Sea dream

I'm grateful I don't have a garden or I might have fallen asleep in it today and got a bit sunburnt

I'm grateful there's a beach not very far away and my knees were willing to take me... And that a family hiding behind a windbreak with four barking dogs stopped me from falling asleep there too!

I'm grateful for making egg mayonnaise salad to take with me for lunch and eating it with my fingers when I realised I'd forgotten any cutlery. No manners is better than no lunch...

I'm grateful for the bus driver kindly opening the doors again when he saw me looking pitiful when I arrived at the stop just after they closed... And getting home and on to the sofa just in time to drift off into that nap.

I'm grateful for a happy hour or so oohing and aahing and having a chuckle at Monfils's inventive tennis... and looking at second cruises we'd like to take with Jan. One is never enough!

Twice as nice

I give thanks for investigating the sound I couldn't identify yesterday tea time and finding it was someone putting all the site waste in the communal bins! I was particularly grateful as I'd been planning to do it myself today.

I give thanks for taking ages to get to sleep last night and then ages to wake up this morning... I tried to identify the time of day from the various sounds around, and couldn't, which was hardly surprising as it turned out to be almost half past 10!

I give thanks for taking the bag of knitting yarns to knitting, Dorothy finding lots that she liked and the charity shop being delighted with the rest. I give thanks for knitting and nattering with her and Jenny and then going for more natter and a stroll with Jenny before a lift home to hurry through pre Rachel coming things. This included making tea for tomorrow with veg that needed eating up as I'd already made tea for today with the rest so I'm grateful for feeling unusually energetic.

I give thanks for tonight's meal being so delicious we ate it twice... Welsh Rarebit with a sort of cold ratatouille thing. Seriously we ate it, washed up, sat down with a pot of tea made from fresh mint from her allotment, got as far as opening a packet of cookies and then looked longingly at the left over mixture and bread and started again!

Alliance

I give thanks for the patches of sleep in a difficult night. I give thanks for a good book to brighten the darkness and for the enlightening thoughts that came to me in the wakefulness.

I give thanks for my good friendships with men. If you're not lucky with one to one relationships it's good to be reminded the male of the species can appreciate and respect some of your attributes at least!

I give thanks for the sound and smell of rain through my open window and for a cool damp cloudy day just right for spending the morning sorting through some of my yarn and getting a big bag ready to be passed on...and the afternoon using some I want to keep with a bit of Nordic Noir. I've not done any knitting for some weeks and my hands have been grateful for the rest but the rest of me misses it so! I'm grateful for finding some soft cotton and silk aran in beautiful bright colours and at a bargain price, and for getting some 'plain' knitting started in time for Wimbledon watching. I'm grateful you don't have to be gay to wear rainbows and you don't have to be straight to marry the one you love...well, if they'll have you of course ;-)

Classy bird

I give thanks for getting my ear plugs in snugly first time both ears. Rare and particularly welcome on a Friday night! I give thanks for eventually turning my brain off and sleeping quite soundly with interesting dreams about a new scheme on the railways that provided a 'middle class' in under used first carriages.

I give thanks for the sound for birdsong being the first thing I heard when I unblocked my hearing... and that it wasn't crabby crows, repetitive pigeons or raucous gulls which made it all the more enjoyable. I give thanks for a bit less pain so I could get up and go on a mission...

I give thanks the early bird catches the bus... that the game bird climbs the stairs... and that from the top deck the beady eyed bird spots dolphins out in the bay!

I give thanks for the lack of traffic on our route, and that the thoughtful driver pulled over to let cars pass after a windy bit.

I give thanks for a seat to rest on in a sunny spot in the city, and giving thanks for being a pedestrian and public transport user when I realised the stationary cars on three sides of the little square were not parked but queueing to do so!

I give thanks the late bird catches the bus home when the bus is even later...

