Metta physical

I give thanks for the rich variety of pain my body has been experiencing over the last bunch of consecutive days we like to call a week. Seriously? Well, kind of... because my consciousness can't take all of it in at once so I'm only aware of each bit separately, and for me if physical pain is going to be more or less constant then I'd rather a change of venue now and then.

I give thanks for trying to apply the same principle to the various emotional distresses and disappointments that have beset me in the corresponding period but I have to report it's a distressingly disappointing project! I give thanks for understanding the bunch of consecutive days we called the week before were so unusually pleasing, the cold hard edges of reality I've bumped into since were bound to catch me with my defences down and seem unreasonably sharp.

I give thanks for a watching a bubble spiral in my morning cup of tea, for the promising blue of the sky, and thinking of all the people set for sunny Sunday pleasures, for a wry smile reading my daily horoscope the planets are auspiciously aligned for all manner of delights for me too. I give thanks apparently my prospects for love are apparently excellent - that's good, I'd like to be more loving and often when you're hurting it's not the easiest thing.

I give thanks for the deep concentration required to apply myself to applying paint when I'm feeling sore and sad...for being able to contort my body into the various bizarre positions to paint in a small room with large unmovable objects...for remembering to leave soft edges when I have to leave the job for rest. 

I give thanks for virtual communication (you don't have to brush your hair!) and for an absorbing and rather moving documentary about film maker Ken Loach. You don't have to know his films to enjoy it, but enjoying well filmed things will enhance your appreciation... I give thanks for a much needed nap...

I give thanks for remembering my metta, focussing especially on folk I know who've struggled with stuff this week, and remembering to remember myself in this. There are lots of different words used to express these feelings of loving kindness but the feelings are still the same...

May you be free from enmity and danger
May you be free from mental anguish
May you be free from physical suffering
May you take care of yourself happily

Mixed blessings

I feel my blessings have been somewhat mixed today...but hey, isn't that always the way with blessings really? If there's something that pleases you, well you want more...and if not then you want less of it... The best blessing is always not to mind the rise and fall of fortune that befalls you, not to even see it a such. I give thanks I try to aim that way, but until I get there the bonus is you get my blog to read...

It had been physically demanding day yesterday and I gave thanks for the spruceness I had achieved and gratefully flopped on the sofa facing my impeccably tidy 'audio visual' area. It was so tidy I could almost have been happy just sitting looking at that rearranged corner... but after a bit I gave thanks for finding an unwatched (ever) Wallander recorded on my old Freeview player - and after a brief fight with the box which is not keen to take up its post again after a long retirement, watching it!

This morning I gave thanks for deciding the best eyes to view my home in this pleasing to the eye state were estate agents...and for contacting two who speedily contacted me back. I give thanks I'm not naive so as to believe they actually want to sell my property...but I do know they are keen to have properties on their books so plan A was to sit very still until their appointments so as not to make a mess! No, not even moving things around to plug my new TV box in...which I would almost have been grateful not to have arrived!

I give thanks for amending this plan to touch up some of the paintwork in the bathroom that's been a bit patchy for years...and feeling very proud of my endeavours...until they dried and I realised the reason they'd been patchy before is that the the second coat of paint was a slightly lighter colour that the first...and the third is too. I give thanks for deciding another flollop while it dried and a try again tomorrow would be a mighty fine idea...whilst enjoying the new recording of an interesting autobiographical documentary by Keith Richards...until the Freeview box started switching itself off again. I give thanks this was mid watching something as it spurred me on to mess that corner up to set up the new box and carry on.

I give thanks Mrs Co - op has made me a fishcake for tea tonight. For the late sunlight on the leaves on the tree outside...For remembering to write today's post which almost slipped my mind... and that now I have I can get back to the Rolling Stone...

Done and dusted

My goodness, it has been a busy day...but I give thanks I can say I've done all I set out to do, and some stuff I had no idea I might want to do when I set out on my mission to have a thorough clean and tidy. I'm grateful the place looks more than ready to present...and in a way it's a shame I've no one to present it to, or some pleasantly rewarding escape from Cinderellahood planned. But on the other hand I'm probably way too tired this evening for anything but a present from Walter...and I'm sure I'd be lousy company however lonesome and in need of some I'm feeling. So I give thanks no one has to put up with that. ..

I give thanks I made a big (and delicious) tea yesterday so there's no cooking to be done and only minimal washing up will follow. Um...gosh, what else? Oh yes, I give thanks for the stunning cloud formations last night, and the top of a stunning firework display visible over the trees.

Free view

I've been a bit of a moody broody cow the last couple of days so I give thanks for being in better humour today. 

