A Dancer, Two Brass Bands, Wythenshawe parkrun #598, and some Admin

I'm catching up by way of a miscellany. The tearoom at Wythenshawe is happily open these days, and is dog/people friendly. (More below.)

Granddaughter Jessica is loving dancing, and her older brother is enjoying success at table tennis, at the expense of a bit of running. Here's Jess with a well earned trophy.

Last Sunday was a family occasion with the Whitworth Vale & Healey Brass Band, who put on an excellent Christmas performance.

The hall was full, with several hundred in the audience, and lots of money raised towards a new piece of equipment for local cancer researchers, by way of a raffle.

There were some excellent solo performances.

After the interval, and before the main band returned, the junior band played a few numbers. Jacob (tuba) and Jessica (horn) are both in this band, out of sight in the next photo, in which Jacob's friend Seb is second from the right in a white shirt.

That was an excellent evening, and one of many Christmas concerts attended by Sue before Saturday's parkrun, after which she headed to Solihull to spend time with her parents, her father being rather unwell.

We had a great day with Isabella on 'Friday = Isabella Day (81)'. See below.

I've been severely restricted as a result of a knee issue that appeared out of nowhere towards the end of last week's walk in the Trough of Bowland. So it's daily physio exercises plus a half hour bike ride for me for the time being. Thus not much of interest for these pages. I'm scanning some slides from 1997 that may give rise to some retro entries here pending my return to fitness.

Whilst I can't run the parkrun, I can act as a much needed marshall, yesterday at 'Far Bridge', from which the following images were taken as I first waited for (lots of chirping birds in the nearby trees to try to identify) and then encouraged the 261 runners and walkers, a couple of whom took over an hour to complete the two laps of the 5km course.

The approach to Far Bridge is on soft, sometimes muddy, ground, ending in the slippery corner before the slippery bridge and a sharp turn onto the track the other side of the hedge.

Here's Sue, too fast for a head on photo - having a good run in 26:15, position 73.

The runners had plenty of time to install themselves in the cafe before I arrived, and thanks to the insulated cup, my drink was still hot. A few minutes later the 261 bar codes were left with us to sort.

The 'kitchen' is the two food vans in the courtyard. They will need lots of bacon next week.

Admin:

For reasons of privacy, entries covering our days with Isabella will in future be private. So they won't be shown here. Instead, I will continue to keep an illustrated diary by way of Word documents that can be shared on Dropbox with family, and others who gain enjoyment from reading about our days with Isabella. Please let me know by email if you would like access to this diary, obviously for reading only.