Oh, what a beautiful morning

Driving to work this morning I was blessed witha sky painted by mother nature at her best!

There were scattered clouds, the sun was rising, and the con trails from the planes (ok, they are not that natural...) were working together. 

The sun was still rising, so the contrails were illuminated from below. But it had risen enough so that the low lying clouds were illuminated from above. Beautiful! 

I was thinking that I would miss the chance to get this photographed. I saw a rest stop on the motorway and decided that I would risk being late and just stop. Sometimes you just have to step off of the conveyor belt of life and enjoy the world!

As I said on FaceBook:

A beautiful sunrise this morning. The rising sun shining down into one layer of clouds whilst still illuminating the con trails from below was so impressive I had to stop at a rest area on he way to work to get these pictures.

Sometimes you just have to stop and enjoy nature!

And, because sometimes you need colour in your life:

Bridge

Yesterday was about new boots, today was about new running shoes.

Well this morning was; this afternoon was about celebrating my mother-in-laws birthday :) A great time was had by all, and the little guy especially (he exhausted himself!)

But, this morning. My old running shoes were old. Really old in time (probably from 2013 or 2014) as 2014 and 2015 I hardly ran sure to the birth of my son, and a really heavy operation.

This year I have ran lots. So far  since 4th January I've covered around 450 kms and have built from 20 per month at the start to 70 to 80 over the last 4 months (with the vacation September isn't looking great. If I make 42 I'll be happy...)

And it shows (and smells :o) in the shoes... The padding in the soles has totally gone and they are falling apart...

So new ones! Yet more Asic Gels, as my last 4 or 5 pairs have been. And... Wow! The padding and support that new shoes give is always surprising, and this was no exception! When I got back my feet barely knew they had started, yet alone knew that they had done more than 10km over the previous 70 minutes. My knees were also felling pretty good and they are my week point.

The only issue... The material supporting my heel is still stiff, and so rather than shaping to my Achilles tendon, it chaffed. But the blister is already looking better, so I hope it's not going to be too bad!

So, the picture. This is a bridge about half way round my run today. There is a block of houses which back onto water  and a path that runs around both it and the houses. It's about 1km long, so a good place to make distance if you are ahead of time, and lose if you are behind. I was about on time today, so just one lap. The picture was taken during a rest in my intervals (I was tired and dropped the phone whilst taking it. Yet more damage, at least I hadn't had it repaired yet...). I love the ribs along the bridge and have been meaning to get the picture for a while. Considering the circumstances I'm happy with the result!

Dress

I adore swing dresses. So much so that I've even been known to pick the dress over a new tech gadget on occassion :)

But in winter there are some drawbacks...

Namely that it's really hard to wear boots when you need to. Calf boots are just a little short to look good - the leg gap between the tops of the boot and the hem of the skirt isn't my favorite look!

So, I got an early Christmas present yesterday. My parents gave me cash to get some over knee boots to keep me warm! I won't wear them until winter (probably) but wanted to get then now whilst I could find some I liked.

Today was the check that they are long enough to go with a majority of my dresses. 40 minutes, 8 dresses (6 with petticoat) and a handful of skirts shows me that, yes, that are awesome boots and they will get an amount of wear this winter. And, yes, there are a couple of dresses and skirts that make the boots look a little more at home on the street than I would like. I think I have to be careful how I wear them.

Oddly enough one of my shortest skirts looks amazing with the boots (which I wasn't expecting - I was expecting mutton meets pretty woman with that one), whist a longer one looks totally wrong (when I was expecting it to look ok...)

This is one of my petticoatless dresses after I took it off. It floated to the floor and settled so nicely that it had to be today's picture. It's also one of my favourites and, whilst the leg gap makes an appearance with it, looks lovely with the boots. Our maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part :) We'll see when I wear it outside for the first time...

Woodland path

A view from a woodland lodge, with a path worn into the ground caused by heavy rain water draining away to the stream which is out of view...

Though for once I actually think that the colour shot gives a better idea of what it was really like... I took a second shot using the dual lens set up on the phone, so full colour.

Much more impressive!