5114

5114 is the number of steps from my work to my house.

If you can remember I am taking part in the global corporate challenge, which encourages you to walk more.

 In my organisation there are 3 teams. Our team is currently 3rd.

However we are not that far behind the next team...

I am team captain. It is the captain's job to encourage/motivate (and occasionally nag) the team. It is also the team captain's job to set a good example!

That I have managed. Out of 21 participants I am 2nd! I am averaging 15.000 steps a day. The person who is in first is averaging 20.000 steps. As you can see by walking to and from work I can manage 10.000. However its not practical to do this everyday. I have to do walking lunches and trips with the dog and doing more miles on my bike will help!

The only drawback is...........I am ravenous..............

I am supposed to be on a diet as well and losing weight but I am craving food, food and more food!!!

The 3 meals and 3 snacks a day just is not cutting it. I have just eaten my dinner and am craving more. I will wait for 20 minutes and have a big drink. But I know, I will still want more.

In fact I did, whilst writing this blog, I have eaten my dinner + a snack + a toffee crisp!

I have a massive bowl of muesli and fresh banana for breakfast, washed down with hot coffee and occasionally some toast as well.

Mid morning snack is a cereal bar and a mug of tea.

Lunch is a big Salad, today was chicken, lettuce, celery and cucumber. washed down with water.

Afternoon snack is some wotsists (99 calories)

Then a normal dinner.

all good apart from all the other snacks that sneak their way into my day....we have a treat table at work however it is becoming more like a filling station! biscuits, brownies, chips, sweets, chocolate.......its my downfall.

I just need to be more strong willed and resist.

oh and keep walking!!!

Its an uphill struggle!!!!

A walk in the park!!!

I am sitting here looking at 2 tired but happy dogs.

We had to do a favour for my BIL in London so, on the way home we went to Windsor great park.

I love it there. If you want pretty you can go down to Virginia water's  or to Savil gardens and admire the plants. We would have done Virginia Waters today however, As the PGA was on at Wentworth we felt it was best to stick to the Windsor side.

If you squint really hard you can see the castle in the background!

We were careful with our speed!

(not 30 mph or 40 mph or even 35mph)

We walked round Russell's pond, which was blissfully quiet. We only saw 2 people the whole time we were there. The wildlife however, was in abundance.  Unfortunately we only had my camera so no amazing close ups. (more squinting required)

This is a Kite,

You can just see the fork in the tail. It was amazing to see it flying around! 

We also saw a buzzard and some Mandarin Ducks, both of which were to quick for me! 

We did see 2 Canada Geese and some gosling's...

The light was bad so there are no good arty prints today! This was quite nice though.

The star of the walk however was not the view's or the wildlife but the Spaniel! 

For those of you who do not know our Spaniel is Blind (and a bit stupid).

So he only very rarely gets allowed off the lead. As today was very quiet we did let him have a run. He loved it.

(look no strings)

We put him back on the lead after a gun shot sent him running in the wrong direction. He is very skittish. 

Well it was a good job we did as he managed to launch himself into the Pond! 

We rounded the corner and he fell into a ditch, luckily it was a dry ditch, so we hauled him out.  

we walked around the pond and on the way back he fell into the same ditch!!!!

 Once we were passed the pond we let him off the lead again for a short while. Now do you remember I mentioned there were only 2 other people there today, well the Spaniel took a liking to one of them. A strange woman walked past us and the spaniel followed her! well we managed to get him back put him back on the lead and the rest of the walk was pretty uneventful. 

Near to the car park was a heard of long horned cattle. I have a liking for cow's of all breeds. they are such lovely animal's.

 I grew up in a small village and the farm nearest to my house had a small herd of dairy and beef cattle. I used to love going over there. I would help with the milking and getting the cows in. I used to love watching the steers as they grew up and was heart broken when they went for beef. (did not stop me from eating beef) 

I have a strong affection for cattle. I take photo's at any opportunity. 

Sorry for the lack of Blogging I have been so busy since I went back to work. Well its a combo of work and tiredness!! We have another trip planned so I will put the camera battery on charge!!

Spring Bluebells !

LSP, took the afternoon off today to spend some time with me. We went for a therapeutic walk with Eldest Daughter and the dogs in a local park. We only managed an hour but it was worth it! Armed with the pocket camera I clicked away....

The Flower's were lovely, 

The company was great, 

Oh yes and there were the bluebells....

perfect!

Doggy doo doo........

I love our dogs, they both have amazing individual personalities. They are 80% good and 20% nightmare! (this is common with most dogs I think)

Tonight, it was planned for the spaniel to go to the vet. We are lucky that the vet is only a 10/15 minute walk away. Especially as i got a text from LSP at 4.55 to say that I had to take the dog to the vet as they were unwell. The dog had to be at the vet for 5.40!

