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The Awesome Hen

"The Awesome Hen"

An illustrated Newsletter from a virtual English village full of hens

#FridayFitness: the Press-up

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#FridayFitness: the Press-up

 

 

 

Castle Coop’s #FridayFitness Class: Exercise of the week:

 

 

 

Exercise and physical activity are a great way to feel better.

Winded by grocery shopping or household chores? Regular physical activity can improve your muscle strength and boost your endurance. Exercise and physical activity deliver oxygen and nutrients to your tissues and help your cardiovascular system work more efficiently. And when your heart and lungs work more efficiently, you have more energy to go about your daily chores.

(Source:  Mayo Clinic )

The Press-up:

Today’s #FridayFitness exercise is the Press-up which is designed to build muscle strength and boost endurance. Apparently of all the exercises one can do, the press-up is one of the most effective: should you wish to improve your  pectoralis major, anterior deltoids and triceps, there is nothing that tops it. Those who are skilled at performing press-ups can further improve themselves with a brisk rendition of the Military Press-up.

To do regular pushups, you bend your arms and lower your chest until it breaks the plane of your elbows. Military pushups require a full range of motion: Marines must touch their chests to the floor for every pushup.

Source: www.ehow.com

To enjoy the many benefits of the Press-up however, you may be glad to know that you don’t need to be a Marine or even to join the Army.

 

 The Press-up

 

 

Yours imagining Samson’s press-ups were probably a bit more successful than mine, before horrid Delilah went & cut off his hair,

LLH signature

 

 

 

If you would like to become a virtual member of our Castle Coop fitness classes, do sign up in the comment box below – we should all be delighted to welcome you.

So as you know what we are doing, so far we have practiced:

The Russian Twist

The Lunge

The Squat

The Toe-touch

Our class is held at 10.30am in the Village Hall – we all drink coffee together after the class and eat Brownies kindly cooked by Lady Sebright. They are delicious and immediately undo all the good work of our class.

 

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A Cautionary Tale

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A Cautionary Tale

A Cautionary Tale

 

Just in case any of you are thinking of Spring Cleaning in the near future, I thought I should post this cautionary tale so that you may take an informed decision as to whether or not it’s a good idea…

 

What happens when Martha Stewart cleans her windows:

Miss Martha Stewart, America’s legendary home-making guru, instructs:

Dirty panes are no problem when you use rubber-edged squeegees, which are quicker and more effective than cloth or newspaper. They come in a variety of sizes — and a screw-on extension will let you reach high spots.

To start, dip a sponge into a bucket of warm water and a few drops of mild dish soap. Wet window; rub dirt away. Dampen squeegee; starting at an upper corner, draw it down pane from top to bottom. Repeat, overlapping strokes and wiping rubber edge with sponge after each stroke. (For large windows, ”snake” squeegee back and forth; then touch up edges.) Dry windowsills with a cloth.

(Source: www.marthastewart.com)

 

What happens when I clean my windows:

Feeling inspired, I decided to clean the insides of my windows a while ago. I don’t have a rubber-edged squeegee but I equipped myself with a proper glass cleaner and an e-cloth so I could feel pleasantly like Ms. Stewart.

window cleaning kit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While I was rubbing a few dirty spots away, I happened to notice a small cobweb just at the top of the window, under the curtain pelmet.

While I was de-cobwebbing the curtain, I realised that actually there were dreadful cobwebs all over the house so I had to spend ages wobbling about on top of a ladder while wafting around the vacuum cleaner with all its extension tubes attached.

De-cobwebbing.

I ended up wearing several cobwebs which is not a great look. The washing machine had to go into overdrive and there was no hot water left for my emergency bath.

Once the walls were de-cobwebbed successfully, I suddenly noticed that they could do with a paint.

paint

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While I was painting the kitchen, I saw that the skirting boards were horribly scuffed and needed a good sanding down.

  • sander

 

 

 

 

After I’d finished with the sander, I discovered I’d been a bit over-enthusiastic and had to apply 2 tubes of wood filler to fill in the dents I’d made.

woodfiller

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having filled up all the holes and sanded everything down again, I then had to remove all the cupboard doors from their hinges and take off the handles

handle

 

 

 

 

so that I could paint all the woodwork.

When I took the cupboard doors off to be painted,

cupboard door

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had to tidy up everything in the cupboard before it all fell out onto the floor.

After I had re-hung the doors on their hinges, I found some un-nerving left-overs which I don’t know what to do with.

left-overs

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also found some paint splodges on the floor and had to steam clean it. As I had the steam cleaner out, I decided to whizz it over the curtains and discovered the lining in one pair had torn and needed replacing. Mending the curtains took up all a weekend I had been carefully saving for better things. When I re-hung the curtains, I noticed that the windows needed cleaning.

 I believe Messrs Flanders and Swann once suffered a similar problem and were inspired to write a song called, ‘The Gas Man cometh’ …  www.youtube.com

 

And the moral of this cautionary tale is…

Before you decide to embark on anything rash, do please decide whether you resemble Martha Stewart or me most closely so that you can plan the forseeable future accordingly.

Yours vigorously querying the assertion that, ‘Dirty panes are no problem’,

LLH signature

 

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Caveat Emptor!

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Caveat Emptor!

Brown Owl’s Rallying Cry – Caveat Emptor!

 

 

 

Good gracious! Look who I have just found in my inbox!

Brown Owl and Ld. Kitchener

 

Lord K has been roped in to spearhead a firm email from Brown Owl. Determined not to let any grass grow under our feet, she is clearly wasting no time in mustering the support of The Big Guns.

 

OPEN IMMEDIATELY: THIS EMAIL MEANS BUSINESS!

To ALL Upper, Lower & Castle Coopians,

With the General Election seemingly in full swing, albeit still many weeks away, I have asked our local candidate for the constituency of which we form a part, to join us in Castle Coop Village Hall at 7pm to listen to me make a short address.

I shall inform our local candidate that the District Council is currently basing its Local Plan on the assumption that over 7,000 new homes will need to be built in the area. I shall then ask our local candidate to mingle with us with us so that we can all discuss before the election everything that makes this constituency tick, what the big issues are and how we should like to be represented. 


 Please turn out in force.

Ensure our local candidate understands what The Coops stand for.

 

The doors will open at 6.30pm  There will be a cash bar and the Brownies will be handing round refreshments so that they may earn points for their Hostess, Community Spirit and Civic Duty Badges.

Carpe Diem!

Ad Astra per Aspera!

Caveat Emptor!

Rally to the cause!

Brown Owl signature

 

 

Caveat emptor? Is Brown Owl getting a little carried away?

Yours, hoping that no disasters (such as nearly happened to the Agent’s birthday raspberry tartlet) occur to the Brownies’ refreshments,

Martha eyeing up fruit tartlet

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