Ouch and about

It's been very much ouch on the couch the last twenty four hours or so...so I give thanks for my couch, my bath and my bed. I give thanks that the pain is probably the result of too much sorting out as sorting out is such a delight and stirs up the the energy, even if folk like me should ignore the stir and still slouch about as much as they possibly can! I give thanks for creating a bin bag full of things not wanted...and more to come when I can move about again I'm sure. I give thanks for managing to clear the kitchen floor of piles so I don't have to keep stepping over them.

I give thanks to Jenny for taking me to the Revive meeting and back as that's one place where moaning and groaning are allowed - though I'd still prefer to share jokes and joys. I give thanks for tea and cake...and for seeing Liz from choir there too. I give thanks for the church where they meet having 'twinned' loos...I'd not heard of this idea until I went there and it's a good one!

Emergence

I give thanks for getting ready to go out in lengthy gentle stages today, as the sun was even less sure if it wanted to emerge from the cloud that kept rolling down the hill than I was from my cocoon of snooziness...

I give thanks eventually it stayed out long enough for me to get my act together and get some prescriptions and other bits and bobs including Earl Grey tea bags, the need for which was becoming almost an emergency! I give thanks the Co-op has started selling their Fair Trade Redbush ones as well so that I don't have to go on any arduous quests to other supermarkets further away.

As I've only been in town very briefly this week, and not at all for the one before, I also gave thanks for a chance to play the great local game of Spot the New Shop...we have one selling handbags, a cafe that also has local ice cream, cookies and jam and there's rumours yet another currently being fitted out will be a Greek deli. I would be very grateful for that since the Turkish one turned into a pizza place!

I give thanks that my knees would only carry me back up from the bus stop very slowly indeed, as the sun was at its warmest and the wind at its weakest there...besides it's a pretty spot to linger!

The good, the bad, and the yummy

Last night I gave thanks for the slight excitement of feeling I was Going Down With Something. I couldn't tell you what - chronic debilitating conditions and life threatening disease are my area of expertise not common colds, coughs, tummy bugs and the like! A handful of times a year I think 'Ooh, I might be getting something people understand and sympathise about!' but I usually wake up next day thwarted and normal for me. This morning I was grateful to wake up still feeling not quite right but not desperately wrong either... It's all good, I'm well behind with Breaking Bad so have been grateful to justify lazing around to catch up with that!

You starve a fever don't you? Well I give thanks I don't have one as there's nothing wrong with my appetite and I've a new Tesco delivery of yummy things to munch! I give thanks for light relief in the former of a silly, funny and sweet film called It's a Wonderful Afterlife. Speaking from experience probably best to avoid settling down to watch it with a curry tho...

I give thanks for feeling better this evening and launching at attack on the kitchen sink. When there's cash to spare I'll happily pay to have the heavier cleaning jobs done but don't like to deny myself the pleasure of getting into the important little places round the taps with a toothbrush. One of my favourite housework jobs ever and the best thing about it is it's even more satisfying if you leave it a while in between...

I give thanks for a simple supper of boiled egg and toast. I'm a special diet which requires just that for a first course... and two helpings of home made trifle for dessert!

Everything in the garden

I give thanks to Rachel for bringing me an exquisitely fragranced rose from her patio yesterday...and for an enjoyably leisurely dinner and catch up before a much needed treatment.

I give thanks for the forecasters suggesting warmer and sunnier weather today than actually materialised as, though I intended to go out in it this morning I didn't get going in time. I give thanks to Laura for inviting me round for tea and cake this afternoon...and a gloriously bright patch of blue sky over head so that sunglasses and a little light exposure of skin was required! I give thanks for the gift of springs of her ramblers, alchemilla and lavender so that I now have a particularly sweet smelling and looking vase of flowers.

I give thanks for putting together an evening meal with the help of Mrs Waitrose earlier. I cannot imagine feeling like getting up off the sofa to serve it for the forseeable future...so I'm grateful I don't have to! I'm grateful for having the energy to operate the TV remote control, for a fascinating programme about the history of forensic science and one about present day nomadic Mongolians with their solar panels, supermarkets, mountainside Buddhist shrines and prestige yaks. They seem to produce particularly jolly and feisty women too...always good to encounter traditions where this is the considered right and proper way!

