Wednesday 10th May - Treasures in the post

My godfather, well into his 90s, died nearly two weeks ago. I've not been in touch for some years, although I  often thought of him, and I keep the prayer book he gave me for my confirmation, 50 years ago almost to the day, beside my bed. I enjoy the old-fashioned version of the psalms, with the leviathan and other monsters in the deep. The the old prayers are familiar from going to church with my grandmother when I was young. 

They are a bit like Shakespeare; we all quote from them almost without realising; "we have followed the devices and desires of our own hearts" and "we have done those things we ought not to have done, and left undone those things we ought to have done" for example. I ought to have written to him....  there will always be regrets.

His wife will be very busy with funeral attangements, but she has still found time to write to me twice; once to let me know, and then today I received a card from her with a long note, and enclosing two thank you letters I wrote when I was about 6, and 7. He had kept them in his desk... I have certainly left undone the things I ought to have done.

I have many good memories of times with him. He was a good man.

Friday 13th January - end of week 1

Week 1 of piano teaching, that is. The last pupil was soo, soo tired that she was monosyllabic and drooped over the piano keys like a rag doll, swathed in a huge pink fleecy hoodie.  

First week back at school is tough. Especially for a young tired teenager. I managed about 15 minutes of teaching until both of us had had enough, and switched to listening to possible pieces to choose from. Less exhausting for both of us; I played youtube clips and she said 'maybe' or 'no'.

I shall give it a couple of weeks and then have another go at finding a different time if she is wiped out every Friday. When I was teaching more or less full-time, I was beyond speech or listening or doing by Friday, so I'm not surprised if conscientious school children are too.

Instead of an email, I wrote (typed!) a letter to my father today, in word, and sent it as an attachment. A stamp-less letter! Mostly about books, and reminiscing,  chit chat. Could this be a new thing? I much prefer writing letters to emails; letters feel more real, perhaps? He can print it and read it from paper if he likes. 

Wednesday 19th October - I'm on a roll! (It won't last!)

 Today is unexpectedly clear, as two of today's four music students have rescheduled.

I'm not complaining! But I will be tomorrow, when I deal with a fairly packed schedule, because that's when they will have rescheduled their lessons. Ho Ho Ho, I should check my diary before I make arrangements.

Thinks are getting done - I have been ordering stuff in anticipation of Christmas. I love ordering presents online or from catalogues; it feels like having a extra presents. When the stuff comes thumping through the letterbox I can have the pleasure of opening and oohing and aahing before wrapping itup and giving it away.

Today's haul was seed packets, and yesterday's was 'The Persephone Biannually' - 

a mix of short stories, reviews, news and the catalogue listing of all their books. Absolutely free; I like to get the paper copy so that I can carry it around and read it in odd moments here and there, although you can download it, or read on-line. The website is well worth a browse...

Monty Don was sowing broad beans in pots on Gardener's World the other day. He says to start them off in pots, keep them outside but protect from slugs and snail, and plant them out at the end of November or early December. So that's my plan. I've also sown some cauliflower seeds in pots, and now my 'greenhouse' - this version (I think it came from Argos originally)

is filling up nicely. It's not a proper greenhouse for two reasons; the cover is plastic, and as the contraption is about 15 years old, the plastic seems to have disappeared so it is more like a windbreak now. Somewhere between a cold frame and the great outdoors.

I've also got sunflower seedlings in it. I'm not sure what to do with these; they spilled over into a tray and started sprouting when I was refilling a bird feeder last week, and I didn't have the heart to throw them out. Can you over-winter sunflowers? Am I going to end up with 6 foot tall plants in the spare bedroom?  

I'm working on my daily step count, which sank to a disappointing number recently. I was even out at 10pm marching up and down the street to get the last 200 before bed.

Yesterday I cleaned the windows in front of my desk - What a difference! But the bend-and stretch and up-and-down-with-the-arms movements are exactly those which I find the most tiring. The bonus was that the step counter (on my wrist) got hugely over-excited by all the effort and awarded me several 100 steps. I accepted them with gratitude. I felt as though I had earned them.

Today I ought to hoover.... yup. I ought to do that. But then there's always tomorrow...

In case you missed yesterday's post, the October Newsletter is there on the pages in the sidebar of this blog. You won't see them if you are using mobile or simplified view, you have to go to the website. It's there for you to print and post to a friend if you think they would be amused to read the bits and pieces, and would enjoy a letter coming through the post.   
   

