A few thoughts for August

It’s been another strange and almost surreal week, which started with four wet days in a row. These included, on Sunday, some of the heaviest rain I have seen in a long time, but when Tuesday dawned bright and fresh, it seemed a sign that perhaps the worst of the inclement weather was over.

Alas, it was not to be, but Tuesday was one of those days that starts out with a slight chill in the air, but then gradually gets warmer, as the morning wears on. It was a day that, when I ventured outside briefly, I knew was going to be a perfect English summer’s day – dry and sunny, warm without being too cold.

In short it was the perfect day for sitting out in a pub garden, whilst enjoying a pint or two. The only trouble was I was at work, and whilst my company is quite relaxed about staff who fancy the odd lunchtime drink, it is rare that anyone takes advantage of this.

Standing out from the crowd was not a problem, as far as I was concerned; after all, who would know. It was more a question that I would know, and having nearly dozed off mid-morning, in front of my computer, even one pint of beer was likely to induce a repeat performance. 

This would not normally be too much of a problem, because should I start feeling my eyelids slipping, I can always sneak away, down into the factory, or head for the laboratory, to check on how the testing is going.

I couldn’t do that on Tuesday, as I was training a new member of the management team, and as falling asleep on the job, would not have been a good idea, I shelved the idea of a pub visit. Instead, I headed out for my usual, lunchtime walk.

Walking has been a welcome part of my lunchtime routine, ever since I started in my current role, 16 years ago. It is particularly important at the moment, as both Mrs PBT’s and I are on a health kick.  There is no escaping the fact that we are both overweight, and by a considerable degree, so we are aiming to shed some of these pounds.

We aren’t following any strange fad diets, or crash-dieting, and we also aren’t engaging in any extreme exercise regimes. Instead, we are cutting out obvious items like cakes, biscuits, sweets, and puddings, and so far, it does seem seems to be working. We have both lost 3 kilos, not quite half a stone, but a definite step in the right direction. Having come this far, we will continue with the reduced calorie diet, and I will keep up the lunchtime walking.

Walking means clocking up the step count; a topic I wrote about back in February last year. As highlighted then, I don’t quite hit the magic 10,000 steps, but as this is an arbitrary figure, I am happy with the 7,500 – 8,000 steps I achieve most weekdays. Several fitness experts, claim this is the optimum level for peak fitness, so I could quite possibly, be doing something right.

Since the clocks went forward at the
end of March, I have spent most evenings in the garden - weather permitting. In mid-late June I was quite often outside until 10pm, which left precious little time for blogging, or indeed pub visits. Now, as we head into August, dusk is becoming progressively earlier, and by 9pm it is too dark to do much outdoors.

It is this time, out in the garden, that is responsible for pushing my step count up towards the 8,000 mark, so as the evenings become darker, this level could fall. I will miss the light evenings, especially as the nights really start drawing in. I have found it very therapeutic, just being out in the fresh air, as the light slowly fades You might see more blog posts, though!

Returning to pub visits for a while, it does sometimes seem as if things are
conspiring to keep me away from public houses, which is a real shame, particularly following on from their return to normal trading on July 19^th – Johnson's so-called “Freedom Day.” However, if I’m honest it’s more down to me and the fact I had virtually dropped the habit of evening pub visits, long before the pandemic came on the scene and turned everyone’s world upside down. So how do I go about reversing this trend? And apart from a healthy bank balance, what have I gained from these evenings spent outside?

Well, in no particular order, I have completely removed an unsightly leylandii hedge. I fixed trellis to the top of new fencing panels, installed last year, and followed this up by creating a border with a mixture of climbing plants and various perennials. This provides a vivid backdrop of colour, in contrast to bareness of new fence.

I have replaced badly the discoloured and brittle Perspex windows of the summerhouse, with new, cut-to-size, non-yellowing, acrylic panels, plus sorting out and tiding it up, making two runs to the household tip. The summerhouse is now a pleasant place to sit it.

I also transferred a large stack of newly cut logs –a mixture of apple and leylandii branches, into my weather-proof wood store, and have added to it, by continuing to saw up a large stockpile of accumulated branches and other lengths. These were cut during routine spring pruning operations.

In short, I have created an attractive, appealing, and pleasant outdoor space that even Mrs PBT’s is pleased to sit out in. She now refers to it as “her garden,” even though it was me who carried out all the work!

The photos that illustrate this post, highlight the progress achieved, since the beginning of spring, and provide evidence of what I have been up to. I can’t answer the question, are they a satisfactory substitute for going to the pub, as that is a whole different subject, but what I will say is that these activities do fit in with my current work-life balance.

I also think that they mirror the activities of many friends and acquaintances, many of whom, like me, don’t seem to have readjusted to the newfound freedoms that go with the removal of lock-down restrictions. I base this on the activity, or rather the lack of activity, shown on the Beer & Socials WhatsApp group I belong to, but I do feel confident this will gradually change.

On a personal note, I will run out of major outdoor projects, and this, coupled with my switch to part-time working at the end of next month, will allow me more time to get back out there and enjoy myself. This means joining friends for a regular drink, going out for walks – knee problem permitting, and getting back out there and exploring some of our finest towns and cities.