I give thanks for messily wandering from project to project and actually getting quite a lot done... including making proper dinner, turning odds and ends of vegetables, stale bread and cheese into a tasty bake; painmakingly going up and down the ladder until a reasonable readjustment of spotlights had been made and the three working bulbs can cover for the one that's broken in the socket, changing bedding, scrubbing the loo, nurturing the house plants and befrilling an underskirt to a dress I'm slowly putting together...

I give thanks for hearing from someone I've been hoping to hear from for a while, and hearing from someone I didn't expect to hear from for a while (but was pleased to anyway)

I give thanks for setting up my old Freeview box so that I can treat my television in my preferred way - as a source of programmes to partake of portion by portion as I choose, not an unturnoffandonable fountain of them

I give thanks for hearing the drumming bands the carnival procession in town this evening, from my open living room window so I don't have to be crushed in the crowd and dismayed by the mayhem.

Oh and I forgot to give thanks for Rachel untangling the solar system earlier this week. Now the universe can carry on unfolding as it should!

Best medicine

I give thanks to David for making me laugh in bed...though I should probably specify he wasn't in the bed or even the building at the time!

I give thanks for getting some sleep in the night and some activity in the day in between seriously debilitating pain which has been building up to quite a crescendo the last few days. I give thanks it's EPO delivery day as though this medicine is for renal anaemia it seems to really ease the joint and muscle aches too. I concede there could be an element of placebo effect now, but I've been on and off various doses and schedules over the last year and it was a while before I noticed the correlation...and since I've discovered that hyperbaric oxygen treatment can be helpful to sufferers of fibromyalgia and EPO boosts red blood cells which carry oxygen I think my clever old body just did the science by itself!

I give thanks for winning a hard nosed but warm hearted 'best offer' barter with an eBay seller for some second hand Youview kit as my Sky subscription has finally expired and, as I couldn't be bothered to set up my ancient Freeview box with my dinner cooling on my plate, I had to watch TV with no pause and fast forward - quelle horreur!!

I give thanks for hobbling down to the bus stop, and after a stop or two to the top deck of the bus where I didn't fight tourists for the front seat for a change, but sat near the empty back so I could hand jive to J J Cale with impunity...and for a bit of psychic shopping which means you consult your inner oracle as to precisely where the item you require may be, so you don't waste chunks of your life boringly trawling round shops. The item I required today was on a market stall I'd never seen before but I somehow knew where it would be and got to it before the trader packed all her goods away, thus getting not only a coveted tangible thing but a delightful sense of cosmic smugness as well.

I give thanks for stop and go very slow traffic on the way back allowing me to take through the bus window pictures of scenes that usually skip by too soon...and a stop off for tea and teacake with Mima to refresh and revive me before the last leg of the journey home.

Sweet little misery

When the going gets tough, the weak get cake...I give thanks for freezing part of a delicious pudding I made a little while ago and defrosting it when some comfort food was required in a hurry yesterday...

For also defrosting some of Mr Tesco's excellent mashed potato to make a pie out of Ms Me's rather tasty veggie shepherd's bottom...

For Rachel saying all the right things when I expressed some slight dissatisfaction with some aspects of my day, including 'Mmm, nice shepherd's pie!' and for sticking needles in all the right places so that I soon began to feel better...

For Walter presenting me with some delightfully distracting entertainment...For a good night's sleep and a relaxed but productive morning in my office (which to an untrained eye might seem rather like a bed!)

For getting lots of little jobs done about the place and getting out of the place in time to do a few more...

For crossing a railway bridge just as a car with a bike on top was crossing another one a little way down the line - so that it looked as if a riderless bike was zooming along the top of a wall! For remembering to mention that...

Single wait female

I give thanks for the pretty skies after sundown last night. We talked about them while we were talking but I forgot to talk about them on here... For Facebook friends and family remembering my broken mobile collection for Kidney Research including a lost tribe of 9 turning up in someone's garage!

I give thanks for unwisely drinking two cups of caffeinated tea with my visitors last night so that I was awake into the early morning. Good thing about being awake is you can't be woken up...plus you can turn on the light to read and eat digestive biscuits in bed...and the good thing about living alone is that there's no one to wake up and wish you wouldn't!

I've had a lot of waiting to do for various things lately. I give thanks for practice in patience...and philosophy...and compassionately imagining oneself in other people's shoes (always tricky as one still tends to think with one's own feet!)...and in stillness of spirit with focus on what is instead of what you're waiting for (which obviously is something that isn't). And for realising just how much practice I do need in all of the above... 

