fishkiller

Great post bim!

I've been training myself to do this more.
I've chased so much in my life that was/is gonna make me happy, live better, that after 53 years I'm finally getting it.

tursiops999

Thank you Bim, for the reminder and the lovely meditation. When I first started tuning in to nature as a way to reduce stress, it felt counterintuitive ..."but ... I should be DOING something right now to deal with all these problems". Now I turn to this almost daily ... whenever my head starts to get worked up about something, I remember the cure. I take a little walk, or just watch my backyard and wait for birds to show up, or head out for a hike or a paddle. It works almost every time.

AL48

Thanks Biminiblue.
Walks and nature are my lifeline to a peaceful mind, so much to see around us like the that flower today growing wild in the hedgerow. I wonder how many people actually saw it today.

Hodd

As usual, no photos from me, but nice to see daffodils and what I assume to be snowdrops around today. For some reason, this winter’s felt colder (in the UK) to me, and it’s a sign that spring is nearly here. It still daylight at 5.30pm too!

AL48

I know its great Hodd, I love saying goodbye to Winter for a while.

AL48

I've shin splints😭 i can't walk far as it gets really sore.
So todays photo is almost 5 years ago, we were snowed in, just a shop or 2 open and the country basically closed as we just don't and can't deal with rare snow events like this.
Its also represents a date for me personally. I had 2 months sobriety under my belt the longest I had ever gone without alcohol for many years but for whatever reason i talked myself around and bought a few bottles of wine that day. It began another 3 years of stop and starts until December 1st 2020. Everyone here on SR has saved me, helped me stay on this road,the best way of life for me. Just want to say thankyou and i hope you realise how helpful you all are, the fact that i feel free to say without guilt or shame what life was like to people who understand is priceless.
Being stuck at home is giving me a lot of time to think about these things.😄.

biminiblue

..."stuck at home," because of shin splints? Well, at least you won't be drunk at home. Me neither. That snow picture scared me...I really don't like snow events. We lose power and that's a very bad thing.

But today! Today is a 46 F (8 C) day if the predictions are true. I've been struggling a bit with food, sweets, etc. Today I'm challenging myself to not eat sweets. Should be easy, right? Not so much.

I'll walk for you, AL48.

AL48

Biminiblue do walk and i hope you enjoy it. When i say I'm stuck at home, its the not going out to do my 10k walk. Stuck at home is still making dinner the endless loads of washing 🙃 our teens seem to accumulate. This is one reason i love my walks 🤣. Tomorrow fingers crossed.

Hodd

Yikes, shin splints are painful! Feels like your legs are about to fall off!

I’m sure you shouldn’t be getting shin splints from walking, AL, unless your footwear is really unsuited. When I lost the weight and took up running, the shin splints were unbearable. I tried resting, ice packs, the lot and eventually saw a physio. He noticed I was slightly flat footed and explained my feet tilt inwards with each step, and this would constantly pull on my muscles, etc., in that region. I had special insoles made and that cured it 100%. Hopefully should be an easy fix, AL. It would’ve been no joke if I’d given up running and I know your walking is important. Better shoes and/or podiatrist-made insoles are well worth looking at.

AL48

Hands up i did a bit of very slow running Friday night without proper stretching beforehand. Tight calf muscles and as you say not having the proper footwear on the road are to blame. Footwear can be a pain and expensive to find for me, ive a very broad foot and being size 47 dosen't help😅.

AL48

Angry post today. A memorial to those from my town including my grandfather who died in WW2 be it on land or sea many on the Atlantic convoys. It was only put up last Saturday and this was it yesterday. It so disrespectful to the loved ones some like my dad still alive today, to see something dedicated to people like his father destroyed, a new one will replace it but what a shame.

Hodd

Wow! I sort of had the idea that sort of pointless vandalism wouldn’t happen in your parts, AL. Do you think it was a random act of thuggery or more political?

AL48

Id imagine an uneducated bit of both.

Robbie64

It's very sad to see vandalism that is not only pointless but which is disrespectful too.

Hodd

On a lighter note, and with your French connection, AL, have you ever toured the French WW1 and 2 battlefields?

My bucket list is tiny! In fact I have a bigger reverse bucket list of places I don’t want to go to ever visit again 🤣 but I need to go to places like Normandy or the battlefields where so much bad stuff went down. The Falkland Islands is on my list for similar reasons, but that’s almost impossible to get to and apart from the huge (and I’m sorry to say unnecessary) sacrifices, it must be an anti climax to visit.

I lived in Berlin for years and a lot of reminders aren’t noticed there. For example, small brass plaques on the pavement indicate houses where deported Jewish families had lived. I’m in awe of any (now very elderly) brit who lived during WW2, but Germany was hell on earth in comparison.

AL48

On the bucket list to do later as my wife and the kids wouldn't want go or have the same interest i do I might go there with a friend of ours.
I did go to Oradour-sur-Glane a few years ago it was a real eye opener, the SS basically murdered everyone in the village and it has been left as it was in 1945. You enter through an underground museum into the village, its a real shock to arrive into the town the old cars, sewing machine on the windows very very sad. I do go to some memorial services there to mark the fighting and sacrifice made by the resistance.
Corezze was one of the only places to free itself of Nazi occupation but they paid a terrible price for it. I had the luck to meet one of those men called Gee, a wonderful man who passed away in his sleep in his 90s a few years ago. He had great stories, some terrifying though.

Hodd

I just googled both towns. One day after the other ☹️

I became almost blasé to it after a while in Berlin. Visitors would visit and ask to see a memorial somewhere, and I’d became less than enthusiastic. I also decided not to visit places like Auschwitz. Yes, we must never forget such things happened, but it’s going to depress me (or anyone) severely, and I don’t need that. It’s not a very political correct way of thinking, but I’m not alone.

AL48

I understand Hodd. I myself have a lot of interest in historical sites and do find it fascinating. Some of them terrible, i live in the middle of a town surrounded by history and still find new information, its when you visit a Castle ans see the luxury others lived in while people starved around them. Some things never change.
As you know i love Killarney, I only went to visit the inside of Muckross house a few years ago and was blown away by the story behind it. Money, Queen Victoria visits while she mourned her husband,a never received lord title, then the new money of an American buyers and sad losses of his family until the eventual donation to the Irish state. Well worth the visit.

Robbie64

I looked up Oradour-sur-Glane on wikipedia and notice that the last living survivor of the massacre, Robert Hebras, died 4 days ago (11 February 2023) aged 97.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_H%C3%A9bras

AL48

Thats sad news Robbie but as they say what a great age he was. He would speak to people (visitors to the town) about what happened that day, i never had the pleasure.
My sister is doing a family tree on my dads side at the moment, my great grandfather died in WW1 my great grandmother received an plaque/large medal, my nan had the plaque handed down to her from her mother and it then was passed onto my aunt who today gave it to my sister, a lovely gift