welsh hills again

I love walking.  The simple act of putting one foot in front of another always calms me, cheers me and makes me engage with the world outside me and stills the chatter of my internal world.  One of the great things about living here is that you can walk straight from the door into countryside that people would travel miles to find.  I used to walk in cities too, pounding the streets at dusk when you can look through newly lit windows into other people's lives.  I still like that but I love the fact that here I can walk out of the door and straight into the green world. I have been here by myself for the last couple of days as Ian was working at our son's house in Manchester.  I am still catching up from our week away with the family, washing and ironing and gardening and shopping.  It was a glorious day here yesterday and as I trudged in from the car with bags to unpack I suddenly thought that rather than sit down with a cup of tea as a break I would walk...

Well as we are now on week three of the new way of eating (not to be  called a diet as that sounds as if the intention is to lose weight when my intention is not to be hungry!) I thought I would take stock of what I have been doing and what I think about it. Firstly and very clearly, having given up bread and wheat products is having a definite and good effect on my wellbeing.  In some ways I am quite sad about this as I love bread and baking so in a contrary way I was rather hoping that giving up bread would make no difference.  Not so.   There is not much doubt that my IBS is much better on a wheat free diet.  That is a bit ironic since I didn't decide to give up wheat with an eye to improving the IBS  but more because it seemed possible that it might help with hypothyroidism.  I have no idea what sort of impact it is making on the thyroid issue but there is no doubt at all that it is helping my gut!  Hi ho.  I will have to keep the ve...

Every now and then I realise I have been accomplishing things, almost accidentally, not in a ticking things off a list sort of way.  I look around and, amongst all the undone things and the half done things, I find that something has actually been finished almost without my noticing.  So here is a celebration of July's accidental accomplishments. At the beginning of the month I made elderflower cordial, just catching the flowers at their best. I took cuttings from the scented leaf pelargoniums and all but one took.  Now they are in bigger pots and flowering. This one is a cutting from Attar of Roses which is suddenly throwing up a larger and more dramatic flower than its parent.  I have been nurturing this one. New pots have been bought and planted up. Little jacket for younger daughter's new baby, due very soon, is growing by the day. Old oilcloth which has been relegated to outside use was brought out and made into a new kneeler for th...