Cutting out

I give thanks for being in such a contented mood the last few weeks, and for remaining aware this was a fragile and transient state. Now it's wearing off I give thanks for quelling the panic and self pity this morning and getting stuck into some of the tasks I've thought I'm going to appreciate having done over the next couple of weeks. I give thanks for less pain and more energy which helps.

I give thanks for starting to cut out and pin some fabric I'm going to want to sew, as using the sewing machine will probably become possible again more quickly than using scissors and pins. For doing some cooking to freeze...and for it suddenly dawning on me you can grate turmeric and ginger, which is so much easier than chopping for my fingers, and you don't get an orange chopping board either!

I give thanks for discovering I can eat Doritos. I've never been much moved to before, regarding them as a poor (and grossly over artificially flavoured) substitute for crisps. But now I've had to cut out crisps, and have read the fine print on the lightly salted variety (seeing they are basically just corn and oil and salt) I'm a convert! In fact I'll have to be converting my garments to larger sizes if I carry on appreciating them this much...

I give thanks for Mima inviting me to homemade lunch today, and for Julie agreeing to bring me home after my surgery. I will need someone to open the doors to get back in the flat I think, let alone the transport.

Book at lunchtime

Reading in the daytime always seems a bit of wickedness to me...unless you're on holiday, in hospital or studying of course. At the moment, with the hours of light so short, even more so, so I give special thanks for thinking to record Radio 4's Book at Bedtime to listen to eating lunch or sewing or maybe just wanting to hear a story without using my hands or eyes...

I give thanks for Mr Tesco bringing my groceries only a little late... and only missing one item, which was only Plan A for my tea! They are so busy with pre-Christmas deliveries already and he sent a text to warn me he was behind...so when the phone rang a little while after I thought it was him saying he was downstairs. Imagine my surprise to find it was actually my pre-op assessment as it was the first I'd heard about being actually booked in!

I'd been expecting about 10 days warning and felt I needed that to make sure I was as ready for my right arm out of action as could be. And now I have five days and all I've managed so far is an hour of feeling scared and sorry for myself and another (also unscheduled) moving furniture and changing cables around to see if there's any way I can restore a good enough connection between my router and TV box to watch catch up TV actually on my TV again (short answer - no!)

Oh well.. I give thanks this was a warm thing to be doing on a cold night, and meant corners got cleaned that don't usually see the light of day even in the summer. I give thanks I can still watch catch up on my tablet and for the reminder to be more aware of what's on and record the few things that interest me beforehand so I don't need to. I give thanks I'm sure when I get hungry enough I'll come up with an idea for tea...

Bright now

I give thanks for the after acupuncture glow, my favourite mind altered state by far. Sometimes it takes my sleep away, but in a very acceptable manner...especially if I have a book, a hot water bottle and a biscuit to hand!

I give thanks for feeling thoroughly treated, including having pyrex dishes (which seemed to me indelibly stained) scrubbed sparkling clean again. I like to think I have many strengths but elbow grease is sadly no longer among them...

I give thanks for feeling unusually bright and energetic this morning, managing to leave the house before noon (slightly). For the hard glitter of the cold sea in the sunshine...and making a woman who works in one of the local shops and has a reputation for being rather dour, actually laugh a little.

I give thanks for my new glasses finally being ready...and them coming with a fab orange case. For my new bright pink washing up bowl too! I give thanks I don't suffer from migraines... or hangovers come to that...

I give thanks for the next best thing to central heating - making lots of lush pudding to eat!

The day after yesterday

I give thanks for a new tube of elastic bandage for my hands. I was very grateful for all they did yesterday, and they were very grateful for the soothing squeeze afterwards.

I give thanks for watching the seriously silly Day After Tomorrow again. Never mind the storyline, I've a soft spot for special effects and Jake Gyllenhaal's smile...

For the tang of bergamot in my morning tea...for learning a new skill on my crossword compiling software...

I give thanks, when well and not needing to go there, I chose a GP's surgery right by the sea...so now that I have to be there often there's an oceanful of super medicine to be had outside.

I give thanks for Phil the cheerful (and cheap) taxi driver being on the rank as Waitrose had Bottlegreen cordial on a deal!

