Thursday 31st August - every day, in every way...

I'm feeling better and better...

At the time I would have blogged yesterday I had just about nothing to say, except that Ang's August Cross-Stitch-Collaboration (or were we calling it Cross-Country-Stitching-Collaboration - I forget) arrived late afternoon, and as usual it is awe-inspiring. I shall photograph it and share it's glory this evening, when I can get the stitching, my phone camera and the laptop all in the same place at the same time.

Other exciting things happened just before we went to bed...

(don't hold your breath - it takes very little to categorize an event as 'exciting' these days)

To begin with, this was the first evening I felt up to going 'slugging' since Friday. I noticed a day ago that those marauding molluscs had been at my three surviving pak choi, chomping on the leaves. We went out and prowled around the pots, and, Eureka! A massive snail just getting started on the pak choi. He was first into the pot (NOT a cooking pot for Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's slug and snail stew, I should add). In a few minutes we  had collected a dozen or more of assorted species and sizes and dealt with them.

Secondly, I actually remembered bout the supermoon, and opened the front door on the way to the stairs, and there it was, huge and pale and creamy-yellowy-white watching over us all in what I took to be a benign fashion.

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Pak choi check this morning; there they are, the little darlings, bedded down in slug-deterrent wool and surrounded by coffee grounds. The snail in question was stretching out from the edge of the tub to reach the overhanging leave - I shall take steps to thwart that mode of attack later today!

All the other tubs contain nothing except forget-me-nots and weeds, as the slugs and snails have already munched all the little cauliflower and spring onion seedlings for their suppers. I have swiss chad and kohl rabi all ready to plant out, but am strangely reluctant to bear any more mollusc-related disappointments...

This morning I am considerably improved, as long as I don't test the boundaries of the improvement too far.

The proof is in the killer sudoku test - I completed the 'expert' level without needing any of the 3 lives.

 I have spent most of the morning NOT using oxygen, until just now when I completed the arduous task of choosing 2 long-sleeved shirts, checked, 2 short-sleeved shirts, patterned, and two pairs of jeans for my father, having had an opportunity to look a what he was wearing to the hospital last week. I'll tackle shoes and slippers and a decent jacket for him next... thank heavens for mail order.

Monday 21st August - A new week begins

 One short comment on the news, the dreadful, dreadful news about that nurse and the poor babies and families, the missed opportunities to prevent further deaths, and the awful possibility that she could have harmed other babies.

 Most of us manage to trundle through our days without coming into direct contact with such unimaginable evil; my prayers are for everyone directly or indirectly affected by these tragic events. 

So while I am burbling on about my own relatively happy life I have not forgotten that many people here, and also in distant lands, have to endure very different circumstances.

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Last Monday I was feeling a bit low; leaving the hospital after a blood test I struggled with breathless walking up the gentle slope through the dark park. I probably had to pause for a moment about 3 or 4 tomes. Today, after I had the repeat test, I strolled through the car park with no bother at all. What was that all about? Maybe I had a bit of a lurgy? 

Anyway, today started well for me and continued in the same mode. Like receiving a text from the credit card company; 'thank you for your payment, and you can avoid interest charges by making a further payment of 11p by 23:59 tonight'. I always pay off the complete balance every month, but this time I must have somehow underpaid. Last time did - maybe 20 years ago - I was hugely irritated to get caught for the full charge. Sending a warning text seems remarkably civilised behaviour.

There was one glitch in my happy day, one fly in the ointment, as it were.  Or rather slugs and snails in among the pak choi plants. Overnight half my brave little plants had been ruthlessly devoured. It would make a Saint use deeply unspiritual language. After contemplating the scene for some time, I tenderly surrounded the survivors with sluggone wool pellets. 

Tonight Himself and Myself will be out after dark with a torch and the slugging tongs to see what we can see and catch anything that can't run away (that should be the easy bit).

We might be able to see the moon, which rose at half past eleven this morning, but doesn't set until nearly ten tonight. It is a waxing crescent moon.

 Meanwhile today continues well. I have already hit my step target of 3000, by attempting to average 300 steps an hour through the day, Only Connect and University Challenge are on BBC tonight, and there were a couple of chocolate truffles left for chocolate o'clock.

Sunday 20th August - Lionesses, and Learning more about the moon

 Lionesses, football, National Football Fever...

I guess a lot of church-goers were conflicted this morning; go to church or watch the footie? I could have had the best of both world; put the football on TV while joining with the church live stream on the laptop. It was an easy choice for me - I'm not that interested in any kind of football, so I joined the church (and also did cross stitch). I did wonder about the propriety of the whole church congregation decamping to the local pub to watch the match, and following it with either a 'service of celebration' or a 'litany of lament'...

I was thinking about how I go about learning new things. About this moon going round the earth going round the sun. It is just too much to take in all at once, so yesterday I focused on just a few facts.

Now I am comfortable with the idea that the moon rises in the east or thereabouts and sets in the west or thereabouts.

And with the way the times of moonrise and moonset shift by about 50 minutes later each day. 

So, surely, there must be a period when the moonrise and its subsequent journey across the horizon must be during our day time... ah, that explains about the a new moon, I think, when the moon is on the other side of the Earth all night, and too close to the sun to be seen during the day. Aha! Today's new fact!    

What will I learn tomorrow?

Getting the hang of the moon's peregrinations is a similar process for me as learning to play a new piano piece. It is a pretty big task to learn the notes, fingering, rhythm, expression and articulation all in one go, so it has to be broken down into steps, making sure notes are known, which finger goes where, and when, and how, bit by bit, revising and remembering each element until they all combine into a complete understanding.