AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

First long run in a while, this morning. Well, I say long ... 12 km. So longer than I have gone the last few weeks. At 5km I was under 25 minutes, the next few km I was still under 5 min/km average, but in the 8th km I went phut (I had thought the 9th, but looking at the splits later it was in the 8th I dipped out). Ended up at 10km - which I had hoped to reach in 50 minutes or under - in 51:12. Ah well...

I went out along Hawkesbury Rd, not sure what I would see, after the dreadful fire around Springwood and Winmalee. Running along, I saw a picket fence with a few patches where the bottoms of the palings were burnt, everything else including the house looked fine; "they were lucky" I says to myself. Running a bit further I almost stopped in my tracks when I saw a house totally burnt out. So terribly sad. I didn't want to take a photo; I kept running.

I did take a photo on the way back - but of something a bit nicer.

Some weeding today, and dead-heading the roses, which seem so far to be having a pretty good season. No further infestation of nasties, and so far minimal black-spot, despite no use of sprays. 8)

Kids wanted a bike ride, and I ended up bike-repair-dad. The lad's chain came off "it's just going chinka-chink" and I had to fix that before we rode on. The as we got home, I saw him up ahead, not slowing down, and riding into the trees next door. Then he slowed down - pretty much instantly. :-/ "It just went chinka-chink and I couldn't stop and it was the speed" Oops. Remember you have the foot brake and the hand-brake ... probably better than the tree-brake... Floods of tears, but nothing broken or even particularly scraped. After putting his chain back on again I noticed it was a bit loose, so I adjusted that - and the seat, which was rather too low for him. I also had to pump the living hell out of my tyres, which were verrrrrrrry low on pressure. Whoopsie.

At some point before that the kids were out playing in the dirt. Some girls a bit older than my Miss 7 were walking up the road, making big shouty noises as tweens are wont to; as she is wont to, Miss 7 responded in kind...

Larger.

And another Explore! I really don't know what's going on here, folks.