Saturday 29th April - seize the moment

I thought I'd best write a blog post NOW as I am in SUCH a good mood... what has caused this surge of happiness? 

Lots of small things;

1. We have changed the sheets on the bed. This is a major task in my eyes, all that pushing and pulling and lifting and shoving and raising a dust... but how lovely when it is done!

2. It is sunny, and warmer than yesterday. Could April have finally arrived?

3. I slept like a log last night. Oh, what a difference a good night's sleep makes!

4. My father has made and eaten a proper supper 2 days in a row; a small steak and kidney pudding both nights, with a snack pot of mango pieces one night and a pot of rice pudding  the other night. Half his problems, I suspect, were due to not eating enough, and skipping the evening meal. I have filled his fridge with easy meals, mango snack pots and rice pudding pots in the hope this will help.

5. He is also enthusiastic about the rollator I have ordered; I am hoping it will make getting out MUCH easier!

6. I am reading an old-fashioned but comfortable book; 'Mrs Lorimer's Quiet Summer' by Molly Clavering, set in 1951. It is like an earlier 'Miss Read' style of book, very gentle, amusing, all about the interwoven ups and downs of a large family, but with no great emotional heart-wringing, tensions, searing, wrenching scenes. Maybe even no murders, as a change from recent books?

 I'm hoping that Guy WILL marry RONA in the end, that Phyllis and George sort themselves out and save their marriage, and that Thomas's life will be improved if Mary takes Mrs Lorimer's advice and employs an efficient cook housekeeper to take over the running of the house... but there are still many chapters to go before I know for sure.

Thursday 27th April - best laid plains...

Today was going to be all about cracking on with the of cross stitching. The end is in sight!

However, events intervened. 

I have spent more hours today wearing an FFP2 mask than I have in ages, even including previous hospital appointments for me and my father. Today I  have been accompanying my father to the GP, shopping for his suppers, and restocking his fridge, as he is now at the stage where shopping is too much walking, too tiring.

I enjoyed the shopping - this is the first time I have been in a big Waitrose, rather than a convenience store, since March 2020. Just looking at what's on offer is a real treat, with Himself doing all the reaching up for soup, down for cereal, trekking back for spring onions to help me.

We came home loaded with the contents of one of the cupboards at my father’s flat; packets of bran cereal, some Rich Tea Biscuits  -'I keep them in case I have visitors' (expiry date August 2016) and, big bonus, an enormous wedge of parmesan cheese - I'll replace it with some ready grated which is much easier for him to manage.

I spotted two carefully selected apples had been added to the trolley....

Sadly it's my compost heap which is going to be the main benefactor as the biscuits weren't the only antiques, and I'm not in need of HighFibre food.

Wearing the mask at the doctor's, round the supermarket and in the flat has given my rib cage such a workout! My chest is aching with the effort, bit a good night's sleep will solve it. Very few people are wearing them anymore, I noticed, but sadly it is still necessary for me, and therefore my husband, as catching covid or a chest infection would be seriously bad news. I'm looking forward with hope for when things might change in the future, and more closely for warmer weather which really helps.

Tomorrow will now have to be Even More Cross Stitching! 

Wednesday 26th April - Notebooks, cross stitch, daffodils

In other words, a random set of topics...

Notebooks

I think I've got it sort of sorted;

On the left, my current Commonplace Book which doubles as the new Sketch-a-day journal, and under it (with the little monogram) my paper diary/note book.

On the right, previous Commonplace books and sketch journal.

In the middle, a couple of old journals which are now torn into pieces and in the recycling. That sounds a bit drastic! That's because the writings in these are me expressing whatever upset me, annoyed me, stuff that I really wouldn't want anyone else to read. So, to avoid consequences, these journals are destroyed unseen by other eyes.

Finally, there is another diary upstairs where I write about the events of the day. Like a good friend dropping by yesterday with a bunch of daffodils;

Sunshine.

Or the mouse/rat (I had another go at drawing it)

Cross stitch

Another 160 stitches (crosses) completed. That leaves about 270 to go...

Tuesday 25th April - The long wait is over

Posting to this blog, and keeping up with projects and admin has been erratic for the last couple of months.

There's a reason for this;

Here are some of the daily drawings that I held back;

Thursday 19th January - top right, an appointment with a wonderful gastroenterology consultant (Himself was also there, but I ran our of space to include him in the drawing);

Back in December 2022 I had a routine CT scan of my lungs. At the follow-up appointment with the Lung clinic consultant in January, I learned that my lungs were more or less unchanged, but the scan had shown something in the pancreas area. She said she had asked for me to be referred to the local hospital gastroenterology department for further investigation. This appointment came through pretty quickly, and resulted in an MRI scan just a few days later; bottom left drawing!  

