I haven’t posted anything for a while and we are now well and truly into spring, which typically means unsettled weather with lots of growth. It does mean rain for Palmerston North, but hey – you live where you live and you just work with your environment. We do have an abundance of warm and wet weather clothing and the dog has a fluffy coat so no excuses not to get out in it.
So what have we been up to? In August some of the many seeds I bought went into trays and went really well. Some however were an epic fail, I would like to blame it on the weather but they were in the den, in a great spot that we used last year, so all the blame does fall to me for an abundance of neglect.
I do have this knack for going out all guns blazing then it peters off when I get a bit bored. I just have to do a weekly and monthly plan and then just do what’s on the plan. You would think that would be pretty easy right – clearly not!!!
We both had a couple of weeks off mid-September and had booked to go to Rarotonga but with COVID-19 we didn’t go there so booked an Airbnb in Raumati with a planned trip to Kapiti island which we have never been to. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go to the island as a rather large storm came through and dashed our plans. Oh well, is only an hour or so down the road from us, and can rebook. We did do quite a few walks and had some lovely lunches as well as reading and relaxing, which we both needed. We were there for five days and then had the rest of the time at home getting stuck into the garden, clearing out rooms of the stuff we have accumulated over the years that we thought we would “need” when we moved from our last house four years ago, and also did a bit more reading.
For Ms S spring means bees; building new hives, checking the queens, the general health of the caste and then a big clean to be ready for summer. She also gave the new boxes a bit of an upmarket look with a trendy new paint job that look really fabulous.
The spring growth is happening so fast that the grass around our plantings is really taking off, so trying to keep on top of that is key so our time and the dollars on the plants haven’t been wasted. Plus there is the small lawn area and the usual weed eating. We are keen to section off some areas up the hill for some olives and over in our little valley for some fruit trees. Not sure about the area on top of the hill where I eventually want to put a sleepout come general potting shed. I know I do have to get the chainsaw out at the poplar tree we had cut down and left, is now sprouting.
Improving our health is still a journey and as is typical of me have been doing a bit of reading about IF and blue zones. IF is intermittent fasting and have been doing 16:8 albeit not too regularly and need to get more into a pattern. It actually was quite easy to do you just have to be focussed, know that the “hangriness” will go away, keep busy, and know that the benefits will follow. One or actually a few things for me are that I have to be organised, take a coffee cup with me, my lunch and the key is a water bottle (reusable of course). I did one 20 hour fast and must admit I was looking at the clock until 4pm but I did survive and didn’t fall over in a faint. My goal is to do most days 16:8 with some extended 20:4 thrown in to get some benefits of autophagy.
Blue zones are areas in the world where people live long and active lives. A guy called Dan Buettner has done quite a bit of research in this area. Really interesting as although these communities are spread around the world they have a number of aspects in common.
Firstly, people move naturally and frequently, their exercise is part of daily life, they are then they are able to regularly downshift or relax through their church, (for example), they know their life’s purpose – one was a fisherman and he was happy with that, they all mainly have a plant-based 80:20 diet and ate until they were 80% full (not sure how you do that 😉), they have a couple of alcoholic drinks per day (NB only a couple per day), they are all connected with their family in the first instance, they belong to a faith-based community and they were born or surround themselves with the right group of people i.e. thin, healthy, intelligent, fun, same ethics and values, etc.
So all in all, it is about connecting with family and close friends constantly, eat the right things at the right times, only two glasses of alcohol, having movement as a natural part of living, being able to relax through church, yoga or meditation. One of the key mantras is “Add more years to your Life and Life to your years” which I thought was fabulous.
Right back to this retirement business and a bit of an update on prepping and my numerous lists. Well, the trademe selling didn’t go so well and ended up taking a lot of the unused items to the Hospice shop, which isn’t a bad thing as hopefully they will get repurposed. Some items went into the neighbour’s wheelie bin for rubbish day. I will add “with their permission”, as wouldn’t like you to think I am one of those people that troll the neighbourhood looking for rubbish space – although not a bad idea (only kidding 😉).
Next time is a bit more of an update as to where we are at – planting, money and our plans to subdivide.