A new month, and time for a new challenge. January worked out quite well, and I managed to get through the whole month without smoking. The last week has been a little tougher, as I returned to full health after the flu, the desire for a smoke started to come back, but I found it reasonably easy to resist. I don’t feel compelled to go and smoke now, and the biggest risk is going to be to resist the offer for a social smoke, but we’ll see how that works out. I intend to stay off the fags for February as well.
Bonus challenge for January was to get out in the field and do some hedging. We will have lived here for 12 years this year, and have never seriously taken care of the hedges around the field. Just about every year I have vowed to make a start, and every year failed. The whole thing hasn’t been touched for near on 30 years going by the size some of the trees, and as a result its lost all of its structure and wouldn’t hold stock for toffee. I’ve started by removing all of the wood that is growing out of the side of the bank, and some of the misshapen growth from within the hedge. Over the course of 4 days last week, we’ve done about 300 feet, and produced several tons of firewood, still to be logged and stacked. February is going to be hard work to finish clearing, logging and stacking before we go off skiing. We can’t leave it for the return or the grass will start growing through and make collection even more difficult. Also we need to allow the grass to regrow where we burn off the brush.
So what is the challenge for February? Well given the upcoming skiing holiday, and Dave’s 40th Birthday bike ride (150 miles over 3 days), it seems imperative that I get myself fit. Legs need more strength for both skiing and cycling, and the upper body has suffered somewhat over the last 6 months of not going to the gym. Also I’ve definitely got some posture issues, probably from the weakened upper body, so I think it’s time to return to doing some Alexander Technique, which works wonders. Gill my teacher is doing a special offer, so may have to take her up on that, but I’m thinking that I really should make time for it myself, which was one reason why I stopped the lessons before, or you don’t get the full value of them. So February is going to see some form of exercise/body work every day. ‘Make it regular, keep it varied’ is going to be the moto.
