Still here, alive and kicking

I have been ridiculously busy and lacking in sleep, that's what's having a neurotic old dog suffering stages of dementia will do to you.  She is doing my head in.  She just wakes up in the early hours and wanders up and down and up and down the passageway.  I will wake and find her staring at the wall.  Mind you we keep a light on for her and have music playing so the house is not in darkness or quiet.

Then she settles and goes back to sleep and usually about an hour before my alarm goes off she starts all over again.  I get up, put her coat on her (because it's chilly now with Winter started) and she goes outside.  And just lays in the middle of the lawn.  No, she doesn't use the nice comfy dog bed with the big pillow up on the porch under cover, no she won't use a kennel, she just lays on the grass.  And at times in the rain.  That just breaks my heart.

So broken lack of sleep is doing my head in, because of course Mike doesn't hear it at all.  He used to say I would wake him up back when I used to snore, but he doesn't hear Molly.  Go figure.  Selective male deafness I think.

Work is busy, life is busy.  We had an unexpected visitor last weekend when one of my mum's longest friends was in the area on the way through on a caravanning holiday and called in.  Oh it made my heart sing.  Mum and Pam were childhood neighbours growing up as young children.  Now Pam is 69 and mum is 72 (I think) and their friendship is still strong.  Pam and Tom having three sons, I was always the daughter they never had and Pam was always my "second mother".  We had the best best morning ever.

And in amongst it all I've still been running.  I've been heading over to Terang for some different scenery of a weekend.  It's a very volcanic area around the south-west Victoria where I live, and there is an area called the "Dry Lake", which is the inside of a crater I believe from time gone by.  It's a 4.5 km loop so is good for two laps and a nice 9km weekend run, and is just wonderful, throughout the circuit that vista changes remarkably as you hit the different sections.  Running clockwise you start off in a bush trail, and you'd swear you were in the middle of the bush.  It smells nice too.

Then as you leave this area of the circuit you end up in country paddocks running in with the cows.  The first lap there were no cows but as I headed around for the second lap the cows had moved along the track grazing.  

There there, nice cow, you're mighty big up close, there's a good cow, let me pass!  I was ready to take off sprinting in case they charged!!

Through another gate, yes there are gates to open and shut all the way along this route ...

Then you head through the grounds of the nursing home.  Firstly it's really nice for them to allow runners and walkers through their grounds, and secondly I imagine the residents must enjoy seeing people run through calling out a cheery hello.   Not to mention what the sight of my sweaty Lycra tights must have done to heart rates! Hahahaha

Then through another gate and you head up a grassy hill to the top and then wheeeeee! down you go, that's the good part, along a track down the side of the hill down to the flat area below. 

Then you head past some paddocks with horses through a lovely straight stretch, which was bathed in the Autumn sun.

And back along the north side through an avenue of beautiful trees, where I was rained on by the Autumn leaves floating down, very magical.

Back up to the main road, and along to the start again.  Fantastic!  REady to do it over.  It's a great run and good training for running on different surfaces.

These photos are a combination of the last two weekends of long slow runs around the Dry Lake.  How lucky I am to have this area so close to vary my training.