One thing I had to wait for today was to talk to someone about waiting...who referred me to someone else who had no idea how long I would have to wait as I wasn't on any lists for waiting, and wondered if perhaps I'd been forgotten? I give thanks I need no practice in weeping and could shed a few tears of frustration and head shaking despair. Of course I understand there's no point in going into damsel in distress mode if you have to effect your own emotional rescue, but sometimes, just between you and me, nocturnal cookie feasts and witty bravado not withstanding, I wouldn't mind if someone else rode the horse and waved the sword for a while.

All things considered

I give the thanks the dead car outside my window has gone, hopefully to a happier place where dead cars go...I'm just happier it's no longer there and I'm sure the other car owners on the block are too!

I give thanks for feeling morally and intellectually superior to the folks holding forth in the cool morning air the other side of 5 am and down the road a little... a poor pay off I know, and one of which I'm not particularly proud.

I give thanks for a leisurely later morning, with everyone around either sleeping or creeping around with their heads in their hands... for a spot of Greek salad for lunch while watching a Swedish TV drama very quietly...and then having no compunction at all turning it up much louder when loud music started up near by! I've sometimes been told I should be less considerate of others' feelings but actually I reckon the best way to position change would be to be suggest being more considerate of my own. I've noticed I feel more indignant if I feel I'm doing all the consideration, so once in a while...without venturing into territory I consider less than worthy, I'm experimenting with allowing myself to give a little less so that when I feel I'm receiving less I feel better about it. 

I give thanks for remembering to finally get round to finding the adblock button on Opera. And for remembering it might be a good idea to get round to ordering a new TV box before my Sky package runs out too. Searching for the first made searching for the second so much more pleasant...despite awareness it will be the same juggling bare wires in a hole in the back as with my Sky box as both leads have long lost their connectors.

Then I gave thanks for swapping my 'Who is this calling from an unknown mobile to my home phone on a Sunday?' frown to a 'Hello Clive, yes of course you can come and visit' smile...and a few minutes after he'd rung off making the connection and sending a cheeky text back to say 'And please will you put a new end on my TV aerial while you're here?' And for finding an end so he could do... and for being able to offer strawberries and cream and some joss sticks for Sally in return. All things considered, I give quite a lot of thanks for today!

Away with the pixels

I give thanks for a lovely afternoon out at Parke...twice I've been there in clouds and the sun's come out so I think it must be a speciality. I give thanks for the beautiful countryside there, managed with a gentle hand and sometimes managing to be quite astonishingly beautiful. Somehow didn't get round to taking many photos today tho - must have been distracted...

I give thanks for meeting someone in real life who seems as nice as he did on screen - no not a film star, though there were bits of our stroll worthy of a walk on part from Mr Bloom in hair extensions which this photo fairly well fails to capture!

I give thanks for the furrowed brow dawning that we'd forgotten to pay to park turning to smiles when we found just a 'polite notice' asking us if we would next time...and paying this time instead.

I give thanks for being lent a very interesting looking book... For coming home and chatting with a couple of friends on Messenger for a while before it dawned on me that due to their profile pictures I appeared to be having a conversation with two cats and a dog. For leftover picnic food to nibble for tea. For new neighbours having a happy beery barbecue outside and for double glazing and earplugs within...

Catcher of the rye

I give thanks for getting my earplugs in particularly snugly last night. This isn't a thinly veiled complaint about noise...it was just very pleasant to feel insulated from in it in case there had been any! Still got woken up way too often by my body complaining about various grievances it has about how I spend my time sometimes, but I was very grateful to get back to sleep again quickly in between...

Oh and I got sent a moon in return for a sunset. That was nice - thanks David!

I give thanks for waking up finally in good enough time to do the most essential things including booking a cab to go to the hospital here for my appointment... and for Jenny's restful hospitality a little further up the hill afterwards. Also for a lift back down and home when I'd done my bits of shopping in town after that...and then a little sleep in one of those blessed patches of peacefulness.

I give thanks for more warm sunshine, and sitting in it to have lunch at Jenny's and look and her wonderful view. I give thanks for popping into our new revamped Co-op hoping to find a decent loaf of bread and finding...one of their rye mix loaves I used to love and have not found in a Co-op anywhere for months and months!

Things I like

So long sarong - I give thanks you are nearly a dress! I give thanks I rarely have to go clothes shopping as I'm not programmed to enjoy the process nor having some 'purchaser' decide what I might like to buy... Just needs to be pressed and hemmed, and that will have to include some trim as the fabric wasn't as wide as my (getting more mature now) choice of dress length is long...and the tacking has to come out. Note to self: particularly the tailor tacks - tufts of bright pink thread at the point of a bust dart is an interesting look but not the one I'm going for.

