Lavender's blue

I give thanks I remembered to take my camera out this morning. I forgot to take it out of the car though (AND my phone!) so you will just have to imagine the sun baked courtyard with a still stone fountain in the centre surrounded by lavender and the drowsy drone of bees. I give thanks for the Mediterranean weather making up a little for being unable to leave the UK and for Mima taking me somewhere I've not quite been before making up for it being so hard to go very far even within the British Isles. We wanted a peaceful spot for a spot of lunch and were served it in a garden all by ourselves!

I give thanks for having plans for today...and for unplanned pleasantness which happened instead. For selling my Henry to the chap who came to see it... and for receiving a parcel signed for by my downstairs neighbour and delivered straight upstairs into my hands in case it went astray. How thoughtful! This was my never worn, long time discontinued Uniqlo dress so would have been hard to replace if it had. Such a pretty Liberty print!

I give thanks for snoozing on the sofa with the tennis when I got home. For the frantic female screaming outside turning out to be football related not murder - I changed channels just to check!

Bread and roses

They say if you think about exercising it has a physical effect on your body, so I'm guessing I've been paying far too much attention to the tennis as my right wrist seems to have played a few five setters in the last few days. I give thanks for being able to leave dressing and messing with hair, washing up etc til rather late in the day...and for some rather good tennis to watch while I rested it as much as I could.

I give thanks for taking the rubbish and recycling out towards the end of the afternoon and, astonished how warm it still was, being tempted to go for a stroll as my legs and spirit were unusually willing. Luckily I had some kefir grains arrive in the post so could pop off to the supermarket for a pint of organic whole milk...and this also gave me the opportunity to retry (successfully!) getting some cash as my mind blanked on my PIN yesterday and I had to come home without...

I give thanks for cut price bread...there were other things that took my fancy but carrying them back up the hill did not! I've not walked up it for a while and I didn't want it to hurt too much. I give thanks for a home made rose cordial ice lolly to cool me down when I got home.

Right...all this writing is upsetting my arm again so I'd better let it lie still before I make my tea. Wonder what the baby gull is having, it looked suspiciously like regurgitated chips yesterday...

Walking on sunshine

I was grateful I got my second wind yesterday evening could give my bedroom a bit of a sort out and clean (even behind the big chest of drawers - ouch!) but even more so for making myself a tangy Bramley Eve's pudding for supper! Haven't done that for ages...

I give thanks for sleeping late and eventually surfacing to cast a wary eye out onto the flat roof where a not quite fledged sea gull chick has been whimpering for a couple of days. This morning it was sleeping, with an adult bird sleeping close by.

I give thanks the sun is back out and I can wear my favourite dress - the Uniqlo Liberty one my dear GP would write us both a prescription for if she could. I give even more thanks for finding the rarity of another in my size on ebay just now and putting in an accepted offer. I love the prints but it's also a particularly useful style when my hands are sore as it has a built in bra in the top and the hem is long enough to disguise unshaven legs...sorry, that's probably more than you wanted to know!

My right arm has been very sore from working on the sun end of my sun/moon hanging thingy but my ankle has felt better and I've been informed the joint looks fine on an x-ray and it's soft tissue or ligaments at fault. I've declined physio 'to increase movement' as moving it's not the problem, it's the swelling and discomfort when I do. I give thanks for doing the slalom shuffle between out of schoolwork teenagers, getting a few groceries and breaking my renal diet for a broccoli and stilton bake and a takeaway tea by the sea to take the weight very pleasantly off both feet...

All in the game

I didn't fall asleep as soon as I turned out the light last night...I went to bed pretty much as soon as the football fans' groaning and yelling stopped so there was no need to turn it on! I give thanks for a massive lie in this morning too as, though I'd had a good rest more was still required.

I give thanks for being able to take it easy (sometimes) when I'm tired. It really is the only thing that helps. For being quite capable of doing essentials without a great deal of pain, but just enough aches in essential joints to encourage me not to do too much. For not feeling ill, and for remembering what a blessing this is when there are so many horrible symptoms I could expect to be suffering from as toxins build up in my body.

