At Last!!!

At last, a day suitable for a walk! We've had so much cold weather this winter, and a walk down a country road at -27ºC just doesn't appeal. This afternoon our thermometer read -10º and there wasn't much wind. Although the sky was overcast, the cloud cover was thin enough that you could see the sun dimly shining through. I've been getting worried about this lack of walking, especially as the wilderness hiking/camping trip to Torres Del Paine draws closer, just over six weeks from now.

So I bundled up and loaded the back pack, borrowed from a friend, with both my ankle weights, for a total of 20 lbs. I intended to hike the hill, but that road looked pretty slippery, so once I reached the corner 3/4 mile up a gentle hill from our driveway I turned east and walked that mile to the highway and back again.

At first the weight bothered my shoulders, but I adjusted the pack a bit and it wasn't too bad. By the time I got home again I was used to it. I also think that a back pack stuffed with clothing, etc, will not carry the same as one loaded with 20 1-pound metal rods, bumping around behind my butt.

I was aiming to do the 3 1/2 miles in an hour and 10 minutes, but made it in and hour and five minutes, so I was pretty happy with that. Unloaded, my pace is a steady 16 minute mile. So I'm glad to be back in training and surely hope that the weather stays decent enough for this to be regular.

On another note, the handquilted panel I

"guestimated" as a one week project, will

surely turn out to be at least twice that. Originally I thought to just quilt the outlines of the design, but later realized that those stretches of background need to be held down, especially since I'm using a polyester batt, for softness and weightlessness. I've decided to follow every other line of polka dots, and to do it on an angle to give a little motion to the design. So far, so good!