Lions Walk

Sometimes the thought of weekend work can make me feel just a bit out of sorts.  Life's pretty busy ferrying around young children, and then every now and again i find myself getting confused and ferrying children to a weekend Grove House event.  It never goes down too well dropping them off at a  garden fete when they were expecting to be going to gymnastics. 

But this Sunday was a nice all round family event that is a real favourite of mine and one I can bring the whole family on.  We work in partnership with the St. Albans Lions who each year organise a sponsored walk for us, taking in different routes over a choice of 18, 13, 7 or 3 miles.  The event used to run in October but didn't get the attention it deserved due to the creation of  to the Herts 10k.  A couple of years ago we moved it to April and this year deliberately chose to rename it The Bluebell Walk and take the routes through some of the astounding Bluebell Woods that we have in the area - and personally I think the event has benefited.  We also spent a bit more money promoting the walk and this year had about 170 people, making it a good sized event.

I couldn't quite make the most of the long routes as Ben, my 7 year old, would have gone "critical" on anything too long, so we opted for the 3 miler. And very beautiful it was too, cutting over the back fields behind Sandridge, past some amazing rapeseed fields and the Government listening post (that's top secret so you didn't read it here), and east into St Albans.  It was great to see another family who had a child that actually had a tantrum as we left, whereas Ben only asked "how much longer" about 7 or 8 times.  There's something about walking that brings people together, and I loved the way that we chatted as a family - even Ed, my 13 year old, wearing his Slipknot t-shirt, seemed interested in the Government thing that I musn't mention, (and isn't on any maps....)

The walk ended at Nicholas Breakspear School, and the Lions had put on a fantastic spread for us - pie and mash.  You can't beat pie and mash after a bit of exercise, can you? And a choice of stodgy puddings.  Perfect.

Oh , yes, and we did see a few Bluebells.  Not sure how much this will have raised for the Hospice, but with so many more participants it could do really well.  I hope so - it's one of my favourite events, and I think we're on to a big fundraiser if it continues to grow.  The Lions are good fun to work with, and over the years I've really got to enjoy working with the group who put so much into it.  Not being teh calmest of event organisers myself, it's fantastic to see people who are prepared to shoulder the responsibilty like these guys.