Languid

I’m into the second week of Covid now. The rest of the family tested negative, so they’ve been out and about today. I tested positive again… we rang the number for info. It seems that it’s not uncommon to test positive for a while, but not be actually contagious. It comes down to symptoms – there appear to be contagious and non-contagious symptoms. I still have a bad cough, which means I should stay inside and rest for a few days more.
Caught up with some TV today. It’s the first day since last Tuesday that I’ve been downstairs for any length of time, and it was quite tiring. Most of my days have been stuck in the bedroom, which limits the scenic inspiration 😆
I took some photos of domestic details…

The sunset I could see from the window a few days ago… I’ve enhanced the colour, but it’s still not as beautiful as what I could actually see.

A hair clip I got many years ago. I don’t have enough hair to wear it now…

Random anklets.
Also, evidence of a lack of dusting.

The feather that guards my jewellery box.

Detail from the head of a muslin angel.

Heart sachets.

Bracelets…

…and my crumpled sheets.
I’ve been seeing a lot of them, so they may as well be bright.
🙂

We’ll see what tomorrow brings!

Published in: on April 21, 2022 at 9:35 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Hang On…

…I think I may have things the wrong way round. 😆

This is a YouTube clip I’ve watched quite a few times in the last few days.

Yes, I know it’s Easter.

I don’t really know why I watched this originally, but it makes me giggle. I posted a song for Good Friday, and there’ll be a couple more tomorrow (incidentally, the singer for those was the founder of this group 🙂 )

I’ve been navigating Covid since Tuesday night. I haven’t had much energy to be online (had to get my Babe to set up the laptop for me the other night, for something that needed to be done) My emails have been multiplying (got them sorted just now!), and I haven’t been doing anything, physically or mentally, strenuous. Just giggling at a musical tutorial on how not to make Christmas biscuits…

Maybe I’ve turned a corner today. The days before now have been spent isolated from the rest of the family. I haven’t felt like eating, and even drinking water has been difficult. I have had cups of tea and bits and pieces of food – it just takes a while. Sleeping has been upright, for breathing purposes, and most nights I’ve had the light on, alternating between reading and dozing. Today took a while to get into, but a lot of things are better 😀
I think there’s about three more days until quarantine ends.
Just off to watch YouTube…

Published in: on April 16, 2022 at 4:33 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Wondering About Wandering

So, my Biggest Boy and I have tested positive for Covid. Thankfully, my Babe and Sweetest Bean are negative, but our household is in quarantine.
We don’t seem to be too badly affected – just cough/sore throat/fever – and hopefully it won’t last too long.
I don’t get out much. This means that I tend to feel a bit useless – all the things that other people are doing are often things I can’t do anymore. I suppose the up side of today was that I spent the day reading without feeling like I should be doing something, but without the ability to do it. Lethargy and fever tend to reduce the day to just the basics.
When I was younger, I travelled to various places, and had the energy to pursue pretty much whatever I wanted to. These days, my travelling is mostly in my head. I still want to find out about the world! That’s why I read so much 🙂
Here’s a mug I got last week, to remind me of the journeys still to travel.

Published in: on April 13, 2022 at 10:33 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Two Old Ladies In An Ice Cream Parlour…

Still not feeling on top of the world, but also not like I’ve been hit by a truck. Maybe a glancing blow… 😆
I went into town the other day – the first time in a while. Meant to get to my favourite cafe, but ran into my Mum before I got there. We went across to the new ice cream parlour/cafe in town for a catch up.
You never know who you’re going to meet in the “big” city! 😀
I hadn’t had my breakfast yet, so felt it was a bit early for ice cream, but I enjoyed my coffee!
These days I trundle around town with my old lady trolley. We both parked ours by the table while we talked.

It was a nice little interlude, in a nice little place.

A lovely retro vibe…

…and not just ice cream! (There’s burgers, too.)

I eventually got to the library, where I checked out some books, and the newest of the little plasticine figures one of the librarians makes.
There’s a cute little penguin family.