I give thanks for a rare feeling I'd like to look round shops today however, probably because I was going somewhere where I knew there were a few good ones, and I thought I deserved a reward for being good when I could have been bad earlier this week. I give thanks I decided I'd not in all honesty been quite good enough for the £50 bag I took a fancy to though.

I give thanks for lots of other things too numerous to bring to mind let alone to fingertips at this time of night tho...so very quickly off the top of my head before I'm off to bath and bed, I'll just say... a particularly good mood that both Gary and I were in that made it an especially enjoyable trip; the rotary crowd moving their stalls away from where we were sheltering from the breeze and teasing showers and being replaced by a good little band running through half a cover or two to warm up for their set; an astonishingly uncrowded spot to watch the air display in the stunning sweep of the bay, the best Red Arrows heart I've ever seen as the smoke was so red against the grey white cloud and the upper air still; the almost interminable slow crawl up the shuttle bus queue being so jolly and companionable, and the reward of finally arriving back at the car park field just in time for the last sliver of sun disappearing behind trees on the horizon in pretty sunset clouds.  Hey that was a pretty good remember I reckon...'Night all!

Special offers

I give thanks for the people who read my mind as well as read my blog...this is dead handy as I'm not good at asking actual people for what I want so it's much easier if I can just ask the universe and get it to come up with the offers...though this does mean I'm sometimes taken aback by the which people it links with which opportunity! There's certainly been a random selection in the last twenty four hours - Jenny inviting me for lunch on Friday is the only one I might possibly have predicted. Nonetheless, I am honoured and give thanks for offers even if I sometimes I have to say no...or maybe...or another time perhaps...or I'll think about it...or even say one and mean more than one. And I give thanks for people's understanding.

Anyway, I also give thanks I failed to get the clean duvet cover on the quilt before retiring last night...because let's face it it was quite hot enough without insulation everywhere! An empty quilt cover was just about the right layer of covering actually...

I give thanks for mostly devoting the day to quiet contemplation, and for sometimes it even being quite quiet round here while I did it. I give thanks for my favourite noisy neighbour doing his stuff with his sticks though...

I give thanks for a gusty breeze and a little shower of rain which freshened the air a while...and a phone call clarifying something that's been dragging on has now ground to a halt so I know where to be pointing my toes on that front a least...

I give thanks for getting on with some sewing projects including what I hope may be a dress made out of a sarongy thing I bought a while ago. It would be great if it works as it's unusual and attractive fabric, but if it doesn't it was only £2.99 so not worth getting especially upset about.

Special assistants

I give thanks for an acupuncturist who brings me good things to eat, and does the washing up while treating me well according the the precepts of Chinese Medicine...

I give thanks for a helpful person to person talk to an anaesthetist about dire pre op warnings,rather than doctor to patient...especially as it wasn't person to person but via the magic of the internet while he was on his hols. Really appreciated Mr C!

I give thanks for a clearly somewhat alternatively orientated man agreeing to dialyse with a portable machine in a camper van in a variety of hospital carparks this week so that people could see how easy it could be to not be tied to one place to do it...if you have a camper van of course!

I give thanks for the associated western medical professionals at the event quickly getting the hang of the fact it's my kidney that's failing, not my brain, and that they could use proper joined up talking to talk to me!

I give thanks for bus drivers getting their vehicles and passengers from A to B with reasonable good humour and reasonably on time...

I give thanks for my legs and feet carrying me in between - the pavements were long and hard today!

I give thanks for clean water to drink and to get clean in...and clean sheets waiting for me to slip between - early tonight I'm thinking

Weedy sea dragon

I give thanks for the place I live, as I frequently say, but going out of it a little bit yesterday set me wondering where I could wander to today seeing as the weather was set to be so fair... However, even after twelve hours in bed, most of it asleep, my body was having none of it and wanted just to recount all the bits that hurt and/or weren't working, so I give thanks that I didn't have to!

I give thanks for finally getting up so late that breakfast could be lunch and save one chunk of effort...and for toast with humous and marmalade (on separate slices!) to keep me going for a while. And for eventually going out, because I figured it was a shame to stay indoors on one of those rare UK days when I actually feel comfortably warm, and a day before the full school holidays start so there would be a bit of beach to spare...and putting swimming things on was easier than a full set of clothes...and lying down for an hour or so in the sun was more restful than most things I'd do at home...

I give thanks it was so beautiful and (relatively) peaceful...and for making it back up the hill even though it was even more slowly than I went down... and for it being warm enough to wash off the sand in the 'shower' as mine runs off the water taps and so little power and pressure on a winter's day one side of you could turn to ice be before the other got clean! And I give thanks that Rachel is due here soon, to feed me and treat me and that then, if I feel like I do now, I can just get back into bed and get ready to work out how on earth to get out in the sunshine tomorrow...