Whisky sweet

I give thanks for making my bed with clean linen...sorting out the laundry and day's catering from odds and ends to hand, and then lying on the sofa catching up with snoozes and recorded radio and TV. For thus being introduced to the Lemon Twigs who kind of sound like the Beach Boys or Bread but are still teenagers (or only just not) right now...and a new dessert that's a trifle nice with sponge soaked in ginger cordial and whisky liqueur topped with chopped pear, custard and cream.

I give thanks for BBC4's Saturday night import slot. I'm very taken with the new French offering - nicely filmed, and nicely layered too so there's humour and everyday life among the suspense, cops and bodies. For an atmospheric new novel passed on from Ann...

I give thanks for neighbourhood peacefulness (so far) and, in between bouts of delicious idleness, getting an agreeable accumulation of tasks done, including solving the puzzle of how to construct a particular crossword clue. This is always most satisfying!

Robostop

Despite a mostly flat Friday, I'd have been quite happy to have a slack Saturday too but there were things I wanted to achieve that required being up and about for parts of it at least. I give thanks for giving these my best shot and for lots of lying down and doing nothing before, after and in between...

The weather being somewhat wintry, I give thanks for digging out my warmest jumper, coat and boots, and for struggling into them - it also being one of those days when attempts to clothe myself are tragi-comic and exhausting. I give thanks that someone has rendered the nearby recycling bins unusable by leaning a load of dumped plasterboard and so on against them...as this meant I had to go further afield and got a chance for this picture I've been wanting to take for months but the conditions have not been right!

I give thanks for timing my time in town to see Titan the robot - briefly! It had to be briefly as, though it was meant to be an amusing show, I found it terrifying at some deep level unreachable by logic...and as no one else watching seemed to feel the same, I give thanks the lady in the health food shop had been similarly effected when it was wheeled past her door.

Best of all though, I give thanks for being in the happy crowds enjoying the atmosphere at the Christmas lights switch on later which included a procession lit with wonderful handmade lanterns and the opportunity to sing a selection of seasonal songs with some ladies in matching tinsel headgear I didn't know, some folk without I did, and a chap I only know from TV but who comes from here so sort of counts as a friend!

Slack Friday

I give thanks I'm familiar enough with my body's reaction to exertion now to know today would be Slack Friday, and for scheduling and planning nothing but rest. I give thanks I've been still capable of looking after myself - fetching cups of tea and hot water bottles as required, and bodging together some food though, just between you and me, if I'd had someone else to perform these tasks I'd have let them without demur. I give a lot of thanks for my kettle!

I give thanks for bright blueness of the sea and sky, and the sunshine dazzling my eyes so much eventually I had to get up!

I give thanks for being offered a Black Friday deal I couldn't refuse - buy one, get one free on Actipatches. I need a body suit of them today, and with the best will in the world I can't shop local, let alone locally made, for these. I give thanks my laptop has been in a better frame of mind today...

Though there's still no word when my operation will be, I give thanks for hearing the chap in the bottom floor flat arrive back so I knew it was worth going downstairs to double check as I'd a note saying he'd taken in a parcel for me. I give thanks for some amazingly good quality fabric found in an online non-Black Friday sale at only £5 a metre and earmarked for a sofa makeover (throw and cushion covers) when I've finished my pre-Christmas sewing jobs. My nest building urges having been somewhat thwarted by not selling the flat yet, this is a budget way of brightening the place up, either for myself or a buyer. Obviously I didn't know quite what a bargain the material was, nor quite how much I'd like it until it had been unwrapped, so I'm very grateful my hopes were somewhat exceeded... Meanwhile I give thanks for lounging quite happily on the old ones!

Back track

I give thanks for my new dressing gown which I've recently started wearing after turning the ends of the sleeves up and putting elastic in. Only complaint is its comfiness and cosiness is detrimental to changing into daytime garments.

I give thanks for so many problems with internet access earlier they quite took my mind off the grumbling pain in my back...I really don't fancy another visit from the sciatica fairy any time soon.

