Monday 4th April - Exercises and sewing and Windows 11

 This arrived in the post for me today;

My Medal! I started 'walking' the South Downs Way on Boxing Day last year, and completed the 100 miles last Saturday. Let's be honest here; it s a virtual walk, where you enter the distance in km, miles or steps and you can see the course of your travels plotted on a map. I've been aiming for a daily step count of 2000 by the end of each day - not much, but it has kept me active. If I do NOTHING but sit and red, sit and knit, sit and watch television, my step counter can be less than 500 by bedtime. So this has been a real incentive to walk those extra steps, usually 'on the spot' while watching television.

One side shows Beachy Head, and the other King Arthur's Round Table, which is at Winchester. The disc rotates, showing various landmarks along the route on the Beachy Head side, and the names of the Knights on the other.   

I'm going to try talking my ancient and reluctant relative (mentioning no names) through a short and simple set of chair exercises several times a week as part of my phone call - I phone most days. He used to go to a proper Chair Exercise class, but that stopped some time ago. He has become a bit wobbly, partly s a result of being unwell recently. I'm no trained fitness instructor, but I reckon this will do us both good; - everything to be done gently and easily without strain...

1. wriggle your toes, flex your ankles up and down a coupe of times, rotate them a couple of times clockwise and then anticlockwise.
2. raise your foot and lower legs up, and lower a coupe of times (do each let separately)
3. see if you can get your knees to touch the underside if your table in turn (I know he is sitting in a chair with arms at his desk)
4. hands and wrists; stretch your fingers, and loosely relax them into a fist, repeat. Wriggle your fingers as though you were drumming them on a table top, or playing a piano. Bend your wrist up, then down, up, then down. Rotate your wrists one way, then the other, and repeat.
5. shoulders; raise and lower each shoulder in turn, make them go forwards and back in turn, rotate one way and the other.
6. neck; slowly look to the left, and the to the right, and then left and right again.
7. You're done! 

"Really," he said in surprise.

"Yup. was that okay?"

"Well, yes. More trivial than I was expecting. Thought you were planning something much more strenuous".

I hope he will be happy to do this again - it only takes just over 5 minutes. I'm assuming he did try and do it all - I did point out that there was no way I could tell if he was joining in, so he could just pretend and that would keep me happy...

This was the next thing to arrive;

A small brown paper bag with a square of orange furnishing material, two other scraps of cotton, a square of wadding and a little clear bag of notions - buttons, a ribbon, embroidery floss. It's for a project that our local eco group is running (not the church one but the town one), to collect embroidered squares and sew them into a sort of cloak.

I didn't choose the colours, and am a bit non-plussed. The theme is nature; they are the colours of the desert burned dry by the sun. I knew that if I ferreted through the bags that a friend brought round I would get lost, so just picked the first one.

Can you see what it is yet? 

No? Well neither can I.

So far I have made a quilted background - not quite finished. I've added some of the pieces of brown and dark red lace that Ang sent me right at the beginning of the postcard project, and I think I will add the green sequins she included, to be seeds. Then what? Belum tahu, as they say in Indonesia, one of the few phrases I remember from over 50 years ago. It means 'don't know'.

My Cross Country Collaboration has arrived with Ang, so I can post the picture now;

 I'm tempted to leave it small - it's meant to be daffodils on the banks of Ullswater. Oh, let's go large!

Finally - Windows 11 - a 'heads up' - I haven't moved to windows 11 on this computer, although my husband has moved his. It's ok, but a bit different to Windows 10. The messages 'inviting' me to upgrade are coming thick and fast now, and need careful reading or you will find yourself upgraded willy-nilly. That might be fine for you - or it moght not. 

Thursday 24th March - A Little Light Lifting

 The weights have arrived - a small heavy parcel.

I was slightly alarmed, but of course ALL the weights for BOTH ankles were in the one parcel, a total of 10 pounds, or rather nearly 10 pounds. It's not entirely clear to me what the unit of measurement is - does it matter? Nah, not really.

Each anklet has five little pockets, and each pocket has a little packet of some kind of heavy sand, and each packet of sand weighs around fifteen and a half ounces, or whatever that is in kilos. Or grams.

So I have removed four packets from each anklet, and tomorrow (or the next day) I shall have a go at strength training, starting at below level 1., as then I'm more likely to succeed. Never set yourself up for failure - aim low, and you will taste success, as I tell my piano pupils. It blows their mind after all the years of inspirational, challenge yourself, must try harder, gubbins they get all day at school.

