Coasting

I'm grateful I stuck to plan A today, and got myself some sedentary kicks on chocolate box route 886. Sometimes when I'm stiff and sore a bit of moving around limbers me up...it didn't work today but the scenery is still good for the soul, and I'm grateful I managed not to fall asleep on the way home.

I'm grateful I picked some bits of grocery shopping to keep me going over the next few days, and a new year's calendar...with pictures of local coastal scenery of course! I'm grateful for the choppy grey of the sea and shafts of sunlight through invisible gaps in the cloud making patches of gold on the water.

I'm grateful I have no one to make me a reviving cuppa when I get in...because they might not and then I'd be demoralised as well as dehydrated! And I'm grateful there's no one to mind if I just make straight for the sofa and collapse with my coat and boots still on and resurface in very gradual stages. I'm grateful no festivities will be marred by my absence tonight.

Trifling things

I give thanks for pleasurably walking further yesterday than I mostly do these days, and for my knees waking me up early with deferred pain to remind me about it, as this meant I got to watch the rising sun bleach the colours from puffs of cloud. And after a busy few hours with domestic chores I gave thanks for waking from an afternoon nap in time to see the sunset tinting a fresh set too... for every time I groan at some aspect of living here there are half a dozen more when I grin with delight at the aspects themselves!

I give thanks for the valiant dustmen emptying the frost covered bins, and for a public spirited neighbour turning ours round and straightening them up afterwards so we can fill them up again and use the car parking spaces as well.

I give thanks for this round up of archaeological highlights from the last twelve months http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30520025 
I love that there are people who think it's important to find out about people in the past...and what was important to them...

I give thanks for a new person finding my blog and finding something of value within.

I give thanks that I was so tardy in making the trifle that the cream had gone off and couldn't be used though the rest of it, including some experimental ingredients, came together well. I also give thanks that this means I definitely have to eat it all myself... I mean it's neither the time of year nor the stage in life to be serving trifle topless, is it?

Detachment

I give thanks for remaining stoic about unsticky situations last night...and for a delivery of sticky things due next week! I give thanks for sleeping snuggly with the window open on the latch and thus the noisy seagulls waking me in time to see the glowing dawn before dozing off again.

I give thanks for feeling up to getting to the bus stop, for my bus pass and the incredibly scenic journeys round here...for the blue, blue sea and sky, and twinkly frost spots untouched by sun. For the revealed beauty of bare branches, and watching swashbuckling tree surgeons roped up high and casually chainsawing. For this pair of evergreens reaching out to one another across the path through the country park...

I give thanks for the pretty sky this evening, and having the ingredients to rustle up a meal now that the pre-rustled stuff is all gone. For a full Skybox so that lounging in front of the TV is essential for the rest of the day...

I give thanks for asking for something to be changed I wasn't sure could be done, and it not only being done but also for free instead of for a fifty pound amendment fee!

Sketchy

Some people don't like this time of year but, even though I have little in my life that could be called 'routine', I'm still pretty grateful for the break from it! If I have anything like a plan for the coming months it is to be less purposeful, so I've been appreciating getting some practice in...without trying to do that too much either, if you see what I mean.

I'm grateful that there are still things to eat up so no proper cooking nor even planning of eating has been required; and my hands have been too painful to knit so, although it is a great treat to treat a loved one to a handmade garment, I've been quite grateful not to be measuring my progress with that either.

I often start a jigsaw over Christmas to enhance that sense of amiable idleness so, as I've not one on the go at the moment, I'm grateful I found it fun to while away a couple of hours playing with some cheap crayons. After many years of not doing anything like this I'm grateful to discover I'm sufficiently capable not to frustrate myself but nowhere near talented enough to try to achieve any artistic goal...ideal!

I'm grateful for whiling away the rest of the day looking at cruises...I love it when there's something I can't afford and I realise I don't want it! I think I'm grateful I found an irresistible bargain...ask me again when the balance is due...

On reflection

I'm grateful for a brisk walk after seeing Bob off, to work off some of the calories from a massive late night dessert and a mighty sausage and potato omelette brunch today. I'm grateful for the wintry showery weather staying fine. I'm grateful for the stunning views and that, though it has some quirks like crashing when you zoom, when pointed in the right direction my old camera tends to capture them pretty effortlessly...

