I wasn’t able to visit my friend M today as I usually do on a Tuesday as I didn’t want to take germs into the care home.
My cold isn’t yet fully developed but still lingering in the background.
I took Lydia out for a reasonable walk and since then have been taking it easy. I did put our Christmas tree up though, and made some roasted red pepper and sweet potato soup for our tea.
I’d boiled the bones and carcass from a chicken we’d had earlier in the week, making stock for the soup and providing some ‘Lydi juice’ for Lydia that she enjoyed after her tea. It had turned to jelly on cooling, so nourishing as well as flavoursome.
Seasonal branches adorning the fence at our Qigong venue this evening
Lydia is steadily getting used to her new collar. By the end of our woodland walk this morning it felt like she was almost gliding along next to me. The lead that I attach to the collar has a bungee section at the end of it, which helps.
Yoga this afternoon had a strong emphasis on the pose of a tree, and in Qigong we did a lot of work on developing the strength and flexibility of the spine. I felt quite focused in both sessions and enjoyed the poses and movements.
Despite all my health and wellbeing activities, I feel like I may be starting to come down with a cold, so may have to rest up tomorrow if it lingers.
I’m hoping for a good night’s sleep though, tonight. Lydia has already joined me in the bedroom for her ‘sleepy time’ and I’m going to settle down for the night now as well. Sweet dreams.
For the first time since May I didn’t write and publish a blog post yesterday, so I’m doing it today instead.
I completely forgot after having had a lovely afternoon with friends, making Christmas wreaths.
My friend Maxine had organised it, and we all contributed different kinds of foliage from different places. I’d bought some bunches of festive foliage at the Buddhist Centre when I was there on Friday, and there were baubles, ribbons and lights that Maxine provided for us, along with some delicious snacks and drinks.
Trev gave Lydia her tea while I was out so I didn’t have to leave early, and was pleased with my creation which is now hanging up on our front door.
I’ve got some more get-togethers with friends coming up over the next couple of weeks, and made a really good start with this one.
Lydia has had a good rest this afternoon after a longish walk this morning.
I pushed her a bit, to go a bit further than she wanted to, although it was an easy walk for both of us really. Just over an hour on flat ground.
I’m tired too, though recognise I still need to push myself a bit as well. I’m tired but still not able to fully relax into the deep sleep that I need.
We had some over-ripe bananas so I made banana cake, with the addition of linseed, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, all-spice and ground ginger. I used my standard cake recipe – 4oz butter/margarine, 4oz sugar, 4oz flour and 2 eggs, x 3, although I used less sugar to allow for the sweetness of the bananas. I also added some rolled oats. It turned out well. Baked in two loaf tins at 180 degrees centigrade, initially for about 20 minutes, then turned down and baked for a bit longer, until they passed the skewer test, coming out clean so I knew they were done.
As usual, Lydia has been keeping me good company on a quiet rainy day.
She hasn’t had her tea yet but doesn’t seem in any hurry for it. Neither am I for mine.
Before and after going to the dog field with Lydia this morning, I did some work in the kitchen, finishing the decorating and cleaning, then putting things back but reducing clutter at the same time. It does look and feel so much better.
Leaving Lydia to look after the house – Trev was still away but came back this afternoon – I headed over to the Buddhist Centre to do some volunteering for a few hours.
The work was outside. To begin with it felt a bit cold, but I had gloves, a hat, coat and boots. It wasn’t long before I took off the hat, coat and gloves, as the physicality of the work – sweeping – warmed me up. A few people – residents at the Centre – passed me as I was working and all made appreciative comments. The young lady who was supervising me made sure that I was happy doing the work and insisted that I had a cup of tea before I left, which I did.
The satnav on the way home directed me on a different route to the one I normally take and it proved to be a calm and quiet drive, through villages lit up by Christmas lights – lovely.
Arriving home, I was glad I’d made the enchiladas the day before as all I had to do was turn the oven on before giving Lydia her tea and then having a bit of a rest. Trev had returned home and it was good to watch a bit of telly. It’s been a fairly full day, and a good one.
