Happy walking, Dagmar,

Am enjoying that I can walk without a winter coat. This Summer thing is great.

In my area, spring is nice, summer not so much. There's no walking in 100 plus degree heat. Fortunately, we're not there yet. I hope both of you are enjoying the walks!

Dagmar, hang in there. I always think of Alice Through the Looking Glass, running as fast as she can to stay in the same place. That's what my weight loss efforts feel like lately, and probably yours too.
Have you been doing some nosework training with Holly? I've got to get back to that with Greta. The only training I've been doing lately is cooperative care. Emmett, my big dog rescue (GSD x Malinois) is very fearful of being handled. If he needs vet care, he'll have to be sedated. I'd like to get him over it, or at least better.

Hey Alice! I'll remember your thought about Alice Through the Looking Glass whenever I step on the scale now.

Holly and I gave up on the scent work since neither of us had a real interest in it. The weather is almost warm enough here to set up her agility stuff in the backyard and I'm sure we'll have fun with that. She and I are also doing a bit of obedience training and will be going through the intermediate course here. I hope to start taking her to a near by senior's residence for some friendly visiting after we're done the course. There is no way to do the Canine Good Citizen test here so the trainer where we go has agreed to run though the test with Holly and me and then be our reference for Holly's behaviour.

Hope you have success with the cooperative care with Emmett. Fear is much harder to assuage than any other dog behaviour I've found.

A lot of my plants are arriving tomorrow - Looking forward to having a garden out front!

Dagmar

Hi Folks!
I can't remember when I last posted--I think it must have been last year! I'm all caught up now on what you've been going through. Dagmar, sorry that your move has opened some new challenges for you. It's hard to find good contractors everywhere, but more so when you move out of a big city. It just takes more time that anyone thinks. My sister moved to a small town in Colorado, and there aren't that many reliable workers.
Alice, I'm glad to hear you're still doing well and that you survived those fires! It was pretty scary to watch from afar.
Bill, nice to see you're still hanging in there.
Weight gain and weight loss are endless topics, aren't they? You probably remember that I have been unable to get onto the same old diet plan that worked years ago. I'm happy to report, though, that I lost 5 pounds earlier this year and have kept it off. Living where we do now, we eat one excellent meal per day, either lunch or dinner, and then a second smaller snack meal in our apartment. This seems to work out well.
What makes the biggest difference for me is getting regular exercise. It's not that hard for me to walk a mile each day, or ride the recumbent cross-trainer in the exercise room. There are also exercise classes available, and I try for one every week.
I don't want to put myself in a position where I have to feel overly restricted on food, or where I have to exercise a whole lot. A sustainable plan is what I'm looking for, and for that purpose I don't set a weight loss goal except for short-term. I guess the good news is that I haven't gained.
I had cataract surgery on both eyes earlier this year. My vision with glasses had gotten so bad that I was in danger of not being legal to drive. I'm glad I had the surgery, but recovery and adapting to the new vision takes a long time. It keeps changing as your eyes get used to it. One thing I was amazed at was the brightness and the color changes. I realize now I was viewing the world as though through old yellowed varnish. White is really white!
Stay well, everyone. And don't watch the news so much.

Great to hear from you JayEll! Glad life is going well for you and thanks for bringing us up to date on what's been happening. And yes weight gain and weight loss are endless topics.

Dagmar

149.6 lbs. I'll take it! Going to further reduce my dinner carb portions and halve my snacks.

Dagmar

149.2 lbs. Long weekend here so there will be some indulgences. We're trying to eat less processed foods and substituting fruit and savoury things like cheese and bread for ice cream and cake. Not a whole lot less in calories but way less in sugar calories.

Dagmar

Very nice, Dagmar. I haven't weighed but my belly flab has diminished.
JayEll, great to hear from you! There's so much to be said for a quiet uncomplicated life. I'm still adjusting my own life to reach that goal.

Wishing you all peace, safety and good days!

Encouraging to read that you guys are staying your paths. As for "a quiet uncomplicated life," I took a tour of just the opposite with a walk through the Hidden Gardens of Beacon Hill in Boston. Beacon Hill is Boston's elite neighborhood. Their gardens and window boxes on the street are complicated, well maintained, and exquisite. Was fun to see how to have a splendid garden without getting dirty, LOL.

Am home with our tomato plants and hostas. Which can be maintained without professional help.

Glad to hear we are all still on the maintenance path (me sort of). Those gardens sound beautiful Bill and so does having tomatoes and hostas! My front garden is coming along nicely - waiting for the bird bath and the two last plants to arrive and I should have a nice bird, bee and butterfly attracting mix. I hope the last 2 plants arrive safely. The poor things are being shipped across country and not straight flight. They will be in transit for 7-8 days. Had I known this would be happening I wouldn't have ordered them. I thought I was shopping locally but with a big box store. Lesson learned.

Dagmar

My own garden is done and I'm volunteering once a week down at the lakefront with the Heritage Gardeners. I'm finding it hard to spark the energy to start losing weight. Maybe going out in public and having to squeeze into something other than my "house uniform" - jeans, baggy tee, hoodie - will help spur some commitment. It's taking me a long time to come to grips with the huge life change I've made. There is no time limit but I'm really hoping I start to accept living here. Right now I'm still full of rage and keep having memories of all the things that are available in Toronto. Still buying lottery tickets and hoping. SIGH.

Dagmar

I wish you well, Dagmar, adjusting to your new life and, the even harder part, accepting that you made wise choices.

Perhaps you can distract yourself if you note that King Charles is in Canada. He's bound to say something to made the newspapers quiver.

I can't remember why you had to move, Dagmar. Was it that Toronto was not going to be affordable once you retired? But you have bought a house, as I recall.
I hope your rage dissipates. Can you travel to Toronto now and then?
It's not usually as hot here as it is now---not until later in the summer. it means less outdoor time, darn it!

We couldn't afford to live in TO once I had to stop working. My body was beaten up enough after 30 years of dog walking that I could not generate enough income to keep going. Plus I was totally dead tired when I came home. If we sold the house and bought another for less than $400K we could, in theory, retire and live very modestly for 10 years. We moved here mainly because the house price was right and hubby had family here. I had no idea a lot of other things would be so bad. But we can't go back so I have to stop sulking and suck it up. We are not in a horrible situation, just an exceptionally boring and isolated one. And there is no health care here really. I can travel to TO once a year and visit for about 3-4 days. Already have that booked for October. I will figure it out - just will take as long as it takes.

Dagmar

Still weighing in at 150 lbs. Better than gaining. I've stopped exercising for a week (except walking Holly) and my hip, back, and neck are responding with a lot less pain. The rest of my body is screaming out for stretching (which I've been doing since I was 21 years old) and I think I'll start doing that again Monday.

Going on a nature walk today to identify edible and poisonous plants in the nearby Laurier Woods. Holly and I go there several times a week. I'm going to take some photos and post on the Fb group that Laurier has. I'm starting to try to connect socially.

I also bought some men's shorts since my body has changed. I can't fit into women's shorts any more (much bigger waist now) and the men's are OK. I have to accept aging, not fight so much against it.

Dagmar