Ten Things of Thankful

07 December: Ten Things of Thankful

humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – There is a cake shop in Keighley, my local town, whose window always displays the most amazingly decorated cakes and this is their Christmas window display. I always stop to admire their work but this time I went in for a couple of homemade Mincepies and a chat with the utterly delightful owner…

2 – I completed the last demonstration piece of weaving on my loom – Satin Stitch. Now it may be hard to imagine that this is the stitch that produces all those shiny Satin finishes, but that’s because I was using very thick cotton yarn. So perhaps this example might be better called Weft-faced Weave. Then below, is the reverse Warp-faced Weave which is exactly what you see on the reverse of Weft-faced Weave… It is a form of exaggerated twill where the Warp skips over 5 warps before being tied in by a single stitch. If this was done with tiny, shiny silk threads, it would indeed have a shiny, satin finish.

3 – I made a Persimmon Cake yesterday and I have another in the oven as I type. Barbara’s brother went on a cruise many years ago an took up with an American lady, Cindy, and had a long-distance relationship for a couple of years. If she came over at this time of year, she would bring Persimmon Cake made to a secret family recipe which she would not reveal and which I have been trying to emulate ever since – there being plent of recipes on the internet to choose from. Als I can never achieve the moist, rich fruit cake style of Cindy’s family recipe – but the results of my experiments go down well each year nevertheless…

The Persimmon cake wrapped and drizzled with rum, ready for the family on Boxing Day…

4 – Barbara managed to make her coffee date with her best friend Jan on Friday!

5 – Jan uses the tote bag I helped Barbara make for her, every day! She says it goes with everything! FYI – furnishing fabric…

6 – A nice repeat shot of our Kunafa Cheese Bomb at the factory – don’t worry, the only thing this bomb can damage is your waistline! For those who don’t know, kunafa is having a moment – it started with Dubai Chocolate which a chocolate bar filled with Kunafa (like a very fine shredded wheat) toasted and mixed with Pistachio Sauce. Our Kunafa bomb is a pot lined with Kunafa, filled with sweetened cream cheese and sealed on top with more Kunafa – in the words of Weigh-watchers and the Pet Shop Boys – “It’s a Sin!”

7 – Found a Christmas present fo Barbara which I know she will like – I always want to choose something for her to wear but she never likes the things I choose so I am playing safe with this one 0 remind me to tell you what it was, after Christmas…

8 – Just checked the cake and lowered the temperature and put it back in for another 15 minutes – smells good! (You will note I am reprting gratitudes in real time here)…

9 – Barbara’s daughter is sending a stream of lovely videos of her trip to Bali which it seems is centred on a yoga retreat – so a happy bunny…

10 – Managed to think of 10 gratitudes for this week…

Have a lovely coming week everyone!

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23 November: Ten Things of Thankful

humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – The sun is shining out of an all-blue sky today, in the midst of a run of rainy days…

The beautiful Silver Birches in the churchyard behind our house shining out against the blue…
Shafts of sunlight illuminating the Willow tree, which for some reason, is still wearing its Summer clothes…

2 – My rapper Grandson was up for a couple of days as he had a gig in Leeds and on Friday I cooked a sumptuous vegetarian curry feast for him and his cousin, and his girlfriend, which went down very well with all!

3 – Grammarly believes in the Oxford comma – yayyy!

4 – Barbara managed some housework and washing-up on two days!!!

5 – I have finally finished the list of topics for my A to Z 2026 which will be on Fabrics

6 – I therefore moved on, to step 2 – making some samples of weaving to illustrate the A to Z.

Using a loom made by a toy company in 1957, but which is nevertheless a fully functioning loom, Iprooduced this sample of Plain Weave at bottom, and Twill Weave at top. Twill is what characterises Denim, for example. The eagle eyed crafters amongst you will see that the tension is gradually curving the sides of the piece inwards – rooky tension error… Well it was my first ever weave!
Plain Weave – blue cotton yarn weft on red warp.
Twill Weave.

7 – I have bought a Christmas present for Barbara – in recent years, we have eschewed giving presents to each other on the grounds that we have most everything we might want but this year, I decided to rebel…

8 – Grateful to be doing this gratitude paractice and for all the kind comments it garners…

9 – I have had two poems accepted by GAS: Poetry, Art and Music, which will be published on Christmas Day!

10 – Barbara’s eldest daughter is on a solo trip to Bali for three weeks – she has been estranged for much of the last year, but bridges have been mended and we shall see her at Christmas…

A very good week ahead, to everyone!

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18 October: Ten Things of Thankful

humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – I am grateful that there is almost always a parking space just outside the gates of where I work my 2.5 days. There is a parking bay, occupied at night by residents of the adjacent houses and there is usually just one space beneath a tree which sports a lot of berries – currently ripe and so the birds feeding there leave little offerings on my car bonnet and roof (for which I am not so grateful lol).

