Naming ceremony

Tuesday 27th March

The Carpenters - Ilsington

Why is it when i'm typing that i'm singing in my head...."we've only just begun" and "I'm on the top of the world etc etc "

So the hash was great, we walked to the pub with a little trepidation and got ourselves our drinks. We went to stand next to Maverick and he started discussing with Red Kevin about the down downs and I can remember looking at Karen and thinking well we aren't going to be named tonight and with a little disappointment but some relief we went to eat Four Sips' chips for her. At her request I hasten to add. We sat discussing wool, socks and knitting patterns and vegetarianism and generally putting the world to rights when we heard those two words for silence. Hash Hush.

Four Sips moved closer to the rest of the hashers so Karen and I decided to join her and stood at the back. Maverick started by recalling a couple of mishaps and then he said those fatal words...."we've got two young ladies..." I can remember swallowing hard and turning round to look at the wall behind me. It wasn't the fact that this could well be our time for being named, it was more the fact that I was being called a young lady!! ;)

We were requested to step forward and with Karen muttering oh no, oh gawd we took our places at Maverick's side.

He had three choices for my name, Blog, Blogger or Gurnie. Someone who i'm not going to mention ( Foursips!) had been giving out some inside information and had told the hash that all my photos on my blog were of me gurning. Most of the hash decided that Gurnie it would be and with someone singing Ernie and he drove the fastest milkcart in the west, I had to laugh. I was actually pleased with the name, Gurning is a Cumbrian passtime and as I was brought up in Cumbria it was quite appropriate.

I was handed a half pint of something which looked like weak orange squash and Maverick turned to Karen. Her name turned out to be Doolittle as she has an affinity with animals and a houseful of them. Apparently a French lady had previously been called Doolittle when she had been caught asking a cow for directions in the mist and had been named that night, but noone had seen her again so it was decided that Karen should be Doolittle and she was handed her half pint of suspicious looking liquid. The third pint was handed to another gentleman who I didn't catch the name of as I was trying to work out how I was going to drink half a pint quickly without making a mess, or making myself sick.

The song started and we commenced the drinking. It tasted awful and I can remember feeling the drink dribbling down my chin and dripping down into my bra...I was thinking what a lovely sight I must look now. I looked over at Doolittle and realised that in my anxiety over drinking the yukky stuff i'd gone too quickly and my solidarity of drinking at the same time had gone by the board. OOps so sorry Doolittle, it won't happen again. Anyway it was soon all over and we had got our names. Doris and Rambo came to show us the attire we could buy with our new names on them and we ordered a t-shirt each.

So there you have it Karen and Ruth have become Doolittle and Gurnie. We could start some sort of law firm or detective agency with those names. Doolittle and Gurnie, pet detective agency at your service.

For those of you who wonder what Gurning is all about or whether I was correctly named i've attached a couple of pictures.. I'll leave you to decide.

Just want to add that if anyone is reading this and wondering about starting hashing then do. I have enjoyed every minute of it so far and for someone who doesn't run and doesn't drink and doesn't do going to pubs, that's a big thing!

See I take quite a nice picture I think hehehe

Hash #10

So we've reached double numbers....Hash 10 and still smiling.
Tuesday 27th March
Location - Ilsington
I was late picking Karen up tonight but luckily for us the hash was only 3 miles away from her house so we arrived with plenty of time to spare. It was very strange indeed to be able to see people's faces in the daylight and not be poking about in the dark sorting the dogs out. It was also light enough to watch Floss throw a stick way away into someone's garden for the dogs to catch!
We listened to the instructions, or rather I should have been listening to the instructions but I was too busy giving a lovely Springer a bit of a cuddle and love, i'm a soft touch when it comes to brown eyes and waggy tails.
We all set off and happily for me we had several checks in procession which meant I was able to warm up slowly and not lag too far behind right from the start. I'm sure if it wasn't for my slowness Karen would be up with the front runners, but bless her she's always turning round and checking i've not keeled over in a corner somewhere.
The hash itself was one of the nicest ones we've done so far, that's just my opinion but one I think that most would agree with. I had a guided tour with Red Kevin at the start of the hash and he informed me that the lane I was running down was part of the Hill Climb. I'm not sure now whether he was just giving me some historical information or preparing me for probably one of the steepest hills we've had. I got to the top puffing and panting and re-joined Karen, Shorty and Four Sips who were ahead. It was a lovely evening and it was nice to be able to have a look at the countryside around us. We arrived at the re-group and decided which long to take with the shorts. Shall we take the 2nd long and the last short or the longer long and the short or the shorter long....well we decided to take the 2nd long which was running round the field. I tried to do it but with the group taking a short cut, I decided that I should try and keep up with them.
I had a brief chat to Sneezy who was telling me why one of his dogs was having a mad yapping session. Then we entered the woods and encountered a deer. It was beginning to get dark so we put our torches on and continued through the woods. Shorty, Karen and I finished the hash chatting and smiling.
Then it was off to The Carpenters for the On Down. I've detailed this in a separate post entitled the naming ceremony!!
Yippee I'm named, i'm now an official hasher...read on to find out what it was.. or is.
till next week, take care, happy running and On On

