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hi bonnie,
I've put on a lot of weight too and all my determination is on walking more. can't do two things at once now. must be my age. ha.
as far as reading is concerned i'm in a bit of a slump. the last few books haven't been very good, I ditched them and the one I am on now, our yanks, is alright but doesn't call me back when I leave it to do something else. in fact I am finding something else to do instead of listening. will have to dig my heels in and finish it and maybe the next book will be good.
april weather has carried on into may. a few sunny days and then its cold or raining.
it no wonder people have got coughs and colds.
your friend Karen.
hi bonnie,
think we have had enough snow here for the beginning of the year. i said it shouldn't snow after march 15rh. how wrong i was. an inch of snow came a few days after.
now its april i am hoping we get proper april weather.
sorry i haven't written earlier. i have been on a bit of a downer. writng reviews of the books i have listened to for the groups i belong to have been as much as i could manage.
i have brightened up a bit since i was sent to see a different clinician. he said my nerve pain was coming from my back not my ankles and has given me some excercises to do. the aim is to get me walking more so i can do what i used to do - shopping at crystal peaks shopping centre. i am now able to use a walkng stick to help at long last. he said it will take some time but i feel i am going in the right direction. have managed to go down to nero's pen and back. will build up gradually to going to the bottom of the cul-de-sac and back which is downhill going and uphill coming back. i haven't been able to walk very far for so long now (only inside our bungalow) i am up for the challenge.
i have joined the monthly challenge on all genres. this month it is a ya book so i am listening to daylight saving. started it today.
sorry this note seems to be all about me. how are you?
your friend karen.
Hi Bonnie ---- I am about to start my 1st Charles Lennox Mystery. The blurb looked interesting. Have you read many of the books in the series? Hope I like it as I am looking for a new series. ---- Frances L
hi bonnie,
nice to hear you are walking pretty well and can drive again - back in the old routine ha.
i did try doing yoga a few years ago but it wasn't in a class, i followed a dvd. some of the movements i couldn't do at all - like balancing on one leg for example. gave up in the end. also tried line dancing from a dvd - that didn't last long either. could only manage the first dance, couldn't keep up with the rest.
just as i thought i might be able to walk round outside our bungalow we got snow and just as it was starting to go away we got another lot last night and guess what - the sun is shining today which means it could be really cold out there.
i am varying my reading a bit now, got a list: 1 fictional history, 1 romance, 1 fantasy/ya and finally 1 crime. see how long that lasts. i'm on fantasy at the moment - the necromancer book 4 in the series secrets of the immortal nicholas flamel. there are 2 more books in the series so i might as well finish it. just have to buy them from audible over the next two months.
enjoy reading.
your friend karen.
hi bonnie,
the blood tests came back normal, which is good, but had more done for vitamin d and calcium levels. the new pills are helping me sleep and dulling the nerve pain so i feel i can do more. just have to be careful i don't do too much too quickly.
jill bought and made our christmas dinner which we all enjoyed.
i got audio books on cds from les and chris. they were the end of series which i have been following for some years. the bryant and may and power of five.
i do most of my shopping on line and have done so for a number of years. amazon for christmas and birthday presents and a grocery store weekly. we found we were going to the supermarket three times a week for food so thought let them look for the items and deliver them. chris goes to the shops when some items i need are not available.
after unusally warm temperature in december and january we now have some snow. hope it doesn't last long.
hope you had a good christmas and getting around without crutches.
your friend karen.
hi bonnie,
happy new year!!
i have been to the doctors he has given me different meds and arranged blood tests. i will write again when i have more news.
your friend karen
hi bonnie
just to let you know what's happening my end.
went to the foot and ankle clinic on the 13th more innersoles which made my shoes too tight so had to take them out. he wants more tests doing as he feels there is something else wrong as well as the rhumatsm he now says I have. i an getting tired very quickly now. i have an appointment at the doctors next week i will write again as soon as i can.
your friend karen
hi bonnie,
sorry to read you have had an accident and are using crutches.
i too have been passing the time listening to books as there isn't much on the tv i want to watch. got through the lincoln lawyer in 2 days it had me gripped, couldn't put it down. currently on a nora roberts book. its part of a trilogy and after the michael connelly one didn't seem to be very good but its getting better now i am half way through it.
got the result from the x-ray i had done at the beginning of october. the clinician said i have osteoarthritis and hopes i won't need an operation - me too. i have an appointment to see him december.
i am on vitamin d capsules at the moment. just finished a course of vitamin d and calcium tablets. they did seem to help but still can't walk very far, only in the bungalow. did try outside but found the ramp hard going.
i did enjoy a dog's journey. thought les might like it but he prefers downloads now, no asking me to change cds for him plus he stays up late listening to books.
i remember you telling me you enjoyed the little house on the prairie books. enjoy reading them again. when you really enjoy a book its like going back to visit an old friend when you read it again. sometimes you can find something new in them that you missed before.
your friend karen.