Continuing to work on the kitchen, I made good progress with more cleaning and a bit of painting before leaving the last coat of paint to dry and heading out to do some shopping.
Lydia has kept me company all day and she enjoyed an extra lamb rib as well as a raw chicken wing with her tea.
I had some savoury rice, and vegetarian sausages that were in the freezer. Then I made some chilli enchiladas for Trev and me to have for our tea tomorrow night. I bought avocados and limes to make fresh guacamole, and crème fresh as a lighter alternative to sour cream. There’s plenty of chilli left over so we can have that on Saturday night, or it will freeze for later.
Lydia and I were out earliesh this morning, as the sun was still rising.
It was the second day for her wearing her new collar, and she did very well.
Back home, after setting Lydi up with her breakfast ball, I set to on deep cleaning the kitchen, eating my own breakfast as I worked.
After a few hours it was time to set off to meet my friend Susie. We had a lovely walk round a lake before heading for a café to have some lunch.
Susie first introduced me to meditation around 30 years ago. I wrote a poem about our friendship a while back:
Friendship
The light of your heart
Turns forever night
into a sensation of morning
as you reach out
to illuminate the darkness and depth
of my despair
Almost beyond hope
I find the firm hold
of your belief in me
and then I can see
that somewhere in the future
lies a present, what will it be?
All I do know is that now I can say
thank you for the day
and for your friendship
that helped to show the way
2013, dedicated to my friend Susie
Back home to Lydia and, after she’d had her tea and I’d had a bit of a rest, I went out to the Buddhist group meeting.
The theme for tonight’s meeting – the first of a group of three – was ‘love’, with the emphasis on affectionate love, cherishing love and wishing love. Wishing love is about wishing for others to be happy; not just those we are close to or who we particularly care about, but all others; all living beings.
Lydi did very well with her new collar for the first time. It’s a Halti collar, designed to stop pulling. It will take a while for her to get fully used to it, but it did seem to make a difference.
I’m early with writing and posting Christmas cards this year, which is just as well as it leaves me clear to make a start on deep cleaning the kitchen and doing a few things to it that will hopefully help things along when we come to sell the house.
Mental health Mondays do seem to come round very quickly.
Up at around 8.30 this morning, I read a few pages from ‘How to Transform Your Life’ by Venerable Geshe Keksang Gyatso, Rinpoche, before starting a meditation.
During the meditation Lydia started barking at the back door and, while I decided to continue meditating for a while, I realised that she might need to go to the toilet, and not just for a ‘peepie’, so I got us ready to go out for our ‘walkies’. Sure enough, she did her first ‘poopie’ early on in the walk and another one later. She was pulling again, picking up a scent, and I’ll be glad when her new collar arrives later today, so that I can try her with it and see if it makes a difference.
Dropped a few of my pots off at my friend’s house as her daughter – who designs interiors – may buy some. Then I headed for the jet wash as I haven’t cleaned my car for ages.
With a bit of time to spare before yoga, I filled the car with petrol then popped into Tesco’s to buy some Christmas chocolates – three for presents for people and a box of Bendicks mints for the house. I always like to buy a box of Bendicks mints for Christmas. I don’t have many Christmas traditions but this is one of them.
Just back from a late lunch – a friend of a friend’s birthday.
Back home I’ve given Lydia her tea and she is now crunching on a raw lamb rib – a chunky one.
We had an earliesh walk this morning. It was our woodland walk only we didn’t go into the wood in the end as she was pulling too much – we walked up and down the outside instead, and despite changing directions numerous times as the training has taught me to do, and reinforcing the “heel” command, it made no difference. She had picked up a scent and wanted to follow it.
Even so, we were out for about 45 minutes in the end and when I came home I ordered an anti-pull collar for her. We’ll see how that goes.
I may give the woodland walk a miss tomorrow and try it again once the new collar has arrived.
Glad About 
You must be logged in to post a comment.