Newbies (new baas, actually) and NQL

God, it was a beautiful morning and I woke to sunshine streaming through my window. Perfect running weather, too: sunny, dry, and not too hot. So I ran out to Kearstwick and thence north to Rigmaden, where I turned east to take the bridge over the Lune. 

Just as I was approaching the river, I saw a sheep nuzzling a little white form in the grass and I thought it was a stillborn lamb. But no! When I got closer, I saw it was a *just* born and the mother was cleaning it. I watched mesmerised as the little thing wriggled and tried to stand up. I suppose that would have made a good photo but it seemed a little intrusive.

However, once I'd crossed the river and run around a couple of fields - trying to give the sheep and lambs as wide a berth as possible - and got onto the lane to Barbon I looked out for some other lambs to photograph. And here they are! (It only occurred to me latter that this a bit of a twee photo for Mothers' Day.)

What with going to London on Thursday and then having the kids, this weekend, I thought I was going to entirely miss the Not Quite Light festival but then Dan and Abi's mum asked if she could have them this evening, so I dropped them off at half five and scooted down to Manchester, collecting the Minx en route.

The shows for the final evening of the festival were at FiveFour Studios in Salford, which turned out to have the most beautiful bar on the first floor. And the Minx stayed up there with her book while I went to the first event, which was a play (she still has a bad cough and thought it would be a disruption). 

Now, to be frank, I'm not a big fan of theatre; I find it oddly stressful. I worry that someone will forget or fluff their lines or that something else will go wrong. But I really enjoyed this play, even if the story was a little predictable. Also, for plot related reasons, it started with a young guy singing some Frank Sinatra songs and singing them extremely well at that. Maybe that relaxed me :-)

And the second event, which the Minx did come along to, was a performance by Michael Walsh (along with some friends) of 'Quare Hawk', which is his forthcoming album. I really enjoyed this, too, and especially the song called 'Shores of Lough Bran'. 

It was a great evening and I'm so pleased that we got to see some of the festival. I had a chance to chat to Simon, who was absolutely hoarse and shattered, but it sounds like the whole of the festival, which he puts together, was a success. Bravo!

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-11.6 kgs
Reading: 'Jog On' by Bella Mackie