I've been exercising 3-4 times since last Monday with a regime that now has me walking at a fast pace for 30 minutes every other day. And I have been getting up each morning at 7.30....a new experience for me!!!!! So far I have survived two weeks.

The pulse timer and watch thingy I was given to wear - and which I gave up on after five days - I am back to wearing following a visit to our local gym where (in desperation) I got one of the intructors to show me how to set it.

Now it seems to be working fine.

But I have given away the steep hill cl;imb and staiur climb for two freasons:

(a) both were in reasonably isolated areas, and had I collapsed it could have been ages before anyone found me and

(b) I was having difficulty in even doing them.

I have now, on the advice of Monash Hospital, switched to 3 days (at least) of fast walking for 30-45 minutes day until I see my contact person on Wednesday of this week. The main problem with the exercise is not the heart rate...it's the knees, which start giving out on me after 30 minutes. My knees have always given me problems, even pre-pstroke.

Apart from all this, life continues at the normal rate.

Jules is getting very excited as our architect, Ian, has offered to build her a garden summer house at cost as a model for a new enterprise he is considering (building garden summer houses!!). He has arrived at preliminary drawings, and I reckon it will start very soon.

Why?

Because Ian's partner, Simion is a top frrelance photographer for a plush home-style and garden magazine, and he believes our cottage will be featured in an early summer edition. And the garden summer house would - in addition to our renovations - be a great advert for Ian's skills as a designer.

I am painting fencing palings and fixing them just outside our solar powered garage roller door, and Jules, bless her heart, is planting yet more shrubs and greenery - and ripping out sticky weed and arum lillies.

Today's weather is idyllic! A balmy and sunny spring day...