21st December: Ten Things of Thankful

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – I am thankful that, although I still can’t post pictures from my computer, directly, I have found a workaround and so I am back in time to wish you all a Merry Christmas…

2 – We have had a few great sunrises the last few weeks and in this part of the world – “Red sky at night – shepherd’s delight, Red sky in the morning – shepherd’s warning!”

3 – In other weather phenomena – here is a rainbow that greeted me on my arrival at work and also to be seen, the local mosque – evidence of how multi-cultural Bradford is…

4 – And inside work, we have a new cleaner who has brought in some greenery to brighten the windowsill…

5 – And still at work – I managed to catch out some colleagues with the following photo – I told them I had been on a quick trip to the Arctic Circle to see the Northern Lights and snapped this from the plane – in fact, it is a photo of the ice build-up in our gelato freezer, turned upside down lol…

6 – Last week, there were still a few apples on this roadside tree – looking for all the world like Christmas baubles – oh and I picked up a few windfalls which have grown and ripened since last time I harvested some – talk about a late harvest…

and here is our own Christmas Tree ready to rock and roll!

7 – The Winter Jasmine is flowering – tiny flowers with a delicate scent…

8 – Most of the food shopping for the twelve of us who will be here on Boxing Day is done…

9 – presents are all bought and wrapping is under way and one especially for Clark ” What type of music do sana’s Elves listen to at work?
Rap!”

10 – Here in England, if you are lucky enough to have a local branch, Christmas begins when you hear the Salvation Army Brass Band playing Christmas Carols…

Have a Very Merry Christmas Everyone!

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23 November: Ten Things of Thankful

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – Snow was forecast this week, and sure enough, it came, but I was grateful it was just a dusting on the hills since it was a drive to work day…

The view from our kitchen window

2 – The weather forecast also alerted me to wrap the olive tree against frost, in good time, so we are now stuck with this ghostly shrouded prescence for the Winter…

3 – A giant toddler has been let loose on the sky with a white crayon – anyone remember Harold and the Purple Crayon?

4 – Last weekend I was in our local town, Keighley, and saw this shop window, and as you know, I love repetition and took the first shot, but then went inside for more repeated ballas of wool. However the best bit, was I got talking to the shop owner who turned out to be a mine of information about fabrics and I mercilessly picked his brains (he was delighted – really!) for my A to Z upcoming in April, on the subject of Fabrics. He was made redundant in the ’80’s, and turned to recycling waste from the fabric mills around Yorkshire – cardboard and polythene, obviously, but also waste fabric pieces. He started sorting the latter and sold them back to mills that reprocessed them and included a percentage in new yarns. In ten years, he went form having £200 in the bank, to £100,000! Where there’s muck, there’s brass! Best of all, he alerted me to the fact that so many fabrics are “Warp knitted” as opposed to older weaving techniques – think T-shirt “Jersey” material…

5 – It was my day to take the Micro-biology samples from work, for testing at a firm at Luddenden Foot, in the Calderdale Valley. I always love this drive and the drive home “over the tops” and this Thursday it was crisp, sunny with blue skies and mercifully, there was so little traffic, I was able to dart into the little quarry/layby on the wrong side of the road and take the following pictures and a video. It is one of those spots where you could point the camera in any direction and get a beautiful shot as proved by the panoramic video.
If any of you want to come and live in “God’s own county!” (Yorkshire) – you would be most welcome…

And further up, emerging onto the moors, this Wild Rose bearing rosehips…

6 – And no Ten Things of Thankful without a texture shot, this week, Autumnal, frosty leaves…

7 – We had a most enjoyable hour reading our poems at the dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night Live session yesterday – read a poem about COVID lockdown in Crete, where we were fortunate to spend 6 months out of harm’s way… https://how-would-you-know.com/2025/11/this-is-crete.html

8 – Our new business (by which I mean my boss’s family) – a Self-Storage facility, opened without mishap this week and we had the first customers! I did various bits of design in the run-up and may pop in to give a hand as it gets busy…

9 – Beverley had her birthday and was delighted with the brightly coloured inside, unglazed outside Tapas bowls I bought for her in Aldi six months ago, you have to buy then when you see them as when they’re gone, they’re gone…

10 – Despite her depression, Barbara has taken charge of buying Christmas presents for the family and has almost completed the task!!!