I give thanks despite these delays I did manage to meet Mima for a day exploring the non-high street shopping possibilities a pretty train ride away. I give thanks we both found a surprising number of things we'd been looking for...and a few that we hadn't too! I give thanks for sunny though nippy weather...a nice lunch...and takeaway cake for on the train which fortified us when the train was cancelled. For it not being as late as it seemed when we arrived back here, and for it seeming milder than when we left as it took me a ridiculously long time to get back up the hill, with much huffing and puffing and stopping to catch my breath, rest my achy bits, and almost (but not quite) wish I hadn't found so many things to buy!

Cooking ahead

I give thanks for less pain and more energy today, and getting a few bits done.

For the blowy old wind, I love hearing it whistling and whining, and seeing the sea all worked up.
For managing to break free of compulsive cryptic crossword clue creating (I've a new one started and it's hard to let go) and being outdoors briefly, though not in one of the squalls of rain. For the golden leaf drifts lining the lane.

I give thanks for a cheap bag of Bramleys so a crumble for my supper, and extra dishes cooked for the freezer. For the food processor helping as my hands are still crabby, and for it being worth putting the main oven on for once - which makes twice if I'm remembering correctly!

I give thanks for knowing (I hope) when to stop and rest and recuperate...as I've more activities planned for tomorrow.

Warm and bright

I give thanks for waking up extremely early, all the better to enjoy staying in bed extremely late! For a mind a-brim with creative ideas - alterations, renovations, seasonal puzzles for the library and little gifts to make...even a painting I would like to (try to) do sometime when I've nothing else to... For making a little progress with projects already on the go, and even those not - like the vacuuming when I finally felt thoroughly rested.

For a grey day just right for staying mostly indoors, gold leaf splashes in the communal gardens, a bright rainbow of vehicle rooves and bushes drooping with elderberries by the rubbish bins. For the surprising mildness to help take the chill off the next electric bill maybe?

Knit fix

There's been a lot of tussles with inanimate objects today - cutlery, clothing, the contents of my purse - but most of all my own body I guess. I give thanks for skirmishes won and for philosophically accepting some things are not fixable just now...

All I really felt up to was staying in bed and reading so I give thanks for Jenny taking me to the library and back! For three looked forward to books on very long loan as the computer system there is due for an overhaul over the nest few weeks. For nattering with the ladies who knit though my hands were too sore to join in with that part. It was very interesting not taking any with me and having to deal with the constant urges to do so - a bit like not having a cigarette if you're a smoker, or just pop if you like a drop of the harder stuff, when all around you people are partaking. There's something about the rhythmic repetitive movements of knitting which can be rather meditative and soothing...and clearly somewhat addictive!

I give thanks I managed to drink tea and eat biscuits anyway...

I give thanks for managing to machine sew some small seams I pinned a few days ago. For leftovers for tea so no chopping.

Later, much later...

I give thanks for no viewings booked for next week. Yes, I want to move, but also to avoid the movements of vacuuming and scrubbing for a little while. The place is messier than I prefer it though so this morning, while the kettle boiled for my morning tea, I decided to use my freshly unbandaged and fairly cooperative hands to do a little storage space rationalisation in the kitchen. I give thanks in the process I discovered some ancient fudge and mini Easter eggs, which of course I sampled straight away to check if they needed chucking. I give thanks they'll last a little longer yet...

I give thanks for wearing my last year's new boots for the first time as, though they seem virtually flat soled, my inflamed discs twelve months ago perceived them as 'high heeled' and too painful to wear. I give thanks for they seem to fit and be comfy now as it's way too late to return them...

I give thanks for meeting Mima, and later Liz and William, for refreshments outside a cafe with some jazz festival fringe free event inside, but though it was mild they kept the door shut so only the proper diners could properly hear. I give thanks I had a brief sense of what it must be like to be a bird of prey's dinner when a gull swooped in fast and low over my head to take the cake. Like being in a Boeing flight path it was!

I give thanks for a lift home via the Co op, where I found some nice bread and incapacitated my hands so badly cutting some of it while making a meal I had to have a huge snooze in front of the TV afterwards! That's one good thing about pain - it can lead to less attempting to achieve anything other than getting rest.

