Mystify me

I don't always make nice dinners - last night's was so disgusting I could only give thanks for extra rice cakes and leftover pudding! The neighbours were out for a chunk of the evening so watching TV without background sounds was a treat in itself anyway...

I give thanks for rediscovering how bitterly cold it gets here when skies are grey outside so that I didn't just dig out my cosiest clothes from the back of the cupboard under the stairs, but ordered a new brushed thermal top as well... I give thanks for managing to get some Tiger Balm on my back between my shoulder blades where something is very sore...before covering the place with many layers.

I give thanks for going through an unsorted bookshelf and finding a bunch of paperbacks I'll not be reading again to donate to the library's bric a brac sale. And for thus feeling justified in getting a cab to their first craft group get together, though quite why I feel the need to feel justified given my various bodily problems mystifies me...

I give thanks for broccoli and Stilton pasties back in stock at the bakers. They have to be rationed for renal reasons but it's been months since I had one so hopefully that's OK... and I give thanks for Mima giving me a lift back up the hill with my heavy bags so I could flop on the sofa and eat it instead of getting tea!

Substitute

Well I don't think Paul and Prue would have been particularly impressed but I give thanks for a rustic but rather tasty Morello glace cherry and dried cranberry pudding/cake made last night. I'm not supposed to eat sultanas, raisins etc but I didn't miss them at all!

I give thanks for an early night as my body clock didn't get reset at the weekend. For a book, a hot water bottle and a mug of chamomile tea. For a long lie in in the morning as I was quite cosy and comfortable and I knew once I started moving around it would be downhill all the way! For not going down the hill though I did go down the stairs to check for post and take some stuff to the bins. I give thanks there's lots of because it gave me a chance to try out various ways of moving up and down them to see which hurt the least. Basically it's bending or putting any weight on my knees that causes the problems so not a lot of success there unfortunately...but I hurt in a lot of other places too today so at least there was some variety. I give thanks for the bits when it was less intrusive...likewise the neighbourhood noises...and best of all when both were quiet, though some chaps next door were making a shed and that was quite interesting to watch grow throughout the day despite the racket.

I give thanks for the pretty sky, so bright and blue earlier in the day and with delicately tinted clouds at sundown...

I give thanks for discovering via Loose Ends that a number of genre novelists have formed a band called Fun Lovin' Crime Writers. This appeals to me greatly!

https://funlovincrimewriters.com/about/

Feed the world

I've always been happy to mix my culinary metaphors and now my dietary options are somewhat limited it's useful to think of new ways to rearrange them. I give thanks for today's offerings from the (con)fusion kitchen including 'Devon cream breakfast' which is porridge with jam and cream - or oat cream in this case - and coleslaw with tuna in it rather than next to it which makes a good sandwich filling/cracker topping. I give thanks for something dhal like bubbling on the stove for my tea...

I give thanks for forgetting how cold it gets here when the temperature drops, and for resolving to be less mean about turning the heaters on as well as piling on extra layers of clothes...and piling on the calories! I give thanks for Tesco for sending a nice man with some more of the latter...and for having enough money to pay...

I give thanks though my knees and back have been very sore my hands have been less so so I can battle on with Rachel's jumper which continues to resist becoming a wearable garment but which, hopefully, is almost there. I'm at the stage where I'm trying to finish it off in such a way as to hide the many errors. I give thanks I have produced many delightful knitted items over the years...but this is clearly not among their number. I give thanks for her understanding!

Little donkey

I give thanks for the extra hour of snoozing as I'm still feel a bit tired and wan. For not waking up full of cold like I thought I would though, especially as this meant I could properly taste the delicious Guinness and chocolate cake Mima and I had with a pot of tea after going out to find some crisp leaves for her to scrunch in. For not walking too far as my muscles and joints are rather stiff and sore but taking a detour to say hello to a couple of donkeys and a Shetland pony in a nearby field. They came over to the fence to say hello back too which was very nice of them as they live on the edge of a big busy holiday park and must have had to be polite to a lot of humans over the last week!

I give thanks for making tomorrow's tea earlier and, when I was in the kitchen making a cuppa, making a start on tonight's. I give thanks for remembering to turn the ring off when I left the room too...so I was most exasperated to realise I'd not turned the knob all the way and had actually turned the heat up under the pan so the contents got thoroughly burnt. I give thanks I wasn't far away and could soon smell it and sort things out.

