Sunday 30 June 2013

These foolish things

Loved the hot and sunny weather yesterday but loved the cool mist this morning too. I'm grateful I appreciate British weather! I know millions enjoy complaining about it but just enjoying it's better for you I'm sure...

I know you shouldn't dwell on the past but I'm still grateful for the memory of yesterday. Congenial and non-coerced company is always a rare treat for me, on a weekend triply so. In beautiful surroundings on a beautiful day? Years can go by in between! 

You ready for the scent of roses now?


How about this rather 'wail of steamers' view? It really is the kind of place even a non-smoking teetotaller finds themselves reaching for the cocktail glass and cigarette holder...


I'm grateful for skinny jeans for men. What else would fit the matchstick legs of those Rolling rockers? Good on them tho...fair play! For the red button that gives you a choice of court by day and of band in the evening this time of year...and thus for catching some of the Orb's great set. Gentlemen also of a certain age, but slightly younger and considerably less flamboyant!

Saturday 29 June 2013

Smelling of roses

I give thanks for being extremely tired...after a long and lovely day out! I give thanks for having a great idea of a place to go, and of someone who a) might like to take me there and b) was free to do so...also for delightfully appropriate weather for the excursion...

For remarkably traffic free roads, and sunny hours spent exploring gorgeously lush English country gardens full of beautiful flowers, shrubs and trees with sparkling sea as a back drop. For delicious cakes and ice cream from the tea rooms and sosmix sausage rolls and grapes to nibble en route and sustain us on the climb. There's photos to upload but not tonight...and even they could not convey the glorious fragrances of the roses, wisteria and so on... Wonderful!

Friday 28 June 2013

Bums on seats

​It's been some years since I changed a loo seat, years in which I've become considerably less nimble of finger and knee...and have acquired a very tiny bathroom! I'd never encountered fittings quite like the ones that came with this new one, and the instructions left me even more bemused... So, although it took an absurd amount of time, and left me ludicrously feeble afterwards, I'm exceptionally grateful for finally getting the job done today... and for at last having a wooden seat again as I do prefer them at home and have been meaning to replace the plastic one I had for over five years now!

I'm grateful I did a few other odds and ends beforehand so I could do nothing more demanding than snooze, drink Earl Grey tea, eat chocolate digestives, and watch tennis for a long while afterwards...giving thanks for tea, TV, chocolate digestives, the roof over Centre Court and some peace to snooze in, of course!

I'm grateful for books to read, whisking me away from troubles and strife...

Thursday 27 June 2013

Perfect

​I'm grateful for the lovely lush sound of the rain dripping on and off the leaves outside, for the mildness so the window can be open to hear this better! I'm grateful there was sun earlier on for those who were out and about...and greyness later for those like me who were home all day...

I'm grateful for a little bit of progress on sewing projects...and a lot of not beating myself up about the smallness of it...my mind always works faster than my hands can do!

I gave thanks also for a fascinatingly different programme about being single and not wanting to be, when two such folk swapped lives for a few days, meeting colleagues, friends, exes and parents to see if they could determine what the reason might be the other was unwillingly on the shelf. I liked it from the start due to simply to this premise. Usually, don't you find, advice is given by people who aren't in the situation themselves? Obviously no one's ever in your version of reality except you, but unless you're an 'expert' what do you know that's worth passing on. Or put it another way, if you are an expert what do you know about not being one?

There were some interesting insights into how we as humans tend to relate and respond as well. Despite a fairly well rounded appraisal of the character's characteristics their problems were generally perceived to revolve in the man's case around delaying behaving in a way suitable to a mature relationship until he met the person he wanted to have one with, and for the woman that she persistently believed the guy who treated her wrong was actually Mr Right, and he just needed to change his ways... Even if you've been contentedly committed for forever, or are simply serenely single I'm sure you can identify to some extent with the idea that there's a perfect something just around the corner, and that you'll be a lot more perfect when everyone else is too! It's a common human imperfection!

Oh and I'm grateful for having another go at encouraging perfection in those (to my eyes) less than perfect neighbours: I offered to lend them an extension lead to vacuum up the mess they've made on the stairs. Unfortunately they declined...

