Viewing the situation

Last night I gave thanks for some Swedish TV not so much dark as dappled, and very watchable with scenic landscape and cast, vintage costumes and cars.

This afternoon I was very grateful for all the things I'd done this morning before going to the beach. People who say 'Oh, just leave it til later!' have no idea how how utterly exhausting a couple of hours out can be. Particular thanks for making goat's cheese pastries and better textured scones.

I was grateful for a lift down the hill from a passing friendly cab driver, and for all the screaming kids, grumpy grown ups and yapping dogs on the beach already who encouraged me to walk much further along the sands than I'd intended to find some peace and properly enjoy my surroundings. I'm grateful for all the practice I get at putting up with other people's noise but I don't seem to get any better at it! I gave thanks for the chant of metta on my Walkman to remind me to wish others well, for lots of little rests along the way and how wonderful it was when I got to a bit where it seemed to be just me and the sea and sky. I give thanks for walking back along the sea wall and rediscovering how splendid the views are from there.

I give thanks for unbridled idleness since I've returned, conserving some energy to stir myself and stir some tea. Did have a chortle at these though...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/45-earth-shattering-local-news-headlines?s=mobile

You paisley your money

Yay! I managed to find somewhere I can buy on line caramel soya dessert and Method laundry liquid and not have to pay a silly postage charge for ordering just two little items. Much gratitude for that. I've been looking for a while locally for the former to try as part of the diminishing dairy project, and also, having tried the latter and become totally hooked, have been frustrated that my usual sources have dried up. Clearly far too much alternative laundry is done around here!

I give thanks for finding some of my favourite fabric as well ie. colourfully patterned, not polyester and less than £3 a metre...

I give thanks for the delightful state of everyone normally within earshot being out if it for a while this afternoon (and taking their furry friends with them!)...for using the peace for a little shiatsu, three oms and a meditate and for feeling even more peaceful afterwards.

I give thanks for watching some brilliant dancers on TV and getting the ironing done - though not at the same time as I'd have burnt my clothes gawping at the screen. I give thanks for more promisingly non-X Factor things to watch later, though if people don't put their stroppy children to bed soon I might have to have an early bath with earplugs instead. I give thanks that it's tea time and tea will be something quick to make...and for my appetite!

Keeping it together

After an early night and a long lie in I still wasn't up to much this morning, so I was very grateful when my mojo finally returned around noon and I was able to start catching up with things. I'm grateful for managing to walk down the hill and for the breathtaking sight of the minty blues and misty greens of the sea today. Hard to capture but it was fun trying and I gave thanks for these turquoise jacketed women for wandering into shot and improving the attempt. I saw them walking towards me and actually waited for them to go past simply to see what the colours did together!

I give thanks for my poorly toenail staying on my toe, and my feeble wrist holding up to rub some butter into flour for some scones. It's been yonks since I made any so I was grateful when my lack of practice meant they turned out rather dry and crumbly and had to be held together with lashings of butter, strawberry jam and clotted cream!

I give thanks for spotting the Eurofighter flying over in her semi upright, slow and stealthy position before hearing the roars as she did some serious showing off down the coast. And for hearing the Red Arrows flying over too, though they were obscured from my line of sight by low clouds or tall trees...

I give thanks for more of these...I love these!
http://twistedsifter.com/2014/08/unrelated-doppelgangers-photo-series/

Little issues

Today I've been exceptionally achey and tired (even for me) which I put down to yesterday's jab and have been mostly grateful to go along with. My left wrist has also been exceptionally sore so all in all a good day to lie! I'm grateful I've no one to tend to my needs or I'd have been a bit of a cranky fuss pot I'm sure...And I'm grateful I didn't have to tend to anyone else's, nor go to work.

I give thanks for my six months old and still much loved mattress, and my two weeks old and equally appreciated pillows... for the good fortune of a comfy bed when your body is not, and the strength to get out of it and bring back a mug of tea. For having the makings of a few mugs of tea and some simple meals, and things recorded to watch on TV and to read including a Big Issue to remind me how lucky I am. I give thanks that though I hear more of my many neighbours than I'd often like, it's usually just the sounds of people having a whinge or not handing emotions well, not violence or abuse or war. Though today I also heard something strangely familiar - someone recording an ice bucket challenge in one of the gardens below! I give thanks for finishing the last few stitches of sewing up my jumper...  

