Tag: Christmas

Day 28

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing again

I woke up to a different – and rather wonderful – view this morning, after staying overnight with friends.

Their dog – Faith – slept most of the night on my bed. Lydia hasn’t yet ever slept on my bed and if that’s her choice that’s fine, but I would like to think that she knows she can if she wants to.

Back home, I made some vegan and some meat sausage rolls for the Qigong fuddle we’re having tomorrow evening.

I found the vegan recipes online:

Vegan Sausage Rolls

https://ucalorie.com/vegan-sausage-rolls/

https://plantbasedfolk.com/vegan-sausage-rolls/#recipe

They’ve turned out well, and are tasty.

I’m beginning to feel reasonably well organised for Christmas, partly because I’m not cooking a Christmas dinner this year so there’s less for me to organise, and partly because I’ve now bought all the presents I wanted to buy, have posted all the cards I need to post and written most of the others. It’s good to feel that I can just enjoy what I’m doing every day which tomorrow will start with picking Lydia up from the boarding kennels. It’s just not the same here without her.

As I have now completed my latest cycle of writing for 28 days, I’ll be republishing earlier posts for the next couple of weeks, and then I’ll be back on the other side of Christmas.

Best wishes to All for the festive season.

A Woman, a Dog & a Blog: Writing into Life https://amzn.eu/d/fZQtr0K

Rules, Rhymes, Recovery, Recipe, Random: Glad About Life https://amzn.eu/d/6XnH3He

 

Day 27

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing again

It was a bit frosty and misty this morning when I took Lydia out.

We were earliesh because I was taking her into kennels and then going straight to a poetry group meeting.

After the meeting a few of us went for a festive drink, and I have another sociable event lined up for this evening, going to visit friends.

Lydia will enjoy her weekend break with friends and I’ll enjoy mine.

I’ve also been to a Christmas Tree Festival in our local church, and bought what I think will now be the last of my Christmas presents for this year while I was there.

The house isn’t the same without Lydia but I’ll be picking her up on Monday morning, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed – and that’s just me!

Day 23

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing again

I wasn’t able to visit my friend M today as I usually do on a Tuesday as I didn’t want to take germs into the care home.

My cold isn’t yet fully developed but still lingering in the background.

I took Lydia out for a reasonable walk and since then have been taking it easy. I did put our Christmas tree up though, and made some roasted red pepper and sweet potato soup for our tea.

I’d boiled the bones and carcass from a chicken we’d had earlier in the week, making stock for the soup and providing some ‘Lydi juice’ for Lydia that she enjoyed after her tea. It had turned to jelly on cooling, so nourishing as well as flavoursome.

Day 21

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing again

For the first time since May I didn’t write and publish a blog post yesterday, so I’m doing it today instead.

I completely forgot after having had a lovely afternoon with friends, making Christmas wreaths.

My friend Maxine had organised it, and we all contributed different kinds of foliage from different places. I’d bought some bunches of festive foliage at the Buddhist Centre when I was there on Friday, and there were baubles, ribbons and lights that Maxine provided for us, along with some delicious snacks and drinks. 

Trev gave Lydia her tea while I was out so I didn’t have to leave early, and was pleased with my creation which is now hanging up on our front door.

I’ve got some more get-togethers with friends coming up over the next couple of weeks, and made a really good start with this one.

Day 16

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing again

Lydi did very well with her new collar for the first time. It’s a Halti collar, designed to stop pulling. It will take a while for her to get fully used to it, but it did seem to make a difference.

I’m early with writing and posting Christmas cards this year, which is just as well as it leaves me clear to make a start on deep cleaning the kitchen and doing a few things to it that will hopefully help things along when we come to sell the house.

Day 15

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing again

Mental health Mondays do seem to come round very quickly.

Up at around 8.30 this morning, I read a few pages from ‘How to Transform Your Life’ by Venerable Geshe Keksang Gyatso, Rinpoche, before starting a meditation.

During the meditation Lydia started barking at the back door and, while I decided to continue meditating for a while, I realised that she might need to go to the toilet, and not just for a ‘peepie’, so I got us ready to go out for our ‘walkies’. Sure enough, she did her first ‘poopie’ early on in the walk and another one later. She was pulling again, picking up a scent, and I’ll be glad when her new collar arrives later today, so that I can try her with it and see if it makes a difference.

