Sunday, August 28, 2011

2011 Streak Day 215 (Aug 3rd): Walking towards lunch


2011 Streak Day 215 (Aug 3rd): Run - 5.00 miles, Time - 46min 35sec, Weather - overcast, relatively cool
Walk - 11.94 miles, Time - 3hrs 20min, Weather - overcast at first after which the sky cleared and it was hot

The run was a figure of eight with a stretch that was a long steady uphill. This countryside is open and undulating but deceptively hard. A long gradual slope might feel OK at the bottom but after a mile your legs know they have been fighting gravity and you want it to end. When I got to the top of the hill today I felt in desperate need of a breather and cursed my weakness. The run was much tougher than I though it would be (or indeed it should have been).
The main activity of the day was a walk for have lunch. Matha is 6 miles away and the restaurant there was our destination. The walk was through open countryside, past the variety of crops and clumps of woodland. There are no hedges in these parts just division by crop: vine, sunflower, corn, and fallow. Along the edges and in the fallow areas there is a mass of wild flowers. Above are birds and a buzzard patrolling his area looks majestic. 
When we arrived in Matha I was once agin struck by how deserted French towns are at lunch time. Everything is closed and nobody is about so the streets are an eerie quiet.
Contrasts and comparisons are what make a holiday. Today had shown us field patterns, crops, and a social pattern that values a lunch break. All very different to back home.
Usually, when I come here I take a picture of a sunflower, all happy and bright. Today’s picture shows what happens afterwards - they become heavy with seeds and bow their heads.

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