Silent suppport

One of the most wonderful, and the worst, parts of my holiday was discovering how glorious it is to be looked after - to have my food brought and prepared, the washing up and vacuuming done, my bed made and rubbish removed, clean sheets and towels and the bathroom spick and span. I'd not realised quite what hard work these simple everyday tasks have become until I didn't have to do them for a while and, as I've neither the personal charm nor the disposable income to experience that sense of being cared for on a regular basis I thought I'd give thanks today for the ways in which taking care of myself is made easier than it might be... So I give thanks for the government helping me with money because I struggle so and that I don't have any expensive habits to gobble it up! For my freezer and fridge, for shops fairly near by and the internet to help me stock them. For my vacuum cleaner, immersion heater and washing machine and for my sofa, bed, books and TV waiting kindly for when I give up!

Being transported to beautiful places and back was probably the greatest delight. So I give thanks that the area I live in is pretty beautiful too, that I have a bus pass for days when I can get to and from the stops and the taxi fare for short journeys sometimes when not. I give thanks that sometimes I can still walk a little way without a great deal of pain or exhaustion. I give thanks that the pain and exhaustion sometimes takes a while to kick in so that I can do things at the time and regret it later...today was one of those days and I'm grateful I got to the bus to the shop that was saving those comfy shoes for me, and back to get a quick late lunch, before feeling I must lie down immediately and snooze! I give thanks for an unexpected patch of silence in the neighbourhood for this crucial time...not even the pigeons cooed (well, not that I could tell anyway!)

I give thanks for spotting a whale shaped wind vane and this little gargoyle in a garden wall...

Midsummer grieve

I give thanks for being home alone at peace to be a grumpy cow - no one to snap at or tell me to snap out of it. It's not been very peaceful in the neighbourhood the last twenty four hours or so, so that's something to be grumpy about, but I'm grateful others don't tend to live quite such still and solitary lives as I and have cause to cause annoyance.

I give thanks for unpacking and putting my suitcase away to help me forget I've had a holiday and stop grieving over it ending.

I give thanks for scrambled eggs on crumpets - one of my favourite comfort meals

I give thanks for an episode of Midsomer Murders I've not seen before. Always a bit of jolly escapism into a world of 'perfect imperfection' which is both the motto of a cult featured in this story and the way the seasons suddenly change in different parts of the script!

I give thanks for a long bath and a book...more escapism.

A long way away

I give thanks for the light nights of the northern summertime providing practice for falling asleep well before darkness here. I give thanks I had to get up and do things or I wouldn't have. I give thanks for friendly cab drivers steering me through the folk festival crowds (and not having their meters on!) and an afternoon of resting my aches and pains.

I give thanks for having a holiday. I give thanks for not having to shop and cook and clean, to have people to talk to if I want to and not to have to listen to neighbours going about their business all day. I give thanks I've seen the peaceful beauty of the fjords and that eventually I might stop longing to go back.

Out of disorder

I'm grateful one of the first things I always want to do when I've returned from being away is put the washing on as this means I've not been in the door ten minutes and I'm already in my dressing gown!

I'm grateful after a pleasant last evening's meal with the dinner ladies I attempted to endure a comedian with them before giving up, getting the packing done for the late night luggage collection and getting some more sleep in between more chapters of that highly enjoyable novel before the early call.

I'm grateful the eventfulness of the journey home was of the warmly bonding sort, or maybe it was the sorts involved who made it so, with coach passengers craning their necks for road signs to help the driver who'd never arrived at Victoria before and kept missing the correct turn for the entrance. I give thanks for the spontaneous burst of applause when finally he made it.

