I always enjoy "Ten Things of Thankful" on  Messymimi, one of my favourite blogs, and today I thought I too would find ten things I have been grateful, happy and thankful about over the last week.  So here they are:

1. On Saturday we had arrived in Suffolk, at our late friend's cottage. I am so grateful that her relations let us stay there sometimes, it means a lot to us.

2. As the weather was bad the next day we visited a  lovely bookstore in nearby Halesworth. They have such an interesting unusual selection of books, many of them local and/or beautifully produced, and I got the perfect Christmas present there for someone who is always a problem to buy for! 

3. Next day we took a bike ride.  Even though it gets dark so early, I was incredibly grateful for the wonderful late autumn sunlight to show off the rolling countryside,  the quiet lanes and the last of the golden autumn leaves, and to be somewhere I could see all this beauty.



4. The following day we met with people we had got to know in Monkton Wyld. He is a tree expert and we had lunch and such interesting conversations and  even though I was feeling ill I was having too much fun to care.

5. We went to a friend's house and listened to a concert on Radio 3 we all wanted to hear. She has better equipment than they supplied at our cottage and I thought how lucky we are to have top performers available for free on the BBC, 7 days a week!

6. Returning to London the weather was bad again and I was feeling sicker than ever. But we got back without too many delays and the house was fine, so I was grateful for no nasty surprises awaiting...

7. ...although that happened the next day when I logged in to the bank account. Some drunk person (I assume) had swerved and driven into our car while it was parked just opposite our house, and I'd no idea that the repairs would add such a huge sum to the annual insurance, which fell due at the same time.  I was grateful that nobody had been in the car when it was hit, and I'm grateful that we have good public transport here so there is the option of not having a car in the future! We are now seriously considering that.  I prepared a birthday cake and bought food for a Big Birthday of my sister in law the following day.

8. Next day I'd had an extra bad night and didn't want to infect my sister in law so we discussed whether to postpone. I was grateful she decided to go ahead. She reckons she is on public transport all the time and getting breathed on by goodness knows who, so not enough to miss a party for.  We had a lovely evening, one of the best ever.  The twins reckoned the cake was iced and decorated to perfection :)



9. Today I am grateful  because feeling ill and tired has given an excuse to spend hours at the computer writing my book and I've done another 8,000 words in the last couple of weeks. I feel really good about that!

10. And every day at the moment I give up thanks to be detached from the stress and anxiety at our political situation.  I've been resolutely avoiding social media and news of any kind,  and I'm glad I've settled in my head to vote tactically (using www.getvoting.org,) -  not for anyone in particular, but against those who've got us into this.  Sometimes it is positive to reject the bad, and I am glad I have that choice.

Oh - and finally - reading that Monkton Wyld post again that I linked to, I thought I should say that St. Anthony did indeed help with finding my lost item. Within the hour I found my hand right on a box file labelled completely the wrong thing, with the urge to open it.   My important lost folder was inside, to my surprise. I thought I had checked all the files but there you are. So I am very thankful for that too!

PS The picture at the top of this post shows one of my favourite people, now grown up.