Author: Sarah

No time to lose. No, time to lose. Make time to stand and stare.... Did you see that?

Keeping Young at Heart

On Thursday I swam in the ‘Young at Heart’ session. The session is for OAPs, disabled and those who are over 50. As you may remember I fall into the latter category. Just.
All well and good.

The pool wasn’t too busy: I went in as the Toddlers and their Mums came out, along with the rope that divides the shallow end from the rest of the pool. I was in the water and ready to go at three minutes to three, and in there with me were two men doing plodding lengths, one with his specs on doing only head-up breast stroke, while the other alternated between breast stroke and crawl, plus there were three women in various Delphinium coloured costumes with Marigold hats and another man in a floating device with two carers. Continue reading “Keeping Young at Heart”

Is it Mothering Sunday?

It did not start well.
Scout woke late (my fault?)and had to get ready to get to school for an event (preparation for Duke of Edinburgh Award). I had forgotten to put the bread maker on last night and flew out of bed in a panic. There was a flurry of activity, entailing me cooking some of that old standby ‘the part-cooked French stick’ from the freezer and packing a ‘kit lunch’ (ham and cheese in a plastic container as the bread was too warm to assemble into a sandwich immediately) while  intermittently calling upstairs to check he was still getting ready. Overnight guest was dispatched home, a bag was thrown together, a few more cross words were exchanged and then the lift arrived. Continue reading “Is it Mothering Sunday?”

Birdlife

Yesterday morning we had two unexpected visitors. I saw them as they hesitantly and delicately came around the patio just outside the dining room – all prettily dressed in fancy feathers and looking as though they expected breakfast. Very different to our usual breakfast visitors, the rooks.

My camera is still missing, so I have borrowed an image for illustrative purposes! Continue reading “Birdlife”

Were you April fooled?

I was.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when a patient’s sister jumped out at me from behind a door, but I wasn’t fooled for long by this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12932043

nor this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/apr/01/april-fools-day-round-up

or this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9442000/9442861.stm

What about you?

DECISION TIME – can wait no longer

The photo competition closed officially yesterday lunchtime, but given the fact that OZ had said he would be posting something and is currently suffering Lupine Influenza I thought I’d give him some leeway.

Sadly he has not posted, and the number of photos submitted remains low: only four this time.

(Have I somehow jinxed it all by setting such defined parameters? Maybe it was the time frame? (I had said only photos taken during the period of the competition – was that too harsh)

Anyway, Continue reading “DECISION TIME – can wait no longer”

Spring Fever for O Zangado

Spring Fever

I know where the ivy climbs
while lords and ladies
drop in from the fields
and rambling brambles
with nettles entangle.

I notice the goosegrass
clambering through
the Japanese Quince
and see the forget-me-nots
competing with peony shoots.

And I smile wearily
at the dandelions
(with their long tap roots)
as they grin at me knowingly
from their position of strength.

But from where I sit
with the scent of the Daphne drifting
over me I see tulips and cherry blossom
lit up in the Spring sunshine.
I pull on the gardening gloves.

This year I will win.
It has only just begun.
This year a little at a time
the battle between nature
and nurture will be mine.

PS this is not new, only lightly pruned, so it may not qualify for OZ poetry competition

Twitchy on Sunday Mornings?

I’m not a twitcher, not really – but I am interested and my friend, Craig who helped me with the swift boxes had offered to lead a walk this morning helping a group of us identify birds by their calls.

“We’re meeting at 10am,” he said, “at the top of the lane. But don’t forget that  is will be an hour earlier body clock wise.” Craig has a wonderfully measured approach to life. He considers things and speaks with gentleness and authority.

Now I’m not an early riser, if I don’t have to be – and the weekend is catch up time – but I really thought 10 am on a Sunday morning, even though it would feel like 9 am wouldn’t be too difficult.
I hadn’t taken into account Cycloman’s schedules. Maybe because I hadn’t actually been told them?
On Friday a colleague asked about his cycling plans this weekend: would he be doing the Islip one? I didn’t know.
So when he arrived home on Friday I asked. Continue reading “Twitchy on Sunday Mornings?”

‘Young at Heart’

I suddenly realised that my pledge to swim 1000 lengths with Swimathon, to raise funds for Marie Curie Nursing has been rather neglected over the last few weeks- though a combination of factors (not least of which is the garden) – and that in order to complete the self-imposed challenge I have to get a wiggle on. Continue reading “‘Young at Heart’”