I'm grateful the coveted wrapping paper in Smiths had been reduced so I could buy some as planned. I'm grateful for making a dent in the leftovers and in the washing up, and for a snooze on the sofa with Wallander on pause...

Just hanging around

Mmm, I give thanks for a sleepy wallow with a new good book in a Lush hot bath, and a little nap to follow. I give thanks for hearing the cheers from the walk into the sea this morning and feeling no need to rush out to see... for a rainy day making staying indoors very pleasant. I give thanks for catch ups with funny and informative QI and with chums via Facebook and text; for loadsa leftovers...

Oh, and for the sun and planets - some people wish for the moon and stars but I was delighted with these craftily made by Rachel and kindly hung by Bob...

Christmas special

I'm grateful I've been grateful for lots of things the last twenty four hours! I give thanks for a lovely tea last night of "taken away" veggie Indian dishes, and for the film we grudgingly decided would be OK to keep an eye on while we ate thoroughly enthralling us so that when we put our plates down we just sat there. It's rare for either of us to just watch the screen, not crafting or fiddling or tapping a keyboard, and its rare for either of us to want to see something prime time and mainstream but the combination of Sam Mendes' visual magic with a classic formulaic adventure story (chase with spilled merchandise in a souk, fight on a train roof, munched baddie, crashed helicopter etc) made Skyfall the best kind of "Christmas special". I'm grateful a dash of Scottish scenery and Ola Rapace even made up for Daniel Craig for me and I'm grateful we hadn't known it was so good or we'd have seen it at the cinema and spoiled the surprise...

I'm grateful for a long lie in today and a late bacon butty breakfast made for me, for lots of thoughtful gifts some of which were exactly what I wanted, and some I didn't realise I wanted until I unwrapped them, and some of which I'd said I wanted and forgotten about so I'm grateful someone else remembered! I'm grateful for a buffet tea this evening which means hardly any cooking again and not much washing up either,  always a special treat too...

First world

I'm grateful for taking my new boots for a walk. They are so comfy on my feet I walked further than is comfy for the rest of me now but that's a first world problem and not a complaint... I give thanks for Bob's company, fine weather and our trusty ferries for a jam free stroll across the river. I'm grateful for finding a cafe where a mug of coffee or tea is a £1 (unusual anywhere these days but on the other side of this particular river especially so.) Sandwiches and cake were very reasonably priced too... and we could have had jam on them if we wanted, I'm sure!

I'm grateful for food tea that only needs heating up and drink tea made for me and brought to me on the sofa. I'm grateful for finding my old camera seems to work just fine to take pictures still and that I was able to get a card reader to try uploading them that way...when I can find the energy to open the packet! I'm grateful for being aware having a problem uploading photos is very much a first world thing too...

It's all right

I'm grateful for not going to choir last night as I was tucked up in bed before it was due to finish...and I remember being grateful for my dreams when I woke up though I can't remember them now!

I'm grateful for thinking I didn't have to go out today - apart from sitting down in a car - and for making the best of it when I was proved to be wrong, getting to the shop I needed to to put the wrong thing right. But I'm even more grateful for the bit that was in the car, sitting down watching the soft colours of winter scenery roll by. I'm grateful to Laura for introducing me to the beautiful fragrance of winter heliotrope, and for a majestic buzzard circling low over the lane trying to get to its tea whilst avoiding passing cars.

I'm grateful for our tea too (and cake), and a look round the tempting merchandise in rather more luxurious shops than I usually go in, but I'm particularly grateful the best thing I saw was the sunset and it was free! Right now I actually am also grateful I haven't got to try and upload the photos and see if any are any good, as somehow my camera failed to come home with me. Similarly I'm actually grateful Bob's journey is delayed as I could do with another rest before having another go at all with the jobs I've still not done.

Tread softly

I don't know about you but I can tell it's Christmas when I put my sewing machine away. If you think this is a simple matter of moving item A to storage area B you clearly have no idea what it's like to live in a small space... I'm grateful on your behalf for the largesse life has bestowed on you and give thanks for my slide puzzle skills! Actually thinking about it, I'm grateful I don't live in a bigger place as it's hard enough keeping the one I have warm and clean...and on a bad day it seems a very long way from one part of it to another, including from floor to ceiling! I'm grateful I managed to stash all extraneous craft items away today without recourse to stepladders. 

