Sunshine and a trip to the garden centre

May 9, 2024 Debra SmithLeave a comment

Today was a lovely sunny day – at last! Despite a late start (my fault) Kevin hoisted me into the car and we set off to the Whitehall garden centre at Lacock, just past Chippenham. It was my first day out for ages and despite the rather bumpy terrain and sloping arrangement we made it to a different (i.e. not local) garden centre and bought a lovely purple and yellow Lupin (my choice) to pot in the garden and a black, wide leaved grass (Kevin’s choice) to replace the bluegrass that I chose last year and which is now looking a bit bedraggled. We also managed to get some mint and thyme herbs for Kevin to plant in our wooden herb garden arrangement.

It was lovely to just sit in the sunshine and we also took the opportunity to have a tea, chai spiced latte and a couple of portions of cake – just to make a day of it. We quickly popped in to get some foodstuffs on our return to Swindon and came home to find Charlie just rolling around on the paving slabs in the garden. I now have no excuse not to get my head down and do the work that is awaiting me – maybe tomorrow!

Bloganuary · CHALLENGES · HOLIDAYS · SNOW · WEATHER

The cold

January 30, 2024January 30, 2024 Debra SmithLeave a comment

Bloganuary writing prompt

What do you complain about the most?

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I never used to field cold most of the time, but now it is a standing joke that I am “a reptile”. Lots of people say that it is because I am in a wheelchair and therefore not moving about as much as normal BUT that just infuriates me, because it’s not like I never do anything as I tried to cycle on my indoor bike almost everyday and the people usually saying this are sitting down reading or doing a puzzle or similar at the time. I know lots of people in wheelchairs who are not cold all the time!

It’s not even as if I live in a particularly cold climate (it’s temperate) in southern England. Sure it’s not Mediterranean or continental, but I don’t live near the coast and so even living on an island I am as near as can be to a more central position in the southern part of my homeland. Unfortunately, I’d loved to visit Scandinavia and even take a boat trip to see the Northern Lights, but I don’t see that as my holiday destination any time soon!

Northern Light over landscape — Photo by stein egil liland on Pexels.com

Bloganuary · CHALLENGES · PETS · SLEEP · WEATHER

12. What snack would I eat right now?

January 13, 2024 Debra SmithLeave a comment

Clock and sleeping person behind duvet/bed covers — Photo by Acharaporn Kamornboonyarush on Pexels.com

This prompt is not really appropriate for me “right now”, as despite what the clock in the picture shows it is past midnight, I’ve had my chocolate biscuits and “Sleepy Tea” and now my final tasks are scrubbing my teeth before going off to bed to sleep with the cat. It’s been a long day today and I will enjoy snuggling up under the duvet to keep warm while the weather is still too cold for me. I’m looking forward to a long sleep – something at which I am very good!

Bloganuary · CHALLENGES · FUN · Nature · PAIN · PAMPERING · SUNNY

8. What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?

January 8, 2024 Debra SmithLeave a comment

I think that this question hinges on your quality of life. Personally, a fulfilling happy life is preferable to a long, miserable existence. Of course the best option is a long, fulfilling and happy life BUT if I had to choose between the quality of my life versus its length – the former would always come out on top.

Paintbrush and paints with framed 3D word JOY in limegreen, dark green and red — Photo by Bekka Mongeau on Pexels.com

However, my perspective is definitely skewed because I have been fortunate enough to live over half my life already with the first third being fantastic and the later stages being harder but still with room for enjoyment although somewhat curtailed.

If the tables had been reversed and my existence was hard and joyless then I don’t think that I would want my life to be long and drawn out, particularly if I was in pain or depressed. No, a short but gleeful life like that of a soaring bird or fluttering butterfly would be my preference.

Bloganuary · CHALLENGES · FESTIVALS · HEALTH · WEATHER

5. Do you spend more time thinking about the future or the past? Why?

January 5, 2024 Debra SmithLeave a comment

I think about both, but my happiest memories are definitely from the past. For me (personally) the future is scary – challenging certainly and likely to deteriorate if I don’t make the effort to improve things. This is odd because I am much more a science/technology nerd than I ever was a history buff.