They whole lot is stored in a stout canvas shopping bag at floor level, as advised in the book.

Low target setting is why my step count target at the moment is only 1250. I'm much happier reaching my step count most days, even without going for a walk, than missing it every day. I've got 1000 steps or so already, (it is 6pm) from pottering around in the garden all day, and should be able to get the rest by bedtime. I have been known to pace up and down the landing for five or ten minutes just to reach the magic number.

Noah's Ark

Yesterday; Bees. The book of Sirach is not one I've encountered; before. It is in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Bible, but Anglicans keep it in a separate section called the apocrypha. I'm not going into all that... although I did encounter another book in the apocrypha in the novel 'Miss Garnett's Angel' by Sally Rooney, which references the story of Tobias and the angel.

anyway, Sirach 11:3 is 

"The bee is small among flying creatures,

    but what it produces is the best of sweet things."

Today; Song of Songs 2:15 is a fox;

Catch for us the foxes,
    the little foxes
that ruin the vineyards,
    our vineyards that are in bloom

 We used to have a problem with foxes, the little foxes, that ruined our milk, delivered by the milkman. They would pick up the plastic bottles and run around the garden with them, piecing the plastic with their teeth. We fixed that by putting out a milk protector, an upturned bucket with a half brick screwed to the top to act as a handle. Our usual milkman is used to the way that the bucket comes too when he lifts the brick, but I wonder what temporary milkmen think.

Sewing;

I can reveal what Ang sent me (if you haven't already seen it on her blogpost) She gives the details of how she made each motif in the post

These are on the cloth that has her name and address on it, and are her mementoes of her month of March.

The embroidery I sent to Ang is less topical as concerns current affairs; I sewed a picture devised from a selection of my favourite prints, and also celebrating my new developing skill of making a reasonable fist of satin stitch (aim low!) I also enjoyed using the variegated threads I bought,

and also learning how to start and finish bits of stitching without leaving knots. Of course, the cat is on the cloth with my name and address - but, do I end up with the cloth with Ang's name or mine? Either would be appropriate!  

Now I am starting to think about what I sew onto Ang's cloth for April - Easter is an obvious theme... and I need to create the 'postage stamp'. But I think I know what I am doing for that - I just have to practice drawing it a couple of times until I have learned the shapes.

Piano teaching has had its moments this week; you need a surprisingly mathematical head to work out how to play the first movement of Mozart's sonata K331. We've been working on the ornaments variation 5, the slow one; (I can spot the error in my notation now, but it gives the general idea. For perfection, there should be 4 horizontal beams joining notes grouped under each bracketed 3...oooops) 

I think we got there; my student had sort of crammed the notes in together in a flurry of activity, very similar in result to tidying a room by shoving everything under your bed.

Here's Daniel Barenboim demonstrating how 'easy' it is. The slow variation starts at 7'58", but listen to it all; it is divine! I haven't heard my student play any of this except the slow variation - she says she has already learned it, which makes me a little worried as to HOW she has learned it! There was a time I could play it, after a fashion... 

Tuesday 22nd March - weightless

 I guess that's what you would call a 'click-bait' blog title.

The book I bought, breaking my Lent resolution to NOT buy any books in Lent, but supporting my Lent resolution to do exercises every day, which, so far, I have just about kept, arrived yesterday.

It is a book of strength training exercises, and a group of ladies of - shall we say - more mature years - are all trying it and recommending it. So I bought a second-hand copy, and skim-read it yesterday. It is basically a set of 8 gentle, slow exercises, done standing or sitting, but using weights on ankles for leg exercises and dumb bells for arm exercises. The weights one uses depends upon age and fitness; reading the charts I should use one pound dumb bells and two pound ankle weights, or the equivalent in kg. You increase the weights over time as your strength improves, but the emphasis is on progressing slowly and steadily. Festina lente. 

I don't have any weights, so today I followed the plan, but without weights, hence, weightless!

This is not a bad way to start; I can learn the moves without strain (actually, it was strenuous enough for me at the moment!) while I am waiting for the ankle weights to arrive. I shall follow one of the suggestions to save money by grasping the little weight packets in my hands for the arm exercises, rather than investing in dumb bells.

You do the 30 minute workout twice a week. That seems manageable. 'while watching tv', she suggests.

There's a lot of background about muscles,  and bones, and staying  motivated, and the effect of strength exercises on the general level of fitness and bone density and so forth. 