It was a long scan - about 30 minutes, maybe more; hard to tell with your eyes firmly shut! But then I had to wait - and wait - and wait to hear the results. I had been assured by the specialists - lung and gastroenterologist - that the most likely thing was that the unidentified objects would be harmless cysts. I had been in contact with the medical secretary because they wanted to get hold of the original CT scan, so I knew that my case had been reviewed within a week, but then she said the follow-up appointment would be 8-10 weeks... Oh. My. Word. 

I tried to stay calm by thinking that they would get in touch sooner if rapid action was required - I had been referred as a 'fast-track referral'. Even so, 8-10 weeks.

Meanwhile my father (who will be 94 in a couple of months) was ill in March for three or four weeks, so there was worry and appointments and so on for him as well...

Well, he has recovered and is back to his usual self, playing bridge every week, going to the quiz night, and hopefully even joining the weekly chair-exercise sessions which are beginning again!

And yesterday;

We had my follow-up appointment; yes, they ARE just cysts, and nothing else needs to be done about them (let sleeping cysts lie?). Another hugely helpful, knowledgeable, kind consultant - surgeon this time - took the time to explain everything very clearly.

I'm very relieved, and it is only now that the effort of staying calm, coping with the daily round of life plus dealing with what I think of as 'unexpected items in bagging area' is making itself felt. 

Normal service might be resumed soon...

Cross Country Collaboration

There have been many days over the past few weeks when I have been completely unable to concentrate on anything for more than a few minutes. But today was a marathon cross-stitch day. I have worked out that I will need to do 1,910 stitches for April's picture. Today, after an hour or so this morning, and again in the afternoon, I have completed 1,380 stitches! You don't know how good this makes me feel! So that means just 530 to go. I might even get it into the post box on Sunday!

  

   

Sunday 23rd April - Night Time Liturgy

This Night-Time Prayer comes from New Zealand. 

You can read the lovely story behind the prayer here.

Lord,

it is night.

The night is for stillness.
Let us be still in the presence of God.

It is night after a long day.
What has been done has been done;
what has not been done has not been done;
let it be.

The night is dark.
Let our fears of the darkness of the world and of our own lives
rest in you.

The night is quiet.
Let the quietness of your peace enfold us,
all dear to us,
and all who have no peace.

The night heralds the dawn.
Let us look expectantly to a new day,
new joys,
new possibilities.

In your name we pray.

Amen. 

Saturday 22nd April - I saw a...mouse?

Well, maybe... yesterday I was charmed and alarmed to see a fairly large mouse running along the wall of the raised flowerbed near the house. It sat on the wall for a few moments before disappearing down the gap between the back of the bed and the fence.

So I spent this morning watching and following a couple of video tutorials on drawing mice, in my 'rough book'. The artists in the tutorials used pencils - I used my fountain pen. I am pretty pleased with the results.

Today, our gardener says she saw a small RAT scuttling along the fence down to the bottom of the garden.

Oh.

Friday 21st April - I have had some sherry. Expect typos

 The last three days have been heavy on admin, and heavy on zooms; only two extra zooms on top the of scheduled 6 piano zooms and one church house group zoom, but it seems that the effect of increasing numbers of zoom sessions is more than one might think. Still, it's the end of the week, and no more zooms until Sunday (church livestream, not really a zoom, followed by two 'chatty' zooms)

I've written up all the piano lessons apart from the two today. I like to leave a day before I write up the lesson - is that laziness at the end of the day? Or a chance to reflect on the lesson? Or maybe both?

I've written up and emailed the notes from the house group zoom, and printed a set to post/deliver to our non-internet member.

And - this is the biggie - I have started gathering together the facts and figures to construct a tax return... the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth as far as I can manage.

 It's not been all playing the piano keyboard and tapping the computer keyboard. 

I've been watching youtubes on drawing trees;

I finished my sketch-a-day journal on 1st April, and rather than buy yet another notebook, I decided to use my Commonplace Book for the daily sketches. I've had a series of Commonplace Books on the go for a number of years, to note down poems, quotations, etc etc and this particular book has pages which are able to cope with pen and ink, and watercolour (as long as it isn't too wet). 

Just before Easter I bought the companion book to 'Bored Of Lunch - Slow Cooker recipe book', which is 'Bored of Lunch - Air Fryer recipe book'

I had a go at the low-calorie sausage rolls, made with tortilla wraps instead of pastry. They were pretty good - we shared half for supper, and will have the other half for supper tomorrow. The picture shows half the batch. 

