I'm full of cough and cold, I feel deeply out of sorts and achey and I'm seeing in the New Year without a drink because I've dropped bear off at a New Year's Eve Party full of teenagers and I need to be able to make the horrific drive to pick him up if he needs me.
And it still feels like all is right with the world.
Hugs, good health and a prosperous New Year to all.
This morning I nipped out and sat for a while, knitting and feeding the crows. The weather wasn't brilliant but it was incredibly relaxing.
I didn't get much in the way of pics as I was staying in my car away from the rain - and keeping the windows mainly up away from the rain, but at one point I had the tree next to me full of magpies, watching me intently. It was like a snippet from The Birds.
I've no idea if bear is supposed to be taking a bottle. Last time he took Pringles. I've told him that he shouldn't buy alcohol. Instead he should let me buy it for him and I'll get the points on the Clubcard. It made him chuckle and I don't think that he's likely to drink much, but I'll keep an eye out. If I'm buying him anything it's going to be low alcohol. Mind you, that makes me a complete hypocrite considering what I got up to at his age.
And I don't want to think of the sort of romancing that could be going on.
Bear was poorly before Christmas. DH was very poorly over Christmas. I am now feeling very under the weather with perfect timing for New Year. There's been some nasty coughs going around, so I'm not surprised.
I'm planning on spending a lot of time hunkered down, staying warm and relaxing over the next few days - between coughs, of course.
Hugs and good health to all.
I didn't post yesterday because nothing much happened. I can only post about hanging out with the men and watching old Doctor Who episodes so often. However I made up the hat I made from the gifted yarn.
The pattern called for 2oz of yarn, or around 50g. I used a 100g ball of yarn, but there was only around 20g left over. I'll maybe keep any left overs for stripes in a hat or scarf - I'll see what happens. The pattern is a genius. The loathed 2x2 rib is wonderfully stretchy, and 120 stitches will fit most heads. It will either be stretchy to expand to most head sizes or the rib will stick to small heads. You rib for 12 inches before shaping the crown. Again, that means that the hat will fit most heads, deep enough for most heads but with the possibility of turning up the bottom edge to make a kind of cuff. It's brilliant. I cast on another hat so that I didn't lose the needle which is a perfect length for this.
Hugs and good health to all.
Bear went out to meet friends today. This translates to meeting other students and revising in the university library before wandering around the town centre. I don't know how much studying was done overall, but I'm impressed that any happened.
I took the opportunity to go with DH to feed the crows. We had a wonderful time and I can see it becoming a regular thing. Poor DH is really suffering with a cough, but the drive out did him good and the crows and magpies were definitely entertaining. There was a considerable amount of squabbling, some incredible flying and a very cheeky squirrel in the mix.
We have had a wonderful Christmas here. Bear was very happy with his presents, even though there was only a small selection. I got some wonderful things, including a candle that bear got for me in particular. He usually relies on DH or I to pick up stuff, but this is one that he went out of his way to get. I'll take a pic later - it's a candle and I think that I'll keep the container forever.
DH made Christmas dinner, which was mighty, and then we had a wonderful time just spending time together. We watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special together and just had such a good time. I also watched King Charles' Christmas Speech and I thought that for the first time I could see his father in him.
Today I went out for a short stretch of the wheels. I went to my usual car park and I fed the crows. I only threw a few monkey nuts because there are a lot of dog walkers there and I wanted to make sure that nothing was left over for an unsuspecting dog. Trust me - nothing was. The crows were quite emphatic about that.
I also called in to Tesco briefly. I felt mortified. I was being the sort of shopper that means that the staff have to come in on Boxing Day. I had unfortunately got more Christmas pudding than cream, so I called in. The car park was quite empty when I arrived.
I was still glad to get home.
I've finished the hat, but haven't sewn it up yet. I'll need to get onto that tomorrow or I'll forget it altogether. I've started on a scarf, as the yarn is quite pink. I thought I could donate it to the Salvation Army or a homeless charity once it was finished.
The pattern isn't perfect but it could be a fun scarf for someone. I may stick to hats after this, though, even if it's pink yarn. I think that there are some homeless shelters that can use them if I don't send them to the Mission to Seafarers. btw the pattern for the scarf is double knitting on 5mm needles (bigger than advised) to make it a little more lacy, then three rows of plain knit, one row of purl, three rows of knit, one row of twisted drop stitch, three rows of knit, etc.
