Week 6 of Lock Down
April 2020 Week 6 Lock down
We’re now in week 6 of lock down and how are the fitness routines going … erm not at all.
I’m booked in to do a work out with my daughter on zoom. Shannon is in Vancouver and it’s her friend who is taking the HIIT class, 6pm our time and 10am Canada time. I also want to make more time for yoga again. I was doing yoga classes 3 times a week at Rodney Fitness Centre with and somehow my practice has lapsed. This week I resolve to change that!
There have been lots of walks though, so that’s good as I don’t normally have time for daily walks. We are lucky to have lovely walks in the hills near us, some of them I’ve never been up before, preferring old favourites. But these are my new favourites. West Dron Hill and the ancient Cup-marked Stone. Balmanno Hill and Edmund’s Grave Cairn – both lovely hills with pre-historic scheduled monuments atop them.
I completed a mindfulness course with futurelearn called Demystifying Mindfulness, based at Leiden University with Chris Goto-Jones. I really enjoyed it, including guided meditation and the philosophy and science behind mindfulness. On the back of that, I have just started the Science of Wellbeing with coursera, based at Yale. Both these courses are free which is great.
Iona is still baking and I’m still eating. Jake made some sourdough bread and pizza. Alannah is playing the flute like it’s going out of fashion. I love it, our own little flautist in the family, treating us to Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, Lion King and lots of classical stuff too.
My parents are in the village, and my mum is approaching her 90th birthday in August, with a big family gathering planned (we have a big family!). Not sure if that will go ahead or not. In the meantime we’re taking them food and keeping our distance. Occasionally we may have a glass of wine in the garden, miles apart with us taking our own glasses so she doesn’t have to touch them.
For someone who normally goes out every single day, either to the village or into Perth, she is finding the self-isolation difficult, so a little bit of company – albeit at a distance – is very welcome to her and crucial to keep her anchored.
Work on The Strip continues. Not one but two home-made polytunnels now grace The Strip. The path is pretty much complete with red chips stolen from the driveways of the lodges. Some stuff has been planted. Some died. Some seedlings survived to the transplant stage. Then some died and some survived.
Looking back at the photos on the last blog, It’s great to see the progress we’ve made. Sometimes when you’re plodding on with the head down, it seems that little progress is being made.
Here are some before and after pics:
We’re taking it in turns to cook and we’re eating together and not falling out!
We had John’s birthday last week and had a picnic lunch, then played games outside. Then a lovely birthday dinner at night outside while we face-timed Shannon in Vancouver. The haul of presents was paltry but this was not important – as I kept reminding the birthday boy.
Since we closed, we had to cancel so many bookings and have moved them to a later date. It’s an ongoing process, contacting people as their planned visit becomes more imminent. Bear with us, we’ll get round to you …
We’re all trying to stay positive 🙂