I didn't quite understand the instructions so this is what I did; I used half a dozen decent quality sausages (not the low-calorie ones specified), one egg, three large tortilla wraps.

Skin the sausages, and mix the meat with extra herbs if you like. Divide into three lumps.

Beat the egg to use partly as glue, and partly as egg wash (I wonder if milk would be as good?)

Take a tortilla, lay flat and trim off a little of four edges to square it up a bit. Squidge the meat into a long thin sausage and lay near one edge, roll up the wrap and sausage using a generous application of egg-wash to make sure the thing sticks and stays rolled up. Repeat for other two tortillas. 

Cut each roll into bite sizes - I got about 16-18 pieces - glaze with egg wash and cook for 11 mins at 200C. Not bad. I cooked them on silicone air-fryer liner which you can see in the picture - it sits in the basket and saves on washing up.

Some kitting today - the mitre-square blanket. I am slowly re-doing the cuffs of the socks in order to do a stretchier cast off, and that needs brain. 

No cross stitch - I am short on brain power today, and now that I've drunk that glass of sherry the brain power is going fast.

Thursday 20th April - Half-way - That pesky delete button - Feinman - Asimov - Gardner

 I did some sums as I was feeling that I had A Long Way To Go with the current cross stitch. Hurrah - I'm half-way through - I've done about 800 stitches, and there are two blocks, of 330 and 460 stitches to go. Now it is looking more achievable.

It will be more than this, because my stitching tends to be make a dozen crosses, sigh, un-thread my needle and undo three crosses, thread the needle and make another dozen. Hopefully I will improve my success rate as I continue.

I really must stop trying to publish comments using my phone. The number of times I have caught the 'delete' instead of the 'publish' command is ridiculous. If I zoomed the screen before I started touching the commands that would save me - and you.

So, Jane-from-Dorset, I apologise to you for not publishing your comment which was as follows;

Jane from Dorset has left a new comment on your post 'Tuesday 18th April - Yogurt, Seeds, Quantum Physics':

Yes, do add some skimmed milk powder, it improves the quality of the yoghurt.

The Feynman diagram news sounds interesting-off to investigate as we spent a whole course using these at university.

As soon as one touches 'delete' it becomes impossible to rescue the situation, apart from copying the comments and adding it, but under my own name. Which I have done. 

The picture I found of a Feynman diagram was from a video on youtube. So if anyone is interested, have search. Feynman is mostly beyond me - in the sense that I'm not willing to invest in the time and mental energy it would take to understand the science. But I do enjoy his lighter weight books - I suspect as a personality one would have to consider him as a 'man of his time', but there's no doubting his giant intellect and lively writing style.

The first science writer that really grabbed my attention as Isaac Asimov - maybe better known for his science fiction, especially the Foundation series and the robot stories. But I remember reading 'View From a Height' sub-titles 'a brilliant overview of the exciting realm of science'. I am tempted to get a second-hand copy to see what made such a vivid impression.... maybe not at that price...

 And I leaned from a twitter friend (a real person - I do actually know him!) that you can buy Martin Gardner books - so there's another treat in store for Mathematicians. In fact the bookshop of the American Mathematical Society will let you have a complete collection, including his columns Scientific American for $99. Himself is Very Tempted.

I only managed to sow broad beans - white flowered, and crimson flowered, and peas on Tuesday. It was too cold. It's too cold again today; lovely bright sun, but that wind!

Tuesday 18th April - Yogurt, Seeds, Quantum Physics

 So here I am, tapping out notes for yesterday's piano student; she's spent the whole Easter break having a wonderful time with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, and Einaudi and other things, and consequently forgotten how to play the various pieces we were working on for her Grade 7. Ah well. She's playing, and loving what she's playing which is the main thing. They often drop out when they are teenagers because there are so many other things filling their time, and bringing more instant rewards than unwillingly slogging through a Haydn sonata.

Really, I am watching the weather. It is a sunny, balmy morning, with a bit of a breeze. Yesterday I plotted the veg patch and went through my seeds;

These are the ones I want to plant today and I have promised myself that as soon as I finish typing I will be out there, even though the sun has disappeared and the wind is getting stronger. 

Tomatoes and flower seeds need to be started on the windowsills freed up by moving the salvia cuttings.

I've also been making yogurt; Heat milk until boiling, allow to cool to blood heat (just nice and warm when you stick  finger in to test). Put half a small tub of live yogurt into a wide-mouthed food flask and keep stirring as you slowly add the milk. Seal, and leave alone for 24 hours.

The resulting yogurt is rather thinner than I like (do you remember 'drinking yogurt' - not quite as thin as that) so I strain it.

