January - no February news. How did that happen?

Brian's daughter Fiona with James, youngest daughter Jenny and, the star of the show, Oscar

A long time since the last blog, and it’ll be a long time till the next one! We seem to have been ridiculously busy, but again, without much to blog. The car seems to have taken up a lot of time, the airbag warning light that was on when we viewed it, has taken two trips to the other side of Coventry, and is still not fixed, they kept ordering the wrong part. Hopefully they will have got the correct bit for when we get back! It has also had a service, so Andy could tell us if there was anything else that needed sorting. Apart from number plate lights he said it was a good car, so that’s pleasing. Friday, the day it was serviced, is just an example of how the last 10 days have been, B dropped the car off, we walked round to mums, so I could go to the Alvechurch larder with her. This is a new village initiative to save waste, once a week the Baptist Church Hall is open to redistribute food that the supermarkets can’t sell as the packaging is damaged or its on its sell by date. You pay £4 and get up to £20 worth of groceries. 

Solihull Mountaineering Club Burns Night. Apart from Rob and Alex, who we're sitting with, we haven't seen these people for a few years, but is was as though we've never been away

We returned to make lasagne for the weekend, I’d just started, when Dave the plumber rang to see if he could come and measure up at John’s for the new central heating system, now! This would have been fine, Brian could have gone except our car was the only one Andy was servicing today, so he wanted it to be collected as soon as he was finished so he could go home. I stopped cooking so we could both dash round to John’s, and just as well, as halfway round Andy called, Brian went to him, I headed to the house, waving frantically at the Willmotts van coming up the road behind me. Dave screeched to a halt and I hopped in. He was like a whirlwind, measuring and discussing, his phone didn’t stop ringing, but hopefully he’s got all he needed. I rang Brian to collect another set of keys for John’s house from Brian and Hazel as he came past so we could give them to Dave. Back to mum to restart the cooking, before Joan came round for their walk. Finished constructing the lasagne just before they came back for tea and biscuits. Back to John’s to cook dinner before heading off to the Weighbridge for a couple of Friday Club pints! Every day seems to have been like this, it’s crazy.

Phil, our chairman addressing the haggis with an ice axe in his hand (a traditional SMC variation)

Wednesday was Burns night, a traditional gathering of the mountaineering club, a three course dinner of soup, haggis and cranachan and poetry reading with a variety of Scottish accents. A good evening catching up with many old faces.

There's Chairman Phil in full Scottish gear with daughter Gwen 

Saturday Helen and Richard were coming up to the house to go to a party, we could have shared the house, but wanted them to be able to enjoy themselves and not worry about disturbing us on their return, so we went back to mum, hence the lasagne. There was a mountaineering Club Walk, around Breedon Hill, which again had some good old faces. It did however take longer than expected so we got to the furthest point for lunch where we said our farewells and dashed back to the village to see H&R. Sunday we drove down to Basingstoke to see John. He’d not had a good night and looked tired, but was just starting back on the solid food again, after a little ‘hiccup’ where the NG tube had gone back in. All must be well though, he’s been ‘released’ today and is at Helen and Richards.

Thursday was a cold by sunny day, so we went for a walk over the Waseley Hills in South Birmingham. Great panoramic views all round, Birmingham City Centre, the Malvern Hills, Lickey Hills, Clent Hills and The Wrekin. Have a look at our short Relive video with more photos: click here (unfortunately it also contains a visit to the supermarket and our drive home as I forgot to stop the tracker!)

Next week the central heating is being done, hopefully it will be finished in the week. We get back from the cruise on the Saturday when we will immediately put back all the stuff we’ve had to move from the Welsh dresser, the garage, and stuff that Helen, with the help of Geraldine, has moved from under the bed and put into the storage garage. Geraldine took us there yesterday, with the drawers from a chest of drawers, so we know where it is. All so the plumbers can move furniture around to get floorboards up to run the new pipes. After that we can see how he is and when he will come back here. Whether we come back here to help him out is yet to be decided. Just had a call from Dave the plumber, he’s coming in on Friday, to start ripping stuff out, so it’s really going to happen.

But it was a little bit muddy in places!

Monday was a traditional couple of Monday Club pints, actually in a pub, not on the web, Yesterday Abi came over for the day, so we had a good catch up, with lunch at Morso, in the village. Today we took mum’s friend Joan and her husband Keith out to lunch and have had a lovely time. Tomorrow then, we have to move all the furniture in the lounge, and move back to mum’s so Dave can come in, and we can pack for the cruise that starts on Sunday! I don’t think the cruise is going to be any more relaxing, but hey, it’s all good fun!

This little spot on the Waseley Hills is the source of the River Rea. It's not one of the UK's great rivers, only being about 20 miles long before it runs into the River Tame north of the city, but it is known as the Mother of Birmingham as it has historically played a major part in the development of the city. It once had 20 mills along its banks, grinding corn and providing power for metal working industries

My photograph didn't really pick it up, but we could see rising water and ripples as water bubbled up through that hole by the stone to create the River Rea. I love this sort of stuff, we couldn't possibly walk over the Waseley Hills without seeing this! 

Saturday we had the opportunity of an outing with Solihull Mountaineering Club for the first time in many years, an easy walk over Breedon Hill. LtoR: a young lad who's name I have sadly forgotten, on his first outing with the club, a pleasant, likeable guy who I chatted to for a while, Pete, Phil, Jackie, Helen, Ash and, seated: Paul, Clair and little Gwen. Have a look at our Relive video showing our route with many more photos: click here

On the summit of Breedon Hill, it was fairly cold but at least not raining

Just over from the summit is this small crag with about 5 bouldering routes on it. Chairman Phil (who doesn't normally go walking, he's a climber) was very excited and is showing his print out of the routes available. While we ate our lunch he pulled out his rock shoes preparing to try a few of the harder routes out. Time was pressing for us as we had other things we needed to do, so we left them to it and 'speed walked' back to the car. 2.5 hours up with the group, 1 hour back for us!

I didn't go for a Parkrun over Arrow Valley in Redditch last Saturday as we went on the SMC walk instead, but these next photos are ones I found on the Arrow Valley Parkrun page of me on a run. This one was taken by Peter Hartles and he gave me permission to use it. I think this was on the second lap, near the end and I'm looking a bit tired!

Here's another one. I'm not looking so bad here, maybe it was on the first lap

A not very flattering photo, but this is at the finish line after a sprint finish. Thanks to Geoffrey Hughes for allowing me to use it. I shall be there again this next Saturday, just before we head off on our Norway cruise. Our friend Mark is joining me and says he will run with me rather than run on his own. Not sure that's a good idea as he's much faster than me, so I'll probably pushing myself harder than normal. It might mean I get a better time but I'll probably be looking worse than this!