kombucha – Raindrops On Roses

For the last couple of weeks I’ve lain low, only really seeing my parents, making supper, dog walking, swimming training (of course!) and thinking. Lots of thinking. About life and stuff. Years ago an older friend of mine told me that life was really just an endless series of adjustments, and all we had to do was to accept that and just adjust, sometimes happily, sometimes not, sometimes halfway between the two. That has always stuck with me. We adjust. We all live at home with parents then have to make our own home. Student…to employed person. Single bed…to double.

I adjusted, very happily, when my son was born and I realised that for the foreseeable future we were glued together and even if I wanted to just nip out for a pint of milk, whatever the weather, he’d have to come too. More adjusting when the next baby came along. Routines were tweaked, play dates reorganised to allow for afternoon naps. More adjusting, again very happily, when we moved from London to the countryside. A couple more babies. School, then different schools. First son goes off to Malawi, then uni and the others follow suit. All very nice. All very typical.

Then two weeks ago, my third child went off to start her first job in London. Perfectly normal. But it made me so sad. I’m not heartbroken, it’s absolutely not a tragedy. There are plenty of much, much worse things out there. It’s just another adjustment – but it made me pause for thought. Very probably hormonally led!

Another friend once gave me a decoration to hang in a window. It said on the front “There are only two things we can hope to give our children. One is roots and the other is wings.” Have I done that? With all of them? So they know they are loved and can always, always come home but that they can also take off and have their own adventures, with confidence and happiness? I really hope so.

The conclusion to my musings about my emptying nest is that of course I can adjust to her leaving home and in the meantime I will plough on with setting myself up to try and live the next phase of my life vibrantly when they’re not all here, not least so there’s someone interesting for them to come home to, but more importantly, because life is short, it matters and it could be wonderful.

Next stop…swimming, wetsuitless, across Lulworth Cove in Dorset this weekend with my “swim buddy”. It will be cold, even super cold, but it will be fun and very beautiful. Maybe wonderful.

Things to be grateful for:

Sunny days in late September

Cold kombucha with raspberries

Magnesium Glycinate to help me sleep

And that London is not far away, and whilst it’s fun and exciting, it’s so exhausting. And I have my secret weapons…..her bed (so comfortable) and the adored spaniels! Ha!

First blog post EVER, which is a huge thing for me as I’ve never done anything like this before and am so new to all this technology. The best place to start, though, is at the beginning and now!

I want to write about all the things in my life which enrich it, and try to find better ways to deal with the stuff that drains me. As a woman “of a certain age”, I’m very aware that life can be wonderful, can also have many horrors, is passing so, so quickly, and that we only get the one opportunity to live it and make it matter.

So what have I done this week to begin my new challenge of making the most of my health, improve my mood, and have a good time?

I fermented!! I have been making my own kefir and kombucha for a while now – much to the dismay of most of my family. My only supporters so far are my eldest son and my younger daughter’s boyfriend, who happily (or kindly) sample both. Neither drinks are attractive to look at while they ferment away, I can see that, but they are super good for us. All the experts out there tell us that good gut health is vital and a healthy gut leads to better mood, clearer skin, less inflammation, and so on, and an unhealthy gut can lead to all sorts of trouble.

So over the last couple of days I have made new batches of kombucha, which is a fermented tea, sauerkraut, a fermented cabbage, and kimchi, a fermented vegetable Korean side dish. All will be teeming with good bacteria which should improve digestion and so improve me! There is literally so much written now about how eating fermented foods is good for us, I’d be here for months detailing it all. My two main health gurus when it comes to gut health are Liz Earle and Jeanette Hyde who write about it and sing its praises on social media. It’s much cheaper to make it than buy it in the shops.

I haven’t made any kefir this week as I’m resting my grains for a bit. The weather has been so warm, they were multiplying faster than I needed them to. Also, in this weather a chilled glass of kombucha, maybe with some lemon or raspberries adding to the flavour, is lovely and refreshing and could easily replace the rosé!

I’ll write on here soon about how to get started making these yourselves with the recipes I use, if people are interested?!

My kombucha, sauerkraut and kimchi:

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I also played tennis on Monday night with our lovely friends (great fun) and will be swimming lengths tomorrow night, starting to train for a big, big (open water!) swim – hopefully! So two good sessions, helping to improve my weekly moving/fitness. Dog walking can always fill in any gaps.

Things to be grateful for:

Friends, especially the ones who are always there, whatever.

Grace and Frankie (a wonderful newish sitcom on Netflix about female friendship – Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin at their absolute best! Might review it on here at some point).

Not having to cook supper tonight – what a treat – thanks to my youngest daughter!

Tag: kombucha

My emptying nest……

Well, here goes…