Thursday 13th October - In memory of Betty - is this a good idea?

Many years ago, I used to send a postcard every week to a lonely lady, living by herself, called Betty. I said that I really couldn't promise to visit her, but I would send a postcard every week, and I did, almost without fail, for several years. I would pause beside my car after a hectic couple of hours of teaching highly energetic drumming classes, and, using the top of the postbox as a writing surface, take out a postcard, write a short note, stick on a stamp and pop it in. Such a small action, but more important that I realized at the time. When she died, her daughters found a tin with around around 200 postcards in it....

It brought home to me the importance of a personal contact. I am naturally garrulous, and enjoy reading blogs, following other people's projects and reading about their ideas and adventures.

But suppose I didn't have the internet? There's still the postcard project with Ang, which I am HUGELY enjoying (in spite of having spent the whole morning failing to sew a numeral 2 in my current stitching effort), and I also have a monthly journal/notebook exchange with another close friends.

So, in memory of Betty, my idea is to create a couple of pages of content which people could print off and POST to someone they know who has no internet access, but is the sort of person who would enjoy being in the chatty world of blogs. I'll try and make sure that all the content is copyright free, so no worries about that, and all you would have to do is wait until it appears, print it off, and post it to someone you think would enjoy browsing through it.

Of course, if you were to add a personal note, and maybe even a 'flat present' (Ang and I try and find small and slightly useful gifts to include with the embroidery swap) then now you have the makings of a lovely surprise for someone.

So, my idea is to try and get about 4 sides of A4 paper's worth of print ready. I would welcome your comments and suggestions. I'll let you know when the page has been added to this blog.

Saturday 30th April - Procrastination

 Sooner or later things catch up on one. All the things that should have been done earlier in the week began to tip over from pending to urgent.

I was distracted from getting started by a couple of parcels waiting for me to open - we still leave them in the hall for a day before opening, which is plenty long enough for me to forget they have been delivered;

One hundred and twenty assorted teabags - yes, a tad excessive, but delivery was free if your order came to £20 or over;

 I chose random flavours when I placed the order according to the name (or promise?) on the box; peace, relax, cleanse (no, not a laxative!), night-time, feel new, and revitalize - that's the red box. I just pick one according to the colour. 

And also, Ang's stitching was waiting for me!

  She's created a washing line, even including jeans and a stripy breton top! There were little gifts as well, a lavender sachet with a cross stitch rose, and a curious hand-made gift tag which you can see peeking out of it's hand-made bag.

We are slowly working towards getting our rotary drying line up; it has been a work in progress for about 5 or 6 years, but I'm hoping this year will be the one where it actually happens. The obstacles - like clearing the space for the washing to safely flap around in, and sorting out how to fix it into the concrete slab have been cleared one by one, and the final solution is in sight.  

I made a pot of revitalize tea - it has a marked ginger flavour - and got stuck into the list of procrastinated tasks;

Finishing the last few stitches and ironing the fabric, packing and posting to Ang in time to catch the last post for the weekend, writing two postcards and a letter and packing up another parcel.

The letter entailed copying up some notes first to go in the letter, so I did that, and the parcel was the result of a phone call that was moving from 'soonish' to 'now' to 'do it today'!

There were a couple of lesson notes from piano lessons to write up and send. That's almost everything done, still another lesson to write up and send, and I really should have watered the garden, but too late for today. 

Daily sketching is still happening;

Saturday 23rd April - the best laid plans....

 gang aft agley....

We'd planned to meet up with son and daughter this morning, at the usual outdoor cafe midway between their town and hours.

But - a not entirely negative LFT result for one of them has meant that we've postponed it. Sensible, but still disappointing. Ah well. It would have been chilly this morning - this afternoon was much warmer although the wind was, shall we say, bracing? And Fresh?

I spent this afternoon, with quite a lot of assistance from Himself finishing off the next bit of mulching that has been ongoing for a couple of weeks. Vicky, a friend who is now our gardener, has been working her way along the borders in the back garden weeding, watering and then mulching with spent mushroom compost, and yesterday made a start on the front garden. She'd done the weeding and sorting out, and we watered it ready for her to finish off today. However, she wasn't well, and we were at home, so we got stuck in. With the pair of us it didn't take too long, and it was very pleasant being in the sun and out of the wind. It is the time of year when I wage my annual war on goose grass, and I was trying to explain to Himself  exactly which plant needed dragging out of the borders 'oh, you mean robin-run-the-hedge?' and the confusion was cleared up. I've also heard it called 'cleavers'. Anyway, we've removed nearly all of it. There's always a bit left, somewhere.