Let's go fly a kite

I give thanks for sleeping better than I thought I would - no waking up with cramp or pain. And for not having anything much planned for today as when I got up for my first cuppa and discovered just how stiff and sore I was, I realised I would be doing even less than that!

I give thanks for the sunshine streaming in this morning, so I could keep quite cosy in bed without a heater on. For some sneezes and sniffles which made for extra snooziness, and for the neighbours being out for a few hours so I could relax and enjoy curling up on the sofa under a blanket to keep snug when the cloud cover thickened and the temperature dropped.

I give thanks there's still no news of moving though another deadline is almost here, because I really couldn't be doing with dashing around finishing packing this weekend. I give thanks for deciding to get a Tesco delivery again as I've run out of pretty much everything from there now and it's just too much hard work trying to get to and fro from supermarkets on buses. I'm sure in the unlikely event of having to suddenly relocate, a few extra tins and cartons isn't going to make much difference anyway, as long as the freezer can be turned off and emptied easily.

I give thanks for this wonderful boxkite plane in the museum yesterday... Heavens, was it only yesterday?

Things

I give thanks for surviving (and enjoying) a busy evening and another busy day though we were both flagging by the time it was time to get trains home. I give thanks I'd reserved a seat on mine as it was very full and the tea trolley was unable to trundle up and down the aisles. I give thanks it was stuck just a few rows back from me so I could help myself!

I give thanks for our delicious Greek meal last night - and for finally giving up and asking passers by where the restaurant was as Googlemaps kept sending us round in circles instead of up some stairs! For our comfortable room in such a friendly hotel and for not waking Jan up dealing with some particularly evil attacks of cramp in the night. For a restful morning enjoying city views and the changing sky including the moon on its way to bed...

I give thanks for a walk in the park where we came across a sunny physic garden with comfy seats for a cuppa, a fascinating ferry ride with all manner of barges and boats to admire, and eventually finding somewhere we could both eat things on the menu and didn't have to queue for hours to do so. For coping with the museum piece toilets (in the museum, funnily enough!) with glass windows in the doors to the waiting area and between the stalls! OK, it was obscure glass with a bubble texture, but there was still pretty limited privacy... For free freshly popped corn in the hotel foyer when we went back to pick up our bags and were getting tired and cold and needed a pick-me-up, and for the driver of the last bus, stuck in a jam on a roundabout, asking if anyone wanted the station and taking us on an alternative route to get to it!

One night only

In the town where I was born (obviously I can't say where as you'd just need to know my bra size to be able to access all my personal data files) for a catch up mini break with Jan.

Lots to be grateful for of course...including music on my headphones on the journey to buffer a little the aural assault of child noises on the train. For a ferry to the hotel, which turned out into a free ride as the conductor took so long to get to us we missed our stop and had to go on to the next one with profuse apologies. For the autumn colours everywhere and loads of vegan food and drink for Jan. For keeping mistakenly thinking the Observatory was a camera obscura and then finding out it was!

For a very comfily appointed room with a view over a leafy park and (if we can ourselves moving again after a rest) for a pool to swim in and a fab sounding restaurant just up the road to try for our tea...

Waterloo sunset

I give thanks for the glorious skies last night - flaming sunset on three sides and the full moon rising on the other. Neither my camera nor my phone did it justice so I give thanks for the pictures lingering in my head! Tonight's wasn't half bad either...

For a mostly restful day to recuperate after a troubled night and prepare for some exertions and excursions tomorrow (all being well). For sorting out a pile of paperwork and finishing off some new puzzles for 
https://angelinthemakingpuzzles.blogspot.com/

For this quip by Olaf Falafel heard on an old (recorded) Loose Ends and making me laugh out loud

'Jokes about white sugar are rare, jokes about brown sugar demerara'

For some very stirring flamenco on that episode too...

I give thanks the Department of Insecurity has decided to let me off looking for work for now. Phew! One less wait and potential worry...

Good golly Miss Molly

Gosh, is that the time? I give thanks for a mellow mood today, brought on by acupuncture and long rest in bed. For rising to a clean kitchen and leftovers for tea tonight so kitchen duties have been light...
and, apart from the usual health related tasks, being able to more or less please myself what got done and what didn't!

I give thanks for working on some new puzzles. For moving the buttons on aforementioned coat which was clearly meant for a more buxom wench than I... For the stillness of the sea...and occasionally of the neighbours!

