Cold comfort

I think I'm getting a cold. This is rather exciting as I haven't had one for years! I've heard about other people's and know how it works though: ready made soup and paper hankies are involved and you don't have to be brave and stoic like you do with serious things like cancer...you can moan and groan all day and night if you feel like it. It'll be a struggle but  think I can manage that for a couple of days! Seriously, I'm grateful for the excuse and opportunity to lie on the sofa dozily with books and catch up on TV and films that I've been saving for just such an occasion...

There was a thinning of cloud this morning with a hazy circle of sun and it was noticeably warmer for a while. I gave thanks for that and tried to share word of the delight with several people in town but they denied all knowledge such an unusual occurrence. The man in the cheese shop however not only agreed but said he'd noticed it had got colder again when he went out for cabbage for his coleslaw. I didn't know he made coleslaw so I bought some of that as well...both varieties...and we both appreciated the chain of events that led to the purchase!

I was grateful to Rachel for the lovely surprise of a mug of tea and a blueberry muffin when I went for my treatment today... just the kind of treatment I needed, and the acupuncture was pretty good too! Now if you'll excuse me I've got to go practice the snoozing and the funny voice...

Chicken tonight

This story about graffiti artists painting the dome of a church near Barcelona made me smile and shed an emotional tear before I was even up this morning ...so thanks for the various elements that produced that effect and for my smart phone and internet for bringing words and pictures to my bed http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21529832

Although it was morning, it was so late when I woke today I decided to skip breakfast and make some little savoury pastries for lunch instead, with that wonderful savoury pastry ingredient - ready rolled pre-made puff pastry. What a wonderful invention...makes cooking like playing with plasticine but you put it in the oven and what comes out is delicious food! I knew Laura was coming with the beak felt so I thought she might fancy a couple too to take for her lunch as she had to hurry off somewhere. She did seem rather grateful herself and they were soon all gone!

I'm very very grateful I've completed four chicks which seems a reasonable contribution to me. I'll do some more if they are desperate but, although the knitting wasn't too difficult, the finishing off required fine motor skills that in my case have been on the scrap heap for years and was both painfully slow and painful. They do look cute tho, especially when they have the creme egg in like the one front left...and I love that someone asked me to do something and I could!

Once again today I'm grateful for warmth. It's still still (no windy waving here Ann...) and still like the inside of a freezer outside so I've been thankful I've not had to go out... Oooh and I've just tasted what's in the slow cooker for my tea! No, not chicken but chick pea stew funnily enough...

At a stretch

Yay! I found my arthritis gloves - AWOL for a couple of days and sorely missed yesterday as they are close fitting and fingerless and ideal for wearing out on cold days with or without normal ones on top! I'm also delighted to see they are 'extra small' since I ordered replacement/spare pair (after searching in all the usually suspected places and some downright daft ones too!) and couldn't be sure which size I'd had before. I'm particularly grateful that someone makes stretchy gloves for child size but effectively ancient hands! I've found another that makes them with a 'flexible' thumb splint (allegedly) but they're waiting for new stock so we'll have to wait and see about that...

I'm grateful I know a morning stretch invigorates you and if you stretch your arms while you're still lying down and knock your bedside water over that will really wake you up!

It's been a murky grey and still day here today, and decidedly nippy. Ideal for staying indoors so I'm grateful I have doors to stay behind and for these pictures of more scenic weather phenomena http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/feeds/21592661

I give thanks I've three creme egg chicks more or less completed for Volunteering in Health and another part done pending uncramping of hands. Grateful to Laura too for donating some felt for the beaks to arrive tomorrow...

I give thanks that Tesco Finest ready meals were on special offer this week....they are all the finer for it! And for hearing from Juanita. All non-spam comments are welcome as long as they are in the spirit of appreciating the wonderfulness of life, but it's easy to take for granted that we can exchange comments with those we have not met, even those who live a very long way away without waiting a very long time!

Shoptimism

Who would think making two pockets could make you so tired? I didn't pick the cotton, I didn't weave the cloth...just cut and sewed them on! Never mind, I'm grateful they are sewn and that I thought of making some spring and summer clothes in the winter so that I can take things at a suitably easy pace. Afterwards I was too tired even for chicken knitting so gave thanks to the freezer and fruit bowl for a quick supper and the warm embrace of the bedclothes...