Here's how much I ended up with - about two carton's worth. This batch is the texture of cream cheese, with a pleasantly milk taste.

As for quantum physics - I really don't have a clue. We (Himself and I) as sitting opposite each other at the table, working away on our respective laptops. I thought he was deep into the online grocery order, as he looked up with that glazed expression one gets after scrolling through myriads of little pictures to select the right kind of whatever. But no, his head was full of some recent development in quantum physics to do with solving a problem to do with predicting tunneling events... I was thinking of tunnels under the ground, but this is to do particle physics. We do have some hobbies in common. I can confidently say that this is not one of them.

Still, if this new development renders Feinman diagrams obsolete, does that release me from any obligation to try and learn about them?

Sunday 16th April - The quickest to clean dirt from under your fingernails

 

... is to do the washing up. Confess - you thought I was going to write 'is to make pastry'....

Anyway, my hands are all clean and pink now.

I've been gardening. My gloves were in 'the other shed' rather than in 'my shed', and anyway, I always say I'm only going to do a little bit and don't need my gloves, but as always one thing leads to another.

I've re-potted the salvia 'Armistead' and salvia 'hot lips' cuttings that have been overwintering on my windowsill. The Armistead ones have been flowering (in March and April? madness) and grown too big for their pots, so now they are in an unheated polythene greenhouse and I hope they will survive. The forecast looks hopeful at any rate. I think all the salvias in the flowerbed have died. They are not terribly hardy so cuttings are a good idea. 

And, with the help of Himself, I have tidied and arranged the vegetable 'garden' ready to make a start in the next few days, DV. It's looking like this at the moment (everything is always subject to change!)

Now I need to figure out what to plant where. The nearest pots need to have low-growing stuff, the two big black ones can have tall things and the others - anything, I suppose. The morning sun comes from where I was standing, and the afternoon sun from the left. The pots nearest the fence will be quite shaded - spinach? Lettuce, maybe?

The main idea is to have the rows no more than 2 deep, otherwise I can't manage to reach over to the ones in the middle, as I found last year.

Onwards - to tidy the horrors that you can't see to the left of the picture. Tomorrow, perhaps. 

Sunday 16th April - Contemplation - Meditation - whatever you call it

I host a weekly zoom church home group. If you are not familiar home groups, many churches encourage members of the congregation to join a midweek group for friendship, and also Christian study/prayer etc. 

Our's is not a typical on-line group as three of the members are non-zoomers, so stay in touch by weekly emails about the meeting that they didn't join. Another member doesn't do internet, so I post a copy of the email, and she zooms from a friend's house. It works for us.

Now that Lent has finished, and Easter Day is past, as usual we come to the question of what to do next?

We have decided to take a small chunk - a verse or two - from the Bible, and just sit with it in silence for 5 minutes, before sharing our thoughts. No notes, no carefully prepared questions to answer, no right or wrong answers...  

All the above is by way of introduction to what I am suggesting to you; take five minutes during the day (morning suits me) and contemplate something.

I plan to take one line at a time from The Lord's Prayer, and just think about it, and see where my thoughts travel to, every morning, starting from today. And my thoughts today were to share this idea with you. 

Now, you might not be a Christian - you might not be religious at all.

So, instead of contemplating 'The Lord's Prayer', line by line, you could choose a prayer or story from your own faith. Or, if you don't want to think about religious topics, I could make suggestions; here's a week's worth of hopefully neutral topics for contemplation;

A tree

A house

A fire

An apron

A flower

The sun

A road

Five minutes of slow, silent, contemplation, linking images and thoughts together. Why not give it a go?

 

 

Saturday 15th April - A Good Day for Doing Things

 First of all (and this was a tense twenty-five minutes) I have started the heel of my sock;

Step one was to watch the Arne and Carlos video on how to pick up the stitches for 'the easiest sock in the world' - they make it look so easy...

Like I said, it was a tense time, with many pauses to check a) I was doing it correctly b) that my jaw wasn't clenched c) that I had remembered to blink my eyes d) that I was still remembering to breathe. Eventually I managed to pick up all 60 stitches, 30 on each of my bendy needles as opposed to splitting it between four needles as they do. 

More tension, as I unravelled the contrast thread that I had knitted in where the heel was going to be all those weeks and weeks ago

Leaving the stitches (31 on one needle now - how did that happen? And should there have been 32? Oh well. I couldn't see any dropped stitches anywhere....)

The next problem was 'did I have enough blue sock yarn?' The knitted swatch was a trial for another project, on larger needles, and weighed 1.5g. The little nest of yarn that I had left for the heels was 3g, so not enough for one heel let alone two. The ball of multicoloured sock yarn weighs 24.5g, so that made the decision for me - contrasting heels!

