Reboot

Today I'm grateful I've said I'll do some things as otherwise I wouldn't...

I'm grateful I haven't said I'll do many things as otherwise I couldn't!

I'm grateful I didn't get changed into my 'going out' clothes until after lunch - that way I only got toothpaste on my top not my lunch as well!

I'm grateful I've made a start on the stock of stockings and that I've managed to work out what it is I'm doing and produce a basic pattern to share in case someone else wants to make some too.

MINI STOCKINGS ***

Cast on 15 sts in DK yarn and knit 4 rows (garter stitch)

Knit and purl next 9 alternate rows (stocking stitch)

14^th row knit 5, knit into back and front of next 4 sts, knit 6 (19 sts)

15^th row knit

16^th row knit 7, knit into back and front of next 4 sts, knit 8 (23 sts)

17^th row knit

18^th row knit 2, knit 2 together, knit 15, knit 2 together, knit 2 (21 sts)

19^th row knit

20^th row knit 2, knit 2 together, knit 4, knit 2 together, knit 1, knit 2 together, knit 4, knit 2 together, knit 2. Cast off remaining 17 sts

And I'm grateful I printed these out and took them to the 'knit and natter group' at the library as I suspected if anyone saw them they'd want to have a go and they did!

*** please note corrections if you looked at this before!

Dashing off

There should be a law against being this tired, or at least there should be limits as to how painful basic and pretty much unavoidable tasks like putting toothpaste on a brush or washing up a cup can be! Times like these I'm extremely grateful I don't have anyone to look after me and wait on me because it would be possible to turn into a right wimp if I did!

I give thanks for an early night, a long lie in and an afternoon nap to follow and not only achieving the aforementioned tasks but the ones that make them necessary too. Actually, as well as the usual culprits, I've also had lower back ache and a sore nose the last couple of days so I've been grateful for the experience of variety in the movements and positions that cause pain. The sore nose is even amusing (kind of) as the Pain Management Clinic had sent me a load of bumpf including a front and back body chart to shade in the areas that hurt and my initial reaction was 'Oh, pretty much everywhere hurts,' but then I told myself off for exaggerating and after a few moments I decided my nose didn't! That was before a tussle of wills between a rain coat hood and a pair of specs and a good lesson in tempting fate...

Nevertheless there's benefit to be gained from a very inactive day. For one thing I came across The Straight Story on TV which I saw when it came out and loved but have never been able to remember the name of it to tell anyone else about. It's a bit like the Fastest Indian only a whole lot slower, a heart warming tale of not letting age and infirmity get you down - much gratitude for that! I've also managed a bit of shopping (via the internet) and sampled the delights of the Farmer's Market (it's a sort of soup). I always give great thanks for a bowl of tomato and basil with grated cheese and chopped raw garlic, rye mix toast and butter on the side - one of my favourite cwch up snacks.

More splash than cash

I was grateful the thunder and lightning woke me up this morning so I didn't miss the fun!

And for the safe and snuggly feeling listening to the wind and rain when you are warm and dry...

I gave thanks that I was short of salad veg and that I'd said I'd go to the next town to hear the choir practice their repertoire...otherwise I'd not have been waiting for the bus back near these splashy waves.

I'm grateful for all the free food goodies I've had today - free biscuit with my cup of coffee at the church hall, free slice of focaccia bread from a windswept stall promoting a cookery school, free fudge from the shop where they make it in the window and a slab of lemon cake brought by Laura when she came by this afternoon.

Most of all this evening though, I'm grateful I don't have to do anything or go anywhere til Monday afternoon. Bed looks inviting I must say...

Lost and found

Today had always been scheduled as a 'rest' day, not going anywhere or doing anything very energetic even by my standards, but I hadn't expected to be quite so tired so I've been grateful I didn't have anything pressing or important planned of a sedate and housebound nature either. I've been grateful for for falling asleep to the sound of the wind and roaring surf, for a fridge full of leftovers keeping food prep to a minimum, for pain in my wrists and knuckles not stopping me lifting a kettle or a cup even if stitchcraft's been out of the question, and for my achy knees and ankles getting me to the window now and then to gaze in awe at the whipped up white topped waves.

