A weekend of sport and a tow home....

Hello

So another busy week has meant that I haven't written a post for seven days and rather more alarmingly, I've had little time to pursue those interests that help me unwind, such as reading and my various crafts.

This weekend has been another busy one on the sporting calendar for us: a cross country race at Cofton Park, Birmingham yesterday and another key football league match today.

Cofton Park is beautiful and looked particularly impressive yesterday in the spring sunshine when we arrived. However it clouded over a little and so my photos fail to catch the hazy sun and blue skies that greeted us.

There were ten races in total and the course was muddy and well-churned in places, but I think it is those exact conditions that makes the sport so appealing to cross country runners. You can see standing water in the photo above; this is while we await the start of the U15 girls race. 

And see the girls below running through mud - what a challenge, and up hill too! Spiked shoes are a must and spiked shoes tied on securely are an even greater must. The runners in our family have all lost shoes at one time in very muddy races - if that happens there is only one thing to do - forget about it and carry on running.

 

So we had had an enjoyable afternoon at Cofton Park but these photos hide another tale that was occurring at the same time and not far away. On the way to Cofton Park our car developed a shake each time we accelerated; when this happens on a motorway it is a bit worrying. We were so thankful to arrive at our destination in time for the race but we really did not feel safe travelling back on the motorway so on arrival in Birmingham we called the breakdown service. And this is how we travelled home - with our car on the back of the breakdown truck!

Of course I had my usual crochet project with me, and I managed to crochet 3 stripes on the way to and from Birmingham. I had a mild panic half way through our journey home when I mislaid my crochet hook in the back of the breakdown truck - this happened when I stopped to answer my phone. But it was soon recovered and off I set, crocheting again. I wonder how many times our driver has had someone in the back of his truck crocheting? 

Anyway, this morning it was off to a football match. While we were waiting for the players to warm up I noticed this beautiful tree, I love the colours of the bark, lichen, soil and white flowers. They reminded me of the colours of the wrap knitted by Kristen  - please find a link to her blog here. She is an extremely talented and prolific knitter.

This reminded me of how much we can use nature as an inspiration for our craft projects. And I slowly raised my camera from the bottom of the tree trunk to higher up to its bares branches and snapped a photo of the tree outlined by the blue sky.

 

And finally a photo of the girls in action on the football pitch. Our team won 1-0 so we came home happy.

But just before we left..... we'd noticed on arrival that there was an abundance of groundsel just near to where we parked our car. Now, we know a little boy who is very fond of this weed, and so we picked several clumps to take home to him for his lunch. And here he is.... munching away.

He is a big boy but even he looks dwarfed by the mountain of groundsel he was served!

I hope you have a good weekend and have had the opportunity to enjoy the spring sunshine and blue skies.

xXx