Sunday 2nd November - Lo, I am with you always...

 That's one of the verses from the New Testament which I hold on to, even if I can't quote chapter and verse. I think there's a bit more to it, but those five words are all I need.

The verse often came to mind when I was with my father. He wasn't religious, and so the Bible was no comfort to him. When he was on his own, he was alone, and lonely. Especially when he was in hospital. 

When I've been in hospital by myself, and sometimes really quite scared of the imminent procedure lined up for me (MRI scans, right heart catheters, drug infusions all come to mind) I've hung on to those words. I might not have had flesh-and-blood family-and-friend's hands to hold on to, but I know I've not been totally on my own.

The words came back to me again when I read a blog post recently from a lady whose hospice has had to end its weekly outreach/social meetings (those dreaded funding cuts). This was the only time she could go out and meet her friends there; now she will see her carers twice a day, and that's all. Oh dear. 

I put 'send a postcard' right at the top of my Nine for November list in response to her post; many years ago I was asked to make weekly visits to an elderly and frail member of our congregation. My life was overflowing with commitments at that time, and I knew this would be the straw that broke my back. 

'Look, Peggy,' (not her real name) I said. 'I know I just can't make that promise. But I can promise to send you a postcard every week, just to let you know I'm thinking of you.' 

That worked really well. Occasionally I'd deliver the card in person,  more usually I'd stand by the post box outside the school where I was about to start teaching, or before I roared off to the next one, pull a stamped addressed card from my bag, write it and drop it in. I did this for at least four years; I know because when Peggy died her daughter found a tin with over 200 cards inside, all from me.

So, for the first of November, yesterday, I listened to these Bartok folk dance, which I've known and loved for decades.

Today, for the second of November, I shall send someone a postcard. (Or rather I'll write it, and someone - guess who! - will take it to the post for me!)

Saturday 1st November - Nine for November

 

Image from Wikipedia commons

Oh, the joy of a new month! New starts! An open door to a month of adventure!

Unfortunately it is still the same old me standing at that door, with same old weaknesses (could you pass me another biscuit please? Well, maybe two.. )

 but I won't give up trying...

I used to do a 'write a blog post every day' challenge in November which my son introduced me to (you haven't posted in ages!) but since that habit has stuck, I'll need to think of something else.

I have read of various lists of prompts on various blogs, and I've decided to produce my own;

1 send a postcard 

2 write a letter 

3 send an email (chatty, not business)

4 make biscuits 

5 make scones

6 make a cake

7 tree

8 leaf

9 seed heads 

10 flower

11 child

12 woman

13 man

14 house

15 shed

16 office

17 sea

18 woodland

19 hills

20 parkland

21 Beethoven

22 Debussy

23 Bartok

24 red

25 blue

26 yellow 

27 light

28 dark

29 dawn/dusk

30 circle

I reckon I've got nine categories. Nine for November. I'll do whatever I feel like for each prompt; find a poem instead of making a cake for example (fewer calories!), or photograph a tree instead of drawing one. Each one takes as long as it takes; 30 seconds, 30 minutes...

I'm not planning to do them in order, as long as I've 'done' them all by the end of the month I'll be content. Of course I could do some of them several times... the point is to have a list to turn to whenever I feel the desire to zone out and get sucked into playing Freecell

 - what a monumental waste of time and brain Freecell is, why do I get so hooked in? 'Just another game, another game, another game'. It has, however, given me an insight into how people become addicted to online slot machines - 'just another game, another game, another game'. I'm more sympathetic to their plight 

Well, Freecell has to stop, and mainly because I'm sitting here with such a painful stiff neck - no, don't waste your sympathy on me, please - it's entirely self-inflicted. In a way I'm almost grateful because it's given me the jolt I needed to take action. 

Happy November everyone! May the month be full of lovely moments for you. 

PS SUPERMOON coming up... 5th November 

Friday 31st October - Following a tree

 

I'm 'following my tree' at the end of every month, so here's the October photograph. I'm so glad I took the picture on Tuesday; as you can see the sun was shining, the sky was blue... it's like someone threw a switch that night as it has been pretty horrible outside ever since.

The leaves on the tree are only just beginning to turn. The others on the far side of the stream, to the left, are already heading towards brown. This tree has always taken its time, coming into leaf later, and holding on to them longer.

Today we managed to get to the bank in between rain showers. I've been waiting to deposit some cheques but the branch has been undergoing refurbishment so I've had to wait a couple of weeks. 