If you're someone who likes to do and achieve it can be hard when ill health intervenes not to think of days as lost, so I've been grateful for the opportunity to reflect on this, on the times we think of as not being some other sort of times instead of just accepting their passage as they are. I've been grateful for a full Skybox and choosing some documentaries about ancient and almost forgotten civilisations in South America to watch to clear some space and fill some horizontal but conscious time. These peoples' fortunes rose and fell whatever their varying cosmic views or motivation, the material substances of their existences disintegrating and decaying or being put to new purpose just as ours will be no matter how important or beloved or rich or strong we are in living. I understand some people don't like to think of things like this, but what is is however you choose to regard it, and I actually find it rather empowering to remember that what matters is not what you can see or have or hold. I also gave thanks for hearing of the Muisca, who cultivated a range of different types of bees for different malleability in their wax in order to facilitate the making of clay moulds for the gold offerings they left in caves, rivers and on the tops of mountains. We know because we found them I suppose...

Blooming lovely!

Yesterday I went to the other sort of Pharmacy (it's a cafe!) but today I gave thanks for some very helpful folk at one of the local medical ones who didn't serve me warm spicy apple cake with clotted cream but did one or two equally important things!

I'm grateful to Chris the cab driver for reminding me about the McMillan coffee morning in town (organised in part by his wife, daughter and granddaughter) and for picking up a pretty Chinese bowl at the bric-a-brac stall there as well as partaking of a much needed cup of tea!

I'm grateful there's a new lady Lisa working at the Fountain alternate Thursdays who seems to share my sense of humour, that I met Claire who works the other day out with her mum as well, who also seems lovely and for a long chat with Rachel who didn't have a very busy day...so quite a sociable one for me!

I give thanks for finding the jam Lynn's been looking for for months and Lindor chocolate at only a pound a bar in Smiths, including caramel flavour which I can highly recommend. I believe it's a newsagents, stationers and bookstore but lately I've been heading straight for the confectionery specials!

It's been a grey old day here...so I'm grateful for these flowers snapped yesterday and hope you are too!

Turn turn turn

I'm grateful that though my hand held blender (which has not been too well lately) took a turn for the worse yesterday when asked to mix Earl Grey tea bread, it's agreed to carry on working a little bit a little bit longer. Mmm, I wrote that and remembered I'd made tea bread...more thanks for that!

I'm grateful I went out this morning as the light was so pretty as the sun tried to come through the low clouds and turned sea and river into mirrors...and for the autumn colours coming in the fields and hedgerows now. I'm grateful for the buses running on time and slowing down enough for me to take a snap! 

I'm grateful the shops had what I was looking for (NOT a new mixer!) and for me having enough energy and money to shop! I'm grateful for scheduling nothing this afternoon except catching up with recorded TV and snoozes, and rain to make these seem such an especially suitable way to pass the time. Oh and for planning a tea that just needed to go into the microwave

Profundity

Well, I'm grateful it seems there was nothing wrong with my bloods after all, and I'd fallen victim to the cumulative effect of a series of admin confusions rather than any health disaster. I'm not complaining...I've had admin confusions cause health disasters in the past and of the two this is preferable. But when I discovered the letter that sparked the chaos was still doing the rounds yesterday and resulting in further unnecessary recalls 'Give me bloody strength!' did seem an appropriate thing to say!

I'm very grateful I went to try out this rather unusual choir last night, after several years of meaning to! I always warn people that if you don't push against the boundaries of your comfort zones they will shrink, and it's important to implement the advice you give to others, but it doesn't come easily to me these days to go out after tea to a brightly lit place to meet twenty five people who know each other already...and try to participate in what they are doing! I gave thanks for a friendly welcome, home made cake and a sociable dog, and four part harmony right down to the bass notes - a sound I always find very moving so I'm grateful I managed not to cry!

Today I've been very tired and achy and I'm assuming this is due to the excursion and exertion but let's face it I can stare at the ceiling rose for two hours (it's polystyrene, don't get jealous!) and still be exhausted the next day so it might not be that at all. I certainly couldn't manage going there every evening but then I don't have to, and I'm certainly up for trying again next week anyway. I'm grateful that though I've not done much I have produced some rather tasty cooking this afternoon, and to Bake Off for not only showing me many things I'm not going to try at home...but also showing me you can roast rhubarb. The depth of flavour is so intense this way I don't think I'll never put it in a saucepan again!

Stop watch

'Tis the season when it feels like time to start making some more of those mini stockings for local charities I support to (hopefully) sell.  I give thanks for finding the pattern that I used as inspiration in the first place...and eventually working out what it had evolved into over the weeks I was making them last year. It took me a lot of the available part of today, but that was because I was also watching a thoroughly riveting programme about the history of British knitting and I had to keep stopping knitting to watch the TV or stopping watching TV to knit!

I give thanks to Laura for telling me about this gem as it had eluded my attention in a glance at the schedules. Also for one of those 'I know that place' moments at the end when there was a shot of a lush yarn shop not very far away from here that I've been to and keep meaning to visit again.