There’s also a (hopefully) friendly orca.

I think I overdid it a bit – it was so nice to be out and about. I’m taking it easy again… at least I have a good stack of books to keep me company!

Published in: on March 26, 2022 at 9:30 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Of Dried Roses And Dancing Waves

My birthday was weeks ago now. Seems like years, in some ways… I still have a lovely bouquet of roses that I was given. They dried beautifully – even kept a bit of their colour.

Today, I am still recovering from some surgical procedures from last week that didn’t quite go the way they were planned. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I had to be woken up, and still need to go back at some point to get things done again.

I feel almost like the roses.
Dry. Past their best. A bit more fragile than they were.
Still functioning to create beauty, though.

After I was woken up, they tried to explain some of what had happened. As far as I understand, any future anaesthetic could be dangerous for me, and I need to warn medical staff if it’s needed at a later date. Also – I still have the original issues that prompted the whole thing…
I think that all this isn’t likely to affect my daily life, but sometimes I still feel the fear of possibilities. I pray to, and trust, God to hold my life, and to do what’s best. There’s still those moments, though, when I am alone in the darkest hours, and the bottom drops out of hope and light.
Just for a second.

In the last week or so, this has been the song I’ve been listening to –

There’s always room for dancing, however high the waves.
And remembering Who I have to fall back on…


Published in: on March 21, 2022 at 8:54 pm  Comments (2)  
Tags: ,

Medals, Ukraine And Hidden Books

I am enjoying a bit of cool weather at the moment, while listening to a CD of lost songs of St Kilda (the island, not the suburb/team…). We’re apparently in line for storms later on, so I’ll enjoy having the windows open for as long as I can! The heat we’ve been having has knocked me around a bit – I’ve generally felt like a weary, expanding ball of inflammation. I have not been able to do too much, so I was pleased to receive some more medals from the virtual races I’ve been doing. These were for shorter routes, which I used for various exercise activity.

Here are the backs –

And the bits that come apart –

At the moment they’re doing a Ukraine challenge. This one has no medal, so that all proceeds can go to help NGOs that are already working there.
I’ve also just signed up to another GISH (mini)Hunt, with proceeds once again going to Ukraine. It’s also a “book bash” hunt, a scavenger hunt for readers and writers – yay! 😀

What about the hidden books, I hear you ask?
I’ve been doing a bit of tidying and rearranging, in fits and starts…
For some reason this place gets dusty pretty much as soon as you look at it. I’ve tacked up some curtains over my bookcases in the bedroom. Hopefully that will keep the dust off my books for a bit. They hide my books, but they’re pretty. 🙂

I’ve got some hospital procedures next week that I’m (not) looking forward to. There are various preparations involved, but one of those will be making sure I have a substantial stack of (non-dusty!) books within easy reach during recovery. I’ll have to get to the library soon, and there’s a whole lot of books I’ve acquired recently but not had the time to read.
What more could I want?
😀

Published in: on March 9, 2022 at 11:01 am  Leave a Comment  
Tags: ,

Roses, On The Road

It was a big week last week – at least the last few days. I celebrated my birthday on a few of the days 🙂 , and there were other appointments to get to.
Unfortunately, this week has started off slowly, with fatigue and pain… there are still more appointments to get to in the next few days, but for today, I am resting.

One of my birthday gifts was a bouquet of roses, from a beautiful lady from church. They smelled lovely too!

❤

I’ve been too tired to even do much reading today (although I’ll try again later!), so I’m listening to a Home Free playlist.
They sing more serious songs beautifully, but today I was more in the mood for Fun 😀 – whether simply musical enjoyment,

embracing technology in the midst of quarantine

…or just a bit of 80s nostalgia!

