A Busy Day.

A good day.  The weather is being exceedingly kind.  Very little wind, most unusual for this part of the North East of Scotland.

The Dunes grass is normally horizontal.

The Dawn Patroller left before dawn.  He went off to Grantown on Spey birding.  Have you seen his blog yet?  2017 My Birding Year.  Its on my bloglist.

I went for my walk.  It is important to exercise when one has COPD.  I have been on a number of Pulmonary Physio courses which were very enjoyable and successful apart from the other participants coming with chest infections, which spread and felled the rest of us.  So I prefer to walk.  I have all the weights and stuff but it upset the cat !  I dont know why but he was very concerned at my antics with a weight hanging off a walking stick and raising it above my head.  Or a weight round my ankle and lifting the leg.  And as for the dumbells being raised, up, to the side, and to the front.  He just kept trying to paw/claw  me.

You dont get the same views, when exercising, from the bedroom either.

I often paint Oystercatchers.

After lunch down to the shedudio and a different kind of birding.

Goldfinches.  

This (sodding) Barn Owl.  It is a commission.  Fortunately from a very good friend.

Here in his camouflage gear.  Birdwatcher.  They get everywhere.  And photographer.  I have had three attempts at this owl.  And still not happy.  Could be a fourth.....

My granddaughter asked for a painting of a cheetah.  Lots of them in Fraserburgh...

I am experimenting with watercolour on canvas.  First you have to put ground on the canvas, away you go, make a total mess of its right eyebrow, hopefully correct it, varnish it and there you go.

Finally this beautiful cat.  Well it is in real life, not sure about the painting.

So my deciding to reduce the pile of work in progress did not work.  Hey ho.

Here is the sunset tonight taken as I returned from Lidl with a compensatory bottle of wine.

Where I started.

Never, ever done any exercise in my life.  Other than swimming,squash, horse riding decades ago.

Now I cycle.

But dont go anywhere.

I started off doing 3 minutes on gear 2.  Today I was on gear 5 for 4 minutes.

Walking 12 metres x 6 laps, today I did 25 laps.

Started the knee lifts with 2lbs on each leg x 20 lifts on each leg now 4lbs for 35 lifts.

Leading with the right leg,then the left leg started with 12, now 35 on each.

Sit to stand 

 This one is a killer.  Today I did 35.

Dumbells.

Above your head , out in front and then to the side. Counts as one.  Today I did 35. Started with 2kg, now 4.

This one actually consists of a walking stick with a weight wrapped round.  Started with 2lbs, now 4lbs. Started with 12 lifts.  Sitting down.  Now 4lbs x 35 times.

We do warming up exercises and warm down at the end.  

There is no cure for our variety of lung diseases.  

But one things for sure our heart muscles got a work out , the bingo wings are departing and biceps, triceps, muscly legs and thighs are amazing.  

And we certainly exercise our laughter muscles.  After we have sat down.

To catch our breath.  Well actually not catching ones breath, is not allowed.  In through the nose out through the mouth to get control....

I challenge you all to do this.  Breathing through a straw .  Because that is what it is like for us.

Now where did I start?

Ah, yes, BBC2 Scotland 9p.m tonight.  Look out for the old woman in the pink jacket.  Who does not appear to have any breathing problems at all, the way she whitters on.

Mixed Bag.

More a catch up.  I may have been quiet on the blog front but have been busy elsewhere.

Back on the physiotherapy with a new group.

Though there are not this many of us and we still only have one exercise bike.

Back to Art Group.

My confidence has had quite a knock from the illness and subsequent break in creativity but it is coming back.  

The three art groups I am involved with which meet at Dalrymple Hall have been planning and organising a joint exhibition with Fraserburgh Photographic Society.

 

My job is to do the advertising including social media.  You can see' Fraserburgh Art Summer Exhibition' on face book. 

As Museum trustee I have been wading through appraisals, job interviews, disciplinaries, and doing battle with our local college on Modern Apprentice schemes.  Too confidential to blog about, although there have been some very amusing interchanges.

And having my eyes tested.

 

 See me peering over the glasses.  That is because I can no longer see anything through the glasses.  When I phoned the opticians we have gone to for over twenty years to tell them this they said I was not due an appointment and the earliest was July anyway.  And couldnt give a sod about me driving, not being able to read road signs, or even see there was a road sign, so I decided to shop more local.  

And indeed my vision has drastically altered.  My long sight has improved.....But I am old.  It was explained to me in a manner I could understand, though dont expect me to repeat it, I understood at the time of telling, ok?  I think its to do with a cataract I have lurking.

Now during this eye examination I had drops put in. So was not to drive.  I had been warned and the DP took me in and then went to a meeting.  I then had a choice of phoning for a taxi or walking up to the Lighthouse.  Wearing sunglasses as my pupils were the size of dinner plates.

So where to do any warm up exercises before the marathon trek?  

I need a bench to hang on to do some of the stretches but  I could give this gentleman a heart attack.

So I set off.  Despite 3 stops where I did my breathing exercises (hung on to a wall and made noises and groaned) I made it!

Though the day after, today, my legs feel like a mixed bag - of aching muscles. 
 

Exercise. Who me? No way!

Today was my first proper session at the lung diseases physiotherapy clinic.

Many years ago I played Squash and swam quite a lot.  Though not at the same time.

Then I was pregnant for the next . what seemed like, ten years.  And, for some time after that, exercise was chasing kids around.  Or vice versa.

I  could race up the road with a double buggy and a child hanging on on each side in a force 10 gale.  Do the egg and spoon at school sports. Be in charge of 20 toddlers at a playschool,now anyone ever done this knows how physically taxing this can be, never mind the effort required in beating them into submission.

Later years it was moving kids into student accommodation, usually up at least three flights of stairs...

Gardening.  Painting and Decorating.  Making beds and cleaning guest rooms and ensuites in the latter years and walking miles up and down corridors in our b&b.

Then you get told a) You have swine flu (and smoking since you were 10 hasnt helped.) and you now have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

Now most people pack up, pack in everything.  But I didnt know this.  And carried on.  And gradually got slower and slower.  COPD doesnt kill you it is "Life limiting".  Hmm.  But nobody told me that I could do something about this.  Until now.

 So today I walked,I did steps,I did cycling,though I didn't go anywhere,I did arm stretches and knee bends and lots of other things with WEIGHTS on legs, arms and had to lift the bloody things as well, apparently this is what air hostesses do?  No, that one puzzled me too. As I dont know any air hostesses.  We also warmed up and then warmed down.

 Now I have to say I was very humbled.  There were other people on the course.  Lovely, lovely people.  Three had their own oxygen supply that they carried around with them, like a handbag.  There were people who began the exercise and could not finish.  Struggling to breathe.  But we all got to the end.

I absolutely loved it all.  And we all felt so great at the end. 

I met the DP for coffee at the Lighthouse Museum later and I went up the stairs to the cafe without hauling myself up the banister and then spending 5 minutes gasping for air.  

Apparently he and the Manager are now planning me doing a sponsored climb of Ben Nevis in aid of the Lighthouse.  What???????