Slow Living - Doing It Old Style!

Brie

So chair yoga.....this means sitting in a chair and stretching and twisting?  I had to stop pilates when it was getting to stressful on my wrists and then my knee but would welcome a way to "fitten" up a bit.

beanielou

@leftatthetrafficlights. Used to do ordinary yoga but I no longer can so chair yoga it is. Been doing yoga for about 22 years. 

KajiKita

Oooh …. Sounds intriguing 🤔 😊 Thank you, I shall rummage. 

KK

Katiehound

there's also chair Pilates

See there are a couple of YouTube classes- worth a Google.

(Some of the weight bearing exercises you would do for both Yoga & pilates on the floor can be done against a wall)

Cherryfudge

leftatthetrafficlights said:

If you don't make time for your wellness, you will be forced to make time for your illness.

Thank you @leftatthetrafficlights for this quotation and the recommendation of the Dr Greger books. I'm still catching up on posts here but those are both worth pausing for consideration. I need to investigate whether the library has those books.

Life last week was a bit too busy and I got very tired. I've also been asked if I'd take over a small team (voluntary activity), which has kind of given me a new zest for it but I'm having to consider carefully if it's something I should do, as I have quite a few activities and, admittedly, tend to use things where I'm answerable to others as a way of procrastinating over things I ought to get down to, such as housework! Yesterday morning was spent drawing up a chart of the demands of my various activities over the past three months, which showed me that most things are bi-weekly, so I'm not as crowded as it felt, but obviously gives me more opportunities to procrastinate!

Over recent days, however, I've had the pleasure of a new slow activity: I made a Dorset button. Recommended for those with oddments of yarn or embroidery thread. The result isn't perfect but I have ideas of what I need to work on, and it's so charming (and takes very little space) that I think I'll make some more...

Katiehound

The word Dorset buttons jogged my memory-  feel certain something cropped up in the novel 'Burning Bright' by Tracy Chevalier. It was the story of the first circus in England & involved someone from Dorset! that's as much as I can discover. Maybe it was talking about one way of earning a living?

I know there are various Dorset buttons- some are called 'tops'- think they were the cheapest - look a bit like a top shell.
Just cut & pasted this if you are interested:
"In the early part of the 1700s it is said that 700 women and children worked for the firm. By the end of the century, around 4,000 were employed making buttons around Shaftesbury and 3,000 in the Blandford area. At its peak, the business had an average turnover of around £12,000."

Gosh £12 k in 1800 was a huge sum- not much slow living there.

Brie

Katiehound said:

The word Dorset buttons jogged my memory-

There are still classes occasionally to learn how to make Dorset buttons.  Never attended any (yet) myself.  Think they've been centred around the Wareham area (south of Blandford and Shaftsbury)

Cherryfudge

Thanks @Katiehound and @Brie - I lived in Blandford long ago but either never knew or forgot about the buttons! It sounds as though it was a cottage industry on a big scale.

I did a bit of reading out of interest and found that the fastest button makers could make dozens in a day!

Brie

Feeling rather chilled.  (fyi - not cold, relaxed)  And for good reason.

A busy day at work but with no clients so just sorting things out with one of my team and talking in between times about acting, actors, the plays my colleague is auditioning for....  Then rushed off to pick up shopping left at Sainbogs by the OH as he'd left his Nectar card at home. Then rushed home and did a quick tidy as the chiropodist was expected......and chillllllllllllll.....

Is there anything so nice as chatting while someone is doing something lovely which terminates in them rubbing your feet with lovely lotion?  And swap over and OH gets his turn.

And then the gardeners show up, despite the rain.  And managed to pull some offensive weeds, mowed the lawn, strimmed the patio and tied up some of the climbing roses that had headed off in the wrong direction.  Carp day for working outside so they left after only an hour rather than staying the full 90 minutes but it always makes me so happy to look out at the work they have done.

Katiehound

I've made the standard Dorset button- the one that is a bit like a spiders web (actually think I have made 2!) very fiddly, I wouldn't have earned much.....

Many embroidery type things were made by out workers- women stuck at home with children- so they got peanuts. As an example I'm thinking of the stunning Ayrshire white work known as 'flowering'- intricate embroidery on muslin.