Pastoral

I'm grateful today for bright and breezy weather. A good day for all kinds of activities I'm sure. If I had a choice I'd like to be up on a hill with a wide view of countryside watching the cloud shadows chasing across the fields.

The sea was dark blue and purple earlier on with lots of tiny white polka dot flecks but it's getting paler now. I give thanks for all the different sorts of sea I see.

The breeze blew waves of drum sound to and fro earlier...and also some bluesy harmonica up from the town (as far as I could tell). I thought it might be the folk festival but the internet says that finished last week...maybe one of the little pub festivals we have here. Whatever it was sounded good and I'm grateful, but kitten weak today so must merely remember and dream...

Never mind, I'm grateful for Wimbledon to keep me company and the sofa to give me a hug. And I give thanks I've done some cooking for one, which is often more taxing than cooking for two, as some of you may know!

I'm grateful to Laura and Jenny for help with the chores...They don't do it out of the goodness of their hearts obviously but they are good hearted enough to include a little pastoral care in their duties...

Whether the weather

What's with all this weather moaning we British love to do? Maybe it's just people I have in my friends list but the majority of posts I see on Facebook are about alcohol and weather...oh and 'inspirational quotes' about which I could probably summon a grumble or two! 'Changeable' it may be, but of the time in the UK climate never gets beyond the state of inconvenient... Campsites may be washed away but not whole villages. Garden parties and barbeques might ruined but not all the crops ie the food for a region. Obviously I have a different perspective as the sun shone brilliantly all the while I was outdoors yesterday...and I was grateful for that...and then it clouded over when I went indoors and that was splendid too! OK, I admit it, as a weather god I find it hard to empathise with you puny humans, but I do sometimes get a bit peeved you don't all appreciate all that my colleagues do for your entertainment...Hmmm...note to self: I must not be negative about other people's lack of positivity PLUS it does give us something to overcome our natural reserve and talk to strangers about. Nonetheless I bid you remember...

this is amusing http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18461189

but this is devastating http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-18639529

Anyway, I give thanks that my own personal micro climate extended to encompass some rather random people on the beach as the tide retreated... including a young woman taking her lilac beehive hairdo for a stroll and a leathery, long bearded middle aged male in floral pastel board shorts.

I give thanks for two new second hand books from Amazon about knitting and crocheting trims...brain cells and fingers twitching...

For great acupuncture and chat with Rachel who had some news to impart to some of her clients and was finding the chosen few had already read her mind...

For all the lovely fresh fruit available in my local greengrocers and the lovely lady who sells it

For scenic shots of sunset over London as Wimbledon ran late into the day yesterday...oh and some good tennis too!

What Mr Cale said

I've been giving thanks for all the weather changes. It's so easy to dismiss changeable weather as being all the same...but hey, you know what J JCale's views on the subject were and I'm with him! Thick fog rolled in last night...gradually the hillsides and sea glimpses disappeared...I love the feeling of close mystery it gives you, of the familiar being so transformed. Then in the night we had lightning and thunder and I woke up to the windows wet with rain. This morning it's clammy but not cold and the low cloud is bright with sunshine behind it...could go either way! I'm grateful that whatever it does I will experience first hand as I've acupuncture to go to later...

I give thanks for making my double bed and the single one in the lounge. I give thanks for the strength and the sheets and covers and for having the choice of two resting places...and I give thanks for the resting on one afterwards! I'm grateful that my neighbour upstairs had company last night but didn't play loud music, shout, scream or throw furniture around and that the drummer boy across the way started early as he hasn't been playing so much of late and I'd been thinking he might have a new hobby/girlfriend/injury/home. He IS good...Carol would be inspired I'm sure.

I also give thanks for the instalment method of tackling all tasks that can be tackled this way. I seem to be managing a few more, or more taxing instalments of late but the rests in between are still much required and appreciated...

Bumming around

After a rough night with bodily ills and mental misery I've been revelling in a bit of a Waynetta Wednesday. I've been sleeping in the living room as I've been trying to get a bit of skirting board in the bedroom painted and though it's not actually in the way of any bedroom processes, the rolled back carpet is. So today, when I'd finally woken up enough to attend to my mail and personal maintenance and pull on some clothes and lightly sand and apply the last coat...I could not be bothered to remake to sofa bed properly and just lounged about on a roughly arranged pile of covers and cushions. Shock horror! My mother would turn in her grave I'm sure. My son however might notice anything was actually awry. Is it a generational thing? I'm caught in the middle if so for sure!