And I'm off!

The heel is going to be the most peculiar shape, as you just follow the instructions for the toe in reverse.

 Arne, or is it Carlos?, assures us that it will sort of round itself out with wear. I believe every word he says, I think... 

I've also cleared another couple of overdue emails, prepared two more tubs for veg planting and done a good deal of cross stitching.

Now why is everything centred on the page, and refusing to left align?

Friday 14th April - weather dependent

What is weather dependent?

Whether we get any gardening done... yes, as a matter of fact. There was a brief spell in the afternoon when himself roared up and down the grass with the lawn mower (it was the lawn mower doing the roaring, I should explain). Heavy work, as the grass was long (first cut of the year) and not as dry as would make things easier. Meanwhile I sat on my trusty little trolley seat  and cleared out another couple of tubs ready for vegetable seeds - when? Ah, well, that's weather dependent too.

(No, this isn't me - I've snipped the picture from amzn)

I'm amazed that the trolley still supports my weight. We keep it outside, and every time I trundle it out from under the potting table I expect the plastic to have perished, and to find myself ignominiously dumped in a heap on the round.

Was it really last September and October that I was poring over seed catalogues...

This is the first year that my windowsills haven't been full of little trays of earth and hope... 

Whether I am feeling energetic or sluggish or downright dismal. This changeable weather can switch my mood as many times as the sun shines or the rain pours or the wind blows, often all at the same time and then where am I? 

Whether I get things done - I am slightly celebrating because I have dealt with a number of tasks  including sending the invoices for the next six week's piano teaching. There are too many Monday Bank holidays this half of term so I'm not sure how that will play out for the Monday evening pupil. Mostly we ignore them and keep on trucking through.

One thing I have started today is the cross stitching. I charted it yesterday (twice) and began stitching (twice)... luckily I had only done a row and a half and it was easy to unpick. So no heavy sighs or regrettable language.

The stand magnifying glass makes such a difference...

Whether a blog post gets written or not, no, nothing to do with the weather. More a case of suddenly remembering at 7.59 pm that I was hosting a group zoom at 8pm... 

Wednesday 13th April - still the holidays

Less and less is getting done, but isn't that the point of school holidays? At least to some extent?

Reading;

I think I have read a whole Dick Francis in one day; 'In the frame'. I know I have read it seventies before, but I had almost completely forgotten the plot, apart from one incident fairly early on. I read 'To the hilt' a few days ago, mainly to revisit the bits about how the painter creates the pictures, and was hoping to compare the painting bits with 'In the frame', but this is an earlier book, published in 1976, and before there was so much detail about the various professions (air traffic control, glass sculpting, travelling on trains across Canads, to name a few).

I've also finished the Trisha Ashley 'Happy Endings', again an earlier book in the rom-com series. I prefer the later ones, although there were some lovely phrases; a woman who lives in a Manor, breeds dogs 'with a name like Wiener Schnitzels' and goes around in 'one of those caped Barbour coats and green wellies, looking like an escaped tarpaulin'. How I wish I'd thought of those descriptions! 

Listening;

This morning (at about 3am) I finished listening to 'An enemy at Green Knowe' by Lucy M Boston. One more book in that audible bundle,  but I had an unused credit so bought the first three books, also bundled together.

Zooming;

long chatty zoom in the morning with a friend - it would usually incorporate a piano lesson but we are both enjoying the school holidays. 

Knitting;

More ribbing around the sock... halfway through.

Running Repairs;

This isn't really my department... although I suppose I have some involvement... Himself is in the midst of sorting out the collapse of the cutlery drawer. Something gave way as I pulled it out yesterday, resulting in the sudden self-dismantling of said drawer. I managed to grasp it in such a way as to prevent it from completely deconstructing into front, va k, sides and base, and dumping the contents over the floor. Now we need different screws to the ones in the tool box, no, different ones to the ones delivered today... meanwhile drawer and contents are filling the dining table and we are eating of trays. 

Gardening;

Hahaha ha no. It has been sunny for short intervals in the day, for long enough for Himself to collect up the scattered garden chairs from where the fierce gusts of wind scattered them across the garden. The rest of the day was drizzle, rain, heavy rain, more rain, less rain...

Walking/stepping/exercising;

Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof....

Now, what shall I read next?

Tuesday 11th April - English April

Yesterday we had warm sun, rain, strong winds and a rainbow, sometimes all at the same time.

Today was pretty much the same, except no rainbow, and the different types of weather came one after the other; sun, wind, clouds and rain. 