Heart shaped stones

I collect heart shaped stones. These are stones that I find when i'm on holiday mainly but I have found a couple in the garden while i've been gardening. This is the first one I ever found, it was when I was on holiday in Scotland and we were skimming stones into the loch. Loch lomond I think it was. I found this and thought now then do I skim or do I keep. I kept it and it became a thing then that when I was on holiday I would look out for a heart shaped stone to take back as a souvenir and memory of that holiday.

A couple of them i've found in the garden and yes I know some of them you have to use a bit of imagination to see the heart in them but I was running out of time on holiday and they had to do i'm afraid!

I wonder if anyone else collects heart shaped stones.... would be good to find out if anyone did.

Oh well back to the grindstone with the OU course.

Hash #9

Tuesday 20th March
Location: Riverford farm (eventually!)

I picked Karen up and we set off to Riverford Farm, (not the shop) and found the shop straight away, then drove down a road, stopped near a car, the chap inside wound down his window and said are you looking for the hash. We then followed each other around for the next 15 minutes or so. Karen asked someone for directions and we discovered we were at the field kitchen, but we couldn't find any hashers cars, we lost the chap who we later found out was called Vertigo. Very nice chap too! We drove back to the shop, drove down into a farm yard with private no entry on it, then decided to follow our gut instincts and drove back to the main road, found the sign with Riverford Organic lorries on it and followed our noses.
At 7.30 approximately we drove into the car park full of cars but no hashers in sight. We deliberated and decided that we did not want to be left out so we walked around trying to find the start of the hash, eventually found a blob of flour and we were off. We managed to get quite far until we ran out of flour, then we struggled, crossed a couple of fields, relocated the flour, listening out for fellow hashers.
We finally heard them in the distance in the opposite direction to where we were going and then we hit the road, we made an executive decision to go back via the road as time was ticking on and we didn't want to miss out on the lovely food. But which way to go, do we follow the road to the left and take the lorry trail home or do we go right and go down the narrow lanes back to the back entrance of the field kitchen. We chose right and down the hill we went, Karen dropped her torch and then her mobile phone, round a corner, over a bridge which I didn't remember driving over but on we kept. Then we came into the hamlet which we recognised. Then we saw the signs for Riverford farm and the tractors and lorries and we were back.
We got back in time for some lovely pasta and were a little disappointed to find out that noone had thought of a name for us so no down downs tonight.
It's our tenth hash next week so hopefully someone will have some inspiration somewhere along the way!
A bit of a strange night tonight, but good fun just the same, we did a mini hashlet and some orienteering and Karen is going to bring her map and compass for the next time...so till then...keep safe and On On !

Archie the Buzzard!

Well on Wednesday I had a trip to Escot with DS1 and DS2 and B. We had a wonderful sunny day and thoroughly enjoyed our time there watching the otters and the peacocks, trying to find some more stamps on the letterboxing and the highlight of the day was being introduced to Archie's new owners.


I should explain that Archie is a Common Buzzard, I used to be a falconer many moons ago and Archie was my first ever bird. He was bred at the centre I worked in and was raised by a rather severe Ferruginous Hawk. He came to me when he was old enough to leave his "mum" and I trained him from scratch. Archie wasn't imprinted, he knew he was a bird, I won't say a buzzard because being raised by a Ferruginous he may think he's one of those but he knows he's not human. I spent many an hour getting him used to me, to cars, to the outside world and eventually we flew him free. Now I will tell more about Archie but today I just wanted to share with you the exciting news that i have now met his owners who are at Escot http://www.escot-devon.co.uk/ and we got chatting. They have said I can go and see Archie whenever I want and that later on I can go out flying with them and take Archie out if I wanted to.....how fantastic is that. All these years later and I have contact with my most favourite bird in the world. So if you read this Miriam and Michelle have taken over the falconry at Escot and they are turning the place around, tidying up and making it wonderful so if you get chance go and see them and go and say hello to Archie and his new girlfriend Lucy!


I'm so happy and thrilled about this, it's even bringing hashing down on my list of happiness monitor to 2nd place!!

The pictures below show Archie on his bow perch in my Mum's old garden enjoying the sun, see what a beauty he is. The 2nd picture shows Archie's first kill......which was a worm!! That was taken in a place called Threlkeld in Cumbria. One of the most beautiful places in the country. Cumbria that is.