I was going to question whether we really wore stuff like that, but then I remembered – not only did we, but somewhere out there, there is photographic proof 😆

I hope your day is pain free and full of energy.
But, if it’s not, I hope you can still hear some fun music in your heart…
❤

Published in: on February 8, 2022 at 3:33 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Picking Flowers

…or photos of them, anyway 😆

I’m back on the Centrelink treadmill, supposedly trying to find work. There’s lots of jobs for doctors. Or Uber drivers. Or maybe labouring of some sort…
I’m not much good anymore for 8 hour days, especially when you figure in travelling time as well. When I was younger I could work 16 hour days/6 days a week, hauling mail bags that were sometimes up to 25-30ish kilos. That was a long time ago.
When I told my job provider that I would find it difficult to do full time hours, they sent me back to Centrelink, who sent me off with medical forms for disability. Turns out I have a chance 😆 , although I’ve heard from others about how difficult it is to qualify.
I now have a (double) appointment for the doctor to go over the form with me. This is separate to the appointment I had already made with the doctor over something different, which meant I had to reschedule the appointment with Centrelink to discuss the form that would not have been filled in before the appointment that had been made initially. That rescheduling was surprisingly easy. Turns out Centrelink are more flexible than my doctor!
This morning I had another appointment added, this time for a hospital check up that’s been working its way up a referral list somewhere – I can’t even remember how many referral lists I’m on now.
I’m hoping to go out for my birthday next Friday, but we’ll see how much energy I have left!

Anyway – while I’m in a sort of holding pattern, I have time to share some photos of flowers that I’ve taken over the last few months 🙂

More flowers, but this time on the wall 🙂
(sometimes, this is how I feel…)

Hopefully in a few weeks I’ll start to see what’s growing…
❤

Published in: on January 28, 2022 at 5:10 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:

Proclaiming The Bling

I’ve got my first two medals from the virtual challenges I signed up for a few months ago. Basically, you sign up for a particular challenge, then log your walking/running/otherexercise on the app. You also plant a tree (or remove plastic from the ocean) every 20% of the distance along the way.
I have been using the challenges as motivation to move, in some way, each day – there are ways to convert things like shopping and housework into distance.
My first two challenges were the Trek To Petra, and the Flower Route through the Netherlands. Part of the fun is looking around the various places via Google maps, and you receive (virtual) postcards along the way.
Here are my beautiful new medals!

Here are the fronts – the bronze bit slides out of the Petra medal, and the windmill turns on the Flower medal.
Here are the backs.

I took advantage of the New Year sales to get some more.
There’s a 2022 “choose your own” challenge, which I’ll use to track my creative endeavours through the year. That’s adjustable, so I can add more “miles” as I go.
I chose two shorter routes for actual exercise – the Amalfi Coast, and the Berlin Wall. I’ll use various forms of movement and exercise to convert into miles.
My last choice is longer, and one I’ve wanted to do for a while. It’s a longer walk around Scotland. I held off on it because I didn’t know how I would manage the distance, but I’ve decided to use this one to track Bible reading (one chapter = one mile).
My first two were measured in kilometres, but I had to do this one in miles… the length of the challenge is 500 miles. And of course, each time I log distance for the day, this is what I’ll be singing in my head…

😀

Published in: on January 7, 2022 at 10:35 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags: ,

Waking Up To Dance

Why does it already feel like it’s halfway through the year?

Started a proper exercise regime today, rather than the bits and pieces I’ve been doing so far. There’s still scope to improve, of course, but I got down to the pool this morning, for the first time this year. Cooled down on this hot, muggy day. Rescued some dragonflies. Brought home some frangipanis.
I’ve been doing my prescribed exercise, but it occurs to me that freeform dance can be a good fill-in, do-anywhere type of movement. In my head, there’s still time to learn to become as graceful as a ballerina. My body tends to disagree… still, dancing doesn’t have to look good – just be…done!
Last year was spent “doing” stuff – there were time limits and schedules. Very enjoyable, but I didn’t quite get to do all the things I wanted to do to feel ready for this year…
Time to concentrate on the important stuff – to ask God each morning what today is doing.
And then –
Dance! 😀

Published in: on January 6, 2022 at 8:44 pm  Leave a Comment  
Tags:
« Older Entries
Newer Entries »