Oops, I did it again, and new exercises

 You know how I've always said I accept speaking engagements far out, because I've always thought I'd be safely dead by then? And  I never am, and I have to go through with it? I just did it again.

Late July I've agreed to speak online in a pod, as part of an Invictus Games fundraiser, by the Sussex Squad. They're a brilliant group, who support Harry and Meghan's charities with very effective targeted fundraisers. I've been taking part in their Spoutible twice-weekly pod since it started. They can get up to several hundred participants.

So they asked if I'd speak about my own life experience, as far as I feel okay.  This probably came from my recent comments about D-Day, and my point that everyone in a war zone is at war, some, mothers and children, without weapons, and memories of what war does to you if you're in it.

The Invictus  Games, created by Harry for wounded war veterans, are a marvellous way for veterans, women and men,  disabled physically or mentally, to compete at their own level and regain the dignity they lost on being invalided out. Heroes all.  It's a tribute to all veterans of any war, and an acknowledgement of what we owe. So yes, considering my family record, I can do this. 

But, then,  I may be safely dead..;)

Speaking of staying alive, I've been getting creakier as I go, particularly a hip which is a pain in every way. It's been an issue on and off for decades, result of surgery, but lately a bigger nuisance.

I've been doing the chair yoga and started to get a bit bored with knowing exactly what was coming, so I switched to Bob and Brad, great physios, for specific hip exercises, which are helping a lot. 

Their presentation is hokey, but they're excellent physios, and teach the anatomy of pain and its sources.  And they're men, but do treat women and include them firmly in their thinking, yay.  I've had quite a bit of help there.

I know these moves from other exercises such as chi gong, yoga, all that, so it's just a different approach to the same  moves. I'm doing the stretches lying in bed, before I get up and go to sleep. For now they're definitely helping. Anyway, just sayin'.

It's not about living long,  it's about keeping well enough to enjoy it. I don't want to eke out a sad old time!

Meanwhile in between sitting on the patio, admiring my potatoes about to flower 

and my burgeoning, burgeoning, I tell you, flower seeds 

otherwise doing nothing but listen to birds and the wind in the trees, I did more stitching.

 

Trying on here 

The seams are sticking out because this is the first pass, and I was trying on right side out.

The side seams are French seamed. You first stitch up, wrong sides together, then turn, right sides together,  roll the seam between dampened fingers and thumbs, to bring the stitch line to the surface, then stitch again, to enclose the raw edges. 

I was watching Marion's World while I worked on the second pass, and, lookit, she's working on a linen top, too. Smocking though.

This gave me an idea. My sleeves are wider than I want, as a small person, but why not slip a couple of tiny smock type pleats into the sides of the sleeve hems, as a design feature and a fitting move, to bring them in a bit? So that might happen.

Happy day, everyone, try not to commit too far out! Do as I say, not as I do. Except do stretch.

Tree question, stitching updates and planting

Cold but bright sunshine today, good for walking.  

 

Dogwood lovely against the bigger trees 

And further down the walk, is this sapling a young black walnut? There are nature ones close by,  self propagated, maybe with the help of squirrels.

And stitching is moving along happily 

Also I've been wanting to plant and the weather's been too cold to put in seeds, but today I planted potato eyes in a container for my annual two meal harvest.

The qtips are squirrel deterrents. Soaked in essential peppermint oil, not the baking essence, the real thing, and stuck around the pot, squirrels won't dig. 

Here's the kit, the bottle marked Not Food, and kept away from the spice cabinets.

I saw a squirrel burrowing away in the pots I haven't planted yet and staying away from this one.  It doesn't hurt them. They just avoid the scent.

No Friday knitting group today because our fearless leader was away and I felt a bit tired anyway. So I did a bit of walking and planting and stitching and reading, back with Elizabeth of York, in the middle of which I seem to have nodded off and missed a couple of battles and exiles. 

Happy day, everyone, try to stay alert for the main plot of your life today.