New disorder

I give thanks for completing the unexpected cleaning yesterday evening when first of all a dust bag came adrift in my vacuum, and its contents got almost everywhere, and then a portion of baked beans flew out of the fridge and splodged as much of the floor as it could. I was very grateful dinner was almost cooked already as I was exhausted after sorting that lot out...

This morning I was grateful for my comfy bed and had no desire to leave it, but in the end gave thanks for all the good humoured folk I met on what might have been a boring trip to get pills and an injection. I wasn't the only one enjoying the wind and rain and wavy sea, and keen on making as much pleasure out of interaction as possible so that there were many smiles and chuckles shared between strangers and acquaintances alike. I don't think I've ever lived anywhere where people are quite so poised to have fun and am so grateful I moved here and can be part of it.

I gave thanks for getting home before heavier rain started falling and for getting the crochet neck of my jumper sorted before the post vaccination soreness set in as I don't fancy poking my arm in and out of any more sleeves than necessary now it has. For a tea tree soaked cloth, a bank bag and a laccy band to poke my poorly toe in,  and the combination of this and the murkiness making an afternoon of sofa lurking ideal. For simple snacks of mostly leftover things, for the kids next door shutting up for long enough for me to have a nap... and for the Blades flying over.

Low lying

As my joints have been far from jolly the last couple of days, and my energy levels low, I was grateful that some of the ladies who knit fancied meeting for a natter so I had a bit of motivation to get up and outdoors for a while. And I was just thinking that walking down the hill felt like descending a mountain when I looked up and saw a cloud hanging on to the high ground on the other side of the river which made that look a bit like one too! Much thanks for the meteorological reinforcement of the impression...

I give thanks for taking a couple of well driven buses to and from a local supermarket I've not been to before in a quest for a couple of products I've not been able to find in town.  It's been open a couple of years and you can see it on Streetview but if you look on Googlemaps it just shows a shopping trolley and a bus stop symbol in the middle of an empty field, so I was grateful for the amusement in that...and that I did find one of them! I'm always very grateful for our local bus services but this time of year, with the teeming hoards on board and on the roads I think the way the drivers keep their cool is amazing. I was grateful for the holidaymakers' sake that it was quite warm and sunny most of the day but for those of is for whom everything seems hard work, I'm also grateful that rain is due again tomorrow so that after I've been for my vaccination I can come home and shelter and snooze

Since I got back I've been very grateful to do very little, though I've given thanks for chopping and cooking a pan of veg because given the amounts of veg I'm allowed to eat that's two or three meals' worth at least...

Emotion sensor

I give thanks for ballet dancers on Got to Dance who make you cry. It wasn't just me that was moved, and it wasn't just the beautiful way they moved, but that they'd been married and dancing together for a long long time and had come out of ten years retirement to do it. Even though the format of the programme has changed to be more commercial and competitive, and the 'live show' rounds start tonight (which have always been more commercial and competitive and therefore less to my taste) I give thanks for all the wonderful ways a body can be in motion we've seen this year, and the supportive way the judges judge them.

I give thanks for (fingers crossed) getting the hang of one side of my jumper neck sorted. I've still got to put it together to be sure, and do the other side to match of course! I give thanks for remembering, when I was struggling, to stop and do a little Tai Chi which helped me to relax and focus and do better. Oh and I give thanks for the terrace being blissfully quiet for most of the day as well, which is particularly helpful when trying to relax and focus on Tai Chi...

I give thanks for finally managing to download some documents to review for Cancer Research. It was only when I went into the email again earlier, and realised I couldn't, that I also realised today was the deadline to send my thoughts on this particular topic so it's good that I was in time to have my say.  I felt quite strongly that one of the two suggested options for graphic representation of survival figures was much more appropriate than the other ie. not showing solid and faint human figures. Have a care - these are our lives you are showing as rubbed out and ghostly!

Low expectations

At this stage is my life I'm grateful that I still occasionally have a day out in congenial company. And due to the state of my body I'm also grateful that it is only occasionally - I went almost straight to bed after writing my blog last night and fell asleep within moments...but then I had to keep waking up and getting up and doing the things I should have done before I did!

