I got soaked

My husband and I ran the Bracknell Half Marathon today. It was my first HM race ever. I did the distance in training several times in the past year but never signed up to get an official time. It was about time....

It was a right miserable day all morning, chucking it down with rain, cold-ish winds...you see I am being very dramatic. That's how I felt.

We did brave the elements and made it through the finish line in 2:02:40. I am very chuffed with that time. I aimed for just under 2 hours so this is pretty close. I'll attempt another time to break the 2hour mark. Hopefully on a sunnier day. Enjoy my race pictures. I look awful but hey, make up and constant rain mixed with sweat does not hold up very well. Yes I do wear a little make up in races...I am naturally ginger and look completely dead without.

Me, exited before the race, sporting a very fashionable bin bag. Would this count as a homemade garment? What do you think?

Husband trying to get a shot of me but obviously I am far to fast for the camera ;-)

Running hard in the mud aka just a walk in the park

Tiered, wet, snotty and very proud mess at the end of it all

Check my medal, goodies bag and water bottle and ignore the face.

I am now presentable again, well watered and fed icing my knees with frozen soup for tomorrow. What a wonderful way to end the day!!!

I hope you l had a great weekend, too.

Day 3, Osborne house and braving the weather

One day three of our little short trip to the Isle of Wight we chose to visit one of the main attraction on the island and another English Heritage sight, Osborne House.

Osborne House is one of the reasons I wanted to go to the Isle of Wight for. I am a sucker for royal residences, in particular if they have been kept as they would have been in their prime time.

Osborne house was Queen Victoria's main residence as far as I know and she and Prince Albert spend most of their time there. When I saw the information in the EH brochure I knew I had to go and visit and see the place of  the longest reigning queen and her German prince. Since all of Germany's living left over royals are rather boring or embarrassing, I stick to the dead ones that made it over here ;-)

Anyways, I highly recommend a visit to this beautiful place. I love the (IMO) not very English architecture (it looks kind of Mediterranean to me) the beautiful gardens and of course the amazingly opulent interior of Osborne house. Unfortunately photography was not allowed inside the house.

Please click on the picture to view their source

After all that royalty and OTT interior and exterior we decided to get back to our good old common country walking. We decided to walk from East Cowes along the river Medina to Newport, back to West Cowes along the other side of the river and then taking the ferry across the river back into Est Cowes. At first it seemed like the weather was going to mess up our plan but after a shower and forced pub stop (such an unfortunate thing ;-D) we had blue skies and a great afternoon outside.

Hope you're not bored yet, there is one more day of island goodness to come. I also have new sewing projects to show but the weather needs to get better here first so I can photograph the goodies.

MMM 2012

I guess it's about time to join Me Made May so here is my pledge:

I, (Bea of Butterflies and Hurricanes), sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '12. I endeavour to wear at least one piece of handmade clothing each day for the duration of May 2012' and document my outfits on my blog.

I really hope the weather is going to warm up soon as most of my own pieces are Spring/Summer items. If not I'll probably never recover from the stupid cold that's unwilling to leave.

Who else is taking part in this? Let me know so I can follow you guys if I am not already following you anyways.

Birthdays and holidays......day 2

Apologies for the delayed post, but I had a rather big occasion to celebrate yesterday. It was my 30th birthday and blogging had to take a backseat. I used to think being 30 would be such an awful thing but thinking about it I rather prefer myself, my life and my general attitude at 30 compared to ten years ago. I has just gotten better and better. If I keep going in that direction, I am not scared of ageing at all. And oh well and those lines??? I'll deal with them later......

Back to where I left off on my last post: Our Isle of Wight trip

We took it easy on the second day and went to see Appuldurcombe House and the Owl and Falconry center near by. Appuldurcombe house is part of English Herritage so it was on our list of things to do, the falconry center was just a maybe. It turned out that the manor house was a bit of a let down. It's very impressive to look at but there was no information about it anywhere. Just a big shell with no roof.

Mr Redsquirrel came to say hi, too. There are no grey Squirrels on the entire island meaning these little fellas can live in peace and present themselves in all their glorious cuteness.

The owl and falconry center "next door" was great fun. I love owls and birds of prey and find them very fascinating creatures. Seeing them perform in the two displays we went to see, was amazing.

The first one was hawks, falcons and vultures.

Dave and his new buddies. The vultures were very tame and friendly guys. We took them out for a beer afterwards ;-)

The second display was owls.

This one was trying to befriend me. I instantly fell in love of course.

When it took off it proper slapped me in the face with it's mighty wings. I take an owl slap any day.

Our favourite little guy was the one below. This is Bandit, he's a spectacled owl and the cutest thing I have ever seen. He does this little dance and noise that is beyond cute.

They had afternoon displays too but we had more planned for the day. Next stop was Carrisbrooke castle which is also part of English Herritage. This castle was great. Lots to see and do.

The last stop of the day was Arreton Village, which was a place I wanted to go and see based on a brochure I picked up at the ferry terminal. It looked very cute and vintag-y. It was a cute place but basically just a bunch of tourist shops.

They had a little arcade with vintage fruit machines and all kinds of fun slot machines.

AT the end of the day wen went for a little beach walk in Shanklin and had dinner at the Steamer Inn, which is a great traditional pub right at the seafront. The food was amazing, so was the atmosphere.

And this is me happy on the beach being silly...just because.

The Isle of Wight...oh how I miss you already

We're back home again. How time flies by when you are away enjoying yourself. No chores, someone else making your bed, cleaning up after you, cooking for you, doing the dishes for you.....it's those little things isn't it?

Now I am doing all those things again ;-((( I don't mind but every now and then it's nice not to.

ferry port in Portsmouth

The Isle of Wight was breathtakingly beautiful. If any of you readers live on the island or close enough to go visit regularly, will you be my BFF?

It's the perfect place for Dave and I to spend a few relaxing days.

Yarmouth

On the first day we went straight on a 13 mile walk after an early ferry crossing. This walk took us to Yarmouth one of the other ferry port towns (we crossed the Solent between Pourtsmouth and Fishbourne) on the island, along the coast to the needles to the Tennyson monument, fresh water bay and back to our car. We went to check out the Yarmouth castle as it is part of English Heritage. It's a very small castle with a bit of information on it's history. I think if you're not a member of EH, save yourself some cash and see something else instead.

Walking up to the viewing platform to see the needles is very worth it. It's a nice walk from wherever you are coming and the views along are breathtakingly beautiful. Fromm there you can walk up the hill over to the Tennyson monument. You get an amazing view of Freshwater bay, Yarmouth and the mainland coast.

that's Hurst castle on the other side and mainland England

the ever changing countryside along the coastline between Yarmouth and the Needles

cliffs and the Needles from afar

the Needles

the coloured sand cliffs near the Needles

Tennyson monument

We stayed at the Birkdale guesthouse in Shanklin on the east coast of the island. It's a nice little family run guesthouse with (I believe) 7 bedrooms (standard and superior) We treated ourselves to one of the superior rooms as we wanted the King sized bed. The prices are very reasonable so why not.

The en suite had a jacuzzi bath tub as well which was nice but never got used. Maybe next time.

The breakfast was yummy and cooked for every guest to order alongside a nice buffet of fresh fruit, cereals, breads and spreads of all sorts. I hope Dave didn't eat them out of business as he can put away a lot....

And a few more pictures from day one in case I haven't bored you enough yet ;-D

getting wet

monkeys in the trees

you can tell who the athletic one in the family is

and who's NOT!!!

Thanks for not falling asleep looking at other peoples holiday pictures. There is more but I will feed it to you in small dosages.

Have a lovely day!