Author: Maria Runs

Another snowy week and chasing sunrises

It is so much lighter in the mornings and evenings now- this last week it has been really noticeable.

I was very surprised on Monday morning to see more snow- after my winter run on Sunday it had sleeted a bit, but nothing had settled for very long. The pavements and even the side roads were covered, but as it was still fairly fresh it was not slippery, just absolutely freezing.

Of course matcha time, more snow, the red kites and dinner by the fire.

I am getting into the swing of online teaching although I had a lot of training sessions to get through which made fitting in everything else a bit of a challenge. It’s been good to have dedicated mini breaks in the day (eg a 10 min break mid-morning to make some matcha) to make myself look away from the screen and move about a bit. There is often one red kite flying outside the window, and I caught it being worried by the crows, and later in the week saw two flying together. No matter how many times I see them (and it’s pretty much every day) I am still amazed by their size and colours. It snowed more in the day, so we treated ourselves to the wood burner and had an easy pasta dinner so we could eat in the living room.

On Tuesday the pavements were icy in places so I did a very slow 4 miles.

I was sooooo cold when I got home, and then had more training sessions so was more sedentary than usual by the end of the working day. I’ve still been doing a short yoga session, but I felt the need for a longer one, so carried on with the Yoga with Adriene from 2020 (I got about half way through I think)- a 40 min session that was really helpful.

We’d been watching It’s a Sin and finished it that evening. I thought it was an amazing piece of TV, so hard to watch but so well written. I did really want some writing at the end to say how things have moved on since then (eg how there are medicines that can help, whether the protests did anything etc).

My B&B tea club arrived with the cutest postcard ever (Sugar and Sloth- they have an Etsy shop filled with cute drawings), and I ended up in bed with a hot water bottle, reading my more light-hearted book after the heavy going TV.

On Wednesday the snow was still there! So much of the woods were flooded, and the colder weather had meant it had frozen solid- very strange seeing frozen forests like that. The pavements were OK in places but slippery in others so again, a cautious run.

I made myself a toasted sandwich (peanut butter, banana) as something warm at lunch time, and to keep me going through another training session (they all seemed to come at once!). I also got the exciting news that my parents had been given their first covid vaccine- I actually got a bit teary when I saw their message. I know that they won’t even be a bit protected for a bit, and obviously need their second dose for it to be properly effective, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Wednesday night is yoga night, and I was really looking forward to it again. We have been doing a yoga nidra session at the end (you just lay on your mat with a cushion, blanket etc, and listen to the teacher)- I usually drift in and out a bit, but I properly fell asleep 3 times in those 30 minutes! Even though school has been going from home, I was still as tired as I would have been after a normal half term!

Thursday was yet another frosty and icy run, but it was so light in the morning too. We had the wood burner on again in the evening and started watching The Pembrokeshire Murders, which was interesting (based on a true story, with a bit of a Broadchurch vibe).

And then it was Friday, and nearly half term. As I left home, it looked as if the trees were on fire because the sun was coming up. I just kept on stopping to take photos- the sky was so many amazing colours, and it was just such a happy run! Spring is  around the corner, half term was ahead of me, I was happy to be out running, and yes it was freezing cold but I was wrapped up warm and just loving the views.

The day ended with a bit more yoga, a shower, face mask and hair mask, and then prepping cinnamon rolls for weekend breakfasts and snacks. I used a new to me recipe from Domestic Gothess which involved something called the tangzhong method (basically making a bit of a roux with flour and milk before making the dough)- a bit more effort but they turned out amazingly soft and fluffy.

So delicious. After breakfast on Saturday we headed on a walk to the lakes (where part of the lakes were frozen solid) and then into the town centre to see the fountain, which had partially frozen. It was something I would expect to see in Iceland, not in the UK. It was pretty spectacular.

Our pond had also frozen over but not quite as dramatic as the fountain!

In the evening we wasted hours of our lives watching Greenland- thinking it would be a sort of good fun “let’s save the world” movie, but in reality it was just terrible and predictable and fair enough the special effects were OK, but the main(adult) characters were not even likeable and you just didn’t even want them to be saved.  At least we had the final of The Masked Singer to look forward to after!

Have you seen anything good on TV lately? Or watched any good films?

How have you coped in the cold weather? I prefer cold and sunny to rainy and grey, but the icy pavements are not so good.

