It's a Beautiful Morning

I had the loveliest walk this morning. It has been grey and raining for the last few days but this morning the clouds cleared and the sun came out long enough for me to have a pleasant walk. The sun was shining, the grass is turning green, I could see some buds with tiny leaves peaking out on some of the trees, the birds were singing , there must be 20 different kinds of birds singing their songs. Oh it was so lovely, I could feel that wash of contented "all is well with the world" feeling.

Yesterday was not as nice. The rain held off long enough in the morning for me to get my 20 minutes in, but the wind was blowing - yuck. When the time came for our afternoon walk the rain was steadily coming down.

I've been looking at the camper in the laneway the last few days with the thought of getting out there and getting it all cleaned up and ready to go for our first trip. If the weather gets a touch better we might be out there in just over 2 weeks! The winter went so quickly. Every now and then I think that maybe we've had enough of camping and then I step into the camper. A feeling of contented relaxation hits  me as soon as I step in the door, much like the one I experienced today on my walk. I'm not ready to give that up!

I scanned an old photo from when I was 19 to put on the treadmill for motivation. I can’t believe I thought I was so fat! I may never look like that again…

We've been sticking pretty closely to our diet. It is fun (?) to track the nutrients in the caloriecounter program. You have to eat a diet high in fruits, vegetables and beans to get all the required nutrition. I'm having a problem getting enough iron and calcium, although I've read studies that show you need much higher levels of calcium if you get it from dairy as it leaches out in your urine. If that is the case I'm probably okay. Tonight we are having bok choy which is very high in calcium but still my levels are low. I’ve experimented with adding a 4 oz piece of beef to our supper, but even that didn’t add much iron so I took it out and added 1 1/2 cups of lentils – that fixed up the iron numbers nicely. I’m trying to avoid meat, red meat especially.  It makes me wonder just how nutrient deficient I am when I’m just eating “regularly”!

We are always the same age inside.
Gertrude Stein