Stepping out ...

Today, despite niggling worries both personal and global, has been a good day. For a start, there was more exercise in it than I've had in the past year - and I live to tell the tale! It began with Pilates class, where our teacher put our much reduced class through an intensive set of exercises that demanded strength and perseverance so that our initial chattiness was replaced by silence punctuated by the odd grunt. I was exhausted when I got home and collapsed in a chair with a coffee and some Italian. When Himself came home from his class I succumbed to sudden temptation and lunched off a hearty slice of Christmas cake and half a banana ...

I'd not long finished when a ping from a (much younger) friend announced that she was on her way over for a pre-arranged walk and catch-up, which took us along the west side of Loch Eck simply because Benmore Gardens had a Keep Out sign on the gate and the distant sound of sawing and the odd crash, presumably of weather-afflicted trees. My friend, who's young enough to be my daughter, walks a great deal more briskly that Himself, with the result that I found myself walking faster than I have in years - and not apparently suffering from it. In fact, whether it was because of the hearty warm-up in the morning or simply because there was no build-up of lactic acid to make me ache, I didn't seem to get any of the usual aches that prevent me enjoying walking these days - and in the end I did over 12,000 steps for the first time in ages (and it's now over 13,000 before midnight). 

The other enjoyable bit came when we stalked a lone buzzard along the track - it sat on a branch beside the road when we first saw it and then flew ahead to another tree before eventually going down nearer the loch. The afternoon ended with tea and chat before I went home - missing the flaming sky that even made it onto the National Weather Forecast on the News because we were too busy talking.

Dinner was self-indulgent and included superior oven chips and a great many calories. My new sense of resilience won't last if I mistreat it in this way, but today ... today was today. Cheers!