Oh, and I give thanks for realising the unattractive mammoth jar of pills I have to have in a conspicuous place to remember to take them fits perfectly inside the largest mug I have, which I love but tend not to use as it's hard to lift it with hot liquid in. This pleases me on so many levels, except for the one where I wonder if it should please me so much!

Roll with it

I give thanks for an early night and lots of sleep but unfortunately I was much too sore this morning for Plan A which was to meet Mima on the bus or train for a quick shopping trip to the city. I give thanks for Plan B which was for her to pick me up in her car and drive part of the way to close by another more accessible station. I give thanks this was also near a favourite chip shop so I could buy her lunch to say thank you on the way back!

I wouldn't normally choose to be 'in town' on any Saturday, let alone one when the High Street and malls were already absorbing a steady stream of customers by 10am...and I give thanks the places I wanted to spend my pennies were mostly off the beaten track, down the cobbled lanes. I give thanks thanks in the noble search for treats for vegan chums and a rather alternative son I came back with some stuff for myself as well! Well, 'What would you like for Christmas?' is not a phrase I often hear so it's important to make sure I get it! Oh, and I give thanks for discovering though the relocated Real Food shop has no cafe (boo!) it does sell Taifun tofu (hooray!) plus something I've seen on line that looks a lot like original Sosmix. A plate of my traditional non-sausage rolls would look a lot like Christmas and (unlike most traditional seasonal food) actually be allowed!

I've not done much since I've been home but that's OK, there's no law that says I have to! I give thanks for thinking a lot about crafty items I'd like to make. My head is always as full of design ideas as a Pinterest page but, as these don't come with patterns and instructional videos, many woman hours go into the workings out of how to make them happen. Many happy woman hours, I might add, of stitches and seaming in my head, scribbled sums on bits of paper...probably a few unhappy ones are saved as well by less unpicking and trying again...

I give thanks it's the slow cooker's turn to cook tea and, though there's lots of free stuff on in town for the the jazz festival I shall be freely making use of the sofa, the remote control and the snooze button!

The good, the bad and the snuggly

I give thanks for the blue skies and brightness today, making it such a good one to be out and about. I give thanks I went out and appreciated the clear sunshine on leaves and fields and water... But the fibromyalgia pain, which started out not too bad, just got worse and worse, so I give thanks for giving up and getting home again as quickly as I could, even abandoning the veg shopping as as that would have been just too much upright and too much to carry up the stairs.

I give thanks that I could abandon everything else and snuggle back under the covers for the rest of the afternoon...and for eventually, mercifully, falling asleep...

I give thanks for waking up to the pretty pink light all around at sunset...and that I was hungry so had to get up again! I give thanks I only have to cook (and wash up) for one. Sometimes that's more than enough...

Bags of fun

I give thanks in between sniggering about unlikely names for tea bags in the health food shop yesterday,  I came up with a good idea for those fiddly individual paper sachets some of them come in. OK, they're hygienic in a cafe, and useful when you're going somewhere, but when you're just going to bed and your hands are tired, they can be most frustrating! So, as I've a spare little caddy that's been used for things that don't need to be in it, I had a session of snipping open envelopes and putting the tea bags straight in the tin...

I give thanks for this leading to the sorting out and cleaning of a kitchen cupboard - just the one, let's not get carried away, but I like clean and tidy and also like keeping up the feeling that I'm getting ready to move.

Apart from this I've not moved much today, being rather tired and sore. I give thanks for making it downstairs (and back!) for a surgical supplies delivery though, and for the driver not giving me grief for having to phone to tell me he's there. Even if I had a doorbell I'd not move fast enough for a courier's normal knock and run style, especially around about the time of my performance enhancing meds delivery when I seem to slow almost to a stop. I give thanks I've had my monthly dose and should start feeling the build up of strength and energy again in a few days...

I give thanks for being able to operate the sewing machine in small doses, finishing off a little half slip to stop some of my shorter skirts from clinging and becoming even shorter, and starting to form some receptacles from fabric scraps to put seasonal items in!

Wait...what?

I give thanks for feeling lots better after lots of sleep, plus an evening and morning of doing very little at all...bolstered and boosted by this I was able to go out and act like a fully functioning human being for a couple of hours this afternoon! I give thanks for going to collect a prescription and that it wasn't urgently required as it had met some administrative fate on the surgery's systems and wasn't available after all.