I'm grateful for a long lie in this morning and a very low key afternoon enhanced by the the louder locals all being out or quiet - very pleasing indeed! Oh, and for an internet potter that revealed a bit more bargain fabric to buy to run up some autumnal wear and an explanation as to why I like the smell of rain, and perhaps why I sometimes know it's coming...

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/08/why-the-world-smells-different-after-it-rains/378722/

I'm grateful that I like racing cars as well as planes so that I did eventually get out of bed and stay out today to keep half a dozy eye on the grand prix, and that I'm part way through making something to eat that is slightly more demanding to produce (and nutritious to eat) than tea and biscuits or toast which has been my diet for the last twenty four hours...

I'm grateful I gave up finishing off the jumper I'm making for myself because the first attempt went wrong and I couldn't get my head round the way to get it right. This meant instead I played around with some yarn and low expectations that an idea I had for a flower to go with the butterflies would work, and because nothing was expected of it it turned out just great of course!

Event horizon

I'm grateful for a day out...and I'm grateful that I'm home. I'm grateful that even though the bus was late I didn't miss the boat,  and that even though the boat was late I didn't miss the train. I'm grateful I was travelling the opposite way to most people most of the time...I have never seen the local roads and railways as crowded as they get on air show day and this was one of the busiest ever I think...

I'm grateful that I got hardly any usable photos (because mostly I didn't try, just tried being there) and that you don't have to wait a few days and spend several pounds to find out your efforts are rubbish these days. I'm grateful for the awesomeness of having planes fly so low over us.

I'm grateful for capturing the incredible sparkliness of the sea, even though the horizon is slantier than I usually allow it to be - it was a bit wobbly on the water. And as I've run out of personal sparkle now I'm grateful I'll soon be at a similar angle myself!

Metal lurgy

I give thanks for seeing folk strolling along the sea wall towards Sprey Point...and only two of them wearing orange! It's an important vantage point for viewing some of the local air show, and part of the pedestrian route for those who want to get closer so the timing is welcome too.

Although not up to walking along it myself just now I give thanks for getting to a bit where I could see others doing it,  and though I feel as if I'm made of lead at the moment I'm grateful my latest bloods show I'm less made of potassium than I have been! I give thanks for a spot of warm sunshine as well as it's been a bit nippy here the last week or so. I was grateful to meet a few people I know in my travels and have a chat, and to get the things I went out for too, including stuffed vine leaves for my boat trip picnic. Just got to remember to get them out of the fridge in the morning...

I've not been able to be as idle as I'd have liked today and after coming home this afternoon going out again tomorrow seemed way too energetic... So I give thanks to the Blades for having a little wander around the skies within view of my windows and getting me in the mood!

And relax...

Yesterday evening it seemed as if pretty much everyone within earshot was doing something or other a little louder than I'd like them to, so I was grateful I hit upon the plan of wedging in ear plugs and wallowing in the bath with a book.

For most of today it's been the opposite situation - hardly any of the folk with loud voices, tools, children and dogs have been noticeable at all... Not even the gulls and pigeons which can produce such a racket themselves. I was very grateful of course, and after considering being noisy myself while I wouldn't be bothering anyone (choir practice perhaps?), I decided to be really still and quiet instead and snuggle up for another read and snooze instead. Very nice too! I can be a woman who moves too much sometimes...

I give thanks for the sound of the wind in the trees. For pottering a little with creative projects and domestic chores  (a very little with the latter!) and for having something easy to make for my tea. I give thanks for more energetic days planned for the future, one involving boats and planes on Saturday with Gary, and one with a fashion museum and a veggie restaurant with Jan next month...and lots of opportunities for practising relaxing in between!

Just what I needled

Mmm, I'm grateful for acupuncture! I'm grateful the journey to get it wasn't too arduous and the weather not too cold, there were even some sunny bits and a beautiful clear view from the top of the bus. I'm grateful that Rachel walked me down to the return one afterwards and waited with me to see me on to it safely as away with the fairies is one thing but one prefers to be at home to do it, not away off in the wrong direction...

I'm grateful for coming home to a clean and tidy flat, courtesy of Jenny, and that I've remembered to write my blog as I've even more creative energy than usual and a little more physical energy than of late and am surrounded by knitting wool and bright ideas! I'm grateful Mr Tesco has made me some cauliflower cheese for tea so I can concentrate on turning them into reality for a while instead of boring chores. I don't know when normal service will be resumed... Not soon I hope anyway!