This time of year we're told to remember those who are alone, and hopefully we are all doing so and making sure they're not if they don't want to be, but I'd also like to send my warmest compassion to those who are with people they don't want to be, or with people who don't want to be with them. I'm grateful for all the happy time I've spent on my own, some Christmases included, and I'm grateful that as my body requires more staying at home, my spirit becomes more fond of solitude too.

I give thanks for my disability benefits, and for my credit card and overdraft facility as they don't get paid in until tomorrow and cash is only flowing one way right now. I'm grateful I ordered my lush new boots when pennies were more plentiful. They are so soft and light and 'elfin' as Dorothy described them, though difficult to do up as laces always are these days...think next time I put them on I might sleep in them and save effort! The colours have come out a bit unrealistically bright in the flash but I couldn't wait until daylight to show them off for some reason...

Little extras

I'm not getting on with making Bob's new jumper as quickly as I'd have liked but I give thanks that his bed is made up and I've hunted and gathered gifts and plenty of good things to eat and drink. All the little extra chores of Christmas are really knocking me for six this year so I'm grateful I can revel in the thought he might be persuaded to do some cooking and/or washing up while I knit a few more rows...as he's a better chef than jumper maker!

I give thanks that my water can't be metered here so that I can soak and double boil my veggies the way a good little renal patient should without wincing...and console myself about their unappealing limpness with long hot fragrant baths

I give thanks I eventually got the top off a new roll on deodorant - was beginning to work quite a sweat up trying! Also for not fainting in Waitrose where I'd thought I must sit down...and then queued forever for a free pot of tea to do it with!

I give thanks for Jenny calling to say she'll be at the library tomorrow and can give me a life home...a bit less plodding or paying for taxis will be very welcome... Also for extending my plod today to see the sun shining on the cliffs at the other side of the bay. I always seem to have more energy for shoreline than shops!

I give thanks for two short films which reminded me both of my own good fortune, and of the great goodness there is to be found in the world if you look in the right places

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30515800

http://twistedsifter.com/videos/dog-without-3d-printed-legs-runs-for-first-time/

Just chilling...

I'm grateful to Christine for thinking to send me a text offering a chair for a choir performance this morning but, as suspected, most of my morning was spent asleep after yesterday's exertion so I'm grateful no one was relying on me to be there. They've had a busy schedule this month and I'm grateful they tolerate lightweights like me who can't join in with the business end of the process.

I'm grateful for a fairly active and well feeling couple of hours this afternoon including putting chilled stuff from a Tesco order in the fridge before keeling over again. I'm grateful the seasonal edition of the Big Issue is a good read, blissfully unsullied by absurd first world glossiness, and that it tipped me off about a film on over Christmas that I actually would like to see. Astonished and grateful for that one plus whilst tracking it down to set to record I found a Wallander was on as well, so doubly so! There were a couple of reviews of books that took my fancy too...I'm grateful Heidi and Ivor sent me an Amazon gift card!

I'm grateful that in the pages of tricksy don'ts in the renal dietary guide for the 'festive' season they include the message that 'a small cream liqueur such as Bailey's can be a welcome change' - though they don't say from what! I'm grateful I've a bottle unopened from last year so clearly my levels of abstemiousness are spot on!

PS. And I'm grateful that though Blogger twice ate my post after 'publication' it didn't eat the preview so I was able to write it all again...and again. Definitely time for chilling now!

It's what's inside that counts

I give thanks for all the money the NHS has spent on various scans and tests for me over the last few years, and I'm grateful today's scan is just too late in the year to have a follow up appointment until the next one starts, as travelling to the city is a bit unravelling at the best of times let alone at this time! I'm grateful I had no shopping to do, and no money to do it so that I wasn't tempted to try anyway as it looked a miserable pastime from the faces of folk I saw.

 I'm grateful for the hospital corridor galleries and the wonderful images they have on display...like x ray decks for instance!

I give thanks for getting up early enough to get some filling breakfast to see me through the non eating hours and for arranging to meet a friend afterwards to break my fast a tad festively again this afternoon. I'm grateful I only waited half an hour for him to turn up before I gave up so that, despite the slowest traffic, the sky and sea were not completely drained of colour before I got home, but with hints still of that very special translucent blue. 

I give thanks for fine tunes in my ears and fine sights to see along the way and for knowing how blessed I am to know how to chuckle with joy at what others might miss or dismiss. 

