Hills & Mountains

I'd like to choose an outdoors theme to focus on each month and bring you my random ponderings, memories, dreams, and things that might inspire you on that topic (things that spring to mind and appear on my social media feeds mainly).

This month's theme is hills and mountains.

Call of the Mountains

I partly chose this theme as, after quite a long time of really not doing much exercise or adventure (exhausting pregnancy and then early months with a non-sleeping baby), I wanted to reminisce about probably my most adventurous and challenging venture in recent years - the Snowdonathlon! I also chose the theme because my trusty baby carrier (Boba X - Call of the Mountains) has a lovely mountain print on it, which makes me want to go on adventures every time I pop Hazel in it.

Snowdonathlon memories

The Snowdonathlon was a self-made challenge I did in 2017, concocted by myself and my adventurous and awesome friend Becky. It was essentially an Olympic-distance triathlon in Snowdonia. I'd like to stress though, that I definitely don't consider myself an athlete, and whilst it takes a certain mindset and a base level of fitness to do something like this, you really don't need to be superfit/have much equipment/train for ages. I won't go into great detail here, because I wrote a blog post about it at the time, which properly made me smile and feel all fuzzy and excited when I read it back just now. God I miss swimming in lakes right now. In hindsight, it would have been amazing to have a sports massage at the end of this challenge too!

Stork talk

The baby carrier, as well as being a thing of beauty, has been so important to me in Hazel's early months. It's enabled me to stay fit and strong whilst keeping her happy and close. It is by far my best investment baby-wise (a Snuzpod which she never ever slept in was the worst).

As Hazel is my main priority at the moment, it's worth mentioning my mountainous dreams for her. At the start of 2020 we made a list of twenty things we'd like to do with Hazel this year - one was to climb up Snowdon. It seems fairly unlikely that's going to be able to happen but perhaps towards the end of the year things will have opened up more - who knows when, but it will happen sometime!

Free Flow

I recently watched a short film (Free Flow) about a climber called Hazel Findlay (I liked her name!), with lots of shots of her free climbing (without ropes). Climbing is something I've never personally fancied getting into, and don't think I would be any good at it as I'm scared of heights/falling and have wimpy upper body strength. And the agility of an elephant. Steve is very keen to get our Hazel into climbing though, and I respect and look forward to that. It made me think though about how it would make me feel if she developed into somebody like Hazel Findlay. I'd be both immensely proud and in awe of her but also terrified constantly. How do mums of adventurers and risk-takers feel?! Something to look into in future I feel.