The cold does make my joints extra sore and stiff so I came up with a cunning plan involving a short train ride and a bit of toddling about today. How could I resist going to a fabric shop or two? Did it make the pain go away or invigorate me? No, no, that wasn't the result I was after (though I wouldn't have minded if that's what happened of course!) but the outing left me content to do nothing on my return! When the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak it can be a bit frustrating sometimes, but if you manage to get the spirit tired out as well then you can idle around quite happily giving thanks for heaters, kettles, the internet...and chocolate digestive biscuits!

Bobbin along

Gratitude for simple pleasures today...for a cosy place to be on a winter's day and a laid back Sunday feeling. For a lie in this morning, for a chatty natter with Clive and his company for lunch which encouraged me to make some rather tasty pasta. Well, I didn't make the pasta...you know what I mean!

I'm grateful that though the fire alarm was trilling away this afternoon there wasn't actually a fire...and that having established that I could use those clever earplugs that filter out that kind of sound but not the TV etc.

I gave thanks for remembering to resew the handles on one of those cheap and cheerful fold up shopping bags from a charity shop (they always come unstitched at the vital shoulder strap seams ) and that when the bobbin ran out putting the patch pockets on the front of some new trousers-to-be, the thread I was using matched the fabric so well I could just rewind it, backstitch a bit and carry on...

Duck tales

My first gratitudes of the day are for a deep hot bath with a book last night, a tasty supper afterwards and falling asleep in the desert. No, not in the dessert...in the desert! I was watching a nature programme about the wilds of Arabia and kept drifting off...I was grateful to able to get ready for and into bed for an early night without waking myself up too much.

The book is by Eckhart Tolle who, unfortunately in my eyes, has the label of a 'spiritual' author and thus might not be read by those who confine themselves to the devotions of organised religion or the measurable motions of conventional science or literature more light hearted than either of those...but as he writes about things I think myself, of course I'm enjoying it rather a lot! He writes about that too, by the way - about the affection we have for affiliation! Anyway, sometimes he's funny and indeed undoubtedly wise, as indeed, are we all...so here he is talking about the duck with a human mind story with Oprah...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSEp15DVHBk
The moral of the tale being, I suppose: if something upsets you, flap your wings a bit and eat weed...No, I'm not sure that's come out quite right!

Today I've been grateful for finding some things to do fairly easy on the knuckles, knees and thumbs! I've made some yummy things to eat (especially after finding out Elmlea keeps very well quite a long time after the use by date!) and finishing off the sewing up of this little blanket I made for one of our local charities...It's been a long running project so satisfying to have it done and a little more headspace free for all the new ideas taking shape in there!

I also changed the bed linen. I love getting into clean sheets, don't you? My mother was fond of telling me 'You've made your bed, now lie on it' as a kind of threat of cosmic comeuppance with a hint of malice thrown in. She also used to berate me for not sticking to things I'd started. Poor woman, she had trouble locating her duck mind!

Look out

Thought you might like to see some of these...I certainly did.... Looking for a good link I discovered there'd  been selections included in publications as diverse as the Daily Mail and the Guardian so clearly something for everyone then! I give thanks for the fine eye and practical skill of the entrants...and for them making us think... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/9883058/CIWEM-Environmental-Photographer-of-the-Year-2013-selected-images.html?frame=2487152

I give thanks for the restorative effect of Rachel's ministrations and my curious diet today of leftover lightly spiced lentil stew and rice and stewed apricots and apples...together! I just couldn't decide which to have for breakfast and lunch and decided both at once would be fine and they were! I have been (for me) remarkably energetic and busy with my business the last twenty four hours...including sorting out and packing up some stuff for the charity shop, drawing, cutting and starting to sew a cunning plan and knitting my first creme egg chick. Pretty much every joint is now throbbing and giving sharp stabs of pain when moved but it was fun while it lasted...it's all very well people telling you to pace yourself but there aren't warning lights or alarms to accompany activities...You keep going as for as long as it doesn't hurt and try to stop as soon as possible after! I'm grateful I've the Tesco man has been I so can vary the menu tonight but still avoid any actual food prep...and that my ready meals are (as far as I know) free of any kind of meat...

