Category Archives: Thanks

Weekly Photo Challenge – thankful

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The weekly photo challenge is ‘up’! All the information is here if you would like to join in.

The theme is ‘Thankful’.

This textile hanging was commissioned for Amnesty International. It depicts a prisoner of conscience.The artist is Jane Lemon. Whether or not I have a conscience is not the subject of this post, but the fact that I have freedom. I am SO thankful for freedom.

Some related posts:

The most depressing thing about having children

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Family is very important to me. I have two lovely children and 7 delightful grandchildren/step-grandchildren. It’s wonderful to watch them grow and develop. The best thing is to see the way they develop as individuals and become real people in their own right.

The most depressing thing, though, is seeing that they have inherited all the best bits of your partner – and the worst bits of yourself.

(Not that I have any worst bits, of course)
;)

Congratulations!

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Way back in June I showed you this picture, in this post

The post was a little cryptic, and I never did tell you the purpose of the moo cards.  Now, however, I can take it a stage further.

The day had been a busy one.  Firstly, it was my mother’s 94th birthday.  We had visited in the morning, which is the best time for her as she sleeps away the afternoon.  During the afternoon we met and entertained our youngest grandson, the one who turned 5 earlier this week (actually, he entertained us, rather than the other way around).  Next we had to ‘hot foot’ it over to the other side of the county for a Private View.

The following photograph is dreadful.  The lighting was atrocious, and there was no room to move.  I’ve only captured a small corner of the exhibit, but this was the entry by our eldest grand-daughter for her exhibition at the end of last term.

She researched the life of a 1950′s housewife.  There were copious notes in folders and files, and photographs galore, including those on the ‘wall’, suitably posed by other students on her course, and taken by our grand-daughter.  The photographs were excellent, and she actually sold some during the evening.  Fabrics were hand printed and all items (except the radio) were made by here.  We were very proud to be there at the private view.

A place at University had already been offered, but following the exhibition she learnt that the status had been changed to ‘Unconditional’.  Unlike many other students she didn’t have to wait for today’s results (which were excellent, by the way) to find out her fate!  Next term she is off to study Writing, Fashion and Culture.  I’m quite envious, it looks an exciting course.  So, the first part has ended, and a new era awaits.  Congratulations, I can’t wait to see what happens from now on.

Signed – a very proud Grandma!

From this……

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It’s fair to say that you never know what might happen!

Five years ago today we were in the middle of preparations for the Festival of Quilts.  Everything had to be ready by the end of the day, because tomorrow (ie the Wednesday) we would travel up to Birmingham and set up our booth.  It was hard work. Lots of dyeing involved, much ironing, and stock to be sorted, packaged and priced.  Items for display were also in need of preparation – and much more needed to be taken into consideration so that our four day stay ran smoothly.  There was nothing programmed to interfere, and obviously nothing could go wrong.

So, the alarm was set for an early time, but we didn’t need it.  Instead a phone call woke us from our sleep and we discovered that we had become grandparents again.  What?  Impossible!  The birth date was weeks away……….  However, it wasn’t a joke, our new little grandson had arrived with extreme ceremony, and was now fighting for his life in an incubator.

The rest of the day passed in a haze.  We toyed with cancelling our trip to the Midlands, but after family discussion it was decided to carry on as normally as possible.  So, on Wednesday morning we loaded the car and headed north after a visit to the hospital

This image stayed with us throughout the Show, and we kept in touch with regular phone calls.  Fortunately the next few days passed quickly and we returned home to be nearer to the situation.  The days and weeks passed, and finally we had our first cuddle, and eventually he was able to go home.

Under normal circumstances we would once again be preparing for the same show, which starts on Thursday this very week.  However, this year we have a planned wedding to attend, so the show is not in our schedule.  That means that today we can celebrate a Very Happy Fifth Birthday with a lovely happy and healthy lad,

who just loves his new radio controlled car!  What a blessing!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Twitter, twitter

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I suppose ‘twitter, twitter’ could loosely be described as ‘chittle chattle’.  Well, today Twitter did two things for me.

Firstly, I had a bad night.  I woke feeling sad that I had to be up early and get on with the day.  Of course, that often happens, and I just do it, but today I felt really cheated, and I couldn’t work out why.  A short while later I was iPadding Twitter.  Lo and behold a tweet from another blogger put me back on course!  Apparently she was on a train, heading to an event that I knew had finished yesterday!  Or had it?  NO!  It’s finishing TODAY!  So….. that means that today is  SUNDAY, not Monday as I thought.  No wonder I was feeling cheated.  Thanks for putting me back on track, Kate.

Secondly, and a little while later, I saw a tweet from The BNA, otherwise known as The British National Archive.  An earlier tweet had given links to old paper cuttings about the Glorious 12th but this one was about a poet.  None other than Robert Southey who was apparently born on 12th August 1774.

I enjoy reading poetry, if I’m in the mood, but I have to confess to never having read Southey’s poem ‘After Blenheim’.  I do, however, know the first few lines, and they sprang into my head the moment I read his name, even though I haven’t thought about them for probably more than 30 years.

‘It was a summer’s evening
old Kaspars work was done
and he before his cottage door
was sitting in the sun’

Notice that there is no punctuation.  For this is how I remember it.  The full poem is here if you would like to read it, but I remember it from a school play.  I don’t remember the name of the play, the characters in it, the people who played which parts.  I just remember that one of the characters, a young child of indeterminate sex (in my memory, that is) quoted those lines at intervals throughout the performance.

