Six hours is a long time...

In the past few days I've come to realise that dancing for six hours could be harder than I first thought - initially I was all "I can dance, I can jive, having the time of my life" just like a real life Dancing Queen.  Then recently I read a post and had a slight reality check. Don't get me wrong, I'm not regretting signing up for the Red Nose Day Danceathon because I know it's for a good cause and for me, it's way more achievable than a marathon, and much more fun too. But six hours is a long time.

In terms I understand it's the equivalent of

• five games of Netball or
• six games of Korfball (yes, more games than netball as there's less breaks, or "tea breaks" as MOH calls them) or
• watching four games of football, and as any Palace fan knows that isn't always as easy as it sounds or
• a big night out in the City or
• a couple of really good lunches! 

Yes six hours of dancing is quite a long time. So yesterday afternoon I looked out our Wii for the first time since all the Phase 1 redecorations completed. Amazingly I knew where it was and found all the right bits, even the Just Dance game which if I'm honest I was surprised I even had!

To test it out I lost a few games of tennis (to the Wii, not MOH) but managed to score a couple of strikes and a few spares in the bowling, before the batteries in the remote ran out. And that put an end to that as I could only find a single spare AA battery.  

So today I'm off out to replenish our battery supplies and will be firing up Just Dance on the Wii and seeing how I get on. I'm hoping that by bopping about to this a few times a week for the next month I'll boost my stamina so I'm less creaky when it's all over. I'm also hoping to test out my footwear choice and road test my outfit (right now, that's what outfit as I'm still working that out too). Other than dancing I'll still be trying to increase my cycling levels and getting further up those hills as well as my usual Pilates. So hopefully all that will be enough to up my game from "totally winging it" to "prepared enough but still not a pro" which I think is always a good place to be.

Wish me luck. 

Sponsorship update: This weekend I've reached over 50% of my £300 target, thanks to some very lovely people. I know that I know a whole heap more lovely people so I'm hoping I'll get much closer to that target before the big day. Here's a link to my sponsorship page, in case you're one of those lovely people and don't have the link to hand right now. From me and on behalf of the people you're helping, thank you.

Some of the gardens in Child Okeford, Dorset

Last week we stayed a few nights in a cottage in Child Okeford. It's not a village I'd heard of before and in case you haven't either it's about fifteen minutes from Blandford Forum, if that helps! The village has a couple of pubs, a shop and a post office and paths leading up to Hambledon Hill, which is a prehistoric hill fort that looks over the village. We had a blowy walk up there one morning, but that's a whole other post. 

Visiting Dorset in a chilly January may not be everyone's thing, but we had a great time even though many of the things I had planned were outdoors. Even better though I'd had the forethought to book a cottage with a wood burner, yes just as I planned it dear...

So let's start with the cottage's garden; it was a small but perfectly functional garden with a path up to the door, stepping stones over to the wood store, a rockery and a small area for the barbecue, which we didn't get to use. Along with the succulents, the real star of this garden for me was the dusky pink hellebores. Delightful! 

And you can't go wrong with such a characterful gate post either.  

There were plenty of bulbs on the way and I imagine in a month or so there'll be a lot more colour in the garden. We made do with the pot of succulents and those shy hellebores.  

There were also the beginnings of some snowdrops under the gnarly Rosemary bush and growing along the fence it looks like there's a Passion flower. 

Child Okeford is a relatively busy village traffic-wise but it's charming nonetheless and it has a lovely village sign too. We walked through the village before and after our trip up the hill so I'm sharing some of that with you today too.  

There's cyclamen growing throughout the graveyard and I spent some time admiring the hedges too, and smiling at the name of this house, it refers to the village Cross and not a grumpy house though. 

Moving on, over this lovely mossy wall I spied some crocuses and the ornamental quince in the second picture is already in flower, although the leaves appear to be a little sparse but looking great against the red brick wall. I don't think ours are out yet, I'll have to check next time I brave our garden.  

As a confirmed city dweller I loved this country style fencing - which I wish I could remember the name of, if you know please let me know by leaving a comment. I think Carol Klein tried this alongside the professionals in her garden on Gardeners World a few years ago. It's definitely functional and not something we have in town, sadly. 

It was about here, as I leaned into this garden to get a better picture of the hedge that MOH threatened to disown me. He didn't, but just look at that hedge - isn't it great? And wouldn't you have leant in for a picture? 

And with that, before I really was disowned we headed back to our cottage for lunch. I hope you've enjoyed this walk around this small Dorset village, we had a great time staying there.  

Getting up close to my Fatsia

Seeing how the frost affected my Fatsia last week reminded me I hadn't shared any of the pictures I took early December when it was in flower. So as there's nothing much happening garden-wise right now I'm sharing them this week. 

Our Fatsia is easily six foot tall, its waxy green leaves are a striking feature mid-way up the garden. It's a well established plant that responds well to pruning, so much so that it always comes back stronger even though I often think I've cut too much...

The flowers are a real treat, the spheres look almost fluffy. The birds are keen on them too... 

Each of these green stems holds a leaf - that's a lot of leaves.  

Some of the flowers are clearly more attractive to the wildlife than others.  

And if you've ever wondered what it's like inside a Fatsia plant, then here you go: 

Often getting inside it is the best way to prune it (not that I'm pruning it now) or to retrieve leaves that didn't make it. The leaves take an age to decompose in the leaf bin though, so often they go straight into the council green waste bin instead. 

And just for fun, I reversed the colours of this photo during editing and I quite like the effect of my x-rayed Fatsia! 

Next week I'm hoping to share a garden from my Dorset travels - well at least one, and hopefully some snippets from the gardens of the village we're staying in.