Tuesday 26th September - another quiet day

 More sitting around today, with a couple of little walkabouts in the garden. I can understand why the patients in a sanatorium were put out onto a veranda,, well wrapped up, to benefit from the fresh air. I thought I would follow their example when the sun came out in the afternoon, and sat outside with a crochet blanket arranged around me and a sun hat to shade my face, and read my book for an hour. 

I'm still reading the 'Lark Rise to Candleford' trilogy by Flora Thompson. The pace of the books is gentle and slow, making the 'Miss Read' books seem racy and pacey, and a mile away from the TV series. Perfect reading at the moment, and light relief from the Book Club choice of 'What Strange Paradise' by Omar al Akkaad which is working to what could well turn out to be an ominous and terrible climax.      

One of the things I've been doing is ruling up my 2024 diary. It's about September that I start having appointments arrive for 2024, and although I can enter them on my phone, I like to keep a paper diary as well. Oh, but which one? Which layout? 'How do I plan to use it? Back when I was working nearly full time as a teacher, the September - December academic was the best. Now I prefer January to December, and log piano lessons in a notebook covering the tax year; April to April. 

I've been using this A5 one for 2023;

but it irritates me that Saturday and Sunday are only given half the space of the other days, when they can be just as busy. I also don't find I need as much space for notes etc on the right hand page.

I've bought a lovely A5 notebook, made by Rhodia using Clairefontaine paper. The paper is one of the nicest to use for pens, a great point in its favour as far as I am concerned. (I freely admit to being a notebook nerd with a bit of a stationery obsession).

It doesn't have enough pages to allow for a week on one page and notes on the other, but that's OK as I reckon I will have enough space for notes as well as appointments with this layout.

I suppose some people - many people - will think ruling up an entire year's worth of days and dates in glorious technicolour is a monumental waste of time. I find it a rather 'zen-like' activity, done over several weeks. I'm up to August now, so over halfway.

Cross stitching - yesterday I ran out of yellow in the needle with two stitches to go. Today I threaded up the needles and sewed two stitches. That's it.

But I have finished knitting the toe of the second sock - not as impressive as that might sound, as it is a 'toe-up' sock.

Changing the subject again, here is a photograph of my vandalised pak choi.

There are still 14 seedlings in there, just about hanging on! I put a wire pot stand over the top yesterday, and that seems to have prevented further disturbance.Maybe they'd prefer a cloche. I'll ask them tomorrow.

I am continuing to improve; used the oxygen concentrator a lot less today and by breathing really deeply and doing nothing I can maintain an almost respectable oxygen level of 92%. Using the portable concentrator to get up the stairs helps too.

I did cancel piano lessons timetabled for this evening and tomorrow evening. There's no point rushing things.