We had another big dinner today and I'm feeling rather stuffed. We've spent the evening watching the original series of Doctor Who with William Hartnell and it reminded me of how experimental the sixties really were. It's been fun.
Writing stuff - the response to the writing prompt from last week was automatically posted here as confusion continues in the White Hart. This week's writing prompt is here.
Hugs and good health to all.
All the groceries are here now. We've got an abundance of stuffing, lots of fruit and nuts and a few sweeties. Nobody really eats the biscuits, nobody really enjoys the mince pies or fruit cake - we don't mind them but it's not a big deal. We have Christmas pudding ready to go, of course, and if we suddenly feel a craving for anything we can nip out after Boxing Day.
I have completely failed to take pics.
There was still a huge delivery. There was alcohol (for me), lots of meat, vast amounts of gluten free stuffing and all sorts of bits and bobs, like a bottle of fancy grape juice for Christmas dinner. I got all the good things and still only paid out about £30 as I used all my Tesco Clubcard vouchers.
I haven't done much else today, but I'm feeling pretty good and looking forward to tomorrow. Bear seems content, which is the big thing, and DH is relaxing.
Hugs and good health to all.
DH has finished work, bear's winter break has started and the lights are now on permanently. I've got the treats out to nibble on and I've turned the heating up. It will be incredibly cosy here until I turn the heating back down on 2nd January.
Gladys is not looking her best after the storms. I'll need to go out and prune over the next week or so.
I don't know what I'll write about now that she's dormant.
The car had a full service. Once again I told them about the intermittent issue with the clutch. Once again they couldn't find it. They said that the car was in good shape and she drove like a dream on the way home. The guy who normally jokes about my knitting (in a lovely way) wasn't there and that's perhaps just as well as I didn't finish the scarf. I've added a few inches to the hat, though. It would be wonderful for me to knit for a purpose over the break and then assess where I am on 2nd January.
We have the grocery delivery tomorrow, which will give me time to pick up anything that's missing, and bear will no doubt keep me busy with lifts over the break. Otherwise we plan to do nothing special. We want to hang out, spend time and relax.
I plan to knit and read a load of Amanda M Lee's books. She writes paranormal mysteries which are fortunately on Kindle Unlimited. There are dozens of them, and they feature snarky and difficult witches and their adventures. The romance doesn't make me blush, the action is fun and the amazingdialogue reminds me of my family when I was growing up - arguing for the sake of arguing. I keep finding myself laughing out loud as the situations get away from the poor heroine.
Hugs and good health to all.
I've not been hugely productive today. I've checked off a few boxes, but I wanted to do more. Never mind, I'll start again tomorrow.
I popped out this evening for what I hope will be the last supermarket run of the year. No doubt I'll have a trip or two to the local shops, but I'm hoping that I'll need nothing much more. I waited until the wind died down, along with some of the crowds, then nipped out around 7.30pm.
On the way there, in the dark I saw a grey bird zigzagging low over the road before landing in the middle of the lane right in front of me. I put on my hazard lights, slowed down and tooted my horn. It was a Canada goose and I swear that the darned thing hissed at me. There was definitely a 'come and have a go if you think you can take me' vibe. The goose would have won, feathers down, but it eventually got out of the road. I was glad to be safely passed it.
Hugs and good health to all.
I was up really early this morning. It was one of those decisions that I had completely overthought. You see, I had to pick up my new glasses, and for that I park in a Morrisons car park. As it's the week before Christmas, and it's insanely busy at the best of times, I booked to pick up as soon as they opened at 9am. It's not the Morrisons where I picked up bear, but around a twenty minute drive away, so I could leave at around 8.30 without issue. But then I realised that the only plausible route took me past two schools and it would be hell at that time. By the time I'd chased my worries round and round, I ended up leaving the house at 7.10am, getting there at 7.25am and then hanging around until 9am. I picked up a few bits from Morrisons, nipped into the opticians - and I was two days early! Fortunately it was all okay and I could pick up the glasses and get myself home.