2 – The tree mentioned above continues to unfold Autumn colours – not in a uniform way, but branchlet by branchlet – it is the same with many trees this year and I feel I am being shown something about Autumn that I haven’t seen before…

3 – I received this novel micro watercolour kit from my partner by way of a thank you for all the things I do for her for which she is grateful and I in turn for this…

The white thing at left is a wristband on which to wipe the brush…

4 – I have been involved for the last ten years, with the building of a mosque in Bradford, the city I work in. When I first started on the project, I was between jobs, and it gave me both income and a chance to keep my hand in with AutoCAD (computer draughtsmanship) and led to me working at an Architect’s office as the oldest person there, but in the office junior post lol. Now the mosque is nearing completion with the roof being put on the minaret tower which means the lift can finally be installed within the tower. The project has taken time because the money is raised from the community a little at a time, so the work progresses in fits and starts… I am not religious yet this is not the first sacred space I have been involved with as a designer ( I did work in Catholic churches when I lived in Ireland) and over the years, the ongoing role as project draughtsman to the mosque, has provided a little supplementary income, a chance to learn about Moslem culture, some enjoyable design opportunities and a number of friends. Within a year, my task there will come to a close and at 70, I feel this is a fitting time for me…

This is the area which would eventually become the Main Prayer Room on the ground floor and this is the state of the building when I was first brought in to survey and draw up the building “as built”
The Prayer Room almost complete and in use already…
The mosque is a modern building but these traditional Islamic geometrical designs which I had to draw up so that they could be cut out on a CNC router machine – the finishing touches to the Prayer Room! As well as a place of worship, this mosque has been designed as a community centre. Many of the mosques in Bradford were converted from churches, halls, even cinemas but this one was purpose-built and is the most far-sighted in offering many roles to its congregation and community…

5 – Another project that requires my AutoCAD skills, amongst others, is coming to fruition at my 2.5 Day Job at the gelato (and pudiing and cake) factory. We are installing a new gelato production plant, bought from a factory closing down in Eastern Europe some ten years ago and awaiting the space to be reassembled. The oldest brother in the family firm is the prime mover in this and he has been thoroughly enjoying himself assembling it all, drilling walls for pipework to pass through. My job is now to draw out the system with a view to writing and illustrating the SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) which we will have to teach the workers who will opreate it. What makes it complicated is the CIP system in which successive flushes of Acid, Alkali and Hot and Cold water must be used to clean the entire system between batches. Below is just a small part of the task…

These are the “Ageing” Tanks where the pasteurised mixture of milk, cream and a special thickener will b held before being flavoured and frozen into gelato.
Just a tint part of the labyrinth of pipes, and more importantly, valves needed to get the right fluids flowing to the right places and which must be opened and closed correctly to stop the wrong fluids contaminating the product – imagine drawing up this system…

6 – My post-holiday cold version 2 is slowly abating…

7 – We had a lovely visit to my youngest but one grandson and his girlfriend in their new flat in Sheffield (home of steel, cutlery and scalpel blades).

8 – The roofers return on Monday to repair a few slates and coping stones above the work they did last week on the extension fascias, soffits and gutters…

9 – Managed to think of things I am grateful for

10 – It is a grey day, but it is not raining, or blowing and I see the reservoir above the town has largely refilled after the Summer drought…

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07 September: Ten Things of Thankful

humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – Our Olive tree seems to have set the majority of flowers – whether they turn into lovely black olives remains to be seen but there are far more, potentially than last year…

2 – We were loaded up more or less according to schedule to depart for our holiday in Cornwall – and no, there is no kitchen sink in there…

3 – Grateful to our neighbour opposite for agreeing to water the garden (containers) whilst we are away – the Rhubarb is the bellweather – I hav e never tried to grow Rhubarb in a pot before and it has grown so much this year, after already being repotted once, that I think it will need an even larger pot for next year. It started from a fragment of plant that came away with a stalk I picked two years ago! It has wilted several times with this years heatwaves but has perked up within the hour after being watered…

4 – Gratefull not to have been travelling an hour earlier when a serious accident happened en route for the motorway at a place where, stuck in the queue waiting for it to be removed (took another hour) we could do nothing but chat to other drivers and I took this picture of the landscape. There was no alternative to waiting, no lanes that could be used to bypass the incident – es la vida…

5 – Glad to have been once more passing surely the best motorway service station, possibly in the world! Looking like some ancient megalithic structure embedded in the landscape, this service station is a Farm Shop selling amazing artisan breads and cakes, fruit and wholefood goods. I bought a Sourdough loaf which will last our first week on holiday, apples and a Pistachio cream filled Croissant…

Even the Fuel Station is different from usual…

6 – Glad that this is the season of native English apples and here is my favourite a Discovery apple. The intens red of the skin permeates the flesh inside – and the taste – well, this is to other apples as Champagne is to other wines! Sadly, supermarkets favour apples that last longer (at the cost of less taste) and have their supply lines set to a steady flow of foreign apples – so all the more reason to savour English apples when they are in season and you can manage to find them…

