Where I Am Right Now...

Right – I am jumping back into the blogging with an old favourite, my prompt post!

Stuff that I am doing right now on a couple of precious days off work!

Making: Some fruit smoothies with my Nutribullet. I will be more healthy and avoid chocolate!

Cooking: I have plans to create some home cooked real food while I am off work – my cookbooks are overflowing with ideas. We will probably end up eating pizza or fish and chips.

Drinking: At this time of the day?

Reading: Around the house I currently have about 7 books on the go. Bedtime reading is ‘Dark Lover’ the biography of Rudolph Valentino, in the living room I have ‘Why Can’t I Meditate’ and in the kitchen pile is ‘Eat, Nourish, Glow’ Just a few.....

Wanting: More days off work so I can get on with the millions of ideas and plans whizzing in my head at the moment.

Looking: At the grey skies outside the door and, although I love rain, wishing it was just a teenier bit more sunny.

Playing: George Formby – gotta love George!

Wasting: Valuable housework time trying to be creative and finally blogging!

Sewing: I have a summer top all ready to sew but I am thinking it might not get done in time for this summer now....

Wishing: I was back at the mini yoga retreat I did this weekend – such a treat to spend time doing something I love with supportive people.

Enjoying: Some time with my boys – September will see some huge changes with both boys heading off and leaving home for different reasons. Now I am treasuring each moment they are here (and trying to to blissfully ignore the annoying boy stuff that they do)

Waiting: For my massage appointment this afternoon – I think it might help the residual pain I’ve been having following my osteopath treatment for back problems.

Liking: Some new vintage treasures that have arrived in the house, china, games, more things to find a permanent home for.....

Wondering: If it will rain for both of my days off or will it now wait until our holiday in Cornwall in a few weeks and then unleash full holiday weather. As usual!

Loving: The new reindeer hide which we have finally decided should go on the bed.

Hoping: My yoga and mindful state of mind will continue...

Marvelling: At how long my computer takes to do anything and how I haven’t mindfully thrown it through the window.

Needing: Pay day to come along just a little more quickly this month.

Smelling: Penhaligons Hammam Bouquet

Wearing: Lazy clothes – and now thinking what I should wear for the massage... oh the worry!

Following: Not sure now the Tour de France has finished. Will have to totally rethink my evenings L

Noticing: How fresh everything smells after the rain – see, looking for the positives..

Knowing: These two days will fly past and I will not do half the stuff I want to do. But that I need to appreciate some slower time and things that don’t get done will just have to wait.

Thinking: Trying not to..... being present in the moment!

Feeling: Mostly chilled and relaxed and quite happy.

Bookmarking: Yoga stuff and mindful stuff and things that inspire me.

Opening: Actually trying to resist opening another book until I have finished the ones I have started.

Giggling: At the weather – no point being too upset by it. At least I won’t have to water the garden. Again....

Well – that’s where I’m at right now....

I love the weekend!

Blue skies - hooray.

It’s Sunday afternoon already – how did that come around so quickly?

I’ve had a weekend of mostly pottering about which has been blissful. Saturday started with me wandering up to the village hall to partake in an hour of yoga. I have discovered the most fabulous class right on my doorstep and first thing on a Saturday morning is just perfect for me! It’s also been really nice to reconnect with some other ladies from the village. Since I stopped working at the village pre-school to take up full time work in Oxford I have missed the contact with other villagers – I rarely visit the pub (honest, guv) and have not yet taken the radical step to becoming a fully paid up member of the local WI and so opportunities to be social are fairly limited (also, I am not all that sociable – another flaw in my plan!) But the yoga is great, physically and socially. I am feeling the benefits in supplementing my own morning practice with something more structured and it’s great to have some feedback on ways I can improve my positions. I am not yet able to put my legs behind my ears but I am a lot bendier than I was a few months ago :)

I have been working hard to tame my magazine addiction – I am still checking out the mag stands but am not buying! What a step forward. I have also made headway with the vast collection I have at home, sorting some out to recycle, passing some onto people I think might enjoy them (and not be tempted to hoard them) and I have even uttered the words “just recycle them or pass them on if you don’t want them” instead of “have a flick through then GIVE THEM BACK (please).” It’s been hard but I feel better for it. Honest.

Some of my treasures - probably rare and very valuable!

I have caught up with household chores and checked out some blogs. I have started a new mindfulness book which is proving better than Dummies (thanks Claire!) and today saw some more work in the garden. Well, I started focussed enough, pruning the raspberry canes and weeding in the fruit cage. But then I got waylaid playing Time Team. This basically involves finding ‘treasures’ and then making up preposterous stories about what the small fragments of pottery/china/whoknowswhat could have been. As our house is on the site of a 14^th century chapel there is the very real possibility that some of the fragments are actually something interesting. As I have no real knowledge of archaeology other than Time Team my wild guesses are probably far off the mark. I would imagine many of my treasures are, in fact, 20^th century Woolworths. But it’s a fun game nonetheless. In my head.

To top it off, there have been some glimpses of real sunshine this weekend too – and I am loving how this seems to lift everyone’s spirits. My friend Kathy bought me some daffodils and I have been admiring their cheery yellow loveliness and can’t wait to see more as they flower in my garden. I’d love to hear about what’s been making you happy this weekend! 

Meaningful and Mindful

It seems like an age has passed since my birthday and I feel I am embracing 42 with positivity and fresh insights.

My blog ‘confession’ drew more love and support than I could ever have imagined and I feel very blessed to have wonderful people in my life – thank you to all of you!

 

I didn’t tell you that I had treated myself to a massage on my birthday. I had in my head a relaxing and pampered hour and a half, ha! The lovely lady that supplied my treat found what she could only describe as some of the hardest knots in my shoulders that she’d come across for a long time! She kindly asked if she could ‘work them out’ - ‘go for it’ I replied, still on a drift of scented oil and candles. OMG – it hurt. Quite a lot. And the next day. And the day after that too. But it was a lesson to me that I am clearly keeping quite a lot of tension in that area. I feel so much better now and I have been making a concerted effort to do some yoga stretches every day and to relax my shoulders every time I feel them hunching (which seems to be every 5 minutes)

 

I have also been reading a lot about mindfulness and thinking that this is definitely something which I need in my life. I have done a little meditation in the past and it now feels like the right time to revisit and try it again. I have been faithfully trying out some of the exercises in this book but I am finding some harder than others. Trying hard to explore feelings like anger from a mindful viewpoint having just been cut up by a thoughtless driver is tough – and meditating on the bed late in the evening just leads to sleep! But each experience is a learning opportunity and I am embracing it as best I can.

 

I have continued to go to the gym but decided last Sunday to have a run in the proper outdoors. It was chilly and wet but I am so glad I made the effort. Highlight of the run was seeing a beautiful kingfisher flashing past me along the stream. I haven’t seen one of these for a couple of years and this was a really special moment which made the mud and rain worthwhile and meaningful.

 

Photography has taken a bit of a backseat with everything else but I am determined to get inspired again. In the meantime I have asked if I could share this fabulous photograph of a kingfisher taken by a very talented friend of mine called Simon Ellis. Please do check out more of his work here and here and tell him I sent you!