THIS PAGE CAN'T BE DISPLAYED. This damned computer is driving me crazy. I get this message on just about every post I try to look at. After refreshing several times I may or may not see the post. I don't know if this will show up but we'll see in a minute.
Sometimes it depends on how old your computer is, how good your internet connection is and how many people are on here at the time you post. Have had it happen to me, but just hit "Refresh" or restart the computer.
Good morning to you from a sunny St.Peter today, I have adjusted to the slower pace of life here, with no work on the horizon at the moment, though the kitchen ceiling here does need painting We are going away for a long weekend tomorrow (Friday) until Monday evening, on a train journey to a small town in the north of the Karelia region, called Sortavala, which has been part of both Sweden and Finland in the past. I will copy a potted history below... The train journey is five and a half hours and I have rented a studio apartment in the old town for three nights, it's all very cheap at $5 for the train and $20 a night for the studio. We will also go on a day trip to Ruskeala some 25 miles further north, it's a famous marble canyon, naturalised from what was originally a disused Finnish marble quarry. The district of Sortavala was first recorded in Swedish documents dating to 1468. Russian documents first mention it as Serdovol or Serdobol in 1500. It was ceded to Sweden after the Ingrian War. With the 1721 Treaty of Nystad, the settlement was joined to Russia along with the rest of Old Finland and was given the Russian name Serdobol. It became known for its marble and granite quarries which provided materials necessary for construction of imperial palaces in St. Petersburg and its neighborhood. In 1812, along with the rest of Viipuri Province, it was joined to the newly formed Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1917, the town remained a part of independent Finland. It suffered extensively from mass Soviet bombardment during the Winter War, and through the Moscow Peace Treaty Finland was forced to cede the town to the Soviet Union. All of the population of the town was evacuated for the first time. Like the rest of Finnish Karelia, Sortavala was retaken by Finland during 1941–1944 (the period of the Continuation War) and most evacuees returned to rebuild their homes. However, after the armistice of 1944, the Finns were evacuated again and the town was ceded back empty of population. After the war, the town was resettled by the Slavic population. Until 1940, the Ladoga shore southwest of Sortavala had been one of the very few relatively densely populated areas north of the Karelian Isthmus populated by Karelians. Sortavala Ruskeala Marble Canyon Illuminations at night
So pretty Terry - I don't envy you the journey but I'm sure will be worth it Wishing you a fab time ! @Terry Page
Everyone Xx Its such a lovely day here - perfect weather, bright and cool Hope its lovely for you too
That's some really good prices @Terry Page for "vacationing"...here in America we won't find those prices anywhere! I love how your pictures seem to show places that take me back in time instead of so much concrete and steel that always seems futuristic to me. I know America still has places that haven't changed much and have kept their original charm, etc. but I don't really know where to find many of those places anymore. Good Morning Everyone! Hope all is well with each of you.
Good morning friends, it's a beautiful sunny morning here though only just above freezing point at the moment at 10:30 am. Lisa is away doing some business this morning, then we go to the station to catch the train which leaves just before 3:00pm, arriving in Sortavala at 8:30pm.... Have a great Friday whatever you are up to ....
Gorgeous pictures there Terry. bursting with all things bright and beautiful Wishing you a great journey ! @Terry Page
Love that April is only a week away, but how fast March went. Our temps for the last week of March are going to be more like May temps........in the lower to mid 80's, but not much rain. With a wildfire still going some northwest of us, if any of the smoke comes over us this weekend, we can't take the boat out and will have to stay inside. In a couple of weeks is Star Wars Celebration that we are going to in Orlando. Our first Star Wars Celebration and were really excited. Have a nice day everyone!
We are having warmer weather again, too, and in the 70's in the daytime, which is the perfect weather for being outside. My new Black and Decker cultivator arrived yesterday and I took it out to try it. It is lightweight and easy to use; but is not going to do much unless the soil has been well-tilled already. So, today, I will be back out there with the corded cultivator and working on more of the flowerbeds and garden areas. Hopefully , going to the dollar store for more seeds and some potting soil so I can start seeds indoors away from hungry squirrels. Your trip sounds wonderful @Terry Page , and the pictures of the marble quarry are awesome. It is wonderful that you can travel like you do, and still have a nice home to come back to again.
The weather here in my daughter's part of Texas has been beautiful, though quite windy most of the week and the grandbabies and I have been enjoying getting our Vitamin D from the sunshine every day. Today, I am cooking a big pot of homemade chicken vegetable soup and hopefully the natural antibiotics in chicken soup and with the garlic I add to it will clear out the last of any sickness germs my daughter's family has been fighting off for the last two weeks. Everyone is so much better now and I am so thankful God has heard our prayers in this. My daughter and son-in-law are both working today so I'm in charge of the grandbabies once again. It will not be a long day though as my son-in-law will be home around 2pm to relieve me. Yesteday morning I had some irregular heartbeats but no other signs that anything was seriously wrong...and they didn't last very long either. This is the first time I have experienced any since coming here almost two weeks ago. I'm pretty sure they were caused by the extra strong coffee they make each morning which I decided to have a cup of yesterday. For the most part I stick to decaf green tea but I do allow myself a cup of regular coffee every now and then but when I do I always have a weak cup of this. I did not take time to add more water to weaken theirs though and it wasn't long after this that my heart started beating irregularly. I started drinking lots of water and in no time it stopped. So I am pretty sure that regular coffee, especially when it is strong...is a definite trigger for this. May you all be blessed with a wonderful day in every way.
@Babs Hunt , one of the things that my cardiologist told me was that the irregular heartbeats are more likely to happen when your heart is beating faster. He has me on something called Coreg/carvedilol, which he says is like putting a blanket over my heart to keep it beating slower. I have one of the cheap blood pressure/heart rate monitors that go on the wrist, and I check that several times per day to make sure that my heartbeat is staying slow. The offset from that is that I have less energy; but as long as it is keeping my heart in regular rhythm then I can deal with the lower energy level. I do have coffee in the morning; but only one cup, and maybe a warm-up. As long as my heart rate is slow, the coffee does not seem to be an issue. I enjoy your pretty little birds and flowers every morning, @Patsy Faye ! I hope you get to feeling better because I also enjoy it when you are feeling well enough to get involved in our conversations here. You always add good input to whatever topic you post in and I look forward to reading what you have to say. Both you and @Ina I. Wonder are special to me, and I keep you in my prayers, and hope that you both start feeling better again.
@Yvonne Smith my Cardiologist does not want to put me on any medication since there is no steady pattern of irregular beats at this time. Unlike yours, mine does not happen whenever my heart beats faster...but I have found that the allergy medication I was taking, and the medication I was taking for my GERD would cause episodes so I take my allergy meds as little as possible until I can get into to see the Allergist and start taking shots and hopefully find some safer meds. As for my GERD I am still not taking any more of the medication I used for years for this...and I have not been having much of a problem at all since making the yogurt smoothies and taking the coconut oil.
That is great, @Babs Hunt , and I was not suggesting that you should take medicine like I have to take. I was just sharing what my doctor said about the heart more likely to stay in rhythm with a slower heartbeat, and have arrithmia when it beats faster. Mine stays around 60 beats per minute now, and I try to be careful when I am working outside or exercising that I do not let the heart rate get much faster than 70 at the most, which is still pretty slow. When mine first starting jumping out of rhythm, it was erratic also, and didn't seem to be connected to any activities that I did. Now that I have had it for so many years, I just have to be much more careful what I do and how I do it. It is great that they are taking care of yours so early in the process.