Watching for delivery vans today I realised the union jack in a neighbour's garden out the back makes a fine wind vane and that the big bright green thing that appeared in the middle of the houses on the hill a few weeks ago was, in fact, part of the process of thatching a roof! Thanks for that... Oh and thank you to Ann for the compliment...I'm very grateful that my hair came back...and in a new improved version too!

Blow out

Last night I was grateful to listening to the howling wind from my cosy bed...and the fleece blanket that made it so snug without being too heavy to move around. This morning I gave thanks for my neighbour's thumping music waking me up at a not unreasonable hour as I had a few chores to get on with. By 11 am I had most of my tea cooked and all the washing up done...and was grateful for that, but I did forget breakfast so had to make things dirty again! I was ready for a lie down after that so ate my porridge in the bath - very comforting for body and soul...

I'm grateful for much entertainment from my TV on my drowsy evenings this week. For the comment 'You're never too old to be sexy but it gets more difficult' from a lady of bus pass plus maturity on Got to Dance, and, for Diversity showing us how it's done. For a compilation of stories about dogs who had close relationships with a dolphin, a bear, a deer, a fox, a donkey and a cheetah. Mostly they were nurturing abandoned or orphaned young animals which both male and female dogs will sometimes do, and people sometimes encourage... but the donkey and the dolphin were adults and the companions got together without human intervention. These cases were both filmed 'for research purposes rather than just the family album too and I found them particularly moving. For the Catfish twist tale with two people meeting under false identity pretences but the real people eventually loving each other anyway...

This time last week I was blowing out the candles on my cake...tonight I'm very thankful I made my tea this morning and am about to get stuck in! The wind's still rather ferocious...snuggly throw and remote control awaiting...

Chickening out

Woke up this morning far too tired to get up so I gave thanks for nothing to do and snuggled back down under the covers! I was even more grateful for taking the slow start option when I finally did get up, as the day had a lot of hecticness waiting to pounce on me as soon as I emerged from the bedroom. And I'm more grateful still for a peaceful evening after all the hither and thithering...for leftovers so I don't have to cook...and for cosiness on a very cold and blustery night...

Gratitude that Charles and Maureen the retired couriers were doing a few days' cover on a when their company had something to deliver to me - not a frequent occurrence at all - lovely to see them! For Laura helping me sort a few things out and it turning out useful to her too. For the sewing shop staff being used to us and for being so friendly and fun... And for a local charity asking if I could help knit chicks for Easter. I'm willing and probably able...but definitely not tonight!

Nip and tuck

Wow! I've managed to stay awake all day today...though I've not had my tea yet and that's usually what pushes me over the edge! I'm grateful it's ready made tortellini with some simply cooked veggies tonight so the making of it is unlikely to wear me out... I'm grateful for the washing done and good drying weather even for inside an open window, but even more so that I chose yesterday to go out when it was brighter and breezier and the sea was much more bouncy.

I'm grateful for rediscovering the delights of dressmaking. The speed at which I'm working is giving me ample time to savour ie each process is very slow and and there has to be a lot of rest time in between. It is very different from my snippy zippy making money from it days but all the tricks I learnt to save time and effort and materials are deeply ingrained so it's been fun to uncover them again. It feels like rediscovering a part of me. 

I give thanks I took my sewing machine in for a service, as the stitching is gliding along. The dress to skirt remodelling is going well so far. Over the last couple of days I've cut off the bodice and made a yoke by cutting that first tier shorter and turning over the top to make two channels for elastic. I wanted to leave all the ready made gathering and the hem intact but that meant the middle bit between the yoke and the frill was too long so I planned to make some tucks...then when I was looking for some elastic in my bits and bobs I found some lace so that's gone under the first tuck, tho I'll need some more for the second one . I've ordered a reel of elastic too...it's much cheaper that way...there'll be a lot of elastic involved in my new clothes!

I've also started cutting out the pieces for a blouse. This is using a bought pattern...well adapting it...and if it works out I'll copy it onto some wallpaper leftovers so I can make some more garments from it. I haven't used one for a very long time and I'd forgotten how desperately unhelpful many of the instructions are, so I'm giving a lot of thanks that I actually do know what to do!

Sunspots

It's the time of year when sunrise reappears from behind the evergreens. Great thanks for the orientation of the coastline here, the terrace I live on, and my small but perfectly formed bedroom. Reaching out from my bed I can tug back a curtain and glimpse the kind of day on offer, and this one was the first when I've been awake and the sky has been clear at the right time to realise I would, if I could, jump right out of it straight away! The view wasn't quite as picturesque by the time I'd sorted out my accoutrements and found my camera but you get the gist, I'm sure...

