Rest day baking recipe: crispy crunchy oat biscuits(cookies if you’re US). A recipe easily made vegan, lots of fibre, lots of calories & very good on yoghurt. Of course it’s good running, climbing, cycling food. As with many of my recipes, it’s basic & adaptable; have a play. Maybe add some cinnamon …
A collection of writing by the epitome of the reportage photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson; The Mind’s Eye, Writings on Photography and Photographers. Henri Cartier-Bresson is perhaps(anyone else for Robert Doisneau?) the most influential photojournalist the world has ever known. A co-founder of Magnum, civilised observer and skilled artist. The Mind’s Eye …
Ah, Easter break last weekend; you enjoyed longer days and longer runs. And a realisation about socks. You need some new ones. You’ve time before May Day weekend though; but there are so many socks … So how about trying Injinji toe socks? Odd things. Odd, but comfortable and effective. …
Pan Speziale di Certosino. Basically a solid, rich Italian Christmas cake, reputedly originating from the monks of Certosino. It’s full of delicious stuff and calorie dense with a mix of carbs, fat and protein. A bonus is it keeps well(allegedly, it’s delicious and moreish) and survives battering in running/climbing/cycling bags. …
April, the clocks have shifted. The weather is warming, feeling a little more friendly. Buds are bursting and the world is greening. Time to ramp things up, to remember dreams of long laid plans. Perhaps finesse them, perhaps make some more. Time now for long days over the hills; days …
A literal hack this. Modern plastic whistles are great; light, loud and kind to your lips in cold weather. They are however, difficult to keep hold of, and have a bizarrely useless clip on the back. Solution? Chop the clip off, smooth the burr (a flame helps, plastic is difficult …
It’s pancake day, so here goes with some robust & filling oat pancakes, tasty hot or cold. These are orange & ginger, but it’s a basic mix; have a play. These are very good with warm fruit & yoghurt. Of course, these can be made as savoury pancakes too. …
Not really running kit this, but post-run maintenance kit. Weekend. You’ve been out in forest or fell. Places deep in mud, glorious mud at this time of year. Inevitably, whatever shoes you use, you’re bringing dollops of that mud back home, stuck in the tread. Which of course needs removing. …
Doing reviews? Freebie time for me. Ah, yes, well; no. For now certainly, no freebies. Everything I’m currently reviewing here, I’ve bought. With my own money. Yes, even that frighteningly expensive vest(that review’s going up later, in spring) and that huge Jean Gaumy book(that review for autumn). The kit is …
“The wood, under a winter storm. A time when all creatures thought of good sense seek shelter of burrow or nest. There remains though, dancing through the tempest, a runner, chill of finger, wet of foot, wide of grin.”
Desk work day done. Storms are building, both ADHD and weather.
So. Night run. Winter night run.
Headtorch, leggings and lifa, hardshell and hat. Lock my door with glove clumsied fingers, quick step up the ginnel. Grin growing on my face. Couple of hundred metres of sleet slick pavement ‘twixt house and wood. Most times a skippy dog walker dodging warmup, tonight it’s a lone stroll, chilling fingers and feet.
The wood. My local patch, a bright place of birch and willow and hawthorn hedge. Not this night though. This night it’s a wildwood waiting. Tonight the gate is a liminal space, a creaking transit from blandly civilised suburbia into an older place. Into a dark wood galethrashed and sleetlashed.
Step through into the wood anyway. Go, now. Go run.
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