Sunday 3rd April - To err is human...

The full quotation is 

'to err is human, to forgive is divine' - Alexander Pope

but it's the making of mistakes that I'm writing about. I was half, nay, three-quarters thinking of renaming this blog as 'A-couple-of-typos-from-home' as they are such a frequent characteristic of these posts. When the mistakes are underlined in red, then there's a chance of catching them. 

I was given a box of these brilliant pencils,, made by a company called Milan, although other brands exists,by my husband lat year or the year before;

red at one end, and blue at the other. Apparently they are quite a thing on the continent for marking up text, adding emphasis to notes. I hadn't realised, until I went hunting to see if I could buy a double-ended yellow-green pencil, because then I could colour in anything with just two pencils. No such luck; the other type of double-ended pencil is neon yellow and ordinary graphite - for writing and highlighting. I might get one anyway, sometime... I could do with red-pencilling a lot of what I write before releasing it into the world.

I have heard from several sources that quiltmakers in the Amish community incorporate a deliberate error in their famous hand-made quilts, because true perfection can only be attained by God. I agree with them in that true perfection can only be achieved by God, but I personally have no to add mistakes to my work just to ensure it was not perfect. 

I don't think I have made a perfect thing in my life, not sewing, knitting, crochet, nor playing, singing, teaching, cooking - nope, not a thing.

Here's my 'second sock' of the new pair. The pale stripe is where I shall add a heel later on, and the little yellow bulb-shaped safety pin is where I spotted ANOTHER dropped stitch, which I do something or other with needle and yarn later, to stop it running any further. (Top tip - whatever you are knitting, keep a crotchet hook, a size or so smaller than the needles, close at hand for hooking up dropped stitches). I have included a shot of the bendy double-pointed needles I am using; it means my stitches are across two needles instead of the more usual three or four, so I knit 30 stitches (I should count to see if I still have 30 stitches on each needle) before changing to the next spare needle to complete the round.   

The point of the picture being he dropped stitch; the other sock also has a strategic pin hanging onto a stitch that needs attention.

Of course, nearly everyone agrees that we have erred mightily as a nation, as a world, in a whole raft of major, serious issues. One of which is waste and climate and resources.

In a tiny effort to reduce paper towel usage in this household, I am using dish-cloth cotton squares to mop microwave spills, wipe worktops and so forth. These cotton squares were originally meant for a patchwork blanket, but I am NEVER going to finish it. 

Even after having taken a number for my own use, I will still have about three dozen left over. They are made from recycled cotton, and are around six inches square, and all probably have at least one mistake in them. They are perfectly hygienic to use as long as they don't hang around too long. (remember the stinky floor cloths from the broom cupboard at school? Ugh) I chuck them in the laundry at the end of the day, or sooner if that seems a good idea. Just beware - they are NOT perfect!

So, if YOU would like some - 3? or 5? maybe - comment with your address (I won't publish your address) and I will keeping sending them out until they are gone.   

Saturday 1st April - Thurs, Fri, Sat, All's well that ends well

A couple of days have slid past in a haze of ....haziness...

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Foggy_Hills_%28Unsplash%29.jpg

I think it's one's age, or rather one's parent's age. If he's around 90 years old give or take a few years, then even if he's reasonably well, and reasonably active, and managing very well on his own, there are bound to be situations, events, things happening, which take time, mental and physical resources. They are not necessarily major, serious, or urgent, but there you go, and there they are, and there it all is (to avoid saying anything at all specific).

The last couple of weeks have been one such thing. 

Anyway, thanks to the wonders of the National Health Service, everything is fixed, sorted, and it is all 'as you were' now. I hope. Until the next time. 

However it all takes its toll. For me, it resulted in days, or weeks maybe of total immersion in Freecell and Suduko on the computer I discovered exactly how much they bore me now - a couple of games and I am thinking 'why am I doing this?', shut the program and move on.

I have finished the March Cross Country Collaboration and it was posted yesterday - I won't post a picture of my stitching as I am not sure if Ang has received it yet. I'll leave you with a clue;

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth, of course.  There is an entry in Dorothy Wordsworth's diary about the daffodils too.

Actually, that picture of misty hills at the top of this post gives me an idea for April... although maybe it's not seasonal enough. What shall I do for this month's picture????

  

Wednesday 29th March - A new Brush

Yesterday afternoon I had a bath because - well, I needed one, but a bath in the middle of the day is not my usual preference. But I was cold, and bored, and fed up, and it seemed a good idea.

I'm not one for the 'spa' experience, mindfulness and candles, petals floating about on the water. In fact I spent most of the time pondering on creating an algorithm to solve three-dimensional suduko grids. Don't ask me why. I can think and plan and plot my way through the ordination 9 x 9 ones, so long as they are not 'Expert', but what possessed me to embark upon this quest I have no idea.

In the end I went back to the 2 dimensional, ordinary grid, and tried to plot it out in my head, but the wretched diagram wouldn't stay still; one moment it was lying flat, like paper on a desk, and the next minute it would flip upright as though it was drawn on a wallboard.

I gave up the pointless struggle because my bath was getting cold.

Once I was reclothed in my rightful mind I ordered a bath brush.

 This should save me from myself in future.

Monday 27th March - Heartsease

"Heartsease I found, where Love-lies-bleeding

Empurpled all the ground

Whatever flowers I missed unheeding

Heartsease I found."