Read all about it

Hmm now, let me see... I give thanks for another sunny day, though with a chill breeze which was ideal as I needed to go out wearing my 'new' tapestry coat in order to find a 'new' scarf to go with it that's less busily patterned than all the ones I already own. My psychic purchase radar told me this would be found in a charity shop in the place where Rachel lives, and thus could be combined with a lift back as though it's only one bus to get there it's two to get home. I give thanks my sixth shopping sense was quite right and I now have a large silk square in marbly tan and cerise tones which fits the bill quite nicely...

I give thanks for also successfully hunting and gathering some groceries and not having to lug them on and off buses either, and for visiting Rachel's home which I've never done before. First of all I had to wait for her to come back from the allotment though and I gave thanks for finding a bookshop open when other places were closing and the cold was closing in...except it was the sort you are not allowed to leave before you've made a purchase and there was a) very little I wanted to read and b) the owner, bless her, wouldn't stop talking long enough to let me choose! In the end I picked something called The Bookseller...and though somewhat thumbed it was full price so I hope to goodness it's good!

I give thanks for two helping of fish pie made for me for my tea and the washing up done while acupuncture needles did their work. I'm somewhat tired this evening and now I've done my blogging duty I give thanks I'm off to bed with my books!

Weak in the presence of beauty

I give thanks for another superbly sunny and warm day. This weather is like my state of health - far better than it ought to be but even though I was too tired to go out this time I'm really not complaining! I'm still savouring the beauty of it I saw yesterday with the glittering sea and haze along the headlands. I kept letting out little involuntary squeaks of delight so I give thanks there was no one nearby to laugh at me!

I give thanks for visits to a variety exotic climes visited via my TV too including the Australian outback in another Jay Swan story. Some of the images made me ooh and ah in wonder too -  such stunning scenery and clever cinematography.

I give thanks for catching up with domestic chores...and that when a lightbulb blew when I turned it on it was in the hall where I'd just taken a ladder to get something down from a high shelf. I like it when it doesn't seem as if the universe is conspiring against me! For earplugs when the neighbourhood sounds seemed too intrusive... And for remembering a damn fine song for a fitting post title!

Echo beach

I give thanks for a Plan A for today... then a Plan B and C and so on! After a bad night it was a bad day to go out from the point of view of pain and fatigue but with bright blue skies and temperatures in the high teens staying indoors would be a crime against my state of mind no matter what my body said, so I give thanks eventually I managed to hobble down the hill with a sandwich.

Almost summery weather and the half term hols mean almost summer style crowds so I give thanks for there not being much of a queue at the kiosk for a takeaway tea when I arrived, and for being able to wedge myself into my favourite spot without too much grunting and groaning. I give thanks in all the years I've been going there I've never arrived and found anyone else there...I wonder if any of the folk who walk past think 'Oh, look it's her again...'

Not wanting to move once relatively comfy, I give thanks for finding a complimentary biscuit left over from some cafe visit in my bag for dessert. For a cab on the rank when I got there and a long lie down and restorative nap when I got home.

When I was awake in the night I was thinking about the voices that echo in our heads - the ones that say unhelpful stuff. It's funny how people seem to imagine if they tell you what they don't like about you then somehow you will change. I give thanks I'm sure some of them imagine they are performing a service, but even so called 'constructive' criticism is mostly about building up the self importance of the giver really isn't it?

Night moves

I give thanks for the coleslaw I made for my tea last night. I'm not great at grating so I give thanks I'm not supposed to eat much raw veg...but oh my it was nice in a sarnie!

Late in the day I received an update from the solicitor's regarding the sale and basically it's same old same old waiting on the freeholder again. I became very miserable thinking I could lose my second attempted purchase, or my buyer, or both, and end up never getting out of here...so I give thanks for talking some sense to myself after a while. Worst case scenario I die before I move? Well, no not really...If I die I'm not going to be fretting about it am I, nor struggling with the stairs and so on! Yes, the other things might happen, and I suspect knowing his delays may cause this is part of the reason the landlord is being so slow in his responses as he does seem to thrive on causing grief...However, all outcomes are out of my hands bar one - the grief bit. If I don't let it get me down and he's wasting his own time as well as everyone else's isn't he? And as long as I'm not moving I'm still living in this lovely place...and still living without life saving treatment come to think of it. Loads tp be grateful for!

I give thanks for feeling much better when I realised all the above and filed the negative thoughts away with a mental 'solved' stamp across them. For another lovely sunny day today and for feeling well and strong so I could go out for some of it to catch up with my in town chores. For spending quite a bit of the indoor bit planning a night away with a friend next week plus some more pootling with puzzles. For meeting Chris the long-ex cab driver on the seafront when I was busy defending my lunch from the greedy gulls. Teach me to go non-vegetarian for once!

