Woody Wonders

Let’s be honest, since working from home, have your clothes become comfier, baggier, contain a lot more Lycra?   Has your image gone from glam to grim?   Do you now consider walking from the lounge to the kitchen and up the stairs a full-on workout?  Have you become a bit more angry with life? Lockdown: To be honest, I feel I’ve got off quite lightly and that’s down to a number of reasons but mainly keeping myself busy. As we all know, lockdown has affected people in many different ways. What have I changed? We’ve all been negatively affected in some way by lockdown but, unlike most of society these days, I prefer to keep a little mystery in my life.    The longer this drags on, the more creative I’ve become with my time. I’ve come up with new routines for home and exercise. I’ve kept busy plotting evil sessions for my fitness clients.   I talk to the people I need to when I’m having a bad day but no-one else needs to know the minutiae. What can you change?...

Keeping the holiday feeling  when you're back to real life It is with sadness that I am now writing about la fin de nos vacances 🙁 but ooh la la what a fabulous time we’ve had. It feels like we’ve been away for months rather than just a couple of weeks. We’ve had a brilliant balance of doing things, seeing places, relaxing and recharging our batteries. We’ve enjoyed the most delicious food and wine and had some culture too. The weather has been wonderful, late summer is my favourite time of year to visit France. It’s not too hot and it has that delightful autumnal glow about it.   We ended our grand tour de France 🇫🇷 in the region of Picardie, an area of France we’ve come to know and love very much. Our base was the chic little town of St Valery sur Somme on the Baie de Somme. It’s a fabulous place for walking, running, cycling, kayaking, sailing and bird watching. The French word for bird is oiseau (pronounced ‘wazzo’) which always makes me gig...

Appreciation August Welcome to week 2 of my appreciation series where this week we’ll be focusing on how we can appreciate the natural world around us. Be honest, when was the last time you went for a walk without your phone and really stopped to appreciate the beauty around you? Don’t give me the excuse of ‘well, I always take my phone in case anyone needs to get hold of me’. No, they don’t. The world can cope perfectly well whilst you’re ‘off-line’ for 10 minutes and taking time out for yourself. It’s due to this very reason, of thinking that we’re indispensable and need to be available 24/7, that we’ve actually forgotten how to appreciate what’s around us and the natural beauty of our very own doorstop. Here’s a few ideas to get you started on the walk to appreciation: STOP!! What do you see, hear, smell? Feel the texture of leaves and bark on the trees, listen to the birds singing, cows mooing, sheep baaing, smell the fresh cut hay (or maybe farmyard s...