I give thanks for many more delays and mix ups meaning I almost didn't meet someone I've never met before who randomly suggested it last night... but that in the end we did (briefly and pleasantly) and I still made the last low price train. I'm grateful so many other people managed to catch it too as there were not nearly enough seats to go round but it was one of the friendliest and most co-operative overcrowdings ever. I'm grateful I travelled to Reading comfortably cross legged on the floor in a doorway before departing businessmen warned me they'd read the reservation cards on the seats and many new travellers were expected there so to grab one of the last fold down seats in the vestibule with the loo. And there I stayed wedged in with my case and rucksack happily enjoying my Walkman and the jolly mood with the lady with the shaggy dog on a rug, another perched on a camping stool, impeccably dressed and mannered schoolboys clambering around us and various other assorted folk standing by or passing through. Many gave thanks to me and the young man next to me for steering them away from the blocked and almost overflowing toilet to the one that worked, and through the sticking door between the carriages and I thanked the guy who signalled when it was safe to leave the working loo without getting mown down by baggage laden passengers hurtling round the corner and out onto the platform when we stopped.

I was almost sad to leave this companionable community but grateful that despite the inner ordered disorder this train was so spot on on time I was able to catch an earlier connection than expected. I give thanks for the beauty of the 'home straight' and a last gasp of energy to get fresh milk and coleslaw for my tea, meeting Jenny for directions and Lisa for a hug before a friendly cab ride home.

I'm grateful I must now watch a lot of TV...

Tripped out

Mmm, I give thanks that this is a day at sea so no need to rush up and out and about. I have loved the places I've been and the sights I've seen and would happily do it all again next week if I had the money and a suitcase full of clean clothes, but today I've been very grateful for almost as great a treat - a day of dozing and reading and eating with everything provided and not even the washing up to do...

I give thanks for thinking to ask at lunch if anyone had photos of the midnight buffet of carved and sculptured confections as yesterday evening turned out a little more hectic than I would have liked trying to fit in gawping at views and eating as well as the all important sleeping in between and I missed it. It hope the chefs enjoy doing something challenging in a different way from everyday fodder providing...

I give thanks for an engrossing book and weather not especially appealing for a wander on deck although I've just looked up and seen the sea a beautiful white and grey flecked verdigris green under a smokey sky. I'm grateful although it sometimes feels as if we're bouncing along a coral reef I know we're really not!

I give thanks for my second hand Portugese laptop at home which means I have remained unfased by this keyboard which has apparently caused a little raised blood pressure here and there. The connection keeps wandering off though so I must save and publish and hope...

Buoyant in Flam

Despite being achingly exhausted I give thanks for remaining so...even in the raining bits and the remaining standing still ones as we waited in line for tender and train. And even more so for mostly being next to others of similar frame of mind who agreed the atmospheric.

For finding something genuinely hand made I genuinely wanted to buy. Having changed the princely sum of twenty pounds to boost the local economy directly from my purse to theirs I was puzzled what to spend it on after a traditional cinnamon bun in Bergen and a non traditional but made in Flam gelato, but then I came across wood turned dangly things produced by a son and decoratively painted by a mother that I rather liked and could appreciate and afford...they're billed as Christmas decorations but this one doesn't have to be.

For the utterly jaw dropping scenery on the train ride and the pleasant company. For the waffles with jam and cream at a hotel completely buried underneath snow a couple of months ago. The raspberry jam was some of the nicest I've ever tasted so I was rather pleased to find that was local and being sold there for too, and also affordable with exactly just enough change left over for a couple of pretty postcards.

Having missed ship lunch on our tour, for getting the last seat on the last shuttle boat to comfortably make it back for afternoon tea (yes, a scone with jam and cream...plus added pizza so I don't have to go to fancy pants sit down dinner but can catch a quick nap before watching us leave the fjords and head once more for open sea.

Say cheese!

I'm grateful for a sunny sail into Bergen. It's got the highest rainfall in Norway so this caused amusingly amazed delight in the voice of the tannoy announcer too! I'm grateful for room service breakfast and a picture window cabin. My joints have been quite kind so far but no matter how much I intend to do nothing there's always something more to see so it's nice not to have to dash on deck to see it but get a bit more rest. I'm grateful for getting a free map on our trip yesterday so that I could see where we were steering a course through the islands.

