Still adjusting to life back at full speed after a glorious week living SLOW on N Captiva Island (off Mt Meyers FL).   And we just made it back before the volcanic ash shut down the UK airspace - a week in Miami waiting for a flight would have cancelled out all the relaxation!

I put together a photo album together for the grandparents (click here to see it) with LOTS more photos.

North Captiva is hard to get to - at least from London -  a 30 min boat ride after a 3 hr drive after a 9 hr flight to Miami.  But once there, the only transport is golf buggies and bikes. Its quiet and pretty uneventful - the greatest challenge of each day was figuring out how to cook for 7 people for with only few utensils and warped pots.


A week of beach walks, playing scrabble with the kids and Billy's parents, running on sandy trails, spotting huge birds, turtles and dolphins.  Kids went fishing, but I couldn't justify the outrageous expense - certainly the most expensive dinner we had!

We were without the internet most of the week, but finally pirated wifi from someone - but I still managed to call in to Runners Round Table from the observation platform on the roof, watching the sun set over the osprey nest with two fledglings right next to the house - fantastic.

The last day Ali and I ran along the beach  - and a pod of dolphins swam just offshore making the fish jump into the air. They followed along the beach with us for almost a mile, then we ran back to the house to toss them the rest of the raw fish the kids had caught and they took it! It was exhilarating to be a part of their world!

Ali and I ran the Bath Half Marathon! Click to view 1 minute video. OK, no actual running in the video, because I needed the ipod nano for tunes during the race... but shots before and after.

A glorious break in the dark, dank and dreary winter we've been having.

Next time I'll turn the ipod the other way, so the video is wide not tall (dummy!)

Ali had a such a good time, she asked me to sign us up for the Bristol Half. So FOUR half marathons for me this year! Good inspiration to keep the training up!

Mom's 80th Birthday bash. Ali and I met up with the rest of the family for a week in Seattle, where we had a three day party- teasing each other, eating restaurant decadent food, playing cards, shopping and catching up on all the news. Culinary highlight was the biggest cinnamon bun I'd ever seen we shared at Little Johns' that was absolutely scrumptious! The butter cream frosting was to die for!

My brother Miller, from the Oregon border, my sister Linnie from LA and sister Missi, from Idaho, and I all contributed to fantastic photo album that Miller's wife Stormi created. Missi and I made early morning runs to the gym, trying in vain to offset all the excess. And our uncle Lymie and aunt Liz joined us for a Mexican meal.  Two of Ali's cousins, Blake and Sam  helped her regress from a stressed teacher to a laughing child sitting at the kids table - it was good to see.

The road ahead? OK, I can't resist the temptation for New Year's resolutions...sucker. So here they are:

- Get enough sleep so that I wake up refreshed and energized.

- Plan ahead so I'm never ravenously hungry, which leads to stupid food choices.

- Eat consciously, with no mindless "what happened to my sandwich?" moments.

- Find motivation by participating in the online community and challenges.

- Appreciate the strength of my body at the gym, biking and running.

- Spend a part of each day enjoying the outdoors - and bring the dog when I can.

- Be genuine and try to enhance other people's self esteem.

- Driven and committed are good, but frantic and frazzled are not!

- Seek balance and nurture positive beliefs, relationships and actions.

I'm part of a lose 10 lbs in 10 weeks challenge, will journal food on FitDay and I've signed up for a squat/sit-up/lunge challenge. All very virtuous!

For the Christmas week we stayed in stayed in a small hotel in a Berber village in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and explored the nearby mountains. The view from Dar Tassa is truly spectacular and we felt very welcome in the colorful cushioned living area, catching up on books and knitting. Our host, Mohamed, played mother hen, ensuring that there was enough heat in the lounge, coffee or mint tea, hot water for showers, taxis for walk shuttles, and even hot water bottles in our beds at night! He presented us with a fantastic chocolate cake on Christmas eve to make it a memorable event.

We struggled with the language barrier at the 13th century Tinmal mosque and nearby markets, and the feeling that we were being taken as tourists. Only Ali really felt comfortable negotiating with the traders for lower prices.

It was windy and rained a few times, but we walked about 10-15 miles a day in the mountains (a good thing, with the lavish breakfasts and fantastic tagines, bread and lovely desserts for dinners!). On cultural tour days, I ran on the path winding above the lodge - exhausting on the steep trail up, but exhilarating on the decline!

People mostly smiled at us as we guessed our way through unmarked mud streets in Berber villages, but the toughest part was cross-country route-finding! Our Spanish topo map had trails marked that we never found and we often had to just bushwhack on compass trend... which was fine until we came upon deep ravines and once a rocky cliff! We were continually traversing unstable slopes, and all ended up with spiky spines in our hands... Ali and I spent a fun day shopping in Marrakesh while the guys met up with a tour guide and had lunch in a Berber household.

The last night, after we laughed ourselves silly about the strange beet dessert, Mohamed arranged for the guests to dress in Berber garb and the lovely staff girls (we'd only seen briefly before) joined us for tea and put henna on our hands while we listened to Berber music.

The week was a great way to avoid a commercial Christmas and it was my first time without email in a few years! We played games, laughed together and the physical challenge left us falling into bed at too early an hour to get bored. A 3 minute video (shot with my ipod nano!) follows; click on the box to start.

Last night was the Stitch and Bitch (Knit club) Christmas party. Will and PoshTater cooked us an AMAZING vegetarian feast!

We all went home with Secret Santa wool and a challenge to show our resultant creations at the next mtg in the new Year.

Really a fun group, left to right - Nicola, Mary, Sue, Niki, me, Danielle, Lauren, Zarich, Will and Elizabeth.

Oh yeah, and Parsnip the dog!

Running with wolves! New Moon fever has hit London and I admit I've been delving into the paranormal/vampire/werewolf genre for the first time since my SISTER, Linnie got me interested in reading Twilight. We were sharing a room while visiting my Mom and she wouldn't stop reading and turn out the light! So hundreds of hours later after consuming vapid but best escapism reading and audiobooks, I'm really excited to see New Moon. Billy ridicules my shallow literary taste, but agreed to a make a fantasy photo. Only daughter Ali will go see the film with me. Sunday 5pm.. counting down...