Dropped a few of my pots off at my friend’s house as her daughter – who designs interiors – may buy some. Then I headed for the jet wash as I haven’t cleaned my car for ages.

With a bit of time to spare before yoga, I filled the car with petrol then popped into Tesco’s to buy some Christmas chocolates – three for presents for people and a box of Bendicks  mints for the house. I always like to buy a box of Bendicks mints for Christmas. I don’t have many Christmas traditions but this is one of them.

Day 12

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing again

 

Lydia was disappointed at the dog field this morning. No cars passed by that she could chase. Even so, she had nearly an hour off lead and did a lot of sniffing on what was a mild morning that later turned into a bit of a wild day weather-wise.

Hailstones fell as my friend Maxine and I headed to Harewood House to see the Christmas installation that her daughter had designed. It was spectacular, beautiful and inspired.

Quite how it had all been imagined, planned and implemented I don’t know but it really was a work of art in so many ways. A feast for the eyes with vibrance, colour and light.

It isn’t yet December but it is beginning to feel a little bit like Christmas already.

Day 10

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing again

 

We were talking about Christmas jumpers in the kitchen after the Buddhist group meeting tonight.

I don’t have a Christmas jumper as such any more, having sent the one I had to a charity shop a few years ago. I do have a festive jumper though. It is warm and soft with a kind of Nordic pattern on it and I may wear that to the meeting next week.

We meditated on the ‘Om Ah Hum’ mantra with much of the teaching devoted to deepening our understanding of that mantra, which represents the body, speech and mind of Buddha.

Home to lovely Lydia, I give her a few treats and she’s now lying down on the other side of the room, ready I think for her ‘sleepy time’.

I’m not quite ready for my ‘sleepy time’ yet this evening. I may just sit up for a while and reflect a bit more on the mantra.

Day 6

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing again

Had a good experience at the Bootham & Southowram Methodist Church Christmas Fayre, and sold enough pots to be able to pay cash for a curry tonight, delivered of course.

Enjoying a bit of telly and a few glasses of Malbec now.

Lydia is quite relaxed. She’s had a dental stick and was eyeing up my wine but I do know where to draw the line.

Just finished watching Celebrity Traitors on demand. Don’t know what to watch next but I expect I’ll find something eventually.

Good to know that I don’t have to get up early tomorrow morning. A few more glasses of wine later . . .

Day 3

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

Writing again

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch on Pexels.com

Waking this morning at around 4.20am, I get up to make a cup of tea. While waiting for the kettle to boil I snack on a few liquorice allsorts and some gummy sweets that were in the cupboard.

Back to bed, I must have dozed off for a few more hours before getting up, making another cup of tea, meditating for a short while and then deciding to take Lydia for a walk.

As I opened my eyes from the meditation, glancing towards the window I saw snow coming down.

I quickly got myself and Lydia ready to go out for a walk, in case the snow started to settle and the roads became impassable. 

This morning, I insisted that Lydia had her raincoat on over her harness. She made it clear she wasn’t keen but it was so cold and the raincoat is light, and an easy fit for her.  She was fine after being tempted into with a few treats.

The snow didn’t last, turning to icy rain, and it was bitterly cold.  Despite her thick fur and hardy nature, I think Lydia may have been glad of her extra layer. I know I was. 

Even so, and despite gloves, my hands got so cold that I can still feel them tingling, even now, over eight hours later.  Still, we had a decent walk, got home and warmed up.

Later I started to get organised for a craft fair that I’m taking some of my pots to on Saturday: Boothtown & Southowram Methodist Church Christmas Fayre, near Halifax.

It will be an early start but I’ve got it planned out so that I’ll take Lydia out early and, with the car pre-packed, set off in good time to get there in good time to be able to set up my table ready for the 11am start.

Some pot pourri that I’d ordered arrived today so I made up a couple of my bowls with some clear wrap and bows: one to donate to the church raffle and one to display and hopefully sell.

I’ve got a little bit more preparation to do before Saturday, but its mostly sorted and planned now so I can start to relax into this evening, with Trev making tea and then I’m going out to a meeting of the Buddhist group.

The theme is still ‘concentration’.  I do think I am starting to be able to concentrate more. I’m hoping that more sleep as well as more meditation will help.