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16 November: Ten Things of Thankful

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – As touted last week, we were “baby-sitting” Bev and Don’s young Border Collie – Winnie. With my hip grumbling more and more, I chose little and often walkswise and here is Winnie on a long training lead going round the churchyard (our house in the background)

2 – The good thing about walking a dog is that you go places and see things you might otherwise miss…
The bright berries wrapped around thegate pillar of the Old Vicarage caught my eye…

3 – Also this unseasonal Blackberry blossom – you’ve got ot hand it to nature – it does try…

4 – My Grandson, Dillon and his girlfriend, Izzy, arrived back from several months travelling in France, Spain and Morroco, safe and sound , and came over to take Winnie home after just 24 hours. Winnie’s enthusiasm for playing indoor fetch with an unfortunate soft-toy squirrel was inexhuastible and so it was a relief to let her go…

5 – Not on of my textures (though it could be…) but another thing I like to photograph – repeated patterns – in this case a batch of Oreo set Cheesecakes at the factory awaiting boxing up. I’m aware that in the World Heritage site – Salts Mill, the “museum” room, whatever facts and pictures of the mill it has, has not got a single piece of the fabric that was made there and these cheesecakes are destined to be equally ephemeral…

6 – I inherited this pot containing both Easter and Christmas Cactus from my late mother, although neither one blooms at the time of their eponymous festivals. Now the “Christmas” side has it’s turn. I would really like to repot them not so much because they have been in the same soil for decades – Baby Bio in their water keepd them healthy, in fact so healthy that I have had to raise the pot higher and higher because the leaves and flowers are trailing on the ground. I dare not repot them anyway, because the plant is fragile and leaves and more are easily broken off and besides, they are in a terracotta pot which I would have to break since I can’t envisage turning the plant upside down… Perhaps the maxim “If its not broken – don’t fix it!” comes into play and just keep raising the pot higher…

And flanking it are two money trees – one from my late sister – the grove on the right, and my choice of form – a single trunk at left – what’s your preference…

7 – The cat is still holding off it’s predations in the garden…

8 – I have finished my poem for the real-world Keighley Poetry Group which this month is on the subject of Kettle[s]

9 – Since Dillon and Izzy have asked me to teach them to paint (inspired by all the wonderful things they have seen on their travels) I ordered a (seconhand) book which I had but got lost along the way Thames and Hudson “A Concise History of Watercolour” and it has been like being re-united with an old friend… The pictures were (and still are) an influence on what I like to paint…

This one, by the American atrist Whistler, who did great work in England, has the abstract form in all its rectangles whilst still being completely realistic and this has led me to love doing paintings of doors and views through passageways…

10 – manged to fill my Ten Things of Thankful…

Neverland 13 to Mildly Nova 18

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08 November: Ten Things of Thankful

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – After a pretty rainy week, Saturday morning dawned sunny…

2 – The reservoir above the village is now brim full, although the Yorkshire hosepipe ban is not yet lifted, it shouldn’t be long 9not that we need to water now lol)…

3 – I am always grateful to live in such a beautiful place and so, the sun out, I went up to “The Nab” to take a photo of Silsden village for you…

This is the reverse of the view from our house – The Nab is at top left…

And turning the camera round, here is the outcrop of Millstone Grit that forms The Nab. And yes, there is a quarry up there where agricultural workers with little to do in Winter, would carve millstones, water troughs and the like, out of the rock.

Whilst I was up there, a fog bank rolled in below me to the right…

And one more shot…

4 – Gratitude my daughter’s quite young Border Collie, Winnie, is sweet-tempered and settles down after initial excitement at greeting a visitor, quickly enough fo next weekend we shall be baby-sitting her at our house…

Winnie

5 – By dint of Harrisa pepper, Dragons teeth deployment of sticks and thorny rose clippings, I seem finally, to have deterred the nameless cat who has been scratching in my bulb containers…

6 – I finished the very last task of my Poetry Postcard Festival participation for this year – a Cento poem using lines from each of the 43 poems on a postcard I received during July and August this year – it’s the post before this one, here on the blog

7 – My friend who runs Collaborature – an online journal for collaborative poems, and I, have now topped 1,000 lines of what is turning into a novella written in Pushkin or “Onegin” sonnets after his book Eugene Onegin. You can read our epic “Shipmates” here.

8 – I shall have a busy but different week at work since my bosses are opening a self-storage warehouse in an old office building and they want me to be there for the first week to help get it running.

9. My grandson Dillon and his girlfriend Izzy, will be living at home with their parents Bev and Don in the next village, Addingham for the next year, having spent the Summer touring in their small camper van. They have asked me to teach them how to paint which will be fun…

10. Grateful to have been inducted into The Hall of Hostinae of Ten Things Thankful and for all the lovely messages of welcome from you all…

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01 November: Ten Things of Thankful

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – I am grateful to my daughter for coming round and doing some housework for Barbara and I, which, as she said, is also a chance to spend some time together…

2 – I am glad that once a month I have to take samples to a microbiology lab for testing and the drive back takes me “over the tops” and include this beautiful view…

3 – I am grateful that my work gives me a subscription to Adobe Suite, including PhotoShop, which, amongst other things, I use for resizing the pictures for this website; however, I promised t0 show you what I use the various textures I have shown each week and I thought to use the initials of Ten Things of Thankful…

The top version has had the inner area of the letters coloured in with an orange gradient.
The second version has four different textures, all of which you have seen – faded blue paint on wood, fallen Autumn leaves, a microfibre cloth and tree bark.
In numbers three and four, the orange layer has been placed over the textrures and different ways of blending the two layers have been applied.