Off the cuff

Yay, I finished the second cuff! I'm grateful it's gone right at last...

Today I've also been grateful for...

...a hash brown with my brunch. Potatoes have to be rationed now, and I'm doing pretty well with various grains and pastas but, oh the delight to my tongue and tum when I occasionally indulge!

...earplugs to facilitate afternoon snoozes

...two pairs of socks for freezing feet

...sharing a chuckle with the Tesco delivery man

...and the thought that tomorrow I'm going for acupuncture! It's been almost three weeks, which is almost a record so, though I don't like to have anticipatory things in my list of gratitudes I have been enjoying the thought of treatment...though not the trek to Rachel's new clinic and back...

Turning out nice

I'm grateful a grey day turned out nice - for the bit that I was outside and free to enjoy it - and for seeing this sea front sculpture I'd not seen before.

I'm grateful I made it to Knit and Knatter...even though I was something that almost rhymes with natter and while getting ready to go just had to have a little doze on the bed instead!

I'm grateful for meeting, amongst dealings with medical matters, one of the district nurses who used to have to visit me regularly and him saying how well I looked.

I'm grateful for the enthusiasm with which the other members of the group have taken up the vague idea for a joint decorative project that arrived in my brain a couple of weeks' ago and are already stitching with it! One does not own inspiration, one merely offers it a place to alight in passing, but it seemed to me to be so absolutely perfect for us it would have been a shame if they'd not agreed. I'm grateful for the enthusiasm with which we laughed at thoughts of kilts (among other things!) though from the black looks we got from some of the men on the computers maybe we should try not to enjoy ourselves quite so audibly in future...

I'm grateful the person who thought they'd sent me a Facebook friend request told me...so we could ascertain that they'd actually sent it to someone entirely different and I could send them one instead...

I'm grateful for realising why the cuff of the second sleeve of my jumper isn't working before the sleeve is sewn up and on as I need to unpick a few rows to make it right. Oh, and for a 'weird weather programme I caught last night with some phenomena I'd not seen on film before, and a marine biologist called Steve Haddock! Long may little things please my mind...

Vegetative state

Today I've been so utterly exhausted the biggest gratitude has to be that it hasn't mattered and I've been able to doss about dozing almost to my heart's content. There are always things that have to be done, of course, so I'm also grateful I've done some of those including preparing food to eat and (mostly) washing up after.

One of the things I made was a Greek salad with garlic bread which was absolutely delicious! Salads are a special treat for me now as the pamphlet I have says a 'salad' is two lettuce leaves, three slices of cucumber and half a tomato (or some such nonsense) which I consider poor for a garnish let alone a meal. Once in a while I just have to indulge myself a little, though I still try to keep the quantities down, and it was such a delight to actually really enjoy something for a change instead of thinking, at best, 'Yeah, this is OK...' Much gratitude for that.

I also give great thanks for discovering my taste buds are still in working order. I've been advised that kidney patients lose their sense of taste as function decreases but at this stage I'm of the opinion it's just that the stuff they're supposed to eat is so boring that they simply can't be bothered...

I give thanks for the pretty way this time of year the evening sun slants through the top of the trees at the front and the bottom of the ones at the back... and for the prospect of an early night if I can just stay awake til then!

Fly-by-day

I give thanks for the days when you plan not to do anything - it's amazing what you then get done! Also for an awesomely long nap this afternoon when I did nothing noticeable at all...I give thanks for all the things my body did when I wasn't paying attention though!

I give thanks I've finally unwrapped my new pillows and left them in the (indoor) sunshine to air. Unfortunately I had to cut the string and tear the brown paper to get into the sturdy package...but the sturdy plastic bags they came in will make excellent yarn or fabric storage and I'm very grateful for those. I'd been wondering what I could use to make the covers I like to sew pillows into to go under the case...and then I gratefully remembered that there were perfectly good old ones on the old pillows so they've come off and have been having a good wash ready to go back on.