I've been more than usually breathless since the weekend, even resorting to using my oxygen concentrator during the day to keep my resting oxygen saturation level around 90% or above. I started the reserve antibiotics kept at the back of the drawer yesterday, and reckon it's improving things. I know they don't cure colds and lurgies, but the purpose of them for me is to to prevent any likelihood of a chest infection getting a hold. (Sats currently at 90%, without extra oxygen this evening; a big improvement on yesterday!)

The first effect of low oxygen levels is to make me inclined to be tearful, welling up for the slightest reason, so I'm glad I'm getting better!

Meanwhile I continue to take things relatively easy; 

knitting - 

I'm up to the ribbing of the second sock 

and I'm steadily adding more mitred squares to the patchwork blanket

Cross stitch:

 I'm still mulling over my plans, but I'll have to choose soon, and get stitching.

Reading; 

light-weight cosy whodunnits and rom-coms are the order of the day. I've indulged in Far too many Trisha Ashley rom-coms recently, but she has a wonderful turn of phrase which I an extremely envious of.

I'm also hugely enjoying listening to the last three Greene Knowe books in the series by by Lucy M Boston on audible. Her descriptions of the country are just beautiful. I finished listening to Stranger at Greene Knowe, featuring Hanno the gorilla and the delightful boy, Ping, a few nights ago (it was my insomnia listening). Enemy at Greene Knowe, book 5, is just enough on the 'safe' side of scary for me to cope with in my current mood. One of these days I will manage to visit Greene Knowe, for the house really does exist, exactly it is in the books.

I have two Donna Leon books lined up to read next, in her Inspector Brunetti series, set in Venice.

I have been ignoring my daily step target (a mere 2023) for the past couple of days; barely managing more than 600. Today is looking better, as somehow I'm on course to pass 1000.

Monday 10th April - Questions

 About all I have accomplished today is finishing and sending off the stitched square which is my contribution to our local Eco group's thing. I think it is some sort of cape; it is going to be very heavy by the time all the squares are stitched to it.

We were asked to write about our square. This accurately sums up my 'creative process', if it could be called that. After layering bits of the various fabrics supplied in the project bag I was thoroughly dissatisfied with the result. I draped a bit of cord over it to see if that would improve things and decided to stitch it down as it lay. 

My accompanying statement is more about hope than certainty. I really don't know enough about green issues to make informed decisions apart from dutifully recycling as much as I can.

It does seem that as fast as we try and solve one eco problem, half a dozen more rise up... for example, electric cars - hooray - but then the extra weight of the vehicle causes more pollution from tyre wear on the roads, the batteries need replacing after a couple of years, and cats are being written off and scrapped after quite minor accidents because the batteries are attached to the chassis, and could be compromised if the vhassis is damaged. And that's before we discuss how the extra power for charging them is to be generated and the national grid upgraded, and the latest news report on whether multistorey carparks are strong enough...

I've just finished reading a whodunit by Marisala Taylor set in the Shetland Isles, and one of the subplots concerns a huge wind farm (hooray) supplying clean energy (hooray) but necessitating construction work which will destroy an area of peat bog (boo) releasing CO2 (boo) and adversely affect the main breeding site of the bird population (boo)...

It was a good read, anyhow. I'm not sure if the prospective (fictional?) windfarm will feature in future books in the series.

Easter Sunday - A day of rest and quietness

The last month has been so full of events that we have been grateful to celebrate Easter very quietly. I expect Jesus was ready for a rest too... Thursday and Friday, and then Saturday spent in the harrowing of hell...

Easter Saturday is an odd sort of day, betwixt the sorrows of Friday and the rejoicing of Sunday. It helps that we know how it ends, unlike the first disciples.

I think of Jesus spending Saturday descending into hell to lead 'the people who sit in darkness and the shadow of death' into the light, as prophesied in the Old Testament and sung about in the O Antiphons in the week before Christmas. Busy busy busy.

I'm not sure what Jesus did with himself for the rest of that first Easter Sunday, after reassuring the women that he was alive in the morning. Perhaps he found a quiet spot to gather his thoughts before appearing to the rest of the disciples that evening...

This is a chunk from John's gospel, chapter 20;

Like I  said, we have the comfort of knowing that the crucifixion was not the end of everything. 

'Peace be with you' said Jesus, twice. 

May we too receive this peace. 

Saturday 8th April - Celebrations

 We met up with family - more family! - this morning, and were lucky with the weather.  The day began cold and misty, but by the time we had finished a late breakfast at the cafe (waffles, maple syrup and bacon) the sun had burned through the clouds. 

We handed over birthday presents (not for me) and exchanged Easter eggs. I also took the opportunity to pass on all the fluffy Easter chick's, woolly lambs and decorated Easter eggs which have been accumulating over the years, kept over from various Easter egg hunts in years gone. Eggcellent; more things rehomed! 

