Feest Isolation Days – 2 September
September! It’s as though the calendar knows. Somebody told the trees it was time to start to drop their leaves. And the temperature to plummet. Summer is behind us. Now we’ve got Autumn and Winter to look forward to.
September always seems like an even better time to make new resolutions than New Year. Maybe it’s that hang over from the start of school all those years ago. Great to get back to it with friends and possibilities to learn more new things! Now with months to come of more indoor focused routines, taking stock and making a plan for the cosier times ahead feels important. My plan includes a lot of writing this year. These paragraphs daily (except weekends) for a start! The exercise bike and road bike will get a lot of use. And Pilates! Having just finished my one to one Pilates with Danni in Auckland this morning, I have no doubt this is a routine that will be continued.
There are a few other plans. I love a good course to keep my brain active. This year it’s a six week course on “learning the essentials of how to activate positive experiences, prolong and enrich them, and then heighten their absorption into emotional memory”. This helps in the management of stress and dealing with life’s challenges. Who doesn’t need to learn latest tips for that? The chap who is delivering the course is Dr. Rick Hanson. I like his no nonsense style. I did one of his longer courses awhile back and learned a great deal. Never too old to learn new things! https://www.rickhanson.net/teaching/ What are your plans for the coming months? Time to think them through?
Covidiots! A new word that hopefully we won’t have to use too often over the next months. It especially applied recently to some people on a plane from Zante in Greece to Cardiff. There were people not wearing masks, or if they did, hanging them about their chin. Sixteen people were infected and two hundred people are now isolating. Two hundred people on the plane? Doesn’t sound promising does it? The covidiots are out there. Be careful!
Who knows how we will socialise over the colder months in these covid times? Will we still be happy to have one couple at a time in the dining room? Will the winter mean more illness around? These are issues we will all have to grapple with.
We had our first meal outside in the last days of summer during our recent stay cation. It was a stunning day. There was a little bit of rain but we were in an outside garden with a big wide umbrella keeping us from the showers. The Village Pub at Barnsley (that’s actually its name) is one of those wonderful English finds that keeps you coming back for more. Located in the Cotswolds, it nestles in the middle of the village between pretty stone houses with their lovely gardens. The food is excellent and for the first time since March a chef cooked for us, the waitress waited on us and somebody else did the washing up! Talking to strangers at the next socially distanced table was fun. Having moments with other people at other tables a long way away was also part of this rare new experience. The weather was kind enough to allow us a walk after the meal. No rain and perfect blue skies. Bliss! A memorable wedding anniversary.
We were meant to head to Hay on Wye the next day, but the weather had other plans. The winds were ferocious and the bridge we would have crossed to get to Wales was closed in both directions. Instead, we stayed at home and leisurely prepared for our forty-eight hour trip. I have to admit as I packed my suitcase I got a tear in my eye. The loss! All those trips we haven’t had this year, or aren’t going to have, or can’t have for now. Once I got over my sadness at what hasn’t been, I was able to enjoy what was to come. A suitcase packed! A car stuffed with our needs for the next few days! Fortunately, we were able to shuffle along our stay an extra day so the storm merely shifted our plans a bit. Covid times mean more people even in the most remote places so finding a little used road and running into a flock of sheep – literally, as this video shows- was a delight!
Those sheep were not socially distanced!
Until next time! Enjoy!
Love,
Kathy x
Very courteous Welsh sheep. If they had been told I am sure all would have been wearing masks!
Such fun running into them! It was a standoff for a bit. We couldn’t go back and they were not moving! Kx