I'd almost forgotten about my Saturday Round-up posts with the things to be grateful list because I've not done one since November.
Finally after 5 weeks I got back to the swimming pool. It was the knee injury that made me miss it to start with, then Christmas. More weeks without swimming than since I started in May 2018 and so good to swim again although I limited the number of lengths to save aggravating my knee too much too soon.
On Wednesday I had my Physio appointment, she showed me some new exercises for my knee and my back but said the knee was healing well, although swimming breast-stroke is not the best for knees apparently (trouble is I sink doing anything else).
Popped over to the coast to visit Youngest and Florence, she's just started ballet classes and showed me how she could point her toes 🩰
And at last I finished reading my first book of the year. I need to read more - it's library van day next week and I've still got a large heap to read and that's without counting the 9 books I had for Christmas
This week I'm grateful for
- Swimming again
- Free easily accessible physio treatment.
- First snowdrops in the lane
The Snowdrop
Already now the snowdrop dares appear,
The first pale blossom of th'unripen'd year
As Flora's breath, by some transforming power,
Had chang'd an icicle into a flower,
Its name and hue the scentless plant retains,
And winter lingers in its icy veins.
Anna Laetitia Barbauld
If I want to be ethical about shopping would it be better to
- short drive to shop locally at the Co-op in Eye or Debenham (both about 5 miles away) even though all their fruit and veg is packed in plastic bags? OR
- drive to Stowmarket or Diss (both about 12 miles) so I can shop in Asda or Morrisons where they have loose fruit where I can use my new produce bags?
The blinkin' obvious thing of the week............in a leaflet about Vegan food from the Co-op
Well, I'd be a bit worried if I found dairy, eggs or meat in a fruit juice!
Have a good weekend
Back Monday
Sue
LOL. It's like bags of salted peanuts saying 'Warning: may contain nuts'. I should jolly well hope so!
ReplyDeleteFlorence is growing up fast, isn't she?
xx
She's nearly 3½ now - time flies.
DeleteShe's been pretending to dance and do ballet for months so Youngest thought she would like some classes. She loved her first one - wants to wear the ballet shoes all the time!
That last bit made me smile as I have just had vegan family to stay!
ReplyDeleteEast of England Co-op have just introduced a whole range of Vegan stuff - but not in their small shops near me so I haven't tried anything yet.
DeleteBut you can get vegan 'wraps' now according to my latest email from them. But when will they stop using so much plastic?
ReplyDeleteThe two little Co-op shops don't have any loose veg - I wish they would make more room for fruit and veg and less space for beer and wine!
DeletePleased to hear your back is getting better.
ReplyDeleteI saw snowdrops yesterday in a garden, they are so pretty. It was a lovely day yesterday and Ilona (Queen Mean)was saying about the Wolf Moon have you read that in one of your books?
I do love to read some of the blogs, they are interesting.
Hazel c uk
I think I gave it a mention on Jan 1st - each months full moons have their own name from way back
DeleteI would have trouble swimming any other stroke than breast stroke, I could never master the crawl. Hope the knees improve, mine are a pain probably caused by walking oddly with the hip. Never mind, keep smiling, lol
ReplyDeleteBriony
x
I can't do crawl or back stroke - too splashy!
DeleteI'll just carry on walking a bit and swimming a bit and hope for the best
My mother took swimming lessons as a''senior'', maybe age 65. She had paddled and done breast stroke and the lessons taught her, at her age! how to properly swim, which she then enjoyed for many years, including ocean swimming. Never too late [except for ballet, oh I was a baby? hippo in my dance shoes age 25!] Not sure what you call crawl, what we call freestyle? is good for knees either tho, kills my hips.
DeleteWe feel the same about using our car to shop, do we walk to village and purchase prewrapped food from anywhere, or get the carout and drive to 2 places were we get local unpacked food. The cost of the local food is higher, plus using the fuel to get there. Does using the car to buy locally just for us, equal the miles when a supermarket ships in bulk.
ReplyDeleteBeing green is hard work!
DeleteIt's taken me 5 and a half years to get up to post 247. At least I've managed twice your number of books so far this year. Sorry, I'm getting all competitive.
ReplyDeleteNow finished two books - the second was a quicker read!
DeleteI love writing - hence the post-a-day thing - not sure how long I can keep it up - need to have more adventures
I try to drive as little as possible. Thus conserving fuel, and at our co-op here in Canada fruit and veg can be in both plastic and loose. There is hope for yours.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Both Co-op supermarkets in the local small towns are not very big - everything is pre-packed which is annoying
DeleteThere are some very strange labels on foods once you start looking
ReplyDeleteStats are fascinating things, I should have a look at mine. The only thing I remember is that although I've only got 143 Followers on my 'Smaller Life' blog and only get 6 - 10 comments most days, I have over 600 page views a day. It seems everyone is lurking :-)
ReplyDeleteYou'd be surprised at what products have non-vegan elements in them. Oven chips with whey powder added, fruit juices that have been clarified with a fish additive etc etc. It's a minefield of animal exploitation.
