annanotbob2's Diaryland Diary
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Up the Downs
I'm liking this gratitude plan - just one a day, but a bit more detail. I hate it when I don't write so I really like having a plan
Today I feel really grateful for living on the edge of the South Downs. They're a ridge of chalky hills that stretch for about a hundred miles along the south coast, just a bit inland, making a barrier between us and the weather - it's always worse, colder, on the other side. It's a great place to walk the dog as you get away from the road quickly so she can be let off the lead and can run about as much as she needs. And it always feels good to be out in the air, with big views all around. I grew up near the Marlborough Downs, another set of chalky hills - no I have no idea why hills are called downs - so the landscape feels safe and familiar.
Today it was bitterly cold. I was fine inside my Dryrobe, but my hands in the fingerless gloves took a long time to warm up. They do warm up in the end and the gloves are great for taking photos - I've kept these for almost two whole winters whereas I lost one glove nearly every time I went out with proper ones, with fingers, that you have to take off to make the phone work.
The first part was all uphill, quite a long haul, hard, especially on the chalky path, full of big hard lumps, tough on the ankles. But there was no one else there and you can see for miles all around. The sea to the south, the windfarm suddenly making sense from this distance. It's seven miles out into the channel, turbines in rows, but from sea level it always looks the same, no matter which side of the bay you're on. Inland you can see right across Sussex, the patchwork off fields, all the little towns, dark and light swooping across as the clouds blow in front of the sun in different spots.
I like the view across the hills too, all the folds in the fabric of it - hard to get with a phone camera, but here:
Also here's the photo I'm submitting as my 'before' pic for the new fitness thing I've joined. I refuse to have one where I'm all slouched over, belly hanging low. I'm doing it to build strength but it wouldn't let me move on a page till I'd filled out a target weight. So I put my current weight as 87.6 kg and my target as 87. I might get there in six weeks. Or not - don't give a toss. I mean, I could be thinner, but I'm cool with being this size - it's not as if I'm on the pull. This was me on Christmas Eve, fresh out of the sea:
11:28 p.m. - 27.02.23
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