Home Thoughts from Abroad by Robert Browning Oh, to be in England Now that April's there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England - now! And after April, when May follows, And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows! Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge Leans to the field and scatters on the clover Blossoms and dewdrops - at the bent spray's edge - That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over, Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture! And though the fields look rough with hoary dew All will be gay when noontide wakes anew The buttercups, the little children's dower - Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower! Last month, April , hence the poem we were back in the home country. Not really a holiday. Stephen's Mum has been in hospital for the last four months ( on and off for the last year. broken hips, broken arm, broken leg, poor thing) So it was time to visit. It has been 12 years since Stephen was back, so it was about time ( my last visit was in '07). It was lovely to go back although the weather was just as I remember. Rain , rain and more rain. I think we only had a couple of dry days the whole time we were there. Some things never change. Left to right..Kevin,Karen,Janette,Stephen,Christine and Jane. It was nice to see family again. Stephen's sister Jane was over from South Africa so it was the first time the whole family have been together in 12 years. We had a great night out with them and it was great to catch up and do some  good  old fashioned reminiscing . Growing up as an only child it was fascinating to hear what they all got up to. Although knowing how the The Dodwell's are prone to exaggerate ( you've got to believe it) Im sure some of the childhood stuff was somewhat remembered slightly different to how it actually happened but it was good for a laugh. It made me realise how alike some of the siblings are . Stephen and Kevin ( his younger brother) have definitely got the same sense of humour and are both gadget guys...... if they could they would have a gadget for it. The girls?..........No, not going anywhere near that one, on the grounds that it may incriminate me. Regardless of what people say I DO know when to stop while I'm ahead. Just let me say I love Stephen's family dearly.......Phew I think I got out of that one. Bourne,Lincolnshire I miss England......there !............I've said it out loud. Up until now its never really been something that I have thought about a lot. But this visit did it for me. I was a tad homesick. I had forgotten how lovely England is. Even on rainy days the scenery can be quite breathtakingly beautiful. Water droplets (ok rain) falling on a mother duck and her chicks swimming on a village pond surrounded by stone built cottages really does stir the soul. The cosy atmosphere of a small rural town with its local shops and village pubs still exists. Having said that I know that I have a rather rosy view of my homeland. Things are tough in England and friends have sad stories of town centre shops going out of business and lack of jobs.  However it does seem cheaper to live there than I remember..... compared to here in Canada anyway. Cell phone charges are substantially cheaper as is wine and clothes. A good bottle of wine is only 5 pounds which is about equivalent to $5 in real spending terms. There are such a lot of places to shop, just way more choice....... Well thats the way I saw it anyway. It was funny at first  being berated with English voices at every turn and it needed a shake of the head  to realise that no , not everyone was  imitating the British accent . They actually were British. We really have been away too long..... Karen and Stephen Half a bitter and a lovely open log fire on a cold and damp day. Just what the doctor ordered. Our first week ( apart from visiting Stephen's Mum ) was spent doing some of the things we missed like........fish and chips...Mmmm theres nothing like a  chip butty.......tick.... and a good British pint in an olde worlde British pub....tick. Although Stephen got a little excited and spilt most of it before he'd even sat down. Toasted teacake was next on the list............tick..........oh and then there's Rowntrees fruit gums . I think we overdosed on them.......... tick........ there were quite a few other things we managed to tick off that list too. We did manage to get to see some friends but not for as long as I would have liked. There were also  friends I would like to have met up with but just didn't get the time . Maybe next time ?...... or they could always come over and see us in Canada.... now there's a thought  you guys.  So all in all a good trip..... Stephen's mum is doing fine. There is still some talk of another operation but we won't know more until she had her assessment in June. In the meantime she will be moving to  care home which we were lucky to see with the rest of the family while we were there. It's a beautiful place in Bourne where Karen lives so she will have family on the doorstep and close by too. The other news is ....... wait for it..... we will be moving again......Yes, yes, yes I know what you're all saying.......... He has been wanting to get 'back into' hotels again. I think we're done with being self employed( although I never say never) he wanted a 'proper' job again as he says. the job that came up is in Alberta as general Manager of a hotel in Vegreville..... or as I am calling it Vagrantville....... and I am getting told off as I write for calling it that....... but Nova Scotia Alberta is not. I love Nova Scotia ( maybe because  it is so much like England)  Stephen leaves tomorrow. (Saturday 12th.May) I will stay here until the house sells. Not looking forward to it. If I thought I was bored before I am certainly going to be bored now. The funny thing was that I have been trying to get a job since I have been here and just before Stephen got this job I applied for a job for what I thought was a few hours working in a dress shop. It turns out at the interview was for manager of the dress shop....... I thought the interview was a little intense for a few hours work. Anyway I got it but had to say no as it wouldn't have been fair to take a job knowing that I wasn't going to be around long.......... mind you who knows how long it will take to sell the house......Fingers crossed everyone. My cousin ( my only family really) is coming to visit soon I hope. I want her to see Nova Scotia before I leave and of course it will relieve the boredom for me .... method in my madness you see? So there may not be any more blogs for awhile as I write these on Stephens computer and I have an iPad and I don't know how to do the blogs my iPad. If anyone knows an easy way on the iPad  let me know please . Just to close a few extra photos of England in case you're interested.........