I've also earthed up the potatoes that are growing in containers. All four pots had shoots about 2 inches tall showing through the top of the earth, so, as instructed by The Book (Huw Richards, Veg in One Bed) I covered them up with another two inches of earth. There's just about enough room left in the pot to repeat this process one more time, before leaving them in peace.

I've been baking;

Hebridean Baker Custard Creams

I made 12 with this recipe, which means 24 little biscuits sandwiched in pairs.

Biscuits;

• 170g butter
• 55g icing sugar
• 170g SR flour
• 55g custard powder

Filling

• 50g butter
• 20g custard powder
• 80g icing sugar

I reduced the icing sugar in both recipes as my friend suggested - they are still very (deliciously!) sweet.

Preheat oven to 180C and lightly grease a baking tray

In a large bowl, cream softened butter and sugar, add flour and custard powder to form a dough.

Roll tablespoons of this into balls, place on the tray allowing room for them to spread a little, and press each one lightly with a fork.

Bake for 12-14 minutes and allow to cool.

Mix together the filling ingredients to make a buttercream and spread thickly on half the biscuits (which are very fragile at this stage) and sandwich with remaining biscuits.

I found that these are incredibly crumbly the first day, and much better the second day which the cream and the biscuits had firmed up. Next time around I shall make them a little smaller... they are very rich. 

These will ruin you for bought custard creams. You have been warned!

I've kept the drawings going - here is a selection; (I don't know if I have posted any before)   

I'm enjoying doing them, barely more than a doodle, but just enough for me to think 'Oh Yes, I remember that!'. 

What is really weird is that they remind me of the scribbly illustrations my grandmother used to add to her letters - in a very similar style. The one of her black poodle puppy when he managed to tie himself to the pedals of the piano with a ball of red wool that she was knitting with has stuck in my memory aftr over fifty years!

Tuesday 1st March - Looking forward to Lent

I really am looking forward to Lent. Seriously. 

I have bought myself a 'Lent Calendar', like an Advent Calendar, but of course no chocolates, and I will get to open the first window tomorrow;

The booklet to the side has the Bible reading for the day. I think it will have to do with the animal revealed behind each window.

The lack of chocolates won't be a problem; no way am I giving up chocolate for Lent! In fact I have recently stocked up the 'chocolate stash box' with mini Fair Trade chocolate eggs from Divine. No more than one egg per day, though, to make them last.

I shall be following the course that the Rev Andrew Dotchin creates every year. This year the title is 'With a song in my heart', and you will be able to follow it here. It started today and promises to be as excellent a read as ever.

 So am I giving up anything for Lent? Yes, I am not going to buy or download any books. I must admit I hastily ordered my book club choice yesterday, as it would have been very difficult to join in the next meeting if I hadn't. It is 'The Valley at the Centre of the World' by Malachy Tallack. I have also chosen it for my Audible purchase as I had a credit, for hearing the regional accents and language.

 Our previous choice was 'The Mayor of Casterbridge', by Thomas Hardy. I haven't ready any of his books before, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. If you have an Audible subscription you can listen to Tony Britton reading it, very well indeed, as one of the free books.  

I'm not going to go short of reading matter... there must be hundreds of books in the house, plus ones that are waiting for me to read or finish on my kindle.

And I am going to give up wasting far too much time playing the various solitaire games on the computer. That will be very hard, much harder than giving up chocolate. 

What am I taking on for Lent? Letter writing; I will be printing off and sending copies of the Lent course to two friends who don't use computers at all. I reckon that's a reasonable commitment. I'm also aiming to try and do some form of exercise every day to improve my fitness levels. I do them while I am listening to the songs in the Lent course.

Let's see how long this lasts... 

Saturday 12th February - Going Postal

Terry Pratchett fans will get the reference, but as I am the only member of my family who hasn't read all the books several times over I have no idea how relevant the title is.

It's the old story of taking letters for a walk.

While is is so cold, I'm not going as far as the post box at the moment. In fact I'm not going out today at all. It is what people call 'window weather' (Thank you, Ang) - it looks lovely out there, bright, crisp and clear, sun and blue sky. But that wind must be coming straight from Siberia. As the old saying goes;

 East West, Staying home inside is best.

