Thursday 27th July - a garden day

 The weather wasn't that wonderful today; cloudy with drizzle, or cloudy without drizzle. Even so, I spent a lot of time outside. A friend dropped a a load of those plastic trays you buy bedding plants in round to me, so I was able to sow some more flower seeds; Brompton Stocks and Pansies. I'm hoping by dropping just 2 (or one, or three!) seeds in each little section I will be able to grow lots of little perennials to plant out later. Meanwhile I will 'watch the spaces'. 

I also snipped off half a dozen likely looking sprigs of lavender and stuck them into some earth in the hope of getting some more plants as the main plant has become very leggy and may need drastic action. 

James-the-tree-surgeon came round to eye up the laurel hedge which has got beyond us. He stared at it wordlessly for a couple of minutes before declaring 'that's not a hedge,  it's a wall!'. He's not wrong!

I did some walking up and down the garden; from the bottom, by the hedge/walk up (yes, it is definitely an upward slope) to the road. That us 60 steps, and I managed to do up, down, up, down, up and halfway down. (with pauses every so often). I felt as though I should be singing 'The grand old Duke of York', if rather slowly. I'll see if I can improve this.

My father told me that he had been out for a practice walk with his rollator to try and build up his own distances. Up to now he's really not gone far at all; mostly just going slowly from his flat down to lunch and back. But his younger brother (a mere 89 years old) is coming to stay for a few days, and he thought an outing to the park might make a good outing. How much they can take in (Sensory Garden, Dragon's Maze, Sculpture Garden) will depend on their joint capabilites and stamina... and mine!

I recorded a dismal step count of 467 last Saturday, but resolved to try and increase it every day this week. I am so pleased with my self; my daily totals were 750, 1,000, 1,350 and yesterday I managed 2,500. Although some of these 'steps' will gave come from chopping vegetables or playing the piano. It all takes energy...