Friday 15th May - stamps, microwave eggs, Lord of the Rings

 This is my new toy vital craft tool; I used it to create this little line of mini-pictures, cut from a Wentworth jigsaw catalogue and stuck into my diary. 

A punch that cuts out old-fashioned postage stamp shapes. Like this;

.....

I'm sure I've shared this Internet recipe for scrambled eggs;

Beat together one egg and one small teaspoon of mayonnaise in a microwave proof mug or dish, using a fork or little whisk, until thoroughly mixed.

Microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring well each time, until done to your liking. It's the best method I've found yet. It will double; one teaspoon mayonnaise and two eggs works well. I haven't tried three eggs.

I've been making the simplest of dips with a tablespoon spoon of mayonnaise and a teaspoon of French dressing to dip my salad i ; carrot sticks, little gem lettuce leaves etc which I had to accompany my sandwich at supper. 

.....

I've been immersed in The Lord of the Rings most of today;

I remembered this illustration and the riddle for gaining entry into the Mountain 'Speak, friend, and enter'

and some of the many poems scattered throughout the story, like this 

I sit beside the fire and think

of all that I have seen

of meadow-flowers and butterflies

in summers that have been;

Of yellow leaves and gossamer

in autumns that there were,

with morning mist and silver sun

and wind upon my hair.

I sit beside the fire and think

of how the world will be

when winter comes without a spring

that I shall ever see.

For still there are so many things

that I have never seen:

in every wood in every spring

there is a different green.

I sit beside the fire and think

of people long ago

and people who will see a world

that I shall never know.

But all the while I sit and think

of times there were before,

I listen for returning feet

and voices at the door.

It suited my mood today.

Thursday 14th May - more weather, less walking

Today was similar to yesterday, weather wise, cold, showers, raining, grey, sunny by turns.

So no walking. I'll walk an extra 'distance' by walking on the spot to make up. 

Vicky came and did some work in the garden; she comes fortnightly which is only just often enough at this time of year. The goose-grass is on a mission to take over, and I'm on a mission  (via Vicky) to prevent it. It's a hopeless task to root it out, so I work on a policy of 'discouragement', where everything shoot gets pulled out preferably to ground level before it can drop its bobbly little seeds everywhere. This seems to work; over the years it is much reduced. She managed to pick two hours between rain showers, packing up just as the first drops fell.

Sencoesue said in the comments that she uses a stand for her tablet - of course! BB doesn't use the one I gave him, so I retrieved it and set it up;

I've been using the stand off and on since yesterday with caution, and so far I've had no ill effects with my neck. 

My neck isn't fully better, but it is steadily improving. I just have to be careful. And patient...

Here's the stand in use again;

This is our book club choice for this month. 

How could your name affect the trajectory of your life? The author has imagined three different ways the boy could grow, depending on whether he takes his horrible father's name, Gordon, or the the name his sister his suggests, Bear, or the name his mother chooses, Julian.

While I find the courage to dive in (Gordon sounds a nasty piece of work, will his son be like him?) I'm rereading The Lord of the Rings.

That's a blast from the past; it must be 30 or 40 years since I last read it, although I've listened to the dramatisation... on cassettes, so that wasn't much more recent either!

Wednesday 13th April - A proper English Spring

 Springtime in Sussex is deceptive, tricksy. I wake up and look out of the window,  which faces south-east and so catches the light and warmth of the morning sun.

Then I wander down to the kitchen which faces north-west, and search out a cardigan. Not so warm after all! If I open the back door for some fresh air I'll revise my opinion some more and do up the buttons on my cardigan, right up to the neck. 

Cold wind not withstanding, we decide to go out; the sky clouds over in a instant and great cold drops of rain come pelting out of the sky... we go back inside, and the clouds disappear and the sun comes out... This pattern was repeated all through the day...

I did sneak out in the afternoon. BB had already set off into town to collect his wedding ring, now made smaller, and some prescriptions from the pharmacy. I just walked a short way up the road - there was plenty to see.

This rock rose is in our front garden. I love seeing how the sun shines through the petals

I noticed the contrast between the old and new growth on this tree;

BB and I got home at about the same time, just before it started raining again. Perfect. 

So, a short walk, but at least it was a walk. My step count will be well over 2000 by bedtime, maybe even heading for 3000.

Tuesday 12th May - a day off?

Yesterday I proved conclusively that it's the way I use my tablet that provokes my neck. I only used it for about 15 minutes and I was paying for it all night and all today, and felt proper sorry for myself.

I was so tired and droopy all day that I took things very, very easy and didn't brave the cold gloomy weather.

I did do a little drawing though; sitting at the dining room table to write or draw seems to be okay for short periods of time. 