Nothing venture, nothing gain. 

I shall continue do my normal stretches on non-workout days. 

I have taken a gamble and planted out the broad beans; they were growing out of their peat pots. and also the one pea that germinated, and the few peas that escaped being eaten as pea shoots. I've come to the conclusion that the reason the peas didn't grow in their little pots on the windowsill was that I forgot to plant them, apart from one. Something must have distracted me at that point. 

The broad beans are mulched with a mix of torn packing paper and paper napkins which had a design of poppies printed on them. The peas are under one of the plastic cloches behind them.

They been experiencing 'hardening-off' as I have forgotten to close the cold frame several times over the past few days. Come to think of it, I think I have left it open again tonight. Oh well. There are only seeds inside; nasturtium, calendula, wild flowers, and as of today, snapdragons.

Noah's Ark;

Who is hiding behind this door?

Dogs!

Here's the story;

 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”

He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”

The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”

“Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that moment.

Friday 11th March - End of the Week

 Getting the blog written yesterday was quite a challenge. A whole load of windows updates went through, and Blogger was cranky for a while; photographs on my main page not loaded, and the icons all disappeared on the 'new post' page so there was a fair bit of guesswork and a number of deep sighs.

Reloading the pages seemed to work, without my losing anything I had already types in, so all ended well and without tears.

Today - everything seems normal - what passes for normal - maybe I shouldn't speak/type too soon.

After yesterday's full day, with almost everything getting done, today, as I rather thought it would be - was a rather different story!  

First thing, the weather looked promising, but even as I looked out of the window the clouds rolled in, the temperature dropped, and a sharp draught found its way through the windows on the North edge of the bay.

I put away all thoughts of going out!

It was an opportunity to catch up with my 'Commonplace Book'

I've been keeping these for some years now, and every so often go back and discover what was attracting my interest back then.

  I haven't made a good job of copying Harry the Cat's tail; it looks more like he is sitting on an earthworm. It will be enough of a clue.

I tend to take screenshots of things I trip across on the internet, and then transfer them to notebooks.

I opened today's Noah's Ark window. I have at last sorted out the connection between the scripture quotation revealed in the window, and the Biblical commentary in the booklet. It's quite simple - there isn't one.  Luke chapter 18 v 25 is about it being easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The commentary was about Abraham. I can't remember if Abraham had an camels; I remember the sheep and goats and donkeys.

I've made progress on the felted tea cosy; I was delighted to find that the cut edges showed no desire to fray. Even so, I thought a line of blanket stitch would not come amiss   

Which is when I discovered that the blue embroidery thread was a skein that had no paper loops to hold it in shape, and showed every desire to unravel into a horrid tangle. That was soon sorted.

I've only done one side; the tea pot was carried off to the kitchen before I could check the other side before cutting the slit. I'm not sorry - it can be a job for another day.

I've started a trial on the cat embroidery on a spare piece of fabric. Then I had a panic - what if Ang hates cats? Then a remembered, this is MY piece, so I get to keep the cat! Sewing with pale grey thread on pale cream fabric is definitely an eye-watering activity. I've also decided to make the whole picture a bit smaller, and do some practice tulip embroideries. Satin stitch is SO not a strong point! 

My beautiful variegated threads arrived. I have a feeling that each one will need to be wound on to a piece of card before I use them.

The first Lent resolution has been - bent? Can I call it a greenstick fracture rather than a break? Quite a few 'older ladies', and I suspect I fall into that category every so slightly, are following a course in a book called 'Strong women stay young'. Exercising every day is one of my Lent activities, and I have bought a copy to get more ideas.

I shall have to make good by keeping to the resolution.

Finally, Ukraine. If you would like to join in, a prayer collective is organising that, as in World War 2, we stop whatever we are doing for one minute tor 

pray for world peace, for an end to conflict and for the restoration of tranquillity to all people on the earth, and for families to look to God for their safety and to see their salvation.  

The time for the United Kingdom is 8pm. Just one minute. Peace on Earth, and Goodwill to all peoples.

Tuesday 1st March - Looking forward to Lent

I really am looking forward to Lent. Seriously. 

I have bought myself a 'Lent Calendar', like an Advent Calendar, but of course no chocolates, and I will get to open the first window tomorrow;

The booklet to the side has the Bible reading for the day. I think it will have to do with the animal revealed behind each window.