 

 

Wednesday 26 June 2013

Lawn, tennis

I'm grateful to the companies who so swiftly and graciously replaced goods I'd ordered from them that mysteriously went astray...including a couple of pieces of cotton lawn that look like this...

...and for one of the staff I dealt with being a tennis fan so there was something else to talk about too!

I've been very tired today so much gratitude for even quite apparently undemanding and underwhelming tasks achieved...and for quite a lot of doing little (except watching a little tennis!)

To Laura for taking me to the dump to dump things broken, worn out or needing to be recycled, and to Wilkinson to buy some new ones too! For running into a couple of nice neighbours during the process and exchanging a few friendly words restoring some faith in my place of residence.

For a charity shop she wanted to go in having a book I wanted to read...


Tuesday 25 June 2013

Let me eat cake

​​I give thanks for the comments of encouragement on Facebook yesterday. And that, by a twist of fate, Laura phoned in the evening and offered to come round and see me in person then and there when I responded so feebly to 'How are you?' It was good to have a real hug instead of a virtual one, and someone to really talk to instead of type a few words...and to actually see some of the problems in action as it were. I think it was good too for some of the problems to see someone else coming to my door as well! And it was certainly very pleasant not to talk or think about problems for a while when I'd let off steam...So much gratitude for all of that!

This morning I was grateful that I'm slim and supple since full access to my store rooms is not possible right now but I discovered I could insinuate a part of myself into them even if things wider than me couldn't come out! Also gave thanks for being less achey today so this wasn't too much of a pain! It was tiring though, so I was very grateful for a final push to get me out of the door and down to the seafront for tea and cake. My appetite is poor when I'm stressed and depressed (and I'm sure some of you will read that and think you'd be grateful for such a state of affairs!) but I always think when you don't feel like eating anything much it's better to eat something than not at all. And I'm definitely grateful that I can eat cake and still get into small spaces...

I gave thanks too when the pharmacist was out and I couldn't pick up my prescription right away as it meant I bided my time in a charity shop or two and found on the rail a dress that had been in the window a couple of weeks ago, and I had not thought to see again (except perhaps on its purchaser) as it was so pretty...but it also turned out to be a rather particular shape that wouldn't fit just anybody - maybe only my body actually. There's one or two places where the seams need re sewing, perhaps where more ample ones have tried to squeeze in but my body can deal with that I think too! I shall definitely see it on its purchaser now!

Oh, and just before I 'went to press' with this, sitting down to some tennis for the first time today and catching the end of the latest giant kill...and by a Brit girl too! Thank you to Miss Robson for bringing another smile...

Monday 24 June 2013

It simply isn't cricket!

I give thanks for the sight of the beautiful bright moon yesterday evening lighting up the beautiful sea...

For finally getting some sleep in a difficult night

For making it three quarters of the way through a very difficult day (depending on what time I get to sleep of course)

For eventually tracking down the arcane instructions for bypassing the red button glitches so I could watch some tennis...I'd thought it would be an 'Oh well, at least I can watch tennis!' sort of day. It wasn't.

For realising the irony of having a metaphoric door close at the same time as a real one wouldn't open...

A hug is wider than a smile,
A wait is longer than a while
A hope may bound beyond the ties
Of reason, til it falls and dies

Sunday 23 June 2013

As seen on screen

You might have wondered why I praised the photos on the BBC site yesterday rather than all the other places I might find them...well, there's diversity of subject and photographer, ease of access on my phone and a blissful lack of a) adverts (including those sneaky ones with arrows you click on by mistake to get to the next page!) and b) a 'comments' facility so I can read in peace the messages I see in the images alone and not get side tracked by others' vitriol and venom! Much gratitude always for that...
 
Today I went on the I Can't Believe It Facebook page as I couldn't find their ordinary web page and thus discovered the mind bending and (to me) utterly delicious work of this photographer/image manipulator
And then I did find the site and am thus able to also share the wonder of snow rolls which I'd never heard of before but might have thought came from a supermarket freezer compartment if I did http://www.icantbelieveit.org/2012/12/snow-rolls.html?m=0
I am greatly grateful for all of the above!
 
