It's Been A Busy Week.

The Rock Art

 Well I have been back and checked all the places where I hid my rocks and they have all been taken.  The one that I left in the most prominent part of the town centre was the last to go, just as I don't want to be seen leaving them people probably don't want to be seen taking them either. 

They have appeared on the u3a Day blog on the main website and apparently will be shown in the newsletter too along with other u3a's pictures of their celebrations for u3a Day.

My latest craze is flower bugs I think everyone I know is going to receive one sooner or later as they are such fun to paint.

The Replacement

Look what I've got at last! I have managed to get a replacement treadmill from a different firm. I am hoping that this one lasts a little longer than the last one in fact a whole lot longer. It has taken me ages to decide on a replacement so I hope that I have made the right choice,  This one has an incline adjustment as well so I'll get a better work out.  It's good to have it for awful weather days. 

I have just received my credit card statement and have discovered that the refund for my first treadmill hasn't been credited to my account even though I had an email to say that it had been, that's why I went ahead and bought this new one I should have checked first, anyway I am on the case, I'm sure that I'll get it but it sure is taking a long time. 

Lovely Weather 

It has been lovely to have some nice bright sunny weather for a change look who came to visit last Sunday.

Little Mikey playing with his toys with a very tame Robin looking on without me realising it, I only saw the Robin when I looked at the photo. 

Spooky

I had a phone call from a very dear friend, we don't speak often but we do keep in touch, this time she phoned me for a very sad reason, as I picked up the phone to answer her a robin flew right up to my window and perched on the watering can just in front of the conservatory doors, it stood there looking in while my friend broke the sad news that our very lovely mutual friend Frances had passed away. That Robin stood there looking in right up until the end of quite a long conversation. Coincidence? probably but I thought it was spooky and since then that robin comes into my garden and stands very close every time I go out (see above!) 

That makes four very special friends of mine that have passed away over the years, one just before last Christmas. Cancer in some form of another has been the cause for each one of them passing, of course as we get older it's inevitable but it's very sad just the same. 

Mahjong

Thank goodness for the busyness of this week it has kept my mind on other things, one of which is Mahjong, we have a u3a group which hasn't opened yet but four of us from the group meet when we can to have a game or two, this week we met in Paula's garden and had a very pleasant afternoon, if only the weather could be like this all the time.

Progress

Well there has been some progress on the station display, yesterday six of the ladies from the knitting group met in my garden and it looks as if we are getting there, we hope to erect the display a week on Sunday.

Coffee with a view

Sitting in The Outlook coffee shop with a friend down in our marina last Saturday, it's so lovely to sit there in the warm sunshine and take in the view, this time we had a visitor, that starling was sat just a foot away from us listening in to our conversation, it even posed for a photograph.

 It looks like the crochet, knitting and sewing have been put on hold at the moment nothing has been done, I'm not in the mood and the weather has been too nice to ignore, I'm making the most of it because it won't last long.

I hope you all have a great week 

A bit of a grumble

 Regular readers of my blog may remember that I bought a treadmill back in January with the money my daughter gave me for Christmas.  I have been using it twice a day since then and have really felt the benefits (once I got over the aching knees of course). I usually walk on it early morning and late afternoon, the other day it decided to give me an a mild (thank goodness) electric shock and then stop mid workout.  I'm annoyed because although I've only had it a short time I have managed to up my fitness levels to some small degree and once I stop a routine I find it's hard to get back into it again. 

I phoned the company and they are sending me a returns label and then they say someone will come to collect it, I will get a refund once they receive it, they don't do repairs and they have no more of them in stock.  I was quite impressed with the customer services they dealt with it immediately but I'm sad that my treadmill has died so quickly. 

In the meantime a friend has lent me an exercise bike which I hate but will try to use until I can get a treadmill replacement,  the bike in question is very basic and the seat is so hard! I tried placing a cushion on the seat but but it kept slipping off 😂 anyway it's forcing me to get out and about more which would be ok if the weather was warmer, we had frost as I set out this morning but luckily no rain and the sun was shining, I just love this view, the walk down to the beach with the sea in the distance

I even saw a friend on the way and stopped for a chat but at eight in the morning thankfully, there's not too many people about....

