Thursday 5 December 2013

Thankful Thursday

My partial absence from Blogland has meant that I've not even posted a Thankful Thursday post for several weeks.  Today I shall remedy that.  In fact today has been a most enjoyable day so far.  It's been a day of utter mundanity (okay there's no such word: I knew that before the spillchucker threw a wobbly).  I woke and looked out.  It wasn't raining.  Odd.  The forecast had been for torrential rain.  I'd already decided that I was going to have a non-croquet day and, as my Christmas lunch with a friend had been cancelled because of a doctor's appointment - not mine, I decided to go and see if I could get my Christmas cards and a load of other things I needed in town.  Firstly, though, I did some more catching up in Blogland.  I'm almost up to date.

I viewed the sky and trundled into town with the lid on The Handbag. After lots of walking, shopping, coffeeing and crosswording and a trip to Tarradale for things I couldn't get in Napier (and another coffee) I arrived home nearly five hours later by which time the rain had well set in.  

Oh, I nearly forgot to tell you that I also visited the library.  I love soup and today was an ideal day to think about it.  A friend in the UK knows a teacher of drawing with the right side of the brain so I thought I'd try and learn a bit about that too.  I couldn't resist a book on modern manners.  That should be worth a blog post or three. 

One interesting thing I did find out today is that everywhere I had coffee and the New World supermarket in Greenmeadows all had free wifi.  Now there's a real bonus I hadn't been aware of before.

This evening I'm getting ready to make some soda bread mentioned in Katherine's The Last Visible Dog and spicy roasted chickpeas done by Monica in Beyond The Lone Islands before I pop up to The House for a catch-up.

All in all it's been a very satisfactory day and one which makes me very thankful for the life I am able to lead and the health that allows me to make the most of it.

12 comments:

  1. Betty Edwards is not, by any chance, a distant relative of yours? I like books about manners! When I was in my teens, I came across a volume for young ladies, written in the 1950s, which I think my mother had been given by some well-meaning aunt for her confirmation. That book was the first on the subject I ever read. The - so far - last one was "Talk to the Hand", which I have reviewed on my blog.

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    1. Not so far as I know Meike. I read Talk to the Hand within the last six months but I can't recall offhand whether I've mentioned it in a blog post. I must look that up - and your review.

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  2. Make sure you mix it well.
    Coincidentally, I've recently had that book drawn to my attention (knew about it years ago) and resolved to finally give it a read. We could compare notes.

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    1. I shall do Katherine - I ran out of time last night - although my proper mixer is in Eagleton. Oh dear does that mean I have to read and inwardly digest. No bluffing this time eh?

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  3. A idyllic day for you....you even had the opportunity to visit the library....yeah!
    I'm looking forward to your posts on Modern Manners when you have finished reading the book.

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    1. Virginia I may well pick the interesting bits out of that book - I'll see when I get to it. A lot will depend on how much rain we get before Christmas!

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  4. No wonder you've been away from blog land! You've been a very busy boy. Any recipes I want I find on the Internet. You want potato soup? Google potato soup.
    I'm mostly out of blog land. It seems my feeds are not being picked up. I'm not sure why this is happening. People have to do the work themselves by clicking on my blog .

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    1. I do Google recipes Red even when I have a book handy. The big advantages of browsing a book though is that you can get ideas. If I just Googled 'soup' the computer and my brain would go into fuse-blowing mode. I shall try and see why I'm not getting your feeds too.

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  5. I had pretty much the opposite kind of day - I was going to have a friend over for tea, but had to cancel and go out in torrential rain to see my dentist instead! (sigh) I'm still thankful he could fit me in, though :) Hope you had luck with the roasted chickpeas. It will be a while before I can eat those again. (No it was not one of them that broke my tooth. But they might break the temporary one I got put in today...)

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    1. I was sorry to read about your tooth Monica. We shall be trying the roasted chick peas tonight when the family come down for dinner.

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  6. Graham! I have that book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. IT Works! Not only was I able to draw their pictures, but I could actually draw a picture of my hand that I recognized as my own. So fun! Please let me know how you do with it!

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    1. I shall Lisa. I really wanted to understand the concept more than try to do it but it does look as though I'm going to have to give it a go. I have never been able to draw anything to this could be a real challenge.

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