I brought two finished pieces home with me from the pottery studio this afternoon.
The two pieces are very different.
One was thrown on the wheel, turned to trim off and shape, then decorated using a technique that I’ve been developing, using layers of underglaze applied with small separate brush strokes.
The other is hand-built, in a freestyle form, using coils and creating texture with various implements and materials.
The former is, I think, a vase. The latter I’m going to use as a candlestick.
On the way home from the studio I stopped off to do some shopping for groceries.
The house was dark when I got back. Trev was out but Lydia was there to greet me.
She hadn’t been on her own for long and doesn’t get separation anxiety like a lot of dogs do.
Even so, she was pleased to see me and, after putting the shopping away, it was time for her tea.
Trev brought fish and chips back for ours which I thoroughly enjoyed, complete with curry sauce, of course!
Continuing to work on the kitchen, I made good progress with more cleaning and a bit of painting before leaving the last coat of paint to dry and heading out to do some shopping.
Lydia has kept me company all day and she enjoyed an extra lamb rib as well as a raw chicken wing with her tea.
I had some savoury rice, and vegetarian sausages that were in the freezer. Then I made some chilli enchiladas for Trev and me to have for our tea tomorrow night. I bought avocados and limes to make fresh guacamole, and crème fresh as a lighter alternative to sour cream. There’s plenty of chilli left over so we can have that on Saturday night, or it will freeze for later.
It was damp this morning, but mild and bright, when Lydia and I set off to the dog field that I’d booked for us; not too early.
We hadn’t been to this particular dog field for a while, as I know Lydia likes to race cars that pass on the other side of the fence of another dog park that I take her to, and it gives her a good workout. It’s good to have a change though, and she was wearing her happy legs as she sniffed and mooched about the field that we went to today.
Once home, with Lydia nudging her breakfast ball around the lounge, I reheated chips from last night’s fish supper for my own breakfast, giving them just short of 2 minutes at full power in the microwave. They were sizzling and tasty, topped off with a light sprinkling of salt and vinegar and a splash of salad cream. A strong cup of tea completed my morning meal and I then went back to bed to rest for a while, to ensure that I’ll have enough energy reserves for more painting that I’m planning on doing tomorrow.
Suitably rested, I went out and bought in some groceries. Somehow, as I was carrying the bags into the house, I dropped a container of milk, which split, spilling milk all over the floor. So, I set to, soaking it up with towels and mopping the floor before putting the shopping away. I managed to get some of the milk in a jug before it was all lost so, hey, no point in crying over spilt milk!
I decided to enter a poetry competition – who knows, I might just win – and chose three that have not previously been published by me or anywhere else.
As it’s Halloween, at Trev’s suggestion I bought some sweets as treats to give out in case we get any ‘trick or treat’ callers tonight. We haven’t had them here on previous years but you never know, so I have put them in a jar by the door, ready, just in case.
I’m doing an easy tea tonight: prepared spinach and ricotta tortellini with a simple tomato sauce that I’m making myself. I’ve chopped up and fried an onion till soft, added some chopped garlic and a tin of chopped tomatoes, plus a vegetable stock cube – chopped into small pieces – a splash each of soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce, a good squirt of tomato puree and a small sprinkling of brown sugar, to just take the edge off the tartness of the tomatoes. It’s bubbling away now and I’ll finish it by using a hand-held blender to make it smooth. I think it should be tasty and nutritious along with the pasta.
Having unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and set the towels that I used to soak up the milk on a wash, I feel fairly up to date with what I need to do today so I think another rest is in order.
Lydia is lying by the back door. I’ll see if she wants to go outside for a while before I go upstairs.
I headed up for an early night last night, taking with me a glass of milk. After drinking some of the milk I set the glass to one side, on my bedside cabinet and settled down.
It wasn’t long before I heard a slurping sound close to my head. It was the noise that Lydia makes when she’s drinking water out of one of her bowls, but I know her bedroom bowl is close to the foot of the bed and not near my head. She was drinking my milk!
It represented quite a feat, as she stretched her, albeit long, tongue into the glass. After an initial pretend curse – “cheeky mare” or something to that effect – I picked up the glass and angled it so that it was easier for her to reach the contents. She slurped away, had a break, and then came back for the rest. She so enjoyed that milk.
A bit later on, I went down and got myself another glass of milk, had a couple of paracetamols and a buttered bread roll and settled myself down again, this time falling asleep and not waking until around 5.30am when a wet nose, attached to a soft muzzle, nuzzled me.