Little by little

Two of my favourite things happen every day though I don't always get to enjoy them...or remember to say I do! One is watching the sky gradually getting light in the morning and the other is it darkening at night. I have more chances to see both in the winter of course, and the first one can be viewed through curtains and still have an effect, but you can't do that in the evening so easily as when the curtains are closed there's usually a lamp on inside! I give thanks for these simple and enduring pleasures anyway...

I give thanks today turned into a gorgeous sunny day and for listening to my knees which pleaded with me not to go out and wander about. I give thanks for wide open windows instead and taking the recycling down to the bins without needing a coat. It really was warm out there...

I give thanks for finding things to do on another day of waiting to do the things I really want to be getting on with. I keep telling myself it must be getting nearer but I thought that before and it just got further away! I give thanks for receiving the initial paperwork regarding my next attempt at a purchase even though there's still no news of the sale. Still, the longer the latter drags on the less time I should be in limbo before the former goes through - well in theory anyway! The logistics of it all are still hazy but I'm quite sure I won't be dealing with the chap who estimated I'd need 750 cubic feet of storage ie 3 x 10ft units! I think he got confused by my probably confusing explanation of what would be coming with me to temporary accommodation and what would need removing by his chaps into storage. I've added up what I've got on online calculators and I can see 1 10ft unit might be a tight squeeze sizewise but 3 is way over the top...

I give thanks for gradually beginning to get an idea how many recording artists have produced songs called Little by Little. You can imagine whichever comes to your own mind but I think I was thinking of the Fratellis.

Purple rain

I give thanks to Rachel for pointing out the links on my new blog weren't working. I give thanks they are now...you click on them and go straight to the puzzles...and that they are purple! Here is a link to the blog that's working too!

https://angelinthemakingpuzzles.blogspot.com/


I give thanks for planning a hasty raid of a few out of (this) town shops, and discovering there's just time to make a quick purchase or two while the driver is on his break at the end of the bus line! For picking up a couple of Tesco items that I've failed to find good substitutes for in the gap between two buses on the way back. For the misty autumnal scenery including rows of pumpkins at the pick your own farm and mushrooms growing wild in the fields. For paying attention to the weather report that said rain, not the one that didn't, as that drizzle was quite heavy for a while.

I give thanks for timing the above so I arrived at the cafe to meet with a few members of the Revive group for a reviving cuppa before a lift back up the hill from Jo and Keith on their way home...

Welcome to my world

I give thanks for feeling well again though not desperately energetic. Therefore I give thanks for not having anything desperately energetic to do today anyway!

I give thanks for a long lie in bed this morning being mentally agile sorting out my puzzle files and constructing a whole new blog to put them in - Happiness Squared which you can find at angelinthemakingpuzzles.com

For remembering it would have been my father's birthday. He would have been rather proud I think...

I give thanks my knees were a bit sore but they let me up a ladder to clean out a kitchen wall cupboard, and my sore thumb joints stuck with putting elastic in the top of my skirt and attaching binding to the bottom ready to make a hem before causing too many sharp intakes of breath to carry on. I give thanks for randomly guessing what length to turn up and then trying it on and deciding it was just right so no tricksy repinning was required...

I give thanks for meaning to go out and then deciding not to as there were so many things to get on with at home and a meal or two can still  be constructed from what remains on the seriously depleted shelves... I give thanks the sky brightened up before sundown again after hours of gloominess. For my daylight sewing lamp...

Fade to grey

I give thanks for the part of the day when, though there was drizzly rain, the sky was so bright it reminded me of the strange effect you often get in films when it's raining because they've added lots of extra light to get the shot so you get drenched characters with glowing faces and shadows at their feet! For a young squirrel's dainty hopping on the lawn...

Soon it's been just became rather dark and chilly though, so I give thanks for heaters and woolly cardigans and electric light as well. For earplugs when the builders down the road were wielding their tools, and bursting into song when they stopped and the neighbours were out at the same time and I was overcome with the joy of it!

