A little flower from earlier this year

Fog in the Vineyard

Fog season has started for us, but we went out and had fun anyway.

Dahlia

Just another Dahlia, because I love the photos my guy takes.

Working on my Star Ramble

Badenweiler looking to the Vogese

We had a good weekend away and could see the mountains in France.

Pre-Anniversary Bouquet

As we plan on being away on our Anniversary I bought some flowers for the week before for us to enjoy. We had sunflowers in our wedding, so this is a reminder of the day for us.

Weekend Recap

It seems right now I only run about 6 km each weekend and not in between. For the moment I am okay with this though I would love to add one more run during the week. But for the moment stabilizing the one run a week is more important. Especially since Tai Chi starts up again this week and the indoor pool has opened again, so my Thursday swim can restart too.

I knit quite a bit on one of my current shawls. With the weather turning towards fall shawls are calling to me. I did not finish it, but hopefully this week will see me to the end of the Star Ramble.

With the cooler air food preferences change and we had Spätzle with mushrooms and maroni and I see pumpkin in our near future. Yam!

Sunflowers

Early morning pictures of the sunflower field near our home.

Weekend

We went for a spontaneous trip to Heitersheim this week-end. On Saturday we went to the Kurpark in Bad Krozingen and MyGuy took some wonderful pictures of the dahlias while I sat and knitted on my latest shawl. I finally finished darning in the ends on my Greyhound on Sunday. Now it needs a bath and a stretch.

Shawls

I finished my newest shawlette and as fall is coming it is a good thing that my starteritis is concentrating on shawls and shawlettes at the moment. Photo to follow, but I am pleased especially as I used most of a ball of old stash Wollmeise that was really colorful.

Sunday Run Recap

6.22 km walking and jogging. That is fine. It was quite humid for us, so my head felt like it would explode at the end. I probably did not drink enough, so that needs improvement for the next weekend.

And I need to figure out when I can do a second run in the week. MyGuy still needs transportation after his eye surgery, but that is not a real reason, just an excuse.

Looking forward to the 20th when Qi Gong will start again, however need to dig out my book and start practicing again. That will be Tuesday evening's activity for the next months.

Rose

Just another rose picture because the roses are still blooming like there is no fall coming.

Birthday Flowers

Beautiful roses from MyGuy.

First Run in a long time

From Runtastic.

Sleep Journal Day 4

I realized I spent probably an hour of my after work time with SIMS on my smartphone. Need to think about how to decrease that time. On the other hand I also knit on the balcony and the reason why I only went to sleep after 11 pm is that I read for about an hour after going to bed. Wanted to keep going, but good sense prevailed, so that I am not even more tired this morning.
Woke up at 5:45 before the alarm clock. Bit tired, but okay once I cycled to work.

Sleep Journal Day 3

Was really tired very early in the pm, but went to be at 10, read a few pages and out by 10:15. Trying to curb the smartphone time before bed to avoid the light. No TV at all.
Awake by 5:30, cuddle time until 6 ("official" get up time, e.g. when my alarm clock would ring), then up and about.
Feeling a bit sleepy today, but better after bike commute.

Sleep Journal Day 2

Went to sleep around 11pm after a nice bath and a bit of smartphone time (tsk, tsk, no screen time...)
Woke up about 5:30 before the alarm clock and snuggled until get up time at 6.
Slept well. Feel awake.

Sleep Journal Day 1

Trying to get the Hack your Sleep Quest done:

Went to Bed 10pm, knit a bit, slept by 10:40
Woke up about 5:20am before alarm clock, cuddled with MyGuy until 6
Slept okay, feel rested

I am sort of resisting the walk for 5mins in the morning as I will ride to work by bike.

Just a note

I didn't go for a run yesterday, but went to do some errands on the bike, so got some km in.

Ouchish

Since I did my elevated knee push ups on Sunday my shoulder is complaining. Stupid thing is I am not sure why as I was not pushing myself all that hard and had done other exercises before, so should not have been "cold". Oh well. I plan to go for a run this evening, if I get out early enough to pick up my stuff at the pharmacy and tea shop in town before that.

Weekend

I took the weekend off in the best possible way: no cleaning, no have tos just playing with yarn and reading. I have read 4 Novellas by Jon Rosenberg via Kindle over the last few days. This does not help in the least with my goal to read from the stacks, but it was very enjoyable. I also started winding some yarn I had from a yarn pool ages ago. I am thinking cardigan, but will have to check the gauge before I go further. It will likely be something simple as the yarn is untwisted 6 plies. The apricot color would make it a nice summer wear, but testing it on 4,5 mm and 5mm needles gives me a good fabric, so might be for a cold summer.

Physio

I have physio for pain in my lower back and the lady is showing me exercises to do. Sure feel all the weaknesses, so must be spot on. Will try to do them every evening.

