Poppies, Garden Vista, Heart Monitor and Bounce

 

The view when I was sitting outside on a chair on the cafe patio enjoying a decaf latte at my favorite coffee shop. Surrounded by gardens, now that is mighty fine. See that bench, doesn't that look tempting?

The above are three views taken from the same spot, with the top one the most magnified.

I wore a heart monitor for two weeks, put it in the mail as instructed and today read the results, all tests are normal. My doctor's words. Hurray. Another blessing in answered prayer.

Bounce finds delightful scents in this poppy growing in/near the sidewalk, he is checking his mail or as I call it, his pee-mail.

Above, more golden orange poppies seen on our walk today. Below shows poppy flowers when they are furled up and closed, before the sun warms them each day.

 

 Some say plants don't move, but they do. The poppies close up each evening. Remember the powerful scenes in The Lord of the Rings where the trees are needed to move and to go into battle on the side of good? I love those scenes.

My new exercise bike and a Heart Monitor for Me!

 Do you sometimes put off doing something? I've been thinking about buying a recumbent exercise bike for a long time, maybe a year, mentioning it to family and friends. 

Well I have one! On March 12 my sons surprised me with the gift of the above JeeKee brand bike, they brought it over and set it up. No more procrastination. It is in my living room and I can sit on it and read a book or watch TV. It even tells me my pulse rate and how far I've gone and how many calories I've burned. I think we all know it takes a LOT of exercise to work off the calories of ice cream for dessert.

So far I am using it a few minutes each day. It is completely silent and uses magnets so there is no friction to create noise. My main goal with it is to raise my heart rate a bit. Sauntering with my pup twice a day is good for body and soul, but pup likes to check and send his email/AKA pee mail so we stop along the way. Anybody else have an exercise bike and any tips on using it?

My Heart Monitor

I added this note on April 14 to this post and will post more soon in a new post. I will get a heart monitor next week, it sticks to your chest for about 2 weeks. The reason for this is that on April 7 while walking my dog I suddenly felt exhausted, it was hard to walk home and when I sat down at home my heart was pounding hard for about 10 minutes. My younger son drove me to the Emergency Room on Saturday where they did lots of tests which all show my heart is healthy. It was scary! So the heart monitor will gather more info. More later. Have you worn a heart monitor?

My sons and I were happy that we continued our Easter plans and went to church the next day. It was joyful, about 400 people, more people there since before Covid, and 16 people were baptized, from age 10 and up, with many in their 20s, 30s and 40s. This gives us hope for the future of the church, new young members. After church I rested and my sons prepared our Easter feast.