I give thanks for using a few scraps of my vast collection of yarn according the pattern pixies' instructions from a couple of days ago and making some 'butterflies' for a spot of future yarnstorming. I'd found some good ones on line and in books but all were either too small and finickety or too simplistic and floppy...these are quick and easy but effective and just right for the job and I've become mildly addicted to the blanket stitch alchemy that turns a simple irregular hexagon into a 'wing'! Oh, and in the second two I've discovered how to make the antennae stay straight - the pixies didn't tell me about that!

Getting your head down

Yesterday evening I was grateful I managed to squeeze in another nap before bedtime and this morning felt as if I could probably manage a couple more today, but I figured if I tried to squeeze in everything I needed to do outside the home over the next couple of days into one afternoon instead I could have a whole weekend of lazing around and napping to follow and that seemed a good deal to me! 

One of the things I wanted to do was get a new pillow as mine are several years old and getting very floppy and thin (all that napping I expect!) and I'd rather not buy them on line as I do like to give them a bit of a feel first. In fact I've been feeling pillows for a few months and had already decided the best value feather and down ones were in a delightfully old fashioned household textile shop in a part of the coast line even more popular with the populace than here, and really best avoided in the height of the season, so I'm grateful I got my head down and ploughed through the crowds to get there. I'm grateful for surviving a fiasco with buses on the way, and another with scones, and for all the opportunities to remember all the different versions of humanity there are and that they are all valid! 

I was very grateful to discover the pillows were cheaper than I remembered and that I could afford two not one,  and paid and said I'd pick them up after I'd done a couple of other things in the town (including finding an edible scone!) And I was very grateful to discover when I returned that they'd parceled them up ready to transport! Seems a shame to unwrap them really... but I'm not sure I have the energy left tonight anyway.

I was grateful I managed to book a cab in transit to collect me from the station here as I couldn't hear much of what was said on the other end at the noisy station I was on... Oh, and I'm grateful for a fish finger sandwich for my tea having found a small brown sliced loaf reduced on the way home. There's not much sliced bread is good for in my opinion, and fish finger sandwiches is most of it! 

Fair enough

The design fairies kept me awake for hours last night but I'm grateful they did because they came up with some patterns for a knitting project I'd never have thought of myself! And though it seemed a bit of a swizz I didn't get to see any meteors during the vigil, when I woke up early in the morning with cramp and stood up to straighten my leg muscles I did get to see a beautiful dawn and I gave thanks for that...

I'm grateful for a quiet day in with all my immediate neighbours out... Also for all the lovely rain to make me feel snug and cosy indoors, and that it was appropriate to catch up with a little catch up TV in the afternoon...

I gave thanks for a much needed nap before tea time and for waking up and making some food - even though the things I imagined I'd make it with turned out not to be on the premises and the alternative things I made it with didn't really combine that well. I give thanks for having an inkling what a spoilt first world citizen I am, though I suppose it could have been worse - I could have jumped in a car and gone to buy something new instead of eating what was there.

I give thanks I'm optimistic a hastily produced dessert course may be better...

Anti static

I give thanks for a lovely relaxed afternoon nattering with some of the ladies not knitting today, after a rather hectic morning attending to medical and legal chores. It's been a very bustly busy week for me and I'm looking forward to a quiet day or two pottering about at home for a change with some creative projects, snoozing, page turning and a remote control...but I'm grateful for all the opportunities I've had to bustle as well as the timely chance to stop. 

I'm grateful I joined a group where there were such friendly folk to join, for the gift of cooking apples fresh from Biddy's tree and fresh made jam from Jenny's blueberries. I feel a pudding coming on, but not tonight! I'm grateful for bits of apricot and ricotta and raisin tart instead, leftover from the Italian deli and left in the fridge last night as part of my pre blood test purity programme.

I'm grateful that when I hobbled past a traffic jam with a painful knee I thought 'At least I'm going faster than the cars!'

I'm grateful for seeing a drawing done some years ago of a part of the family that then was by someone who was then part of the family. It reminded me that all things are always in a state of change...

I give thanks for the beautiful grain on the board on this derelict pub window... worth having a frame around I think, don't you?

Shine a light

I'm grateful for the big ball of supermoon brightening up last night's twilight slomo travel time...

...and for finding a lost and much loved bracelet in exactly the place I searched for it to no avail just before I left on Thursday morning!