This is just as well as I have booked the car in for a service on Friday. I think it's overdue as when I tried to get into reverse this morning, the car wasn't having it at all. The lovely people at the garage always chat and as I'm always knitting there, I get asked by one when I'm knitting him a sweater. I thought I'd knit him a scarf. I've one that I started ages ago so I thought I may have a chance to finish it tomorrow for him. I hope that it's masculine enough.
It isn't from the yarn that was gifted, but I wish I was more organised and not taking time away from knitting for the Mission for Seafarers.
I used at least half a pack today. The wipes are small, which were perfect for bear when he was tiny, and the woodwork on the stairs was filthy, but I made a dent and I feel better for it. Up and at it again tomorrow.
Writing stuff - there's a chatty piece on my blog about why I'm using the writing prompts here and a little bit about the problems of writing in British English when most of your readers use American English on #HazardousToYourSanity here.
I need to make a 'to-do' list of stuff that isn't recurring, especially of writing stuff. If I get going, anything could happen!
Hugs and good health to all.
I've been clearing out some shelves. Thinking about it, this house hasn't had a proper turn out since before bear was born. There have been, however, a few half-hearted attempts which left stashes buried and forgotten. Today I've been clearing out a neglected corner and found a stash of over a dozen packets of wet wipes that must be around fifteen years old. I opened one packet and they were still dampish. I may no longer need them to mop up a toddler, but I think that they aren't fit to donate so I'll use them to dust and wipe around the house. It's a great excuse to get me going. I also found around a dozen bars of hand soap. Both of these would have only been pennies, because I only bought that sort of quantity when it was a real steal. They say cleanliness is next to Godliness. I have at least a chance of being clean.
When Covid hit at the beginning of 2020, I didn't panic buy toilet rolls. I already had a stash, well, a mountain really. I'd put the toilet paper on Subscribe and Save on Amazon and rather over bought. I cancelled the subscription at the end of 2019! I was giving the stuff away. We're finally getting back to buying normally. I also have at least a year's supply of black bin bags. I'm rethinking my buying habits.
I've only been in the garden as I've been too tired to drive. I'm a little worried as I spotted some shoots on Deirdre, the overgrown honeysuckly by the gate, and I hope they aren't caught by the frost. I'd hate to lost that plant.
It's not a brilliant picture, but while I got some great pics of rats swarming our garden, I'm not sure about sharing them yet. It was a lot of baby rats, which look cute, but I'm not sure I want to share that. I'm not surprised. They've been doing something to the sewer in the street again and the beck has been running high after a lot of rain, so I think a lot of rats were disturbed. I really don't want to encourage them into our garden. We may have to abandon feeding the birds. Well, apart from the berries from Gladys and Deirdre.
Writing stuff - today's writing prompt is here. Please feel free to dip in if you think it will be fun, even if you never share anything. Writing is amazingly good for my mental health and as I've written around a thousand words today, I'm doing pretty good.
Hugs and good health to all.
Bear was up until the early hours with his cough. He slept in this morning and ended up taking the day off. He's talking about going in tomorrow, but I'm not sure that he's fit for rags. It's all the signs of the classic 'winter bug' which will go when it goes. He hasn't taken a test, but I'm not sure that we have a current one in. I'll have to ask him.
Him being home threw me off a little and I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. I still got to tick a lot of boxes on on the list. I even managed to get out as bear wanted stuff for lunch so I ran out and picked up some good stuff for him.
I also hung some solar powered garden lights to hopefully deter the rats. As we are directly under a street light, I'm not overly optimistic, but it gets them out there. It was just about dusk when I took this pick and you can see the lights starting to glow, even though they weren't fully charged.
I have some other solar powered lights that I want to get out, also from Aldi, but we need to clear some space in the garden first.
Writing stuff - I've worked a response to a writing prompt here.
Hugs and good health to all.
Today has been quiet. DH cooked an amazing meal for us tonight with the help of bear. I need to keep an eye on bear as he has a cough, but it doesn't look like he feels poorly. I'll get him to take a test before he goes to college tomorrow, but to me it looks like an average winter cough. Poor kid is fed up, though, and I've been feeding him lots of mint tea with honey.
The squirrel was back on the feeder.
The rats have also been on the feeder. I think that we'll have to consider whether feeding the birds is worth feeding the rats.