Other delights of the last twenty four hours or so include...

*A police helicopter executing a very impressive static hover over the town and glinting in the evening sun

*Some rather tasty fruit and nut muesli from Lidl

*That I finally got to see Dustin Brown play tennis. (This sentence works just fine without the last two words)

*Feeling I've been being useful doing some reviewing for Cancer Research

*Feeling I've done something passable to decorate the plain side of the first kitchen chair pad. Not perfect...but who do you know who has eyes in their bum?

Your precious

Today I'm going to be grateful on behalf of people that I know...

For a man who seems to have found the right woman at last; for a young couple expecting their first child; for an older pair with a garden they are giving a makeover; for a chap off on holiday with good friends; for the girl next door for whom the earth moves so resoundingly; for everyone who has a vehicle to move them to and fro, a pet or two for comfort...grandchildren for continuity...and at least one person who knows them well and loves them anyway!

These are very precious things and I give thanks that you are blessed with them...Long may your good fortune continue...

How many shades of grey?

You can have black out and white out...can you have grey out?
This is what the sky and sea looked like yesterday. Actually it was quite clement and pleasant and dazed strangers accosted each other to share astonished glee!





This one shows the kinds of tankers and motorboats I was talking about yesterday. Of course the perspective completely negates the effect I had when seeing both from the same distance away...



This morning I had a long chat with a very pleasant lady from Love Productions who (sadly? happily?) informed me I was not what she was looking for. No, I'm not trying to kick start a new career in alternative porn. She's trying to put together a documentary about people who are terminally ill, and people who aren't any more (for whatever reason) are excluded. Oh how bothersome...I thought fame was at my fingertips. I'll just have to use them to bang out a best seller afterall. It was grateful for the opportunity to hold forth on a subject dear to my heart nonetheless and if anyone knows anyone they think might be willing to take part then let me know and I'll send you more info. Whilst on the subject...I would like to send good wishes to Estelle who was putting together a book, wherever and however she may be. This cancer business can play havoc with one's creative intentions...

I give thanks too for another chat with the stoma team who have given me more suggestions and an appointment next week. I get the impression they are getting a little exasperated with my wilful refusal to make bags stick every time but, in all fairness to all products and participants, an intermittent problem is often the hardest both to cope with and resolve. I give thanks for their perseverance and that, although embarrassing and inconvenient, the situation is not made worse by currently trying to hold down a job or tend an infant child...or (I've just thought of this) trying to potty train one ha ha!

I'm grateful for pancakes with lemon and sugar, for my washing machine and laptop. For clean clothes. For having a change of hear regarding the applique design. I'm cautiously optimistic plan B will be easier to execute. For Wimbledon on TV...and to my mother, who failed to impart so many useful life skills, but who showed me you could enjoy tennis with no skills in that department either.

What's the point?

Today I give thanks for a great trip to the doctor. No, I've not suddenly become fascinated by the state of my health but I was pleased to be able to get a double slot on a day the lovely Dr Chowdrey was duty doctor (she's booked a couple of weeks ahead otherwise). My joints were hurting and by my own special logic this seemed a good reason to walk there...ie. if I'm already in pain, I might as well do something that would cause some anyway plus I had a very sedentary afternoon (or thirteen!) planned...

Anyway, as the sea came into view just down the hill I could see one of those little white half shelter motor boats loitering in the channel beyond the pier. Funny place to stop I thought...then a large and purposefully moving tanker came into view heading into port. My, did that little boat move! I wonder if it thought it was in the nautical equivalent of a layby? Much gratitude for being in the right place at the right time anyway...and for the tanker being an unusually attractive shade of turquoise blue...

The doctor and I had a number of things to discuss and discuss them we did, during the course of which I realised Dr Galli had not merely been diplomatic when he said she was an excellent choice as 'my' new GP. I particularly like her attitude to prescribing medication...'You won't want to take that - I know I wouldn't!' and to TCM (traditional Chinese medicine). Turns out she has trained in Western medical acupuncture and wishes that NHS medical practice gave her time to practise it...so more to be grateful for there. I have some pills to try for one thing and some more on the way for something else now the head of nephrology has had her say, and I give thanks for that...though I'd be much more grateful not to have the things or pills at all, of course!

When I got home I had a bit of lunch, and watched a bit of tennis, and did a bit of knitting, and had a bit of a nap. I woke up from that with no desire to move at all and so I've spent the last couple of hours just lying here doing completely pointless things on my tablet phone. I give great thanks for idleness and lack of purpose...every home should have some!