I'm grateful for doing some things that had to be done today; that there were less of them than I'd feared there might be, and that even a few extra not on the essential list but high on the hopeful one have been achieved, such as finally getting the cuff of a jumper right. I'm particularly grateful for the chores that require sitting or lying down such as catching up with a few TV programmes recorded while I was away...

Much gratitude that the photos that refused to upload before have now done so, and that I've conceded defeat on editing and am content to let them appear in their natural state...

Finally, I must express my gratitude for Robin Williams. It always seems rather strange to me how much we can be moved by the deaths of people we've never met or personally interacted with, but he was one of the chirpy band of Robins that led me to believe it was a fine name to bestow on a boy and I am saddened by his passing. Encouraging others to laugh (and not in malice at anyone else) has got to be one the finest ways a human being can spend their time, not least when finding some humour in your own distress and sharing that instead of spreading gloom....and I'm grateful for the rainbow that appeared outside the window when I got to that point in writing and was puzzling what next to say!

Eagle eyed readers may spot this post has been brought to you without resort to the letter 'k'. I've got to have my bloods done again tomorrow so I'm trying to limit the potassium as much as I can :-)

Street view

I'm grateful to be home again safe and sound after a long long day

I'm  grateful to Laura for all the driving and for not getting cross at the delays

I'm grateful to the work crews who keep our highways repaired, and for all the safe drivers who use them

I'm grateful our scheduled stops were so pleasant, including a visit to a quilt museum and an Italian deli picnic lunch and tea

And I'm grateful I'm going straight to my comfy bed

Wet connections

I've seen snow snow, and snowdrop snow, hailstone snow and fallen blossom petal snow... But today I gave thanks for seeing white geese clustering thickly in drifts like snow for the first time ever. They were in a field so destined for roasting I'm sure but I've been grateful for seeing lots of wild ones round here too, flying in squawky skeins or bottoms up rummaging in ponds and with, one hopes, a better chance of getting away!

I give thanks for the wild and squally rain showers. After realising that unpredictable British weather helps uncommunicative British strangers break the conversational ice; and that summer downpours release negative ions so that those conscious of their positive effect will enjoy heavy rain in a similar way to waves and waterfalls; this afternoon it also dawned on me that getting thoroughly and suddenly soaked usually brings folk into the present moment so there's more opportunity to be on the same page as those around you and have a moment of pure contact, however brief. Today I've been particularly aware and in awe of the connections in those exchanged rueful grins and spontaneous, maybe wordless, humour or sympathy.  I give great thanks I am blessed with being carless so I'm not swooshing by oblivious to ensure everything but the stress and strain of driving in the rain.

I give thanks that I made a mistake with the museum opening times in one of the very wettest times of the day, otherwise I'd have been unlikely to take tea and yarg sandwiches in a closed fishmonger's to a reiki drum music  accompaniment... Also for a leisure centre's unusual arrangement of a cafe right beside the swimming pool with not even a steamed up window in between. Ideal for parents and paedophiles I'm sure, but for cold wet pedestrians too - even the tables and chairs were warm! I'm grateful the museum was worth the wait as well...

I give thanks for the play of natural and artificial light in, on and through the church stonework and windows opposite...and for some brilliant bell ringing on beautifully clear pitched bells.

I give also give thanks for giving up on uploading photos tonight. I'm not sure if it's the slightly erratic Internet connection or a problem with one of the physical ones, but after three attempts at writing the words I'll be grateful if one set just stays in place!

Good old something new

I give thanks for a train journey I'd never been on before to somewhere I'd never seen - very soothing to a thwarted adventuress's soul! For the (to me) unusual view of vast grain fields, wind turbines and power stations and a different estuary along the route, and for the tender way both station and train staff plus passengers helped an elderly man travelling alone and needing two sticks to walk.

I give thanks for just enough energy left to potter around a town of delightful old architecture and an astonishing array of retail opportunities. Some places are known as a 'bread basket', aren't they? This one could be called a shopping basket! Also that while waiting for some traffic to clear to get an uninterrupted view of an old row of buildings I turned the camera the other way and spotted this pretend dog on a roof... maybe it keeps cats away?

I'm grateful I've finally managed to upload the photo somewhere in this post as Blogger is in a right mood this evening... Now to have another go at the puzzling bath taps! 