I give thanks for fingers, thumbs, wrists and elbows co-operating for a few rows of knitting and a few feet of pinning and tacking... and for the leg power and timing to get to this spot for the last bit of sheltered sunshine on the sea front this afternoon to eat a late lunchtime snack. I just fitted in perfectly, legs stretched out along the step, back against the short wall...and a little broccoli and stilton pasty and a take away tea just fitted perfectly in me! I give thanks for the sight and sound of the breakers, calmer than yesterday but still quite magnificent, and scattering sea foam onto the sand...

Sew slow

Today I'm still a very sleepy soul so I'm grateful for a peaceful weekend on the terrace, sunning myself through the windows though the wind has been wild and the sea speckled with white topped waves. Lots of rests and naps and taking things easy...

My sewing progresses very slowly. My heart is in it but the loss of grip and fine motor skills makes needles, pins, bobbins and threads hard task masters and grasping the fabric itself is a hit and miss affair. So I've been giving thanks of my years of sewing experience as at least understanding what I'm trying to do is very helpful! It also gives the joints that ache when I knit a bit of a rest so they are grateful too!

Much thanks for the comfort food for the mind of catch up TV and easy peasy leftovers based meals to nourish me with minimal effort

Cheap frills

Well by 7.23 this morning I'd already been blown away by two bursts of joy...good job I was still lying down! Fear not, readers of a sensitive nature...no revelations of an unsavoury nature to follow... The first slice of wonderfulness was an oh wow mask of mist outside my bedroom window...so beautiful and unexpected... especially as there was condensation on the inside of the glass and for a moment I wondered if it was an illusion. Seriously folks, learning to appreciate weather has got to be up there among the other major paths to happiness. I mean it's (cue cultural reference) 'everywhere you go', ha ha!

The second oh wow moment was finding the journeydevon website where the treasure that was the paper Devon bus map has transmogrified into an interactive version which...wait for it...works on an android phone! Really really works...not only can you zoom in and out and sweep up down and sideways but if you tap the service number beside the route, the time table details appear...there are even links to Youtube films of scenic journeys or places to visit...

I'm grateful the sun is out now because it's the first day of half term and people will want to be getting out and about. I'm giving thanks for a day at home though and all those lovely leftovers to eat up. I give thanks that sewing machine is back from a service and sitting on the table awaiting it's first task which I think will be making a start of this conversion job...

It's a dress I cough for the princely sum of £7 in a Peacocks sale. Clearly it's designed for someone not only at least thirty years younger than I am, but up to a foot taller as the bottom frill actually lies flat on the ground when try it on. However, dress makers among you (with good enough eyesight to decipher a 5 megapixel pic) will have spotted a lot of pretty cotton print already frilled and hemmed just requiring a bit of ingenuity to turn into a skirt. There's even a coffee coloured muslin inner lining... So this is the 'before' illustration and we'll all have to wait and see what happens afterwards...

PS. What happened afterwards was that I cut off the bodice, found some thread and lace that could contribute to the project...and fell deeply asleep. Gratitude for fine intentions and a peaceful, well fed afternoon...

Afterbath

I give thanks for an utterly splendid birthday...the prettiest and most profuse cards, kind messages, inspired gifts, interesting excursions, tea out in a favourite spot, cake with candles, two meals cooked for me (one at home last night, one out this evening)...all in all one of the best times ever!

Gratitude for the gorgeous weather...crocuses and daffodils blooming in in the flower bed down by the Co op and the buds breaking open on the mimosa tree outside...hot water in the tank and my bed waiting for a hot water bottle and me!

Birthday surprise!

I am notoriously bad at opening cards and gifts and last night I was delighted to read something in a book that counteracted years of being told this is annoying! It's actually a sign of enlightenment, you know...allegedly! So, if anyone has sent me something and wonders why they haven't been thanked properly...I'm sorry I'm on a higher plane just now and I'll do the unwrapping when I come back down for tea! I really am extremely grateful for messages, cards and gifts but even more so for the kind thoughts  inspiring them.