The third picture shows myself, a very young 20year old (I had Archie early for my 21st) this was one of our first ventures out on the creance and he'd just flown from the wall to my fist so I was happy and Archie had his fill so he was pretty much content. The fourth picture is a Barn Owl called Bebe, who was my second favourite bird and sadly she is no longer with us, she was at Escot for a while. When I get time i'll let you know some more stories about Archie until then I'll just keep smiling.

Hash #8

Tuesday 13th March
Location - Haldon
Is it really number 8! Time flies when you are having fun. Well tonight I decided to take DH with me to try it out and a very good friend of mine, Tina. We arrived slightly later than anticipated after a detour to pick Tina and Holly the dog up.
" Any virgins?" Ollie shouted and we said yes. "ok he said all virgins into the centre and introduce yourselves"
I looked and Karen and swallowed hard, we had been convincing Tina and DH that they wouldn't do anything like that to them and indeed it was the first time in 8 times that they had done it, but they coped well and the Hares came forward and told us all about the dangers that were coming up.
We set off and immediately I lost sight of Tina, where is Tina I kept asking, she's ahead I was told, then half a mile down the road she appears behind me, with her leggings wrapped round her ankles! Her torch wouldn't work so she was trying to sort it out. This was a good start. I got left at the back of the pack as it was straight running on the road and no chance for a breather or a catch up, but I plodded on. A car came through and I nearly swung for them when I kindly stepped onto the verge to let them past one of the neanderthals wound down his window and said "You'd get fitter if you ran you fat b****"
I didn't respond until he was well past, just in case and then i shouted "get a life!" took several deep breaths and carried on trying to catch everyone up.
We turned and here was the Long Short split, my first chance for a catch up possibly. Everyone else was in front of me so I plodded on not too concerned about where everyone was. Little did I realise that it was at this point that Tina had decided to do the Long and run on after the longs and we only found this out when we arrived at the regroup.
I caught up with the others then had a chat to Four Sips who had already managed to trip and be dragged along the ground shouting "here goes another dislocated arm!" I'm sure if it was me i'd have been shouting something far worse.
Onwards through Haldon woods we went, I spoke to someone else whose name I can't remember and we discussed the wonderful feeling we get when running swiftly up hills, or something like that anyway, perhaps it was more, these bloomin hills!!
Then I lost sight of Mark and Karen although i'd seen her with Shorty so I knew she would be ok. We arrived at the regroup, although a considerable number of people did a short cut along the road back to the cars. (cheeky!) After the regroup we did some downhill skiing on our bums down some very steep hills. This is where the mad cyclists go apparently, i'm sorry but I was scared enough going down on my bum, the thought of being on top of a bike while going down the same hill didn't really appeal to me!
Then it was the final leg home. Dh went home as he was starving hungry and after a detour to Tina's house for her shoes we went to the Bishop Lacey.
We were very nearly given our hash names but missed out to Codpiece I think who nearly skewered himself on a tree, to a new hash name for Dancing Queen and I think it was the hare, although I can't remember who that was, Starsky perhaps. So a very disappointed Ruth, a much relieved Karen and an excited Tina left the pub to go home to unwind. RuffPuff did say it would be our turn next week so we'll see. Till next week, run safely, watch for trees and On On!

Hash #7

Hash number 7 - Date Tuesday 6th March
Location : Manaton

It had been raining hard and this morning I woke to find the river where I lived was flooded, did this make me wonder whether I should be going out in the dark, running around with the possibility of being washed away....erm No. I was as keen as ever to go hashing and off I went out of the house. I had to move my husband's car out of the way before I could go which meant I was five minutes late picking Karen up, but we arrived in Manaton with a trail of hasher's behind me in the car! Oops. I don't like driving fast when I don't know where i'm going.

We arrived to a clear sky and impending dark clouds overhead, is that possible? Anything in Devon is possible. We were ready in double time and just as we got out of the car it started to rain, I donned my hat and we waited for the instructions for the trail.

And we were off (minus Four Sips who was at home nursing a poorly tooth, she was there with us in spirit though!) We managed to stay with quite a few people this week, the path was a river and bumpy, stoney and nobody was going very fast. We came to the first long/short split and although I was tempted to turn long just to see what happened, Karen and my better judgement took over and we went with the shorts. I spent the first part of the trail looking for marks on the right, which is where they normally are and not seeing them, then Karen informed me that we had been told they were mostly on the left with some on the right...mental note, pay more attention next time Ruth!!

