Back in the saddle again - blackberrying in the woods

Washed and ready to eat

After being a bit out of sorts yesterday and not feeling a hundred percent, today was spent taking it easy.  The two acer trees delivered a couple of days ago had to be moved from our front to back garden so the palaver of doing that took up an hour or so. Thank god for our trolley and Mat's strong climbing arms.  I provided 'manoeuvres' strategy with my "left a bit, right a bit and the whoah, wait mind the branch" comments.  It felt good to have the trees out back. They look beautiful and it was good to prove the delivery man wrong as he told Mat that there was "no way those trees were going through there." Clearly doesn't know us that well!


The afternoon was spent bimbling about and then to clear the cobwebs, a leisurely cycle in the woods near to our house.  We are lucky enough to have some lovely countryside near us and now that I have resumed cycling again this week, it was good to get more in to get my confidence up again.  


I hadn't cycled since just before my cancer diagnosis last year and it may have been a nothing event in the great scheme of things, but to be able to cycle to the station to catch the train in to work was a real elation for me.  I had been really scared of falling off and hurting my cancer ravaged bones and even though I was considered well enough to ride a bike a few weeks back, the mental block was still there. Until last Tuesday morning that is. Go me!  Not quite Lance Armstrong standard but I think he would have been pleased for me.

Me cycling under an interesting tree
that's apparently between 300 - 400 years old

Anyway, our leisurely cycle ride through the woods was as per past visits fantastic.  I absolutely love it here - it is so interesting and wild and full of things to see. And yet so peaceful for somewhere so near to London. We even got to see a snake!  Or rather a slow worm.  Not as exciting but it looked liked a snake as it slithered in front of us.  It's a limbless lizard that likes basking in the sun hence us seeing it doing a bit of sunbathing.

The helmet is for cycling not blackberrying. I think.

We also indulged in rather a lot of blackberry picking. The bushes are teeming with them right now and they are absolutely delicious.  We had some with ice-cream earlier and I am hoping to make a crumble tomorrow with the rest. Organic food at it's finest :-)

Missed one

And so time for bed. There's nothing like freshly laundered sheets to sink in is there. I'm off to indulge. Good night!

Let's hope the sheets mat-ch...