The Garden Fence - proper Old Style support and chat!

nursemaggie

monna Does that explain why once you pass 70 you have to live life with the brakes on? Or is it a speed regulator stuck on dead slow?

nursemaggie

It will come it has been getting slower since my mid sixties. It is not in the mind because I did not expect it. It is just as if you have brakes and they are stuck on slow. You may not notice unless you are living with a young person, remember everyone you are in contact with is aging even babies.

I find it painful to try to keep up with DS. I really try but the harder I try the more painful it is. I remember my parents slowing down and being asked to slow down as they could not keep up. A day of knowing would have been very useful.

My DD gets very angry with me for it she refuses to believe it is something beyond my control.

DS is being very amusing at the moment. He is working out how he will manage. He has joined MSE. Every day he comes and tells me something new about MSE he has found out. I just listen, make approving noises and laugh inside.

mardatha

I haven't got a rat. Next door has a rat. And the back gardens of the 4 houses have hundreds of rats. Apparently. The Pest person is coming back next week, and my youngest son is coming with his gun, his terrier, and his ferrets. So I'll lock meself in the loo with the cat and some sweeties I think, things are bound to turn to custard. :rotfl::rotfl:

fuddle

If it's a casserole dish I'm wondering if my enamel roasting tin with lid would create the same environment?

Crumbs, don't talk to me about slowing down. As I'm feeling better I find myself darting off and because the twinges aren't there to tell me to stop (yey!) I have to remind myself with a bit of a harrumph! I have to learn though.

I've sussed porridge by the way. Yip. I add milled flax, gives it a nutty flavour and extra milk. I now to have to ease off the honey. Where there's a will there's a way.

VJsmum

Fuddle - i 'think' that you can get a similar effect by putting a tray of water in the top of the oven. It's a steamy environment you are going for (Steady, Hester ) .

I used to use my le creuset large casserole, but my new bread tin won't fit in it, so i just fill the roasting tin when i bake my sourdough - has the added benefit of stopping the top of the loaf from burning.

monnagran

The thing is that you don't notice the slowing up happening until it has happened. When I look back at my life I am aghast at how much I managed to pack into it and wonder where on earth the time and energy came from.
At 70 I was still meeting life head on and raring to go. Gradually, as the decade wore on the head was willing and ready to go but the body was saying "Hang on a moment, I'm not sure that I'm that keen."
Now that 80 is just over the horizon I find that I am a bit more realistic and no longer feel guilty at not doing the things I did 10 years ago. Also, you do come to realise that there is no great virtue in relentless activity for its own sake. You do have a choice and sometimes the choice is doing, or not doing something, because that is just the way you feel at that moment.

Having given you a glimpse into the future I will leave you all to run up and down stairs, fill each unforgiving minute and be planning the next activity before you've finished the last one.

Me, I will be curled up with my book. Unless, of course, I happen to be cooking for 60 or teaching a 5 year-old to do the Lambeth Walk.

mardatha

For me monna, old age came overnight at 55. I woke up one morning feeling really shattered, as if I hadn't slept at all. From that day on, I've been like an 80 year old. I spent two whole years being angry and resentful and fighting like hell - which all just made me worse. But once I stopped fighting then I started to get a wee bit better, and in time I got used to it.

monnagran

I know what it's like Mar, to resent waning powers. You obviously had to come to terms with this earlier than most of us. It is largely a matter of acceptance, and looking for the compensations of a quieter life.

I think that it is natural for people who have not yet reached this stage to feel pretty patronising, or at least superior because, of course, this won't happen to them. They will manage things so much better.
To my everlasting shame I remember feeling like that.

[Deleted User]

If that's aimed at me I don't mean to sound in the least bit superior or mean to be in the least bit patronising. I'm a simple soul and what you get is what it says on the tin. We haven't had to slow down yet, we can still do all the things we need to and I really don't feel any different to how I did at 40, nothing has changed and I keep as active as I can and so does He Who Knows. Undoubtedly there will come a time when we slow but we'll keep going like we are for as long as we can and accept changes when the time comes. I just don't like the thought that you can think yourself older than you are and convince yourself that you can't do things any longer. If there is reason you can't well that's different and if you are older and just can't that's different too.

Hard_Up_Hester

The slowing down for me caused by having short fat hairy legs, I've been slower that some people for a while, but I can still keep up with the dgc. For me it's losing my sight and hearing that I find upsetting, no amount of positivity can combat that.

On another topic my 7yo dgd went to her school disco yesterday, in a room full of pink, ruffles, bows and glitter, she wore black! Completely unfazed she has her own style and stuck to it. Black top and straight skirt, black tights, DM style boots, black leather jacket and a wide black hair band!