Preparing for Winter V

Laura_Elsewhere

Greenglockenspiel said:

 I’ll be trying to make sure I still get outside for a walk at least every other day because I don’t think it will be good for one’s mental health to be cooped up for the whole winter especially if working from home as I am.

Yes, I drag My Intended out for a walk most days and nag him to push his sleeves up, and when lockdown started I nagged my elderly parents into going out in their garden for 20 minutes with sleeves pushed up - if it's cold, wear gloves, but you can bare your forearms in all but the most bitterly-cold blizzard weather, to get a bit of UV on your skin! 

I found a study (and then others) where they were actually monitoring mental health in old people's homes, and one group did 30 mins yoga, one group did 30 mins swimming, one group did 30 mins going for a walk, etc. - and they included monitoring general health too and suddenly the pattern leapt out that those going for a 30-minute walk had a drastically-lower incidence of all respiratory conditions, colds, flu, bronchitis, all of them; and if they did get them, the infection was milder and shorter... so I've really been pushing everyone I know to get some daylight most days if they can. If you cannot leave your home, sit by an open window with your arms getting sunlight! 

Si_Clist

VJsmum said:

Jars of blueberries?????   What is this witchcraft - are they as nice as fresh or even frozen?  or are they to put in something...  

Witchcraft?????  'Fraid not, just same as any other top fruit as far as we're concerned.  Here's the latest batch (in wombled jars 'cos we've run out of Kilners)...

As to taste, we reckon they're equally as scrummy fresh off the bush or bottled - just different!  They go down very nicely in midwinter straight out the jar as a treat, but we also make ourselves a blueberry meringue tart every now and then.  Blueberry jam's a bit of a waste of time though.

annieb64

I quite like blueberry jam. We used to buy it in France years ago. DDs liked the name, it was something  like savage myrtle.  IKEA do a blueberry  and raspberry  jam which is lovely. I have a jar of seabuckthorn jam which I bought from a Danish shop but haven't  tried yet.

silvasava

When having a freezrr clear out I've made jam from a mixture of raspberries, loganberries, blackberries,blacurrants and blueberries - came out fine and very tasty as its not too sweet.  Didnt bother with proportions just made the weight up to what I needed. I have a quince tree with two neighbours waiting in the wings for them to ripen  

[Deleted User]

We walk most days and have always done so but during this pandemic we've found it to be our de-stress mechanism.  We're very lucky to live on the edge of  a fairly rural village with access to lanes, footpaths and a small arboretum walkable from the house.  We seldom come across other walkers other than in village edge environs and there is plenty of room to step off paths or cross roads but the best is being able to walk the field boundaries because the footpaths go round them and stand in the middle of fields of growing crops with no residential housing anywhere near and be able to relax properly and put down the anxiety of passing people who are perhaps not as active in avoiding us as we are in avoiding them.  It makes a huge difference to mental wellbeing to be able to take time out once a day  and breathe deeply fresh country air and stop being tense and it sets us up until the next walk which has to be good for us and help get us through to the end of this pandemic.

VJsmum

Boazu - I'm wondering if you meant to post on the going out thread, but anyway - you know that the chances of catching the virus outside are pretty slim?  They are slim anyway with even the highest infection rate (the Blackburn and Greater Manchester type rates) being about 60 in 100,000 people.  This means, statistically, fewer than 1 in 1,000 people you would come across are infected.  You're more likely to cop it from a farmer due to you walking among their crops...  I get worried for those highly anxious about passing someone in a field - that can't be good for anyone's stress.

In the winter, there are likely to be fewer people outside in any case..

Islandmaid

boazu said:

We walk most days and have always done so but during this pandemic we've found it to be our de-stress mechanism.  We're very lucky to live on the edge of  a fairly rural village with access to lanes, footpaths and a small arboretum walkable from the house.  We seldom come across other walkers other than in village edge environs and there is plenty of room to step off paths or cross roads but the best is being able to walk the field boundaries because the footpaths go round them and stand in the middle of fields of growing crops with no residential housing anywhere near and be able to relax properly and put down the anxiety of passing people who are perhaps not as active in avoiding us as we are in avoiding them.  It makes a huge difference to mental wellbeing to be able to take time out once a day  and breathe deeply fresh country air and stop being tense and it sets us up until the next walk which has to be good for us and help get us through to the end of this pandemic.

As an ex farmer if you stood in the middle of my crops I would not have been a happy bunny - the footpaths are there for a reason - like farmers haven’t got enough to deal with 🙄 what about their mental wellbeing ?

MingVase

If you did that up here, for whatever reason, you'd very quickly find yourself faced with an angry shepherd and some equally angry dogs - unless you were very unlucky and it was angry cows! You walk round the edges of fields, always. Never walk across the middle.

VJsmum

boazu said:

stand in the middle of fields of growing crops 

No mention of FOOTPATHS..... or that the farmer would be happy.  This might well have led others to think it's ok to walk in the middle of crops.    Surely, also, if it is a proper, public footpath then there is a risk that others will use it.

 

[Deleted User]

I'm going nowhere, I don't intend stopping posting for 'twisted' words from any other poster, it just gets so totally boring seeing it happen again and again, always the same old names and always the same old sniping, always predictable and always dull. I won't be trolled off the forums no matter how hard it's tried.