Back to the gym

I finally made it back to the gym. As I came by bike I skipped the cardio warm up, though I might need to reconsider this for next time, at least do some jumping jacks.

The workout went ok even though I could feel my back still a bit. One exercise I had to skip because the dude there was just not moving on and I was not feeling social enough to ask him to share, but I am okay with that.

I did a bit of standing on one leg with various movements as recommended by my physio therapist to help with the imbalance that is a cause for my back pain. I keep forgetting to balance when brushing my teeth which was the recommendation.

Rhyfall

As there was a lot of rain the last couple of weeks and the snow is still melting in the mountains the Rhine Falls in Neuhausen had a lot of water and it looked quite impressive.

There is a statue to remember the first aluminium production in Switzerland. I used to work in Schaffhausen and go for walks during my lunch break along the Rhine. In a bout of nostalgia I decided to run the path from the Rhine falls to the Munot. After weaving my way through the tourists at the falls I started running and for the most part I was able to run up to the spot where the bridge crosses below the munot. There were a few breaks due to crossing the Rhine on a bridge and ups and downs (which my knee prefers for me to walk rather than jog), but overall I ran. Happy! Up on the Munot I met up with MyGuy who had been happily taking photos of the lovely roses in bloom up there.

Weight

I weight 67,1 kg on Wednesday. So I am up from last week, but not worried as the general tendency is going the right direction. My goal weight is 63 kg or thereabouts, as I am 1.64 m tall (or short) that gets me in a normal range, nothing too crazy. I just want to help my knees stay healthy and be able to move when I get older.

Nerd Fitness challenge is to keep a Food Log, but so far that just annoys me, so for the moment I have shelved the app approach. They are also suggesting taking photos of all you eat, which I am considering, but think is embarrassing in the cafeteria at work. Hmmm.

Nerd Fitness

I have joined the Nerd Fitness Academy and as it is one suggestion to keep a daily log on for example a blog, I thought I would use the blog I already have.

Makes sense too, as there are already trackers for my weight loss and for the journey to Mordor at the bottom.

Rising Water in Dissenhofen

Preparation?

Not sure if this is motivation for Saturday, but it was fun fooling around with the sculpture.

Plan for 4th of June

I have registered for  a race: Bodenseelauf. Let's see if this year I actually make it. Usually when I register I am then no longer motivated to run in preparation.

Bad Wildbad again

Sun-day

Not such a nice week end, but what a sundown on Sunday.

Alpirsbach

A bit of fun at the brewery in the Black Forest this weekend.

Bad Wildbad

Happy Birthday to my Dad!

Today my Dad is turning 80. 

Luckily he is healthy and can fly via internet with people from all over the world and enjoy being the Red Baron or other Aces.

Weekend Excursion

We went to Bieberach this weekend and had three nice visits in the hot pools of Bad Saulgau.

Great Library Design

Library

Grave yard tree

This weekend while idly cruising around on our bikes, we came across this tree. It's even prettier in real life.

Love this shirt

Book T-Shirt

A little bit of fall

Yesterday MyGuy took this picture. Finally colored leaves and sunshine.

And up

74,5 kg today. Dominosteine are going directly to the hips, sigh.

Gym

Got a new training program yesterday, let's hope my knee and ankle like it.

More helmet pics

As you can see we had fun at yesterday's outing with our bikes. Hope we can get a few more rides in this fall.

Weight 12/10/15

Down to 73,8 kg. But if I do not eat more disciplined this will never go down.

More Flowers

Flowers in Bad Krozingen

MyGuy had a lot of fun taking pictures of the flowers in the park in Bad Krozingen with dew still on them.

Sunday

After a nice breakfast in the restaurant Blauer Affe in Ludwigshafen, we walked for a bit along the lake. Luckily in the afternoon it turned nicer and we could go for a bike ride and sit on the balcony soaking up the October sun.

One of these days

One of these days I will overcome my fear of heights and get in a balloon.

Weekend Getaway

This is a view of our favorite weekend getaway bed & breakfast. But this time we also got to see the balloon coming up over Mühlheim, which was exciting.

Blauer Affe

Read about this restaurant in the Slow Food magazine and as it is not far from our place, I am looking forward to trying something new:

Blauer Affe

Weight

21/9/15: 74,1 kg

Attitude

I love how this article presents a way of looking at life as an adventure:

Adventure as an alternative to weight loss

European Week of Sport

Last week was the European Week of Sport. I only realized this on Sunday, but one strength training, yoga, swimming and daily cycled commutes should see me through.

Joined

As we are cycling more now I have joined the ADFC, this is the German cyclist club.

Lazy Sunday

Yesterday we enjoyed a couple of pleasant hours in the hot water, here:

Bad Saulgau

Mustard

Yesterday at the evening market we tried some mustard by an almost local company:

Senfmanufaktur Mattes

We tried the Pirate and the Aladin one and bought Aladin and grape mustard. Looking forward to having some this weekend with cheese.