I'm grateful for a mathematician working out you need to send 746 messages to find online love...and that I've used my hands for projects with better returns today. I've cut down one of those waterproof picnic blankets to suit the needs of someone with less friends and less food at a picnic and attended to a few other things that seemed to require my attention. Not a lot though...and I give much thanks for that too...

Saturday 22 June 2013

Pet sounds

When I wake in pain the first thing I usually do is groan, blaspheme and swear so I'm grateful there's no one around to be alarmed or offended!

Then I have to find something to distract me in a positive way and I give thanks for my Streak and the world wide web and for the wonder-full photo collections on the BBC website (not bothered about the news itself)...and then sometimes I get into a 'what would I do if I could' mood and go internet shopping or planning trips that cash or some other encumbrance scupper.

This morning I was trying to work out how to get to Scotland (again) and thought I must be imagining it when a wisp of music on the breeze sounded like bagpipes but bagpipes indeed it was, stirring not only my soul but remarkably my body too so that I did the nearest thing to leaping out of bed my body is capable of.

So I'm grateful to the folk festival for that...and other free offerings including a beautifully restored traditional caravan opposite the pet shop that you could actually go up the steps and scrape your chin off the floor in. Gorgeous, gorgeous inside! Also for the sight of a solitary be-raggled Morris dancer pulling a suitcase on wheels (not something you see everyday), shanty harmonies and cloggy dancing and for the brilliant bands at the other non-folk festival around the corner (yes, there were two!) including a Doobie Bros Long Train Running cover to blow your socks off if the wind weren't doing it already!

So yes, lots of fun things to see and do but I was grateful too for giving up and coming home after a couple of hours as the aches and pains just weren't funny any more and I needed to be on my sofa where groaning and moaning aloud is allowed and merciful sleep could ensue. And now, more or less upright again I'm grateful for junk food and junk TV which is what Saturday nights are for, aren't they? Well, all mine are fit for anyway...



Friday 21 June 2013

And sew on...

I'm grateful to Pat for sending me some links to 'cheer me up as the weather was grey' including (coincidentally) a view of a favourite spot on St Agnes in the Scilly Isles...but I'm also very thankful for the grey weather itself...much better for staying quietly indoors which is what I'm needing a lot of right now, and actually rather beautiful in its own way I think too! I give thanks she enjoyed Bob's ironic ad and for Ann's story of her prize winning GP who really does seem to care about people as well as about his job...

I'm grateful for a bit of sewing done off and on today along with chores and snores, and that yay...I've finally finished a top I began making weeks and weeks ago but which has fought me every stitch of the way! Never have I encountered such obstinacy in fabric and notions...even surpassing Jo's silk suit and blouse c.1983 and that's really saying something...as Bananarama might have been singing in the background at the time!

I'm grateful I have eggs and don't mind breaking them to make an omelette for my supper...

Thursday 20 June 2013

Deep

Mmm, I give thanks a lovely grey day...we might not see far when its misty but we see with greater perception of depth.

I'm grateful for the end of that pesky fatigue diary...making me feel like a schoolgirl with homework to do! The 'teacher' only looked at one page so the usefulness of her observations was obviously limited, but I finally realised that I'm more tired when I'm in pain, and more depressed when I'm tired and in pain, and get more stressed when I'm depressed and tired and in pain, and struggling to do things I need to do let alone those I enjoy...so I'm grateful for that clarity about my situation, including that I only have myself to blame if I'm not enjoying what I do...  Also for the reminder that people doing their job do not actually care about you...they might be caring at their job but that's not the same thing. When you're on your own in the world you can get muddled about this sometimes...

I give thanks for these beautiful cabochons that arrived the other day. I've not a clue what I shall do with them but I was buying some trimmings from somewhere where the postage price was the same however much you bought, so of course was looking in all the website sections, even those I was sure had nothing for me...and there I found these low cost, high joy irresistibilities!

Oh and I give thanks that my acupuncture appointment is late today...it's being a very slomo day!


Wednesday 19 June 2013

Rapid response

This morning the neuro physio looked at the fatigue diary she'd urged me to keep for a week or two and suggested perhaps a daily blog was tiring me mentally (and unnecessarily). Perhaps I failed to convey the point, insofar as there is one, but it left me feeling somewhat pointless even though I know she was, as are most of us most of the time, following her script...waiting only for my words to finish so she could say more of her own. I'm grateful that she tried to be helpful...and I'm grateful that I try to be too!