I'm grateful the on liner on line service is back on. I'm grateful it's slow...more sitting down while I summon the energy for a little explore.

I'm grateful I've been for one, seeing a little of Bergen on foot between the teeming hoards of recently disgorged cruise ship passengers, and even managing to take a few shots not of other people photographing things and each other. I'm grateful for eventually...eventually...getting my tastebuds and hands on a cinnamon bun and some of the 'brown cheese' of which I'd heard a little and dreamt a lot. Yes, it's worth a 600 mile sea trek but if anyone knows of a shop that sells it in UK let me know!

I'm grateful for an unexpectedly exceptionally scenic coach tour of sights in and around the city including Grieg's gorgeous house and garden. This part of Norway has just endured the harshest and longest winter for many years - there's a local ski resort still looking for (the remains) of its lift after 16 metres of snowfall - so I hope everyone else was grateful for the first warm sunny day they say they've had this year. That's what you get when the weather goddess is in town and can't be bothered to carry her cagoule!

Ladies who dine

Today I've been grateful for my cabin window so I could prepare to see scenery as it was already rolling by...

For the deckchair anthropologist's delight in pondering the curious  tribes of Britain. ..

That my thoughts aren't audible as sometimes they're not completely kind...and for managing to be kinder in deed

For the wonders I've seen (not talking about tourists now), the kindly weather and times I've felt there's been some genuine communication and sharing of the joy

For some very nice food. Well more than some to be honest. My light renal diet seems to have been left at the dockside in Essex. If I die unexpectedly remember I'll have died with an unexpectedly happy tummy. Tonight having negotiated a fairly potassium friendly version of the menu I ate in the formal restaurant for the first time and was grateful to meet some feisty lone travelling ladies with more to say than stating the obvious.

For internet access via my phone as the ship satellite can't get here through the mountains. Sun's managed it...

Rock the boat

I give thanks for finding after much pocket scrabbling a lost emery board. a week without and my nails would be like claws!

finding a sun terrace with fake grass and potted palms, comfy cushioned conservatory seats. open three sides but with a huge roof and back wall with heaters. Lush...especially of a chilly evening. For it having no bar nearby and thus less people..

sleeping gently rocked by waves, waking to sea all around. For it being a new sea to me - oil rigs and wind farms!

Room service breakfast, small but perfectly formed. Any breaking of fast brought courteously to me is perfectly formed.

Internet access reasonably fast for half way between Scotland and Denmark thus not as expensive as it seems...

All aboard

I'm grateful to Laura for getting me to and on the train. ..

...For it being quick and quiet

...For the taxi being within the alloted budget

...For Victoria Coach Station making me feel like a traveller again...and being very kind to those for whom it's a bit tricky. We even have a special lounge

...For a timely patch of sun to sail away from dock

...For being on the ship!!! Started tearing up and burbling on the gangway just for the joy of that.

Oh and tofu on the menu for tea ;-)

Taking a break

I give thanks for waking this morning, planning a path of least bodily resistance through the day and thinking 'Oh I must find time to say goodbye to the sea...'. This is quite normal before I go away for a few days and I'm grateful for laughing at myself when I remembered there should be a bit of sea seeing on my trip!

I give thanks I went anyway, and for the gorgeous murky yet glowing light. I give thanks for getting caught in a heavy and prolonged shower - I love being out in summer rain especially when I know I can get warm and dry again soon.

I give thanks that after the usual pre holiday fight with whatever tortuous procedure Amazon digital music currently have in place I have my mojo working and - boom boom - some favourite vintage blues tracks to take with me.

I give thanks that I decided I needed to pause in the last few hours of last minute chores...and start watching The Shipping News. Love the book and the film (again) and it's absorbed a massively relaxing chunk of time which has probably done me far more good than any more bustling around.

Now listen very carefully because I'll probably only get to say this once...I'm heading for places where internet access is both erratic and expensive so my blogging plan is to draft brief posts on what's made me grateful and then upload them when I can which may even not be until I get back! And it'll be no good sending me messages asking where I am and if I'm all right because chances are I won't get them so I won't reply and you'll be none the wiser...