Walking up from where we parked, I spotted this;

It's not a real little dog! (I had to look twice to make sure)

We parked in a quiet road full of the most beautiful houses, it's quite the most desirable place to live, less than five minutes from the centre, but so quiet and calm.

Houses like this;

If you zoom in to the window above the door you will see what really caught my eye...

You would have to be very sure to remember to lower the blind before climbing into the bath!Following a tree

Thursday 30th October - perfect patches

This one, from Ang for the 2By2 collaboration, is perfect. 

She created it using autumnal shades of embroidery threads using a speed weaver to make a woven darn on aida fabric. 'A speedweaver?', I hear you ask...

One of these.  

I've got one too... they take a bit of practice but you can make neat,  intricate, and decorative darns.

She also made me a scissors case for folding scissors. If you nip across to her blog you can read all about how the patch and the scissors case were made.

I put the last few stitches into my 2By2 patches this morning so they will be posted when we go into the town tomorrow. 

This afternoon I swiped through 'The Simple Life' magazine on the Pressreader app. My library offers both the Pressreader and Libby apps; Linby let's me read e-books, listen to audio books and read current magazines and newspapers. Pressreader is only for magazines and newspapers but you can read back issues as well. I'd be reluctant to buy Simple Life, but I enjoy flipping swiping through it occasionally. 

An advertisement for this patch caught my eye;

Did they design it especially for me?

This morning I mended a hole in one of my gloves. I didn't have fine red yarn to hand, but there was a length of blue and white sock yarn in the basket... ah well, visible mending is the fashion at the moment!

There's an address to send off for the rest of patches...

Wednesday 29th October - through the deluge

It absolutely tipped it down with rain all day today. Those rather dreary backgrounds I made yesterday, each one about the size of a large postage stamp, were exactly right...

We went to Guildford cathedral this morning to see the 'Threads - through the Cross' exhibition.  It's a series of 14 large, huge, panels, created using appliqué silk fabrics and depicting the life of Jesus from his birth, through his death, to the day of Pentecost. 

This is a selection of panels taken from the website. Well worth zooming in.

The artist is Jacquie Parkinson; you can find out more here. Several of my friends have seen the 'Threads - through Creation' exhibition that toured the country several years ago, so I was pleased to have the opportunity to see it for myself. But - this is a different exhibition by the same artist! She has a third series, on the book of Revelation and I think they could be combined in the future. 

Each panel, as well as depicting a scene, also incorporates a small frame with a different bird, relevant to the scene. For example, bottom left, there is a magpie - 'one for sorrow'.

I would have liked to have spent longer... we won't be able to go back as sadly it closes on Sunday.

Tuesday 28th October - at sixes and sevens

 Literally...

I've been itching to knit this hat since I found the pattern in a book LindaG sent me last year.

It's the top-down 'Swatch-less Watch cap', with the ribbing starting right at the top. That means that the lines of ribbing subdivide as you increase the number of stitches, and you have to follow the pattern very closely as each line is different! Aargh... at one point you add a marker every six stitches, and in theory the number of stitches in each section should always hatch. The trouble started when I checked a few rounds later and discovered that some sections had six stitches and others had seven. Half an hour's tedious 'tinking' and knitting later and order was more or less restored.

This is the book;

all the patterns, even the teddy bear, are knitted in one piece... mind-boggling. The Swatchless Watchcap is the simplest.

The sock pattern starts at the heel and sort of grows into a sock shape. Mind-boggling. I know, I've already said that. But it is.

Now, what is this mucky page of watercolour destined to become?

The bobs of colour have been created (?) Perhaps 'applied' is a better word, by adding water to the painty mess on my watercolour palette and blobbing it on the page. It's the wrong sort of paper too. Oh well. It's just a play a doodling. Not important. 

Here's a clue;

this is a monochrome experiment on my kindle scribe. Lucia Leyfield, the artist who offers the free 'winter trees' video was more 'intentional' in her tree doodling than I was. When I add the trees to the blobs above I'll try and be more 'intentional' too! The results are surprisingly satisfactory for such little time and deliberation.

So sad to hear that Prunella Scales has died*. I loved her as Miss Mapp in the first Mapp and Lucia series. She was so good; if she had read the telephone directory she would have been enthralling. 

* (I have a deep-rooted loathing of the phrase 'passed away', and even when it is abbreviated to 'passed'.)