A lovely power cut (all that darkness and stillness...yum yum, AND it didn't last long enough to get cold - perfect!) contributed to a very late night... that and an unscheduled sofa nap in the evening, and waking up and realising if I didn't get a few things done I'd have to do them today..well, later today I guess. So I was running a bath at half past midnight and thought I'd unwrap my new 'shocking' pink Comfizz vest...and inside there was a birthday card from Charlotte, 'my' agent at the medical supply company! Not a company printed one, a real one with a hand written message and signed. She knew it was my birthday as I'd been joking that although the knickers were delayed I wasn't really of an age and physical firmity to go commando... I guess you'd remember a customer like that... What a lovely gesture though! And I opened the envelope because I didn't realise it was a birthday card, in case you're wondering...

I'm grateful to M&S for increasing their waist high pants range to include a few pairs suitable for those who are not elderly or obese. Nothing wrong with either state, you understand, but I'm neither and really would prefer to delay the accoutrements until I am if that's OK with you...I've only recently acquired a 'middle aged' style body and if I live long enough for it to get 'old' I'll deal with that then... Yep, deluded...happy with that too! Gratitude also for my new life enhancing bamboo toast tongs...a snip at £1.99 from Lakeland!

Anyway, I must away and get on with my day...good job I hoovered the magic carpet last night. Had fun with this photo too...at first glance you might almost think it's not a selfie...

Present and correct

My mojo's been on reduced hours the last few weeks so I've been delighted to have her put in a full shift today!

For a start my favourite cab driver was free...though he wanted to come a bit earlier than my booking to fit in with the rest of his. Some post had arrived when I went to meet him and he was calling out to me from his cab parked outside when I bent down to pick it up...it turned out the he had the thing the postman had left a card saying he needed a signature for, having signed for it!

You must think I'm soft in the head but I still hope there'll be a handful of birthday cards for me. Never mind there was my Streak which I have missed dearly while it had its screen replaced, and some of my long awaited prescription support wear (one item arrived so far out of four requested in November!) and my train tickets for my trip up north...all of which I am truly grateful for. And anyway I had already set aside a few hours and a few pounds to go and get the necessaries. The necessaries? Well, I'm always going to be a bit giftily challenged aren't I...not having a mum, a sister, a daughter, a bestie or a boyfriend...and having a birthday fall on Valentine's Day means that you do see a lot of other people actually getting far more fuss made of them than you, so what you have to do is go and buy yourself some smellies and chocolates and underwear, or whatever you'd have liked to have been bought, because you really ARE worth it...

Despite all the grumbling going around today's weather was exactly the weather I'd ordered too, so much thanks for that! Low cloud and rain makes the shops quieter and turns the estuary colours to cappuccino and steam. I gave thanks in Thornton's and Lush when they were out of the very things I'd gone to buy... but my mojo accompanied the sales staff to the back of the storerooms and manifested the missing goods as only a mojo knows how!

I gave thanks for a fun time at the doctor's...no seriously, it was! We always have a chuckle and she says she always learns something from me. She's also asked if I'd mind having a chat with one of the medical students as it's good for them to see patients who don't tick the boxes or fit into the mould. Yep, always pleased and proud to be considered a useful weirdo! Which reminds me, I'm also grateful for a very fruitful and friendly email exchange with Metcheck, the weather site, about a bug on there. I didn't think I'd get a response at all, let alone an interaction that led to them fixing it. OK, mojo, you can put the kettle on and hand me the remote control if you'd be so kind... you should always speak nicely to your mojo, you know...

Service with a smile

I give thanks for a particularly chirpy Tesco delivery driver, with whom to share a chuckle or two. That almost all that I ordered was available, that the items that weren't were substituted very appropriately (as well as if someone had known me well)... and that I had the strength to help heave the stuff indoors.

I'm grateful for some other successful interactions with customer service agents around the country about various matters outstanding. Well, perhaps I should say 'apparently' there as it remains to be seen if they actually do what they say, but if you come off a call or finish an email exchange feeling as if you've actually being communication with another human being then that's something to be grateful for in itself! Having worked both sides of the phone I know about the sound of a smile and the importance of verbal nods...but I also know you can do it to order with no feeling at all if that's what you do every day!