It was all too soon regroup and for the first time in ages or ever probably we were at the regroup with everyone else and had sweets and everything, fantastic. Then we were off again, it was now that things started to get a little stressful for me. The rain had stopped and with the hills going against us we were at fast walk pace and my glasses started to steam up. It wasn't too bad on the road where my feet were fairly safe, it was a little trickier over the field especially diagonally and on a slant but I coped. The problem came when I tried to get over some boulders and streams and rivulets of water and in between the boulders was what can only be described as amazing grade A shiggy. I put my foot down and it disappeared into this shiggy up to my knee, this led to an imbalance in my weight so I put my hand down onto what I thought was a stepping stone only to find that disappear into the shiggy as well. I luckily stopped just as my nose came level with it. Several more times into the brink dear friend and out the other side I was covered in black muddy stuff. I stopped to wipe my glasses so I could see where I was going and with a concerned look from Karen we continued.
We went up and up and then went down and down slipping and sliding all the way, it was a bit blowier up the top though and my glasses were finally demisted and I could see again.
We arrrived back at the car park and I stripped out of the muddy clothes and into some clean ones. Then off to the Kestor Inn for a drink and the down downs.
We still haven't got our nicknames and I think I will protest if we don't get them before we reach Hash #10. I was reading in some hashes they get their nicknames after 5 hashes. Or should I be pleased that we haven't done anything really stupid to earn a hash name? There was a suggestion that we should be Tweedledee and Tweedledum. So any suggestions?
Well another successful Hash, a little muddy, a little wet, a lot of fun.
Till next time On On

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Hash #6

Tuesday 27th February - Location Hembury Woods.
I really didn't feel like going out tonight, i'd had bad nights with both little ones and was very tired, i'd also developed a cough and thought i'd probably return with a worse one. It got to 4pm and I could feel the excitement start to build and that overrode all my anxieties from earlier in the day and so it was that at 7pm I was arriving to pick Karen up. We located Hembury Woods with time to spare due to our exceedingly fine navigating and map reading. (maybe we should start orienteering!!) It wasn't too cold and the rain had stopped so we thought we would keep reasonably dry. We pulled up behind Maverick and got our head gear on. I gave Karen a quick lesson in how to wear her torch without it flinging off her head at a crucial point. We signed out and listened to Brassic's instructions and off we all went.
We didn't get too far before we all got lost and then eventually found our way, then it was a short ride to the back of the pack. We soon got left behind but kept up with a few of the shorts. Maverick was behind me so I thought we would be safe. We ran out of Hembury Woods and came out onto a road, no marks to be seen but we did see some headlights to the left and the hashers in front shouted to us that the trail was that way, so followed them making sure we kept an eye out for Maverick so he would know where to go. He popped out of the lane and we shouted and flashed our lights and he was soon coming up behind us. Our safety blanket!
We came to the long/short split and decided to do the short! Off we went down into the village of Holne, only ten minutes or so before I was saying to Karen, we don't need to go to Holne, we need to turn left before Holne! Into Holne and the hashers in front had gone on ahead but we came to a check and followed the way it told us to go. Maverick had caught us up, then he disappeared and it was only when we were safe and sound back at the pub that he told us his story of going his own way!! So much for our safety blanket, we were on our own. We were quietly confident that we would make it, we now knew how to read the trail marks and we merrily shouted On On to each other when we passed a mark.
We followed the arrow down to the regroup, well there were three people there with a couple of bags of sweets. Ollie and Sneezy asked if there was anyone behind, we weren't sure where Maverick was at this point but there were some longs behind us. We stood and ate a couple of jelly babies while the dogs were made a fuss of, then with karen looking at me with eyes saying....come on come on let's get going, we passed on the sweets and followed the trail. I was thankful to be the last one as they ran past the mark and nearly got us lost but we got back on track and slipped and slid through a few fields. I ended up on Buster a couple of times and in a pile of nettles another time, with my hand stinging and my legs and bum muddy and wet I was still in fine spirit.
The trail took a bit of a turn for the worse at this point, and we found ourselves trying to negotiate through woods with marks every foot or so, then climbed back up to the track that we had left before.... oohh dear! Never mind. The river that we were reliably informed could be jumped was not jumpable so Karen and I waded through like a pair of intrepid explorers with no fear of being swept downstream or man eating crocodiles or anything!
Then Brassic came to our rescue and with a few other straggling hashers he led us back to the cars. It was up and down, through brambles and over trees, at one point I slid and nearly ended up with a tree between my legs, luckily I stopped just in time.
We made it back and signed back in again with Sneezy just beginning to worry where we had gone. We went back to the car to get changed and then onto the pub for the down downs and to locate Maverick!
I felt great after finishing the hash and my cough had stopped but I sucked a couple of fishermen's friends just to make sure I would be ok. (Just realised that might sound rude, I am talking the lozenge type friends here!!)

Another successful and enjoyable hash, with the Hash Bash to look forward to on Saturday it's all good stuff.
So till next time
On On x