I give thanks for meeting Mima for refreshments, popping into Waitrose afterwards to stock up with my favourite foodstuffs from there...and that I hadn't been planning to have any of them for my tea as they were out of stock of all!

I give thanks for spotting these beautifully coloured leaves on the way...and sharing a laugh with the staff in the health food shop after misreading a tea bag packet that had 'organic' printed above 'assam' but seemed to say something quite different...

Swinging 59 and 3 quarters

I've not felt up to doing a great deal today so I give thanks I have completed this little retro number anyway. I'm not too pleased with the quality of the hemming, but it's my fifty nine and three quarters birthday today and I figure the area around my knees is not likely to be getting much close scrutiny in the future!

I give thanks for finally twigging you can record radio programmes on a TV box. Sometimes when I'm sewing (or snoozing) I think it would be nice to listen to a play or book being read, but whenever I turn on the radio it's something else instead. I give thanks for setting Pick of the Week to record while I look for a new serialisation to start.

I give thanks for my treatment last night, my tea prepared and served and the washing up done. For my bath, my bed, my cooker...and thinking of things to eat wihin the dietary/low energy limitations. For winning some tussles with my internet access including, when I'd turned everything off just now and started again, my google account saying it didn't recognise my laptop, and then blogger saying I wasn't the author of any blogs!

One slice or two?

I give thanks for pineapple upside down pie...leftover tinned pineapple topped with leftover puff pastry, cooked and then turned upside down (funnily enough). No leftovers now ;-) For ribald amusement with Rude Tube, wonder and awe at Blue Planet...

I give thanks for setting my alarm clock as my body fancied more sleep than the morning's activities would allow...and thus being able to complete them. To Julie for taking me to my appointment - so much simpler for me than the bus and always nice to have a catch up chat with a fellow social reclusive! I give thanks though parking was a conundrum at first we still got there early and, as they'd had some no shows, I was whisked straight in.

I give thanks for the new (to me) surgeon being a helpfully informative and rather humorous man...who actually listened and responded too. For him being surprisingly (to both of us) pleased with the number of possibilities my veins offered, and then surprising myself by asking out of the blue if I could have a go with equipment the non operated on arm would be using to test out the feasibility of doing myself one day (I could as long at it's a plastic tube not a vein I'd be doing it on!)

As I have to have a think about the options and possible repercussions now (none of which are especially appealing of course) and make a choice soonish, I give thanks for not feeling pressured or pestered (by my body or the docs) but patiently supported while I do.

I give thanks for a drive down a memory laden road afterwards and lunch in a small vegan cafe with not much in the way of cake (sigh) but very nice savoury selection. For a good flollop on the sofa on my return with a cup of tea and toast made with bread from the baker that slices it for you plus sme of John's jam from a jar found in the back of the cupboard.

I give thanks it's acupuncture day today...and it's Rachel's turn to provide the food!

Light work

I thought I'd done a lot yesterday...until I tried to do the rest today! I always underestimate how long it will take me to clean and tidy to my satisfaction before a viewing...and I give thanks for reminding myself it's not my satisfaction that matters. In fact I give thanks for reminding myself every day I turn up for is an achievement, and accomplishing anything on top that is bonus territory!

I give thanks for being moderately confident when I set off to hear the surgeon's verdict tomorrow both I, and my flat, will be adequately well presented. For being moderately comfortable and unconcerned by all the uncertainty lately. Pretty much everything always is, but we manufacture a lot of our sense of security from pretending otherwise don't we? I give thanks for the opportunities I have to practice patience and flexibility...

I give thanks for my daylight lamp for helping me do some sewing after sun down, and for my Actipatches and some tubular bandages for helping my hands to recover.

I give thanks I've been enjoying looking for possible images for the black and white photo challenge. There is so much to see when you really look - out of the window, across the room. I was transfixed by the light on the buds and seedpods on this little tree and it took a while for it to dawn on me I could try to capture it in colour as well monochrome! By then the sun had moved and they weren't glowing in the same way but still looked rather pretty.

Not sew bad

I give thanks dreams not always can come true as mine have been rather anxious and arduous lately. For waking up to a peaceful morning and a good book to stay in bed with afterwards...