Shortbread fingers

I give thanks for a lovely walk with Laura...and that Chumba can't run as fast as she used to so that deer in the woods still leap out of the way but presumably less in fear for their lives! For being in the woods...and out again...and that the muddy furrows had baked dry in places so that humans didn't have to paddle like dogs always choose to do...

I give thanks I made a flask of tea, as during the changeable weather in the morning I kept changing my mind about whether a cold drink would be better...but a flask of tea is always good... For shortbread biscuits warmed by the sun so that they seemed almost fresh baked (instead of out of a Tesco packet! I give thanks I live in such a beautiful place, with such a variety of landscapes nearby...every year the trees branches encroach a little further, and the picnic table gets a little more tilted down the hill, but we never tire of this view.

I give thanks for a good old catch up chat, and that two of the mentioned people's ears must have been burning as their fingers wrote me messages to find when I got back!

Not just black and white

I give thanks for a coincidental cheer up chat from an unexpected but not unwelcome source, just as I'd slunk off to sulk at the world last night...the tapestry of my life does incorporate some unusual designs, but I don't think I'd have it any other way...

I give thanks for the sight of the moon peeping through the marbled clouds later - not easy to get a picture of as it was very dark so you'll just have to take my work it was very easy on the eye. For some rays of sun peeping through the mostly trowelled on ones this afternoon...oh well, at least I didn't get parts exposed ready for the glorious promised weather sunburnt in my travels to areas of town not travelled to or through before...and I give thanks for the glorious fragrances of flowers and shrubs in gardens I passed instead.

I give thanks for getting my ends trimmed in a hair salon where I was the last customer of the day so everything felt very relaxed and laid back. Hairdressers are not my natural environment so this was particularly appreciated, as was the fact that the stylist had curls herself, just scrunchied back off her face, and didn't try to sell me a 'style'...

I give thanks for nearby neighbours being unusually muted in their activities when I returned so that I could enjoy a documentary about photographer Jane Bown with lots of silent shots of her wonderful black and white photographs. I can be so much more still inside when other people aren't rampaging around but I was grateful to do a little (quiet) sewing done and get some prepared for a pedal to the floor session next time it's noisy. 

I give thanks that Beck's back on BBC4 and I've an invitation to go dog (short) walking tomorrow

Back straight

I give thanks for beautiful Bude on TV last night. There's something about the lie of the land, the sweep of the sea and the quality of light there that speak to my soul, but I'm grateful I don't actually get to visit very often as it always seems a piece of my heart gets left behind when I do.

I give thanks for lots more recuperative sleep and for feeling my immune system's getting the better of whatever's been troubling it. For eventually getting out to get a few essentials done, and resting between the clouds and the tourists with a takeaway tea to hand. I was very struck today by the reflections on the slicked sand after each wave retreated but I'm not sure if any of the photos I took captured just the right moment in time.

I give thanks I've finished one front of my new cardigan. Another front is started but left to take with me when I knit at the library as it's small and transportable, and the sleeves are done apart from fine tuning the heads to match the armholes when they're complete. So you could say I'm on the back straight now...this is a metaphor for more than knitting.

I give thanks for a money off voucher so lots of extra Tesco groceries in my delivery, including new special kinds of ice cream. Special as in renal friendly? No, special as in putting a smile inside my mouth when the outside of it's a bit down turned and droopy.

I'm feeling rather low and lonesome tonight, and not really in the mood to listen to neighbours being sociable, so I give thanks I'm also feeling laid back enough to abandon the washing up and other chores and snuckle my weary self back into the comfort of my bed.

Blue light

I give thanks for taking my weariness to bed last night while there was still some blue light in the darkening sky...and for waking up when there was just a hint of it in the lightening one this morning. I hope I was quiet creeping around so early making a cuppa and fiddling with my still orange lit new hub but, if not, well tough..I was trying to be considerate which is the best any of us can do. When I'd fiddled and the light was still orange I was quite grateful to go back to bed and to sleep with no internet, to be honest, as I've that fighting off a bug feeling and, for all its wonders when it's working it's still one more thing to be bothered by...

I give thanks for Tiger Balm and Paracetamol and earplugs - but not necessarily in that order. For deciding some vitamin C would do me good as that's an excellent reason to make pancakes! For talking to a cheery chap who had oop north has his first language about what fun it can be to deal with people's broadband connection problems. I give thanks experience working in a call centre gives you an opportunity to briefly bond with those who still do...