There were a couple of postcards and a small parcel to be posted on Wednesday; himself usually drops them in one one of the several post boxes he passes on his daily yomp around the local streets. But alas, he went without them, but very kindly, on his return, went straight out and posted them at the nearest box.

Thank you! I heard that the parcel arrived the next day!

Once again, on Thursday, there were a couple of letters waiting to be posted. Now here's the thing - Himself was so focussed on taking a photograph of a post box 'hat' that I hadn't seen

Knitted by the local WI

that alas, he forgot to take the letters out of his pocket. They weren't as urgent, and have gone this morning. That's how I know that the sunshine is beguiling and deceitful - he came back frozen.

The fattest letter contained a knitted wristlet, for the recipient to try on for size and  and also let me know if she would prefer a thinner wool. You will probably recognise the colours; it is the same as my socks and also the mittens. And also, back in 2019, a shawl which I later ripped out. There's still quite a lot left for the wristlet's partner in due course. If she would prefer something else, I will put the pair into the Christmas Shoebox Appeal.

 

The picture isn't very clear, and I can't take another one now. The four zip-up bags in starry cotton have been under construction for a couple of weeks, and are now doing a fine job of corralling all my double-pointed and circular knitting needles. I spent some time hunting for a set of 3mm needles that I had lost, but last night I remembered where they ere; you can see two of them poking out of some blue-grey knitting half-in, half-out of a blue patterned bag. February's knitting project is a pair of Real Socks, but they will take longer than a month, at the rate of less than an inch per day.

I have fetched out a sewing kit that I abandoned last year, or was it the year before? 

I became disheartened because the circles were so wonky, compared to the picture in the kit. I have decided to embrace the wonkiness, and after a trial bit of stitching (the heart) I set to work and completed the circles. 

Next is some lines of decoration, and then assemble the whole thing into a little sewing pouch. I have ordered a pair of embroidery scissors and a 'vanishing pen', which, with a needle-threader, needle case, and a small ruler, will complete it nicely.

 Yesterday I stood in the garden to do some sewing, in the bright sunshine, where there was almost no wind. I went out briefly this morning (which is why I know it is cold!) and was pleased to see several crocuses coming into flower, and the yellow petals on the miniature daffodils under the bottom hedge just beginning to show.

Hello 2022 - Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

I've had those words as an earworm to several days now. Anyway, I wish you all a Happy New Year, and also"Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow", today and every day.

And, should you know the tune, I apologise for infecting you with the earworm. Although there are probably worse things to have running around in your head.

This time of year the sun rises more or less opposite our bedroom window. The view might not be wonderful - all roof lines, television aerials, street lights, telegraph poles and BT wires, but one can look past and through them to see the glorious skies;

I have not made new resolutions this year - although I will continue with the old ones of  'write a page in the daily diary every the evening' and 'eat chocolate at least once a week'. These are not so much resolutions and habits now. The other one of delivering two bags of 'stuff' to the charity shop every month is a bit tricky at the moment.

Somewhere I read about the 'Texas Sharpshooter', who fired his gun at the barn door, and then painted  targets on it, with the bullseyes centred on the bullet holes. That seems a promising approach to making guilt-free 'resolutions' for this year.

Oh help. I have just googled this on the source of all knowledge and discovered that is is a description of one of many fallacies that abound in statistical analysis... nothing is so likely to wake the sleeping tigers in our household as yet another example of misuse of statistics on the news. 

Anyway, where was I?

Oh yes, my bullet holes in the barn door are a series of soft and flexible suggestions for myself for January...

1. Taking up the Active Repertoire Challenge at www.pianodao.com, which is always to have a couple of pieces that one can perform anytime, anyplace, without music, and without anxiety. At the moment my 'go-to' pieces all date from my childhood, when I memorised everything I ever learned to play as a matter of course. I plan to resurrect something a bit 'meatier' than the Bach Minuet in G, and also learn something new which I will probably be teaching later this year anyway.

2. Sketching throughout January

This is an exercise from (one of the many) books I have acquired over the years. It is a place we visited about 4 years ago on a bleak Spring day quite near to where we live. The house is in a hollow quarried out of the side of the hill, and I took the photograph from a sort of treehouse built around the trunk of a huge beech tree near the top of the steep slope behind the house.

3. Walking (off and on) throughout January - a nominal notion of maybe reaching a total of ten miles by the end of the month sounds attainable.