I knew, or was fairly certain, that she didn’t need a wee (or ‘peepie’ as we call it) because she’d been out for one earlier and she can go for hours and hours without needing another. Going downstairs I opened the back door and, as I thought, she settled down inside the house. She just wanted to pick up on the early morning air. So, I propped the door open, went back to bed and about half an hour or so later went back downstairs. Again, as I thought, she was by now curled up in her chair so I closed the back door to keep the heat it. It was a cold morning.
I didn’t get back to sleep but felt reasonably rested after the hours that I’d had. Later we went for our woodland walk.
I fancied going out for breakfast, having not had much to eat the day before, so sent a message to Trev and he agreed. After giving Lydia her breakfast ball, and later a dental stick, Trev and I went out and had a full English. It was a very good full English and set me up for the rest of the day.
The rest of the day has involved yoga, taking some Christmas decorations and a Christmas tree to a charity shop, doing some shopping, coming home, and starting to write this post.
I’ve kept some Christmas decorations that have sentimental value for me, and I have another small Christmas tree that I will use this year. It’s good to let go and move on.
Lydia is barking outside. It is a beautiful calm evening. I will make a stir fry for mine and Trev’s tea later but for now, can just enjoy a sense of peace, having done all I can, for today at least.
Up, showered and dressed before 9am, I had a couple of cups of tea before heading out with Lydia.
Seeing a horse and rider coming towards us at one point during our walk, I headed down into a dip, slipping on to my arse and scrambling up the other side, Lydia following on the way down and leading on the way up.
We had cover behind some trees but she was still aware of the horse and rider as they passed. I was so proud of her, as I encouraged her to “sit” – with a treat-reward, of course – and then “wait”, repeating this a few times so that she didn’t have to wait too long between treat-rewards. She didn’t bark or lunge at all, and we waited a few moments before doing the dip and up again back to where we were before – again with me on my bum for the ‘down’ bit.
Later in the morning I did another tip run, clearing stuff out of the garage. There’s more to do but it was a good load off my mind.
After a short rest I changed my, by now, muddy trousers, put on some make-up, made sure my hair was OK, then went out to see my friend M. We went out for coffee and scones, to a Morrisons café which offers great value, lovely scones and refillable mugs of coffee. The company and conversation were the best bit though. M. has a heart of gold.
After doing some shopping on the way home, giving Lydia her tea and putting the dinner in the oven – a chicken with vegetables, all roasted together in a dish – I did the final preparations for taking some pots to a small gallery tomorrow – the Dovecot Gallery in Styrrup near Doncaster. They are to be featured in their Christmas show/sale, so it’s good to be prepared well in advance.
They are small pots, and not perfectly formed by any means, but hopefully that is all part of their appeal. We shall see.
The sun came out again today, so Lydia enjoyed a bit of outside time in the yard, as well as our morning walk.
My meditation before the walk felt deeper, somehow. I can’t find any other words to describe it at the moment, but will just acknowledge that there was a change, and continue with the practice.
Other than that, it’s just been a domestic day, stocking up on shopping, putting it away, giving Lydia a raw lamb rib as a special treat.
Trev returns; Lydia’s tail wags. We order a Chinese and watch a bit of telly. It’s good just to relax into a Sunday evening.
As I wake this morning I reflect on a reminder from the Buddhist teachings over the last few months:
Welcome Wholeheartedly Whatever
It isn’t always easy to welcome the difficult stuff especially when it feels like there’s no end of difficult stuff to deal with.
But I find that the more I apply this principle, the more I begin to understand what it means. I’ve still got a long way to go in deepening my understanding of what it means, but I’ll keep working on it.
Today, though tired after yesterday’s intensive session at the studio, including the 50-minute drives to get there and back, I feel a sense of something having shifted in my inner landscape; not a momentous shift – marginal, but a shift nonetheless.
Sticking with a steady routine of walking Lydia daily, going to regular yoga and Qigong classes, building a short meditation practice into my morning routine, benefiting from the expert guidance and teachings from the Buddhist Centre and the weekly classes, and returning to the pottery studio for an afternoon of contemplative creativity in conducive company, are all helping to restore something in me that has needed to be restored for a very long time.
As I write, Lydia is relaxing in a corner of the room on her favourite rug. She’s had her walk and breakfast, spent a bit of time outside doing a bit of barking, and now – like me – she is ready to rest a bit.
I’ll go out later and do a bit of shopping, taking some soft plastic waste with me to go in the recycling bins that Aldi have in store. Their distribution methods do create a lot of plastic waste but at least they provide recycling facilities. Less waste would be better but we all have to start somewhere.
It’s hard to say which self-management rule applies here, although it could be rule no. 13: something to do with responsibility.
Glad About 
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