Out reach

It was mild here last night and I gave thanks for being able to have the bedroom window open and listen to the whooshing wind as I turned over and over trying to find the least acheful spot. This afternoon I was grateful the pains subsided and I could get dressed and get down to the sea. I give thanks for the rather surreal experience of passing a nearby house that always puts a big inflatable snowman on their upstairs balcony just as they were blowing it up...so that he seemed to be collapsed over the rail at first but to gradually recover and stand upright. 

This time of year I always want to be out in the countryside away from buildings and people and roads, appreciating nature at the turning of the year, so I'm grateful I live so close to such a wonderful substitute - with so many people on the roads and bustling between buildings it's a very peaceful time to enjoy the rhythm and blues and greys of the shore. I was grateful they had a cherry picker on the walkway to attend to a problem with the lights so I had to walk along the sand in the lightest of mizzly rain - what a treat!

Though it heals my soul, my body protests a lot about being out in the great outdoors and I was grateful for many well positioned vacant seats along my route to rest on. I'm grateful for hunting and gathering a collection of veggie Indian dishes for an easy meal next week...plus a much needed free cup of tea at Waitrose! Since getting home I've been giving thanks for remaining mostly in the feeble position. I'm sure I'll get some more pre-Christmas things done soon...though probably not tomorrow as I've got to go for my pre-Christmas scan.

Partly season

Yesterday I was giving thanks for not having to work...and today I've been grateful I don't have to play! I give thanks for the memories of parties, dancing and staying up late...for dining out when I could eat anything I wanted from the menu and people close by weren't in danger of being impaled on my flailing cutlery. Oh, and clothes... I give thanks for being able to wear a lot less than I do now and neither contracting pneumonia nor mentally scarring the locals.

I give thanks for being able to spend more than twenty four hours mostly horizontal and a goodly portion of that asleep. For watching documentaries in bed on my tablet. For not having to make or partake in chatter.

I give thanks for finally waking up a bit this afternoon and tackling some washing up and cooking up leftovers. I'm grateful for not making any progress on partly finished projects but for starting a small one I was sure I could get done...which is now partly finished too!

Not a waste

After a nippy night I was grateful for a fine day ideal for a brisk walk. My legs were grumbling about merely carrying me from room to room so I couldn't go out myself, but I don't begrudge others such bliss! I was grateful for the sun streaming in the south facing windows to keep me cosy for a while without the heaters on, and a few brief attempts at getting on with craft projects, though my arms and hands were equally uncooperative and painful, and the main event of my day was an afternoon/evening nap or three! I've been too tired to enjoy anything much the last few days so I was extremely grateful for lots of sleep and dozy inactivity.

I'm grateful I don't have to go out to work, also to Rachel for cooking, washing up and houseplant husbandry last night, and to Jenny for cleaning today so I've not had to stay in and work much either! I'm grateful that when I was well I busied myself with so many things, so I don't look back on those times and think they were wasted.

Dusk to dawn

I give thanks for the sea and sky at twilight...a very soothing beachscape to escape from the sometimes frazzling nature of life. I give thanks for remembering to give cards and gifts and goodwill where I can, and that silent metta is better than speaking my mind when my heart's not as generous as might be.

I give thanks for home alone with hot buttered crumpets and my twinkling Christmas tree...and just as I wrote that Rachel came to make me scrambled eggs and to feel better with acupuncture for which I was also very grateful...We were just hurrying to get ready for choir, hurrying to finish the conversation we were having about doing more of what you want and less of what you feel you should, when it dawned on us we could finish the conversation instead of going to choir...so we did and, much as we love singing, we both gave thanks for that!

Lights, camera, right action

I'm grateful for a grey old morning to wake up to slowly and gradually deal with the usual post exercise stretch/cramp conundrum....

I'm grateful for just the right amount of sunshine at just the right time of day to feel removing its glare from my eyes by getting my laziness out of bed would be a fine idea!

I'm grateful for prioritising all the many things I'd like to have done by certain points within the next ten days, by the morning, by when Bob gets here etc...and then abandoning the sensible schedule to fiddle around with tinsel and baubles, batteries and lights; upload photos and natter on Facebook instead! I'm grateful for finding new ways to arrange my deckies and for knowing it doesn't matter in the slightest that I do, other than because it gives me pleasure (and a pleasured me is usually a more good natured one, so you could argue I'm making the world a better place!)

I'm grateful for getting something out of the freezer that would last for two meals and then eating it all in one. I'm grateful I'm kidding myself somehow this will help with the washing up...