I give thanks for getting some bargain train tickets for a trip up north(ish) a little later in the year and for John and Jo saying I could break my journey with them...this being both the cheaper and the easier option for me...and also an opportunity to spend some time with old friends. Gratitude too that two pieces of birthday mail have arrived. Some is still outstanding (I hope!) but as long as there's something to open on the day that's OK with me.

I'm grateful for a siesta fiesta after a rather hustly bustly morning and afternoon and that now I'm limbering up to make my tea and a cake for the base of my trifle. Maybe I watch too much Come Dine With Me...

French connection

The Post Office couldn't find one of my parcels again which was a tad frustrating but the one they did have was a bulky and rather heavy package of fabric I'd ordered on the internet so maybe not having to carry  both at the same time was something to be grateful for! I'm certainly very grateful that the fabric's were at least as lovely as I imagined from their photos (not much better than mine!) and descriptions. It's something you really need to see and feel to be sure they are what you want but the company was having a sale on postage as well as products and I had a hunch the lengths I chose were the right ones to make myself some new summer clothes. I've never been one for a bulging wardrobe and the last few years I've done more donating to charity shops than buying but it's beginning to dawn on me that having a few more garments makes an ostomate's life less stressful, and having some designed to meet both physical needs and sartorial preference would be a fine and dandy thing!

I give thanks for a gloriously sunny morning but that the clouds were gathering by the time I reached the great outdoors...because I wanted to resist the temptation to loiter and get back to get on with various tasks I've set myself. Gratitude for paperwork completed, phone calls made and emails sent. For (I think!) getting the hang of the way I want the cuffs to go on the jumper I've been knitting the last few weeks. That, on hearing I'd missed the start when recording a movie the other day a friend gave me DVD of the same film that wouldn't play after the beginning so that I have the two parts to watch together...and that was able to reconnect the hdmi lead without disconnecting anything else. And lastly that after searching for some time I managed to locate a Reblochon cheese in town to make some tartiflette for my birthday tea...

Five finest things

First gratitude this morning was for a mug of tea and a hot cross bun. The best thing about Christmas being over is the return of a variety hot cross buns to the shop shelves. Personally I can Taste the Difference if they're not the Finest sort, you know, but they're Truly Irresistible when they are!

Second and third for the sight of the saltwater kingfishes' upriver circle dance and springboks pronking as shown on an episode of BBC Africa documentary.  No one understands quite why either creature does what it does which makes the phenomena all the more special to me... and so my fourth gratitude is for the greatness of the unknown.

Lastly, lately our friends and family and followers who are no longer here the way they were before have been rather on my mind. I'm glad I had the chance to spend what time I did with them but I miss our contact and communication too. Passed and past pets are in my thoughts as well...So my fifth thanks is that love is, and doesn't rely on verbal communication or species compatibility to be a fine and splendid thing.

Holiday snaps

Grateful to have made it home without too many difficulties...even getting a seat on the very crowded train out of Exeter late this afternoon...In some ways maybe not the best time to travel but it does mean I'm back on a Saturday night and can't get on with anything particularly busy and important for another thirty-six hours...just supper, a bath and an early night this evening will be plenty enough! Gratitude also that though I left my phone charger behind I have a spare and can upload a couple of pictures...

Most of my thanks today are still for my fabulously relaxing little holiday and to Peter for providing it...for a favourite meal and a funny old movie last night and an Ottery pottery day today spending some time in the huge but nonetheless rather homely church - lovely mosaics and needlework - and visiting shops and a cafe.

I'm grateful I'm so good at looking after myself but it has been splendidly replenishing to the spirit not to have to for a couple of days, and be kindly cosseted instead. Altogether I've had an amazing time...

Small Beer

Yay, Lynn's got internet at home at last...I give thanks for that but I'm also grateful for no wifi or proper phone signal here! Of course I can use the laptop and wired internet but doing that for anything other than writing my blog seems a) slightly impolite and b) very unholiday like!

I'm grateful that Peter's sister sent him a cosy dressing gown which arrived just before I got out of bed this morning so, as he was already up and dressed, I could borrow it and slob about a little longer!

Thanks for a very pleasant ambly rambly day around and about Beer, including a short stretch of Coast Path where I was 'sent on ahead' on so I could feel like as if I was Really Walking (a tremendous treat) but could be met by a car and a flask of tea before it became too arduous (likewise). Lovely views from some favourite but rarely visited spots (you'll just have to take my word for now...) and remarkably clement weather...oooh and my tea cooked again tonight!