The lack of chocolates won't be a problem; no way am I giving up chocolate for Lent! In fact I have recently stocked up the 'chocolate stash box' with mini Fair Trade chocolate eggs from Divine. No more than one egg per day, though, to make them last.

I shall be following the course that the Rev Andrew Dotchin creates every year. This year the title is 'With a song in my heart', and you will be able to follow it here. It started today and promises to be as excellent a read as ever.

 So am I giving up anything for Lent? Yes, I am not going to buy or download any books. I must admit I hastily ordered my book club choice yesterday, as it would have been very difficult to join in the next meeting if I hadn't. It is 'The Valley at the Centre of the World' by Malachy Tallack. I have also chosen it for my Audible purchase as I had a credit, for hearing the regional accents and language.

 Our previous choice was 'The Mayor of Casterbridge', by Thomas Hardy. I haven't ready any of his books before, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. If you have an Audible subscription you can listen to Tony Britton reading it, very well indeed, as one of the free books.  

I'm not going to go short of reading matter... there must be hundreds of books in the house, plus ones that are waiting for me to read or finish on my kindle.

And I am going to give up wasting far too much time playing the various solitaire games on the computer. That will be very hard, much harder than giving up chocolate. 

What am I taking on for Lent? Letter writing; I will be printing off and sending copies of the Lent course to two friends who don't use computers at all. I reckon that's a reasonable commitment. I'm also aiming to try and do some form of exercise every day to improve my fitness levels. I do them while I am listening to the songs in the Lent course.

Let's see how long this lasts... 

Saturday 23rd October - sequencing errors are creeping into everything

 I tried to make myself a cup of tea the other day - assembled a tray with cup and saucer, milk in the cup ready, boiled the kettle, filled the teapot. When poured the tea I discovered I had forgotten the tea leaves. 

So, I started again; tipped out the watery milk, boiled some more water, ADDED THE LEAVES TO THE TEA POT and carried it through the to sitting room. Fail. I had used the filtered water jug instead of the milk bottle to prepare the cup. At least all I had to do was take the cup back to the kitchen, chuck the water and replenish with milk.

Today, with great determination, I managed to get it right first time, but only by actually verbalizing every instruction to myself, rather like when I am teaching or learning something really tricky - a bit of Chopin, the top of the second page of every Bach fugue I have ever studied.

Kettle. Tea in pot. Cup. Saucer. Milk in Cup. Boiling water into tea pot. Oh, the sense of triumph!

I have been dealing with admin today - writing up lessons from last week and sending out the emails, checking to see which parents have paid me for last week's lessons (none of the ones who are doing 'pay as you go' as opposed to 'half-termly in advance! - I shall remind them when I send out the next half term's emails of dates and information!) 

Half term got off to a good start this morning; Radio 3 (Mendelssohn's Octet on Record Review), breakfast in bed, tie to sketch out some ideas for the Advent project and some company.  

I've been fiddling around with some sketches in the mornings over the past few days before I get up; I'm not sure yet what I am planning to do. Lino prints? One for each day? Or make up a commonplace book using the sketches? Something will occur to me.

Yesterday I forced myself to go for a walk after a couple of lazy days. The sun came out part way round, and I starting picking up Autumn leaves and putting them in my pocket. I realized that I was encouraging myself along rather in the way that you would find interesting things for a grumpy toddler to try and persuade them to cheer up. It worked! Have I discovered my true level of maturity? And does this mean I am wise, or childish? 

It doesn't take much effort to press the leaves flat on a piece of kitchen paper and take a rather fuzzy picture of them. They are so pretty by themselves that one doesn't even need to be artistic.

I was also delighted to spot this!  

It is owned by someone living further down our road. He had to stop 'because the fuel pump is giving a bit of trouble'. It didn't seem to take long to fix it - he opened the funny little side access to the bonnet, tweaked the something or other and was going again in seconds.

We reaped the reward of my efforts earlier in the week. Those round red silicone baking dishes fit nicely into the Air Fryer, and I filled the four of them plus the metal cooking pan with macaroni cheese, with added kale, onion, and bacon bits, all topped with breadcrumbs and grated cheese. 

We had the contents of metal dish for supper - it makes quite a light meal for 2 - and the rest went into the freezer. So, one supper meal for each week is sorted. (We eat our main meal at lunchtime these days)

I had tried other containers for freezing the extra portions but they weren't satisfactory, or at least not for reheating in the Air Fryer.

