I guess all you have to do is ask!

My classes are all starting back up again this week so I had yoga first thing this morning and boy was it good! Even just missing two weeks over the holidays I really felt the difference. I tried to do a bit during the break but it's obviously not the same as a formal class. At the moment this class is, of necessity, quite small as our teacher is giving the classes in her home while she is having a yoga room built in her garden. In fact there were only two of us today so it was almost like a private lesson! The other lady that showed up was Sylvie, who also takes the same Tuesday afternoon class as I do. She is also the lady that asked me if I would be interested in joining the group snow-shoeing outing in February. So this morning I told her that, weather-permitting, I was going to do a trial run with a friend on Friday to see if I liked it, but it turns out this outing was fully booked up before Christmas so we're both too late. I did get chatting to her on the way out and told her that I was going to go walking immediately after yoga because I needed to get a few km in! Somehow we got around to talking about various off-the-beaten track walks that I could do as she knows this area well, having been a primary teacher up in the mountains in the village where my ex-husband lived for quite some time after we divorced. As we were saying goodbye, she asked if I would like to go walking with her sometime - so I said yes! Now she's still working at the moment doing day care for school-age children. She doesn't take babies and won't have children all day, but I get the impression that she will take them before and after school and during the lunch break, so I guess she is somewhat limited to the days she can go walking. But, of course, there are always the weekends and the school holidays so I look forward to going out with her soon.

Anyway, after yoga I decided to spend an hour walking around the two small lakes I checked out yesterday called La Motte Longue which are only a couple of km from the yoga class. These were more like "large puddles" than small lakes to be honest, with one being exclusively for fishing and the other used as a swimming hole by the locals in the summer. But, this place was situated between the motorway on the one side and the crematorium on the other, so I scored a bit of an own goal by choosing to go walking here - it was hardly the most inspiring of walks! Still, I was already there so I decided to go for it. Three circuits round the lakes bought me an hour's walk and 5,000 steps so I can't complain in the end, but by golly it was cold! My car indicated it was -2°C and in just the short time I was gone the rubber seal around my car doors started to freeze over again. Actually it was so cold that I think if my nose had fallen off the only way I would have known about it would have been by hearing the "clunk" as it hit the floor. Anyway, it wasn't the most scenic spot I've ever been to but at least it upped my mileage for the day!

Then tonight our sewing club started back up again. There were only eight of us this time as some were sick and some were working but they are all nice so we always have a good get-together. Anyway, one of our new ladies, Marylise, was telling us how she had been walking in the mountains on Sunday and how beautiful it was, so again we got to discussing different places I could go walking without necessarily being stuck with all the skiers, and she asked me if I would like to go walking with her at the weekend on occasion. So I said yes, yet again! It's amazing to me how as soon as you start talking to people and/or asking for their advice, "something" comes from nothing and you end up broadening your horizons again and making a new friend!

It did dawn on me that having had a couple of weeks with no classes and therefore relatively quiet, I'm going to be out five times during the day this week and four evenings also! Crikey! Tomorrow night I have the first of my monthly patchwork classes so that will be a late night, then Italian classes start back up on Wednesday and then the Strauss concert in Geneva with my friend on Thursday. It's all go again! Actually he has been sick these last few days so I'm glad he got that out of the way before the concert as I think we both would have been disappointed if he had had to miss it!

And finally, as I was taking the various Christmas decorations down to my basement I realized what a mess it still as after having shoved so much stuff down there when I had my new floor laid. I guess it's time to get back in the saddle on that too and start shifting stuff and hopefully pitching a lot of what is down there. It's a never-ending job isn't it, but thank God I'm retired!