Day 91 - Ooooooo-errrrr Mrs.

Despite the gales that are once again blowing across the county, Furry Mama was determined to take Minty Mutt out. He didn't get a walk yesterday. He also was very poorly. Very upset tummy. But he was on a mission today. really marching out. So once on the grass path, Baggy persuaded Furry Mama to try a bit of a jog. Or perhaps Furry Mama persuaded Baggy. But either way she did a little jog. Just interval training. Walk twenty paces. Jog twenty paces. Minty Mutt had no clue what was happening. He watched Furry Mama getting further and further away from him. Not that it prevented him from stopping for a sniff, or a snack of grass. Then he decided that maybe he should jog too and catch up. Bless him. Not sure who was limping more, Baggy or Minty. But they both went for it! Now, jogging is really not something that Baggy does. Even when she went to the gym five times a week, she power-walked on the treadmill. She did not jog. So it was a bit of a surprise to Baggy as well as Minty Mutt.

It reminded Clever Bird of when Baggy was a child. At age eleven, when she started at Grammar School, it was a regular occurrence to have to go on a cross-country run in P.E. class. Little Baggy (well little in age, not in stature; she was a skinny bean-pole) was surprisingly good at it. She regularly came first out of the girls and beat most of the boys. In those days, even on a day much colder than today, little Baggy wore P.E. kit. Pathetic little plimsolls. Long socks. A teeny-weeny gym (mini) skirt. A T-shirt. Yes a T-shirt! No sweatshirts or jogging bottoms for us. Oh no. We were hard! No we weren't! We were skinny, freezing kids. Running in rain, sleet and snow with our skinny bare legs and arms! We literally ran across fields. Ploughed fields. Flooded fields. Fields that were so wet and deeply ploughed that you couldn't see the plough furrows. It was a fairly regular occurrence to suddenly disappear down a foot furrow that was hidden by flood water or frozen ice. If you were unlucky, you would then go flying and land on your front. By the time little Baggy got back to school she invariably had soaking wet feet and was covered in mud splashes. Arms and legs would be interestingly coloured with a red and white marbling effect. Yep, little Baggy was pretty quick, because frankly, the faster she ran, the faster she could get back into the warm! But secretly she rather enjoyed it.

Jogging a few steps around the fields today was hardly the same. It was windy but sunny. Baggy had on jeans, T-shirt, woolly cardigan, snood, full-length waxed riding coat and her long boots. She was a little warm. She did go red. In the face! But still, it reminded her of her youth. Those were the days. You never know, maybe Baggy can become a cross-country runner again......