I give thanks for sorting out a couple of drawers and even finding new homes for some of their contents in other drawers... For otherwise being mostly content to lie on the sofa not groaning and yelling at the telly as the tennis I saw wasn't actually all that exciting today despite a few stunning rallies and returns. I give thanks when I dropped the kettle on my foot the water in it wasn't freshly boiled...

In between days

I went to a different hospital today...that makes eight in ten years, bit like Munro bagging I suppose only less healthy.  I give thanks this one had the most stunning art work (a tryptych beach scene with a flock of birds)  in the main entrance/reception area though it was placed so the person behind the desk got to see it more than the patients so they lose a point for that!

I give thanks my ankle was sore seeing as that was the bit being x - rayed, but if  its not another day I might go back and take a photo as I had neither my camera nor my phone. There was a gorgeous spreading oak tree nearby too with a complicated knot of roots, that would be worth a second look.

I give thanks for popping into the sister store of the health food shop here on my way up the hill and finding a pack of those lovely vegan crumble biscuits reduced as they were squashed. The chap inside and I were discussing the mystery of Booja  Booja tasting so good despite having no sinful ingredients. Alchemy he decided it was which made me chuckle rather... For their Co op having own brand tortilla chips in stock as ours have run out and they're pretty much the only thing my diet will allow me to spend my 'nuts, crisps and snacks' voucher on.

I give thanks I made a proper lunch before I went out because I'm stuck on the sofa now too tired to move. I give thanks Rachel brought dhal for tea last night and put the leftovers in my freezer. I'd already had my own version for two dinners this week so I could probably do with a change...and not just tortiila chips, biscuits and cream cakes (sigh)

I give thanks for the Cure. Cure for all kinds of sorrows some of their songs can be...

Gold

There's gold in them thar trees...and I give thanks for spotting it and managing to get a photo before the sun moved down behind the hill, though it's blurry as the leaves were flapping about in the breeze!

For abandoning my usual evening fare of true and fictional crime books and TV for the feel good movie Sing Street. This felt even more good for the chap upstairs being out for the evening and the one next door not leaving the extractor fan on for hours either. Despite the many fantasy elements (a boat trip with immobile hair?) the film reminded me of how good it is, if you are that way inclined, to be able to compose music from your emotions. I still miss this dreadfully, and am determined one day I'll find a way again...but of course not while I live in a flat with so little sound insulation...

I give thanks for a lift to knitting from Jenny plus the gift of a couple of empty boxes (just in case). For delivering a bag of mixed items to the food bank collection point at the library...and then on my way home asking a homeless chap on the street if there was anything I could get him. His request of a banana milk shake seemed very reasonable so I threw in a bag of chews for his dog. I give thanks the gods looked down and decided this merited instant karma - the next shop I went in was playing a sonorous cello sonata and the baker's were selling two cream cakes for the price of one :-)

Two pints of lager and a packet of crisps

Uh-oh, those summer nights! I give thanks so many people round here are enjoying socialising during the light late evenings but I sure do wish I didn't have to overhear...The guy upstairs deals with the noise outside by turning his music up so I give thanks he didn't go on as long with that as the chatterers in the gardens. I give thanks for earplugs and for remembering a long long time ago I was young and sometimes had fun too!

I give thanks today everyone has either been somewhere else or else mostly quiet. For pottering about with various tasks including a pile of ironing, and for a Time Shift documentary about changing drinking patterns over the last century that made this pass more quickly. Though I used to be far more partial to partaking personally in alcofrolics than I am now, I've always been fascinated by the social rules and rituals that go with its consumption so I thought I'd look to see if I could find a nice popular anthropology tome on Amazon to find out more. Sadly there are way more books available on how to stop drinking too much...

While there was no one to annoy with my own domestic volume I give thanks for also catching up with some old Loose Ends programmes, which gave me some ideas for other books to order...

I give thanks for the rain earlier. The ground and growing things needed it and, as I love to be out in the sun but this means struggling with the difficult stairs and my difficult hair, my body needed it as well. Particular thanks for the sounds of the dampened leaves blowing in the wind...

I give thanks we're half way through the year. I've been losing the will to be grateful in recent months but it feels as if a corner has been turned...