I rushed home to collect the spaniel to walk him briskly to the vet........

Usually we walk our dogs together, If we do them separately then the 20% kicks in. Unfortunately you cannot take them to the vet together as the Labrador is a tart! she loves attention and does not like it if another dog is getting any, especially from a stranger (including boys).

so the extracting of 1 dog from the house is difficult to say the least, I did get 1 dog to the front door and the other in the sitting room. However, it was the wrong dog in the wrong place!

Getting the right dog in the right place (outside) had to do done quickly and involved the clever use of doggy treats!.

Ok, so I am outside, with the right dog on the lead speeding down the street. What I had not managed to do was pick up any dog poo bags. But that's ok, i always have some in some pocket or other......

So he does his business (stop reading now if you are eating your tea) and i search through my pockets for a poop bag. After much searching, I come to the conclusion that i do not have one!!!!

Hmm what do I have, I know a tissue, yes that will do, its not to far to the nearest poop bin. So I bend over in full view of all of the traffic picking up poo with a tissue and then carrying it down the street, which included crossing the road. Funnily enough the cars stopped for me, its amazing what carrying poop does to driver's!

So I make it to the poop bin with a clean if not smelly hand, then carry on to the vet. vet trip went well was just his 6 month check. on the way out I picked up a poop bag, just in case!

However, I know our dogs well and they only have 1 poop on a 30 minute walk.

We get home and I quickly swap the dogs over and take the Labrador out for her walk.

We walk, she does her business, I bag it with my bag from the vet and pop it in the dog bin!

We carry on walking, I am grumbling a bit as I am in my work shoes and the walk is very very muddy.
We carry on and then she stops.....and goes to the loo again!

A 2nd poop and no bag..........so i go back through my pockets, no tissues left, I go through again....Ha a wotsits packet!!! Yes I used a wotsists packet, but at least this time there was no one around to see...

I came home, put some bags in my pocket and washed my hands 3 times......love Dogs......

Simple pleasures...

Sometimes, its the simple things in life that can be the most satisfying. Here are some of mine.....

Bread and Jam, babies laughing, my dog when she lies her head on my lap, that Friday night feeling, taking my shoes off at the end of the day.

Birthday cards, my children sleeping, looking at old photographs, log fires, charity shops, walking, Snow, Daffodil's 

Lie ins, cuddles, Sleep, knitting, Sewing, Stew, wine, weekends, Blogging

12 hours on a typical Sunday.......

I thought it might be nice to photograph mine and LSP's day.

So here we are this is 12 hours on a typical Sunday (no icky bits)

Lie in today so we do not need to get up till 8am.

I will spare you the shower and getting dressed!!!

The Labrador decides to help wash the floor!! hmm I wonder what time it is?

Yes its doggy breakfast time!!


Now its time to take YD (Youngest Daughter) to work.

After dropping her off it is now time for our breakfast!!

I know its wrong.......but so nice on a Sunday morning it fills that time between dropping off YD and the opening of .....

No big shop today, just a few essentials for the day ahead.......

Bones for the dogs, magazines for my nan, nuts for the birds, chicken for dinner, wine for cooking (only £2 a bottle) and we had ran out of bread and fruit!!

Petrol station on a Sunday morning......... necessary if you want to complete the day!

ok now off for an hour of torture........At the gym....

It was a difficult hour, lots of sweating so much so a 2nd shower was in order. Now for a change of pace. 

The flowers in the shopping trolley were for my parents,

The earth is because the moles have set up home in the churchyard, need to get some grass seed.

well time to go now

Off to see my Nan and to tell her about the Ritz, pass on the magazines and have a cup of tea,

Lunch time... (lunch on the run)

ok now we have refuelled off to do some geocaching!

Geocaches are boxes hidden all over the world and you get the co-ordinates to try and find them. Go to www.geocaching.com to find out more! we had picked up a travelbug in Austria and it needed moving on.

Can you see it???

There it is.......

bye bye treavelbug I will blog about you again soon.
Ok so home now time to collect the doggies and go for a walk.

yes the pictures are posed... otherwise the pictures of walkies looks like this...

ah well of home as we bought them a treat in tesco remember!

Time to clean out Tiffany the gerbil.....

Yes she is as evil as she looks (the dinning room was covered in LSP's blood the other night)

 This is her cosy bed she made from shredded paper and huge pieces of cardboard!!

All clean and ready to go!

ok time to fix the dinner....

need to turn this

into this......

to this,

to this

to this,

we also managed washing, changing sheets, tidying, sorting, cleaning, talking none of which are great to photograph! I hope you enjoyed looking at our day !!!