New Look

MyGuy and me after he bought a bike last Saturday on our first outing.

Our town at night

My guy had some fun taking pictures the other night.

Full Moon

Just a few minutes before the moon was really red, an interesting effect.

Alpaca Visit

Sundown near Ueberlingen

A visit to the herb garden center

Another Photo

Flower from Sunday outing

Reading Mojo returned

Still overweight at 75kg, no wonder with all the lovely ice cream and last weeks eating out days.

Still knitting my cardigan and my shawl.

Finally got some reading done: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt read completely and almost done with Bäume reisen nachts. So happy to finally feel like reading again.

Hot hot hot

While we have not managed to break the heat record this weekend it was still quite hot. So not much going on. However I did join the sleeves of my Picea to the body, so hope to finish this some time soon. Because with 38 degree Celsius you need a warm grey cardigan with long sleeves.

Here a pic of the week before:

Summer is here

On the scale: 75,4kg.

Knitting like crazy on the sleeves for my Picea, I would love to finish this. Of course it now is warm and I am not likely to wear it, but I want to start something new and need the needles in this piece.

No reading to talk off.

However I finally got around to throwing out old computer equipment and am happy with that.

Cactii in Germany

Weight Management Rebooted

According to my scales I am at 75,2kg (feels like more), so I need to get back to walking, gym and swimming as well as drinking less alcohol and eating less sweets.

First goal: go for one walk/run this week.

Otherwise I am considering if I need to rip the sleeves of my current cardigan project and add a bit more ease. In the meantime I am knitting the current shawl from Ysolda's shawl club. Sweet!

Short Update

I had given up on the weekly weigh ins for the moment, but now that my job search is coming to a close I will try to put more energy in health issues as weight and sport again.

I am also not reading a lot these days, though I have enjoyed "Small Blessings" and started in on "The Gospel of Loki".

However my new cardigan is coming along nicely and I am enjoying knitting with Diabadu's Cool Merino.

Time flies

Not weighing myself currently, too depressing.

But I undid the cast off on my Fintry and did another ring yesterday and now I love it.

No reading going on these days.

Yesterday we had a wonderful sunny day with lots of chances for MyGuy to take photos and for me to knit.

Poppies already

Calender Week 19

Too little exercise, too much food: 73,4 kg. Oh well.

On the more positive: knitting. I have finished weaving in the ends for my Bergweihnachten and continued to knit on the sleeves for Fintry, so that moves along nicely. However I have also been bad and oredered Wollkenschaf and Dibadu yarn... so I better keep knitting.

Not much reading going on, especially if you do not count knitting books and magazines.

Calender Week 18

Weight at 72,9kg, not bad for the little movement over the last weeks.

Finished knitting my Bergweihnachten, but still need to weave ends in and block it before considering it done. This is my WIP for the HabitRPG challenge for April which runs until end of May.

I finished reading A Year of Reading Dangerously by Andy Miller and it makes me want to grab Tolstoi and see if I can get a handle on it. However I cannot find Anna Karenina which I am sure I own. Oh well, will try to finish a few books that lie around half read.

Calender Week 17

No weigh in, the scale was blocked by a blocking shawl. I finished my Flukra and love it, though I could have made it larger. On to Ostermond socks and then I want to return to my cardigan.

10 years after

10 years ago we got together, today we are married and still happy to be together.

Calender Week 16

Weight is back up at 73,2kg, not a big surprise, too much wine, too little excercise.

Finished the socks for MyGuy's physio, so we can gift them tomorrow. Knitting on Flukra and enjoying it.

Finally started a book again, Aloha Quilt.

Calender Week 15

Good news for my weight curve, after having higher weight all week today I saw 72,7 kg on the scale. Yeah!

I have after several false starts finally gotten a good start on the socks for MyGuy's physio. I am also still enjoying knitting on Flukra, the yarn is so soft and the colors are cheerful. Bergweihnachten is my WIP for the HabitRPG group challenge for April, so hopefully that will get done this month, too.

Not much reading going on, just prefer knitting at the moment.

MyGuy is back at work and so far taking it ok. Let's hope he can keep that up.

I need to get my bike checked, but this weekend it was used bikes at both dealers, so I will try for next week.

Calender Week 14

73,1 kg, ok. Finally I am moving down again. Otherwise knitting on Flukra, started the two sleeves for Fintry and decided to knit socks from the April Wollkenschaf Sockenkalender, aber Ostermond statt dem Muster aus dem Kalender.

Finished Accidental Athlete, not enthused by the book. Pity.

Calender Week 13

Last week without MyGuy. Finally he came home on Tuesday. Yeah!

Weight at 73,7kg is ok, but will need to decrease it, my knees keep aching.

Started Djinn and Golem, great read so far. Otherwise enjoyed more of the universe of Old Man's War.