Virtual Winter Run 2021

A few years ago I did the London Winter run with some friends from my running club. It was totally freezing, but a good enjoyable run through the centre of London. Before Christmas I’d been sent an email about signing up to the virtual event, and then of course forgot about it.

Luckily they sent some emails out, and the plan was for everyone to run a 10k on Sunday 7th February. You were also encouraged to fundraise for Cancer Research UK, which I was very happy to do (link here if you fancy donating) – all these charities are losing out at the moment due to no actual events going on.

Bib on my vest, pancakes, tea and mince pie from the weekend too

I decided to use the Festive 5 route (which is two laps close to the town centre) and add on a bit more, as that would make it feel like a race. I even pinned my number onto my top the night before- It’s approaching a year since I did an actual race so it was quite nice to have this little ritual once again. I did forget to paint my nails though (never mind, I had gloves on anyway).

On my way there (around 2 miles for a nice warm up) this fox crossed the path in front of my and stood looking at me for ages.

It was sleeting the entire time, sometimes quite hard and other times more gently. When I got to the “start”, I took my jacket off and put on some music (I was going to have a different playlist, but it turned out that my Run Disney playlist was the only one actually downloaded on my phone)- I thought music would be better than a podcast to make me feel more like I was in a race.

I had some very apt songs (mainly from Frozen and Frozen 2) and the opposite (“What time is it? Summer time” from HSM being the most opposite to where I was!), but the music helped to keep me going in the horrible weather. As I neared the end I noticed I was on course to come in under an hour, so I put on a bit of a spurt and just managed it, with a 10k time of 59:52. I’ll take that! I have not run fast for ages- to put it in context, half of this was also a (not)parkrun pb for me!

I messaged Andy to say I was heading back, put my jacket back on and then ran back in the sleet. As I arrived home, Andy was making us a hot chocolate each in the velvetiser- this was the perfect post- race drink to warm me up.

I even got to “meet” a penguin! 

I couldn’t pose with a medal because they aren’t being sent out until after the race, which I think is a little shame. After a shower and breakfast I was still pretty chilly, so sat on the sofa under a blanket and watched Frozen 2. It went perfectly with the weather and the overall theme of the day.

I really enjoyed the event. The fact that it was happening on the same day gave it a more cohesive feel, and although the weather was freezing, it was good to feel that I was raising money while getting out there. I didn’t take part in the virtual London marathon, but I did enjoy being out running that day and seeing people wearing their numbers, and so it felt a bit like that.

Have you taken part in any virtual event?

Doughnuts, matcha and the big garden birdwatch

As a treat for reaching the end of January- usually a long month but 2021 seems to take the biscuit- we ordered a box of vegan doughnuts from Crosstown. It was a box of 6, so we shared each one (half with tea in the afternoon, and half after dinner) on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

They were so delicious- a lime and coconut filled one, peanut butter and blackcurrant jam filled one, chocolate honeycomb filled and a chai spice filled one, plus glazed chocolate and vanilla. The chai spice or pb&j would take a lot of beating.

Reading a real book and not a kindle- and yes I’m still using my Disney Christmas blanket!

On Saturday I’ve been having a day off running and we’ve gone on a long walk together as our “leaving the house once a day” token. The weather was not very nice (sleet and rain alternating) and for some reason, even though I’ve worn my boots before, they rubbed my feet raw and they were so sore by the end. I’d got some bagels and Nush cream cheese which is just the best, so at least I had a nice lunch to look forward to once I’d hobbled home.

There was so much ice around on Sunday morning I had to change routes- I ran to Panshanger but would usually cut through a park, but the park had flooded and then the flood had frozen, and it was just an ice rink with no way around.

I decided to do the birdwatch on Sunday as the weather was better and I thought more birds would be out, so after breakfast and a shower I moved the armchair right by the patio door and set myself up, listening to a podcast while I looked outside. I saw a few birds but not as many as normal (eg sometimes I see around 6 goldfinches together, but I only saw 2). It was a relaxing way to spend an hour and very good to not be looking at a screen. Now the evenings are a bit lighter and the birds are out a bit more, hopefully I’ll see more of them.

For out afternoon movie we watched The Dig which was really good, then we had a roast dinner (nut roast etc) before watching a live podcast.

