This area of the website is somewhere you will hopefully find something to smile about. Humour, laughter and smiling are all good for our mental wellbeing. Laughter can alleviate stress and ease anxiety and tension.
In the months after my husband died, my son and I watched a lot of comedy movies and series. For once, I wasn’t angry at the money my husband had spent on the DVD sets. Comedy is personal, what one person finds amusing another doesn’t. My favourite types of movies are rom-coms; musicals are my second choice. When it comes to TV shows Fawlty Towers, Dad’s Army, Keeping Up Appearances and Waiting for God are my go to series that put a smile on my face and make me laugh out loud, no matter how many times I watch.
Things that make you laugh and smile don’t need to be a movie, a TV series, or a joke, but can also be good memories, looking at nature, gardening, cooking, music, photos, the list is endless. I have used all of the aforementioned to relieve stress, including gardening! Whilst they are not rom-coms two of my favourite movies series are The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and The Hobbit Trilogy. The reason being is that they were filmed in New Zealand, a place that I visited back in 1981 and still holds many good memories. I love the scenery and enjoyed the extras that came with both box sets that showed the external locations for various scenes in the movies, some of which I had been to or near. Even listening to music from either film can take me back to that happy time and I immediately feel less stressed.
So that is what this section of the website site is about and one that will be added to on a regular basis. Enjoy.
The Deer
One of the best parts of living where we did in Oregon was being able to see the deer close up. I loved watching them, but always remembered to give them plenty of space. The following pictures were taken out of our living room window.
Gus the Gull
Gus the Gull was briefly in my life, during the visit to the Oregon coast that my husband and I took shortly after he was made redundant. Our room at the hotel was on the ground floor and had sliding doors out to a small deck; beyond that were the beach and the sea. Shortly after we arrived I noticed a gull walking up and down the deck. I hadn’t eaten all my sandwich from lunch so careful took some of the bread from the sandwich and broke it into small pieces. I went to the door and slowly opened it. Gus hopped back a bit and waited for me to put the bread down. Once I was back inside and the door closed, he came and ate the bread. For the remainder of the stay, Gus came to visit looking for food. I made sure he had plenty. I rather suspect he made a habit of checking ground floor rooms at the hotel to see who would feed him. He was definitely one of the highlights of that trip.
Crater Lake
I love mountains and water. I have read that Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the Western Hemisphere and the third-deepest in the world. For me, what is so spectacular about it is the colour of the water. The picture doesn’t do justice as to how blue the water is. Looking at the picture of the lake and the Wizard Island which is the island you can see, gives me such a sense of peace and tranquillity, I often look at the pictures that were taken when I want to relax.