Changing the subject so going on about my mini-holiday doesn't get boring...
'Black stone Heart, bit of damage on the one side and not a very good polish...'
Sounds like a character from Pirates of the Caribbean but it's a description of an item in the latest Beadaholics sale. Thanks to Jan for an unexpected chuckle the other day!

Escot service

I was writing a great blog post in the car park of Sainsbury's a little while ago while Peter hunted and gathered for my tea...but I can't get a signal on my phone here at his flat and it refuses to let me tell his laptop what I said earlier, so you will just have to take my word for what a pleasant time I've been having on my 'holiday' so far...rather than the words I wrote before!

I'm grateful my journey was smooth and I managed to outrun the rain that had just started in Exeter when I left. Pleasant weather contributed to an extremely enjoyable afternoon at Escot - a place we chose to visit as much for proximity to the station and the cheap deal for registered disabled and their 'carers', rather than any great expectation of delight. Can't show you the pictures just now... taken my phone...but it is a woody and wonderful place, with an excellent tea room, 'saxon' village, beech maze and the cutest red squirrels...all the more wonderful for being mostly open just for us no doubt! Lots of gratitudes in there but that will have to do for now as my tea has just been delivered. Great thanks for that too...

Oh and I found this earlier and saved it (not on my phone)...rather heart warming or maybe foot warning http://sockmobevents.org.uk/

Room service

Ha! Well I didn't go to all those exotic places I thought of yesterday...even virtually...because as soon as I'd arranged myself comfortably in front of the TV I went straight to the land of nod! Never mind... I woke up and took myself off to bed, giving thanks for...

...finally finding a position for my Sky router in which a wifi signal can travel (fairly successfully)  through a plasterboard wall to my bedroom. Only taken two years... Lots of good things about having Sky but the router is not one of them. What's really odd is that the router is on its side and I get a stronger signal on my phone when I lie on my side even though that's further away than when I sit up in bed. I'm no science geek but I have a little experience of dealing with router problems and am aware of some of the limitations of the technology but I have never ever heard of anything like this. Technically it's not a limitation of course...it means I can lie down as much as I like!

...for the soft thick fleece throw I bought for my bed last week and which keeps even chilly soul like myself quite cosy

...for deciding to see what other sorts of noise reduction ear-plugs there were out there as all the ones I've found in High Street chemists are very hard to operate with two sets of numb stiff fingers, irritate my ears and   don't really reduce the noise either. There were about a dozen different sorts on Amazon and the first one I've tried is already a significant improvement

...and for at last persuading this picture into a frame and hanging it on my wall. Actually this is not the picture but a photo of the picture...which is a print of a painting of a poem. Pretty neat, eh?

As I'm going to be away for a couple of days now I've been busy catching up with various chores...including a vital toasted sandwich by the real sea on my way to pick up prescriptions and getting my hair trimmed this afternoon. I'm grateful I have got to the stage when this needs doing fairly regularly, and that I've found a friendly laid back place for the job but even though I refuse all products I still coming out smelling all strange and un-Lush-like so I'm looking forward to getting that sorted! Then I just have to vacuum the kitchen floor and put the washing on and I consider my 'mini-break' beginning to start!

All around the world

Going a bit multi cultural today...giving thanks for a great BBC4 documentary about the Sherpas who work on Everest climbs, their home lives and homes etc

For the very lively and enlivening music and dance company Mundi dance...African dance but a mixed race group and hailing from Bristol I caught up with on Got to Dance. Wonderful energy and harmonies...If that kind of thing does't stir your soul you've forgotten your roots, but I'll let you off - it was a very long time ago!

For the soothing and uplifting sounds of Imee Ooi's work. Be warned: she sets Buddhist chants to music so heaven knows what Christians would make of it... and of the other persuasions, at least I know atheists should be able to make their own arrangements! Talking of which I found this rather interesting, about non-believers' Sunday gatherings in a de-consecrated church...http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21319945

After yesterday's leg work I've been hammering those thumbs, wrists and elbows again today with housework, knitting and typing and must away to use up the rest of those marked down ready made dishes from the supermarket while I can still operate a fork. Bought mashed potato and roasted veg? Shocking, I know, but at less than a pound for enough for two meals (with a few additions) would be foolish not to really! I think the rest of the day will be spent in Cape and Congo with David Attenburgh and 'Between Two Worlds' (India and USA) in the Ravi Shankar documentary. Get about a bit don't I? Deep gratitude for modern(ish) technology for transporting me...

