December 31st - Resolutions, Challenges, and all that bullshit

The Usual Resolutions;

1. Eat Chocolate every week
2. Keep up the page-a-day journal
3. Take 2 bags to charity shops every month - preferably with a few bits an pieces in them, preferably more stuff going out of the house than comes in

Challenges;

1. Do more drawing and painting - every day if possible
2. Do more piano playing (piano playing in the lessons doesn't count) - every day if possible
3. Do more writing - every week if possible 

Other Stuff;

1. Finish the Granny squares blanket - one or two squares to complete, connect all 15, 16 or 20 squares together and crochet a border (maybe - depends on how much wool I have)
2. Finish the Christmas Shawl - I'm at about 200 stitches across now; the shawl is finished when I run out of wool, which will be in about 80 rows time, increasing by one stitch on each row.
3. Make a start on the tapestry which is cluttering up space in the house and in my mind 

We shall see.....

Tuesday 1st January 2020 - Poems for the New Year

How about this as a bracing poem to start the year?

SAY not the struggle naught availeth,
   The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
   And as things have been they remain.

If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
   It may be, in yon smoke conceal'd,
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
   And, but for you, possess the field.

For while the tired waves, vainly breaking,
   Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back, through creeks and inlets making,
   Comes silent, flooding in, the main.

And not by eastern windows only,
   When daylight comes, comes in the light;

In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly!
   But westward, look, the land is bright!

Arthur Hugh Clough

 It's a real 'never give up' rallying cry. If was the only poem of his I had ever read, (and up until a moment or two ago, it WAS the only poem of his I had ever read) I might have put him down as some kind of Victorian muscular Christian; then I read this, which sort of confirmed my opinion until I got to the second line;

The Latest Decalogue

Thou shalt have one God only; who
Would be at the expense of two?
No graven images may be
Worshipp'd, except the currency:
Swear not at all; for, for thy curse
Thine enemy is none the worse:
At church on Sunday to attend
Will serve to keep the world thy friend:
Honour thy parents; that is, all
From whom advancement may befall:
Thou shalt not kill; but need'st not strive
Officiously to keep alive:
Do not adultery commit;
Advantage rarely comes of it:
Thou shalt not steal; an empty feat,
When it's so lucrative to cheat:
Bear not false witness; let the lie
Have time on its own wings to fly:
Thou shalt not covet; but tradition
Approves all forms of competition.

I found more and more gems when I scrolled further through www.poemhunter.com - he does a good line in satire. 

There is a last verse;

The sum of all is, thou shalt love,
If anybody, God above:
At any rate shall never labour
More than yourself to love your neighbour.

Looking into his biography I find I was on the right track - he went to Rugby School when Arnold was the headmaster, revolutionising public school education and developing a 'manly, muscular Christianity. Clough was a star pupil - but at Balliol he lost his faith in amongst the turmoil of the Oxford Movement.

I'm going to enjoy reading more of his poems...

Meanwhile, Happy New Year to everyone; I'm sure any struggle will not naught availeth!

 

 

Saturday 28th December - I've bought a coat!

Mir, one of the Tall Ships

Some how, slowly, by degrees over the past seven years, my heavy-duty proof against all precipitation coat and I have reached almost exactly the same circumference.

I blame the steroids. Others might blame excessive chocolate consumption over time.

Whatever the reason, this became the season when something had to happen in order to improve my chances of surviving a British Spring (being made of sugar and spice and all things nice, I am peculiarly susceptible to damp) The near replacement to my trust all-weather mac is on sale - but do I require medium, or do I need to embrace the new reality and go for L?

So, a trip to Chichester was required, in order to try on the coat before I* fork out a Substantial Sum of Money. The proof was self-evident - L is it. I reckon if I get seven years of warmth and dryness then the money is well spent.My old coat has plenty of wear left in it - a trip through the washing machine, and a short spell in the dryer should see it washed and re-proofed ready for daughter. Along with the super duper duvet-style zip-in-and-out liner which I have loved dearly and worn frequently on its own as a casual jacket.

Oh, and I was extremely gratified to find I weigh a whole kilo less today than I did before Christmas; and this without exercising extreme restraint around chocolates and Christmas feasting. Still not enough less to reconsider the purchase of the coat!

*Himself it was who handed over the credit card. I did say I would repay him when my ship came in...

Friday 27th December - Another Day Full of Incidents

'But what of Christmas?' I hear you say! It is still Christmas, and will be for another week. It's been Christmas like it always is...

Yesterday, however, yesterday, was something else. It was going to be just an ordinary day - some errands to run, and then probably sitting around, doing whatever we wanted.

That was before the bulb in the sitting room ceiling light gave up the previous evening. Attempting to replace the bulb revealed that the bulb holder is bakelite, and probably dates from 1953 when these houses were built. That makes it 66 years old, which explains why it shattered into chunks of plastic.

So, while the tyre that was punctured at the beginning of the week was being replaced at 8am, Himself was able to wander round to the nearby DIY store and buy a new bulb holder. Then, when he returned, he could replace the bulb holder and bulb, and also the dimmer light switch which dates back to about 1985 and won't work with modern bulbs.

But... the fluorescent tube in the kitchen also stopped working in the morning. We had a spare tube, but that wouldn't fire up when fitted - ah - the holder contraption (also about 20 years old) had breathed its last.