I'm gave thanks for a sunny afternoon and a peaceful sit in the gardens where two very enthusiastic dogs hurtled across the grass to meet me and their owner exchanged less eager but nonetheless friendly greetings too...and for Imee Ooi's music soothing my soul.

I was on a crowded train yesterday afternoon with a young woman reading aloud from a well thumbed bible into her mobile phone and interspersing quotations with comments such as 'Everything I am doing is with the Lord's blessing', 'Nothing can go wrong, it's all the way he wants it to be'. I was sincerely grateful it was Christian zeal she was exhibiting, as any other sort would have probably resulted in more than eyebrows raised...

I'm grateful for finding the tea towel that concealed itself so successfully in the washing machine drum despite several searches for it there...  And for hearing from a couple of people whose responses I'd been waiting on, including Kostas who has been moving a little nearer the only likely exit from Death Row the last couple of months and whom I hope I can continue to find appropriate responses of my own for, for as long as they are required.

Tuesday 18 June 2013

Clean lines

Smoke dark sky with bright white seagull

Black cat crossing yellow fresh cut grass

Going to bed early to listen to the rain

More sleep and less pain

Jenny cleaning my windows

Monday 17 June 2013

Reel life

When the pain's a pain it can be hard to get enough sleep so I'm grateful for the snoozes I snatch here and there. I also give thanks when I have a bad night that I don't (not)sleep alone as it would be very tedious for someone else to put up with all the wriggling and turning and sighing and groaning that punctuate the times when I just breathe and bear it mindfully....Though I was also grateful for being brave enough and bothered enough to get up again at half past midnight to ask whoever it was upstairs to stop whatever it was they were doing please ...and that they did!

I give thanks for an unexpectedly chatty day, shame most of it was about medical matters but it's a conversation's always a bit of a treat for me anyhow and some of it was with some nice people from next door I encountered on my way to the post box rather than doctors and nurses! And for a new physio coming up with a new idea. Also for an unexpected boost of...well, energy's a bit strong...willingness to move...that saw me back with the pins and scissors and sewing machine for a while this evening...

Most of all I'm grateful for being sent a link to the most wonderful film called Samsara that had me spellbound for 100 mins (give or take the anxious buffering pauses). As the title suggests there is potentially a spiritual element but it's without words and non-denominational (or non-dominational as I always think the phrase should be!) so it's up to how you interpret see such a varied and stunning collection of images. I shall be watching it at least once again I'm sure for there were many things I was very grateful to see. Much gratitude to the very talented people who put it together, and to Peter for correctly surmising it might be just right for the not rightness I'm feeling right now http://viooz.co/movies/15030-samsara-2011.html



Sunday 16 June 2013

Rackets

Last night I was grateful for the sound of owls calling to one another in the wee small hours (often preferable to the sound of humans doing the same thing!)...this morning for a big mug of tea and ginger oatcakes in bed to finish a book I was enjoying. Also for some very cheery church bells...

Oh, and backtracking, gratitude for the bag of bath melt misshapes and off cuts I found in town yesterday which I tub tested last night and now know to be money well spent.

I was grateful that the Queen's final was scheduled for an earlier start so that I had to get my act together by noon...and then that there was another rain delay as someone was doing some drilling and hammer and chiselling a few feet away, presumably changing the lock on the flat door upstairs though whether this is a good thing or a bad thing I can't at this stage decide. Depends who's doing it I suppose, and why...the week before last one resident there called the the police to break in as they said they feared another was dead inside, but it was a different person entirely in the flat and I'm not quite sure what rendered them incapable of opening the door. Loath to clear up the pieces of wood and debris on the communal landing on the grounds of encouraging some sense of responsibility I'm extra thankful I didn't now as there may be a whole lot more...

I'm grateful for a few chores done and for finding ready made curry in the fridge just past its use by date so making food wasn't one of them! Also for the highly entertaining charity tennis for some of the long sitting downy bits in between...good sport maybe not, but very good sports playing!