That’s the magic of PhotoShop…

4 – I bought this bunch of flowers to cheer up my patrner and they have lasted really well…

5 – Following the disruption of moving the garden round to accomodate the roofers, I got everything back where it needs to be – all the bulb containers are to the fore, ready for Spring and indeed some of them are jumping the gun… The strange patches of colour are chilli powder to educate a cat that these pots are not it’s toilet…

6 – I have agreed to start a new collaborative poem with a friend to be published in another friend’s online journal – Collaborature

7 – I finished inputting all the fabrics in my spreadsheet in preparation for the A to Z Challenge (blogging) 2026 – I found 139 different fabrics and if you include fibres and processes 254 items which need to be sorted and grouped into just 26 alphabetical items – hence the spreadsheet – I love a good spreadsheet!

8 – My salary (1/2 time as I am) and my pension will both come into my account on the same day – tomorrow – Yayyy! (Pension precesses as it is every 28 days exactly)

9. I spoke to my Sister in Nova Scotia and to my Critique Partner in Minneapolis which two meetings take place every other Sunday, and both of which I enjoy immensely…

10 – I got through my TToT…

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26 October: Ten Things of Thankful

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – I have virtually finished the layout of all the new Gelato Production Unit at work (remember the mess of pipework I showed you last week?) which means I can now proceed to writing the SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) for the plant. This is vital as if you open the wrong valve or leave the wrong one open, a potential £6-7,00.00 could be lost – you don’t want cleaning acid in your gelato mix…

2 – I am grateful to live in such a beautiful (Go’s Own) county – Yorkshire and this is a view I had to stop and photograph with a view to a painting – Beamsley Beacon emphasised by strong shadows on a levely Autumn sunshiny day…

3 – On a smaller scale, no unused corner – in this case of a snicket (Passgeway) – fails to be colonised by nature – I think this is a Lavateria…

4 – The Olive tree in our yard continues to darken its tiny fruit though I fear there is not enough sun to develop them further before I have to wrap the tree in frost protection for the Winter – however – one fully formed Olive has made it and by the Spring, when I unwrap the tree again, will no doubt have attained black ripeness…

5 – The roofers returned to fix and relace a few slates on the extension roof and renew the render along the coping stones and they also painted (and cleaned) the small upstairs window, which is otherwise inaccessibe…

6 – More bounty from this year – some quinces in my daughter’s garden – not sure if they are edible or only ornamental? I love to make Membrillo!

7 – Across the road from the above, I encountered this tree spirit…

8 – More Autumn beauty – better on the ground than on my car…

9 – No Ten of Thankful complete without a little texture – so from the trunk of the tree that shed the leaves above – any graphic artists amongst you, feel free to use…

10 – Thankful to have found Ten Things of Thankful this week…

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11 October: Ten Things of Thankful

Ten things for which I give thanks this week…

1 – I am profoundly glad that a ceasefire has begun in Gaza although a lot will depend on whether President Trump will continue to hold Netanyahu’s feet to the fire to carry on with the terms outlined – however, a ceasefire is a start…

2 – I am glad the second cold I have had in as many weeks is abating as we are supposed to be going to see my grandson and his girlfriend’s new flat tomorrow…

3 – I finally got around to finding someone to redo the fascias, soffits and gutters on the extension. The oood has been cut for two years…

The gutters have been up for about 45 years and had gone brittle and needed replacing…
There were some very tricky angles involved in cutting the wood and the guys did well working from the old wood as templates – job well done…

4 – The building work meaned moving half the garden away from the building but I am glad as it all needed rearranging with next year’s bulb containers coming to the fore…

5 – The Spider Orchid Lilies are still producing excuisite blooms when not much else is showing…

6 – My Rhubarb – started from a fragment attached to a pulled stem, is a good size now and I will put it in a bigger pot once it stops for the Winter and hopefully get “fruit” next year…

7 – Some plucky bulbs are jumping the gun for Spring – crocii, I think…

8 – the weather was good today allowing me to paint the new woodwork

9 – I have finished posting poetry/postcards for this year – even the bonus ones from the International list – here is my favourite painting of the challenge – it is “The Island” – Spinalonga, former leper colony made famous by Victoria Hislop’s book…

10 – glad to have thought of 9 lol…

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22 Aug: Ten Things of Thankful

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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