Living the Good Life??

I was very sad to hear that Penelope Keith has died, my children and I loved 'The Good Life' programme, and watched it regularly.

And as a 'newby' gardener I decided I'd try and grow some veg. I was given seeds by some friends and some compost, I didn't have any pots, but saved any food containers I thought suitable. That first year I grew some tomatoes, lettuce and radish. All grown on a window sill and planted out in our small garden. They grew but they weren't all that successful, except for the radish which my children didn't like, and neither did I! 

But my then husband ate them, although quite critical of the tomatoes (they had bottom end rot) and the lettuce were very small. 

But I didn't give up and got some gardening books from the library and read what I should have done, and the need for regular watering and the need for a 'feed.'

My then husband, to encourage me bought me some wellies for Christmas! I should have been more grateful. because they were a very good pair, bought from the Chandlers that sold all the sailing gear. I wasn't impressed and never wore them!

But even worse was his decision to grow veg, because of course he could do it better than me!

I did write about it in this blog somewhere. 

I got home from town one day, to find he had hired a rotovator and dug up my garden.. I didn't speak to him for days and in the May school holidays, I took the children and we came here to my home.. my aunt had sent me the train fare. I left a note on the kitchen table.

The garden was back to lawn and flower beds a couple of years later. He'd lost interest and the weeds grew!  

Then three or four years later, his work wasn't going to well, and he was having problems sleeping. He joined us to watch the 'Good Life' and thought we should move to a Scottish Island and live off the land I said NO!! I wouldn't even talk about it and stopped trying to grow veg, I never had enough money anyway for seeds anyway!

Why do we women live in a shadow life, controlled by a man.

The day I decided to leave was like a new life was waiting for me.. and its been amazing ever since.

Chrisxx

What a cheek!

 When my step counting watch went phut, Dh bought me a new one. It's an all Bells n Whistles one and logs all sorts of things as well as steps. Would you believe yesterday it said..'It looks like you took a nap at 4:03 for 1 hr 43mins..' So my every move or non move is being recorded!! It keeps telling me my sleep score is poor, logging when I wake! I need more sleep it says.. I know that, no need to tell me, just tell my bladder that!

But when my steps don't achieve my target I can read its frustration in its score.. so I'm tired and don't move enough? Well if I slept better I'd  be more active,, my virtual walk, this time in Barcelona is, 16.4km  behind my planned pace!

All around me there are prompts to exercise, there are TV adverts, FB adverts, health warnings of being over weight and the need to keep active.. But, as yet I have never seen an news item or charity request for funds for research into over active bladders in aging people. I've yet to meet a female over 75 plus who didn't have to get up for the toilet more than once at night.

And it occurs in males too, so why isn't there a research project into why there is this frequent need to empty your bl***y bladder?  Any answers? 

Chrisxx

Life goes on and too fast!

Our garden continues to produce in spite of this extraordinary heat and being SW facing it does get very hot.

The carrots are those little round Chantenay and we are eating rhubarb most weekends.

Our hedgehogs still visit every night, so do three different cats!

My antirrhinums do well every year although the seeds are slow to germinate, but they do eventually appear!

In these hot days we've taken the slow lane and not done an awful lot.  

Dh usually gets up before me and my first words to him even before 'Good morning' have been, 'Has it rained?'

But we haven't had these thunder storms with a down pouring of rain like some places... although our trail cam showed some spots the other night and amazingly you could see the patches of dry appearing when it stopped on the patio!

I love the summer but not this heat, we've not even sat out to eat any meals. 

And I hate that its nearly the end of June already, where did this month go to? The thought of wet and cold winter does not appeal to me at all!

Chrisxx

Bliss!

 The temperature has dropped to 22C today Friday, and it is bliss. We've had a walk around the garden and it has survived the blazing heat of the last couple of days. Our thermometer on our south west facing patio, registered 40C one afternoon. We are so glad we bought that portable AC unit three years ago, and it has been running full blast, plus fans. When I asked Dh was it using a lot of electricity, he said, 'We're using our heating allowance!'

I've just walked past our open bedroom door, and with the bed made up with fresh white bedding, it looks cool and inviting.. The nights have been hot and sticky even with a fan sweeping over us. I can't wait for bed time!! And I am starting a new Kristin Hannah book, bliss, bliss and double bliss!

The flower is a bare rooted plant I bought in the spring and I can't remember its name, but isn't it pretty.. such a delicate pink. 

Chrisxx

Very satisfying results.

 

What can be more satisfying to see, than those first few tomatoes grown from seed by yourself?

I sowed my seeds at the end of February, so we'd have the tomatoes early in June.. however  they were in one of our little plastic green houses outside and were drowned, when we had deluge of rain and we then discovered the plastic had disintegrated and the rain had poured in!

So I sowed more in early April and wow they grew into a good size plant in weeks.. and here they are forming fruits already!

Lesson learnt no point sowing seeds so early. I'm delighted,. And we have had our own carrots, potatoes, lettuce and we've had rhubarb every week.. so satisfying! Beans, cabbages and peas to come.. you don't need an allotment or even a large garden to grow your own, most of ours is grown in bags and pots..what do you grow?