The week that followed was fairly standard, but at least at long last we are in a new month and spring feels a little closer. A run each morning for me, and matcha mid-morning. We bought a new flavour to try (Honey Bunny- vegan honey flavoured matcha) which is really good. Andy is getting very good at frothing it! We found a stollen in the breadbin (as you do) so had that in the evenings.

I ordered a top from Magic Moon club and it came this week. Plus a beautiful sunrise on my run, and a lunch of a wrap filled with apple, chutney and violife.

Cook Vegan lasagne for a treat dinner- it’s so tasty with pine nuts in the topping

One morning it was super misty and my hair was soaked when I got home from all of the fog! It was very pretty, especially when you could see the moon. It’s been so good to get home in the light- I tend to leave at around 6.45, so I still need my light on then, but depending on the weather I can turn it off pretty soon, and definitely by the time I get home.

A little moan- I run past a bus stop, and the people queue across the pavement instead of parallel to it- the verge is very steep so I am having to scramble up the slippery muddy bank to give the queue a wide berth, whereas if they all queued on one side of the pavement I would be OK to give them space but not have to slip up the bank.

Another lovely sunrise, more matcha which was very much needed after a power cut as I was 5 minutes into a live lesson with my class!! and a face mask to chill out on Friday evening.

I had ordered a new running watch- my current one is OK but has a scratch on the screen now, and sometimes does not seem as accurate with the steps tracking. Anyway, we get a discount with Vitality, but in fact the watch was cheaper on Wiggle so I ordered one from there. It took a while to set up, but it now seems to add my runs via the wifi (I have no idea) instead of bluetooth?

I’ve had a good Friday evening routine the last few weeks- this week was mental health week, so we had a little colleague catch up via a meet after everyone had finished their live sessions. I then finished up work, did a bit of yoga and then had a face mask, had a shower and did a hair mask in the shower, and then put on comfy clothes ready for a pot of tea and some TV. We watched Baby Done, which was quite a funny film with Rose Matafeo, and a good way to end a week/ start the weekend (did make me want to go to New Zealand and go back to Canada though…).

How has February started for you? Do you like matcha? Do you get many birds in your garden? Do you have a bell on your cat if you have a cat?

How did Veganuary go?

This January I officially signed up for Veganuary (going vegan for January)- you were sent an email each day with tips and recipes, and could join a facebook group (which was far more supportive than another vegan group that I had joined previously). I thought I’d put my thoughts on the month into one post.

Context- I’ve been vegetarian since I was about 13, and pretty much didn’t eat meat for a few years before then- I was super fussy and just used to leave it. (My mum finally let me be vegetarian after I did a project for school about it to prove that you could get your nutrients still). I knew a few people who were quite militant veggies (one school friend had a mum who threw red paint in McDonalds to symbolise the bloodshed…) and I never wanted to be like that- this is for me but I am not trying to persuade anyone else. Andy does eat meat occasionally, and that’s his choice and it’s fine. This is just my thoughts and what is right for me.

So I am coming at Veganuary from my perspective. As a child I didn’t want to eat meat once I found out that it was dead- the idea just freaked me out. I also never liked the taste or smell, so people asking about missing bacon and things like that just didn’t apply because I didn’t like it. When I was really little I’d have to “hide” the meat taste with sauces. I was quite strict (compared to other veggies I knew)- I would only eat vegetarian cheese because I didn’t want the rennet, I wouldn’t eat gelatin and so on. The hardest thing was being given things that people thought were vegetarian- eg veggie afternoon teas containing salmon (and no, if you eat fish, you are not a vegetarian, you are a pescatarian and don’t say otherwise because it confuses everyone), or tomato soup with beef stock.

For years I’ve not had dairy milk, I’ve had a mixture of almond, oat and soya,  because to me when I thought about milk, and what it’s for (eg to fatten up calves- even adult cows don’t drink it, so why do adult humans?)it just seemed stranger the most I thought of it, and at the end of 2019 I started having vegan cheese.  I don’t eat a lot of cheese anyway- I might sprinkle some on top of pasta or have cheese and piccalilli on crackers at Christmas, so again that was an easy swap.

I’ve still had milk if it’s present in things, and if my mum gave me eggs from her hens I would bake with them, but I’ve been very close to vegan for a long time.

I’m adding all this in to show my perspective, because for me it wasn’t a huge change.