I had another chance to practise witn the drawing app on my phone while tgey went off for a walk. There are two of these large terracotta pots with bay trees near our preferred table, underplanted with ivy and daffodils. 

It was such a lovely day we stayed on for lunch.

So good to spend time with family and friends. I'm looking forward to more of these occasions as the weather improves. 

Good Friday 7th April 2023

 A group of us have been following the Lent course written by Andrew Dotchin some years ago, called 'Of Mice and Marshwiggles' and based on the Narnia books. I strongly recommend All his Lent courses. 

I made a mistake this morning, and selected tomorrow's reading, day 40, instead of today's.  I'm not great at 'doing' Good Friday, especially when other circumstances make me feel a little fragile. The end of tomorrow's reading is this, which is so full of hope, life, joy, that I am sharing it now.

Friday 7th April - yesterday and today

We did have tea outside in the afternoon; the almond macaroons I made on Wednesday afternoon. It was cold, sunny and cloudy by turns, but didn't start to rain until it was time to say goodbyes.

I had also made small panna cottage in espresso cups. I didn't serve them yesterday as in the end the macaroons were enough. So we had one each today at lunch time.

Oh me oh my! Why have I never made them before? I started with this recipe and also the instructions on the packet 

and gave it some thought. I always knew mental arithmetic lessons at school would come in useful (well no, not at the time, maybe). Eventually I  came to the conclusion that half a pint of 50/50 double cream and milk (semi skimmed) and 15g sugar and 2 leaves of gelatine should work. I heated the milk/cream/sugar in the microwave, added the soaked gelatine and stirred Intel it was all smooth.

 We had one each after lunch topped with a little whisky marmalade in lieu of fruit compote. Delicious! I will make this again, with a little more milk for a softer set.

It was a fitting reward for this morning's Adventures. 

Firstly, we used the in-post lockers to send a box of books to ziffit. Turned out to be as easy as making panna cottage.

Secondly, for the first time in three years, I went in to John Lewis for a look-see and to buy a birthday card. We were wearing FFP2  masks, but by walking very slowly and steadily I managed to keep my breathing under control. The store has undergone quite a major revamp since I was last there, and this is the first time I have been a-browsing for - literally - years.

Thirdly, while he was queueing to pay for the card(s) and other bits and pieces, I stood near the cafe and experimented with the drawing app on my phone

Fourthly, we took three bags of clothes and books and bric-a-brac to the charity shop.

In the afternoon we had tea and cake with friends in their garden. This time the sun came out and it was actually HOT! What a day.

I did a bit more to the cafe sketch just before writing this post.

Wednesday 5th April - Gluten-free surprise

 Family is dropping by tomorrow - what a lovely surprise! So we have found the 'round tuit' ("I'll do it when I  get a round tuit") and demolished the cobwebs from the bathroom windows, cleaned the bathroom, hoovered the kitchen, hall, stairs and landing (and our bedroom while the hoover as upstairs - after all, why not!?), polished the taps and changed the handtowels in readiness. 

Of course, we Always do All of this Every Week... well, to be more truthful, most weeks. There are only two of us, and sadly no cats anymore, so how dirty can the floors get? (I did work with someone years ago who couldn't sleep at night unless she had hoovered the whole house every evening... I  was speechless, in a mix of awe, admiration and disbelief)

We shan't be entertaining indoors (covid protection is still a thing for me) but there is always the possibility of someone needing the loo before their hour drive home.

Then I thought about needing to be able to offer a gluten free something to go with coffee or tea. Ah. We have got Nairn's plain and also chocolate chip oatcakes in the cupboard,  but not all oats are as gluten free as one might hope. And what about the malted barley syrup in the list of ingredients?

I've gone back to a tried and tested old fashioned favourite; Almond macaroons;

I followed the recipe, halving the quantities; 1 egg white, beaten to a foam, 110g ish ground almonds and 60g caster sugar. Reading on in the recipe, I saw that this also makes a traditional Passover treat if you add cinnamon to the dry ingredients and leave the mix as little balls rather than flattening them. I left out the cinnamon as I'm not sure if my visitors would like it, but otherwise carried on.

The advantage was that ten little balls of mixture fitted nicely into the air fryer, taking about 18 minutes at 160°C. I've rolled them in icing sugar as the recipe instructs and put them away until tomorrow. 

Have you seen tomorrow's forecast? Yesterday's sunny day was more of a trailer for the coming Spring. Today has been mostly cold, and tomorrow looks like being showery. Tea or coffee in the garden might not be happening after all....