4. Writing more letters and postcards, sending more emails to friends and relatives. Walking to the post box and back is about half a mile, which should help me along the way to covering ten miles.

Our nearest post-box has been decorated for Christmas!

Thursday 16th April - Sunny - Chilly - Sunny - Chilly

It's very clear to me that energy levels and cheerfulness are affected by the weather. My grandmother, who qualified as a doctor back in the 1920s, always declared that barometric pressure should be taken into account.

Yesterday was a bright, sunny, day - today is cloudy and cold. That could be a pretty accurate description of me yesterday and today!

I'm finding my day-to-day list of things that I could do, might do, should possibly do, is a great help in keeping me going. I don't necessarily do all the things on the list, or only do things on the list, but it gives a slight structure, and helps nudge me away from the cake tin!

I do feel a bit of a 'teenager' doing all the doodles and so on in my notebook - but hey - it's my book!

A page of postage-sized doodles picking out one thing from the day;

Colouring the squares as I complete each suggestion gives me a ridiculous amount of satisfaction.

Yesterday I finally completed sewing up a cardigan that I knitted over the course of last year. I had got stuck, as one of the seams was all wonky and lost the will to fix it.

and yesterday it was warm enough to wear it. Today I'm back in my winter fleece jacket.

Sorting out how to keep the household supplies coming in has been a bit of a challenge. We have neighbours and friends who will add a bit of shopping to their list, and we've ordered a box of meat from an on-line company. The pet shop half a mile away will let you buy and pay for cat food over the phone, and then bring it out to the car - you can part right outside their door. We discovered that during Tuesday's CATastrophe with the catflap. 

I've found a local company that used to supply local restaurants and caterers. They have re-organised themselves to sell boxes - choose fruit, or veg, or salad, and you get enough of what's available to feed a family of four. I added eggs to the order - they come in trays of 30!  I've shared the contents of the boxes and the eggs with a friend, and also gave some eggs to a neighbour who has been adding things for us - like breakfast cereal - to her list when she goes out. The boxes each have enough for a family of four; now that I've seen what's in them, I'll know what to expect next time.

I ended up with a sort of greengrocer's shop in the garden while we shared out the produce, keeping a safe 2 metres apart;

This is a tiny-weeny sketch that just fits beside the stamp on a postcard I sent to a friend. Himself goes to the post box for me as part of his daily exercise.!

Monday 24th February - this isn't a totally a-typical day, to be honest

Today I have...

Done a page of 'pothooks' - it seems to be a good way of starting the day
made a list of outstanding tasks
Then I got up...

taught a piano lesson

put in a prescription request

wrapped three parcels, each with a letter, written a letter of condolence, written two more letters to accompany large heavy parcels still to be wrapped.

written emails to eight music students, another condolence rmail, a long 'catch-up' email to friends, acknowledgement of receipt of a book, and a 'thankyou for your email' email

Updated an inventory spreadsheet for work

Read a bit of the Parson's Tale from Chaucer's the Canterbury tales in the course of looking up how to spell 'accidie', and then following up this quotation

Envye and Ire maken bitternesse in herte; which bitternesse is moder of Accidie and binimeth him the love of alle goodnesse.

in which the word is used, in order to discover the meaning of 'binimeth' (it means 'to deprive or take away')

gone through two more of my god-mother's photogrpah albums and dealt with the contents ('keep, send to this person or that person, dispose')

Telephoned NS and I tosee what I have to do about my god-mother's deceased husband's premiium bonds which we found in a drawer; 'no, there are no outstanding prizes for this bond holder, no we can't disclose how many bonds there are over the telephone, you will have to download and complete these forms'

Downloaded the forms to reclaim the bonds and taken a deep breath at the information they require

Discovered that I can get a copy of his will and related grant of probate from the probate office online for the princely sum of £1.50

Emptied another shopping back of stuff associated with clearing my god-mother's house.

Stopped for lunch! 

Afterwards, for relaxation, I

sat and did a few rows of knitting,

made a start on creating a papier mache box (out of a cat food box and some old sheet music) to hold my book and diary and kindle and so on by my bedside table - getting generally gunked with PVA glue is somehow satisfying after all the word-smithing of this morning.

It's three o'clock! I've had a coffee and three chocolte biscuits and am ready to go!

I'll finish the box, teach two more lessons (4pm and 6pm) and then it will only be a few more hours untl bedtime! 