I give thanks for fathers today too...for everyone who has enjoyed a warm relationship with theirs, for everyone who's been a good one...

Saturday 15 June 2013

For laughing out loud

I give thanks for Dave Lamb making me laugh out loud last night on Come Dine With Me and some old old Motown on a Marvin Gaye documentary making me smile

For getting up and out to get some shopping this morning including books, strawberries and bath treats...what more could a woman want, eh?

For not getting wet or blown away

For one of the nicer neighbours greeting me, one of the shopkeepers and the cab driver having a little chat...

For a bit more clearing out and sorting out...

For falling asleep on the sofa afterwards...and that rain had stopped play at the time...

Friday 14 June 2013

Low pressure

As I've been very low in spirits recently, today I've been thinking about what there is to be grateful for in that...

Well, for a start that there's no one around to have to fake a happy face for (I look like a kicked pug when I've been crying), to make well meant but wide of the mark suggestions or to plate up the platitudes. Sadly, kind words do not make sadness go away and both parties can feel a sense of failure if they try this treatment and it doesn't succeed.

In a wry way I have gratitude for the many times of feeling deeply down I've experienced over the years, as I've learnt the best thing is to treat the mood like a weather low, batten down the hatches, wrap yourself up in as much comfort as you can find and wait for the storm to pass...

I'm grateful this phase coincides with such a bad time with my joints as I don't feel like doing a lot of physical stuff just now anyhow

I'm grateful for books to read, my drug of choice for depression...and tennis on TV

And I give thanks that I love myself because when you're sad you want to be with someone you love, don't you? I might be a misery guts but I don't suffer from lack of self esteem...that's something else entirely!

Thursday 13 June 2013

Tree share

I give thanks for the sigh of the wind in the leaf laden trees, the patterns and textures as they swirl. For having windows to look out of and trees outside them. For the senses of sight and hearing. For the opportunity to sit and stare, and to share my appreciation.

Wednesday 12 June 2013

Power points

Gratitude for fun with power cuts 'on and off' last night...for candles and torches and so on...and being able to access the local Facebook page via my phone for a while and see how other areas of the town were being affected.

That all services are working again today, and for the grey and showery weather as I am still not! Much stillness required again...

For discovering a quilted bedspread I thought I'd have to get to the launderette would, with persuasion, go into the washing machine.

For a very speedy and understanding response from BT regarding my call charge for not hanging up properly one day before leaving the house (and the other end not doing so either) so that I was connected for three and a half hours! Initial reaction to an enquiry to 'our colleagues overseas' about this had not been favourable so I was delighted when a lovely lady called Sandra from 'up north' could see the points I'd made made sense and refunded me in a very friendly manner...

For realising that when we say we don't like someone and it's due to something they've done or haven't, or said or haven't said or because of what they believe, think, wear, watch, read etc...it's not. Of course this also holds true if someone decides they don't like you...but though I'm notoriously poor at social skills (and it's been cited as a reason why people don't like me!) even I can see that pointing this out won't help the situation at all!

Tuesday 11 June 2013

World without bend

Fit last night only for soup and toast, I gave the kitchen staff the night off and heartfelt thanks I had a can of rather nice tomato and basil and some rye mix bread, plus organic butter, with cheese to grate and garlic to chop as garnish. A banquet of simple culinary pleasures and I'm grateful to the Tesco delivery service for delivering me some more today...

Immense gratitude too for a long hot bath and an early night with paracetamol and silent neighbours. It would be over simplistic to blame my pain on over exertion yesterday because my wrists and elbows have been giving me gyp as well and I didn't walk on my hands at all, not even a tiny bit! I think what hurts and how it hurts us can be as arbitrary physically as emotionally sometimes and I'm (usually) grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow that pain can bring... One should, of course, live in the present moment however uncomfortable that may seem, but my mind has brought me moments from yesterday sometimes which I nonetheless recall with gratitude too...sights I saw, words I heard and thoughts that came to me (the beautiful gardens and bountiful hedgerows, the cheery chat of bus drivers, the inklings of the way things actually are instead of the ways we prefer to perceive them). I even remembered the large bag of bargain chocolate 'all sorts' I bought in a Thornton's along the way and had opened but far from finished and which had been left in my bag for hours. Mmm...and in writing that I've remembered them all over again! These are (some of) the steps down to the little empty beach with those stunning rocks...