Chrisxx

Hot and Sleepy.

Its a  hot quiet Sunday afternoon and because I was awake at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep, I went for a lie on the bed after dinner to read.. but my eyes kept closing, so I gave in and closed my eyes.  Actually they closed themselves and for two blissful hours I slept.

Amazingly, there's no drilling, banging, or even a dog barking, which is wonderful. We moved here to what we thought was a quiet cul-de-sac. five years ago this month.. and there has been building work on one house or another ever since!

But today silence reigns,.

This is the first rose I bought when we arrived here, 'Susan Daniels.'

We call it our 'Susan' rose and she has been doing us proud every year, Isn't she a beauty?

Chrisxx

To grunt or not to grunt???

The tennis season is right on us and we love watching it, we have to regulate how much we watch or we'd never get anything else done..We miss Andy Murray but now cheer some of the younger British players, who are working their way up to be the winning players.

Some people don't like the shouting or grunting noise a player makes as they hit the ball.. However there is a science behind the shouting during exertion, it seems that vocalization can enhance muscular force and performance for up to 9 to 12% ! This can be enough to add a meaningful amount of energy to a lift, or speed to a tennis serve, or power to a punch!

There has been lab tests measuring force with or without vocalization. In one classic experiment participants who shouted during an isometric arm flexion produced 12% more force than those who stayed silent.

A more recent study measuring striking force in martial  artists, found there was 9% more increase when participants grunted,  jumping from 22.g force to 22.2g force per strike.

In tennis the result is equally clear a study of players, with  both serve and forehand velocities were  significant higher when players grunted! The same was true for isometric force during those strokes. The statistical confidence was essentially perfect, meaning the result wasn't a fluke. 

Its all to do with taking in oxygen and using the diaphram and deep abdominal muscles force out the air and add extra force to the punch, stroke or speed. 

During my post op physio on my arm, the one physio always used to say, take some deep breaths, fill your body with extra oxygen to help you.. It's something I do all the time now if I have to do something that is going to take a bit more effort!

So cheer on our British tennis players and be glad when they grunt, because it means that little bright yellow ball is going to be the winning stroke... Come on Cam Norrie, come on  Emma Raducanu, come on Arthur Fery!!

Do you love watching tennis too?

Chrisxx

Love

 

Saw this and loved it, so showing it to you.

Chrisxx

A Beautiful Family

 I do like to see the Royal Family, although I do realise what a privileged life they live. The Prince and Princess of Wales with their children, all looked beautiful in this year's Trooping of the Colour for the King's official birthday.

I don't think anyone can deny that Catherine has the statue of a future Queen. 

And its lovely to see that Princess Charlotte now 11, still looks like a little girl. I  remember in an interview Catherine, saying, that she wanted Charlotte to have a little girl's hair style and not some older style.

Prince George looking older and he is indeed quite tall and looks like William, his father, he'll be 13 in July.

  

And you couldn't forget Louis, age 8 and renown for his cheeky smile and antics on previous occasions, when the Royals have attended parades.. but the crowds love him all the more for his playfulness. 

They are a wonderful family, but they are not immune to the cruelties of life, as Princess Catherine's diagnoses of cancer in April 2024 showed.. and this was followed by a year of chemo, with her facing the world with video's of her talking about her illness and progress. So brave of her, with world looking on, to me she was still that beautiful young woman with her children around her fighting a disease, that has no respect for wealth or statue.

It was a great occasion and all the Guards in their red jackets on horseback made an amazing sight.

However when the carriage with the family passed some members of the watching crowd, there were boos. I think Catherine was seen to look sternly at the crowd and Louis and Charlotte looked confused.  Some people don't want a King, so let them live somewhere else I say, perhaps with a Dictator? I don't know what you reading this may think but.....

.......what ever you may think, you must acknowledge that they make a lovely family.

Chrisxx

Not 100%

I don't know how are when you're not feeling well, but I struggle to do anything. My tum has been upset, no sickness, but that horrible uncomfortable feeling.

So I did not go for my weekly hair appointment, I'll try to get an appointment on Saturday. 

When I went to get showered and dressed, I looked at my toothpaste and just couldn't be bothered to squeeze out the last little bit, altho we do have these.

It will squeeze out the very, very last bit of toothpaste, but it was too much of an effort, so I started my new tube. I could hear my Aunty's voice, 'waste not, want not!' Awful,  but I just thought, I can't be bothered. But it brought to mind the little tin with very short bits of string, I found after she had died, no doubt she had saved them incase they would be useful in the future, the tin lid had rusted!

I was awake at 5 and couldn't get back to sleep for a while, so I was tired as well.. Dh had to go to the post office in the afternoon, so I thought I'd have a lie on the bed with my book.. And felt my eyes closing, so snuggled down and was just dropping off and the land line started to ring. We have a phone in our bedroom, who phones in afternoons, advertising??  Grrrr!! I did not answer... I got up just as Dh returned. He checked the phone and we didn't know the number, so ?

As a PS. about the Opticians, they do have  another consulting room, where there aren't any steps, which was where I'd gone before.

Chrisxx