This was the view from the back garden this morning. Heavy storm clouds rolling in seemed to portend a day of struggle. It was quite correct.
The day started off well enough, taking two of my grandchildren to gymnastics for toddlers before browsing around a couple of stores. We finished the morning off with a coffee and cake.
All well and good until after lunch. I have a condition which means I can eat a very limited amount of sugar. It's called Small Intestine Bacterial Overload (SIBO) and causes symptoms similar to severe irritable bowel syndrome with agonising pain. There must have been more sugar in my scone than expected and the familiar symptoms appeared.
It meant my chances of a nice long walk with the children was off the cards. I couldn't go far from the house as I needed to dash urgently to the loo at random short intervals.
Still, I was determined to meet my personal challenge of walking for half an hour every day with my camera. It just meant I had to remain in the confines of the garden. Fortunately, there were some sunny spells between the showers and plenty of opportunities for taking photographs.
Sometimes, limiting yourself to a small area that you are very familiar with can surprise you with little things you might have missed and different ways of looking at the same scene. Walking around with two toddlers helps in that respect - everything is new and interesting.
The bumble bees of earlier in the season were nowhere to be seen, but Red Admiral butterflies were easy to spot on the evergreen ivy. The eagle-eyed children also spotted hoverflies and a beautiful green shieldbug.
It was a different way to experience my daily encounter with nature but lively and fun despite my discomfort.
I'm giving myself a pat on the back for meeting both my challenges today - it would have been easy to give up at the first hurdle along the path.
Tomorrow, and each Wednesday of the Ultimate Blog Challenge, will be Wordless Wednesday. I'll be posting photographs with captions and no further commentary.
See you then!
Good on you for carrying through in alternate way. I have similar issue at different times of my life. Those times I travel on cruises. I always have a bathroom close by. :-)
Of course we all have to assess, reassess, and then make decisions based on that, every time we make a commitment like the UBC. Congratulations for pressing on.
I love the pictures from nature that you featured
God bless! Laurie