For trying to remain patient and positive that soon I will hear news of my release. And while I'm on tenterhooks for hooking a row or two of my rag rug. For having a crossword to work on when my hands got sore. I had many plans for my puzzle making over the years but they've kind of faded into nothing too. Never mind, it's a hobby that's kept my mind from thinking about more miserable matters so I give thanks for the pleasure they give me anyway and I've decided I might as well just put them on here from time to time in case they can make someone else happy that way Here's one of those where you have to just work out the letters for starters...

https://crossword.info/happiness_squared/CW1

Saturday night at the movies

The town next door has a little theatre that time has forgotten so utterly it looks like a cunningly styled set in a scene from Fargo or some such. I give thanks they occasionally show films and that this time it was the second in the Kingsman series which, like the first, I found refreshingly silly, hilariously funny, aurally stimulating, occasionally poignantly moving and visually spectacular... despite the creased screen and dodgy projection! I give thanks for Mima chauffeuring me and quite enjoying it too...

I give thanks for lying in bed and listening to the weather this morning and not having to get up, especially after a bad night with various pains - from knitting, carrying shopping and my injection yesterday if the sites of these pains were anything to go by. For the sound of the birds waking up as it was very early when I did...

For the rain not coming in the leaky roof so there were only washing up buckets to empty. For there being lots of washing up as there's been a lot of eating! You may think I don't go out much in the evening because I'm not sociable, or not well, or not very well off or something but no, it's separation from the kitchen cupboards that puts me off! For a moment just now when some rays of golden hour sunshine hit the golden leaves outside. Made me go 'Ooh!' out - but only once so the chaps upstairs didn't think I was a pigeon!

Paint it black

This morning I gave thanks for lying in bed listening to the wind and not too much rain before I had to get up for my flu jab. If you imagine being 'on the sick' is all dossing around think again! Never mind, I give thanks though I had to stop listening to the weather and go out in it at least I didn't have to listen to Mr Upstairs swearing at the pigeons. Poor chap, he does suffer so...I wonder if he realises and appreciates how quiet I try to be - absolutely no cooing when he is at home!

After an unusually good sleep, and feeling unusually well and energetic by even my death defying standards, I give thanks I could go to the surgery via the scenic route to admire the ragged clouds and churning sea. For dear Dr Becky being the one I was appointed to do the deed so we could have a catch up chat. She expressed astonishment at my exuberance and apparent good health and I said I was beginning to wonder if the long standing joke that I have Afro-Caribbean heritage might actually be true. This is based on what are a few random coincidences like failing the pencil test for 'white' hair (except when I had alopecia!), lack of lunulae on my finger nails and a common Bahamian birth name...but GFR is calculated slightly differently if you are of different ethnicity, so she got the reference immediately and urged me to take a DNA test to help solve the mystery. I give thanks I plan to when I can spare the cash!

I give thanks for putting my strength to good use and buying some of the heavier shopping items I'm running out of. I'm still trying to empty the shelves and cupboards just in case I have to carry all my foodstuffs down the hill, but beginning to miss some favourite ingredients Mr Tesco usually brings. One of these is Rice Dream rice milk. I've been looking everywhere in town and today I looked everywhere again with my bags getting weightier and weightier with each store I visited, so I give thanks for finally ran some to ground...and eventually a taxi too.

I give thanks for making my bed and lying in it this afternoon...and having a little nap! There has to be some dossing here and there... For making a pan if dhal a couple of days ago so it was ready for me!

Any dream will do

I gave thanks for the sound of the rain this morning...and that the sound of it dripping through building made someone else empty the bucket before I got to it. I couldn't stay in bed late anyway as I was expecting a delivery of surgical supplies. We now have an hour time slot instead of 15 mins but the courier still expects you waiting on the doorstep when he arrives for the lecture about what a nuisance it is you haven't got a doorbell...and I'd rather not do any of the above in night attire. He was so snappy today and I was so tired he reduced me to tears. I give thanks there's still a chance I might move to a flat with an intercom! One can but cling to the dream...And I give thanks I know I'm very lucky to have stoma equipment supplied at all, let alone delivered.

I woke up many times in the night with cramps in my legs and feet so I was grateful for a restorative snooze when I'd done a round of bucket duty myself, and other essential chores like helping the mortgage company realise they'd lost an important form. For an otherwise generally restful day and for managing a few rows of knitting here and there in between bouts of cramp in my hands. For mulling over why it should be that extra inconvenient way round and deciding it's just due to the usage patterns of different muscle groups.

I give thanks for some catch up TV suitable for watching while the neighbours are going about their mysterious and sometimes somewhat intrusive business without intruding myself with loud guffaws etc. I give thanks for a mildly amusing old Columbo and some New Lives in the Wild where Ben Fogle meets folk escaping the rat race in various versions of 'living the dream'. To be honest I'd probably enjoy a programme where he visits a landfill site in a Black Maria, but this is even better as I get to see far off lands and lifestyles that make me whimper (quietly) with a mixture of longing and vicarious delight.

