"Oh What A Beautiful Morning"

Yesterday I went to my Respiratory rehabilitation class, still feeling my quads sore from overdoing things on Friday. However I was encouraged to try to keep the momentum going, so I “bagged” the cycle first and managed 6 minutes after several previous sessions of 5 minutes at resistance level 4. I really need to be concentrating on leg exercises because of peripheral vascular disease, not to mention general fitness.

Really enjoyed the class yesterday, and am getting to know some of the other “victims” better. Today’s teaching programme was about relaxation, which is of particular relevance to people with respiratory problems, as we tend to panic a bit during an acute exacerbation.

It was a beautiful day with blue skies and the sun splitting the heavens. The temperature was even managing to reach double figures. It really does you good to see weather like this, lifting the spirits and making you realize that there is indeed hope that spring may be on its way – even although there may well be some bad weather again before then.

After that I met daughter at a large garden centre quite near where I live. It is called a garden centre, and indeed it is so, with many plants both indoor and outdoor, together with all the usual compost and so on, but there are two primary reasons to go there, one for lunch (or morning coffee or afternoon tea – the selection of scones looks very inviting) - and the other for shopping. We had lunch and then went for a good browse. I bought some birthday cards and am rather pleased with the selection I have for this year.

After that we went round the Food Hall, where I was tempted by the wine, some nice ones which had screw caps (which are much better for me to open than ones needing a corkscrew). They are also easier to keep over several days.

Then it was home again.

Cooked the celeriac and the potatoes, then mashed them with the crème fraiche. (I think this may be a sign of Scottish meanness or as we would say thriftiness). I couldn’t bear to have thrown some of it away. Reheated the casserole enough to give it a good cook through as I don’t like just warming chicken. A glass of a nice dry Muscat went very well with it.