The sun shines at Capel Manor

Isn’t it lovely that the sun has finally come out? I don’t like the weather too hot, but so long as I have a nice breeze, I am very happy that it is bright and dry.

So where to get a nice breeze? Well, obviously not in my office. Even with the window open. So we have been having little days out.

A couple of weeks ago was the first warm spell, and we decided on the spur of the moment to have a walk around Capel Manor, which is not that far from us.

Capel Manor is not just a set of lovely gardens, it is a horticultural college, so there are lot of interesting landscape projects, rebuilds of old gardens, and general changing about that make it worth going to on a fairly regular basis.  (They have a good gallery of images at their website. Gives a good idea of what you will find.. but of course it changes all the time)
I have my favourite bits of course, but it is very relaxing to just wander around looking at what is in bloom, imagining how things might work or not in my own home, thinking what kind of garden I would have if money and space were no object…

The new Vincent Van Gogh garden is probably my favourite this year, pretty informal Provençal plantings around a deep yellow house, heavily influenced by Van Gogh’s paintings.

There is a row of ideas for front gardens that is quite exciting too, lots of hard planting here, the students have obviously been working hard.

The latest project is the Old Manor House garden, very new and bleak looking at the moment, but I guess it will age and mature and look as though it has been there for ever.

The lawns and the carp pool finished off the afternoon, and as it was a week day it was blissfully empty. The carp are terribly friendly, I presume they are fed all the time, as they come to nose and see what is happening if you stir the water.
 
Wouldn’t it be nice to have gardens outside the back door just like these…

Sunshine Superman

Waaaaaay back when, on a very grey damp February morning, I woke up to find that Jaydubblah of Just Jotting Along had been very kind and awarded me a Sunshine Award with the proviso that I would blog more...

oops....

Well more is subject to personal view I suppose, so this is now my more.

Anyway.. I was delighted.  The day was grey, I was feeling a bit despondent, and the thought of a Sunshine award was perfectly lovely. So thank you very much Janet, for the thought and for cheering me up that day.

There are rules attached to the Sunshine Award apparently...although they are pretty simple:

•  Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
• Pass the award onto as other bloggers -  as many as you think deserve it.
• Link the nominees within your post.
• Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
• Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

So now it is my turn and so I am passing this along to:

Whimsical Wife
The Barefoot Kitchen Witch
Meemalee's Kitchen
and
with Knife and Fork

Now I hope they won't think this too twee... but the thought is there. They - all of them - DO bring a bit of sunshine into my life, and I hope they take this award in the spirit it is given .  Mwaah.

Catch up time...

So that's April Fools Day over and done with. 

I was going to report on my progress on Thursday but then I saw the date and knew you would think I was joking..

So let's see...

Writing:  

Novels are static.  Nil movement. Not being entered for Strictly Come Dancing this year. 

This blog likewise. Oops. But at least I'm remedying that a bit today.

Foodie blog however has actually taken on quite a nice shape.   Look  Nice even though I do say so myself.
And I've added another wee mini blog on Posterous for the bits that just take my fancy but don't merit a full write up. Here it is... It's part of the Greedy Piglet family. 

Move more:

Well I did have the first flamenco lesson and loved it. But as I said my lovely teacher Sandra was away on tour until March, and then managed to badly hurt her foot so she is still not up to teaching at the moment. So that has pretty much died a death at the moment.  Maybe later in the year. 

I can't get to grips with the idea of going to the gym instead, I went and looked around one local council run one (to take advantage of my Over 55 special rate) but to be honest it just wasn't as nice as it could be.  Needs more thinking about I reckon.

Eat better:

Now this has been more successful.  My Slimming World diet is suiting me admirably, and I have now lost the grand total of 1stone 7lb from my heaviest.  It is really starting to notice. Another half a stone and I get to buy new clothes :)

So my resolutions for Quarter 2 of the Improvement Year?

• Carry on blogging. No matter where or how, get some things in writing.
  Try if at all possible to fit some creative writing in. It is FUN . It is good for a person to have fun.
• Carry on losing weight.  My joints are really thanking me for it, and even my balance is improving.  Long long way to go but each little pound is a pound in the right direction.
• Find a way somehow or other to get some movement in.

New Year Revolutions

The world revolves, one year ends and another begins, life rolls on, and I would like to roll with it.

So here is my list of new year revolutions. Is that a typo you ask? No, they are not resolutions, they are revolutions for they roll around again every year, no bigger, no smaller than the year before.

Yet hope springs eternal in the human breast they say (personally, I think it is just heartburn, but there you go...)

so, with no further ado, I do hereby state my intentions to:

Write more.  I enjoy writing, other people seem to enjoy my writing. So I will :

• push through with the embryonic novels.  
• write more on this blog
• write on my new Fantastic Food Blog A Greedy Piglet  

Move more.  I am a terrible couch potato.  I don't approve of running about, but my joints are not thanking me for it.  So what to do.. well, two thoughts here

• My birthday tomorrow - I will be 55. This aged milestone will give me reduced cost membership at my local gym.  Maybe the fact of the free sauna and the yoga and pilates lessons will wake me up to the joys of pounding a treadmill?
• I have an urge to stomp up and down and get aggressive.  So I have taken the plunge and booked my first flamenco lesson.  I decided to go privately and I've found a terrific teacher locallly (well, not tooo far away) Sandra La Espuelita who is a professional flamenco dancer .  Sadly (for me that is, not for her) she is away on tour until April, so it will be just the one lesson and then I will be stomping on the kitchen floor for a couple of months...

Eat better.  I decided to rejoin Slimming World as I said in an earlier post, and it is lovely.  Not only a good plan that seems to let me drop weight slowly but steadily, but a terrific bunch of people at the group I have joined.  

So let's try shall we.  Maybe this time for longer than it takes for the ink to dry on this page....