April catch up

So April saw Buster going outside for the first time.  Oh this little boy has my heart now, yes it took a while.  What if we opened the door and he never came back!!??   So one sunny afternoon we just left the back door slightly ajar.  Well he stood with two front paws out and two back paws in for an absolute age not knowing quite what to do.  Then the look of discovery on his little face was a joy to behold.  He never ventured beyond the back door porch area mind you for about the whole month, just happy to sit and enjoy the breeze or he ventured as far as the cars in the driveway.  Always coming back when called (or when the biscuit bag was shaken) !!

Meanwhile Buster and Lucky were getting on like a house on fire.  Every now and then Lucky will give a growl, but for the most part he's just happy to have a best mate again.   Even when Buster is trying to wake him up to play.

Excuse the blurry shot here but it must be shown.  I was aghast when I woke one morning to find this, they were even sleeping in the bed together.  I aimed in the dark, hence the blur.

Buster, you are busted !!! 

Mike spent a bit of time in the studio during the month.  Some paintings made it past the half way mark.  Some were trashed.  A couple were finished.  YAY !

Meanwhile my training was ramping up with the 23km GOR in May.  With day light savings now finished, bah to that!  I ended up doing early morning runs.  Weather was still okay so I'd be out there at 5am running laps, with my awesome head torch.   Love my light up reflective shirt, I call it my disco shirt!!  I tell you you could see me from the moon with my flashing bands around my ankles and reflective gear.  Don't let the black shirts fool you.

 

Seems to be a 'thing' with us now, Easter saw us go climb another mountain, this time the beautiful Mount Abrupt just out of Dunkeld.  I'd done it once before, but Mike hadn't.  We got to try out the new walking sticks we got, they were great.

How's this for magnificent.

Righto Mike, yes you made it to the top!  

He was pretty jazzed.

  

Proof that I got there too.

And look at the magnificent view from the top.  Magic!

So worth the climb.

I also rejoined Aths Club for the winter season, 

so got to run with my running friends again.

I say "with" figuratively!  They are way faster than me!  ;-)

April done, on to May.

March catch up

Back to catch up on March with more gratuitous kitten pics, although the kitten is getting bigger.  Buster Q has really settled in, looks rather comfortable in his plush new bed too I might add.

Oh to be a kitten with not  a care in the world

He looks rather relaxed doesn't he?

We tried for a family photograph.

I don't know what we were thinking.

It was never going to happen.

This is as best that we got.

Lucky had been suffering from allergies and grass seeds, apparently it was a bad season for dogs in our town, so we booked him in for a hair cut.  Oh dear.  He doesn't look impressed.  It only marginally stopped the scratching.  He looks like quite a different dog.

But at least peace was reigning supreme in the house.

Buster probably thought there was a whole new dog in the house!

Mike and I decided to go up Mt Noorat. 

Well for me it was a training run, hills!  Get some strength in the legs.

For Mike he wanted to take some pics.

However some kind strangers took this one in front of the crater.

Yes it is a volcano.  

My training run had me jumping for joy.  

There are electric fences and narrow pass throughs (to stop the cows from getting out.  Plus some climb over areas too (kind of like a stye).  It's a great walk around the crater, an amazing view from the top, and really windy up there too.  So lovely that this privately owned mount is open to the public to appreciate.

On the garden front Mike's grape vines started fruiting.

I think it's still going to be another year before the grapes taste nice and sweet though.

I went to a CWA craft day and was thrilled to make a three tiered cake plate.  It cost me all of about $8, op shop plates and the handle fitting.  So scary though drilling into the plates, how on earth they all don't break is beyond me.  It involved water and a diamond tip drill.

And I made this folded paper art book, whatever on earth it's called.  I gave it to mum and she loved it and thinks I'm super smart.  But I tell you, it was such a painful exercise for me to make this, all the measuring and folding, that as soon as I finished I threw the instructions away never to do it again.

And really March was pretty uneventful.  Some lovely Autumn evenings, long afternoon runs after work before day light saving finished.

Pig's bum! (aka how we spent Easter Sunday)

Okay so I'll get to the pig's bum later.  But check it out.  We took on this bad boy on Easter Sunday.  Mount Sturgeon in the Grampians.  Mike had an inkling to climb it last year, but it was pre-running regularly, and he wasn't fit, and my biggest fear was that he'd get half way up, have a heart attack and I'd have to somehow get him back down again.  Then when he suggested how about doing this on Easter Sunday, he felt fitter than he ever had, plus his achilles was feeling so much better, the plan was hatched.