I give thanks for a few hours of contented absorption in creativity. I was too tired to go out, and my hands too sore for knitting, crochet or rug making but I was able to cook and to do some sewing at the machine. I give thanks for lentil curry...for a rather nice spicy cake made with tinned pineapple and glace cherries (which are permissible)...and for some fairly successful progress with my skirt.

I give thanks for the man upstairs reminding me there's a world outside my head... and how fortunate I am to often manage to be philosophical, and sometimes even practical, when things are not working out the way I think they should.

No frills

I give thanks for my new man's dressing gown. Haha, no... I mean my new dressing gown designed for a man! All the women's ones I'd seen were too fancy and fussy for my tastes, to say nothing of the expense. So I give thanks as Mima was going to Matalan I looked in there and as our route through the shop took us through the (un)appropriate section saw this lush only slightly too large plain deep purple one. Much cheaper than the women's ones too...

I give thanks for my no frills fish pie. No, not out of a supermarket's white packet, but out of leftover cooked veg, the renally acceptable tiddly bit of cheese (cream with garlic and herbs plus cheddar)   and fish and puff pastry from the freezer. So quick...so easy...and so delicious!

I give thanks considering how very unwilling my body was to get out of bed this morning, let alone do anything other than make a cup of tea and get back to it, it's been a remarkably productive day...For putting a zip in a skirt-to-be (something I've not done for years and was rather scared of) and a useful discussion with a mortgage advisor (likewise!)

Best of both world

I give thanks for sleeping under the cosy comforting cloud of both duvets at once again. Not that they felt very cloudlike when I was attempting to wrestle them into the cover and onto the bed yesterday...

I give thanks for feeling less feeble and painful and more able to get on with things today, including going out to pick up some bits. For coming up with hasty plans B and C when places I wanted to go were out of stock of what I wanted to buy or closed for refurbishment. One of these being a cafe, where a rest and some refreshment was much required, I give thanks for a delicious lemony Italian thing I can't remember the name of but costs a pound in the market!

For spotting the mistiness of mizzly rain dropping down from the moor, the late autumn trees reflected in the still water of the estuary, the most delicate pastel rainbow...

I give thanks for managing to get back in the building on my return. The combination of both newly painted front door and newly laid carpet meant I very nearly couldn't get out in the first place, so I also gave thanks for the practice at not fretting about things whilst not actually forgetting them but processing possible ways of dealing with them if and when they arise...

I give thanks my most immediate neighbour is back. He's not been around much lately which has been blissfully peaceful, so you might wonder why now he is home and clearly in a very bad mood I am feeling grateful. This is simply because he is a fairly predictable quantity. When he went away I was rather worried about what might happen next!

Turned out nice again

I give thanks for rustling up one of those almost instant individual trifles last night. Sometimes I feel the need, but I'm still on the same half bottle of sherry I've had for almost a year so I give thanks it's clearly not a desperate one!

I give thanks for pancakes for brunch as well. And that being the limit of the cooking I've done today - for snacks and leftovers instead.

I give thanks for lots of recuperative resting - managing to read a book for a while and even take a little nap. But for some purposefulness too, mostly of the non - energetic variety but purposeful nonetheless.

I give thanks it turned out nice again - bright sunshine soon thawing the chilly morning air and drying the washing at the windows, and dreamy lilac cloud puffs after it had set.

I give thanks for Turned Out Nice Again...the enchanting little volume I chose the other day, which turned out to be a beautifully written mix of science, literary reference and reminiscences about the British weather.

Drop til you shop

I give thanks for realising last night I really should do some vacuuming as holding the tube when my hands are sore is really difficult and there was a lot of vacuuming and other chores to be done before viewing today. I give thanks for remembering, struggling and squawking trying to change the Henry bag, that no matter how much it hurt it was but a lover's caress compared to the long dark nightmare months of sciatica...also, in the circumstances, for the book I picked up from the library being very slim and light!

I give thanks for agreeing to try out some new stoma pouches. It can be a tough job but someone has to do it, as they are one of the very many items not actually used by the bods that design them. I give thanks for my washing machine, clean sheets in the drawer and being able to move remarkably swiftly in a crisis! For some of those lovely flapjacks to munch as this was way too much activity to deal with before breakfast...

