Stability Through Motion

Another outing for Transporter Mix yesterday, in the Quiet & Relaxation Room at the Becoming Ordinary conference at the Town Hall in Oxford. This was organised by RESTORE, Oxford, a charity that ‘supports people with mental health problems do things that they want to do‘. About thirty people  took off their socks and shoes and stepped onto the platforms provided to listen to the sounds of the seashore, woodlands and parks of the UK.

I must learn to make this experience more relaxing for myself, as by the end of the day I was completely exhausted!

Here’s one particularly sweet comment:

Absolutely blown away by this experience. Love the idea of textured boxes under my feet. Sounds were very relaxing and de-stressing.

Sunday was F’s birthday, so, naturally enough, we ran in a 10 km race together. This was F’s first ever 10k, and the furthest she’s ever run. Despite the unseasonable heat and sunshine at Eastleigh, we came in under our target at 1:09, so I’m really, really proud of her. Thanks so much to all the crowd supporters who helped make it a great event.

I can’t quite believe that this is my first race since October last year. Next on the agenda is the Stratford Half Marathon. I’ve crept up to 30 – 35 miles per week again now, so might still race the Half, but think I’ll just see how I feel closer to the time. However, I’m definitely doing the Oxford Town and Gown 10k on May 17th. And, all being well, that will be a PB (personal best) attempt. Gulp.

Last weekend was spent with oodles of cable, cameras and microphones, and at last some of the results are emerging. You’ll need a pretty recent version of the Flash Player to view this video below [technical details follow]

H.264 encoded for Flash from HD quality footage. I haven’t seen it at HD resolution myself yet – pending purchase of an HDTV or monitor! My brain is a mush of resolutions, camcorder settings, microphone inputs, codecs and javascript right now.

Meanwhile I ran another 7 miles around the University Parks this morning – crocuses all over the shop, quite stunning.

Above: photos I’ve just scanned in (old slide scanner + Vista 64 bit = &*!!!^^#!!!), taken a few weeks ago in Wytham woods and around the local streets. I became slightly obsessed with moss when I was planning my shed installation, hoping to cover the roof of my shed with moss. But in the UK it feels wrong to remove moss from its natural habitat, and there was no time to grow my own, so turf it was. I did track down the wonderful Moss Acres web site in the States, where they cultivate moss for landscape gardeners etc. And then I found a great natural moss lawn just round the corner (photograph top left, above).

I was only slightly obsessed, mind, and do not yet possess a magnifying lens to allow me to tell mosses apart.