We got up waaaaay early and went to the Easter Sunday dawn service, back home, got our gear together and did a few things round home and then headed north.

So I had climbed Mt. Abrupt previously and I think this was rated a similar climb, albeit not as far.  The google machine said it was a 7km round trip, I would have my Garmin on as I was keen to see the elevation at the end.   So the start of the hike was pretty good.  Hey we can do this!   It was fairly sandy.  The running machine even made me go for a trot!

Oooh okay we have a few step things, probably so the sand doesn't wash away perhaps.  All good though.  Hmmm are we there yet?? haha

Yep we were feeling fine, this was going to be a great day!

Oooh okay the climb started getting a bit harder, a few rocky bits to climb onto.  

Oh right, yep, I can see this is the mountain part of climbing a mountain.  Breathing a bit heavier.  But hey, we were in the great outdoors.  This was fuuuuuuun!!!!

The man still was thumbs up all the way.  His Redback boots served him well, good grip.  Plus ever the gentleman he was carrying the backpack, which you can't really see here.  Rain coats, flash light, glow in the dark arm band thingys, beanies, hey you can never be too sure right?  I'm sure I put a kitchen sink in there too!

While I on the other hand just had my water bottle belt on, with my bottle at the small of my back.  Oh and a point and shoot camera strung across.  Love my hiking boots too, I've gotten a lot of wear out of them.

On the way up, so that you don't stray off track there are yellow arrows, some more worn than others, but as long as we saw one of these we knew we were going the right way.

Then the track was getting downright ridiculous!  Who's great idea was it to do this!!!???  Probably not one of my finer ideas considering I had a half marathon to run the next weekend.  My mind kept fleeting to my friend Kellie who went ice skating this time last year the week before the Geelong half marathon and fell and broke her butt!  Steady as it goes.  Where was the top of this thing anyway.

     

Mike was looking puzzled, we had no words for this.  Was someone buried under there?  Or was someone collecting rocks.  We had no idea.

As we were climbing we could look back to Mount Abrupt over yonder, such a magnificent sight.  I think we were at the 'false top' we had read about.  Where you think you're at the top, but not really, you still needed to continue on.

But not before Jungle Boy let out his jungle cry!  

There was a young couple up there and she was taking a pic of her boyfriend and I offered to take a pic of both of them.  Oooookay, I no sooner lined them up and they started pashing!  Pashing on top of the world, but that was the photo they wanted!  They returned the favour and took our pic.  We did not pash.

And we continued on until we were at the real top.  Yahooooooo we had made it.  I knew we were there as there was a red dot on the rock marking the spot.  No more arrows.  Arrows would be bad at this point as it was a looooooong way down.

He hadn't even broken a sweat.  Only kidding, we were puffed.  And sat down and enjoyed our banana and water.  The young couple we had met earlier were already up there and gave us a few little Easter eggs they had carted up with them.

On top of the world.  Now THIS is what I call cross-training!   Was a tad blowy up there too.  The view was sensational, as far as the eye could see.

We slowly made our way back down.  I could see coming down there we could have made good use of walking sticks that I had seen some people had.  Watch out for wobbly rocks.  Time wise it was slower going up as we really just enjoyed ourselves, took lots of photos, it was fun.  Body wise it was slower coming down, even though we really just hiked it, I soon came to realise my right knee was weaker than my left knee, so I took it slowly slowly.  How on earth they have a fun run to the top I will never know.  

Down the bottom we enjoyed our picnic that we had in the car - salad rolls and a thermos of coffee.  And I couldn't wait to download my Garmin.  I was eager to see the elevation and heck, I must have burned a zillion calories.

That's where the PIG'S BUM came in!  That was what I said when I read I had only burnt 212 calories.  WTF????  Are you kidding me.   Okay so I didn't have my heart rate strap on, but usually Garmin does a nice job of estimating the calorie burn.  Not this time Garmin, oh you do lie, can't you see the elevation we climbed!!??

So next stop for the man is Mt. Abrupt, he's ready to take on that challenge next.  That's a longer climb and spectacular views from the top.  Now just to schedule it, can't wait.