I'm grateful that before I went to bed I had the presence of mind to set all manner of pointless programmes to record as, for comfort's sake, all movement has to be kept to a minimum today, and it's been showery for the tennis at Queen's.

I give thanks for coming across an appreciation blog on the meetanostomate forum...and for these neologisms...whether for real or for editorial effect they are amusing and clever at times...http://www.studentbeans.com/worldweirdweb/a/weird/29-urban-dictionary-words-you-need-to-know4555.html

Monday 10 June 2013

Ley of the land

Today I gave thanks that my spirit's desire for the solace of scenery and stimulation of pastures new overrode my achy and argumentative body's urging to stay home and be inactive. I'd realised somewhere I was taken by car briefly some years ago and have longed to go back to is accessible by bus. Well, three buses to be exact, or two buses and two trains to be most pleasingly picturesque. This might seem a horrendous journey to those who have private transport but it meant lots of opportunities for refreshment and 'comfort' breaks and lots of sitting down in between. And the views were amazing...ear to ear delightful, chin on chest charming and tears in eyes gorgeous... 

I'm grateful for the joy they gave me...and the friendly souls I met, including a woman who prompted the man with her to carry my tea tray for me when she spotted me taking things off it at the counter to enable me to bear the weight of it to my table, and a couple who shared a laugh with me at the angst of others when we all realised we'd got the bus times wrong! Gratitude also for the parts when I urged my needy knees to go that little bit further til there were no friendly souls, other than mine, around at all... And for the sight and sound of ducks - very soothing and amusing when you feel like telling the world to duck off! One must take the rough with the smooth...


I also give thanks for...

the ice blue sea you see when there's a sunset

Swedish male train drivers wearing skirts in hot weather when wearing shorts was banned

the privilege of having known Tony and Carole even just a little bit

Sunday 9 June 2013

All sorts

We all have talents though some may be less apparent, less appreciated or downright imperceptible to a less than generous eye. Me? Oh, I've been more of an observer than an exhibitor this weekend...well, unless you count my skill at being quietly by myself, a talent not everyone round here displays! Much gratitude for my musical neighbours and their friends, there's some great guitarists and sweet voiced singers as well as that excellent young drummer...and wry faced respect for the abilities of others to sunbathe topless and carry on slanging matches within sight and sound of everyone else. It's kind of like the egg thrower on Britain's Got Talent and the flare bearer in the French Open final...not what you ordered from the menu but an unexpected and piquant dish on the side! Thanks too that, because all this was going on, I decided against a trip to the communal gardens myself as I was really rather tired after my trip to the beaches yesterday.

I'm grateful that there was a peaceful patch at the time I settled down to meditate, for those moments when you actually are in a meditative state rather than wanting or trying to be... and that you seem to feel more peaceful yourself, yet energised afterwards no matter how fleeting they may be.

I give thanks that everyone was also quiet last night...or if not I slept through it so thanks for that instead! For, despite my fatigue, getting the bed linen changed, the washing and cooking done and even some things not strictly necessary like a seam or two of sewing and another instalment of the Big Sort Out that's been dragging on a while. I aspire to know with some degree of accuracy not only what I have and where...but also, to some extent, why. Deeply satisfying but somewhat exhausting too...

Saturday 8 June 2013

I-spy

I'm grateful last night's neighbourly drama turned out not to be the tragedy that at first it seemed. It's always a little odd witnessing the version of events given to the authorities compared to what seems to be happening to me, but it was hilarious then hearing yet another a cab driver had been told today. Though I give thanks for knowing it's unkind to make fun, sometimes finding the humour is inevitable...and a chuckle now and then makes up for some of the stress!

Gratitude for not letting limited sleep stop me getting up and down to the beach...and for a very necessary very extended nap and snooze session when I got home... Thanks too to whoever is playing toe tapping music not too loudly but within earshot and helping me consider getting upright and in that kitchen to get some tea in the oven!

For surprisingly unshy robin on a fencepost and a little dog bounding along like a flying sausage...

For treating myself to a moussy slice of delicious chocolate orange almond gluten free 'cake' from a new shop just opened. I'll be back!

