Grey days

I’ve been trying to write an entertaining post about my week so far but it’s been tough going.

Dave insisted it was too icy to go out for a walk on Sunday, and yesterday we woke again to leaden skies and three inches of wet snow with underlying ice and I felt mega fed up.  Now I am officially old (75) I really do not want to “have a fall” and end up in A&E for three weeks. (Tell me…why do young people fall over and old people “have falls”?)

I felt sorry for all those people facing the snow/ice/floods on their journey to work, and I felt sorry for all those people who can’t afford heating, and I was pleased I didn’t fall into either group, but playing the glad game only took me so far, until I got in the shower, which always makes me feel thankful. And while I was in there I remembered my mantra for Covid lockdowns - “Stay healthy, stay cheerful and try to be kind.”

There was nothing on the agenda, so I decided to tackle a job on my winter to-do list, which was to clear out my stash of scrap fabrics in the cupboard on the landing. A week or so ago I had cleared out my knitting wool drawers 

Finished exhibit

and felt so much better for it (!) so maybe I’d cheer up if I pared down and ordered my collection of fabrics (kept for craft and mending and patchwork, the last of which, btw, I have sworn off forever.)

So I switched on Carrie Hope Fletcher reading The Secret Garden on Audible, and got to work. (Footnote - I often reread The Secret Garden in January because it cheers me up, and this audio rendition of it is particularly wonderful.)

Meanwhile Dave, yes, despite the conditions, set off on his bike to go to Bakewell on an errand. You can’t tell Dave anything.

I had reached this point

when he returned and said it was even too slippery to cycle on the Trail so he’d given up the plan. “And,” he said, “the lane is awash with melting snow and all the drains are blocked.”

Music to my ears! You know how I feel about clearing gullies. I togged up and went out for three quarters of an hour of fun. Yes, despite the ice.

When I got back (and actually I had seen no ice, just slush) I asked Dave to take a photo of me for the blog.

Dave refuses to entertain the idea of having a mobile phone and neither can he work them, and he takes crap photos even on a camera. (It is one of the few practical tasks at which he does not excel.) (I’m getting rather concerned about the proliferation of parentheses on this post.)

For some reason I can’t fathom, no matter how many times i explain that you don’t hear a click, and all you have to do is gently touch the “button” for a second, he ends up with multiple shots, and also shots that look like this:

Thankfully he did get one of those multiple shots of the right thing and I chose this one.

After that, I grabbed a coffee and returned to the fabric clearing.

I finished cutting buttons off stained/worn shirts and completed the sorting and storing by noon, by which time I had decision maker’s burnout with all the micro decisions I’d had to make …did I want to keep this bit of fabric? If not, was it nice enough to offer to someone else and if so, to whom? Or should it go to some fabric recycling bin if I could find one?

The rest of the day went like this…

Force myself out for a cold and joyless 45 minute walk round the block with Dave, just for exercise

Have lunch 

Watch Neighbours, which had returned from its Christmas break - hooray!

Start a new painting because I am having a break from this one, 

Reading Ted Krasinky’s manifesto on Christmas Eve

because it is not right, and I am fed up with it, and I hope to be able to improve it in a couple of weeks time.

FaceTime with Chrissie.

Have tea 

Watch Pretty Woman again

Do a crossword with Dave

Bed

And today we have another grey day but I am feeling more chipper. If I get fed up, I can tackle the attic.