I give thanks for being philosophical about the news the exchange fault should be fixed by Monday...and for tentatively reconnecting when the light turned the longed for shade of blue...only to receive a call straight away afterwards saying 'You've a problem with your broadband you know!'

I give thanks for snoozes and taking it easy. For neighbourhood noises ensuring I didn't sleep all day...and a little patch of quietness now suggesting maybe I could fit in one more little nap before teatime!

Stick with it

I give thanks for remembering all manner of moments I'd forgotten to remark upon over the last couple of days, and starting a leisurely draft mentioning my gratitude for particular politeness or prettiness or potential humour. ..I was doing this in between sorting out a Tesco order and chattering with Jan on messenger about booking train fares. ..and then for some reason finally took in today's date and the fact that it's ISP switchover date only just before the first one was switched off.

I give thanks for managing to do the most essentials on my phone like track the non delivery of my new router and pay for my groceries.

I had such a lazy slobbing about day planned (and needed) so I'm most especially extremely grateful the local posties dropped the box off for their counter colleagues to give to me, so that although extra effort was needed to get it it wasn't effort wasted not! I give thanks I can have that relaxing, going nowhere day tomorrow instead. Hey, I may even get back on the internet some time...

I give thanks for some delicious pudding invention last night, and a silly squealy thriller to watch... for spotting some last gasp wisps of pinky purple cloud when I went into the kitchen... and for some stunning neighbourhood drumming this morning AND this evening...

Takes the cake

I give thanks for the swift and fleeting gilding of the ragged clouds at sundown yesterday...for happening to go into the kitchen at the just right time to see. I give thanks for my camera, and for the internet enabling you to see...and share...your pictures almost straight away. For someone suggesting this view might have been taken looking out over a specific kind of er...plantation? Clearly I have no idea what they meant...have you? I give thanks for the rambling natters you can have by typing and tip tapping away....

I give thanks for another busy and productive morning the office... and that my office was actually the sofa and the kitchen table for a change as Jenny was busy in my bedroom with the vacuum and window cleaning things. I give thanks for well timed showers helping with getting the grime off the latter...

I give thanks for remembering late last night that it was her birthday soon and to sort out a card...and then realising it was almost as far away from her birthday as could be, before remembering whose birthday I was really in danger of forgetting. 

I give thanks for the unseasonable chill...baking and a bath should warm me up nicely!

Method in my gladness

I give thanks for realising why I've had a Travis song in my head for the last hour or so... and for remembering to give thanks for being caught in a very heavy shower just before the tune started up. I give thanks to Jenny for a lift home so that I was only out in it for a splashfull of seconds, but that was long enough to squeal with shock...and delight!

I give thanks for making some knitters laugh out loud. I've not been missing my mojo for entirely selfish reasons...it's great when she makes other people happy too. For messages on my phone randomly giving answers to questions other people were asking about other things...

I give thanks I've remembered I didn't finish writing this earlier... and for the pleasant interruption of Rachel coming for tea and treatment. I give thanks she agrees that unexpected renal regeneration after trying new kidney points seems good reason to carry on trying them some more.

I give thanks for looking out at the sky when she'd finished and declaring the jumbled clouds interesting...and then discovering someone else had thought I'd find them interesting too and had sent me a photograph.

Net result

I give thanks for a good day at the office - completely lacking in attention to paperwork and surprisingly quiet too. I had mentioned to a neighbour I would be Watching Tennis but doubt that hint had anything to do with it...

I give thanks to Mr Tesco for making me cauliflower cheese for lunch which meant I could just heat it and eat it and not have to miss too many points...though I ate so much I did doze off at one point afterwards when there was a bit of a lull in the action and I wasn't in danger of falling of the edge of my seat... and of course I always give thanks for a nap! I give thanks for the generally good natured and good mannered nature of Wimbledon as a whole. and a pleasantly unfraught final finals day. Well done Mr Murray for your excellent tennis, and Mr Raonic for your smiles even in defeat... 

I've been grateful there's been more coverage of the wheelchair draws this year too, but my most particular thanks is for the most delightfully laid back and jolly mixed doubles pairing ever gaining a fairy tale trophy today. That one half was another Brit was good for the sporting patriots and I've always had a soft spot for those taciturn Finns - though this one clearly hasn't read the taciturn section of the manual! Actually I saw him lose the boys' final live some years ago and I think Miss Watson has the most heartwarmingly enthusiastic mother ever, so my sentimental money was always going to be on those two...

Meanwhile I give thanks for sewing a fine seam or three, after some rather unseemly grovelling on the carpet cutting out. I give thanks I'm sure one day I'll have a bigger table...