I'm Back

 I was in the Doldrums for awhile. However I  have managed to sail this ship into more buoyant waters. ..............and,  as someone once said , Robert Frost the poet actually............
               
            'In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on"


Anyway enough of the maudlin.............


So here I am, still a ' stay at home something or other' and as you have already gathered I'm still not quite getting to grips with it. Never the less I am getting better.


I have become a bit of a nature watcher. This basically means watching what goes on at the bird table from the comfort of the kitchen . Lets not get carried away here I'm not quite at the twitching stage, well unless it involves net curtains that is and I certainly don't have those.

It all started with asking Stephen to make a bird table for me at the beginning of winter. That would be July then? only kidding. As usual I was being Mrs Skinflint and wouldn't spend much money on one. So I trailed Stephen around Home depot until I had it all figured out. Two oblong plant trays and wood from the off cut bins. Less than $20.00 Hey Presto a perfect bird table. Well perfect in my opinion anyway.

I'm becoming quite obsessed with taking photos of all my feathered friends  and have even named a few. Thats how sad I am, naming the birds. Oh , and not just the birds, I also have ....... Cyril the Squirrel and his two buddies . It started with just Cyril but then word got out. 

I'm not going to bore you( well not too much anyway) with my menagerie so I will let the photos speak for themselves.




                                                                                                               


Here are the Jay family.... I have named three so far. Jayzee, Jaylo and JayR and there are five so any suggestions?

Jayzee and Jaylo

Woodyonetonn. The acrobat.

My favourites are the woodpeckers four to date.........WoodyOnetonn, WoodyTwoshoes, WoodyThreebee and WoodyFour. They also come in four sizes. Small,medium,large and grande and believe me Woodyfour is huge.

Woodytwoshoes.

Woodythreebee.

Woodyfour.

Last but not least. The pheasant family. I was going to name then Phylis, Phrank and Phred but I though that was going just too far.

In between of course we have the usual rabble. The starling ,crows ,chickadees and ground doves . But I don't mind the rabble now and again.

Rabble

One thing all of  this being at home lark has done for me (yes, I guess I have to admit, there is a  positive) is that it has given me  some time to get try and get fit. I really have no excuse for not being able to get into a fitness routine anymore. My problem always has been finding the exercise that I like and therefore can stick to it.


All the 'gurus' out there say, choose  something you enjoy. Yeah right? easier said than done.  It will probably not come as any surprise to people that know me that in the past I have tried almost every fitness 'fad' going ..... me....... get bored easily? Moi? 


Over the years I have been a jogger and even done several half marathons. I can honestly say that I never really liked jogging . Never got the buzz everyone talked about . I have done yoga,weight training and aerobics and  I'm sure there are  a few more activities that I have probably forgotten that I have tried too . In fact when I was in my thirties I had my own gym and taught both weight and aerobic classes. Figure that one out.

Oh, come on you didn't seriously
think I was going to put a picture
 of me exercising did you?

None the less  nothing really stuck but I always tried to do something on a regular basis. Be that as it may I think I can safely say that over the last five or maybe even 6 years I have really done nothing and its all catching up with me now. I hate to say this but getting old sucks...... Sorry, what I meant to say was that it's only as you get older that you realise how important your health l is. I mean when we're young we think we are indestructible don't we?No flab, no health issues no wrinkles well most of the time anyway. I sometimes think I was born worrying about this moment... the moment of truth.