7 – We arrived at 9 o’clock at night after an epic 12 hour drive and this is the little garden at the back of the static trailer. The approach to it is not very prepossessing – a building site! But the accomodation is nice if bijou and there is a stream flowing alongside which gives a constant gurgling soundtrack…

8 – On the other side of the wall is a disused China Clay drying works since we are on the outskirts of St. Austell, Cornwall, where china clay mining has been an industry for a long time supplying clay for uses from toothpaste to glossy paper…

9 – It is raining this morning but we are on holiday so es la vida! (That’s life!) We shall just relax and go with the flow…

10 – We had chip butties for lunch yesterday – how decadent is that!

I hope you are all living your best lives too and if you want to join in – click the link below…

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30 Aug: Ten Things of Thankful

humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

PYO Wildflower Meadow near Helmsley

1 – Glad that my partner and I made another trip and managed to reach Whitby, or rather the adjacent beach at Sandsend. On the way, instead of stopping for coffee at Helmsley, we found this Pick Your Own Wildflower meadow where you can also get coffee and cake…

2 – This week’s texture for graphic work – woodchip path at the PYO – one day I will show you how these textures come in useful…

3 – Grateful for the sea whose presence and waves are varied but always there to provide a sort of meditation break from the affairs of men…

Sandsend is a popular surfing spot in the new world of cold-water surfing (who wants to hang out in Hawaii anyway – grab your wetsuit boys and girls…)

4 – Grateful that the Spider Orchid Lily bulbs I added to the garden this year have finally flowered – nothing to do with spiders and not orchids either…

5 – I collect odd bits of detritus to use in collages – this one (probably a piece of gearing from a Bradford Mill or more prosaically a piece of a car engine) is a bit chunky but it reminds me of the 30’s Sunrise motif…

Somewhere in Wiltshire from a sketch I did at 17…
Yorkshire moors between Oxenhope and Hebden Bridge

6 – There is but one Painting/Poetry Postcard to go after this – I am replying to the “bonus” cards sent by participants to the International list (as opposed to the majority US lists) of which five included their names and addresses and so though, under the terms of the PoPoFest, one is not obliged to reply – these guys were obviously hoping for one – in fact one was on my list in 2023 – so I decided to press on with the paintings. I was particularly pleased with these two which are acrylic on paper, because I achieved the sort of looseness of touch that I seek but don’t always find – this may be a result of doing 35 paintings in about 5 weeks…

7 – Glad that a friend of mine who has been struggling with having terminated an unsuitable relationship is getting back to herself…

8 – Grateful that our holiday in Cornwall is only 5 days away and I hope the change of scene will do us both good…

9 – Glad that the apples I scrumped are ripening nicely without loss and that Discovery apples – my favourites – are coming into their all too brief season – it will be Egremont Russets’ turn next…

10 – Glad that dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night gave me the chance to post an unprompted poem of a tender disposition which made a change from the angry poems I find I have to write in these difficult times – you can read it here.

Have your best weeks ever – be your best selves…

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22 Aug: Ten Things of Thankful

humanist55

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – Glad we found the perfect spot for these carved Elephants in a corner of our winding stair – we bought it last year in the market in Dieppe whislt on holiday…

2 – This week’s harvest/scrumped apples and plums plus Blackberry and Apple jam and Apple sauce. – I say scrumped but the apples and plums were eithe wild or hanging over a wall into the public domain…

3 – Grateful that the fern I placed in this lovely Macramé plant holder, is finding sufficient light to thrive. The Macramé was a gift from our son’s crafty girlfriend – Yayyy the 70’s…

4 – Grateful for the cards I have received through the Postcard Poetry Festival – the ones on the left are from my list – List 4 and on the right are the bonus cards from the International list. Everyone wants to send to a person outside the USA so they publish an International List – there is no obligation on recipients to respond to these but most include their address so I gues they are hopeful of a return card and I will not disappoint…

5 – Glad that I finished and sent the last of my official PoPoFest cards – this one to a lady in Dublin, so I decided to paint Ben Bulben in Sligo where we lived for 10 years for which I am also grateful…

6 – After a week without rain and with watering by hand at 100litres a pop, I was glad to see a little drizzle today (manifested on my windscreen) – enough to moisten the leave though I had to do a proper watering testerday…

7 – Can you guess the texture I spotted this week (useful for backgrounds in graphic work)? It’s a towel drying on the washing line…

8 – Glad that my partner has managed to get up and see her best friend locally, followed by a haircut in advance of our holoday njext month

9 – Glad that my working week is over but grateful to still have a job 2.5 days a week…

10 – Glad to have found this list to do each week…

I am new to this – my second week but in these difficult times it seems an excellent thing to have to focus on Ten Things of Thankful each week…

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