I give thanks that the auditions round of X Factor has finished and I can stop watching it! Of course it's not compulsory but I find the early stages compulsive though even the rest of the programme is not to my taste. My favourites singers are always the least commercial (with some other factor rather than X apparently!) and soon culled or reshaped into the predetermined mould, but for the first few weeks there's the possibility of two kinds of very heartwarming viewing experiences. One is when someone apparently extremely unlikely turns out to have a fantastic voice, and the other is the unbridled glee on the faces of family and friends when a successful contestant returns backstage. I give thanks for both of those!

Right, look at the time! I'd best get some tea and get ready for choir practice. I give thanks that that's such an unexpected end to a post!

Tuck stop

It was sunny this morning and I gave thanks for being able to have the windows open wide to let the the bright light and warm air in. I was also grateful when it became murky and grey in the afternoon as I've been very tired and would have felt I was missing a good day to go out otherwise.

I'm grateful my knees have been less painful the last few days, it's easy to take it for granted when I can function more normally from that point of view so I'm making a point of not doing!

I was also rather miserable at the start of the day so gave thanks for a) recognising this was my own fault through faulty thinking and b) not giving myself a hard time about it. Equanimity is to be aimed for and brings its own rewards but a good place to start is with non-attachment to the idea of success in this endeavour! I'm grateful for, as much as fatigue allows, getting on with things instead of wallowing in it and along the way I came upon a simple plan for making a Joe Brown's tunic fit better now that the crinkle fabric has begun to go flatten out. Putting two almost invisible tucks in was so simple that I actually managed to get it done in instalments today, which was particularly pleasing as I already have plenty of projects on the go or waiting in the wings and it was good not to be slumped on the sofa all day with the remote control and a close by packet of biscuits. My hands and wrists also needed a break from knitting and crochet.

That reminds me I give thanks for hearing Bob's been making use of his Christmas book in the last few days. Love a bit of synchronicity! Gratitude too for a cheery letter from Kostas and hearing that Paula I met on my trip has read my blog and enjoyed it.

New tricks

On Christmas Day last year Bob and I sat next to each other on the sofa for a while both going 'Oh wow! at random but frequent intervals. This wasn't the result of special effects in a movie or tricks of some fancy device. It was just because we'd given each other coveted books of creative inspiration, and though we are neither of us short on that anyway a bit extra of something you like gift wrapped for you is always good eh?

Today I give thanks for that memory, and for a bit of a play with the patterns from my crochet book (ideas rather than instructions being the preferred for me) and I've adapted a flower pattern and a leaf pattern and made this which will eventually turn into something for a coffee morning or craft stall for one of my favourite local charities. The yarn came from a charity shop so I give thanks for what's going around coming around and around again! And for picking up a few new techniques along the way. I know, who'd have thought it...woof woof!

I'm grateful for a deliciously leisurely start of the weekend feeling earlier on - the result of many comings and goings and goings on in the preceding days and a very late night listening to other people's Friday nights...

For cooking up some of the vegetable hoard for the freezer and then going to wash the pan before heating some soup for my lunch and suddenly realising what a foolish waste of food and my energy and time this was, and simply pouring the soup on top of the remains of the sauce! Do try this at home folks... if the situation's suitable and it doesn't fill you with too much dread doing what your mother would have been shocked by!

I'm grateful the tea I spilt earlier missed my new coaster and landed on the table cloth...well, it'd be a shame if it got dirty, wouldn't it?

Doing the rounds

Gratitude today for various deliveries and appointments all slotting into place in the day  without stress or hassle...

For finding one of those oil cloth satchels that's not got owls, pseudo Cath Kidson prints or any other common design on it at a knock down price in a new accessory shop that's recently opened in town.
Probably cheap because it's not so trendy...and all the nicer in my eyes for that reason too!

For the glorious translucent quality to the sunlight filtering through the clouds onto the flat calm sea...

For putting my post acupuncture energy to various usefulnesses including some long overdue cleaning and tidying jobs...

For the daylight and my hand strength holding out long enough to make a little mat for my mug out of scraps of other people's left over yarn. Something I've been meaning to do for years!

Becoming

Mmm, I give thanks for a just right cup of tea this morning! And for the beautiful moon last night. I give thanks for knowing it's the same old moon that it always is, just seen from a new angle and in a light...but also that also it is a totally different moon all the time. That it is, as is everything else, in a constant state of becoming...