Himself has not been idle - errands and shopping around town, shifting two book cases upstairs in preparation for delivery of a new mattress later this week, emptying a shopping bag of my god-mother's stuff, and cooking lunch. The cats are now vying for his lap; whichever one has got possession finds themselves being 'stared out' by the other one... 

Wednesday 20th February - of reading, and words

and flowers and dentists...

I am reading 'Persuasion' by Jane Austen. This is because I have signed up to a book challenge, which gives a suggestion for a 'Classic' each month.

I read 'Dorian Gray' last month, and I've made a start on 'A Room of One's Own' but not found it very gripping. Maybe I'll find a renewed interest in March! 

Looking through the selection, I'm apprehensive about the Communist Manifesto and Frankenstein as neither of these have had any attraction for me in the past. We shall see!

I've previously read 'Persuasion', 'Alice in Wonderland', 'Wuthering Heights' (only half) and 'Anne of Green Gables' , and I've seen 'Midsummer Night's Dream' performed several times, but never read the actual play. I'm looking forward to rereading them, apart from 'Wuthering Heights' , which I started as a teenager and found unreadable at the time. But then, I had the same reaction to 'Jane Eyre' first time around. 

I've been on a bit of a hunt to find out when the word 'electric' was first used; 1600, it seems. The word itself is derived from the Latin for 'amber', and was used in the context of the way amber can attract things. The hunt started when I read this paragraph in 'Persuasion';

"She was quite easy on that head, and consequently full of strength and courage, till for a moment electrified by Mrs Croft's suddenly saying,"It was you, and not your sister, I find, that my brother had the pleasure of being acquainted with, when he was in this country."

'electrified' indeed.

Earlier, Jane Austen writes of a visitor

"she only came on foot, to leave more room for the harp, which was bringing in the carriage." 

A curious construction...

Himself has gone off to the dentist this morning. It's a beautiful morning for the journey, but I don't think he's going to enjoy himself when he gets there. The hygienist is Extremely Thorough, and there are also to be discussions regarding repairs to bridgework and a replacement crown. I suspect the crown is inevitable, but am hoping the bridgework will escape. I have fortified myself with a second breakfast of tea and toast as lunch is going to be Very Late, if at all.

My contribution to his happiness has been unloading the dishwasher and hoovering the downstairs of the house. Next I intend to write some letters and walk to the local shop/post office as the weather may remain sunny for another half hour or so.

    You can see a patch of blue sky in this (slightly crooked) picture of the last two flowers on the amaryllis. I had brought a knife out from the kitchen to cut off the stalk, but will wait another couple of days before I carry out the deed.

Tuesday 30th October - Oughts

Half term is a great time for letting go of 'ought' - except, of course, there are quite a few 'oughts' that I saved up for now half term.

Maybe not exactly 'saved up' so much as thinking that 'I'll have time to do x, y, and z, and maybe  even p, q and r as well.

I did manage to do a lot of little tasks that have been hanging over me;

• Write and post six overdue letters
• 
  
• Wrap and post two parcels - not overdue, but just getting round to it was the main cause of delay (Canada, watch out....there's a parcel about - not for Christmas, just 'stuff' getting transferred from our house to your house!)
• 
  
• Send endless emails - invoices for piano lessons, replies to enquiries from 'the office, corrections and queries about emails from 'the office', emails about dates and times for piano exams, and so on and son on
• 
  
• Setting up the folders that I take round to each school with updated registers, typed up lesson plans (one school only, I have a Lesson Observation next week so that school pack in particular has to be all 'tickety-boo')   
• 
  
• Deal with rough patches on the bathroom basin (he did that in no time - it was left-over grout)
• 
  
• Arrange for the piano tuner to come
• 
  
• Phone the gardener to see when he will come ('some evening next week?' that's what he said last time. The evening are rather dark now...) 

All these 'oughts' mean that I'm feeling a lot lighter than I was. (I have an idea for a short story based on a 'speak your weight machine' which doesn't deal in avoir dupois')

I've done other things I wanted to do, rather than I oughted to do as well;

There is a way of knitting 'in the round' - ie making a tube, using a circular knitting needle of greater length than the diameter of the knitting, called 'Magic Loop'. It's a very pretty piece of topology or some kind of mathematical process, and I watched the video and even made it happen. Hooray!

