BetterU Tuesday - and Celebrate! Celebrate!

First of all, Happy Birthday to President Obama. May he live long and prosper.

Also, it appears that Euna Lee and Laura Ling, the American journalists who were arrested in North Korea in March and sentenced to twelve years' hard labour, have now been freed, thanks to the intervention of former President Bill Clinton. Woo-hoo! My good wishes go out to all of them, as well.

Later: I found this on Twitter, a much re-twitted, very poignant tribute. I thought you might like to hear it.



Next, the BetterU report. It appears that my holiday did not completely undo all my efforts. My weight this morning was X-13, which makes my total weight loss to date a very respectable 19 pounds. I just used the Search function to find my older reports. I put in "BetterU" and got a string of posts in what appeared to be no particular order. That's very odd. At any rate, I think I lost a pound on the holiday, despite my excesses. I'll check my BP again this afternoon to make sure that yesterday's scary (144/79) reading was a fluke.

This was the first day I've gone back to walking since we got home - I don't do well in very hot weather, so the only time I walked while we were away was at Wellman Lake, where it was cool (and mosquito-ridden). There was the one-hour circular walk through the woods, and then another walk around the lake to a friend's house. That felt much longer, but I don't think it was. I think I had just been burning the candle at both ends, and it was catching up with me. So today I walked for just under an hour, and it was lovely. I stopped to take lots of pictures, and also to eat a handful of blackberries.
At the beginning of the walk, I noticed that my green island had gone all brown in my absence, and that disturbed me. I know it happens every summer, but it always comes as a shock.When I walked off the path to take this first flower photo, the grass crunched under my feet.

As I walked, though, I saw that there was a lot of life still happening, despite the drought.


I have three photos of this purple bloom, all taken in an attempt to catch a shot of the bee who was scurrying over it - but every time I went to focus, the bee would run around behind the flower. No co-operation at all. However, I did find a bee later on - one who had the courtesy to stick around and have his picture taken.Can you see him? He's somewhere in that sea of yellowness.

I also found cat-tails. There was a time when I would have cut some and taken them home, sprayed them with hair spray and kept them over the winter. That was in the old days, when I had hair spray. Now, I think I'll just settle for enjoying them in their season - and here at the Turtle.

More congratulations are in order. I can't believe I almost forgot to say: Congratulations to Rebecca Woodhead on her victory in the Ms Twitter UK contest. <> Your highness! < /bowing >

And.....ta-da!.....I just made an appointment for Jane and me to go for our pedicure on Monday, (my first ever). I feel girly, oh so girly....

Altogether, you know, this is shaping up to be a pretty splendid day.