My usual sunny good temper (?) was severely tested throughout the day; every sentence I began to write (including this one!) seemed to be subjected to a series of interruptions; a phone call from the architect, the arrival of the man to service the stairlift, a delivery, a pressing need to go to the loo, a question about this, or that... at one point I came back to a sentence in my 'notebook swap' after several hours to find to find the word 'Also', but what had I been going to write four hours previously?

I do know I was writing about Johanna Basford's Inky Wonderland colouring books. She wrote a book on how to create the pictures she makes. I lent my to a neighbour yesterday; now that she's on her own (her husband died about a year ago) she finds the evenings very long sometimes,  but said she enjoyed doing colouring books. I thought she might like to create her own pictures. 

That put me in mind of the series of YouTube tutorials JB released, 

so I found one and followed the step by step instructions. I've drawn these in the current notebook swap that I was having so much difficulty writing complete sentences in!

This last one is still in the early stages at the moment.

Johanna Basford makes it all so easy!

Normal walking will resume tomorrow!

Monday 11th May - plans, plans,

 

Here it is!

This is what we are hoping to achieve; an extension right across the back of our house, creating a new kitchen and a small living space where we can sit to eat at a small table, or relax in comfortable chairs looking out at the garden.

I've coloured the new part a pinky beige so you can see it. Nothing is to scale, but the extension goes out about 10 feet.

The old kitchen, which I've coloured blue, will have a generous section partitioned off, with a sliding door to save space. This is to become a level access walk-in shower, with grab rails and a folding seat, and also a loo and a hand basin. The boiler, with the washing machine underneath can stay where they are, outside the new shower room. The other side of the room can be shelves, cupboards,  drawers, whatever.

We want to have level access through the existing house, into the extension and on through to the new patio, and a ramp down to the left into the garden, for when mobility becomes more of an issue for me.

In other words, we want to 'future proof' our house. We've seen several families suddenly find themselves in the position where illness, disability, mobility has over-taken them, and their adaptations couldn't keep pace with the progression of the illness. And we've seen other families, where one partner gas been diagnosed with a progressive disease, whose early planning and home alterations made all the difference to how they could continue to live happily in their home.

We both felt that this was our chance to adapt our house to make my life, and therefore our lives, more comfortable for longer. Eventually, if necessary, the 'old' dining room could become a downstairs bedroom if I can no longer manage the stairs! 

I'm so excited, especially about a new kitchen!

I've never chosen a kitchen before; this one was here when we moved in nearly 45 years ago, and I doubt it was new then. We've been able to think about howe we cook, and how we use the space, and plan accordingly. The best thing about this is that the new kitchen will be installed before the old one is ripped out, so won't have weeks, or even months, of total chaos in that department.

Now we wait, for the drawings to be given the go-ahead, the drains to be surveyed, and a zillion other details to be slotted into their place in the plan.

....

Walking; the forecast promised rain. Oh. So we drove to a huge undercover garden centre we've visited before, and I used a whole oxygen bottle up walking round, eying up the plants, closely examining a large patio shelter/shade, and giving our full attention to the delights on offer in the food market. We chose exotic snacks (no, not chocolate ants, nothing quite that bizarre, but Thai Tom Yum flavoured bites - definitely yum) and speciality biscuits and some tempting sausage rolls for supper - also good.

So I reckon I dd do a walk today, just not to the post box and back.

Sunday 10th May - Christian Aid Week

Our zoom service today was taken from the materials supplied by Christian Aid. 

There were a few things that caught my attention 

My part in the service was to read 'Fridah's story'. She sold food in the market that she bought wholesale to make a precarious living to support her children and grandson. If she didn't sell enough, she couldn't eat.

I don't think I've ever had to go without food so that my children could eat.

That was something to think about. 

Christian Aid has helped her by teaching her how to grow vegetables in a small space in cones; they create a tower of layers of terraces to make a water-saving way to grow a lot of veg in a small space

 Once I restart my veg patch, I'll give some thought as to how I might be able to use this method. It's like a larger, rougher version of a strawberry tower.

....

Thirdly, one of the readings included this verse, Acts 17; v28

'for in Him we live and move and have our being'

I often think of the Holy Spirit being like pure air, in which we live and move and have our being. Rather like water for fish... without the water the fish cannot live, without air, we cannot live.

....

I persuaded myself to go for a walk; I'd had a restless night last night so was tired and grumpy, and outside it was cold and grey and, horrors, beginning to rain.

'Go on!' I said to myself. 'Give it a go; if you can't get all the way round at least you've tried.'

(I'm constantly talking to myself...)

Stepping out, I was actually surprised to find myself energised by the fresh air after being indoors all day, and surprised myself by feeling energised, and without too much grit or determination did the whole circuit.

The verse came back to mind... in Him.... this Hy Spirit, this Breath of God, we live and move and have our being.