For my next trick, I want to investigate how you knit TWO tubes on ONE circular needle simultaneously...  one can also knit small tubes on long circular needles using two needles - whoever thought of that? Or even knit two socks ONE INSIDE THE OTHER - now that sounds as though it could go very wrong, very quickly.  That might have to wait until Christmas now.

What else - I planted up all the little kalanchoe cuttings. I think I might have mentioned that before.

There are twenty. I have delayed sorting out the aloe vera plants upstairs - there are endless little baby aloe veras, all crammed into a couple of pots. They came from a single plant daughter's friend (the one with the horse) gave me about twenty years ago.

Also on my list - go out and have coffee with friends - yes, that happened.

Do some writing - yes, that's been done too.

We didn't manage to go away for the weekend, neither did we go to London. Himself spent most of last weekend with - in sequence - a vile cold, tonsilitis, and possibly a chest infection as well. So we took it easy, and stayed in most of the time doing not very much. Once he was getting better we made occasional short trips out - lunch and potter round the town or a garden centre - and then back into the warm. That is, warm, once the boiler problems were resolved. The heating still sounds as though it has massive indigestion, but at least the radiators are HOT.

Tomorrow will feel weird, when I go off to work. I'll try and remember to put my watch on - one of my rebellions against work is to not wear a watch during the holidays.

I may have gained a few ounces over the past week, but I have certainly lost a lot of weight.

Tuesday 31st July - Another Useful Day

Last night, towards suppertime, Himself appeared with an oozing jar. My sour-dough starter had been over-enthusiastic and managed to make it's way up and over and out of the jar, in spite of the (loose) lid. As the jar was on the top shelf, at his eye-level, it had appeared rather threatening when he had opening the fridge in search of supper. So, the final tasks before bed time were sorting out the sour dough starter into a loaf, a batch of overnight sour-dough pancakes, and a smaller, more manageable jar of starter.   

Today I managed to clear another load of tasks that had been cluttering up my head...

I had a letter and two cards to write, the loo to top-to-bottom clean (yes, as there is no alternative to the upstairs loo you are permitted to use it - carefully) and the downstairs floors to hoover.

I managed all this - and some bonus items as well; dusting the upstairs book case and my bedside table, sending off a music certificate straightaway within minutes of receiving it, and remembering to make the sour-dough pancakes with the mix I stirred up last night. (If you leave the "overnight sour dough pancake recipe" longer than overnight, the results are deeply unpleasant and go straight in the bin. Moral - taste the first cooked pancake before you put yourself to the trouble of making any more)

The sour dough loaf that I had put on overnight was less successful - if I make enough of these we could build an extension. I console myself with the thought that rye bread tends to be a bit solid and chewy, and it does have a very good flavour, especially with Jarlsberg cheese, or even honey.

Hurrah! I don't know how long all this industriousness will continue, but oddly enough, clearing the to-do list is lifting a weight off my mind. I've checked the scales - and regretfully I have to admit that it is not clearing any weight off my body.

I watched yet more watercolour painting videos yesterday and this morning. I'm finding the whole thing completely fascinating. You can click the back button and find something else on the internet if you are bored, because all the rest of this post is going to be pictures.

Here's an apple, drawn last night with Inktense pencils that I bought about five years ago... it is startlingly like the one in the book.

 
Here's a whole selection of different brush strokes made using a smallish flat brush

Here's a random flowery sort of page - the exercise was to paint imaginary flowers "fast and loose", not bothering with accuracy, but to just get the paint onto the paper. It gave me a chance to try the Rose and the Hookers Green that I bought yesterday. I am wowed by the rose colour.

 
I'm doing all these pictures in what I have taken to calling my "Book of Mistakes". It is the Journal that I was given several Christmases ago, and hadn't started yet. The paper is truly unsuitable for water colour, which is a great comfort because if I manage to produce anything half-way decent then that is a success indeed. The creator of the journal, Susan Hable, has obligingly filled half the pages with random designs and quotes, so my plan of completing the journal over the Summer is made that much easier. 



We had a phone call from our Canadian friends, bringing us up to speed with all their news - "ah well," they said, "time for us to get some breakfast". I looked at my watch - half past two.

By the way, the Fiat Panda is 0.9 l, not 2. Although it has 2 cylinders and is turbo. That sounds as if I know what I am typing.

Monday 16th October - Tech Trials and writing letters

He's had a week or so of it, fixing everyone's computer problems.

Now he's got my woes to see to as well...