I give thanks that I've wrestled my duvet out of the storage space under the stairs, into a cover and onto my bed so that I can sleep with the window open again without being kept awake by the chattering of my teeth! I also give thanks for a bundle of new earplugs to sample, particularly useful at this time of the months when the local loonies tend to noisily search for the little bit of plot they think they might have!

I give thanks for some lush and lovely winter fabrics speedily delivered from Ralston Fabrics, to Laura for her parcel processing services and for the little miracle that is ebay!

I give thanks for the fine and friendly people in the shops and businesses around here who oil the wheels of the daily grind with a smile and a natter and a chuckle.

Gratitude too for a rather moving programme last night about a number women in their seventies, eighties and nineties who are not going gently into anything thank you very much. Very inspirational! For a physically rejuvenating acupuncture session and some astonishingly delicious and very reasonably priced chocolate truffles currently on sale in Smiths. Buy now to avoid disappointment ie. before I clear the shelves of every box!

Bright sides

All that cooking the last couple of days has resulted in being very grateful for little to do in the kitchen today but there still being lovely things to eat. Can't be bad!

I'm grateful that my latest blood tests show I'm meant to feel rubbish and thus can stop worrying I'm becoming a wimp! More joy of sofa to come I guess...there's always a bright side eh? I give thanks that my joints have been less painful the last few days and I've been able to do some knitting...and finish the knitting of the cardigan I began making in the early summer but which was abandoned because summer was too hot both for cardigans and knitting - something for which I had much gratitude at the time. As I was making the design up as I went along I thought it would be a good plan to finish the second front while could remember how the first one was done before starting on winter projects.

I've still got brainwaves coming out of my ears (which is fortunately not a medical condition) and I've been very grateful to Jenny and Laura for helping put some of them into action. Other people acting close by sometimes spurs me on so between us we've got a few jobs done.

I'm grateful I now have the cleanest windows ever. I mean the cleanest these windows have ever been since they were installed, not the cleanest in the history of all windows for all time, but the former is still fine by me! They now have ledge levellers too, these are cunning devices (that to the untrained eye might appear to be painted lengths of 2x1) which allow pots wider than ones that used to hold yoghurt to hold plants on the sills. I also give thanks for Laura and Jenny confirming the Earl Grey tea bread was very good indeed!

Recycling post titles is becoming inevitable now. If you can think of a way of producing a constant supply of relevant and/or witty different one liners you're a better wordsmith than I!

Browned off

It's been a rather frustrated twenty four hours or so as my creative energy has far outstripped the physical sort and I've had to make do with more thinking about making things than I would prefer. I give thanks for coming up with some plans and patterns in my head though, and also some recipes that reached my hands because my tummy insisted! Here we have leek and hazelnut cheesey bake and Earl Grey tea bread. I can vouch for the former being extremely good but I'm trying to leave the bread til tomorrow partly as I think it'll be even better for a rest and partly because I'm still savouring the flavour of that bake! I give thanks I have creative energy. Though I can't imagine what it's like not to be full of inspiration and ideas, frustrating or not I'd rather be than not! Certainly I'm grateful I'm not full of vim and vigour but with no notion what to do...
And I give thanks that I'm (mostly) vegetarian and don't have to plan my menus around munching dead bodies. I've met two in the last couple of weeks (vegetarians not dead bodies) and was very grateful both times for that spark of recognition. You may be surprised to know we think you're the ones that are odd!
I give thanks for discovering the revised form of Google maps is optional and you can, if you choose, go back to the version where you can see the street plan more easily than the restaurant menus. And (balance is important, and don't want you to think I'm always averse to change!) that the new revised Blogger app lets you save half written posts and go back and edit them.

Country bus

This morning I gave thanks for cold rice pudding for breakfast. This meant making some for supper and not being greedy which is tricky where cardamom and coconut milk are concerned!

I was grateful for feeling ready to venture out into the world again today, and that I had to wait in for a delivery which meant it was just the right time afterwards to get the infrequent Country Bus. This is the name of the company as well as a description of the route, and they bill themselves as being an operator 'with a friendly face' so you might not be surprised to hear the driver picked up and dropped people pretty much wherever they wanted, chatting away to those he knew and even calling out 'Bless you!' when I sneezed. He also pulled into a layby where no passenger wanted to embark or alight to put his rubbish in a bin. Clearly he was fond of cleanliness...look, there's a broom and mop and bucket on board!

With views of the sea, the river and the moors the bus winds through a pretty nearby village I rarely visit so I was grateful for that, but even more so as it goes to a part of a local industrial estate otherwise a bit of a trek and where I had various bits and bobs to do. I give thanks for discovering Costa's cake. I'd never choose a chain over an independent cafe but there were years when there was no refreshment place on the site so I was very grateful for a loo and a stimulant and a slice of a sort of chocolate orange Battenburg to keep me going through the deeds that needed to be done.