                                                    Christina Rossetti

The tiny violets are just beginning to come through in the grass now, so small that you might miss them if you weren't looking for them. If you google 'love-lies-bleeding' you will be shown pictures of amaranthus caudatus

from gardenerspath.com

 but my first thought was of dicentris spectablis which I know as 'bleeding hearts', or 'Dutchmen's trousers' 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/

But 'Love-lies-bleeding' is an old name for 'Violas', Ang tells me, the smaller version of the bigger showier pansy.

A viola is what Ang sent to me at the end of last week as her Cross Stitch Picture inspired by a some given to her by friends. 

she filled in the space at the top and bottom of the grid with the kind of patterns they tried (and failed!) to teach be back in infant needlework classes.

I took the poem from the write-up that we do in the book which travels back and forwards with the stitching; you can see a corner peeping out in the picture. 

I'm still adding what seems to be hundred of little stitches to my cross stitch picture. It isn't really hundreds, though, and getting quicker and quicker to do, and another hour tomorrow should see it finished. There's still a good chance of meeting the date of 31st of March! 

The advantage of having identical grids to work on is that a good deal of planning can happen in advance. As I beaver away at the last details of this month's picture, I'm already beginning to think about April, and filling spare spaces in my diary with sketches and charts. Nothing too detailed, as we don't discuss which areas we will choose; that's part of the surprise when we open the box.

My 'flat presents', for there are two, are a small embroidery picture, and a rather lovely paperclip with 'The Lord is my Shepherd' at one end - very handy for holding my music open at the right page when I am practising. Some books have a habit of shutting themselves up, or not opening properly in the first place and this will keep them in order.  

The second half of March has been a strange and difficult couple of weeks, with events appearing out of the blue to turn our usually leisured pace of life into quite the 'swan' act.

image from another blog of mine
www.themusicjungle.co.uk, and was drawn especially for me.

Psalm 23 has been a great help in keeping me going. Things are mostly resolved now, and I shall be grateful for the Easter holidays beginning on Monday.

Heartsease was a great choice of flower!

Sunday 26th March - Spring Forward (Fall Back)

Clocks forward

 I got up at my 'usual' time, and slowly adjusted as the day went on.

I can understand why people who lived in large stately homes someone to keep the clocks adjusted; normally they just went round the whole house winding and adjusting all the various mantel clocks, grandfather clocks and any other clocks every 24 hours or 7 days or whatever.

We just had the landline telephone, cooker, microwave, two battery clocks downstairs, one battery alarm clock upstairs and the clockwork clock on the mantelpiece to deal with.

That was plenty... 

Friday 24th March - Happy New Year?

Quite often I find myself mentally quoting Captain Jean-Luc Picard in one of the many Star Trek epispodes;

 This is especially true when I am working at thinking of reasons to be cheerful 

although I don't remember any of the words except 'reasons to be cheerful, 1 2 3'

So, this is the first day of Year 4; I mean the fourth year since the official 'Lockdown' began

I started my own lock down about a week beforehand, having become increasingly uneasy about the news;

Taken at a National Trust garden on 15th March, 2020

... the end is not really in sight for me, and therefore my husband, and many, many others who are vulnerable to the consequences of catching covid in a way that we weren't as at risk from flu, colds etc. 

There are people bemoaning the fact that lockdown happened at all - I am not even going there. The rate at which the infections were spreading and killing people was horrifying at the time, and drastic measures were necessary, in my view. The effects were traumatising and soul-destroying, I don't disagree, but I guess we have to trust that the people who actually knew what they were talking about gave the best advice that they could in the circumstances. 

What the politicians made of that scientific advice as the months went by is entirely another issue - and again there are strong opinions and anger and all kinds of emotions going on and I really don't want to get into discussions.   

Anyway, in my case I had to isolate, and I continue to be semi-isolated, because I take drugs that suppress my immune system, and I have severe lung fibrosis. I have had all the vaccinations that I have been offered, but it is unclear how effective they are for people in my situation. 

I am very close to needing oxygen support all the time - currently I use oxygen at night, and if we are walking any distance outside. 

I could go out and about, to exhibitions, museums, shops etc wearing an FFP2 mask, but unfortunately I find it difficult to walk at any faster than a snail's pace when I wear one, and after a few steps I can feel the lack of oxygen seriously affecting me. I rate the stages as follows;

stage 1  I get out of breath (this is a normal state of affairs for me, caused by getting up to make a cup of tea, or similarly 'strenuous' activities)

stage 2 I am getting very out of breath, grumpy and miserable and can't talk in sentences - this happens if I don't remember to go up stairs slowly, or when I am getting dressed if I don't take frequent pauses, etc 

stage 3 is becoming tearful and I can't talk at all

stage 4 is ripping off the mask and gasping for breath like a fish, 

stage 5, seriously to be avoided at all costs, is feeling that I am going to die, being overcome by fear and desperation, struggling and failing to organise my breathing. If I am wearing an FFP2 mask I can go straight to stage 5 in seconds if I am not very, very careful.

One part of my mind knows that I WILL recover if I can just keep myself together for a couple of minutes, but anoter part of my mind is in a total state of terror. I can tell you this is very unpleasant while it lasts.

 (I have considered using the portable oxygen concentrator while wearing a mask, but the inlet to the machine wouldn't have a mask.... minor point, but there we are.)

It WILL be a Happy New Year, because I will Make It So; there are plenty of Reasons To Be Cheerful every day, and once the weather improves and we can enjoy walks in local gardens and countryside spots, and meet up with friends in outside cafes more often, it will be even easier to be happy and cheerful.

So this is a serious blog post - sorry - not in my usual style - but even with all this at the back of every day, We, husband and I will have a good 2023, a far as possible. 

Make It So!