Day by day

Haha! I give thanks for the consultant not mincing her words regarding last month's blood results...apparently the technical term is 'scary'! I give thanks I continue to defy medical science and mostly feel much better than I should...and that she is continuing to let me roam (relatively) free until I don't. For discussing contingency plans for what is likely to be a very sudden and rapid decline, and for what can be done if I'm trying to move home at the same time as this happens. Meanwhile, I give thanks for all the years of practice I have at living one day at a time...

I give thanks for the chaps upstairs going out yesterday evening. That was a treat for me...and maybe for them too! I give thanks I was still awake when they came home as or they'd have woken me up for sure...

I give thanks for the sound of rain on the window panes this morning - so cosy when you're snug indoors. For finally managing to get outdoors in time for dropping off some bottle tops at Lush (without buying anything - oh, the self restraint!) and getting a cheap but very acceptable haircut at Cellys (missing out on the wash beforehand as I already had a stiff neck) and a cuppa and biscuits before my appointment. I give thanks for the hospital cafe serving fresh milk for a change instead of those little UHT pots - much more pleasant for sore hands and fussy tastebuds... For lots of Imee Ooi in my ears on the bus journeys to turn a rather glum and defeatest start to the day into better homecoming mood.

That'll be the day

So I read today that a third of young people don't drink alcohol and in twenty years owning private internal combustion engines could be out of favour too. Hey... If I could only live long enough I might start to be considered normal!

Yeah well, back in the real world...Um, I give thanks for stopping beating myself up about forgetting to buy a tin opener as it was working fine when I tried it again. Maybe there was something wrong with that particular can...

I give thanks for getting up and getting on with the chores despite being desperately tired after another bad night. For not being surprised when the removal survey guy said the discount the estate agents said their clients had wouldn't apply to me because it's only for people spending a considerable sum. For not bothering to try to explain the subjectivity and relativity in estimating what constitutes loadsa money. I've still no confirmation it's actually going to happen anywsy...

After he left, feeling increasingly rough I give thanks for doing the sensible thing and making an early lunch before going back to bed for a rest.  I give thanks for reminding myself (repeatedly) there's no shame in this though it certainly seemed a shame on such a beautiful sunny day...when both beautiful sunny days and the freedom to enjoy them are soon to be in short supply. But after I'd lain down a while, and had a nap and read a few pages of a book, and had a lovely meditate I thought nah, this was a wonderful way to spend a last day of freedom compared to incarceration on a busy hospital ward!

I give thanks for the windows wide open to help dry the washing, for earplugs to drown out the ever in and out neighbours and the extremely mardy neighbourhood crows...

Hurts so good

I give thanks today wasn't all about pain. A lot of it was extremely painful however so I give thanks for dealing with it as best I could. The main trick is not to feel sorry for yourself - the physical sensations seem so much worse if you add an emotional dimension and that's a work in progress sometimes! The second trick is to not let it spoil any more than it has to, including one's mood. So yeah, gratitude for some more opportunities to get good at that too!

I give thanks for living alone so my feebleness affects no one else...and for the neighbours being out for some of the afternoon so I didn't have the effect of feeling like I don't!

I give thanks for having sorted out a couple of bags of stuff to donate to places in town. They weren't that big or heavy but cumbersome enough to need a cab to get me down there or I'd never have made it otherwise. For managing to hobble to a 'quiet' spot on the beach to eat the food I'd taken with me, and not to lose my rag with at numerous canine attempts to sniff my lunchbox...Don't people feed their pets anymore?

I give thanks for it being warm enough to sit on the beach with only the kind of layers I'd normally wear in a normal summer. For a very cheery and chatty Big Issue seller...

I give thanks the supermarket didn't have half the things I was looking for as this meant less to carry. Even with a taxi back there's still the walking around in between... Oh and I give thanks for Boots' order on line and collect in store service. It's free and so helpful if you like the more obscure items they don't sell in smaller shops. Like Professor Scrubbington's bath bubbles - designed for infants this is free of all kinds of horrible stuff, smells divine and is half the price of 'luxury' products. I give thanks I'm off for a wallow!