I left a member of the snail trail at the cave entrance for someone to find

When you've walked a while, climbing these stairs can be pretty tough I had to stop a few times on the way up so still some way to go as far as fitness is concerned.

I decided to walk back past St John Church I love going into the graveyard and looking at the ancient headstones, the inscriptions on many are too worn to read now.

The path to the dene is just opposite the church 

It's lovely to see signs of Spring even if the weather is still chilly

Crochet

I have started the Patchwork CAL and in the main I'm enjoying it, but I'm trying to decide which is the best way to deal with all the ends, there are several methods and I'm in the process if trying them all, it's slowed me down quite a bit but I think that I will stick to what I have always done and that is weave them in every couple of rows.  You can crochet on top of them but that tends to distort your work at the sides. 

I have used what is called the endless overlay crochet method with the second square and it's ok but I prefer to see the right side of the stitches on each row and because you work on both sides it's a bit tricky to get your treble placements correct there's a few mistakes there too and I'm going to have to pull it back a few rows.

I always enjoy trying out new methods of doing things but it is time consuming, that second square isn't quite finished yet and there are three patterns released each week  so I'm well behind but in no hurry so it doesn't really matter. I will enjoy starting my third square this weekend, if I manage to complete two a week I think that's ok, there are twenty squares altogether but I haven't even decided what size blanket to make so I may not need them all. 

We are promised a weekend of heavy rain and strong winds so I will be sitting cosy inside with my crochet and sewing, there may be a stone or two painted too. I hope that your weather is better than what we are promised and that you all have a great weekend. 

Five on Friday

Another Friday already I can't believe it, I hope you have all had a great week, I'm taking five minutes to have a little catch up...

So last Monday in preparation for the upcoming decorating of lounge I cleared the room of all its ornaments and  pictures, took curtains down removed picture hooks, dusted the walls and ceiling then gave them a wash down, I'm painting over a textured paper so a few repairs had to be made here and there.  All the bit's and pieces were taken upstairs and dumped into son number three's bedroom because he's away at Uni, every bit of free space including the bed was covered.  

When evening came I was shattered plonked myself down onto soon to be banished sofa when there was a knock on the door and in walks son number two. To say I was surprised is an understatement because I see him usually only at Christmas and one or two occasions during the year, to cut a long story short he's having a few problems so he wanted to use mother as a sounding board.  I didn't mind at all in fact it was so lovely to see him despite being dead on my feet he was well fed and watered and generally waited on hand on foot.  He then asked if he could stay over, yes you've guessed it I had to go back into son number three's room and clear it of all the lounge stuff just so that son number two could actually see the bed never mind sleep in it. I even supplied him with new tooth brush and you should have seen the lovely breakfast I prepared for him the next morning.  Why are we mothers such a walkover when it comes to our sons, or is it just me?

I've been making .....

These squares are for Jill from Emerald cottage, she is asking for squares for the Autism project do pop over if you haven't already and see if you can help out, you can read all about it here.

I'm loving the fitbit just look at this....

mind you I have only managed it twice I didn't realise just how difficult it is to walk 10.000 steps everyday but today I received my marathon badge apparently I have walked 42 kilometers in the past week yay!

I'm going to shut up now so that you can pop round and see what everyone else has been up to this week it's Amy's Five on Friday first anniversary today so do join in. :)

Have a great weekend. xx

Five on Friday

I hope that you have all had a great week mine has been quite a good one.

ONE
I'm feeling really great since I cut out all the eating of chocolate, cakes and biscuits, I have been leaning more towards fruit and nutty nibbles and do you know what I'm enjoying it, I'm hoping that when I do eventually have my MRI scan those pesky gallstones will have melted away haha not likely I know but one can hope. I also started a new exercise class this week it's called step fit and it's so much fun have you tried it?

TWO
My mini rings progress for this week

This week we worked rows 30 and 31 however I did row 32 too because it was curling really badly after row 31 probably because there are no increases in these two rows to compensate for the increase in size, I even contemplated pulling it back and adding an extra chain increase in row 31.  I decided to stretch the work instead by giving each chain space a little tug, it was still curling so I decided to work row 32 to see if that would help and it did, there is still a slight curl but it will even out with the next rows. 