That a 'tankini' created from two quite different sources and tried out for the first time today worked so well. The top is not at all revealing and quite suitable in town to wear with a skirt over the shorts style ostomy friendly bottoms...well I hope it was as I did!

For realising GCHQ looks like an eye...

Friday 7 June 2013

Obscured

The milk of human kindness can be a tricky thing to pour. You might bestow yours on someone who is lactose intolerant or who keeps a herd of cows of which you're not aware. The recipient might not welcome the world version you envision in which you are abundant in beneficence and they lack and are in need. It is to be hoped, if so, they find the appropriate kind of kindness in their response. I am grateful for the opportunity to explore these thoughts...and dwelling much on tricky to glimpse cosmic obviousnesses of late I've had cause to be grateful for paper hankies a few times too!

I'm grateful for the mostly cloudy sky, having walked (relatively) far and wide yesterday and being singularly disinterested in getting up, let alone out today.

​For an angle grinder in the vicinity giving me a good opportunity to practise meditation during loud noise...and then making me give up and get out of bed​
​!

For the sound of a child falling over in the gardens downstairs and bursting into noisy tears...and then an adult encouraging them to 'keep fresh, count to ten and take a deep breath' so that they quickly focussed and stopped​ 
crying, soon laughing and chattering again instead.​

For the sight of ivy patiently climbing a tree...

And these nigella, already lovely in their misty stage...


Thursday 6 June 2013

A girl like me

Finding the lost thread (literally not metaphorically)

Writing the above and remembering Edwyn Collins' 'A girl like you'. I believe there's some debate as to who actually wrote this song but it's Edwyn's version I'm remembering and being grateful for!

Some sewing I was worried would be hard to get right turning out much easier than expected. Very satisfying. Much quicker that way too!

The taste of new potatoes

The feel of clean skin after a shower

Vernon Kay and Dave Lamb on TV making me laugh out loud

Getting my head round stuff

No shouting from the neighbours last night

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Clear loser

It's funny how sometimes we fail to see what's right in front of us, or we see it but fail to register what its implications are even when (or maybe just because) they are glaringly obvious. Struggling into a crowded waiting room at the hospital the other day I was wondering why it was always only me bumbling along with bags of this and that...and then I realised it's because everyone else has a car! This week I've had another dawn of common sense about a situation that, though uncomfortable in some ways as truth may sometimes be, is quite a relief in others. I give thanks for clarity. 

Gratitude for the cheerful delivery driver bringing surgical supplies with a smile and for a quiet hour in the gardens courtesy of headphones to fill my ears with Imee Ooi chants instead of other people's less than enchanting gossip. For the sunshine being warmer than some websites suggested it might be!

I give thanks for giving up on a protracted argument with Adobe reader also an equally fruitless search for a reel of thread that I was using yesterday but which, since then, has disappeared into another dimension. Some things are simply not meant to be...including the ones I meant to do during the time that passed before I gave up, over and above reading the document and sewing with the thread!

Never mind, I give thanks for a mug of Earl Grey tea instead...and doing the ironing. After that I'm fit for nothing else so I didn't care!

Tuesday 4 June 2013

Set and match

Wow, my teeth! I give thanks to the dentist for polishing away the stains and plan to take every opportunity to smile! They now almost match the lace on my Jane Austen top. ​I didn't plan to make a Jane Austen top and purists may argue that I didn't but the impure may see what I see and agree.

I give thanks for the way, if you allow it, creativity takes you places you had no idea you were on the way to when you picked up whatever instrument or medium you use and toddle off down the road...For freedom from patterns, recipes and even instructions wherever they can possibly be avoided for they bind your mind as well as guide it, you know!

Oh, and I'm grateful I have a new top to wear too...that fits the remit of no fastenings to confound my fumbly fingers and achey joints, fullness over the middle region to conceal my bag when its full, and length in the body to conceal any unscheduled emptying of the same. And that is pretty enough to make me forget all of the above for a while...

Gratitude for remembering the man on the bus the other day. Double decker and quite full with tourists and locals alike...except for a big gap around the big burly shaven headed guy at the front on the top. He kept his right arm up around shoulder height the whole journey so the chimpanzee puppet on it could look out of the window at various things. It was an interesting experience not to feel the oddest passenger!

