I walk 3 miles!

This may not sound like climbing Everest, however I haven't done this for more than 20 years, as I've had ME, which prevented exercise. Yesterday, I walked to the nearest pub - a lovely spring walk across the fields. There were sheep, lambs galore, hedges coming into leaf, and ancient ridge and furrow fields; I could imagine being a medieval villein and having a strip of land to plough - bigger than an allotment, but not much. My friend Brian had given me his number and offered to pick me up at the pub if I found it too far to get back, which was great as I relaxed about that.

After an hour's lunch and lounge, I walked back. Into the wind, however a lot of little hills to shelter behind occasionally. Wonderfult to see where I'd come from and in the distance, the church and village buildings that were my destination - I have regained that power of being able to walk across a landscape. Staggered back to my village and jabbered away to Brian about the walk and anything else I could think of, out of relief and excitement.

And that's it! One of my longest goals since having 'ME mark 2' was to get to the pub - I never imagined being able to get back again on my first visit by foot! ME mark 2 involved being nearly housebound and slowly building up walking so I could get to the shop and back (468 steps!) which took me 2 years or so to do regularly, even with rests on the way. I walked with a seatstick, so I could sit down when talking to people (my ME quirk was to only be able to talk when sitting down!). I dreamt of walking over the hills like I used to, and studied maps many times to measure how far I'd need to walk. Then I did the Lightning Process, and got rid of the seatstick! I had to work at the talking bit, and doing more walking, but it was a lot easier. Now I can feel my body responding to being pushed in a healthy way - it gets tired, however it bounces back. Now for the other pub - 3 miles each way!

Current projects

I can see why people end up having several blogs. Like Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook, there are many facets to everyone, which you could have in different compartments. My current preoccupation is painting. I am painting a snow scene from photos of 'that snow we had' and although it does depict what I want, I want more. I'm glad I tackled painting the Green and the people building snowmen and throwing snowballs (yes, it's next year's Christmas card!). And I want to do some wilder stuff next! The painting is now laying dormant for a couple of days so I can see it afresh later to finish it off.

I've also had some prints and cards made up of what I think is my best painting - can't wait to see the proofs. I 'do nerves' about making money out of this - and I'm sure I'll get used to it!
Some of my paintings are on my old website (see link on the right). Let me know if you are interested in prints/cards of the 'stile' painting.