Hazel made an interesting suggestion about using rewards as a way of keeping motivated. My willpower to stick to working for rewards has the strength of candyfloss, but I'll think about how to make it work for me. I'm quite desperate. Apart from anything else, in less than two years bear will be out of the home and he'll need good examples to take with him.
I'm setting myself up to make it work starting again tomorrow. I've made a list of things that I want to do tomorrow, none of which are particularly huge, and planned out a rough order. I've also gone over my lists and noticed that there are a lot of blank lines. I can use these to add stuff that I need to do now as I go along.
I've also got a little way ahead with my writing, so fingers crossed that I'll keep going.
Hugs and good health to all.
Angela mentioned the Mission to Seafarers in a comment, and I thought I would expand. I knew that they had been a safe place for my uncle when he was in a strange port, looking like a visitor, not knowing the language and in a port which is usually considered an unsavoury part of town. The Mission was a place where a stranger wouldn't be robbed or steered towards drink and gambling. But I remember seeing an article on tv once, years ago, and while I can't remember the details, it stuck with me.
I had a quick look and while the Mission to Seafarers is a Christian organisation, they claim that they are willing to approach and support all faiths, or those people who have none. Their website is here.
As an aside, my great grandfather was a ship's captain and had his own ship up to the 1920s (I think). According to my late mother, the crew were always grateful as he let them sleep on the ship when they got to port, especially if they got back to his home port of Liverpool. Many didn't have a place to go and were at the mercy of unsafe boarding houses and unscrupulous lodgings which could drain all their money with 'extras' if they didn't steal it outright. Him allowing the crew to stay on ship was, apparently, a big thing. Seafarers can be remarkably vulnerable.
I got out today, but I failed to take a pic. I was in the usual car park, and I was struck how much peace I found sitting away from the usual stressors. I had a quiet knit and found myself really recharging in a way that I don't think that I had since bear finished high school and I stopped the school run. I need to do it more. Here's a previous pic where I didn't take advantage of the peace.
I also spent some time hanging out with the men and watching old William Hartnell Doctor Who episodes on BBC iPlayer. Bear was a little confused about how surreal the sixties could be, but we all enjoyed it and I added another couple of inches to the hat.
Hugs and good health to all.
A wonderfully kind friend sent me some yarn that they were destashing.
I left the house twice today - once to Tesco and once to Aldi for the apples that I'd forgotten. I took a picture of the car park at Aldi late at night as I realised that I hadn't taken any pics.
I've been ignoring the lists this week and I'm significantly less productive. I think that I'll start again next Monday, while doing my best for the next three days.
I can't believe that it's so near Christmas! We have decorations up, but it doesn't feel like it's near. I feel almost ambushed. The present pile for bear is a shadow of former years but now he's getting driving lessons instead. Sometimes I look at him and wonder how he got so tall!
Hugs and good health to all.
I've not got a lot of stuff done today but I did get to the audiology clinic. Apparently my hearing is great. I just have issues with ongoing static, also known as tinnatus. I remembered to get a pic of the building. It's one of those new ones that are just for one thing.
However it's on the edge of Bradford and no-one likes driving in Bradford.
I may not have got huge amounts done, but I got out of the house and had a medical appointment without freaking out which is amazing. I just have to work with the tinnatus.
Writing stuff - I wrote a little chat here about gift giving and my memories of it. When you have one parent who treats gift giving as a top level mission and another parent who can't always guarantee to get the month of your birthday right, you grow up with a generous perspective on the matter.
Hugs and good health to all.
I've seen the squirrel around, darting through the edges of the street, but today I did a top up of the bird feeder and I was generous with the nuts.
We put up the Christmas tree.
And various swathes of tinsel and light. This is doing nothing for my nerves as I am supposed to be watching out for flashing lights because of my eyes and I'm surrounded by twinkles. Besides, I don't approve of the decorations going up so early. When I was a kid, the decorations went up on Christmas Eve. My mother had a plan. She had us run around getting decorations up, most of them made on the day, so that when it came time for us to go to bed, we were exhausted and went straight to sleep. You can see how that was a fail for her here.
I've done some bits today and ticked off a few boxes. I got as far as the bins a few times and got a quick pic of Gladys.