I'm grateful I deleted some virtual 'conversations' which had been one sided or silent for a while and haunted my phone and email inboxes and contact lists...For going out in the sun for a while to warm the cockles of my heart instead...and then hearing from some of the people! For coming back in when the time felt right and it was randomly time for the tennis match I wanted to see... And for something that seems to be nut burgers mostly made in the kitchen - though I'm not quite at the end of the road with that one and will have to wait and see!


Monday 3 June 2013

Pass the port

Oooh, there are days...there are days I'm grateful this is a gratitude blog because a grumbling one would take a lot longer to write!

I'm grateful for the sunshine, and for being able to get out in it even though most of it was for chores and most of them seemed to involve queueing! And for being not far from here when I could see this moment on its way so I could get myself there to take a picture... I love watching the pilot steer tankers through all the non port related things on their route! They also have to turn round in a relatively tiny space when they get alongside the quay - fascinating and very clever.


I gave thanks for the view from my window too... of a cheerful line of washing and a fat wood pigeon hiding in the birch tree having a snack. Also for oven chips, fish fingers and beans cooking for my tea...comfort food almost handed to you on a plate and just what I need right now.

Last night I enjoyed seeing the alternative folk downstairs gathering round a brazier bonfire as darkness fell, and their friends with lit up hula hoops and twirly things putting on a festival style display...and that the drunkie junkies upstairs had enough of whatever they need to put them to sleep and sleep mostly through the night with only minimal shouting. May at least some of the above be repeated...



Sunday 2 June 2013

Making it

Is it a tornado? Is it a hurricane? No, it's nothing to do with weather or planes... It's a (sort of) angel in the making mode...

The tennis was boring, the neighbours we're warring, the sun was in and the people I wanted to talk to were out or offline or otherwise not responding, so sloth was in danger of turning into despondency... Until I made homity for lunch and chocolate and prune cakes for tea (having made a plan that such things should exist) and rather a lot of washing up in the process! I made various parts of the premises cleaner and tidier including the cutlery tray...I do hate a crumby one, don't you? And inroads into sewing projects including coming up be with the idea of marking a stitching line (on some jersey that defied tailor's chalk and I was loath to pin or tack) with masking tape! Get on (literally).

I made sure I had plenty of rests between these processes, including a delicious nap when those poor sad people upstairs went downstairs and out into the outside world to inflict themselves on other ears... And when I woke up the tennis was interesting (including the commentary...comparing the match players to guitar players? Seriously?) so I was happy to make horizontal my home a little longer.

I give thanks for all of the above and for the clapping in corners that preceded it. Don't knock it til you've tried it and I won't knock you if you don't!

Saturday 1 June 2013

The comfort of strangers

Well last night I was grateful to some neighbours for reminding me there are lonelier states than being alone and worse cravings than company! I was also very grateful for being very tired so that, with the aid of earplugs and wind howling through a slightly open window to soften the noise, I was able to get back to sleep again quite quickly every time. Also for setting my alarm or I'd have lain in much later than I needed to as I wanted to get up and out early to ask a strange man to take me up to Dartmoor. He was behind the wheel of a bus at the time...

I'd been rather concerned that this outing might be like a trip to a candy store for a newly diagnosed diabetic, as I could look but not touch and, on the whole prefer to be in beautiful places either on my own or with people I like very much, and there was an element of that dissatisfaction but to see the moorland scenery was a treat anyhow. I was grateful I made the effort and for the friendly atmosphere on the bus between locals and tourists and several half and halfs like me. Also for many sights of banks of beautiful bluebells...it seems to be a bumper year for them, doesn't it Lynn?

Of course any outing by public transport to somewhere you want to go includes a good deal of places you don't, so I gave thanks that those bits were passable if not always especially pleasant! I was grateful I found a shop that sells Clover easy grip crochet hooks, much kinder to sore thumbs and wrists and usually only available on line, and finding the shop that had these buttons before a while back still had them now I had the chance to return... Much gratitude also for running into Chris the cab driver on arriving back in town here so I had someone real to really talk to about something of my day...


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