Filling time

After a rough old night with pain I give thanks for a do little and care less day...and that I'm getting better at it!

I give thanks for a little bit of packing little bits of this and that, and a lot of watching recorded TV to make space for more including the rather enjoyable My Week with Marilyn with its topical film set story line and cast so star studded even I knew several of their names, and a moving and informative documentary about hidden homelessness among young people today. This did me a lot of good as I can, having the meanest living situation of almost everyone I know, sometimes suffer from house envy when I visit my friends. I give thanks for remembering how lucky I am to have a mostly cosy and safe place to stay in and that considering some aspects of my own start in life I've not done so bad to catch up with my peers at all.

I'm grateful this telly fest has been caused not only by being limp and sore but by an unusually appealing patch starting in the broadcasting schedules. There'll be several episodes of Breaking Bad to make room for, a couple of Nordic Noir offerings coming up, and a documentary about the history of forensic science investigations - the kind of things that do for me what soaps, talent shows and situation comedy do for others.

I'm grateful for finding things to eat that use up some leftovers without creating too many others, and for yesterday's bargain 'oat cuisine' a box of mixed Nairn's snack packs for 50p - just right for filling odd corners in my suitcase and in my tummy on my trip.

Wave goodbye

I give thanks for Jenny wearing new shoes yesterday that inspired me to go see if there were a pair for me. They're stretchy so I thought they'd be gentle on my troublesome toenails, and I give thanks for my other sore bits  co-operating in getting me to the shop.

I give thanks for bus stops with seats and sunshine when buses are running late. I give thanks for it being pleasantly warm out of the wind and for the wind whipping up some very watchable waves. I give thanks the movie makers have moved on so it's a little easier to manoeuvre about the place again

I give thanks for seeing a small Darth Vader out shopping with his mum. I give thanks for spotting autocorrect had turned that into Darth Valery as that doesn't have quite the same ring.

I give thanks for customer service advisors who do what it says on the tin - I've felt served in person, on the phone and by email today.

I get the news I need...

I give thanks for feeling rather rough today because yesterday I felt rather well and energetic and it's nice to kid myself it's cause and effect... I give thanks that due to Rachel washing up last night, Jenny cleaning this morning and leftovers for lunch I've had very to do but relax, catch up with recorded TV and play pointless games on my phone. I give thanks for considerable coolth for assisting me in this...

I give thanks for asking for a cabin upgrade and getting one as they've dropped their prices to sell the spares now. I give thanks I booked early even though I paid more so I had it in hand in case a fait accomplis bucket list trip was required as renal treatment barter tool.

I give thanks I've accepted the chances of knowing what the weather will be far enough ahead to pack the right stuff is slim. Forecasts have varied from baking sunshine to the odd snow shower and I can't manage a case big enough for all permutations so will have to rely on my inner goddess to provide the appropriate climate for my clothes.

I give thanks for remodelling a cheapy internet hat to put my hair in if I can't be bothered to 'do' it or if I need to stop my teeth from chattering...

Out, of sorts

I give thanks for not being woken up by pain. Always a joy...but human mood being the capricious condition it is that didn't mean I woke up joyful but disgruntled and dissatisfied instead. Of course once you realise you feel this way all kinds of occurrences can be called causes or contributions - including the state of mind itself if you're someone who strives for equanimity or positivity - but it just is, it's not doing anything to you.

In days of yore if possible I'd have taken a hike to get a bit of space around my body and in my head and let thoughts come and go as unfettered as possible by things, but it would take a half a day's organising to work out a way to get to a place from which I could get far from anything now and in half a day the pain and fatigue could be back so I was grateful I could go for a long slow stroll without my knees complaining anyhow. I'm grateful for lots of seats and steps to rest on. I'm grateful I wore a vest top to get some sun on my skin...and a fleece for when the clouds concealed it as there was a nippy old breeze out there. I'm grateful for the blue of the sea and the smoothness of sand it's just washed over. I'm grateful for all the grains reminding me of all the people there are and have been in the world striving and trying and planning and hoping and coping, or otherwise, and ultimately how inconsequential and ephemeral it all is.