And on my return I was very thankful for the slow cooking pot of lentil stew. I cannot praise too highly a slow cooker if you live alone. It does all the stuff it does if you don't but the psychological benefit of opening your door to the smell of your tea ready is just like they say on that credit card ad!

Can't complain

Since my last post I've given thanks for...

Ragged rain clouds grey at the top and glowing orange underneath as the sun set yesterday evening...

Pat sending me a photo of her own local sky...

Sunrise visible from my bedroom window now...if I'm awake early enough...

That when you looked behind you on this one you saw dolphins!

The fuzz of buds on the mimosa tree

A programme about young people advocating more public nakedness to encourage awareness of what bodies actually look like. I must admit I'm mystified as to why anyone who is warm enough would not want to be naked, so long as anyone else in the vicinity is OK with it too. I'm sure you'll all be relieved to hear I'm rarely warm enough. I'm grateful there's rarely anyone in the vicinity to complain when I am! 

The grateful deed

I give thanks for the wagging tail of next door's golden retriever cocking his leg against the bins on the way out to his morning walk.

For ironing because it makes you warmer, though frankly I do prefer sun! For Rude Tube for making ironing more enjoyable...go on, release your inner teenage boy...no, not that much or you won't get the ironing done! For having the energy to do ironing...

For the low evening light gilding my kitchen...and tawny Chumba who came to visit with Laura and cake!

For remembering how good it felt to see this!

Not for the reason that prompted a call from Clive...but for the pleasure of talking to him...

Not for Bob mislaying his wallet...but for the way he posted pictures of interesting things on the walk he then had to take instead of a bus ride!

Sticking point

By 'eck, I didn't imagine I'd be quite so exhausted by my excursion! But was it worth the aches and incapabilities? Oh yes, no doubt of that, several times over...exactly what was required both as a literal and metaphorical journey. Part of the purpose was to push my boundaries and find my limitations and I can gratefully report success in that endeavour...

I give thanks for all the rest I've had today, a benefit of being unable to lift the stick I usually beat myself with...but for nonetheless being able to be helpful in releasing Roxy from the scourge of the lock monsters...

I give thanks for good soup in a carton. Ideal for an idle convalescence, almost as good as having someone bringing it to you in a bowl! And for the windy rainy snuggle-up-on-the-sofa-why-don't-you? weather...thank you, don't mind if I do!

Rock chick

​The way this trip appeared to fit my random requirements has been cause for much gratitude already but there's always the proof of the pudding isn't there? I've been savouring the flavour on my way home and, as with all the best journeys, will be continuing to do so for some time to come I'm thinking. Physically I'm extremely tired and, I just realised, still rocking gently as if on the boat so brevity and simplicity is of the essence tonight and more musings will follow I'm sure...

I'm grateful I found my stashed cash after discovering I'd not stashed my bank card...money so well hidden even from me I'd begun to wonder if I'd imagined its existence and would have to live on tap water and travel snacks to be able to afford my fares back from the ferry port.

I'm grateful for the cakefest that followed the finding of the money!

Which reminds me: I was very grateful for the delicious nata y nueces helado artesano bought on the brief stop in Santander. And for being briefly in Santander. Leaving an unfamiliar port on Tuesday was an important part of the experience for me but arriving at a well loved, long not visited one had a significance too...

It's a magnificent natural harbour entrance especially with glowering clouds over the peaks but I was grateful for the sight of the home estuary this evening, tide flat out and just mirror pools reflecting the other side...and the occasional duck wake rippling across them.

Right, I can't type straight any more. I give thanks for bath water and a ready meal heating, smooth sheets and a wide bed waiting...

PS. No, I've no idea...it looks perfectly normal in the draft and frankly I'm way past caring!

When I'm sixty-four

I give thanks for a 3 train journey yesterday with no platform changes...much easier that way tho I can't take credit for organising it myself...

For the snug little cabins...they'd be even more snug with two of course, but just right just for me! I love the gentle rocking to sleep of the waves...

For there being sixty four of us on the ORCA cruise plus guides so I can merge into a mixed and friendly crowd. It seems most of us see some things, sometimes some things that others can't see so you (or they) are peering at the sea mystified... but I've seen dolphins at sunrise and countless times since and not everyone has managed that so I'm very fortunate.

