warm rock (and a video!)

so i was going to say that anyone who's been on twitter in the last few days will have noticed my unusual taciturnity and general miserable grumpiness when i was on.  but why would you, right? *blushes at own presumption*  but for anyone who was worried (bless you!) the tide of hormones has now retreated and i'm much more my usual chirpily irritating self. ;o)
so friday it was on the retreat, and i managed to drag my lazy arse out of the house to go climbing at Alter-Rock with hubby.  this was, frankly, a pathetic session.  i barely lasted two hours, climbed nothing above a 5+, and my hands weren't even sore when we came away.  bloody hell, my forearms were, though! (twanging tendons!).  headed to a pub in derby afterwards for dinner with some colleagues (remember the night out i forgot to go to? this was the rematch).  my mood took a total nosedive on the way there, though, as i had learned that my shiny new bike wouldn't be ready to pick up until maaaaybe monday, but probably tuesday, and various other little things had all crashed down at once.  however, once i got to the pub (i was early), liberal application of vodka, O...Saya by A R Rahman (from the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire), half an hour to myself, and sunshine had an astonishingly positive effect.  had a great night - even if it was two months late. ;o)
yesterday, the weather was beeeautiful, and hubby, astonishingly, managed to persuade me to go climbing outside for the first time in probably six months.  look, i am a*total* wuss when it comes to the cold.  i hate being out in it, and i hate climbing in it with a passion.  but i was persuaded that we should go here:

Harborough Rocks

it's a beautiful limestone outcrop near Wirksworth in Derbyshire.  it's very popular with climbers, and is particularly good for practicing trad climbing techniques, since the faces aren't huge, the terrain is friendly and easily accessible, and it's a particular kind of limestone that's pocked with lots of holes and pockets - easy handholds on lots of the routes.  it's used by a lot of groups - scouts, guides, etc.  there was a group there from Stafford yesterday.

it was so lovely.  the sun was warm, the breeze wasn't too cold, and the outcrop faces south, so it gets the sun virtually all day.  gods - i have missed the feel of warm rock far more than i realised.  maybe we should move to Spain?... 

we took all of the gear to climb trad, but ended up soloing instead (climbing without safety equipment - just shoes and a chalkbag). it was great for me.  i have virtually no confidence left after not climbing outside for so long, so i took baby steps soloing the easier routes with lots of juggy (big, easy-to-grip) holds, whilst hubby did the harder stuff.  the only trouble with Harborough is that it's so popular (also, people have been climbing there since the 1800's), many of the holds have been polished to glassy smoothness.  friction?  what's that?  had to be sooo careful!

and as we were soloing, we could please ourselves what we did.  so when i decided that i'd had enough, i just lay in the sun, or wrote a little more of my book, or wandered around on the hillside enjoying the gorgeous day.

i also spent some time admiring the perfectly blue sky - not a thing in it except for the local corvids (thank you, unpronounceable Icelandic volcano). utter, utter bliss!  i even caught the sun across my cheekbones and the bridge of my nose!  not quite enough to bring my freckles out, though - not quite yet.

but getting there... ^_^

.