I give thanks for my new room being slightly better furbished than the last and certainly brighter and with a more pleasing aspect of a pretty church rather than a dilapidated fire escape. I give thanks I don't have to leave it to get food, nor even order room service as I'm still enjoying the biggest fullest falafel wrap from a real Greek restaurant in the deli quarter at the bottom of Bob's Road. 

Park lie

The hardest days to write my blog are always the ones I've enjoyed the most, when it's getting late and thinking and writing seems complicated and I'd be grateful for a snooze! So that reminds me of snoozing in the meadow this afternoon when Bob went off to look at something my legs were too tired to take me to. And I sat down by the edge of a lake... and then I thought I'd maybe be more comfortable lying down... and then just 'rested my eyes'... and drifted away... I'm grateful we hadn't (yet) had the rain they'd been threatening we would have and the grass was dry and comfy. And I'm grateful I knew when rain was coming for real, and how soon, and how much, and how much time I'd need to get back up the hill so that I could do so without getting wet!

Much gratitude to Bob for coming up with the idea of going to the sculpture park because it was wonderful in the most literal sense of the word. I give thanks for all the marvellous things we marvelled over both natural and man or woman made. For public transport and persevering legs. For being in dry places for most of the rain... For Yorkshire ice cream in the sun and lots of photos to look at later and remember more.

City escape

I give thanks for a pleasantly uneventful journey here and for good weather so far even though we're up north(ish)!

For the ever delightful cityscape of Sheffield with all its hills and trees, its accessibility and unselfconscious friendliness.

For getting to see Bob's much nicer new home and totally awesome room. I'd seen photos but they didn't do it justice - a great space and becoming beautifully organised too. Seriously, I've lived in smaller and pokier flats! Lovely to spend time together in warm weather as well, to amble about of a light summer's evening...

I give thanks for tasty meal at a pretty veggie restaurant we last went to together around ten years ago...

I give thanks for my own room at the pub not being as awful as I'd feared it might be from some of the Internet reviews...and for there also being gallons of hot water contrary to what some of them had said, though maybe I've run the entire tankful and everyone else will have to do without! I'm grateful I have both headphones and earplugs in my bag to insulate me from pub sounds and hopefully get an early night.

Pin drop

I'm grateful I thought I was pretty much sorted for my trip tomorrow so that I kept calm and enjoyed a cup of free Waitrose tea instead of hurrying and scurrying when things began to wander off from the master plan...

I'm grateful the weather held good for the hurrying and scurrying bit as well... and my legs! I'm grateful I got to the bank in time to cash a cheque after locking the pin on my debit card... For coming some special offer bath soak for aching muscles as it's certainly required tonight and for finding the TV pages of a paper on the cafe table so that I knew to set things to record while I do so.

I'm grateful for seeing both a Mini Cooper and a Lambretta this afternoon, both either beautifully maintained or restored. Also for one of the sea front security guards showing me a picture of sunrise on his phone and telling me they had meteor showers as well the last couple of mornings... He even said the wall walk to Sprey Point will be open next week!

Tropic of cardigan

Yay, I finished making the lining for the dress, which means I've finished the dress! Lining? Yes, I know - it's quite a posh frock by my standards! I'm grateful the trim is a lot straighter than it seems to be from this pic and for the way it goes so splendidly with my newly buttoned cardigan...

I'm grateful for the sunny spells we've had today, for those on holidays or working outdoors, and for the rainy ones for me so that I could enjoy being inside pottering about with this and that and actually getting a few things done...I'm grateful for both the having both physical strength and mental agility required to perform these tasks, especially the one I'd been sure was too hard for me for months but which I had that feeling you get sometimes that you can do it NOW, and when I tried I could...

I'm grateful for tea almost ready to eat and bathwater almost ready to clamber into... I'm grateful for how far I can make a Lush bath melt go!

I'm grateful for travelling far and wide virtually courtesy of these wonderful photos http://twistedsifter.com/2014/07/nat-geo-traveler-photo-contest-winners-2014/

Better foot forward

I'm grateful for thinking to change the cheap white laces in my cheap summer pumps for toning elastic instead. I can't show you my other new shoes, the ones that were reduced to half price while I wondered if I could afford the full one, because you would be consumed with desire and that's bad for you, you know! I'm grateful I know to look in the children's department at La Redoute for some exceedingly good deals on colourful comfy footwear...