Well goodness me - fruit juices clarified with a fish additive sounds very strange.
DeleteNo idea how accurate the stats are. On the Posts page it looks as if I get between 700 and 1,200 page views per post but on the stats page it says I get a total of around 3,500 page views per day. So people must be looking at several different posts from days/weeks/years past - who knows? All good fun
Yes if you look on the Stats page you can see which old posts they are reading through in a timeline. Now, Day, Week, Month and All Time. It's fascinating and you can follow the progress as someone reads through your blog from start to finish. Something that seems to be happening with all three of my blogs over and over.
DeleteLabeling- I recently treated myself to a beautiful variegated African violet. Noticed that on several places on the label "do not eat". Maybe its because we have so many English as a second language persons who are not familiar with out plants. Still gave me a giggle. Julia in Texas
ReplyDeleteThey certainly don't look very edible do they, although the tiny wild violet flowers we have here can be crystallized and eaten!
DeleteViolets are mostly edible, but only if they are grown such way: no pesticides or herbisides etc. So if it says do not eat, it contains too much poison to be safe. Plant itself is safe, but the way it is treated makes it harmful.
DeleteI damaged my knee and found I could no longer do the side kick leg action of the breast stroke, but after advice I do arms as usual for the breast stroke and legs I kick up and down from the knee, you do them at the same time, bit like a mermaid, took me a couple of goes to grasp it, but I am back swimming a mile twice a week, it's definitely worth a try
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a good idea, I 'll see if I can do it next time
DeleteYou are right, blog stats are very interesting. Now that I have finally started a blog I find myself getting a kick out of checking the stats. I would say you have overtaken yourself with more than one hundred followers over your past number of followers and soon to be more posts! I am not as all surprised as you have a very enjoyable blog!
ReplyDeleteI got a kick out of your "obvious thing of the week"! We are always buying items that say "gluten free" or "sugar free" and they are items that never contained gluten or sugar anyway! The things they will do in the name of money!
I shall look out for more things like this to post about!
DeleteThere are some vegan items that I like, but others just don't taste as good. I made 2 stratas for Christmas morning, one vegetarians with vegan sausage but both had eggs and cream in them. I can't tolerate any nut milks and soy based milk products make my mouth swell.
ReplyDeleteHere in the LA Area we have tons of markets, with lots of unwrapped produce. Berries and the like are boxed in plastic, but most apples and oranges are loose.
I love seeing bottled water (which I don't buy) that says gluten free. As my daughter says, Well DUH.
I wish we had more places to buy produce loose, the problem is that plastic is just so useful and often nothing else would work
DeleteLol that's funny on the vegan fruit juices. I always find it funny when something says 'gluten free' that never had gluten in it to begin with. Sigh. Don't get me started on food labeling. Over here in the US there are labels for gluten-free, sugar-free and recently vegan, but if you want something vegetarian - sigh - it's a matter of trying to read the label and work it out.
ReplyDeleteAll the big producers have jumped on the vegan bandwagon this month - every other TV ad it seems is for something new.
DeleteBest wishes with your knee issue. I had those, for way too long, and they are terrible for our quality of life. Best!!!!!
ReplyDelete🔥💛🔥
I think I would drive to the larger stores but buy in large quantities [as would be usable--freeze or cook and freeze?, no sense wasting food] and thereby limit my driving but cutting down on packaging. And /or I might have to make quick runs to the local place those forgotten items---and wine. I also try to to do as many errands as possible in one day, again limiting amount of driving. Hard, isn't it!
ReplyDeleteI only shop in Co-op in desperation as it is SO expensive. I would say it was well-worth doing the extra mileage to get better value for money.
ReplyDeleteAnd the question itself: longer drive is not neccessarily double as bad - it depends other things like can you shop everything in one go in that shop that is further vs. going several times to shop that's near. Or if it's really cold, most emissions are caused by warming the car, not driving itself.
ReplyDeleteWe have most vegs and fruits sold loose, but delicate things like berries are sold in boxes (mostly plastic). And we have very efficient (and actually working!) recycling system for plastics and other materials, they don't get sent to China or India.
I try to do my shopping (food or otherwise) on my way to work/home. If I run out of something during the weekend then I'll have to do without (so have kids too).