I give thanks for proceeding very slowly through the rest of the day, with lots of stopping altogether while my wimp side kept moaning it could NOT carry on and my fighter side had to remind it failure was not an option and if I want to move somewhere comfortable and convenient while I'm still capable I have to keep making the flat all sparkly and inviting for potential buyers. I give thanks for making it to the bus stop before I got too wet (visualising how lovely it would be if I could buy the flat right by one), for a cosy, almost dozy ride...and for the sun coming out for a while in between the grey clouds and the pink.

Although there's no rush in theory, as in theory I'm at higher risk of being rushed into hospital between now and then than most, I give thanks for a successful start to the seasonal shopping...and for where possible shopping 'local'. As an ex small trader myself my slant on this is not that you have to shop in your own particular small town, but in any of the small towns nearby - even the nearby small city if necessary - though always favouring independent businesses and specialist stores of course.

I give thanks I'm home now and my home is clean...and at some point hunger will overcome fatigue and I'll find a way to get food.

Special reserve

I give thanks for reserving a book at our local library this morning and collecting it this afternoon! I was looking at a few titles in (and not in) the catalogue and hadn't noticed that one was on the shelves here, but even if I had realised it was I wouldn't have expected it to fly off them so speedily.

I give thanks for companionable chat with the folks at knitting, and for the fresh made flapjacks I took with me being appreciated...as well as the lovely embroidered scarf I ordered from you know where on Thursday evening, turning up just in time for me to wear it out today. I give thanks it goes very nicely with my coat and sweater from the source, and for finding a specific source that used the Royal Mail, couriers often being so problematic. I give thanks though the stairs aren't finished, they're finished enough to go down with just socks on my feet to collect the post!

I give thanks though I'm tired this evening it's partly due to staying up late watching a rather good film I found on the Sony channel last night. For managing to bodge together a first course, get most of it in my mouth and write this before my very painful hands seized up for the evening. For leftover lush apple crumble I managed to save from yesterday for dessert. You just know I'm going to find a way to eat that, don't you?

Breaths of fresh air

I give thanks for all the people trying to make the world a better place... instead of just trying to make themselves a better place in the world. Mind you I give thanks for all the folk with bigger and better homes round here who have the money to burn big beautiful fireworks too, as I got to see some excellent ones last night from my humbler abode!

I give thanks for feeling more energetic in the evening so I could jump up and look...plus have a tidy round and wash the pots before bed.

I give thanks at last the paint fumes are dissipating and my eyelids are returning to their normal colour and size. For finding enough room in one of the communal recycling bins for the recycling I had to put in it...and a squirrel coming to look.

For Mima needing some shopping coinciding with me needing some cake, so we could go out for a few hours in the crisp sunshine. For the cafe up the hill being open and sheltered enough under its awning to take tea in the almost open air.

Finger picking good

I've been trying to find a cross body bag large enough to carry shopping and water resistant enough to shop when it rains. I like shopping when it's rainy as the shops tend to be quieter...but I guess there's not much call for such items as people tend to have cars and or/fully functional hands and the search has been long and fruitless. I give thanks for lots of sunny days for going in a lot of shops looking however!

I've been looking on the internet too, of course, and finally found something I thought might do, and as it was reduced to £10 it wouldn't be a major failure if not - bags are always useful for some sort of transportation or storage aren't they?  It was Click and Collectable somewhere I could get by bus but unless I spent more I'd have to pay £3.99 for this privilege and, of course, as is often the way in these situations I couldn't find anything else I wanted to buy for myself or anyone I knew. So I give thanks for having a bright idea and looking for something to contribute to our local food bank seasonal appeal for children's gifts instead. I was particularly grateful to find something appealing for a boy - gloves with monster finger puppet fingers!

This bed based quest was almost all I did all morning as I was completely lacking in enough get up and go to get up and go at all...so I give thanks this didn't matter! For an afternoon almost as idle, but dressed and at least occasionally moving about. My hands being too sore from previous craftwork to hold needles or hooks today, I give thanks for discovering after strapping them up a bit of cutting and pinning ready for machine sewing was possible. A very small bit - I made a very small scrunchie!