That John liked a story idea of mine so much he wants to use it...what a compliment! John and ferries and the date today are inextricably linked in my mind as I was sunning myself on the aft deck of this ship's predecessor some years back when he came and said he'd been watching the news in the lounge and there'd been a bit of an explosion in America...

That there's wifi access in the cafes and bars so I give thanks if this uploads though I've not managed to get a photo to do so I'm not promising...

Rite of passage

Fish and chips by the sea anyone? Though a woolly tool, surviving five years after a cancer diagnosis is a bit of a milestone… not as much of one as five years into remission (i.e. ‘cured’) but you have to pass the first to get to the second and today, despite my detour into terminal, I do!

I’d been trying to think of a suitable way to mark the occasion, something not dependent on access to a car or lots of dosh, something that celebrated my continuing life without highlighting how my health and heartiness has diminished in the meantime. ​ It had to be something I didn’t have to wear fancy clothes for, and that wearing unfancy clothes for didn’t mean an unrealistic level of physical activity. It had to be something I could happily do without chosen companions so that there’d be no difficulty accepting with equanimity invitations declined and, if the experience included interaction with strangers, that any sense of physical, financial or social inadequacy I suffered from would be insignificant in the sharing of the moment. Oh and also, if away from home overnight, there had to be neither sharing of bathroom facilities nor getting up at crack of dawn to eat dead pig!

So I’d been researching into possible options for a few weeks to no avail, and then lying on the treatment table discussing ideas with Rachel (who’s at the meditation centre this week) something I’d heard of a few years ago came into my head and I went home after to investigate and discover exactly what was required just here!

http://www.brittany-ferries.co.uk/offers/mini-cruises/whale-dolphin-cruise-2013

My thanks today are for all the many boxes ticked including the departure date and almost obligatory untidy hair! It doesn’t matter if I see any cetaceans this time or not - I’ve been lucky to do so in the Bay of Biscay before for which I am extremely grateful, and anyone who’s ever been on a boat with me before knows I’m happy just to gaze at the sea (and maybe marvel at a passing ship or two, possibly eating some cake)! This is a fitting rite of passage, a little adventure I would have happily wandered off on when I was well and strong and my gratitude at being able to so now is probably more than most of you can imagine.

I wanted to post this early before I left, but had no pictures to include just yet. Then I saw this card on my mantelpiece and thought it would do...and then remembered it is from the town with the same name as the ship I'm due to sail on! In theory there is wifi access on board and I hope to be able to keep up with my blog, but if I don’t post for a couple of days don't assume I've fallen overboard...maybe I’ll be having a whale of a time, eh?

Blowing in the wind

​

The last few nights I've slept deeply but not straight through and give thanks for all the interesting adventures my subconscious has brought to my dreams... in Wales a lot for some reason...

I give thanks that the glass of water I knocked over in the very early morning neither broke not hurled its contents on the sockets of the extension lead nearby...

Gratitude too for the lovely lovely staff on the phones at First Direct. I've never yet had to beg for their financial mercy I'm glad to say but they've dealt with all my queries and difficulties over the years so charmingly and chattingly in their reassuring soft Scottish accents... Also for the real life, real time customer service skills from some of the people I deal with here at the Post Office, doctor's surgery and taxi rank. Makes a day of dull duties so much more pleasant...

I'm grateful for giving up trying to get a decent picture of this bottle top dangly thing on the seafront. The slightest whisper of wind and it trembles and you have to zoom to see what it's made of and all you ever get is blur and tipsy sea! It is so simple yet so beautiful though...

I give thanks for hearing that Bob is doing a market stall of circuit bent things at a leccy, muso, gamey festivally thing this weekend. I love that he's doing a stall and especially as I read about it while I was watching the programme about markets that's made mine so fresh in my mind!

And, in praise of a solitary life and following on from yesterday's food orientated post, that you can eat all the yummy nibbles you may have bought or made...and eructate, flatulate and use unnecessarily long words afterwards to your heart's content...

Light bytes

I give thanks for fresh baked French bread for breakfast... For the process of part-baking that makes this so easy at home... and going to France to get it earlier in the year!

I give thanks for getting some little computer jobs done, deleting some files, saving others to a usb drive etc. Easily to put off that kind of thing, isn't it? Good feeling when you do it...

I give thanks for making myself some tasty little pastries for lunch. If you haven't yet discovered the delights of ready made ready rolled puff pastry then get yourself to Tesco right now! They have some that comes on greaseproof paper so you just cut it out and stick it on the baking tray and topping it becomes more like playing than cooking. Actually I used to like making real puff pastry...so I give thanks for the memory of that.