Thank you, I intend to! I'm all stocked up in the event of power loss. Enjoying an afternoon off in the safety of my home right now. The wind has been really gusting, but other than that, we're in good shape.
hi bonnie,
i agree with you about overpaid atheletes, there's popstars and some actors too, plus the directors of banks. what do they do with all that money?
there is so much out there for children to do these days that reading books seems to have taken a back seat. i think reading books stimulates the imagination as well as teaching us something new. both my girls love reading and now les is engrossed in listening to my books. once only factual things interested him, now he's up for anything including chic lit!
recently i had two tapestries i had done years ago hung in our lounge. i have done embroiodery and knitting. knitted all the cardigans for my girls when they were children as well as for myself and husband. the only thing was i couldn't sew them together, mum did that for me. no matter how hard i tried i always got one end longer than the other. ha.
we have all the inspector morse and lewis on cds. lewis has kept up the standard of inspector morse. we are now wondering how long kevin whatley will carry on doing the series. there were rumours the last series would be the last but you never can tell.
we used to like watching the csi series but there seems to be such a lot of crime series on tv now you get a bit fed up with murders. do you get the series new tricks in america? we started wathcing it around series 5/6. chris had gone to the theatre so i put the tv on whilst waiting for her to come back home and got engrossed in it. it is a crime series, the difference there are three retired detectives plus leader solving old crimes. we are now on series 9.
i have just started a milly johnson book. its the first one she wrote. i have listened to all the others on audio and really enjoyed them. they are set in barnsley and sheffield is mentioned in them. a bit of light listening after shardlake.
your friend karen.
hi bonnnie,
i have already listened to a dog's purpose and enjoyed it then saw your reply to a comment and learned there is a follow up book a dog's journey l ordered it from amazon. thanks i didn't know it existed.
after watching more of the olmypics than i thought i would i am now interested in watchng some of the paralypics, the equestrian events and something called boccia which chris has played,
i am now working my way some of my download books whilst still having a few left on cd. keep moving devil in the city to the bottom of the list. ha. the lisa kleypass book came in the post last week so i am looking forward to that one.
enjoy reading.
your friend karen.
hi bonnie,
i put a tree grows in brooklyn as a favourite. the ones i put as favourites are those i feel i could come back to and read and read agaian and still find something new in them. other five star ones are those i love but don't have the same pull if you see what i mean.
i have bought and listened to books i read when i was in my teens. with the passing of years and experience of life we see different meanings in those books than we did at the time we first read them.
some tens years ago chris and me took some books to the library as donations and didn't get a very good reception for doing so. the librarian looked upon it as more unwelcome work for her to do and said so. we decded not to take any more books there so in the end the library lost out. they all go to an age u.k. shop in sheffield city centre now and they are grateful for the donations. just like in america the libraries are suffering here from budget cuts and some are closing down.
i am lilstening to the thorn birds (abridged) which i borrowed from my daughter chris. i have had it for some time and as i am now going through my books bought on cds it was next on my list. i'm half way through it and am enjoying the story so far. nice to have a short book for a change. they have all been long ones up to now and the few i have still to listen to are 10 hours and over. the only one i am going to buy on cd so far is what is rumoured to be the last in the bryant and may series.
i watched the opening cenemony of the olympic games and thought it was different. i am not a sports fan but have watched some showjumping with chris. she learned to ride whilst at school and so loves watching it. the only other sport i am going to watch is taewondo because jill is learning it. she has reached the green belt stage and is the oldest one in the class, apart from the instructor, but she doesn't care and is enjoying it.
your friend karen
hi bonnie.
i used to do jigsaw puzzles with my mum. think the biggest was 5,000 pieces and the sky was a ... to do. it took us weeks. did it on the table and covered it with a tablecloth when we had meals. had to be careful we didn't spill anything. those were the days. recently gave the ones i had saved to a charity shop, can't do them anymore. some had not even been opened and i had had them for over nine years. thats how long mum has been in a home. she is still going strong and will be 91 mext week. she has dementia and i go to see her once a week. she doesn't always know who i am and other times she is fast asleep.