I give thanks for the light in a puddle the waves had left behind...

I give thanks that though I felt no more cheerful on my return I was too tired to stay awake and think about it...

I give thanks for accepting that sometimes what we have to be accepting of is having difficulty with acceptance!

Good points

I give thanks for the late low sun shining through the leaves, and for a film with haunting scenery, music and plot.

I give thanks for making the best of a bad night and day, feeling the pain and fatigue and doing (some of) it anyway...

I give thanks I don't drive. Being carried from A to B to C and then back to A carrying more than I set out with would probably make me even more grateful, but on a busy seaside Sunday parking is such sweet sorrow even to watch!

I give thanks for finding some new budget mechanical pencils - designed for little fingers, I suspect, being brightly coloured and rather short and stubby, but thus good for struggling grown up hands too and (unusually for this type of product) with soft erasers on the end that do the job and don't scratch holes in paper.

I give thanks for all the ways there are for people of all ages to have fun round here... including just sitting watching!

I give thanks for loyalty points allowing me to re-spend pennies!

Goes to show

I give thanks for getting my third wind last night to enjoy a meal and chat with Laura. We'd arranged to see a performance of a choir that also meets on Monday evenings but whose repertoire I'd decided was less to my taste than the one I joined so grateful to find out I'd been right and songs from the shows, Lennon and McCartney medleys and the like are not what I like. I gave thanks for how much the singers clearly enjoyed their performance and how well they sang, for harmonious company and contributing to a good cause, for seeing inside the recently refurbished Catholic church, a gorgeous evening sky and a set dressing truck sorting out lobster pots, park benches and shrubs...

I give thanks for less pain today. I give thanks for getting better at remaining equanimous but I still prefer it when I just feel better!

I give thanks for managing a little light creativity in between dossing around getting more of that much needed rest! Although the final squeeze of a crimp caused it to completely unmake a necklace I did finish a simple sparkly scrunchie...

I give thanks for stirring a white bra into a pot of beige dye and it turning out a delightful shade of lavender! I've dyed the same kind of bras before and they've come out versions of the colours on the various packets so, as this dye was drastically reduced in a sale, I wondered if perhaps it weren't beige at all and tested a bit of cotton to find out yes, it really was. OK... so I love the colour of the bra but does this mean I need some purple dye to make a skintone one?

Counting blessings

It's just a couple days away from four years I've been writing this blog, and I give thanks that it has become a way of life.

Without making gratitude a habit I'm sure I'd find more to grumble about, and revisit the grumbles regularly instead of letting them go. People often tell me it's good to have a moan and groan now and then but I'm grateful I'm increasingly unconvinced. If you are capable of choosing not to why wouldn't you?

Today I woke in a lot of pain and didn't feel grateful at all, but then gradually gave thanks for being blessed with enforced rest as even the non hurting bits felt in need of it. So often I feel unreasonably well considering all that's wrong with me, and it's only reasonable that sometimes I don't...

I give thanks I had little that had to be done, and that up until the time of writing I've been able to do what I had. Some of the tasks seemed impossible beforehand, and some even for a while during (like staying awake in the hairdressers!) but I give thanks for getting my hair washed and trimmed while I drifted and rested my eyes. Fun though it was I give thanks the cinematic action has moved elsewhere in the town and there were no crowds to negotiate to be beside the rich blue of the late afternoon sea.

I give thanks that Laura has offered to cook my tea tonight so I'm off to rest my eyes for a few minutes before it's time to go...

Part and parcel

I give thanks for long light nights and the big yellow moon rising behind the trees, sparkling silver on the sea and shining white between the clouds with its mini twin reflection on the double glazing...

I give thanks I haven't a clue what might have caused the pain in my joints and tendons today. As far as I recall I did little yesterday apart from watch tennis and wrap up a few parcels, nothing that would seem to relate to what followed and thus need to be rationed in future....

