Buttercup Toes, Cats, Gene Simmons & a lovely cake!

To be clear to all the run this morning was for me a long run, for Jerry, a not so long run but a great opportunity to get out and also eat cake! My specification was about 14 miles knowing that Jerry may add a few more on and my maximum was about 16 but sometimes best not to share this with Jerry up front - and he knows I am a little flexible in my preferred distances.

This blog will be a toughy to write, myself and Jerry have not run together for a while and therefore so many topics were covered and I am sure our accounts will vary wildly but with some crucial crossovers which I will allow your own game of 'spot the difference between Fibre Runners and The Magic Forest. 

As we set out nice and early near Keston we entered a filed full of wildflowers, these soon became caught up between the toes of Jerry's monkey feet much to our delight as it appeared he have collected a full bouquet. I feel the delight of this may have soon worn off as throughout the run this did happen many times!

As we progressed through our wonderful countryside route, visiting many routes of old of Jerry's we passed many animals and the fantastically painted house of Mole End. Amongst the animals on our journey we saw many horses, some goats (at Foal Farm) that I can only assume to be Circus goats as they spent so much time walking around on two legs rather than 4. Of the many horses one that caught us by surprise as he rounded a bus on us was a huge black stallion with long flowing locks, I determined that he would from now on be known as Gene Simmons the horse as he was in fact as I suspect the Kiss star would look if transformed to a horse in his heyday! 

We had determined that my requested slow pace was not quote slow enough and if we were to be at the Cake... shop for when it opened we would need to slow down so  a detour to a local cat sanctuary was suggested. In a scene reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds, we arrived to no animals to soon be surrounded by a great number of cats as they slunk out the all sorts of sheds and nooks and crannies to welcome us.

On arrival at 'Cake...' we were still 20 minutes before opening but our sad forlorn faces pressed up against the window did the trick and we were welcomed to have our tea and cake a little early. Both opting for a Lemon and Blueberry Cake (healthy because of the fruit you see) we sat outside and enjoyed this special treat as we watched the seemingly hundreds of cyclists go up and down the road with a slight twinge of cake envy in their eyes!

The final mile or so back to the car was slow with cake and tea sloshing about inside our tummies, a nice was to end a lovely little jaunt out to the downs and the Surrey Hills.

NOTE: Please be aware we have now encountered the Kent Monkeys, they are troublesome fellows who live among the buttercups, they have white tails but are most definitely monkeys and quite shy amongst humans.