What may be

I give thanks for being home! There are many ways in which my home is far from ideal...but it's a great deal more delightful than railway platforms and waiting rooms on a cold dark and very busy Saturday evening. I give thanks for setting out on my day's journey hopefully and arriving part of the way on time, for not losing anything (including my temper), for stoicism, the money to buy refreshments and some refreshments worth spending it on. I give thanks for the beauty of the winter landscape...particularly for the sunlight painting the very tops of the trees gold as the train dipped into the tunnels and the water coloured estuary slipping by as darkness fell...

Most of all though I give thanks for the chance to participate in Marie's wonderfully warm and friendly 'leaving do', and for all the folk there I got to know a little better there...including, maybe, myself.

Diolch yn fawr

Yesterday I thought it would be good to talk to someone about how I felt about going to a family funeral today... But today, I'm grateful to say it's just been good just to talk to the family! I give thanks for seeing for a splendid variety of delightful cousins. ..in particular Simon, Sally and Adam of course, but others too, some maybe only met once at most before but lovely to get to know a little more... some half, some second, some not really related at all but connected by marriage, once marriage or long affiliation like Tashi and Maggie. I give thanks that despite thirty years or more apart everybody seems to seem pretty much exactly the same...and that everyone insists I look it!

I'm grateful that despite close calls with connections, hat loss, seat theft and a cab driver who drove me so nuts I walked the last bit instead I made it to the service. I give thanks for the kind weather and the well chosen words... some by Marie herself in preparation. I give thanks for sharing tears and hugs and laughter. I give thanks for seeing the beautiful Welsh countryside and mountains and remembering to say (and spell) diolch yn fawr!

I cannot lie

I give thanks for all the straws that have slipped through my fingers this week for reminding me not to clutch. When times seem hard we have more learning to do, so I'm grateful for the lessons.

I'm grateful to Linda for taking me to her lovely house for a cup of tea, and to Maddie for cutting my hair at short notice after I realised if I went to the Welsh borders untrimmed I might end up rounding sheep! I'm grateful for the array of tankers in the bay, sheltering from the storm and fascinating me as usual; for their twinkling lights at dusk and for the pinkness of the sky this evening too...

I'm grateful for remembering when you feel like you need a hug and a sympathetic ear, a weep and a sleep can help, though I'm so tired at the moment I'm not so grateful I have to get up and get moving again soon and can't stay here til morning... Talking of which, I'm grateful I remembered to phone for a cab to take me to the station, and that the cab man said he was free.

Flash in the pan

Today I've been very grateful to be free of schedules, timetables and appointments. I could probably have watched the clock a bit more than I did to be more connected to the prevailing course of the day, but I do appreciate not doing so... I'm grateful I'm hard pressed to think of much that I've done - that's always a good sign of a relaxing time, I think!

I'm grateful I've so nearly finished a letter to Kostas it might actually get printed and sent tomorrow.

I'm grateful for finding lots of nice things to eat with little prep or cooking required, including some homemade garlic bread in the oven (cosies up the kitchen on a chilly day) and an omelette in the wondrous ceramic non stick pan I bought in the kitchen shop here a couple of weeks back after much umming and aahing.

I'm grateful I've done some staring out of the window... including at the growing number of Christmas lights displays flashing at me from the windows and rooves of neighbouring houses. I'm grateful cash is a little tight just now which helped me resist a (far more tasteful, obviously) twinkly snow flaky thing that caught my eye the other day. I figured I wouldn't see it as I draw the blinds and curtains when it gets dark to conserve warmth, and the folk in the houses below wouldn't as they'd be dazzled by their own, which only leaves the gulls and the odd passer by looking up (right up, so as to get a cricked neck if they're not careful!)...so that was money well not spent!

Two right feet

I only managed half of yesterday so I'm grateful it was the best half with beautiful new socks from Jenny, the washing up done for me by Rachel and a jolly time at choir attempting to make a promotional video of ourselves...

Today? Well, I've not noticed an abundance of opportunities to feel grateful so I'm grateful I realise I clearly must try harder!    

I'm grateful I'm home watching TV. There were times when I wasn't sure how I'd get home and, after getting here, when I wasn't sure I'd ever get the TV to work again! I give thanks for the helpfulness of Tesco staff, and for rigorous training at the particular school of life where there is no 'phone a friend' option so you learn to rely on yourself whilst keeping an eye open for anyone who looks like they might have a hint of Samaritan in their genes...