The other half

I'm kind of grateful the joints in my upper half have been so painful the last couple of days because it spurred me on to go out today and wear out the ones below the waist! Rachel had kindly lent me a book which I realised after getting it home I'd already bought in a charity shop a while back. It had been languishing unread and forgotten on my bookshelf for many a moon and will be the next new book I start now I realise how keen it is to be read...but as I had to go for some blood tests returning her copy was something to do afterwards. A ride on the top deck of the bus along the pretty coast road to where she lives is always a delight, as is having a natter with her, and I managed to fit in a few other pleasures such as spotting clusters of giant pine cones and tiny yellow primroses, meeting three separate people I used to know and someone I'd heard a lot about but hadn't - Rachel's husband, enjoying the hazy afternoon light above Oddicombe, managing to stay awake on the bus home and grabbing a bag of bargains at the Co-op afterwards

My shopping bag was rather weighty and after I'd heaved it onto my shoulder I was all ready to stagger to a cab...and then I saw something I've been trawling the internet for information on for ages. No, not a must-have grocery item, but a place to put them...a donation point for the local food bank. The local charities that organise these could really do with the donation of some web page construction/maintenance it seems and I'd been thinking of doing a recce by phone or bus to check out the nearby stores...and suddenly there was just what I'd been looking for right in front of me. The idea is that if everyone just added an item or two to their shopping it would help keep the places stocked up, but I don't do supermarket shopping that often and had been wanting to donate for so long I went back round the store and filled two carriers with tins, packets and toiletries. As you might have surmised it is something I feel very strongly about! I hear some people don't believe poverty and hunger actually exist in this day and age in this country, and maybe some others think it must all be the sufferers' own or someone else's fault and easily preventable by a bit forward planning etc. I hope no reader of this thinks like this, but even more so I hope none of you have personally found out how easy it is to fall on hard times, fall between all the stools that might support you and fall out of favour with friends and family who might have helped. I have known what it's like to wonder where the next meal is coming from and it's something you never forget...but because I know that the meal has to take priority if you are skint, I included some tampons and toothpaste and soap in my donation too!

Come Dine with Me

On many of the three hundred and fifty or so evenings a year when no one does, I give thanks for Come Dine With Me. It pretty much is the next best thing (in fact, sometimes, when one sees some of the folk that are out there, it's clearly the superior option!). Dave Lamb's comments can make you feel that someone is actually watching the proceedings with you, and often has me laughing out loud...and laughing is very good medicine for body and mind. I give thanks for subtitles on my TV too because, although I love some of the accents I can't necessarily make out the actual words that are being spoken...

I give thanks for my mishmash left overs and odds and ends tea tonight...now I couldn't have served that to anyone else so you see there's another advantage to dining alone...and for having food to cook, the appetite, inclination and ability to cook it. For a cooker and power and pots and plates and so on...

And for Kallari chocolate...much fairer trade than even fair trade and so unbelievably delicious too! Come to think of it I'd have to share if someone came to dine. Gets better and better eh?

Springing eternal

I give thanks for seeing my first snowdrops of the year yesterday. I was in the car so it was a fleeting glimpse and neck crick turn to be sure the little white blobs at the edge of my vision were actually flowers...but they were... Snow drops and crocuses are my favourite spring flowers...

and for the golden light first thing this morning and before the sun went down this afternoon. It almost looked like autumn for a while...

and for the pretty sunshine in between, blue sky with fluffy white clouds and the flat line of the sea

For clean sheets on my bed, and drunk and disorderly people upstairs making it down them with their pets OK so that I might get to enjoy the night in peace

For Ivor sending me some funnies and Bob reminding me it's Groundhog Day...and remembering how much I love the film

Winging it

Seagulls spiralling on the thermals (air)
It being too warm for thermals (clothing)
Starlings swirling over the pier last night
Getting a lift to the sewing machine servicing place today (with my sewing machine!)
A new passport arriving in just a week
A possibility on the horizon of using it later in the year to go over the horizon (slightly)
A spinach, feta and olive tart big enough for two reduced to 60p in the Co-op
Two teas from it as there's only one of me!