I'm having a problem with with Gmail not letting me choose which address and name-label I want on emails in the address boxes. I have tried, and tried, to delete defunct addresses from whoever "It" is that auto-completes things when I enter an address when I am creating an email, but "It" won't let me. 

As I understand things, (and I may well be wrong) the fix will involve clearing out ALL the addresses that gmail has clung onto for yonks and yonks. He's printed out a multi-page set of instructions from google and is waiting for a long period of undisturbed time in which to have a go. And another go. And do whatever it takes to get it all sorted out. He's known for persistance in hunting down solutions to problems.

Hey ho. Computers. Pen and Ink was so much simpler.

But then, the last time I sent someone a card written with my fountain pen, the postman left it half in, half out, of the letterbox when he delivered it, and the message was entirely washed away by the rain before the recipient could read it. She said she enjoyed the picture on the front....  I use a biro now to write postcards.

And how about this Christmas card, postmarked December 2016, that came a couple of weeks ago?

Emails are more weatherproof, and tend not to take months to be delivered.

Here's something else that can't be sent by email. 

    Not sure if she could go parcel post either, come to think of it. (By the way, she didn't come via Amazon, just in case you were wondering)

Friday 4th August - oh, and another thing

If you send someone a postcard, it is a good idea to use waterproof ink.

I sent a card to my godmother. When I phoned her some time later, she thanked me for the card, said she enjoyed the picture, but couldn't read the message as it had been raining on the day it was delivered.

Sigh

Sunday 15th January - A Letter From Home

Dear Everyone,

So, the first full week of teaching has happened, and I can draw breath. There were a couple of potential dragons lurking at the beginning of term, to do with tricky parents and stroppy students, but luckily the dragons that looked as though they were going to be the most awkward turned out to be very small fry, and the bigger ones will eventually just take themselves off without me having to do anything about them. More I cannot say - one of my unpublished resolutions is to try not to be so snarky about people that irritate me for one reason or other.

We visited Petworth to return twenty djembes that our church had hired last term. Calling in the second-hand bookshop I parted with £1.50 of my hard-earned dosh for this:

   

It's a sort of anthology of snips and snaps, all with John Burninghams' illustrations which I have always enjoyed. There was a paragraph in it which caught my eye at the time and made it worth the money. I forget which it was now - but this morning I read this which made me laugh;

The idea of the two old folks sitting by the fire having gin and tonic and boiled eggs for supper amused me. (I've just downloaded "A Very Private Eye" by Barbara Pym onto my kindle for a future read.) We are totally electric now - apart from the central heating which relies on an electric pump. But we could always use the old storm kettle to boil some water.

It is very effective. Getting the eggs in and out of the contraption could be a challenge. And it won't make toast. Somewhere in among the garden stuff is our ancient barbeque, and the chimenea. Perhaps we would have cup-soup and BBQ steak in a power crisis? It would be a bad idea to bring any of these exciting miniature furnaces inside; I suppose would could line them up just outside the french windows and hope the flowering jasmine didn't catch fire.

Flowers have been a good source of cheerfulness this week. The snowdrops under the apple tree are late this year - they are normally up and nodding about at Christmas. However, after the last couple of properly could days they are now in flower. I'm not going out into the horrible dank seeping rain to take a picture. This is last year's.

We bought a couple of pots of hyacinths to take when we were going to visit my godmother a few weekends ago. In the event we postponed the trip, as it was the tremendously foggy weekend and it would have been foolish to venture out unless completely necessary. A few days ago they, too sprang into life. Just a few buds in the morning, and all in flower when I got home in the afternoon - a lovely surprise.

January's resolutions are sort of happening, especially the one to do with eating chocolate several times a week. The last box of "teacher chocolates" has just been opened (and eaten). We are pretty selective - eat the ones we like and lob the rest. Apple and chocolate? I don't think so. I've just got the musical tin of biscuits left now. There are the "unpublished" resolutions, but I'm only going to mention them if they actually happen. The "less of the Snarkiness" one needs a bit more practice, but some of the others might manage it, at least through January.

Well the afternoon draws on, and we are going out soon, in order to start the planning for a complex trip, involving seven different households and potentially three different embarkation points, not to mention all the events for when we arrive at our destination. There is one single fixed point about which everything gyrates - we should think ourselves fortunate to have even that amount of certainty to base our itinerary upon. Luckily we have a month or so to get it all together. All will become less unclear in time.

Love to you all,

x