A Simple Life of Luxury

Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means

Author: Alan Cole

1

Beekeeping

Honey Harvest

The bees have had their usual ups and downs this years. Things started well but we then lost a couple of swarms while I was in hospital. I did manage to split a colony though and caught an errant swarm too. We now have four colonies all of which are (we think) queen-right. The smallest...

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General

Simple Life of Luxury Book 2019

One of the reason I like keeping this weblog is that I make a hardback book from it every year. I’m always a couple of years behind as the process of desktop publishing every single blog post takes a while. They all need proof reading, the images need the odd tweak here and there and...

2

Family

A Family Visit and a New Car

It’s been a while since we’ve seen any family – other than a flying visit from my parents a week or so after my heart attack. Lockdown and various Covid restrictions have been the main reason for this. We did see some of them this weekend though. My parents and my sister Trudi came to...

1

Fitness

Cardiac Rehab

I’d heard good things about cardiac rehab and was actually looking forward to it. In most cases people said it was the thing that got them back on track after a heart attack and they loved it. Reports suggested that for the most part people were hooked up to an ECG where they would be...

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Family / Lifestyle

Trail Coffee’s at Nant yr Arian

It was nice to get out for a walk somewhere different on Sunday. Anna and I headed up to Nant yr Arian for a little stroll. Once there I had a little chat with Reg and the we headed out along the Ridgetop Trail. Not only was it good to walk somewhere different but it’s...

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General

Aqualyx Injections – What to Expect Before, During, and After?

If you’ve ever looked at a mirror and are dissatisfied with what you see, you are not alone. Sometimes, no matter what we do, there will always be something we’re not happy with – be it that double chin, those unsightly love handles or saddle bags, and those hefty upper arms that won’t give up...

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Lifestyle / Running

First Walk / Jog

Baby steps…. So, the latest ECG and Echocardiogram show some small improvements. Improvements My Ejection Fraction has risen slightly from around 40-45% to around 50%. That’s going in the right direction and might continue to improve over the coming months. The ECG does show pathologic Q-waves which indicate permanent damage to my cardiac tissue. This...

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Lifestyle / Weather

Summertime Continues

Summer has continued here in West Wales. For a start, according to the weather station we are currently at 17 days and counting without rain. We also hit a maximum temperature for the year of 31.1ºC recently. We could do with some rain though just for the sake of the new lawn. Talking of the...

Chilling with Hector 0

Gardening / Lifestyle / Weather

Chilling in the Garden

Temperatures were in the high 20’s at the weekend. Skies were blue and breezes were light. I’m not permitted to do much at the moment so other than the odd walk much of the weekend was spent chilling in the garden. There are lots of candy floss colours around the garden at the moment. The...

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Lifestyle

Heart Attack Medical Records

People have been asking for updates on my heart attack recovery progress. There isn’t a huge amount to report here yet. As you can imagine, I haven’t really been doing much so don’t have much to blog about. I have been chilling on the patio in the sunshine though. I am feeling a little better...