I don't know why it is called an Air Fryer - it is more of a very small, very efficient electric fan oven, coming to temperature in minutes and perfect for two or three people. 

Today is Day 50 of the 'wear the Rowena Swing Dress for 100 days in a row' challenge. I had to wash the front of it on Thursday morning when I discovered some splatters of minestrone soup. Maybe washing the in the hand basin while I was wearing it wasn't efficient or practical or sensible, but I managed, also pressing the wet portion dry between two towels. The fabric dried remarkably quickly, but is a reminder to get on with sorting out an apron.

 

 

Sunday 30th August - Missions Accomplished This Week

 It's getting on for 5pm now. Today's mission was to persuade myself to take some exercise, and the accomplishment was to walk round the block. Ok - only 15 mins exercise, and only 870 metres travelled in that time, but there is quite a steep little gradient on the way which slows me down to what one person called 'grinder gear' - the lowest speed that a landrover can crawl in the very, very bottom gear..

So why all the measurements? I had a zoom appointment with the rheumatology clinic where they keep an eye on how my scleroderma is, or preferably isn't, progressing. It's hard to tell over a zoom conversation, especially when the video component wasn't working, and it is a new consultant. But as far as we all know, there is no change. So I'm happy about that. 

One of the tests I usually do at the clinic is the '6 minute walk' - if I had been at the hospital I would have walked up and down a measured length of corridor for 6 mins, dodging people walking or wheeling trolleys or hospitals beds as I go.  They compare the 'before' and 'after' blood pressure and oxygen saturation levels and make a note of how far I had managed to walk. I always manage to keep going for 6 minutes, unlike many other patients who can barely manage the length of the corridor before coming to a breathless halt. I do have a tendency to set off far too fast, so that I am gasping like a landed fish at the end. I have been able to replicate this test to some degree as I have a blood pressure machine and an oxygen level monitor of my own, and practice has shown that I can get from our house to number 13 in 6 minutes, and then, coming back, I start at number 7 which is a bit further along and keep going to just past our house. It is downhill on the way back, not so as YOU would notice, but even the slightest gradient makes a significant difference to me. Anyway, I'm currently managing about 370 metres in 6 minutes which is - okay. 

I've an appointment with the Interstitial Lung Disease clinic next week - they keep a watch over my lung function as that's where the scleroderma has done the most damage. Once again it will be a zoom appointment, and therefore without the 'breathing into a complicated machine in confusingly different ways' lung function tests and measurements. 'When you are ready, breathe out, then breathe in as fast as you can, hold your breath for fifteen seconds, breathe out for as long as you can, and then quickly breathe in all the way'..' it  is so easy to get yourself hopelessly confused and lose all coordination of your breathing muscles even though they talk you through it ...

Anyway, more regular exercise would definitely be a good plan. It's so easy to turn into a couch potato. 

Other missions? I've been deferring getting routine blood tests done for a couple of months, but last week I braced myself and went to the hospital all masked up and on the alert. I managed to get through the whole process without touching anything except the buttons on the car park machine - I was trying to use a tissue but the buttons needed proddling with a proper finger to make them work.

I found the experience ridiculously exhausting. I've been so careful for so long, that being indoors with strangers, and dealing with their unpredictable movements was quite a trial. Like the unmasked lady who wanted me to show her how to work the car park machine. 'If you stand back, over there, a bit further, I'll have a look and see if I can help' and then she comes and peers over my shoulder...

I also had to take a parcel to our sorting office - an on-line order return. I haven't been into a shop or an office or a bank since March...

I think I need to get out more!

Still, I think I will achieve that objective; I'm overdue for the dentist, the opticians and a hairdresser appointment, and the cats need to go to the vet for their checkups. What a lively time we shall be having...         

Saturday 22nd August - probably

 I spent most of yesterday confused as to which day it was - Friday or Saturday? and the date - 20th, 21st, or 22nd?

I managed to get everything right until Thursday, which was lucky as I had a piano lesson to teach in the morning, and then I lost count.

It's ok today - definitely Saturday. I'm sorted out. Although it was a bit tricky this morning. I'm following a prayer book in the morning, with a psalm and another reading and a couple of prayers etc for each day and discovered that yesterday I had done half of today's pages and half of yesterday's pages. Easily rectified once I understood why some of the words looked familiar. This morning I just did the other half of yesterday and the other half of today - I guess, like eating your meal in the wrong order, ice-cream and then main course, it all comes to the same in the end.

