Feest Isolation Days –19 February 2021
It’s pouring here! The sort of wake you up in the night it’s so loud rain. The garden will be swamped with water and country walks will be a mud bath. Staying on the indoor bike and the Pilates mat for a bit! Our Wednesday night Pilates has become a feature of Lockdown and therefore a feature of our life. Lockdown being the place where our life currently is spent. We’ve moved up a few notches in Pilates routines lately. Using a Swiss ball, a theraband and small weights means we are challenging our muscles even more these days. Not bad for a couple of oldies! Our instructor is thirty-five and does the hour of exercises with us. We are pretty limber I’d say! The clue is to start simply and build up. After all this time it’s amazing what we can do! Core strength and stability is something to keep working on. When we are in New Zealand we go to the studio, now that we are home the studio has come to us. Another keeper for post lockdown for certain!
Boris has announced a competition for kids! Over half term he’s encouraged kids to draw something they are thankful for. There are two groups, the under 11s and the under18s. The winners will be displayed at Downing Street. I’m not sure who the judges are, but it’s great to know that someone at Downing Street has come up with a good idea for kids! They upload their entries to a website and everyone is encouraged to participate. Maybe they ought to have a second competition for writers. I couldn’t draw for nuts at that or any age, but I can write! Maybe I’ll send that suggestion in. Writing about something you’re thankful for. Now that opens up a few possibilities!
I keep a journal. Not every day but certainly most weeks. So often it expresses what I’m thankful for. There is so much! For the moment, heat and warmth are high up on my current list.
It’s snowing in Texas! This rare occurrence has caused havoc. It’s also enabled President Biden to help them out with FEMA funding. This is the state whose leadership only a few weeks ago was trying to stop his election. A state whose power supply is not on the national grid and therefore unregulated. The Governor and his fossil fuel buddies placed the blame for the outages on the Green New Deal saying it was responsible for the problems – causing frozen wind turbines and solar plants to seize up. Only 13% of Texas energy comes from these sources, Blame anyone but the real culprits seems to be the plan. Some mills were frozen, but there wasmuch more power loss from freezing and other problems in the generators! The natural gas pipes were frozen, because the suppliers refused to spend the money to make them reliable. Power (of the electric variety) is controlled through the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. Seems one thing they aren’t is reliable. Maybe they should have a word with their friends in El Paso. Their electricity isn’t part of the stand alone electric power grid in Texas but are part of one of the three grids in the States, so they did not suffer the problems of the rest of Texas. .
Biden instantly made sure help was on the way to the people of Texas. Will they remember this in the spring?
There’s a lot to be thankful for! As I slide onto my Swiss ball I’m grateful that I can stay on it for a minute or two longer than I once could. There was a time when that wouldn’t have been possible. Life is full of things to be grateful for! What’s top of your list today?
Stay safe. Enjoy!
With love,
Kathy x