Sport or Spirit?!

I quite like starting an entry with a pic of our latest lunch box mini muffins, this weeks were chocolate with white chocolate chunks..  I made quiet a few so they should last a while.. Maybe!

We have had a good week back at school with the 'ususal' routine and the children have all settled back into 'the grind' without batting an eyelid.  Good!

I have spent the week umming and ahhing over a few sewing projects, as I always seem to do and worrying that I don't spend enough time studying. 

Paul has spent the week cycling on 'beasty' (a mountain bike/road bike cross hybrid weird combo that he put together himself and everyone said wouldn't and shouldn't work, but does!) because 'Gary' his road bike died whilst cycling the last few miles to my parents house on a long jaunt..  'Gary' has been mourned like no other bike, not least because he is (was) Paul's first road bike, but because he was paramount to Paul completing the RAB in September.  Anyway, we heard the news that it wasn't under warranty and then made the dreaded decision to fund a new bike ourselves (ouch!) when Trek (bike brand) came back and as a gesture of goodwill for RAB, offered him a new frame and fork, so that 'Gary' in a new body at least, lives again!!  This is such great news, not least because it means we can spend the funds on my first road bike :-)  This is the current fore runner Trek 1.2 2011.

Get me, excited about bikes!  Seriously though, being on a bike and clocking 35mph+ going down a hill is the closest thing to flying I think I will ever experience and I find it pretty spiritual.  There is one particular lane on my little 15 mile route and if you time it right and the light is perfect as you crest one specific little rise, then I swear its a doorway into another dimension, or plane of existence.  I've had a couple of amazing 'moments' in the last 6 months, and maybe that's just because I was outside, working hard in the fresh air, but I like to think I become my alter, more athletic ego, when I get on a bike (and I can fly!) and its a bit like that when I think about Rit- there are certain things I do and in a certain order, weirdly just like riding a bike there are certain things you do, and in a certain order and if they both produce a feeling of Spirit in me, how can I not compare them?!

If you want the honest truth, I see my triathlon training as a spiritual undertaking, where I like to think I am finding out just how far my alter ego can go - I believe the 5 sacred things necessary for all life are Earth (In triathlong terms thats running), Air (cycling/'flying'), Fire (me), Water (swimming) and Spirit (my passion to do it)..  Once you have life, you have divinity.  One day I will type out the forward written by Starhawk for the book 'The Fifth sacred thing', but I hadn't planned on this wordy detour into my mind, so I'll move back into light heartedness and ask how you like that for a ramble?

Ahem.  Right, where was I? Oh yes.  Niamh and I planted out the peas this week, 

 Her first taste of freedom in the garden, wearing the blue suit all the kidlets have worn

Below is 'The Patch'. 25m2. I didn't use it last year due to the newness of Niamh, so we covered it over in breathable black matting specific for the job to keep the weeds down. The terrific Tippers helped me dig it over last autumn and I put bulbs round the edge to inspire me this spring to get out and grow some veggies. Nearest to the camera are several rows of many types of onion and garlic, planted last autumn. Behind Niamh you can see the beginnings of a rudimentary pea support.. I'm planning on basic salad in the middle, so lettuce, rocket, beetroot, spinach and some carrots, leeks and parsnips, with obligatory courgettes at the bottom. Am considering if its too late for a pumpkin..

 

And in other news, my parents gifted their old computer to the children and they are really enjoying playing games and learning about 'stuff'!