Round 30 - Stylecraft special chunky inshade 1425 Emperor
Rounds 31, 32 - sirdar bonus chunky in shade 884 neon

THREE
I had a fun time trying to tidy my stash this week, it was great emptying bags and bags of yarn onto the bed, it took me absolutely ages to get it into some sort of order but can you remember my Ikea visit? I was quite taken with the cube storage system, I loved the little boxes that fit inside and so when my friend went to Ikea herself last week I asked her to get me some.  I realised I had lots of unutilised space on top of my wardrobe, so I cleared all of the rubbish sorry I forgot to take a picture of the before but take my word for it, it was unsightly. Here it is now

each box is filled to the brim with yarn, first two are full balls of DK yarn the middle one is Aran and the other two are baby yarn, please don't think for one minute that thats the whole of my stash I could fill another five boxes and there would still be some left over.

This is just some of the stuff I took down from the top of the wardrobe!

FOUR
Another great thing that happened this week remember this....

well here it is now

It took Eddie ages to get it finished because the weather has been against him, also it's harder putting an old fence up than starting from scratch with a new one, a lot of the wood had rotted and needed replacing probably because my neighbours hadn't bothered painting their side of the fence, that makes me so angry but they don't care probably because they weren't paying for it.  

Once the weather is better I'm going to paint it again and I'll ask the neighbours if I can paint their side too, I'm just glad it's up again and I asked Eddie to put extra posts to give it extra support so hopefully it won't blow down again.

FIVE
I have decided to do the  Mystery Afghan CAL you must have known I would buckle and give in, I can't resist a CAL. Clue 2 has been revealed already so I have some catching up to do the first clue is 20 granny squares....

I have done eight so far, clue 2 is layering on top of the granny squares that's what made me decide to go for it because I haven't done anything like this before I think it's going to be very interesting'

My colours are pale lemon, blue, white and green, I had to buy the green but the other is from my stash of Dk, I'm hoping to be all caught up by Tuesday ready for clue 3 is anyone else doing this? I would love to see your progress.


This wasn't really intended but once I wrote this post I realised that there are five things so I'm joining Amy with her Five on Friday feature do pop along and see her new Five on Friday Link Up.

Have a great weekend! 

Feeling Pleased with myself :)

It doesn't happen very often but hey I did it, I always think that the first time back is the worst don't you? I mean the actual pushing yourself to do something that you know you should be doing but haven't done for weeks or ever in some cases.

I'm talking about going to the Gym, I joined last May and have felt great, lost the flabby bits, got more energy and generally felt much fitter because of it, but then it's so easy to stop at the least excuse, I have been busy with Christmas, New Year etc or there's no point in me going until I get through this little lot....

I haven't even shown you the biscuits, chocolate one's too!

The final push came yesterday when I was literally slumped at my desk at work, I felt fat, bloated and very tired in fact I could have fallen asleep right there and then if sleeping at work wasn't a sackable offence, I even thought of going to sit on the loo for a power nap!!

Enough!!! So this morning I forced myself to go to the Gym at 8 30 am before it got too crowded, I don't go overboard there I must hasten to add, it's a case of taking it easy and building up slowly to get my fitness levels back to where they were before my month of overindulgence, I think whatever you do there is better than nothing at all.

Do I enjoy going to the Gym? to be honest I think it's the most boring thing I ever did but earphones and good music help, I use the time to solve problems in my mind by focusing on things that need to be done, by the time my session has finished I have my day planned and can just get on with it.

So is it worth it? I reckon it's worth it if you are going to stick with it, I have a yearly subscription which motivates me to use the gym so that I get my moneys worth, the subscription also includes use of swimming pool and fitness classes and once I'm feeling a bit fitter I will be going back to Zumba which is great fun!

So in the meantime what will I do with all of this....

why do we buy each other so much chocolate?, hiding it away won't help because I'll just find it, giving it away will only encourage someone else to gain weight and become unhealthy, throwing it away is very wasteful so please tell me your thoughts, 

I must hasten to add, along with being  a Stashaholic I am also very much a Chocoholic if it's there it has to be eaten and I can't eat just one it's has to be one after another indeed sometimes TWO AT ONCE!! until I feel literally sick! 

So how do you keep fit? are you trying to loose weight like me, what do you do with your chocolate stash do you just keep on eating it till it's all gone or do you give it away? 

Have a great week. :)