I give thanks for choosing leftovers for meals to avoid chopping...and that washing up was out of the question! For starting a new book I think that I'll enjoy...and cunningly tracking down one I also think I might, but had forgotten the title and author!

I give thanks for watching the wonder full Blue Planet II...

And for this selection of weather photos
https://www.bbc.co.uk/weatherwatchers/article/41253774/highlights-from-another-amazing-year/

Lighten our parkness

I give thanks for feeling a bit stronger today...and the aches and pains being a bit weaker. For it thus being a good day to go to the Revive meeting and chat to fellow sufferers of long term health conditions, though not about long term health conditions which I find tedious enough to live with, let alone talk about!

I give thanks for the general chattiness of hereabouts, and the lovely people I've met since I've been living here. For the renovations continuing. Today the outside of the porch and front door were painted and new carpet began to be laid on the landings. I don't understand why these are being done - I don't remember anything of any benefit to residents here ever being done by the freeholder without a lengthy battle, so maybe it is to benefit him in some way...and there's some catch that I've not thought of (I've thought of the cost, of course!) Nonetheless, the improvements probably improve the saleability of my flat and certainly improve the liveability in the meantime!

I give thanks for another very satisfactory 'pre-owned' eBay purchase. The other day I realised the only garments I was wearing that hadn't come from there were my socks, shoes and scarf...coat, cardi, dress, the whole caboodle. Yes, even my underwear had though yes of course it was new... The footwear came from very ordinary high street stores...the jewelry, as usual, handmade... but the scarf, just to catch you out, came from a market stall on the banks of the Grand Canal in Venice! I give thanks I don't need a magazine or merchandiser (or employer or partner!) to tell me what to choose...

I give thanks for this little patch of pinkness breezing by in the grey as the sun went down. For someone posting pictures of seals in the harbour here today!

Ooh sum times!

Nomnomnom... I give thanks for yesterday's tea! Just dhal and rice and poppadoms and chutney but so good I ate it twice!

I give thanks for a brilliant OU program on BBC4 about the algorithms behind the scenes of our lives. Algorithms, as I'm sure you know, are simple sets of problem solving instructions...and the makers simply solved the problem of making it interesting with fun accompanying graphics and demonstrative tools like teams of dancers. It was an hour long but the time went so fast I thought it must have been half an hour or 45 minutes...

For the moonlight shining on the sea last night and pearly blue of it today.

For managing to get going eventually. Some days I'm so stiff and sore it feels like it may not happen...but eventually it eases up. Other times, like today, the pain actually gets worse, but the weather was so pretty it seemed a waste of a 'reprieve' hospital day to stay indoors.

I give thanks for the beautiful scenery seen from the bus...and that on the way home, when I feared I might fall asleep, a man with a very loud voice got on and ensured I didn't. He had a lot to say, most of it expletives or offensive in some way, including the kind of jaw droppingly xenophobic remarks that start with 'I'm not a racist but...' At one point he also appeared to relieve himself into a pop bottle, although of course we all tried very hard to not to look or listen...and must be grateful for the bottle if he did! I give thanks for soothing music in my ears, and the exchanged glances of camraderie between the rest of the travelling passengers.

I give thanks I've another viewing arranged for next week. There's been no more news from the lady who said she loved it...but the next one is bound to bring me Luck. Seriously...that is their name!

I give thanks it's Mr Tesco's turn to make tea...I've some wimpering and wimping about to catch up on.

Any time, any place, any wear

Um ho hum...what have I been grateful for today? For waking up and not having to be anywhere or do anything by any particular time...and for deciding not to be anywhere or do very much at all apart from catch up with the washing up, chase up an online query or two and move some creative projects on a little way.

So I've been giving thanks for some rest and relaxation I guess. So many things I could get worked up about but on the whole that's a waste of time any time. I give thanks it seems I'm not being operated on tomorrow, and am planning to do some nice things to celebrate instead...if I feel like it...

I give thanks for a Tesco delivery so I've lots of good things to eat...and for wearing my White Stuff knitted dress for the first time and declaring it money well invested in Oxfam!