Tuesday - a feast is as good as enough

I have had sticky toffee pudding and double cream for supper, after sardines on toast. We have discovered a brand of sardines called King Oscar;

I expect they are ridiculously expensive compared to 'the usual' but in my book they are worth the money as a treat.

As was the sticky toffee pudding. I wouldn't normally eat something as rich as this tin the evening so fingers crossed I don't have reason to regret this in the wee small hours.

Spring arrived in the afternoon. I had a couple of free hours and found the energy and oomph to get into the garden. Maybe joining Vicky (our gardener) was the incentive I needed. I sorted out the two small plastic greenhouses with Vicky's help, and cleared out the cold frame, and settled down on a sort of tro.ley-seat on wheels to clear 4 vegetable tubs of weeds and empty another couple of large pots ready for sowing some seeds soon. Pictures in a few days...

In consequence I have had a surfeit of exercise, fresh air and sun. If this weather can just last a little longer...

I think I have settled on April's cross stitch design, but I can never be sure until I have finished it and put in the post.

Monday 4th April - Exercises and sewing and Windows 11

 This arrived in the post for me today;

My Medal! I started 'walking' the South Downs Way on Boxing Day last year, and completed the 100 miles last Saturday. Let's be honest here; it s a virtual walk, where you enter the distance in km, miles or steps and you can see the course of your travels plotted on a map. I've been aiming for a daily step count of 2000 by the end of each day - not much, but it has kept me active. If I do NOTHING but sit and red, sit and knit, sit and watch television, my step counter can be less than 500 by bedtime. So this has been a real incentive to walk those extra steps, usually 'on the spot' while watching television.

One side shows Beachy Head, and the other King Arthur's Round Table, which is at Winchester. The disc rotates, showing various landmarks along the route on the Beachy Head side, and the names of the Knights on the other.   

I'm going to try talking my ancient and reluctant relative (mentioning no names) through a short and simple set of chair exercises several times a week as part of my phone call - I phone most days. He used to go to a proper Chair Exercise class, but that stopped some time ago. He has become a bit wobbly, partly s a result of being unwell recently. I'm no trained fitness instructor, but I reckon this will do us both good; - everything to be done gently and easily without strain...

1. wriggle your toes, flex your ankles up and down a coupe of times, rotate them a couple of times clockwise and then anticlockwise.
2. raise your foot and lower legs up, and lower a coupe of times (do each let separately)
3. see if you can get your knees to touch the underside if your table in turn (I know he is sitting in a chair with arms at his desk)
4. hands and wrists; stretch your fingers, and loosely relax them into a fist, repeat. Wriggle your fingers as though you were drumming them on a table top, or playing a piano. Bend your wrist up, then down, up, then down. Rotate your wrists one way, then the other, and repeat.
5. shoulders; raise and lower each shoulder in turn, make them go forwards and back in turn, rotate one way and the other.
6. neck; slowly look to the left, and the to the right, and then left and right again.
7. You're done! 

"Really," he said in surprise.

"Yup. was that okay?"

"Well, yes. More trivial than I was expecting. Thought you were planning something much more strenuous".

I hope he will be happy to do this again - it only takes just over 5 minutes. I'm assuming he did try and do it all - I did point out that there was no way I could tell if he was joining in, so he could just pretend and that would keep me happy...

This was the next thing to arrive;

A small brown paper bag with a square of orange furnishing material, two other scraps of cotton, a square of wadding and a little clear bag of notions - buttons, a ribbon, embroidery floss. It's for a project that our local eco group is running (not the church one but the town one), to collect embroidered squares and sew them into a sort of cloak.

I didn't choose the colours, and am a bit non-plussed. The theme is nature; they are the colours of the desert burned dry by the sun. I knew that if I ferreted through the bags that a friend brought round I would get lost, so just picked the first one.

Can you see what it is yet? 

No? Well neither can I.

So far I have made a quilted background - not quite finished. I've added some of the pieces of brown and dark red lace that Ang sent me right at the beginning of the postcard project, and I think I will add the green sequins she included, to be seeds. Then what? Belum tahu, as they say in Indonesia, one of the few phrases I remember from over 50 years ago. It means 'don't know'.

My Cross Country Collaboration has arrived with Ang, so I can post the picture now;

 I'm tempted to leave it small - it's meant to be daffodils on the banks of Ullswater. Oh, let's go large!

Finally - Windows 11 - a 'heads up' - I haven't moved to windows 11 on this computer, although my husband has moved his. It's ok, but a bit different to Windows 10. The messages 'inviting' me to upgrade are coming thick and fast now, and need careful reading or you will find yourself upgraded willy-nilly. That might be fine for you - or it moght not.