I give thanks for chocolate, it seems to be easier to sit still when you've got chocolate...or is it easier to eat chocolate when you're sitting still? Who knows? But it's all gone now so I'd better get up and do something useful. Throw together some little nut roasts, I'm thinking - one for the freezer and one for my tea! Bit of a theme to today's post it seems...

Knees up

Heavens, look at the time! I give thanks for inroads into idleness today resting my joints as much as my brain would allow...

And for the intermittent rain which has helped by making it easier to resist going outdoors. We even had a minor thunder storm last night, much gratitude for the little thrill of that with tumbling dark clouds and brilliant flashes of lightning.

I give thanks for finding some elastic I had to take out of something was just the right length to put in something else. And for giving the kitchen sink a right old scrub, always a joy - to have it gleaming. I give thanks I'm someone who enjoys cleaning. It must be quite miserable (or dirty!) if you are not...

Stalling

Normally by Friday morning the fairies have flown away but this week have stayed for an exceptionally long time so I've been being grateful for pretty much everything for hours including…

the taste of V8 juice, cold from the fridge. If I haven’t had some for a while I always forget quite how fabulous it is!

a short series of programmes about the traders in Swansea market hall. Made me rather nostalgic for my old job as a stall holder.

this story that is self-explanatory:  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2385219/Dolphin-gives-10lb-cod-family-dinner-Devon.html

and this article showcasing some photo portraits of ex pats in Spain http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-23957214

a particularly friendly and helpful Tesco driver and the snug feeling of having the cupboards full of food

and that though, as a result of their pixy whisking my mind here and there, I haven’t rested nearly as much as I’d promised my body I would, it’s been productive and pleasing activity I've been involved in

Gathering in

Mmm… I give thanks for another lovely summery day! Surely the end of bare legs for me for this year but what a treat it’s been. The season of mists and better TV schedules is upon us and not entirely a bad thing. I give thanks for new series of Catfish and QI beginning.

I’ve been trying to rest more today as I think I’ve been pushing myself too much so I was grateful for a long lie in this morning before a lift from a cheery cab driver to a restorative acupuncture session. Oh and for the yummy pastries I made using odds and ends from the fridge, and the delicious drink I bought to go with them – pomegranate and raspberry!

I give thanks for using the particularly aware state of being that comes after treatment to address a couple of tricky tasks. The trouble with creating knitting patterns in your head is that it’s even easier to find yourself following the wrong bit than if you’ve printed instructions and there was some unpicking and restarting to be done on the current project. There’s also a potential problem with making up sewing patterns as you might find what your mind’s eye sees is not what your fingers can reproduce. I’m grateful I’ve finally sorted out how to get binding and gathers in the same place.

I give thanks I've managed to write this before the particularly away with the fairies state of mind that follows the one that follows treatment takes full and fabulous hold... Is that actually a sentence? Too late now...bye!

Weedy

I was grateful for the sun shining in my eyes before it dipped below the hill while I did the washing up yesterday evening. We haven’t had a full on sunset in the west the last couple of nights but the eastern sky has been pretty in pink over the sea the way it sometimes is. Well not tonight, tonight the weather’s returned to the murkiness of earlier. I've been very grateful for that as if it had been sunny I'd have wanted to fit in over enthusiastic and unrealistic extra activities as well as a trip to the doc's for bloods, to the opticians for specs and the supermarket for food. In fact these tasks seemed a tad unrealistic themselves but it did mean I could rest on the beach in between and admire the greenery. Every cloud eh?

After staggering up from the cab when they were completed I gave great thanks for the little miracle of silence in the locality for a couple of hours…no shouting, no music, no power tools buzzing or dogs barking. At least I think it lasted a couple of hours as I fell fast asleep after twenty happy mins...

Not having a lot of get up and go this week (not even get up off the sofa and go into the kitchen a lot of the time!) I've been grateful for remembering that when you feel in the mood for pointless games on your laptop or phone there are actually some that do have a purpose…but are no less addictive for that. Free rice is an old favourite and I see they have new categories now, but I've also been trying answer4earth where there are a huge range of general knowledge questions. It assumes a US audience so some of them are complete guessing games but that can be fun too.

Oh, and I still like both pairs of new glasses now that I can actually see them. Everyone bespectacled will understand the gratitude there!

Hole in the wall

Early evening yesterday I had an unexpected burst of energy and was very grateful for the extra things I got done including, as my knees weren't hurting, grovelling around on the floor pinning and cutting a pattern which hasn't been possible for a while. After a couple of hours it all wore off and I suddenly hit a wall as runners might do (though no running had been involved!) so since then the challenge has been not to bang my head against that wall but just go with the flow even though it seems to have stopped. I'm grateful for the times I've succeeded!