Before leaving Mexico I had a cholesterol check done. Previous to Mexico I had had one done in Kelowna by default really and it came back high but I ignored it... after all I eat healthily..... well mainly. Anyhow back to Mexico. I was having a regular check done for my thyroid ( I have one every year, no big deal . Low thyroid is a fairly common problem ) and as usual Mexican doctors are very thorough and a full blood test was done and my cholesterol came back high. Wow that was a surprise . So high in fact that my doctor was seriously worried and put me on medication straight away saying that when I get to Canada I have to see a doctor straight away. The annoying thing about this whole thing is that the reason this all started was that I nagged Stephen to get his done because both his Dad and his uncle both died from heart attacks........ actually they both died in restaurants... the Dodwells love a good audience don't you know? Anyhow Stephen's count came back normal ( thank goodness ) and mine came back high.... go figure. One quick little story about my doctor who I might add is in his late 60's but is as fit as a lop ( don't ask what a lop is ) cycles, does marathons. Anyway I had an appointment the other day with him. So I described the problem and he looked at my notes and said that he knew exactly what the problem was and right on cue I asked 'what is it'....He cheekily said...... it's your date of birth. Ha , ha very comical.


Well the medication the Mexican doctor prescribed me gave me pounding headaches so I quickly stopped taking those and I went to see a local doctor here in Canada  last September.


I love my new doctor. He's a no nonsense kind of guy. None of that mamby pamby stuff ,  he gets straight to the nitty gritty.I'm sure he must have some Yorkshire blood in him somewhere. I had another blood test done and sure enough it was really high.You would think by now that I was getting the message, right? He asked all the usual questions then did some kind of calculation on a gadget and said that I have a 10% chance of a heart attack in the next 10 years. Fine, no big deal, I'll take that. By deduction he seemed to think that my high cholesterol could be hereditary . As far as he could tell the one thing I wasn't doing and needed to do was......... yes you guessed it ... exercise. He suggested 45 minutes walking at least five days a week. Then come back in March and do another check if it's not down then we'll consider medication. Suits me. The only thing was...............45 minutes five days a week.Oh please, I could feel boredom  setting in already. But I get it,  health is important  so if I want to stem the tide, I had better book my ideas up.


 One quick little story about my doctor who I might add is in his  60's but is as fit as a lop ( don't ask what a lop is ) he does stupid exercise like cycling and marathons. Anyway I had an appointment the other day with him. So I described the problem and he looked at my notes and said that he knew exactly what the problem was and right on cue I asked 'what is it'....and he cheekily replied...... it's your date of birth. Ha , ha very comical.


I began doing exactly as I was told. A daily walk at first. I was doing an hour a day from the house. This was fine for a couple of months and then   the inevitable happened.....yes, the B word reared it's ugly head and at the same time....... winter also put in an appearance  , snow covered the roads. So, what now?  I then happen to see a pilates class on tv so I recorded them thinking that on the bad weather days I would substitute walking for pilates. Well this lasted awhile but still wasn't working . So as I am now a fully fledged member of the local library ( everyone should join they have a lot more to offer than just books) I decided to see what exercise DVDs there were. Thinking I could try a few before I bought , hence not making the mistake of buying the wrong ones.......... I have a cupboard full of the ones that don't work . A bit like my make up basket actually.

I came across some DVD's called Walk at Home. So I thought I would give them a go and  to my surprise just loved them. You can start with one mile and build up to five. They were challenging but not over strenuous after all, all you needed to do was be able to walk... and..... no fancy dance moves or jogging required.Sounded good to me.


I am now hooked on walking... I have a pedometer on me all the time. 10,000 steps a day is the recommended target ( which is 5 miles) and considering we only do between 2,000 and 3,000 a day in our normal routine, it takes some commitment to fit in the 10,000.


I have now started putting together music on my iPod to create my own walk programmes that I can use indoors or out. Walking to music certainly helps to keep it interesting with the occasional dance step  thrown in ( dance steps for indoor use only) What do they say.... dance like theres's no one watching, sing like theres no one listening. Heaven forbid if their was anyone watching or listening. I still do the 5 mile dvd now and again too and occasional walks outdoors as well.  Don't think it's easy there are lot's of ways to up the anti if you feel like it. Power walking. Interval jogging but it's just not so difficult that you don't want to do it. It's my thing.... for now anyway.


Oh and if you think you couldn't  walk 5 miles a day..... My friend June in Alberta is 80 and she also has a pedometer on her where ever she goes. She does 10,000 steps a day at the local indoor track . Mind you she is quite an exceptional lady in many ways.


Sorry couldn't resist these....................

Woodytwoshoes.

Woodyfour. Doing what woodpeckers do.