Scotch mist

I give thanks for the pretty marbled clouds yesterday evening and for a dirty glass last night. Dirty glass? Well for me it was a small alcoholic beverage but so small anyone else would have put it straight in the washing up I'm sure!

The wind had made me restless all day but I'd not got anywhere, so three or four sips of that lush whisky liqueur mellowed me out nicely. I give thanks that plus a bit of virtual banter with Bob, Jan and David meant I was laughing out loud lying the bath and confusing the neighbours I'm sure as well...

I give thanks for smiling in bed too when I realised in retrospect how little pain I've been in the last couple of days. And for very enjoyable dreams -  first of all I was in hospital but my bed was on the edge of sunny veranda with a low white stone wall between it and the sea. A consultant came round with some rather technical literature about kidney transplants he said I ought to read, and I reminded him I'd had cancer so wasn't suitable for a transplant but he said 'Oh, didn't anyone tell you? We've done some extra tests and you'll be fine!' Then in a later lucid bit I was travelling though fantastic scenery that I could change the details of at will...including adding some paint effects to already fascinating buildings, snow capped craggy peaks beyond a lush valley and horns on white horses to make them unicorns. I give thanks for the world inside my head...that the world didn't make me normal!

I give thanks for the blustery, breezy, misty, moisty weather today...for two short shopping trips with a bit of sewing in between, for the first one producing medical news considerably better than expected (though not as good as my dream!) and the second providing things on the list the first one didn't. I give thanks for extra things that weren't on the list as well, like meeting Linda at the bus stop so we could have a long overdue catch up chat on the way home.

Good, but not right

I give thanks for the pretty little cloud I saw this morning. I went to take a picture but forgot what I was doing on the way to my camera, and when I remembered it had changed.

I give thanks for doing some heavy duty washing when the weather forecast suggested some excellent drying weather. Oh well, at least the washing's done...

I give thanks the local population seem to be settling in for a bit of Friday night fun. I give thanks I have earplugs and a book...

I give thanks for trying to be good natured in thought and deed. Is it me or is thought much harder?

I give thanks that Boots have brought out a mostly natural ingredients bath foam called Kind Natured. Maybe a wallow in that will help.

Not bothered

Feeling very mellow and can't be bothered with much this morning, I gave thanks I didn't have much I needed to be much bothered with anyway. I give thanks it was a peaceful few hours on the terrace and I could just potter around with bits of this and that in between reading a few pages of my book. 

I give thanks for eventually realising as I did need to go out, and that going out would stir me up a bit, stirring myself to go out would be a damn fine thing. I give thanks the weather got a bit finer when I did and that I live in such a fine place in many ways for stirring up good humour.

I give thanks for gossiping on street corners with menfolk of the area, and turning a corner onto the seafront and seeing Julie who I've not had a face to face natter with for months, but funnily enough had a bit of a virtual chat with for the first time for months just the other day. 

I give thanks for all the virtual chat I've had lately, but real (with the right people) is best. I give thanks I know it isn't nice not to chat with someone who doesn't feel right but keeps wanting me to, but if I wanted to talk to someone and they kept giving me minimal answers and a tight smile and hurrying off I'd be mortified and stop, so I don't know what else to do...

I give thanks to neighbour Keith for tidying up the gull scattered rubbish of the people who only leave their bags by the communal bins not in it. It's clear whose rubbish it is from the contents...I'd be mortified about that too, wouldn't you?

Miss match

I give thanks for sleeping well within clean sheets and an early paradiddle or two. If you're not sure what it is you'd better look it up or you may have completely the wrong impression... I give thanks for the sunny start to the day and a deep male voice somewhere near by singing the first line of 'Oh what a beautiful morning' in their garden or through a window or door, possibly ironically but passably in tune. I've no idea who...and as I was wearing little but a smile at the time I didn't lean out to see if I could see...

I give thanks the noises I like least in the neighbourhood being less frequent the last few days.

I give thanks for a man from a utility company coming to consider the task of adding another one here. Given his furrowed brow I give thanks I'm not planning to be paying! I give thanks when he said they put all customer's name in a draw and would I like to nominate a charity to receive a donation if my name was picked I thought to say Kidney Research as he said no one had said that before. If they wanted nominations for employees to pose for a charity calendar I'd have put him down for months 1-12 I think...which I give thanks I know is probably a politically incorrect statement but given my opinion of most mature male's appearance not a misdemeanour I get the chance to make very often...

I give thanks for some good tennis matches being on at a time when I'm good to sit and watch them.

I give thanks for this (to me) rather pleasing collection of objects in a corner of a cathedral visited a few weeks ago.