The last few days I've had a lot of ill health related pain so I give thanks that right now I have the sort that comes from hefting awkward objects and confined space contortions - it doesn't hurt any less but it makes me feel so much more tough and strong! I give thanks for the soft mizzly rain this afternoon and the muted greys of the sea and sky. I'm grateful for leftovers for tea and a tank full of hot water.

p-p-p-p-pick up a pillow

I'm grateful for...

Punctual taxis
Perfect socks
Perky banter
Pesto pasta
Palliative treatment
Piping voices and a very
Persuasive bed...

Night night

Special needs

Last night I was grateful for one of those magical episodes when nothing hurt nor exhausted me. It was such a treat just to make some food, wash up and do a few chores completely forgetting there was anything the matter with me at all! The pain caught up with me later in bed and I was grateful I could see the funny side in there being so many different types in so many different body parts all competing for attention...

Sleep was in short supply so I was grateful I could rise late today, but equally eventually I was grateful I had to get up and get on with things. There's always something that seems to need cleaning (including myself), always something that seems to need creating (including meals) and always some entropy I seem to need to try to keep at bay. To some extent I'd rather be in pain trying to achieve a goal than just lie there thinking about it (both pain and goal) but I'm grateful for all the reminders of what I cannot do, or only so ineptly and inefficiently that more energy is expended than is really worthwhile. I'm grateful for remembering how unimportant most of what we think is, is. We get so caught up in our aims and aspirations, don't we? Or worse still, someone else's...

Arts of crafts

Wow, what a gorgeous morning here! I give thanks that I had to go out, wearing that special beatified and slightly smug smile of a local in a stunning spot in the sunshine...It was really warm on the seafront too and I give particular thanks for the little splashes a cormorant taking off from the water makes - like cartoon puffs of smoke behind an ancient car!

I'm grateful the sun followed me in in the afternoon because even though I did nothing yesterday evening and then had another very long sleep, I was ready for a big rest when I got home. I'm grateful I had no intention of putting my new tree lights on my tree as it took me an hour to get them out of the box, the battery holder open and the batteries in! They are very pretty lights but setting them up is clearly not a task for the manually challenged... I'm grateful Rachel is coming on Monday and might be persuaded to hold the TV while I get the deckies out from under it, because having seen how the lights might look in situ I'm getting keener to do that bit...

I'm grateful I'm good at working out what fabrics and yarns might be really like from inadequate descriptions and unappealing pics. Thus I have managed to purchase some remarkably good substitute yarn to make a replacement for a much loved (and already second hand) sweater of Bob's that someone else took a fancy to and took, plus win some gorgeous fabrics on ebay that other people didn't fight me for because they were so unphotogenic...

Green light

I'm grateful I had a hospital appointment today because it was such bright clear weather for a bus ride, the sun shining on the moor on the way there and the big full moon playing hide and seek behind bare trees on the the return. I'm grateful for Buddhist chants on my Walkman to remind me to feel loving kindness towards fellow travellers, and more raucous tunes to drown the sounds of them when it begins to run out!

I'm grateful I had to go to somewhere with bigger and more numerous shops than here so I could get the last bits of that kind of seasonal shopping, but that they're not much more so - as the smaller the area to be covered and the less the stuff to see the better for me! Though I love to give gifts, this time of year I'm grateful I don't actually have many folk to give them to, because the actual physical processes involved are so tiring.

Similarly sometimes I wish I had someone to come home to but tonight I was grateful to come home to no one needing anything and no neighbours within earshot for a while so I could move straight into uninterrupted sloth mode! I'm grateful I bought a slice of spinach pie back with me too. Spinach is to be "avoided" but I've got to have some greens or I'd die of something else I'm sure...

I'm grateful for top deck glimpses of other lives through lit uncurtained windows, for Christmas lights and the twinkle of ships in the bay, and the way the estuary was dark blue at dusk nearest the sea fading to lighter blue further inland. I'm grateful the orthoptist was pleased with my progress and I don't have to go back for a while...

Choose life

I'm grateful for a lot of sleep. After a full eight hours of upness I was in bed before 9.00 pm last night and spark out soon after, so when I woke up a few times I assumed that's how I'd stay...but my body just kept arranging for more! I'm grateful for a chilly grey day to stay indoors and not be too bothered about getting things done, though as is often the way when you set yourself no goals, achieving more than I thought I would do.