Why? The past is a happy place, the future is just sad. The most positive spin I can come up with is that “things can only get better”, although most would not think them too bad for me. It depends upon how you look at good & bad and definitely in the last few months there have been several things that I should be grateful for.

Sea and sky with fluffy white clouds — Photo by Splash of Rain on Pexels.com

PAMPERING · WEATHER · WORK

Quick review of July & August …

September 2, 2019 Debra SmithLeave a comment

Well this is going to be quick and probably consist of a bulleted list (again), because not very much happened really.

JULY:

We had a spell of good weather, you could even say we had a proper summer and it was even extremely hot for a couple of weeks.
I did 5 webinars to help fulfil my work CPD requirement.
We went to 2 events at the Cheltenham Music Festival both on Saturday, 13 July – the first featuring a discussion with Guy Barker (a jazz musician) + another rap / beatbox improviser discussing the areas of the brain involved in improvisation (so a bit science-based too) and the second featuring Wynton Marsalis (another jazz musician). None of the other classical or world music events appealed, but it means that we will manage to attend all four Cheltenham Festivals (Jazz, Science, Music & Literature) in 2019.
I enjoyed a couple of self-indulgence sessions having massage and separately having my nails painted.
Having tried an Audible 3-month trial with a Douglas Adams sci-fi book, an Adam Hills (comedian) memoir and concluding with “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood – so I thought I had covered a wide range of books – I decided that I really didn’t like listening to other people reading books to me and much preferred to read them myself, so that I could apply my own interpretation. I’ve subsequently bought a copy of “The Handmaid’s Tale” for my Kindle, because I think that I would enjoy reading it.

AUGUST:

The weather deteriorated – still warm, but intermittent rain and unpleasantly humid.
I started to have two 30 minute hand exercise sessions (privately) each week to try and improve my dexterity & grip, with a lady working as a rehabilitation and physiotherapy assistant at our local hospital. The lessons are held at our house, which helpfully lies almost midway between the hospital and her house meaning that she can stop off on her journey home most of the time.
For work: I had 1 more webinar and I spent some time contacting my Clients & catching up with my online Financial & IP work management software.

As I warned you – pretty mundane and not very interesting really. However, next month we are visiting my parents in France and in October we can look forward to a full programme at the Cheltenham Literature Festival … so there are more interesting posts to come.

FUN · SNOW · WEATHER

Snow & Igloos …

August 7, 2019August 10, 2019 Debra Smith1 Comment

At the end of my last post, I left you with the tantalising prospect of forthcoming bad weather – SNOW. We went to bed after a light, fluttering of snowflakes, but still enough to settle.

So we went to our warm, cosy bed with the possibility that we may awake to some snow … And the weather didn’t disappoint!

View from our bedroom window (upwards) upon waking up

View of our garden upon coming downstairs

Well, unsurprisingly it was not going to be a work day and with the weekend to come, perhaps it might have started melting before more work could commence.

So what could one possibly do? … I know, it’s time to start thinking about building an igloo – and here to our rescue came our neighbours from the house behind (and we just happened to have a lovely, big window from which to view their efforts). How best to build an igloo? Now we don’t have ice from which to cut nice building blocks, just lots of mouldable snow. Trial 1: Let’s just free form a wall by pulling all the snow together – No, that is never going to work when it comes to building a high wall, let alone forming some sort of roof. Wait for inspiration … Out comes an old rectangular, recycling box into which we can pack the snow down to form ‘snow bricks’ – Yeah got it, that’s working really well !! And so the walls slowly begin to rise.

Fun in the snow courtesy of our ‘back door neighbours’

Well that was fun! In the meantime, Kevin has started the practical snow moving by first clearing the pathway leading to our front door and then clearing the pavement and adjacent road to our driveway, so that he can at least get the car out and facing in the right direction.