Of course there's nothing wrong with inactivity per se, it's only a problem if we think that it is, that there's something we ought to be doing or have done. When your body is still it's a fine time to use your mind for something such as composing, designing or problem solving but it's also an even finer time to still your mind as well. I give great thanks for moments of mental stillness today.

I'm grateful for a visit from two very kind and helpful ladies from a local charity that encourages older folk isolated as a result of health issues not only to get out but also join in groups and activities. Though my flesh is often weak I admit my will to socialise can be even feebler so it's great that this kind of organisation exists to winkle us wrinklies out of our solitary shells. Odd to realise I fit the remit though...seems just a twinkle of time ago I was clambering through a gap in the fence at Glastonbury as dawn broke over the festivities. Mind you I was forty two at the time!

Back in the now world, I'm also grateful I half made some soup for my tea during that brief whirlwind phase (using up some vegetables that were looking a bit tired themselves) so that it was little effort to finish it today. One advantage of being brought up on tins and packets is that I still regard soup making as some sort of esoteric alchemy and so can enjoy astonished pride as well as easily digestible hot food. Ooh, and I just opened the fridge and remembered I made crumble...mmm, very good!

Occupational therapy

Gorgeous sunset last night. I think everyone for miles around gave thanks for that and I was grateful for the local 'Oracle' Facebook page for encouraging people to send their photos in so I got to see lots of versions of it!

Rachel gave me some almost out of date 'speedy seeds' for salad leaves. 72 hours after sowing they look like this so I've been giving thanks not only for the thought but that they really do do what they say on the packet!

I'm grateful I decided to have an early night on the sofa bed last night, snuggled up catching up with What Remains...an unusually good non-Nordic noir serial on the BBC. I've always enjoyed 'camping' in my living room sometimes since I had to leave home at 16 and didn't have to try to act normal any more. Tonight it was extra useful not being under the bedroom upstairs as those poor folk were having more barneys and had to go in and out a lot stomping in and out a lot - getting their favourite reconciliation remedies I suppose. Certainly I can hear they've been getting on better today...I hope my vacuuming didn't spoil the moment (much).

I was grateful I felt up to vacuuming as I do prefer clean floors, and managed various other little jobs including taking some recycling down to the communal bins outside...and a chair so I could sit in the sun for a while with some Buddhist chants and a book on meditation techniques. Now that was a good bit! And I've just been grateful for my tea which included roasted beetroot. I've never roasted beetroot before, in fact, it's one of the few vegetables I think I don't like. But I give great thanks for being brave (and being given some for free!) and thus discovering that I like it roasted. That was in the happiness equation wasn't it? No, not beetroot, being curious. Experimentation doesn't have to be food related of course but I'm grateful it's an area in which I still have the odd adventure...

Hurts so good

Why do I do it? Why do I occasionally do so much that I need twelve hours sleep afterwards and can still do hardly anything at all next day? I guess it’s not so different from the urges of those who drink so much they are ill with hangovers when they wake up, or who become clinically obese from over eating of junk food ie. the instant gratification seems worth the long term cost. 

It's no good telling folk like that that they could have just one or two drinks once in a while, or a small size burger and fries and coke...they want as much as they can get and they want it now! My craving for the great outdoors is similar and on the rare occasions when I have the various wherewithals to get to it I do tend to steal from the next day’s energy to make the most of it while I can...and then I suffer, but I'm grateful because I can blame the suffering on excess activity and activity that I really enjoyed and, let's face it, a) there's not a lot of that and b) I can feel incapable of moving after none at all! I give thanks for the feelgood factor lingering in my spirit and that it's the same feeling that I used to get after a 'proper', leg stretching, miles in double figures walk when I was well. 

Days like these I give thanks that I only have myself to look after, and that there's only me to look after me too as it's easy to say you can't do stuff when you can but there's willing hands to do it for you. Actually it's no more comfortable lying still so it's good to move around for short periods and that way, as if by magic, food appears and sometimes even the dirt on plates and pans vanishes again! I give thanks for the sound of the steam train's whistle, for the taste of a fresh brewed cup of Earl Grey tea and for something yummy I made with some veggies and cheese and seeds for my lunch plus a fish finger salad sandwich for my tea. I've never had salad in a fish finger sandwich before...impurists might be horrified but I was well impressed!

And I give thanks for thinking of the title of this post and remembering the Luminites audition performance of the song...probably the best version in the world ever, with or without lager...