i once tried doing a bit of yoga. got a dvd showing how to do it but the phase didn't last long. i don't have very good balance so had problems standing on one leg. managed the floor ones. nero was puzzled watching me do the dog one. nero is les's guide dog and he should be retired but we are waitng for a new suitable dog for les which could take another six months. nero is 10.1/2 yrs.old and we have had him since he was 20 months old. it will be really hard to let him go and i will miss him so much but he deserves a good retirement.
i haven't read very much peotry. did some wilfred owen and segfried sasoon when i did an english and english lit. courses but that was over twenty years ago. the other time was when i was at school even further back and all i remember from those days is daffodils by william wordsworth and you are old father william and i can't remember who wrote that.
i have decided to go through my bought books which are on cd and then concentrate on the download ones. no more changing discs. i have 7 to go after the one i am listening to now. currently listening to kristin hannah's home again which should get me back to listening again. have been dragging my feet a bit so to speak because the last few haven't gripped me and in my opinion weren't very good. on the otherhand chris listened to blood of the flowers and loved it. i had trouble with the narrator.
your friend karen
hi bonnie
you are right, its either all or nothing. the amount of times i have thought - can't it be spread out more evenly. when its quiet i stop myself wishing something would happen, because it does and its lots.
i did look for the shoemaker's wife but unfortunately for me its not on audio yet. i looked to see if there were any other of her books but didn't find one. maybe in the future. they do seem to be getting better at bringing out books on audio soon after they are released in print. on rare occasions the ones from america before the print version gets here (audible). i put them on my wishlist then wait for reviews.
we are finally back to normal, items we want to keep back in their places and those we don't want put in the refuse bin and the good stuff to a charity shop. we are almost decluttered and i'm hoping to keep it that way but...(ha)
congratulations for your 45th anniversary. are you celebrating this one. enjoyed our party. chris bought a cake and jill gave us a big bunch of flowers, lilies and roses which are still looking good. everyone enjoyed the cake but jill and me couldn't have any because we are wheat intolerant. she bought us some buns. wouldn't you believe it later we found a website that did freefrom celebration cakes. may try one when its jill's birthday next month. it depends on what she will be doing.
i'm currently listening to every last one by anna quindlen a new author to me. i've only got through one disc so far so just just setting the scene for the rest of the book. have you read any of her books?
karen.
hi bonnie,
been busy here too. decided to have 2 bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen done. glutten for punishment. it started when chris said our bedroom needed doing and escalated from there. so we looked at wallpaper. there were some terrible designs but we found one i liked and got a decorator in to do the job. he was free sooner than we expected and so we had a rush to get the wallpaper for both rooms. having decided on that we looked at carpets too. now all that work is done we are gradually getting back to normal. had bits and pieces all over the rest of the bungalow. threw a lot of clothes away, which made the furniture easier to move for both decorator and carpet fitter.
we followed that up by having more work done to the back garden. following on to work done last year. it looks really nice now but still more work to have done to finish it all.
now we are having relatives round saturday to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. it was last sunday datewise but jill our other daughter was on holiday.
the books i have listened to lately haven't been outstanding, one very disappointing due to the reader. i'm currently listening to lustrum but can't seem to settle to listening to it today. thats how its been for a while. thought it was just the upheaval but maybe not. i do seem to have got through a lot of books so far this year. last year i didn't have a break. usually there comes a time when i don't want to listen and watch t.v. instead. not much chance of that at the moment. all sport for the next few months. alright if you like football, tennis and the olympic games.
weatherwise its weird. we had a week in march which was unusually sunny and hot followed by rain and cold. two weeks ago it was sunny and hot, now we are back with rain and cold. feels like we are having mini seasons.
has your family arrived from singapore or is it later in the month?
sorry for the delay in writing.
your friend
karen.
Sounds great. I loved the first one! Yes, I have been cleaning out and downsizing like crazy and I only have about ten days left. Every day I make a little bit of progress. It feels a bit like a sentence that I'm living out though. I am just that excited to go! No job yet but I have a great support network giving me leads and referrals, in addition to a lot of good experience and education. I'm sure the ideal job is just going to fall right into place the same way everything else has.
I can't wait to read A Dog's Journey. Let me know how it is!
Sounds like a really nice day, and definitely well-deserved. I'm doing some traveling at the moment. I'm in Arizona now. Next week I'll be in Oregon. But to answer your question, yes, I'm moving to Massachusetts at the end of May. Can't wait!
Just dropping by to say I hope you had a great birthday yesterday!
