The FastDay Forum

*Adjusts tent ropes, fiddles with flaps*
Right walking folks, it's too quiet in here, let's get out there (unless you're snowed in in Oz) then report back please!
I have acquired an Omron accelerometer and Mean Business! It's a neat piece of kit that's now my constant companion, my best this week just over 5000 steps. In mitigation, I have a painful back, possible kidney infection (?) and end of the school year means lots of grandchildren stuff to do.
Anyway.
Let's get to it!

[Tracieknits]

Ok, I'll join in. I've taken the last two days off and not gotten all 10K steps in, but I'm still at 92K for the week thanks to my vacation. My best hill climbing day was Edinburgh, where I climbed the equivalent of 60 flights of stairs in one day!!! My best walking day was 20,602 steps in one day in Paris.

I'm about to go get a walk in with the dog. Aiming for 12K steps and wondering if I can make this new goal permanent.

Wow @Tracieknits, that's impressive going! My best ever was 11.5k steps but nowhere near for ages now. You can crack the whip over us and get us moving :0)

Oh thank you @Azurebluefor opening the tent again. @Tracieknits, how impressive. I remember once I did 20,000steps while I was being a tourist in China. it might have been the day we went to the Great Wall. That was the trip where I dropped my pedometer into a long drop toilet in the far north west, in the mountains. I actually got it out and washed it in the freezing lake, but it never recovered. It is so much easier to do lots of walking when you are seeing fascinating sights instead of the same old paddocks and cows, fields of onions and so on. Still I have found my pedometer which was momentarily lost in the mess of renovations, so I will start wearing it again and face up to the fact that I am not doing enough steps. I don't wear it because I don't want to be reminded. But Denial is not just a river in Egypt.

Thank you for starting my day with a laugh @Sallyo :0D
We will have a good one, though it's currently half past five for evening and 9* C where you are so have a snugly warm night instead \o/

Thanks @Azureblue for waking me up Dug out my pedometer from the bottom of handbag and it's now standing to attention! Amazingly managed 14,500 at the London meet up last weekend - it was the evening walk with Wendy Darling along the Thames from Trafalgar Sq to Bank that helped bump it up. On a work day I'm managing 8-10000, not bad considering the amount of time I spend in meetings. My latest strategy to increase the steps is to get off buses a stop before and walk that final bit. I have no interesting walking plans today - but tomorrow I'm walking up to Alexandra Palace and the garden centre to get some kind of plant killer for a rampant and destructive plant they sold me 3 years ago - it's ruined the front garden and lawn So that is 6 miles, approx - 10,000. @Sallyo you made me smile too ..... I guess the first step is to get out that pedeometer ...... to help us be more mindful . @Tracieknits nice one! ... it's amazing how one can clock up the distance walking around cities when site seeing ......
Hi @Brendajay we have, or are trying to be mindful of walking more and sharing where ..... so do join in if it suits you - do you have a fitbit/pedometer?
PS yesterday 5 parakeets were sitting in the apple tree ..... I have never seen them in our area before
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4P_NhFlb5w

[Tracieknits]

I think @SallyO hit the nail on the head. It's so much easier when you're seeing new things. Where I live, things are so far apart from each other that you really have to either drive places or purposefully walk and see the same trees, rabbits, dogs and neighbors as usual.

But I figure it makes up for all of the indulgences we all have when we are traveling

Finishing my cup of tea and then off for our walk to the palace. I'll post some photos later .......

15,492 I'm pleased I took time out for me ....... ahead of the week of work. I bought standard 'killer' for my garden pest. Unfortunately (but also GOOD!) they did not have the plant, so I'm still looking for the name .... if you know please share.

View from Alexandra Palace, in the distance the 'city' - to the right GPO tower

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Iced coffee moment at the garden centre

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The first broadcast was from here

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This is the pest ........

IMG_20150719_150612638 (400x225).jpg (267.49 KiB) Viewed 1232 times

Walking home, down the palace ....

IMG_20150719_141328023 (400x225).jpg (260.01 KiB) Viewed 1232 times

The Peoples' Palace

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Back to Crouch End .....

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Guess who?

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the side of the palace

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walk up the palace

IMG_20150719_125422159 (400x225) (2).jpg (253.46 KiB) Viewed 1226 times

Here is link if you are interested .... to learn more https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandra_Palace x

Fantastic walk with brilliant pix, just phenomenal!
Your pest could be snowberry?

Symphoricarpos
"Snowberry" redirects here. It may also refer to members of the genera Chiococca and Gaultheria.
Symphoricarpos
Symphoricarpos albus 7927.jpg
Common Snowberry (S. albus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Dipsacales
Family: Caprifoliaceae
Genus: Symphoricarpos
Duhamel[1][2]
Species
About 15 species; see text

Symphoricarpos, commonly known as the snowberry, waxberry, or ghostberry, is a small genus of about 15 species of deciduous shrubs in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae. With the exception of the Chinese coralberry, S. sinensis, which is indigenous to western China, all species are native to North and Central America. The name of the genus is derived from the Greek words συμφορειν (symphorein), meaning "to bear together," and καρπος (karpos), meaning "fruit." It refers to the closely packed berries the species produce.[3]
I have it come through my wall from next door every year, chop it down too. Most determined survivor.

Or, looking again, is that leaf shine not white berries? Could it be a cotoneaster, also very determined self-setter, also in my garden too!

Fabulous photos, @Lizbean. So much interest in a walk where you live! I walked around Devonport yesterday. I can't begin to tell you how dull Devonport is. Bedraggled winter gardens with nothing in them, mulched with pebbles, dead looking lawn, cut very short, hardly any trees. And I walked a long way to the shops and back to the car and by the end of the day, still only had 8,600 steps. I must be spending a lot of time sitting around at home, but it didn't feel like it. It doesn't seem fair.

[Tracieknits]

How beautiful @Lizbean! What a wonderful walk to be able to take regularly I was just thinking about how maybe I really ought to move to a European city to improve my health. I always walk so much when I'm in a European city.

@Azureblue thanks - unfortunately it's not snowberry nor cotoneaster - it doesn't flower. It walks across the garden! I'm hoping the killer does the job, though I really don't like using the stuff - spray on the foliage and it kills the roots. @Sallyo you have reminded me to make the most of summer and summer walking as recently I have been all consumed by work at the weekends. I keep meaning to join a local walking (strolling) group .... a nice way to meet new people and I love chatting as I walk! 8600 is good in my book - interested to see what stats I have today, work, to the bank for a meeting and then an evening meeting that ends at 9pm, I could walk home but I prefer to take a lift as it's late and I just want to be home.
Glad you all like the pics ...@Tracieknits really? Are you thinking of relocating? I visited Sarasota 6 years ago for a friends surprise 50th birthday. It was fab!
Work is calling .............

[Tracieknits]

@Lizbean I would relocate in a heartbeat. The problem is finding DH a good job. He has his eyes open and is scouting the UK and France. Were you in Sarasota, Florida or Saratoga, New York? I'm in NY and while it's lovely, the US has a lot of problems, not the least of which is gun violence. I would love to move to someplace safer and more reasonable.