Back to the DIY store to buy a new spot-light style ceiling fitting and wire it all up.

What a good thing that Himself managed to get on a Job Creation scheme and train as an electrician and as a plumber all those ears ago when we were first married.

Did I mention plumbing?

Everything was cleared away and I had just set out a very late lunch, when the doorbell rang.

It was our nextdoor neighbour; the drains, linking our houses were blocked. Himself and Number One Son abandoned their sandwiches, gloved up, and set to work, lifting the manhole cover and doing the usual flushing and proddling and poking about until everything was functioning as it ought.

Oh well. Friday 27th December is a normal working day, for those who haven't booked it as holiday or aren't teachers, so, (ab)normal working is what happened! 

Monday 23rd December - A day full of incident

But first, and maybe last, the O Antiphon of the Day - listen, and relax

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U21la_YEJbY

O Emmanuel, our King and lawgiver, for whom the nations wait, their Saviour: come to save us, Lord, our God.

Now, those incidents;

I am mulling over in my mind what to do about refreshments after my godmother's funeral in the New Year. It is possible that there may be only a scant dozen present; me, Himself, my father, maybe her cousin, her next-door neighbours, their neighbours, and possibly one of the delightful team who came in every day during the last ten days of my godmother's life. So that's nine. In a chapel that holds up to one hundred. They had better not all sit in the back row!

So, about these refreshments - I know that the neighbours won't stay, they said so, and now we are down to a possible seven. All I want is somewhere that will let us sit in a quiet corner of a lounge and serve tea, coffee, and a slice of cake. Maybe a sandwich.

I do not want to book a full buffet for a minimum of 20 people!

Still, I have another couple of days to sort things out.

We drove to that neck of the woods today, through a lovely bright morning, admiring the shimmering effect of the sun on the flooded fields on either side of the rivers... found the crematorium, looked at one nearby venue (closed), tried to find another, and then our attention was caught by a strange noise coming from the car tyres. At this stage we were on a busy dual carriageway, so kept going until we reached the first venue - a pub called the Golden Retriever. Now open! This meant that I could wait in the warm, by an open fire, while Himself and the AA solved the flat tyre problem - fitting the space-saver spare.

I'd have chosen the Gold Retriever for the funeral refreshments then and there, but for two things - 'we are usually open by half past ten' - hmm, usually is not good enough - and 'no, we don't serve cake'.

By this time we were pretty well finished, so drove to my godmother's house, picked up a few things that we need, and then to a nearby restaurant/hotel for lunch. He had a steak - it had been that kind of day. This place would be pretty well perfect, but they don't serve cake either. Just restaurant and bistro food.

After a good meal we just came home, for coffee and - not cake, mincemeat surprise scone from yesterday, warmed with butter. He's organised a new tyre for Friday, and I've informed one set of relatives 'I doubt we'll be able to come - Mum and Dad are very frail now; even getting to the shops is a huge effort for them' and the other is not answering the phone tonight.

Supper was easy - I made vegetable soup, and have set aside two portions for the freezer. If we don't have them later, I'll have soup to take to work next term.

There's a fair bit of tinselling to do yet - it might happen, or it might not.

I keep getting distracted by other things... knitting.... doodling

Sunday 22nd December - Advent 4 - mainly about food

To my surprise, I managed to get to church this morning. At ten to nine I changed my mind from 'sit and knit' to 'get up and go' and arrived in verse three of the first hymn (and I was not the last!)

That made an excellent start to the day. Himself stayed at home. going through the last eighteen months of my Godmother's bank statements to identify all the payments. Intense work, prbably made a lot easier by me being out of the house.

We had an early lunch of dill herrings ( we had two jars at the back of our fridge, bought for my godmother, who at one stage appeared to be living on rice-krispies, swedish dill herrings, gluten-free crispbreads, potatatos, apple puree and rice pudding - but not all at the same time). She'd gone off the herrings, so I kept them for ourselves and we ate one jar of them today, with non-gluten-free crispbreads, home-made coleslaw and salad. And very good too.

How early? Half past eleven, because of trekking to the next town to collect this turkey that I ordered a couple of weeks ago, not knowing that Waitrose and M and S would have their shelves SOLID with turkeys yesterday. As it happened, this was one of the slickest 'collect-the-turkey' exercises ever, and we were home again within a remarkably short time.

I spent the afternoon stocktaking in the kitchen. All the housekeeping has ground to a halt since Easter, when life became so complicated and full of alarms. The cupboards and freezer drawers no longer had any semblance of order and method and had just succumbed to madness.

Suffice it to say that the worms in the compost bin have never had it so good, assuming they enjoy a bountiful feast of out-of date cans and jars, well-past-their-best-before baking good and vegetables, and stuff out of the freezer. I have a list of jars and cans and packets approaching their end of life to use up, all stacked in order on the shelves, and a shopping list of replacement goods. Yes, I KNOW custard powder lasts for ever, but even 'for ever' comes to an end sometime.

Well, it is half past seven, and we have done what we wanted to for today. I've cooked a batch of sausage supper

and will put the spare portions in the freezer, and also a tray of  mincemeat surprise from my friend Laurie's blog.  The scone mixture is flavoured with mixed spice and orange zest, which is why there is a bald orange sitting beside the remaining 'surprises'.

They should have been allowed to cool, and then iced and garnished with dried cranberries, but I'm not sure they are going to last that long.