Sea see TV

I give thanks the tea that Rachel provided was veggie Indian takeaway, taken away from Waitrose...exactly the kind of thing I fancied eating!

I give thanks that though the BBC wilfully switch matches from channel to channel I was able to get the gist of what I'd failed to record on the traditional catch up programme later. I give thanks I managed to miss any information about any scores beforehand...

I give thanks for an early night...and for remembering a friend's impending birthday before I got undressed so that I could pop out and post a card.

I give thanks for aches and pains being gentler, and for the weariness being more of spirit than flesh, so that I could take some recycling to the big bins and sit in the warm sunshine looking at the sea for a while. There was a free spot in a good place and I wondered if that might have something to do with the empty vodka bottle left behind by a previous user... Not wanting to sit by the bottle, nor leave it lying around to turn into broken glass, I give thanks I thought of putting it in my bag to dispose of later...and for then realising if I'd been spotted by a CCTV camera doing that so soon after my previous visit to the bottle bank it would have seemed as if I was quite good at disposing of spirits too!

Semi precious

I give thanks for noticing a necklace trying to sneak off yesterday and grabbing it by its tail as it slithered away. I give thanks it just needs a squeeze of fine nosed pliers on a loop to make it safe to wear again...I don't have any precious jewellery but what I have is precious to me!

I give thanks for feeling quite well today, though a little snoozy now I've stopped zapping about...I give thanks for popping into knitting for a catch up chat and wielding of wool along with a cup of tea and a biscuit. I give thanks for being able to help Dorothy translate a pattern and find out some things on line and to Jenny for a lift back up the hill.

I give thanks Rachel is providing tea tonight as I missed lunch by having a late munchy brunch of pancakes...

I give thanks a tennis match I want to watch is just starting and I have a record button!

Waking up is hard to do

I give thanks for a good size gap between last night's neighbourly row and this morning's so that I could feel calm and get some rest and sleep.

I give thanks for a couple of rude awakenings of the metaphorical kind for reminding me of the precarious pleasure of metaphorical sleep and the vulnerability of dreams. I give thanks I accept and love myself just the way I am, and that sometimes for a little while here and there other people manage to too.

I give thanks for public smiles to hide my private sorrows... for the sun coming out and Mima taking me out to look around a reclamation yard, at some floral displays in a church and to partake of tea and cake.

I give thanks for my hands letting me knit a few rows without too much pain. I give thanks a bath full of hot water is going to give me a hug in a bit...

The hole thing

I give thanks I'm home after a long old day...and for a good (less of the old) friend with whom to spend it.

I give thanks for the rich variety of weather to be appreciated - including searing sun and a downpour that poured down the big golf umbrella Gary was holding over us and made a big puddle on the seat of my chair and the seat of me! I give thanks this made me laugh...

I give thanks for the rich variety of people around. Particularly the couple in matching bright purple sweatshirts who walked by hand in hand...to reveal on the back the both said in large multicoloured writing 'I love...' and then the other person's name. Well I guess it was the person they were holding hands with that the names belonged to anyway. I give thanks this restored my faith that there's someone for everyone...even if your thing is wearing a bright purple sweatshirt declaring your multicoloured love for that someone on its back...

I give thanks for a rich variety of renal sin with one of my biannual sausages, one of my triannual cups of cappuccino and my first doughnuts of the year. For reasons nothing to do with diet sheets it was beginning to feel as if I'd never have a doughnut again...and when we arrived at a stall for refreshments before leaving the site and I saw their prices I was pretty sure today wouldn't be the day I broke my unintentional vow...until I thought to ask, when paying for the drinks, if they were giving any away. And the man said OK and gave me a free bagful! We both gave a lot of thanks for that...and I've now made an intentional vow to be more cheeky more often..

I give thanks the announcer told me that part of the display was splendid, and I was lucky to be there...as I'm sure I was in my own way. I tend to see things a little differently from other people at air shows though so my photo is of chickens in the sky...

Times table

Um... I give thanks for the times my tablet is working, which seems largely a hit and miss affair these days...and I don't just mean my fingers thinking they've hit the right places but missed...

I give thanks for the times when the neighbours are considerate and community spirited. I even saw one of them putting cardboard in the cardboard recycling bin yesterday... 

I give thanks for the times I haven't felt pain, for the times I haven't felt sorrow...for the times it wasn't raining in Wimbledon when I felt like watching tennis...for the times when watching tennis felt like fun and made me forget all the stuff that's not...

I give thanks for the sunlight bright on leaves against the dark grey sky...for a just right cup of tea...and a couple of just right things to iron - soft cottony dresses so satisfying to smooth the wrinkles out of...