Since a while I’m back on my two feet and although my walking isn’t really back on track, at least I can be out and about. Never before have I thought of the freedom you have when you can walk. I feel like I’m getting my life back.
The summer was rough but it offered some good moments too, and I thought I’d share some of it here. Music, road trips and people were involved in most of the summer highlights. Let’s talk about it!
Bluegrass events
In mid July we went to Donegal again for the bluegrass festival we discovered last summer. It was a wonderful distraction from the misery that was my life in July, and it was a great festival, with good jam sessions, concerts, and seeing friends, old and new. Like last year, we stayed in a hostel-like accommodation where your have your on-suite room and access to a shared kitchen. This year we knew the people staying there and also got to know a lovely 78-year-old gentleman from up north who played the banjo, guitar and mandolin, and who’s a fine singer too. We had quite a few good jam sessions in the kitchen, and in my opinion, these sessions were the best.
Like last year, we were asked to play a few songs on stage during the Sunday night finishing event. We did “Walk on boy” and “Roll on buddy”, and had a blast!
About a month later, some friends organised a house concert with a bluegrass band, followed by a jam session. Storm Betty was forecasted to hit that evening, but we didn’t have far to travel so we decided to go anyway and certainly didn’t regret it! We managed to miss the storm too – the rain was very heavy during the early evening but the storm passed by while we were busy enjoying the music. When we drove home at 2 am it was calm but we saw debris on the road as we got closer to home so obviously it had been quite nasty.
Other music events
When it comes to listening to other musicians, we managed to get tickets to our local music venue to see Sharon Shannon and her band, for the fourth time. I brough the camera and took tons of photos, but this summer I haven’t practised my photography and had forgotten what I need to do to best manage the low light in this pub. My photos weren’t great, but I still enjoyed taking them, and the concert was fantastic as always.
Road trips
After an eventful trip, during which the plane had to turn back to Stockholm because of unknown “technical errors”, my sister came over to visit. If I had been well we would have done a lot more fun stuff, but it was lovely to have her here. We took the car to show her around some of our favourite places in the area, went to Kerry and around West Cork – Galley head, Kinsale, out towards the Mizen Head peninsula and enjoying coffee in Ballydehob on the way back. We also enjoyed some drinks in our local pubs, dinner with friends, and more. It was a lovely week!
During this time I was still disabled (but started walking bootless at home), but I did my best to enjoy myself with the camera anyway.
On the Friday we went to Kinsale which is a popular little coastal town in our area. I realised this town is not suitable for less able-bodied people, but my sister strolled around a bit and took some photos before we went for coffee. I wouldn’t recommend getting inside this coffee shop when you’re confined to a CAM boot. Or, getting around anywhere at all in Kinsale with a CAM boot. It was utter misery. But the coffee was good!
In reality, I have nothing against Kinsale. Just don’t go there with crutch and CAM boot. Also, the old bookshop has closed, and the previously beautiful and colourful Oscar Madison’s bar has been repainted in a horrible bland beige colour. Just WHY?! I wanted to scream when I saw it. This corner used to be one of the prettiest spots in Kinsale.
Grateful that I get to stay active
I’m so grateful I’ve been able to continue strength training throughout my injury, and in the early summer I decided to go three times a week instead of two. This also gives me a lower price per session. I’m so fortunate to have access to a good personal trainer. It’s not only a convenience, I get a personalised program based on my weaknesses and needs. Since I started training with him, my shoulder pain is gone, my lower back pain is gone, some muscular and tendon problems have been dealt with and I’ve built some good muscle and strength. With the stress fracture I’ve still been able to do a quite normal program, but with modified exercises, such as putting the knee of the bad leg on a bench instead of standing up for shoulder lifts, using an inclined bench for barbell rows, and resistance bands for legs and hips. I miss my squats and deadlifts, but I’ll get back to them.
I share my fitness activities and more every Sunday in the Weekly rundown link-up, and I really enjoy the community of bloggers (all of them runners, but you can link up if you have a fitness-based blog, runner or not) taking part in it.
Photography, blogs and more
The best part of this summer was when I started being able to walk without crutches, and started proper rehab of the foot and leg. It’s been anything but straightforward, and I wrote about that in this post about walking. I’m doing a lot of physiotherapy exercises for balance, strength and stability, and this will continue for some time.
With better walking, I’m finally getting back to do some proper photography again. On Saturday I took a stroll in town with the camera, for the first time since March or even February. Photo walks are hard if you still walk crookedly after an injury, but I really enjoyed it, and will share some photos later this week.
For the autumn I hope to be around more on the blog. It will be a busy autumn but that also means I might have good things to share. Some of you know how I earlier got absorbed by the “how today’s internet thinks you should blog” thinking, and it killed my joy with blogging and almost made me quit altogether. When I started over I had a much healthier attitude about it, but have still struggled with the “why” and the “how” – plus the fact that I’m not a native English speaker and sometimes my writing really sucks. But after all the misery I’ve had this year, I want to drop unnecessary stress, and I want to simplify blogging, just have fun with it and enjoy the community.
Some of you may wonder about my photography blog, and I wonder the same, lol! It’s still there and I’ll keep it – I certainly can’t let someone else take that cool domain name! But before using it again, I want to get back to regular photography. My main updates will happen here.
What have you been up to? I hope you had a good summer (or winter, if you’re in Australia)!
I’m sharing this with Denyse’s words and pics, and What’s been on your calendar? with Sue, Jo, Donna and Deb.
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