Thoughts for the day...

 

Today has been... Sunny, frosty and glorious - I didn’t want to stop walking when I was out this morning and covered 7 miles in the end rambling round the local streets. We’ve had a number of days this week of grey skies and ceaseless rain - some areas in the north of the country are currently suffering extensive flooding, including Northwick where close friends of ours live. 

I’m feeling nostalgic about... normal routines. We made marmalade earlier in the week - usually we make a trip to the farm shop a few miles away for the oranges - this time we gratefully grabbed the last bag of Seville oranges from Sainsbury’s last weekend. Usually around now we’d be heading to Manchester for their annual beer festival - always a great weekend, friends, beer, lots of laughs... There would be other plans coming up too - more beer festivals, trips to Scampton for me watching the Reds carrying out their winter training... Instead there is none of that - and currently not even any certainty about when we WILL be able to do any of those things. 

I’m being inspired by... A podcast I listened to earlier in the week while walking too and from town (essential, before anyone huffs!) It was on the subject of “Staying calm during a pandemic” and featured host Dr Hazel Wallace talking with a Psychologist, Dr Emma Hepburn. Lots of good advice, suggestions of things to think about, and be aware of, and all delivered in a really balanced, thoughtful way. My favourite bit was the suggestion that trying to make tiny changes is far more likely to be successful than going for great sweeping overhauls of life as we are so often lead to believe we should be aspiring to. This is something that I have already started putting into place since the current lockdown started too, so it was great to have that given credence, as it were! 

Right now I’m loving... The yoga challenge I’ve been doing. It’s surprised me - the first few days my brain was doing a lot of sighing and eye rolling about the level of fluffiness in it, and yes, I’m still struggling a bit with some of the more wacko stuff. Over time though - I reached day 16 today - I’m starting to feel a lot more benefit from it. Some days count as a really good stretching session, while others, like today, are geared up to deep relaxation. Either way I’m enjoying it far more than I expected and it’s something I’m interested to carry on once the 30 days are up. 

Something small, but productive... one reason why I was so inspired by the podcast I mentioned was the bit about small habit changes, because as I said, I’d already made a start in that direction. When we got back from the Hebrides at New Year I committed to remembering to clean my teeth and cleanse my face every night, rather than just most nights. A silly thing, but significant - aside from the obvious benefits, it also contributes to a good pre-sleep routine, and that’s something else I want to work on. 

Robyn.

Thoughts for the day...

 Today...has been grey and drizzly all day. It was damp while I was walking this morning, damp throughout the day, and as far as I know still damp now. It’s been a day for snuggly, cosy winter jumpers, copious cups of tea, and p quite handily, considering lockdown, for staying indoors. 

I’m being inspired by... thoughts of Indian cooking following listening to a BBC Good Food podcast this morning. It was an entire 40+ minutes on the subject of Keema Pav - a spiced minced lamb dish served with soft, buttery Indian bread rolls. The lady who was enthusing about it was so descriptive about the flavours, textures and the spices involved that even while still listening my head was whirring with thoughts about similar types of dishes I could cook. Planning needed, I think! 

I’m feeling nostalgic about... The good old days of photo albums - or indeed the slightly more up to date equivalent of photo books. When we had our big decluttering session at the end of 2019/early 2020 we pulled all the various albums and books together and stored them in the same place so we knew where everything was, and inevitably that also lead to much looking through them and reflecting on old memories. I’ve got albums from my early days of vaguely serious photography when my main subject was speedway. Albums of shots taken at concerts. Albums of pictures from myself and MrEH’s first few years together including early visits to the Hebrides, and later photo books of Hebridean adventuring too. It’s been a fair few years since I put together a photo book though - in fact the last time would be my Red Arrows project “#CircusAtWork” from 2014 I think. It’s probably high time I did another one, isn’t it! 

Right now I’m loving... Multi-use headbands! Basically a tube of fabric with oh-so-many different uses. I use them while running in the winter as a headband to avoid the painful cold ears I get otherwise. They can be used as a hat, in place of a scrunchie for holding back a ponytail, as a scarf, and, relevantly at the moment, as a face covering. To my delight and after a bit of mind-over-matter and working up from very short times I have discovered that even I can cope with wearing one of these little beauties over my mouth  and nose while the air is cooler as it is at this time of year. So far I have managed in every situation I’ve tried it out in, although there have been a few panicky moments, and my hope is that I might be able to get myself comfortable enough with wearing a covering that by the time the weather starts warming up, I’ll be able to continue doing so rather than returning to my face shields. 

Something small, but productive... some time this afternoon cleaning up my email account. Junk Mail folder checked, repeated nuisance domains blocked, any obvious scams reported. Also a review of my inbox - unsubscribing from a few bits I am no longer interested in, which should reduce the amount of traffic in. This time round was half an hour or so, but 5 minutes each time I log in should do the trick from now on. 

How’s things been for you today? Feel free to use my Thoughts for the Day prompts on your own blog with a link back to here, and post in the comments to let me know so I can read your post too! 

Robyn