Saturday 31st January - and cheerfulness breaks out

 Here's my 'following a tree photograph' for the end of January. It's a little witch hazel called Arnold Promise, showing exactly why I wanted a witch hazel;

Isn't it pretty? All those gorgeous little yellow spidery flowers. I couldn't get close enough today to see if they had any scent. 

I've left sewing up the brightly coloured cardigan for today - I need time, and physical space, and brain space to do a decent job. So instead I started knitting a new pair of slippers yesterday evening. It's a delightful pattern and I enjoy making them once I have reacquainted myself with the mysteries of 'ssk' and 's1, k2tog, psso'. Not as complicated as they sounded, and very easy after looking at a youtube video. This must be my fifth pair...

Today I finished the uppers.

 The garter stitch rows will form the sole and heel, with a seam down the centre of the foot and up the back of the hell. The orange/pink knitting is the top. Like this;

All done, with the assistance of a cup of Jasmine tea. Now to start the next one, while I can remember 'psso' and 'ssk'!

The knitting abbreviations sound like magical charms, like "Treguna Mekoides Trecorum Satis Dee" from 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' - remember that film? I loved it. I've no idea what that meant but it was on a par with 'supercalifraglisticexpiallidocious' as a great thing to be able to say.

I've succumbed to the Flash advertisements and bought some 'Spray,Wipe, Done!' Chanting that as I cleaned the bathroom and kitchen sinks turned a chore into a rather silly game. Whatever works, whatever works... little things please tiny minds...

I skipped ballet exercises yesterday. They were the last thing on my mind when we got home. But I think I will let myself off; one of the most cross-making things of that day was watching, appalled, as the woman in front of us waiting for the lift to go up to the lung department, or maybe one the respiratory wards, suddenly started sneezing and coughing about ten times without using a handkerchief or even her elbow to cover her mouth and nose. She obviously wasn't thinking about this;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coughs_and_sneezes_spread_diseases

BB and I looked at each other, and headed for the stairs. It was a long climb; the lung function unit is on the 2nd floor, and the rooms in a Victorian hospital have very high ceilings. Coming back down was so much easier. So I reckon that was my leg-strengthening exercise for the day - maybe she did me a favour?

Neck and shoulders today and that will mean 4 weeks in a row completed (Sunday is a day off). Three cheers.

Looking back, yesterday's post was one incoherent mess of typos and unfinished sentences. Heigh ho, and on we go... it's amazing what a difference a good night's sleep and a quiet day can make.

Spring Song, No 2 of 4 Short Pieces by Frank Bridge, played by Yuki Ito, accompanied by Daniel King Smith