Good surprises

1.  My appointment at the doctor's was at 9am, and it was!  I was soon finished and off to work :o)

2.  I went for a walk around the village when I got home.  There was a beautiful low (almost full) moon so I tried to get some pictures.  I only had my phone but this one worked quite well...

3.  I rang my brother to say hello and he was with my gran in hospital so I was able to say hello to her as well.  A nice surprise.

Details make a difference

It's catching up on the small things that can make the difference...
- cleaning the bathroom: usually my Saturday morning job but we were away last weekend so it was only part-done. I'm glad to have done it better today.
- clothes being washed (actually not so much of mine yet, but we're working through the pile)
- ironing done (both of us)
- weekly shopping done
- chicken and bacon casserole cooked ready for tomorrow's lunch (by A)
- my hair doesn't have an inch of grey any more ;-)
- clothes to the charity shop

And we enjoyed a tasty lunch at the Coffee Kitchen in Cockermouth. Today's special was minted lamb hotpot with red cabbage. I had some loose leaf tea in a fab glass teapot, A enjoyed the guest coffee, and we had brownie & peanut caramel crunch for afters. Yum!

Sunny & cold, but a warming tea

1. A clear, sunny, (cold) day. And it feels good to start and finish work in daylight.

2. A cheat's version of roast beef and yorkshire puds for tea. Yum :-)

3. An electric blanket means it's not cold at the end of the day.

Blessings from the weekend

- the drive north went smoothly and we arrived in good time
- I was able to spend time chatting with Mum while A checked in with Grandma
- both were in good form all weekend
- a relaxed start to Saturday, lunch with Dad, and time to pop into town for a look around the shops (I may have bought some yarn...)
- Oma seemed tired and frail, but perked up as we chatted. We were encouraged to see she's still got her sense of humour and strong spirit despite her hip op.
- chatting during tea after church
- lunch with G&T, and I've finally got a proper pic of their wedding blanket I made last year
- another good drive, this time going home
- phonecalls to say we're home and start thinking when to meet up again.

It's been good to be able to see almost everyone. Hard to see older relatives getting frail, but encouraging to share laughs together.

3 (brief) beautiful things

1.  The days are getting longer.  It's been daylight when I arrive at work, and daylight when I leave.  What a difference!

2.  I finished a Bandana Cowl yesterday, after only a couple of evenings.  I'm pleased with how it's turned out and it all helps with the destashing.  I've also blocked my Chinook Scarf so I'm doing quite well for scarves in lovely yarn.

3.  I'm enjoying the latest Thursday Next book.  I'm about half way through at the moment and looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Quick catch up...

I didn't do an awful lot on Saturday... I read P&P, went into town for lunch and the weekly shop, knitted while I watched the rugby (we lost of course), read some more, had tea, and kept reading until I'd finished the book!  It was about midnight by then, so I was pretty sleepy on Sunday (not helped by A coming to bed quite a bit later and unintentionally waking me up!)  I was very glad of the lazy day though, and I appreciated the luxury of being able to get lost in a book.

A was running the Sunday School so we were through for church in good time.  I felt prompted to read a bit from Isaiah 40 during the meeting; a quick summary would be: He's huge, He created everything, we can't even begin to understand or advise Him, and yet He takes notice of us.  Amazing!

I helped out at the local youth service which is run every other month by the organisation I've become involved with (NISCU).  It's great to see young people getting to know God for themselves - the message was about having a faith which sticks; life isn't always going to be easy but we can trust God.

And at work... we've finally got started on the production trial which refused to behave last week.  We'd lost 3 days' running time for an unrelated reason which was just so frustrating.  Today was our next attempt and, as I write, we seem to have finally started making the right quality.  There's still one reliability issue to deal with, but if we get through to tomorrow the spare part will arrive and we can fix that too.  It's been so encouraging to see everyone pulling together on this - I do enjoy working with my colleagues and the sense of family we have there.

Ending the week

1. A long week, without completing (or even properly starting) the activity we'd planned. There had been 2 long evenings so I was relieved we decided to postpone until next week and that I could leave early.

2. A relaxing bath before A came home. I enjoyed reading P&P by daylight for a change.

3. The prospect of a quieter Saturday to catch up.