Everything I own

Mmm... I give thanks for putting a pot of chickpea stew in the slow cooker to bubble this afternoon and eating two bowls of it this evening followed by tow bowls full of dessert! I give thanks my appetite remains hearty and my energy levels are good, as it seems to take a lot of energy at the moment to keep me fed!

For waking late to find various messages to call the GP's and stopping to review the situation rationally instead of going into a panic as I usually do at that kind of news. And that it was OK, just an unnecessary reminder about something.

For the neighbours being quiet last night so I could lose myself in the Australian outback via the last two episodes of Mystery Road. Storyline: average. Scenery: Outstanding! Oh, and for a rather good sunset here too!

I give thanks for finishing delving into every cranny and corner, drawer and cupboard here, so that I know pretty much where to find everything I own and it is all pretty much organised and ready to go, if any going anywhere should happen... For finding my very ancient and very grubby vinyl guitar case and giving it a good scrub...

For a robin on a twig by the dustbins when I went down earlier.

It's only rock and roll

Oh my ears and whiskers, I was like Zebedee on amphetamines earlier today.  I suspect last week's treatments have brought my haemoglobin up to 'normal' levels rather than the just above zombie state they recommend for amaemic kidney patients. They say this is to stop the artificial stimulation giving us heart attacks and strokes but I reckon it's also useful in keeping us compliant and uncomplaining at the indignities and inconveniences we have to go through to stay alive...

Anyway, whatever, my head gives great thanks for all the stuff I'm getting done but my joints are not convinced it's a good idea at all. I give thanks for a good book to read in a relaxing warm bath to soothe them before I went out and a loll on the sofa afterwards.

I give thanks for the lines of low but but long and clean rollers coming in to break on the shore with their satisfying distinctive sound. I love all the kinds of sea I've seen but there's something about those parallel lines of shadow that emerge far far out and gradually build that I find absolutely mesmerising... I give thanks I could watch from not far from the big recycling bins where I'd dropped off some stuff - any further down the hill would have required way too much walking back up it!

I give thanks though the lawn mower and power saw neighbours were using were noisy they did produce nice sights and smells! Mmm... sawdust! I give thanks for catching up with some TV and knitting when things had quietened down, and an old episode of Loose Ends where Janis Ian sang At Seventeen live and quite beautifully in the studio.

Any old iron

I give thanks for a good day for staying indoors and listening to the wind. For the pale washed blue of the clearing sky this evening...and the golden light lighting up the golden leaves and puffs of passing clouds.

I give thanks for a luxuriously slow start to the day and for lots of bustling about afterwards with household chores and assorted sorting out. It's been quite surprising how bustly I've been the last few days -  it's probably a combination of intravenous iron and EPO in the same week and very pleasant it is too! The best bit is quite forgetting I'm ill which is always a bonus you know...

I give thanks for a little pot of Thai curry paste working wonders on some leftover rice and for finishing the binding on the second half of my cut in half chenille rug. It's worked even better than I imagined which is always a bonus too!

This old house

I give thanks for the lovely people I've met in the last ten years or so, but I was thinking last night that the ones I've known longer have a special place in my heart because I have a different one in theirs. They met and formed relationships with different versions of me and treat my health problems as 'changes of use' rather than defining architectural features. Perhaps others with long term illnesses know what I mean...I guess family and partners fulfil that role for many but I'm kind of short on those!

I give for another gloriously warm autumn day today...For a leisurely but hopeful start having discovered my buyer has extended his mortgage offer a little bit more, and thus nudging my own moving plans on a little too. I give thanks for still living in this lovely little town a while longer though, and for a the pleasant afternoon I had going about my business and encountering its friendly folk.

I give thanks for not taking Mima up on an invitation to swim, but enjoying a paddle and the sight of a ship coming in. Loved the hazy light and the glistening sun on its bows

Walk this way

I give thanks for the quality of light as the warmth of the sun begins to disperse the fog and clouds. For the beat of wings as the resident flock of pigeons takes off...and for it being the crows disturbing them not the neighbours yelling expletives

I give thanks for Andrew offering to take me out for 'tea and cake' which turned out to be a delicious lunch in one of my favourite places followed by a comfort nd tour of the moor in all its various glories! There is so much different scenery up there and it was so beautiful including the weather. I give thanks for the combination of autumn colours and almost summery warmth, the long shadows and faint blueish haze. For walking about a bit in the great outdoors and sitting by a bubbling river. For lots of laughter and interesting conversation. What a wonderful treat! Oh and for a long traffic jam on the way back which meant we arrived just in time to see the Flying Scotsman which was a treat for Andrew when he was a lad... My pictures of that were pants as I had to stand on tiptoe to see over the bridge but I liked this one I took while having a rest on our stroll. A long long time ago I can still remember when we walked right up this track to the ancient wood at the top... Never mind, I could see it in the distance and remember.

