Today has been grey with the occasional moment of sun.
Yesterday at kettlebells a lot of people had cancelled because they had covid which is rife in the area. But apart from an achy weekend (after disco aerobics and riding!) this has just felt like a normal cold. No loss of sense of smell or taste. I asked the nurse at the surgery this morning how to tell if it's covid but she said only with a test. You can't get hold of tests easily and they are not designed for the latest variants anyway.
So no zoo or choir today and there isn't disco this week but of course I'll be at the stables on Friday. We often joke how nothing will stop us from our weekly horse fix. Plus three of the group were on a riding holiday in Iceland last week and though I've seen the photos and videos I want to hear all about it.
Looking at the sea this morning (top photo) I spotted something dark in the water. Not a submarine or a strange sea creature but a floating tree trunk.
I walked down to the surgery this morning for what I thought was just a routine blood test. I wasn't expecting to be weighed, measured and have my blood pressure taken too as part of my annual check up. My blood pressure was up after marching along the High St plus I have white coat syndrome but it eventually came down and the nurse was happy with my pulse. I haven't shrunk any further thank goodness and after losing all that weight I know I've been indulging all summer long so I didn't ask what the scales said.
I've still got to see the doctor in a few weeks but hopefully everything will be the same. (I was going to put fine but of course who has 'fine health' at my age?) I had begun to find it difficult to lie down to sleep, a pretty essential part of life, but instead of staying up until I could take more pain killers I tried sleeping with a flexible ice pack across my lower back. And it works. It numbs the pain enough for me to drop off to sleep without extra painkillers. I even took the ice pack to Crete.
While I took a break in the sitting room I spread out some furnishing fabrics so that I could think about cushion covers. These were all bought before we moved up here. Some from Laura Ashley when it was closing and the others are samples from a curtain shop.
We don't need more cushions on the sofa but we both like to rest our feet on the garden cushions piled on the coffee table. The garden cushions have a dark green leafy pattern which is fine for outside but doesn't match the living room colours. My plan is to make removable covers for the winter which can be taken off once its nice enough to spend more time outside.
I like the idea of patchwork but as the fabrics are heavy you can't do anything too fine or with points. I think I've worked out a simple design with three colours (greys or blues) that should be easy to do on the machine. First I need to wash the fabrics to allow for initial shrinkage so nothing will happen until we get some good drying days.
My Pilates teacher Rachel posts a lot of videos on FB. She has studied the effects of menopause and how we can help ourselves through lifestyle choices. Watching this FB video about bone loss post menopause is the sort of thing that keeps me exercising and trying to live a healthy lifestyle. It's just typical that when men are affected by changing hormones medication like Viagra becomes readily available but when women's health is radically compromised by changing hormones doctors are reluctant to address the problem. I've lost three and a half inches in height, had serious back problems but I've never been offered a bone scan or any hormone replacement treatment. Maybe I should bring this up when I see the GP though that's probably a lost cause. Bring out the kettlebells.
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