I'm grateful for a TV programme about the Pembrokeshire coast for giving me an exceedingly good idea for a project for the knitting group...and I'm grateful for going to knitting group and sharing it and the other ladies there agreeing it was good. I'm grateful I picked up some vine leaves from the Turkish cafe on the way as they were very gratefully received by those trying not to eat sugar and needing to avoid the biscuits! I'm grateful that I thought to wear my plain grey cardigan I wanted to change the buttons on from plain grey to rainbow flower one,s and do that instead of knitting... and that Laura was passing through the library so could pass on the message that her phone was broken and not to send her any!

Picking up my parcel and changing buttons is pretty much all I've done today apart from change the shower light light bulb. This isn't the one needing the tall wobbly ladder but the one where you have to stand on the bath sides and do screws above your head so had to be broken down into taking down in the morning and putting back in the afternoon to give my arms a rest. I am exceedingly pleased and proud that I have done it...

Sarong and thanks for all the...

Oh, and apparently there was a dog show, and a mini music festival (heard some of that including Johnny B. Goode!), some sort of lifeguard challenge and a paella stand on the Triangle. Once again I give thanks for all the stuff I might have seen if I'd been enabled by a burst of energy or a kindly companion.

I give thanks for not missing this though...well, I did but not by a few hundred yards!
http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/PHOTOS-Dolphins-amazing-Cornwall-beach/story-22045064-detail/story.html

Luckily I also give thanks for a gripping book... Often it's hard for me to grip a book but that's a different matter entirely, and one reason I like to buy them as cheaply as possible, so this one for 50p had a head start already! I also like it when they linger in your head so that you have to keep going back to them to see what happens next, and enjoy the prose as much as the plot, but it's rarely I find one for any price that does that so it's been a real treat to do so this time.

I give thanks that the toddler with a screaming obsession lives next door - no seriously, imagine if it was your own!

I give thanks for making it down to the recycling bins and to a seat with a view to eat some leftovers for lunch in the sun, and for plastic boxes with lids I can open and plastic forks as well. For a late afternoon nap later...

And for doing some more of the dress I'm making from a sarong I bought in a market in Brittany last year. I've taken nearly as long trying to get a decent photo of it as to sew it thus far, and I'm grateful I've given up and decided this will do for now!

Day tripper

I'm grateful I live somewhere there are so many things going on. Sometimes I get a bit peed off that it's so hard to join in so many of them nowadays, even as a spectator, but that doesn't stop me giving thanks they're there. Today I've been listening to the PA with more live music for the water carnival or it could be the Regatta (there's both) - I know it's not the hedgehog show, that finished earlier this afternoon! It's all good for the holidaymakers anyway and locals staycationing or running businesses here, so it's all good for me too...

I've been grateful for a quiet day at home, with the sound of the warm wind in the trees. For a bit of work on a sewing project and a few light domestic chores completed with mini naps and a good book to read in between. For having made my tea so that it's all ready when I'm ready to get vertical again and eat it. For having a tablet to write my blog whilst horizontal and for the planning of trips. A day with planning of trips is almost as good as a day going on them!

B good

I was really grateful I found something to draw my mind (and ears) away from the missed carnival last night - a documentary about the history of guitar riffs!  Music, I think, is rather like food in that you appreciate different sorts at different times. Some of the sorts featured I've yet to find the right time for, but I gave thanks for vintage footage, semi-anthropological narrative and even the odd vintage guitarist still alive and coherent, tho Chuck Berry and Kurt Cobain were my favourites...

I give thanks for being so close to sleep at fireworks time I couldn't even if be bothered to get out of bed to see what I couldn't see, for the weather staying fine for the festivities and the gloriously heavy rain that started this morning and is just right for dossing around indoors - exactly what I feel I need to do for a day or two...

I give thanks for my tea last night and lunch today tasting OK. I've not really enjoyed my food since I've been advised to cut down on so many things - if I try to be good and avoid those favourite flavoursome ingredients meals just feel wrong,  and if I give in to my urges for potassium laden foodstuffs the taste is tainted with guilt anyway, so 'OK' is OK by me!