I was glad I did a bit of prep- for example the Christmas cake that I made this year were vegan (and everyone loved them as normal- I honestly think that compared to the amount of dried fruit in a cake, the eggs and butter would make up such a small percentage that it’s an easy swap).

I did get a lot of chocolates from my class for Christmas, and most of them were not vegan. Andy did tell me to eat them in December before Veganuary started, but when I thought about it, I didn’t like the idea of it, so ended up sorting them into two bowls- one for me and one for Andy (still working through them now!).

We’d had a vegan Christmas dinner from Cook (butternut squash stacks with roasted potatoes and gravy, and then we added veg and stuffing), and ordered a few other bits too.  I’ve also found a few new (to me) websites- my favourite being A Virtual Vegan– so many delicious recipes on there and all we have tried so far have been excellent.

I was given Happy Vegan by Fearne Cotton for my birthday last year, and so lots of recipes have come from that book too.

A veggie burger has often been a Saturday meal of choice, and taken to the next level with Leon Love burger sauce which happens to be vegan.

Breakfasts:

In the week this is easy- I have porridge / overnight oats usually and I make it with soya or almond milk anyway, so no changes there. At the weekend we sometimes have a brunch-style breakfast, and in fact these were easy to swap. No Gail’s croissants (not that I had been near a bakery for months) but Sainsbury’s and Ocado stock vegan croissants which are really tasty. I’ve made a vegan version of baked French Toast from A Virtual Vegan (AVV), as well as pancakes from the Happy Vegan book. I’ve not made it for a while but the babka I’d made a few times is vegan anyway, so lots of options for us.

Lunches and snacks:

Well, Crosstown Doughnuts do a vegan box, so we treated ourselves as an end of January treat! Nush cream cheese (made from almonds) is my absolute fave, so that on a bagel is so good. But usually it’s standard hummus and carrot sticks and oat cakes, so again, no changes there and all very easy.

I signed up to a subscription box which had some really good snacks- that NOMO caramel chocolate was gorgeous (made with rice milk in the chocolate), and I love anything salt and vinegar flavoured.

We do sometimes buy biscuits, but happily lotus biscuits, bourbons and Bournville fingers are all vegan (and Oreo’s I think?) so when I get them I’ll just need to check.

Dinners:

Most of my dinners were vegan anyway, but we have tried lots of new recipes which I’ve really enjoyed. This is the braised red cabbage from AVV, and was super tasty with some veggie sausages. Some of the ready-made products we had to be careful with- eg sometimes if we have wraps we might add in some quorn pieces, but some are veggie and some are vegan.

Green pasta, nut roast, beans on toast, lentil bolognaise 

Of course good old beans on toast (plus marmite and a little grated violife cheese) is vegan. Andy makes an excellent lentil bolognaise (from Happy Vegan), and this green pasta is from that book too (lots of spinach, basil, miso, tahini and other things blended up).

There is a delicious tofu recipe in the Happy Vegan book (a peanut and ginger sauce) which we often have, and we’ve had things like veggie chilli or bean stews. Cook did a vegan lasagne which we ordered alongside the Christmas bits, and it was super tasty so I think we would treat ourselves to it again. I think it was about £7 for one that served 2, but compared to going out to eat, or even the time to make all the layers etc, it was good for a treat.

After enjoying the Cook Christmas lunch, we bought a few nut  roasts and have been enjoying our version of a roast on a Sunday- the cranberry and  pecan one has been our favourite so far.

My mum made us vegan caramel shortbread which was really good

We used to buy a katsu sauce but Ocado stopped stocking it. We bought Leon Katsu ready meals to have one day, and they were nice but we thought we’d have a go. Andy bought some katsu paste and then luckily checked the label- he is so good at checking for milk and eggs, but it ended up having chicken in it! Luckily he noticed before he started cooking so he had it on his own one evening!

What has been hard?

Being at home has made it much easier, versus being at work and having to avoid the staffroom biscuits (not that we can have “shared” food at the moment anyway). Of course there isn’t any being away for the weekend, so no worries about finding a vegan option in a café or restaurant. We also used to keep a few tins of tomato soup in the cupboard, for a nice lunch or easy dinner, but it has milk in it. We’ve now found replacement tins (so many of them were fresh soups but we wanted something for the cupboard that would last longer).

I’ve missed honey, especially if I’ve had a sore throat. I did get some “honea” as a replacement which is pretty good on crumpets still. It’s also in a few cereal bars, and in the delicious sticky chai from Bird&Blend, so I think I might use the things I have that contain honey, but not buy any more.