When I'm sixty-four

Well another deadline passed yesterday and I give thanks I am pretty much past caring now. If I ask I'm told 'We'll tell you when we know what's going on' which I'm sceptical about but today was a lovely day and I have too few days of freedom left to squander one on pestering people who simply don't give one!

I give thanks for lots of sleep with not too much waking up with tangled tubes or pain. For bringing myself breakfast in bed, and very slowly manoeuvring through the domestic chores before hurling some lunch into a box to eat by the sea. For sitting in the sunshine sending some metta as you are supposed to - to yourself, to some folk you're fond of and to those you don't know or love so well. For a new book from the Coastwatch preloved collection and for one of those wonderful lemon curd ice creams to set me up for a trip around the supermarket. I give thanks for being restrained in my purchases as I couldn't get a cab...and for managing to get back up the hill anyway.

For remembering the delighful elderly couple in the anaemia treatment room with me yesterday. She was so frail and he was so tender with her. I give thanks for remembering not all relationships stay healthy when sickness comes along and being grateful, though sometimes looking after myself is hard, at least no one else is much affected. I give thanks for getting better at being more grateful as my quality of life gets less. Don't know if I'll make it to sixty-four but may this continue for the duration...

I give thanks for all the exotic places I get to via the wonders of TV.  And for Bake Off which has, to my mind, become truly great in the C4 version. I love the flora and fauna they show at the venue as well as the food, the humour and the hugging, though I do tear up when the leaving contestants do...

Agadoo

I give thanks for thinking of a song with pineapple in...though you might wish that I hadn't! It is in honour of the pineapple and ginger crumble I made last night. Rachel said she'd never heard of pineapple and ginger crumble and I said neither had I until I invented it an hour earlier... I give thanks I came up with  the recipe to use up some leftovers...highly recommended!

I give thanks for a very welcome acupuncture treatment and one of our usual rambling exchanges of musings on life. For her not being cross about her jumper going wrong again and telling me about one she'd made for Daryl shrinking when she washed it. She wondered why alpacas don't shrink in the rain. I said maybe they did and there's tiny little ones we never see and she said yes, perhaps that's why they have long necks! Made me chuckle for hours...For more of the visually poetic Mystery Road.

Today I give thanks though tired I'm still well enough to get to the hospital and back by bus, and enjoy the views and my own thoughts instead of forced volunteer chatter. I'd been really looking forward to listening to Black Lace on my headphones too - nah, only joking, it was Imee Ooi really! Sadly a wire has come loose inside them and I could only get music in both ears if I held the cable in a particular position which was only really possible when the bus was not in motion. Oh well, it was an interesting journey anyway with a flashing fire engine coming the other way on a narrow residential street and a stand off with a huge potato lorry slap bang in the middle of an even narrower bridge.  I give thanks for the sight of our local old age traveller sitting on the verge next to his beautiful horse and wagon...for a row of cherry pickers at a line of telegraph poles. There, I could have called this post Telegraph Road couldn't I? I love that song!

I give thanks for the lovely anaemia nurse they have at the moment. She has difficult veins herself so is gentle, likes creative hobbies and has a sense of humour so we can have an enjoyable conversation while she's poking me about.

Let the sunshine in

I was feeling rather stressed and tense this morning with various stuff going on...(and not going on) so I give thanks for seeing sense and opting out for a while.

I give thanks for Yuval Noah Harari's vision of the future based on his vision of the past and now. It's all so personal how we see the world and what we see as true. I noticed in the reviews people disputing some of the facts and figures he quotes, but even science and statistics are mutable. We set such store by being 'right' but today's latest knowledge can often be tomorrow's laughable irrelevance. It's so easy to forget all information comes to us through a variety of filters and forms of agenda anyway...even our own!

I give thanks for also reading about the results of a survey about loneliness. It was good to see it recognising different types and bring into question the stereotypes we often have regarding sufferers and possible remedies. It seemed to highlight the difference between the basic need for simple social contact and the longing for a deeper connection which it seems to me are quite separate feelings though quite easily confused. Ah but what do I know eh?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-45561334

I give thanks for meditation reminding me of the ultimate meaninglessness of mostly everything anyway.

For the warm patches of sunshine beaming through the windows.