Exercising the brain and the body

I am not sure if I have mentioned it, but I am doing another piece of work - for upwards of four months, I think. The same kind of work I often do re preparing project management documentation. Each time though it is for a different organisation and it starts out as incredibly scary, because I don't know the organisation and I know even less about the content of the project. That feeling doesn't last long, but it's spooky while it's around ...

I'm developing a Benefits Realisation Plan and a Change Management Plan for a Detailed Business Case. Both of them require plenty of interaction with people and workshops and discussions and writing - and lots of thinking using common sense. I am fortunate that I appear to have a modicum of that ...

So I have been busy and I still am. However the weather for the first weekend in May was forecast to be sunny but chilly in the mornings. So we decided doing some biking would be a good thing and it would be good to be doing it somewhere that isn't Waikanae, i.e. exploring  bike tracks suitable for old people on e-bikes in a different place. So Palmerston North it was as it's only about an hour away from Waikanae - and we could call in to Levin VTNZ to get a COF on the way. 

PN is a very flat city and very conducive to biking. It has thousands of uni students and they all seem to bike everywhere.

The PN Holiday Park, which we have stayed in before (I first stayed there with the grandsons some years ago - must have been early 2018, I think), is right next to the Manawatu River which has a cycle/pedestrian path next to it on both sides.

It's autumn ...

Lovely possie - sunshine, shade, lovely autumn colours.

The first trip (Saturday morning) was out of the holiday park, across the bridge, and then turn right towards Linton. A good track but SCARY in places because it had steep hilly bits - PN is MEANT to be flat - and lots of corners with gravel. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! But I didn't fall off even though I was very scared** that I would. And it would not have been a soft landing on spongy grass like it has been both times I've fallen off near the Waikanae River.

 ** I have plenty of common sense but also an extremely over-active imagination, so I can see and feel disasters before they happen, or don't happen but could ...

The scary track was on the other side of the river out of view from this position. This side is very benign. Lots of dogs to chat to ...

David is trying to get his headphones to work so we can keep chatting on the phone while we ride. It's lovely and feels less isolated as an activity when we chat - and I am his early warning system.

David however managed to fall off from a stationary position just off the sealed path, on the grass on the civilised side of the river. I heard it, but didn't see it and was too late to take a photo of him spreadeagled on the ground, dammit. He, unlike when I have fallen off on the grass twice, was not laughing. And he has been complaining since that his chest and neck hurt. I did go and buy him an icecream to compensate for the pain. He enjoyed it but...

I belatedly dosed him up on paracetamol and magnesium and it was still earlier than most people's dinner time and he was off to bed.

Fortunately he was better on the Sunday morning, because there was another bike ride in the offing - this time we turned left before the bridge and rode and rode and rode until the path almost ran out. We had headed off earlier than on the Saturday because we thought the track could be crowded - it is a very popular walkway and a great place to take dogs. And because it was early, it was bloody freezing! The sun was just out, but much of the path was through wooded areas, therefore shady. And as we were moving quite rapidly, we set up our own wind chill factor. Neither of us were wearing quite enough clothes - one more layer would have been much nicer. So when we got back we were both very chilly. But the ride was lovely - exhilarating and fun.

We would go back to that holiday park and do those rides again - even the scary one, as long as it wasn't wet underfoot - my fertile imagination tells me that damp autumn leaf fall, damp pine needles have very skid inducing tendencies ...

After a late breakfast and before we headed home, we drove over to Feilding and spent a lovely couple of hours with Phil and Oriel. I used to stay at their B&B in Rewa when I was working at PEC in Marton. They were fabulous hosts and lovely friends. However we haven't seen them for some time, COVID and lockdowns having put paid to extensive socialising. So seeing them again was great. Neither of them seem to have changed much - Phil is now 92 and looks no different apart from hearing aids and he uses a stick to stay steady while walking. He tells me it is only about 3 months since he last went up to the farm to do some tractor work - driving it is fine, he said, but it's the getting up and down that is the difficult part. 

I'm not sure when we will go away again, but the cover is still off, so maybe we'll head away for a night in the next couple of weeks. We do like it!

By the way, we are just coming to the end of feijoa season here in Waikanae. I LOVE them. We have two little trees courtesy of John next door who planted them for us on our boundary. They had about 16 all up. But John has been bringing some of his over for the last few weeks - they have a feijoa hedge by their house. And I've been scrumping around the neighbourhood too. One day I reckon I collected about 3 kilos of them, and 2 kilos the next day.

The first haul which I collected in the pockets of my top. Fortunately it has big pockets, but I had to come home to drop them off.

And the second haul that first morning - they were collected in my cream silk scarf... Needs must!

And I found a person down near Waikanae Beach who obviously had lots she wasn't making use of so I went to collect 4 kilos from her. She definitely deserved (and was given) a jar of jelly!

I've been eating several feijoas every day for brekkie with yoghurt and my home made muesli. And I've made about 9 jars of feijoa jelly (fabulous on sourdough bread, or on crackers with cheese), and 8 jars of feijoa, rhubarb and apple chutney. I've given away some jars of jelly, but only made the chutney this last weekend and apparently it needs to sit for a month or so before being used. I'll give a jar to John and Jenny when it's ready.

I've still got two large bowls of fresh feijoas left even though David peeled and froze a couple of bags of them so we have some to use in winter - feijoa crumble, stewed feijoas with yoghurt, feijoa cake... My yummy breakfasts should continue for a wee while yet. And then hopefully we will be into tamarillo season - yay!!!