So, having gained a day, had a few memories jerked, and discovered that I haven’t been cheated at all, I’m going to quickly list a few things on Etsy and Wanelo, then take a leaf out of Old Kaspars book and go and sit in the sun!  Enjoy your day, wherever you are and whatever the weather.

 

How’s that for service?

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This is the first glimpse of some Moo cards.  They aren’t mine, and in fact the person for whom they have been made has yet to see them…..

I just can’t believe that they are here!  They were only ordered on Friday evening – and they arrived YESTERDAY!  That means that they were made and posted by Monday.  Thank you, Moo, because the deadline is fast approaching.

For whom?  Why?  All that will have to wait for a few days, but it’s exciting, and I promise you will know more.

I’m in a quandry

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Oh dear, I really don’t know what to do.

There are 8 days of this year left to consider from the blogging point of view.  I already have a couple of posts scheduled for later this month, but I had the idea that a theme would be good for the other 8.  Last year I did a series of ‘thankful’ posts, I’ve left it a little late to do the same, but I did have something in mind – a sort of reverse resolution thing.  I don’t ‘do’ New Year’s Resolutions.  I can’t see the point as we really don’t know what the next 12 months is about to throw at us, even though some of us like to plan down to the last detail.

So, I got up this morning fully intending to write about my first Reverse Resolution.  I was going to entitle it ‘Things I won’t be doing in 2012 – 1′.  I was going to tell you all that I won’t be picking up a pair of knitting needles and knitting a pair of socks next year.  You see I KNOW that I won’t be doing it.  Yes, I can knit.  I can knit quite evenly and always get compliments when I make the effort – but knitting makes me extremely tense.  Aha!  I hear you say – ‘knitting relaxes you’.  Well, in my case that just isn’t true.  I end up with hunched shoulders, sunken neck, tight arms and fingers that are as stiff as old boards (No, I don’t have arthritis), and even my legs and toes become tense and uncomfortable.  This means that if I’m about to knit something a) it has to be for a very good reason and b) it has to be quick.  I’ll knit something like a scarf very quickly, I’ll choose a delicious hand-dyed yarn, a chunky one, and it will be done in a couple of hours.  Socks, though, are a different kettle of fish.

Anyway, before I had time to do all that something unexpectedly unexpected dropped into my mailbox.  It refers to yesterday’s post about the Dark Globe Awards.  Today is the day that the final nominations are announced, and I haven’t been nominated.  Lots of people have, though, and I was going to tell you that some of my favourite reads are included in the list.  You know, people like Third Hand Art and Kate Shrewsday.  There are others there too, and you can see them all here.  Voting starts tomorrow, and I was going to tell you all to join me with your little clickers and start clicking for the person (people) you think deserve the three awards.

However, all thoughts of doing any of the things I originally planned went right out of the window when I read the post properly.  Are you like me?  Do you scan things – and then go back and read them, or do you work your way through the writing once and make the most of it?  Well, I’d scanned, I’d seen the nominations, but there was something else at the top of the screen which didn’t make sense.  The words were wrong, and I couldn’t work out why.  It was time to do the proper read, and this is what I saw

What’s wrong with it?  Well, I hadn’t seen it before.  On closer inspection  I had to sit down.  It’s been awarded to one of the people I nominated, so that’s certainly worth blogging about.  You can catch up with Mike and his writing/photography/……. here.  Congratulations, Mike.  No votes needed – an outright award!

Well.  What a dilemma.  I’m really not sure with which story to run.  Any ideas?  Shall I tell you about the knitting?  Should I blog about the awards on two days in a row?  Too many decisions for so early in the morning.

Oh, but there was something else as well, how could I forget?  The main reason all the other thoughts went out of the window and I was placed in such a quandry is that while neither of my blogs has been listed in the final voting TWO OF THEM HAVE BEEN AWARDED THE DARK GLOBE ARTIST DIVERSITY AWARD

Of course, that puts me into an even greater dilemma.  I feel now that I should be writing an acceptance speech, but I’ve just sent my backless evening gown off to the dry cleaners, and I look silly wearing my other half’s tuxedo, so I think I’ll just have to whisper a quiet thank you very much and retire gracefully..  When you decide which story I should use for today’s post maybe you would like to leave me a message below.

I simply can’t make up my mind.

Just Snaps

365 Days of Colour

Atishooo

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Today is my first ‘day off’ for some time, and it will be the last for a while too, unless we go away on holiday, that is, but the chances of that seem to be disappearing.

However….

It was an early start yesterday, and I admit to feeling like staying in bed and cancelling.  For some reason I had a nightmare.  This is extremely rare, and I even woke my DH by crying out for ‘Help’.  This has never happened before, so he was more alarmed than I was.  I went back to sleep, but fitfully as the alarm was set for an early time.  Finally it sounded, and  I woke sneezing.  I felt rough, but decided it was just a cold and that I could cope with that.  Of course, once I got going with the day I thoroughly enjoyed it, and although I was ‘stuffed up’ just carried on.

So, today I could have a lie in.  I slept well, and no alarm to disturb.  Isn’t it just typical, though, I woke at the same time that the alarm went yesterday!   I lay there for a while, but what’s the point?  So, the day started – with sneezing and stuffiness.  I’m taking no chances today, though, I want to feel well because we are spending the day with the family, so……

breakfast is hot coffee, brioche and a couple of Day Nurse!  I don’t usually resort to pill popping, but today is different.

Oh, and sympathy not required!  It’s just a cold.  Hope you enjoy your day as much as I know I’ll enjoy mine.

Today’s Photograph

Today’s Colour Fix