Month: January 2013

January Small Stone# Fifteen

Posted on Posted in A River of Stones, January Small StonesTagged , , , , 21 Comments

Coughing my way home

A slightly strange stone today, nevertheless it was the observation of a possiblity of change for me. I have asthma. It was diagnosed around ten years ago, after many, many years of coughing! It isn’t severe, just irritating and must drive other people crazy. Sometimes in public places people will come up and offer me a glass of water, when I haven’t even registered that I’m coughing.

I have inhalers of course, but if I use them as prescribed I get a sore throat and oral thrush. So it’s a fine balance. There are quite a few things that trigger a coughing fit; aerosols, some perfumes, dust, things that have a bad smell, pollen, too much dairy etc, etc. I try to avoid exposure when I can.

A change in temperature, like leaving a warm place to go out in winter, is a real pain, especially when I rush to leave work each day. You know how it is, the freedom after a long day and you just want to go home as quickly as possible!

Recently I’ve tried a simple breathing exercise when I leave. It’s just inhaling through my nose and then exhaling through pursed lips – it’s supposed to slow breathing down. It works for about 200 metres and then I lose it. So today I invented my own version, breath in slowly through my nose (and very cold air hits me), then breath out through pursed lips – but in two stages – it slows me down more. I also walked a little slower than usual, so the walk took 20 minutes instead of fifteen.

Guess what? I made it home without a single cough. I’m hoping it isn’t a fluke, the next few days will tell.

January Small Stone# Twelve

Posted on Posted in A River of Stones, Old age, WritingTagged , , , , 11 Comments

I’ve just been out with the dogs and along the way I noticed an elderly lady in front of me. She made me think about luck, health and loneliness. Her clothes were an outlandish mix of brightly patterned leggings, old lady sandals and astrakan coat. Just as I caught up with he,r she stopped a young woman and asked her if she would pull her shopping trolley up to the traffic lights at the junction. I paused a second and caught her eye, eyes with those drawn on eyebrows and bright red lips, but she ignored me. She probably wasn’t as old as I had thought, but she was razzled and had a cigarette dangling. The young woman talked to her so I carried on, wondering if she got the help she needed.

Around the next corner was my lovely old man, https://lucidgypsy.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/a-contrast-of-elderly-men/ chatting to a van driver. It’s been a couple of weeks since I saw him, so I was relieved and asked how he was. He assured me he was fine and turned to the van driver saying ‘Hers boodiful’, I laughed and tutted at him and carried on. My last encounter was with another really quite old lady, with her dog, who stopped to talk to Daisy and Dido. I’ve seen her before, but only exchanged Good mornings. Today she wanted to chat so we started with the weather. She had a walking stick and told me how she woke on Christmas day, in agony with her knee. She is having knee cap replacement surgery on Tuesday coming and was quite anxious. I tried to reassure her with stories of friends who had similar work done and said I’d see her in a couple of months good as new. Brave lady, I hope she makes a good recovery.

These lovely people make me so aware of how isolated the elderly can be, but I really enjoy talking to them and I know it makes such a huge difference to their lives. They may not have as many opportunities for chatting as I do – or as you do! If you come across people who may be glad of a smile and hello, I hope you will. We will all be old one day, if we’re lucky.

Thursdays Windows Week 17 – Tetbury

Posted on Posted in England, History, Photography, TravelTagged , , , , , , 12 Comments

It’s  Sandra’s last week for Thursdays windows and I’d like to thank her for hosting this lovely challenge 🙂

My photo this week was taken in Tetbury Gloucestershire and is the pillared Market House built in 1655. Tetbury

Next week you will be able to join in  here http://lingeringvisions.wordpress.com/

January Small Stones# Ten

Posted on Posted in A River of Stones, England, January Small Stones, WritingTagged , , , , , , 18 Comments

A third of the way through January already, winter is creeping darkly along. There is  a suggestion from the Met Office that we may have some snow and ice on Saturday, which I really don’t want. Today at eight fifteen, it was a morning for headlights. So different from yesterdays blue, I got wet but it wasn’t raining. 100% humidity and all of it settling on me, turning my hard work curls to frizz.

I walked the usual way to work, and along the path beside a row of Victorian terrace houses, and with nothing but fog ahead, I glanced down. Leaves from the sycamores across the road dotted my way, in various states of deterioration. In August they were rich, bright green – summer’s rain had stopped them from frying, and autumn was late. It was late October before they were yellow, then gold, bronze, brown.

Now a few deep bronze ones had found their way to the edge of the walls. Underfoot, some clear shapes in brown remained, many very dark. Some had felt heavier shoes than others, and had jagged edges. An awful lot were totally trampled into black marks on the flagstones, decayed, disappearing, and waiting for a hard frost or more heavy rain to wash them away. I wonder if they will be visible next week. I must remember to notice.

January Small Stone# Nine

Posted on Posted in England, Nature, PhotographyTagged , , , , , , , , , 24 Comments

Midweek. What to do to make Humpday pass well? On Sunday I walked at Bowling Green Marsh and the weather was dismal, damp and mizzely. There were hundreds, perhaps thousands of resting migratory birds, but I didn’t have my camera and I had my hands full with the dogs. This was the best I could do with my phone camera. DSC_0008

These out of focus sweeties are widgeon. Today, the sky was brilliant blue, so I checked the tide tables and convinced a hobbit that he needed to drive me. I promised him treats – he’s a bird lover, he prefers birds of prey really but has never been there.  I still only had my phone camera, but this was the view. DSC_0033I ran him down the lane, into the hide and then to the viewing platform. Pretty good for a lunchtime jaunt eh?