Month: April 2019

The leaves are beginning to colour and prepare to drop off trees, unpruned roses are developing hips, the heads on Sedum Autumn Joy have definitely gone past dark red and are now fading……………………meaning Autumn has arrived – and even though we will hopefully, have some fantabulous sunny days ahead of us, with the lowish overnight temps we’ve been having recently it’ll soon be warmth from the heater, woollen blankets on the bed and goodbye to the cotton cellular ones for a while.

I hadn’t planned do much yesterday ‘cept potter about so after looking round the garden and adding to my notes about what to move during the winter I actually managed to get out for a walk.

Our street is bounded by 2 main roads, I can make my way up one of them, use a particular street to cross the top to the other and then come home….a distance of over 2.5kms.  I can reverse the direction and go the other way or walk various streets in the middle, changing it about a bit so I don’t get fed up.

Some days in the past I would walk the ‘boundary’ twice making it a substantial (for me) 5kms and as we live in the foothills of the Dandenongs these roads are not level so there’d be a bit of an aerobic workout going on at the same time.   Then ‘the back’ happened – least said about that the better apart from walking is something I’m just beginning to enjoy again.

It was a late decision yesterday to start out when I did, and even tho’ it wasn’t cold (as in coats and ‘ats needed) the skies were grey and wet looking (see photo above) so taking the brolly along was a good decision!  Got as far as the ‘cross over road’ near the roundabout on the main road and the heavens opened up.

That corner is actually the 1km mark so a quick turn around and heading downhill for home with the brolly sort of keeping me dry made it 2km for the day.  Let’s just say, small as that total was, after not doing much walking over the hot summer we just had that was the longest distance in a while – apart from that recent day in the city……when The Golfer walked the feet off me 😎

Here’s hoping we have a wet Winter, the ground is so dry and plants are suffering.  As I scooted round the back of the house and up onto the deck I’m sure I heard the garden said ‘thank you’ for the small downpour even tho’ I wasn’t too impressed.

It’s taking me a while to get used to the ‘different ways’ of the new GP’s practice I moved to a little while ago.  Receiving a text reminding me to make an appointment for a flu jab came as a surprise;  I’d never experienced reminders before, had always been left to my own devices where things like that were concerned.  It made me wonder if this was the way of the future??

During one of my initial appointments earlier this year I mentioned that Mr Insomnia had been visiting again and that age old problem I have of sometimes feeling very tired, weary and very cranky had returned.

‘Before we do any blood tests to see if there are any underlying problems tell me about your sleep patterns’ my lovely new Dr asked.  ‘I wake at all hours of the night and find it hard to go back to sleep.’  ‘Maybe you need a sleep study’ she said, and asked if I kept noting the time on the clock.  Because that will make sleeplessness seem worse than it is.  

So then we talked about various methods to ‘supposedly’ ensure a good nights sleep.  You know, slowing down earlier in the evening, warm drink, warm bath/shower, close off all electronic stuff.  Things we’re all familiar with.  She didn’t quite go as far as this though  – 

but did ask if I slept with an animal.  Then there were tears as I told her, no, our last one Kiera had been gone for nearly a year.  ‘You know some of us get stress relief from close contact with pets, cats especially’ – tell me something I don’t know I laughingly told her.

As she was printing off the pathology request form I did tell her about the sleeping habits of the one who shares my bed 

Oh, I don’t have an answer for that problem apart from make sure your spare bed is ready for when his snoring wakes you or for you to ask ‘him’ get a sleep study done 🙂

This is what greeted me on opening the blinds yesterday.

A cool start to the morning with a Chicken Little sky that definitely looked as though it was falling – not dropping acorns but low foggy cloud lol

Oh this looks like it’s going to be a Chair – Book – Coffee – Morning 😊

Wanting/needing something different to sink my teeth into I had a little think and up to the plate stepped Peter Pan!

Discovered lurking in my iBooks whilst I was doing a tidy up/ clear out on the iPad……. you know, that cull you do when you realise all those things you ‘saved’ weren’t really that necessary after all.  Articles you kept to read later, patterns you were going to knit sometime, timetables that have now changed….get the picture.

Years ago someone put me onto a site called Project Gutenberg (gutenberg.org) where you are able to download books – as in old classics and the like – for free.  It’s amazing what can be found there.  Anyway, at the time I had an interest in children’s literature, particularly books that for some reason I’d never read as a child, and this was my chance to have them at my fingertips without waiting for a library hold to appear.  Some may go – some may stay. We’ll just have to see how I feel.   Like the crockery in the laundry cupboard, they don’t take up much room and they’re always available if I want/need them lol

So yesterday I spent a little time with Peter, Tinker Bell, Wendy, John and Michael.  Also Mr & Mrs Darling and the big Newfoundland dog Nana they employed as a nurse (nanny)

A bit like Alice in Wonderland – an old book I ‘read’ for the first time last year – it’s Total Fantasy!

I haven’t read too much yet but I’ve ‘turned’ page after page enthralled yet mystified…..first it’s sweet….then it’s sour.

…..So he told her about the beginning of fairies…..…“You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”
“And so,” he went on good naturedly, “there ought to be one fairy for every boy and girl.”
“Ought to be?  Isn’t there?”
“No, you see children know such a lot now, they soon don’t believe in fairies, and every time a child says, ‘I don’t believe in fairies,’ there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.”…..

And then there were The Lost Boys!

……“Who are they?”
“They are the children who fall out of their perambulators when the nurse is looking the other way. If they are not claimed in seven days they are sent far away to the Neverland to defray expenses. I’m captain.”
“What fun it must be!”
“Yes,” said cunning Peter, “but we are rather lonely. You see we have no female companionship.”
“Are none of the others girls?”
“Oh, no; girls, you know, are much too clever to fall out of their prams.”…..

Excerpt From: J. M. Barrie. “Peter Pan.” iBooks.

I didn’t get too far because by mid morning nature had changed her mind and this was what was to been seen outside the window 😎  There were some garden jobs needed doing and this was a good day to do them!

And here we are on a very dark Monday morning.  With a bit of luck today will be pleasantly warm (26c/78f) sunny and dry as will the rest of the week – or so the weather man says.

But back to Peter and Wendy and what’s on my mind…….I’m wondering do you think I’ll read too much into it reading as an adult…..is it a child’s story best read ‘to them’ so the words can be absorbed giving their imagination and reasoning time to work….rather than them read the story themselves and miss a lot.

It’s nearly brekkie time now, porridge, yogurt with fresh strawberries and a nice cuppa tea this morning.  The Golfer will be off out ‘you know where’ so I’ll settle down later (or maybe even earlier) and read a bit more in the sunshine  😎

What are you planning to do this Monday- have you read any children’s books such as Peter Pan as an adult, through different eyes?