I've been known to grumble about too much choice. I'm grateful that there are so many businesses producing so many goods and services from the point of view of those for whom these create a living, but the individual would be consumer can feel a tad overwhelmed sometimes.  So after a long on line look I'm grateful I finally managed to get just the right sort of pockety thing to go on the back of my door and store/choose gloves and hats and scarves. This time of year these garments tend to be in much demand but to hide away in bags and coats or get lost, so at least this way I'll be able to see if they've made it back to the designated place! Plus I'm sure there must be some extra home insulation involved as well, so gratitude for that...

Recently I've also been grateful I know even if the National Rail website says there isn't the ticket you want the Trainline one might sell you one, and that if you ring a hostelry and ask for a particular type of room and they say they haven't one available you may be able to book the very thing on LateRooms! I'm grateful I've thus arranged not only to go to to Marie's funeral but to stay at the hotel for the large family gathering afterwards. It's not the kind of thing I'm usually involved in, my closest relatives (apart from Bob) not being what you'd call close in any other sense, and I'm particularly grateful to my cousin Simon for making me feel I'm welcome and wanted there.

Find the gap

I give thanks to the sun for shining so brightly in my eyes this lunchtime and forcing me out of bed! I'm grateful for the long soak in the bath I decided to forego last night as my joints were seizing and my muscles were squeezing and I feared I might get in but not get out... I'm grateful that eased the stiffness and pain and eventually I managed to get dressed and get a cab to get one or two things done that were better done today on account of the aforementioned sunshine and their opening hours.

I give thanks for the restorative beauty of the very chilly looking sea, and the cloud of gulls round the homecoming fishing boat - which sped into harbour before I could get my camera out! I'm grateful that big places have things like exhibitions I want to go to, but for the big gaps in between doing stuff like that I prefer big gaps between people, buildings and machines...

I give thanks to Luders for baking an exceedingly good cake to fill a gap in my tummy at teatime, and for home made beansprouts to go with my supermarket made supper. I give thanks I've a hot water bottle, books, a tablet with catch up TV and a rather early night planned...

Picture place

Well, I tackled the thing that couldn't be done and found that I could do it! Humongous gratitude for that! It took a lot of planning to make it as sit down full and step free as possible so I'm grateful for all the pre-departure work I put it in. I'm also grateful the things I couldn't plan went according to...regarding weather, waterworks, the vagaries of the great British public transport systems and the great British public, who mostly thronged where I was not and were quiet enough to let me nap on trains.

I'm particularly grateful I also stuck to a simple and very effective rule of not succumbing to the 'might as well while I'm here' urge to do anything else but what was on the itinerary, and absolutely NO shopping at all apart from purchases of tasty and nourishing food and drink. It's amazing how tiring looking round even the nicest shops can be, especially if you start to choose and queue...to say nothing of carting round extra baggage!

So yes I ache most resoundingly and am fit for nothing but supper, bath and bed for most of tomorrow, but I got to feast my eyes on some sights I thought I wouldn't by doing some things I thought I couldn't... and am very grateful I did!  I would hazard a guess you won't know where this is, which is why I've chosen it as an illustration. I like to be a woman of mystery!

Cross patch

Last night I was grateful for the marvellous film Marvellous - very funny and moving and, remarkably, mostly true!

Today I've not felt very grateful at all, and been a bit of an uncharacteristically crotchety grump. (Oh yes it is uncharacteristic, she snarls aggressively!) Part of it is probably cabin fever, and it would probably have done me good to get out for a bit of contact and interaction, but I've a long and busy day planned for tomorrow so it seemed wise to conserve energy for that, as far as is possible. Actually I've been quite grateful to be able to get on with this mood on my own...and everyone who knows me should be too! 

I'm grateful I'm going to attempt something I've been saying for a few years I can't do any more - partly due to a bloody minded and most un-Buddhist desire to succumb to my desire to do it, and partly because I believe very strongly we shouldn't stay willingly inside our comfort zones or they will shrink to enclose us even more firmly. It involves an early start so I'm grateful that short of starting now, I seem to be mostly ready for departure...

I'm grateful I've done some bits of vacuuming, that I've wrestled some very unco-operative waistband elastic into submission and for Sikkim Girls perfume on my wrists to bury my nose in!