Year's End

 Hello Lovelies, I do hope you enjoyed this year's  unusual Christmas.

 Ours was most relaxing. Opening presents, cooking for one household only. Playing traditional games...it's the one day a year...except holidays sometimes....when I can get the family to all join in.

This was taken before the boys woke up on Christmas morning. I love setting the table, though as you can see it's modestly festive.

The evening saw us playing scrabble and it all suited me very well. I did feel sorry for the boys, who are used to enjoying a big family gathering on Christmas day. There's always lots of Uncle banter, hanging with their cousins and and attention from their Nanna. They are very fortunate.

Home is no hardship for me. Especially at the moment.  Most evenings you can find me in PJ's, catching up on my temperature blanket. Not long to go now. This one only uses weekly high and low temperatures to decide the colours, so it's not a big commitment. It is getting rather huge though!

We have been blessed with quite a few sunny days and I always try and make the most of our short daylight hours.

My festive hat had lost it's bobble. Time for a colourful replacement.

Why go for plain when you can wear a rainbow!

As well as walking I've been counteracting the festive baking and snuggling with a daily morning workout. I'm sharing this as I have to thank Lucy at Attic 24 for introducing me to Lucy Wyndham Read 

I just love these short and simple workouts. No getting on the floor...hurray

Lots have a beginner and intermediate option

And there are so many to choose from.

I do two every morning, always followed by the cool down stretch.

I really love the motivation Lucy WR brings, and her focus on health and wellbeing over appearance.

Mostly I love how effective these workouts are. Recently I had got quiet the "jelly belly" which I was accepting as an age thing, wrong!

After a few weeks I can really feel the difference in my strength and balance. I can walk through slippery mud and generally feel pretty steady on my feet...probably jinxed myself there I know!! 

I'm not catching myself leaning on the work surfaces in the kitchen and it feels so easy to get up from sitting on the sofa. As I'm post menopausal now I think it's wonderful to be able to reverse some of the natural muscle loss. The workouts are enough to make me pleasantly out of breath and a bit sweaty so I feel they must be helping tone up my cardio-vascular system  too....and we all need a healthy heart don't we.

I'm certainly not about to stop walking though, as I love it and feel it has many health benefits too. I'll  be challenging myself to walk 1000 miles in 2021.....though I have an idea to change that up a bit next year....more on that soon :0)

On Tuesday morning we woke to snow, so there was no stopping me going out for a walk as soon as I could!

Our garden looked pretty.

And so did the countryside.

There was just enough snow to make the world look magical

My favourite church in the snow...lovely.

So quiet, just eldest and I, listening to our creaky footsteps.

I couldn't find my gloves, in my hurry to get out, so I was wearing my wrist warmers, made ages ago and looking rather sorry for themselves. 

I've since made a new pair...and changed the design somewhat....I'll share them next time.

Wishing you a Happy New Year Lovely people.

My sincere hope is that 2021 sees the tide of virus infections recede enough for us to relax a bit and enjoy some of the simple pleasures we are currently missing. 

I do hope you are coping ok and managing to stay positive.

Jacquie x