Toiletries have been the main thing that I’ve had to consider more closely- since the autumn I’ve had vegan toothpaste (isn’t it a bit gross that not all toothpaste is vegan?), and signed up to Smol for washing and dishwasher tabs (again, isn’t it weird that some fabric softener contains animal fat? I was veggie for years and had no idea).  As I use Tropic for skincare, that’s all vegan so that was OK, and Lush/ Maui for haircare which is vegan (the ones I use are), Eden perfume is vegan so that’s fine too,  but I need to check shower gels because they aren’t all.

As someone who is quite fussy, I actually feel I have been more confident to try new foods. I think I have always been a bit worried about being accidently given something that contained animal products, whereas now I might not like something if I try it, but the idea of it is fine, if that makes sense. Also, so many veggie things are eggy or cheesy, and I don’t like either of those things, whereas now they are off the table it’s so much easier to choose a recipe or food.

Overall I am really pleased that I signed up, and I am going to aim to continue with it going forwards.  I really liked the emails because they were not pushy or shocking (I’ve read some veggie/vegan info that likes to show you pictures of chickens being slaughtered and so on- I don’t want to look at that and would imagine it would make people who eat meat more defensive about it?). They had links to lots of good recipes, and information about health (vitamins and so on), as well as positive things like the amount of CO2 saved by avoiding dairy. As I mentioned at the start, the facebook group was super supportive, with people asking to help with recipes, replacements for certain dishes and info on things beyond vegan food (Brooks running shoes are vegan, but not all brands are due to the glue etc.).

Would you consider signing up for something like that? Are you adventurous with food or do you stick to the same few meals?

Snow much fun!

Sorry not sorry. I love a pun and I love the snow (so long as I don’t have to go anywhere).

For the last few weeks we kept having snow forecast, and then it would come to nothing, either falling as sleet, or settling as the tiniest dusting that was gone in about 5 minutes.

Last weekend yet again it was meant to snow Saturday night-Sunday morning, so I planned a run to Panshanger park so I could run around there in the snow. Well, when I woke up, everywhere was white, but from frost not snow.

It was so beautiful, although hard to capture in photos because the sky was so white, getting darker grey as I ran around. Seeing the brambles and berries all covered in frost was so pretty, so I did keep stopping to try and get a better photo.

I did feel a bit sad seeing the parkrun signs- I can’t believe that it’s nearly a year, and of course will be well over a year of no parkrun whenever it returns.  I loved the run though, and as I got home it started to try and snow- when it is snowing about one flake every minute and you just wonder if you are imagining it.

It began settling a little, and after I’d had a shower and breakfast it was super deep. I was very excited- I love snow! So once I’d dried my hair I headed out into the garden to make a snowman.

Lifting that middle ball of snow up was quite tough! Building a snowman is a good workout!

I couldn’t quite get it as tall as me, but nearly!

Tea in my Olaf mug of course- the perfect choice for a snowy day

The rest of the day was spent relaxing- we had a family zoom call in the afternoon and got to hear about how everyone was enjoying the snow. I did some baking, we watched some TV and had a roast dinner )nut roast with veggie gravy and veggies and waffle fries because they are potatoes too). I had frozen the leftover red cabbage which we made a few weeks ago, so heated that through.

Sadly the snowman began to do some yoga (my instructor likes to say “take a little back bend” and I think that’s what it was doing) and then it’s head fell off.

After just getting into the swing of my new routine, the snow slightly thawed and then froze solid overnight, so an early run was not an option. I headed out for a brief run at lunch time instead, running (well, walking mainly) to the local park and then running a few laps in the snow. I thought I would run through the woods, but the paths were super slippery as I think the snow had dripped from the trees and then frozen on the ground, making the normally muddy and uneven paths like ice rinks.

On Tuesday evening the rain washed most of the snow away, so by Wednesday morning the pavements were OK for an early run again. There were a few dodgy bits that needed walking over, but mostly it was fine.

My snowman was still hanging on. I took a photo of my running outfit as I noticed after I put it on that my top and jacket perfectly matched my socks!

By Thursday all that was left was a pile of stones and sticks on the patio!

Do you like snow? Did you have lots of snow last weekend? I am very happy so long as I don’t have to drive in it!