I took my regular exercise today, starting with stretching, to read the coffee-pod-recycling-gizmo which for some time had been stored on top the the fridge (fairly easily within my reach) to on top of the cupboards (full stretch up on tiptoe and just catch it with my fingertips)

Then I moved on to working whichever muscles live in my upper arms and shoulders as I put the tub of used coffee pods through the gizmo - 

it really is the most satisfying of all the household chores at the moment;

look here is how it works;

You see that bright green thingy, you just place a used coffee pod over the hole 

like this;

put the cover on and push down. There's a sticky-outy bit inside the lid which inside-outs the coffee pod, emptying most of the grounds onto the base. You can see the startled remains of the first couple of pods alongside their fellows in the red bowl.

    

Then I add water to the bowl of disembowelled pods and give them a quick swirl. The cleaned pods are fished out and put into the recycling, the coffee-ground-water goes into the tub of flowers by the front door (I wonder if visitors will eventually find themselves greeted by a strong smell of coffee as they wait for the door to be opened?) and I finish my morning workout with a brisk walk to the compost bin with the contents of the base unit.

Excellent. 

Back in the dim and distant past (a few months ago) we took them back to the Nespresso booth at the supermarket and then dealt with it all. But neither of us have been near a supermarket since all the coronavirus stuff got started.

How times have changed this year...

And yet, apart from me having a desperate wish to go and have coffee and a cake (preferably a miniature Koign-Amann from Waterstones) I have been reasonably happy and content. 

Oh yeah. A Koign-Amann please, soon. (they are far too fiddly to make, and anyway, I wouldn't dare have a whole batch of them in the house to eat because I would so entirely eat them all)

So, instead, I made a batch of 3-ingredient scones. These are amazing - you can find the recipe here   and I strongly recommend that you acquire lemonade, double cream and self-raising flour immediately. Also clotted cream and strawberry jam.

I cooked them in our air-fryer, 185c for 15 mins seemed to do the trick. I can show you how they came out, no, wait, there were seven but unaccountably there are only two left.

They were indeed that good. Next time I will make half the amount (just use a smaller cup; a yoghurt pot sized cup made 7 scones) so that I can cook them in just one batch, and also restrict how many I consume in one go.

There is also a recipe for a savoury version. 

I wonder how they would come out if I used ginger ale? 

Tuesday 23rd June - Temporary Heatwave

I am feeling a bit sorry for the workmen outside, digging up our concrete road in this blistering heat. They are wearing hi-viz, and construction helmets, and ear defenders, and must be melting.

The bungalow opposite is being renovated, with the same zeal and energy as last time, back in about 1990. It provides a kind of live-stream entertainment; we can even turn the volume down by closing the double glazed windows and retreating to the back of the house.

I'm having a slight battle of wills with Leo the cat again. I had a whim to reclaim my chair

so I created a new place for her.

This was going fairly well to begin with; she would curl up on/in the blue cat cushion (specially chosen to be easy to hoover), Although preferring 'my chair' in the afternoon as the sun came round.

Then I swapped the cushion on 'my chair' for another 'easy-to-hoover' one, and hid the knitted cushion on the dining chair under the table where I sit and do my work. This one;

I am running out of options here.


Meanwhile, my new packets of stickers have arrived;

These are for posting out to piano students who have done something spectacular, like pracised their pieces. I've ordered another 100 second class stamps - now all I need to do is order envelopes.

I'm trying to be slightly health-conscious this week; walking circuits round and round the garden. I managed a personal best of 14 yesterday - that roughly works out as a kilometre. It is too hot to try and do the same thing right now - sitting and blogging is a better idea.

This is yesterday's healthy desert at lunchtime; going anticlockwise, it starts off quite well with a satsuma and two strawberries from the garden.I braved a Huge Black Beetle to get those strawberries; it landed on my hand and I have to admit that I rushed around squeaking 'Beetle! Beetle! Big Black Beetle!' until it flopped off my hand and onto the draining board. I have found it a new home in the garden recycling bin, along with all the weeds and slugs and snails. I have a horrid suspicion that it is a Vine Weevil, which has Awful Consequences for the strawberry tub.
 
Next is a glass of not-very-delicious multivitamin drink, and finally, (only for taking away the taste) some small pieces of home-made seed cake. Yum yum.

The heatwave is supposed to be over by Friday. I think that's a good way to organise the weather. Enough sun to surprise us for a couple of days, and then back to ordinary weather.