She's definitely been hit hard by the frost. I don't know what I'm going to talk about when she's sleeping until spring.
We also had something of a Doctor Who marathon and watched the old episode where Doctor Who first met the Daleks, broadcast in 1963. Bear was suitably impressed. We're planning another session of Doctor Who tomorrow. I got some blanket knitted and it was incredibly relaxing.
Hugs and good health to all.
I know it's not as bad as in some places, but the winds are fierce and the rain this morning was scary. I actually got out of the house and drove to Tesco, but the roads were running with water. There were places where it was tricky to drive because of the water. I considered stopping and knitting, but decided I didn't want to risk waiting. We're not too bad here, but there's a flood alert in the centre of Leeds and Kirkstall and that's been flooded before.
By the way, if you want to check flood warnings in the UK, you can find the info here. It's a note of all the flood warnings outstanding and it's live, that is, it's showing the updates as they happen.
The only pic that I took today was this.
Tesco have a leaky roof. As far as I can tell, this is the only public part of the building that is affect, but every time that there's any sort of rain, they have to put the buckets out to catch the drips.
I've ticked some boxes and they are continuing to help. I've also got a lot of writing stuff done, so I'm happy about that. Now I'm about to slope off to bed.
Hugs and good health to all.
Not much has happened. I'm shattered. I've kept up to the lists and they're really helping.
I've run out of steam for today, but here's a pic of a Victorian vampire slaying kit that I took when I visited the Royal Armouries
I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully making sense.
Hugs and good health to all.
I know that it's not nearly as cold here as it is in some other places, but it's still cold.
The pics were taken at 11am. I think that I should at least trim Gladys back to the wall now. The flowers are finished.
I don't think that the car fully thawed all day.
I'm keeping up to the lists. I'm missing some, but on the whole, they're keeping me grounded. It's far from perfect, but it's a start and better than nothing.
I had a Morrisons delivery today. I really wanted the sack of onions at £3.49 for 4kg and picked up a few other things that were on offer. I keep forgetting how bad their deliveries are. The bags are packed by machine so the poor delivery driver has to deal with customers getting bags with the bread on the bottom of a bag and the tins of soup stacked over it. It's so frustrating. I think that I'll just have to drive to Morrisons, which gives me the chance to pick up bargains but ups the chance of impulse buys.
Hugs and good health to all.
I've done a few bits but on the whole I would say that today wasn't very productive. I managed to do things like take vitamins and cook and wash up, but I've not managed spectacular things.
I managed to get outside for a few steps when I took a cup of coffee to the poor frozen man who fitted a new dash cam on our car. The old one wasn't working well and kept falling off the window. The first thing this did was fall off the window. I can see keeping the darned thing in position is going to be a job of work.
Gladys is showing the effects of cold and I'll probably cut her right back after Christmas.
I didn't get many pics, but I took this of the faint trace of snow and definite clear ice on the step to show why I wasn't going to go far.
I really miss Marriners Yarns. They had lovely inexpensive yarns that had much less guilt when I gave in to temptation. I was feeling low last night and I may have indulged a little. Yarn is heading my way. This would not be so bad if I didn't have enough yarn to knit blankets for all of Yorkshire. I should create a tracker for yarn.
Hugs and good health to all.
I managed a few bits today, but I have that big appointment tomorrow and my eyes are sore. I think I'll be picking up again properly on Thursday, depending on how things go. I'll share how well I do.
I actually managed to speak to my doctor's office about how I'm getting anxious and they've given me some numbers for counselling. I'm having a think.
Anyone who reads this will know how silly I'm being. If I was reading someone else writing this, I would sympathetically and kindly tell them that they're being an idiot. But I can't help feeling that I just ought to pull myself together. Rationally, I know that's not how it works. I'm just not being very rational - and that bugs me more than anything else!
I refuse to feel too 'doom and gloom' about it. I'm going to go away and write some nonsense. It's not likely to ever see the light of day, but I plan to write something silly and playful and ridiculous and have it held in my mind when I'm going through the procedures.
I meant to take a pic of Gladys today when I managed my few paces outside the house, but it was too dark, so here is a pic from Unsplash, taken by Alec D
Hugs and good health to all.
