To taste

I give thanks (again) for hearing the wind and rain through my open window in the night...for waking up cold and being able to reach for a warm blanket. Yeah, I know...but better a blanket than nothing!

I give thanks for a just right cup of tea this morning - such a perfect combination of temperature, strength and amount of milk it was memorably worthy of mention. Actually it was technically this afternoon and I give thanks for not beating myself up about that. A sunny Sunday can be the hardest day to get out of bed sometimes...not because I don't have all the normal sunny Sunday urges but because even the things I'm usually happy to do on my own seem lonelier somehow because everywhere is more crowded with people doing them not on their own...

So I have to give thanks for the noisy neighbour's radio forcing my feet so to speak, and for less aches and pains than of late to make it less of a trial. I give thanks for my camera because there's always something to see to try and capture and share in the virtual world even if there's no one to say 'Hey look!' to in the real one, and it gives you a purpose for being there apart from being the person people in couples or groups can be glad they're not!

I had not realised quite what a photogenic afternoon it was...though I should probably have realised when I was transfixed by the sunshine on a mossy wall top before I'd even left the end of the terrace...

I give thanks that it was so photogenic...and mild...and still enough to hold a camera still...that despite it actually being busier on the seafront than I've ever known it on a winter's day, apart from the Boxing Day dip, there were almost as many people holding cameras as hands. Also for a bit of bonding with another lone woman turning up at the same spots for the same shots at the same time as me...I love it when people with real cameras treat me as if I'm a real photographer as well! I give thanks for glorious changing light, the crashing waves and their lacy aftermath, and more surfers than I think I've ever seen here all at once enjoying pretty good conditions for their pleasure too.

I give thanks for a £1 bun catching my eye in the supermarket on the way home, wandering off to buy something else and coming back to see it reduced to 19p. Tasted even better I'm sure!