Beverley and renew the car insurance, sort a few things out at the bank and then do a little shopping. Today should be a running day, but after the walk, the shopping, plus the rain, decide to swim instead, arriving in the pool for one. By chance it is quiet and I have a whole lane to myself, so after doing my breathing exercises, to calm the mind, warm up with a 400m mixed individual medley. As explained in other posts, this consists of swimming alternately two strokes of butterfly and two strokes of breast stroke on the outward length and four strokes backstroke and three strokes freestyle alternately on the inbound leg. It's the most complete warm up I know, exercising every muscle, opening up the cardio system and demanding high levels of technical concentration. This was followed by 4 x 200m in each stroke, then 4 x 100m individual medley at about 80 percent effort, and finally an easy 4 x 100m IM, as a warm down. It was a very good session and after a shower and a tea and cake, felt more alive and relaxed than when I started. Drive home for 3:00 pm, unpacked the shopping and then meditated for an hour before collecting Louis and taking him home to his Mum in North Bar. Made bruschetta with roasted peppers and sun dried tomatoes, with a mozzarella topping and side salad for dinner. Accompanied this with a glass of tempranillo. Later finished "The Biographer's Tale", by AS Byatt, it's one of her earlier novels and she struggles to contain her wonderful imagination and the complexity of narrative this generates. It is also a little to academically clever, but notwithstanding these criticisms, still a very decent book. It's themes foreshadow both "the Children's Story" and "Posession", the former being amongst my favourite novels. Tomorrow, God willing, is a running day.