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.