I give thanks for the money for a cab to the Post Office to post them. It was sad to part with my knitted snake but he was knitted to be parted with and his new home will be a children's hospice where his cuddliness might be particularly welcomed by those for whom teddies and the more usual kind of stuffed toys aren't quite what is required...

I give thanks that between the Post Office and the doctor's surgery I caught sight of the folk who'd been through the big white tent time machine on the green and thus became hooked on vintage movie making watching. If you love a bit of everyday retro it's like a museum come to life and a delightful distraction from aching knees you get standing around to do so!

I give thanks Tesco's samosas are now available for local delivery again. Anyone who's ever done any work here, or been out on a picnic with me will wonder how I've managed these long months without...

Nudge nudge

I give thanks for one of the GPs calling me yesterday evening about a prescription and talking for twice as long about the view of film making proceedings from his consulting room as medical matters! 

I give thanks for the smell of clean sheets and the softness of clean towels. I give thanks for getting out of bed after I'd got in to give the frame a nudge as I often to do to try and reduce its squeaking and creaking...and for once actually getting it to shut up!

I give thanks for rummaging in my drawers and finding some drawers I'd not worn before as they'd been too small...and finding they now fit.

I give thanks for the sun going in and the neighbours going out, just right for an hour catching up with Breaking Bad. It was an episode with a lot of whispering so it was ideal for having the sound louder than I normally would without disturbing anyone else, or having other people's sounds spoiling the suspense...

I give thanks that when I'd finished watching that I turned to ITV 4 and the Nadal/Djokovich match was just that minute just starting! I give thanks that the coverage soon swapped to the Murray/Ferrer one instead though as that was more exciting. I give thanks that despite several hours basically spent attending to men grunting, I've managed to do some bits and bobs of benefit to others...

Feeling strangely fine

I give thanks for the beautiful weather - the mild air, the winter dark sky against still spring green leaves, the smell of the wet earth and the salt in the wind by the shore, the gorgeous sludgy colours of the sea and the sparkle on it when the sun comes out. I give thanks for forgetting to take my camera out with me so that I could accept what my phone made of the scene and move on...

I give thanks for the filminess of the town - beasts of vehicles in their designated spaces, hi vis security team strolling on the sea front and walky talky laden men (and women) in black trying to look nonchalantly busy as locals with ever longer necks scrutinise their every move.

I give thanks for a making myself an apply pudding last night and managing to save some for today...

I give thanks for going through the painfully slow and non intuitive on line reporting system for overflowing communal recycling skips and bins. I can see why people dispose of their waste irresponsibly...and why they always hope someone else will sort it out when other people don't... I give thanks for only having half a mug of tea left when I knocked it flying trying to get on with other things whilst on hold to Tesco chasing my late order.

I give thanks that Nigel has managed to make my sewing machine stop grinding - even the light bulb works now! I give thanks for receiving two DVDs from Amazon unexpectedly ordered by an online friend after a conversation. That's two gifts I've had this week from people I've never met and it's not even my birthday or Christmas!

I give thanks for feeling strangely fine the last few days - nice nineties album and a state of wellbeing that transcends the pain and weakness I struggle with. Won't last of course...nothing lasts...but I'm feeling strangely fine about that too...

May is out

I give thanks I know it's the first day of summer, otherwise I might think it's another season entirely. I don't know about where you are but there's still plenty of room in the clout sheds round here! Anaemia doesn't help and last night I was grateful for wearing comfy stretchy clothes as I was too tired and cold to take them off to get into bed.

I give thanks for a lift to and fro for knitting, for a cuppa and a natter and help with my sewing machine. I give thanks for liaising with Rachel for a treatment when she was passing through town with more tea and chatter and a rather nice organic shortbread biscuit left over from my birthday gifts. I give thanks she had to rush off after so I have a perfect excuse to not go out in the wind and rain to choir later but can snooze on the sofa catching up with what's been happening in the sunshine in Paris this afternoon.