Week 44 and 45 of 2020

I’m afraid I rather lost the will a little bit to write a weekly post last week.  It was all seeming very samey. So here we are with two weeks in one and I do have a bit more to share this week.

So this first picture is of my elderly cat.  He used to sleep on this cat’s cradle a lot, but had stopped doing so.  I hadn’t realised that it was a bit broken – it looked ok, but was unstable when you stepped on it.  It was a simple fix once I realised and he loves sleeping in it again now, especially now it’s cold enough to have the heating on, plus it gets the sun for part of the day too (if there is any).

I’ve been working a lot lately on the blog. I am busy with gift guides mostly, but I have some other bits to do too.  I’ve had to take a few pictures too.

Over half term we fitting in some outdoor meetups with friends whilst that was still allowed. We did a couple of laps of Edgbaston Reservoir whilst we caught up with one family.  I was surprised how low the water was considering we seem to have had quite a lot of rain lately.  This reservoir is used to top up water levels in the canal system, so it’s not too much of a worry and I expect it will fill up again soon.

Then we went into lockdown.  I had a last swim on Wednesday – it was blissful.  It was the first time they’d done lane swimming at lunchtime since lockdown and I don’t think many will have realised the session was available.  There weren’t that many of us and it was good to see a few of the lunchtime swimmers I haven’t seen at the pool since it reopened. Very sorry to say goodbye to swimming.  I can’t believe 10 people swimming in a 30m pool (with a very high roof) with 2 lifeguards is that much of a risk, but I suppose the changing rooms are a bit trickier.

Someone I know locally has a blog on Facebook: The Adventures of the Reluctant Retiree.  During the summer I would look forward to the daily chapters he wrote in his Who Stole Grandma? story about his mother.  More recently he’s turned his attention to lockdown walks nearby.  So this week when I had to go for my mammogram (routine screening) appointment, I decided to walk the few miles to the hospital following one of his routes.  To be honest I’d done the walk before, but I decided I needed to build more exercise into my day, now I can’t go to the pool.  Most of the way I was able to walk along the route of a disused railway line that has now been turned into a proper walking path.  It’s an oasis of green in the city.  Along the way I came across this row of cottages that looked as if they should be in a rural location rather than in Edgbaston. I’m hoping to fit more walking into my life until I can get back to swimming regularly.  I did try to Joe Wicks last time, but I got a bit bored to be honest – I don’t think that sort of fitness is for me.