Tuesday 11 March 2014

Oh, my thighs!

Although I am definitely overweight I do quite a bit of exercise. By the time I've mopped the floors for the fourth time I've usually broken out in a sweat!
The dogs are walked just about every day whether it's just thirty minutes round the block or for a couple of hours through the forest.
Recently I've been promising the boys that we would go on a bike ride and inspired by a post on a blog this morning about being without a car and how things take much longer walking made me comment back about how I just nip in the car to go anywhere. I've always got so much packed into my day that I try and do everything the quickest way possible.
Just before I had Clark we were involved in a car accident which wrote off our car, somebody pulled out of a parking position straight into the side of us.
We received £125 for the car which even eleven years ago wasn't very much! It took a year to save up for another car, meanwhile we got out our pushbikes and bought a trailer that you fit onto the back of the bike for £99.
Eden was riding a bike by then, Callum use to sit in this trailer and I had a "V" cushion that I use to snuggle Clark into and pack him in all snug and tight with other pillows and blankets.
We went everywhere for a year like that and even though I then had three children under five and one being a newborn my days panned out fantastically.
Because I knew it would take me ages to get anywhere and get home again so I didn't pack my day with errands and obligations, we just did what we could.
Nowadays our days are packed with just nipping in here on the way there and generally squeezing in as much as we can in as little time as possible!
So, as I had to pick up a prescription from the chemist which is about one and a half miles from us I asked the boys if they wanted to come with me and we would ride our bikes.
Their response was a resounding "yes".
They also wanted to visit my Dads grave which is about 300yrds further along the road from the chemist, so we took a red primrose along with us to plant on his grave. I was bought some for my birthday as it's been far too wet to plant them out so they've been hanging around. We chose a red one because red was my Dads favourite colour.
We took some pictures whilst we were there.
My coat and bike are leant against his headstone, very respectful!
You can see the red primrose we planted  at the end of the grave.
 Even with the amount of rain we've had they insisted on watering the plants!
We say a prayer before we leave, usually at Cody's insistence, so I took a picture before we started.
I always think this is so lovely because my Dad died when Callum was seven weeks old, so the youngest three boys never met him, I think this is probably Cody's way of having some sort of relationship with him. Maybe that's just me being a bit deep?
So then we cycled home and as the title suggests my thighs are now killing me! 
 I finished these a little earlier, they're for the friend that gave me the puppies.

So now I think I need to sit and let my poor old body relax.
Oh, look there's my knitting bag, may as well do some as I sit here......... relaxing!

14 comments:

  1. Thats a weird coincidence as I went to a cemetery today and took a picture of my dads gravestone.!
    I love cycling and used to bike with 2 children on board. 1 on a child seat on the back and one on a mens cross bar child seat altered to fit in front of me. Can't imagine how we never came a cropper, though I was 30 years younger and fitter.

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    1. I remember sitting on the crossbar of a boyfriends bike when I was younger. He use to take me home every night like that.
      In those days it was romantic, nowadays it would just be hilarious!

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  2. My Grandfather had one of those crossbar seats on his bike, I can just remember bowling along in front of him in the sunshine. We never went anywhere it was just for fun. I managed a run with Ben and my hips know all about it.

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    1. They built proper bikes in those days. Nowadays they are so light and flimsy. I think my children would faint if I ran !

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  3. It's my b'tom which hurts if I ride a bike, saddles could be so much comfier than they are, in my opinion. Eleanor was less than a year old when my sister died, but we visit the crematorium to take flowers and we talk about her so often that it's as though she knew her. I'm really pleased that she feels as though she had some kind of relationship with her because my sister doted on both Daniel and Eleanor.

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    1. I know what you mean Jo! I have a gel saddle and it still hurts!
      Sorry to hear about your sister, she must have been quite young when she passed.
      I do think often about how different the children's lives would have been with my Dad in it. My Mum married a lovely man 4yrs ago so they do now have a Grandfather figure in their life.

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  4. OB loved his bike today but it has the most uncomfortable saddle - what's wrong with a bit of padding? Try not to worry about being a bit overweight. We all know that worry breeds the need to eat cake! xx

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    1. Worry breed the need to eat cake!...... Never a truer word spoken!

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  5. Sadly I can't ride a bike, but my kids all can and dh takes them out on theirs often

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    1. It's the other way round in this house, Malc never learnt to ride a bike, so it tends to be me that goes out with the boys and bikes x

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  6. I haven't done any cycling since I was about 15 (40 years ago) so I'm sure my thighs would protest if I took it up again. Back then I'd cycle for miles all by myself all around the country lanes. I loved it. DH and I have talked about getting bikes but we don't have much storage space here with only a tiny L-shaped backyard and no room inside. Even though we have 5 children we never had a car when they were younger and always managed on public transport or by foot. They were certainly a lot fitter than many of their friends who got driven everywhere. In fact we've only had our little VW Polo for two years since DH passed his test at the age of 52. It is handy to have a car, especially when DH was supply teaching and had to get to different schools, but these days its more of an expensive luxury since it sometimes stays parked for days not being used. If things were really, really dire financially we could certainly do without it.

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    1. I use to cycle everywhere on my bike as a child. I even rode to work for the first four years when I left school. I had the most awfully steep hill to cycle up too. Good fun coming home though!

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  7. My family love cycling and being outdoors too. I also think it's lovely that your children have a relationship with their Grandad, you have given them an excellent and gentle lesson on the journey of life x

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  8. Thanks Josie x It's always good to get outdoors.

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