Too Hot To Work

The rain that was forecast for yesterday didn't materialise. And the forecast for my area of London on the BBC website says it should be raining at the moment but it couldn't look less like rain if it tried. Yes, there is some scattered cloud at high level but the sun is shining and it is too warm to do any work outside.

I was up early this morning and out in the garden by 8am. I was doing some shrub and hedge trimming as this was desperately needed, but had to pack the tools and gloves back into the garage by 10am as it was too hot to work any longer. I have a couple more hours work to do on the biggest of the hedges but that will have to wait for tomorrow. I shall get up even earlier tomorrow so that I can make the most of the cool morning air. The work doesn't require any power tools so I won't be disturbing any of the neighbours.

I'm going to spend the rest of the day indoors in the cool. Fortunately, the house does stay relatively cool even in the hottest weather. I find it difficult to understand how I can cope with hot weather when I am in Corfu but find it impossible to live with similar temperatures in this country. Staying cool means that I can spend this afternoon doing some knitting and watching a DVD or two.

Yes, it's lovely to have some nice weather, but does it have to be so hot.

Falling Apart

Why does everything on or in your body start falling apart when you get to 50. If this isn't a clear indicator that living for "three score years and ten" was the absolute limit to what we could expect, then I don't know what is. I remember my Cambridgeshire GP making joking remarks to me as I approached my 50th birthday, that on that date things would really start to pack up and go wrong. What really upsets me is that it seems that he was right.

Since reaching that horrendous milestone, I have injured just about every muscle in my legs, I have had a couple of attacks of sciatica, one of which left me crawling around on my hands and knees as it was impossible to walk, I have had a couple of bouts of labyrinthitis which left me feeling seasick while still on dry land, a frozen shoulder from who knows where, and an emergency gall bladder operation a couple of days before I was due to go on holiday with my father (he died a couple of months later).

There can be no doubt that things really do not work so well when you get older. I have tried to remain as active as I can over the years, but just warming up to be ready to take some exercise can result in breathlessness and working up a sweat. I know that if we have a couple of dry days over the next week, I am going to get a really good dose of exercise. I'm going to have to cut the grass, and as the house is on a corner, there is a huge lawn at the side.

I shall wear my pedometer just to check how much walking I do backwards and forwards with the mower and emptying the grass into the bin.

I hate gardening!