I'm thankful - Part One
Good morning. I am starting the morning by listing all the things I an thankful for. Good to do this first thing, while energy levels are high. And here's a thought - make another list in the evening and compare them, hee hee. So it all starts with my cottage (a life-long dream realised, harking back to the days when I first read The Famous Five books). I'm so thankful that I have a cottage by my pond, so that I wake up each morning in my garden.
Speckles the Stray
Dear Speckles
Next of all it's Speckles the wild cat, who eats on the cottage verandah. I'm so thankful that he will sit beside me and let me pat him - that he will smooch me and even lick my hand. Small rewards for nearly two years of contact, hmm...
The garden...
Oh yes - the garden. One of the best things of all. At this time of the year I'm extra thankful for the autumn colour changes, and the softer light quality. I love the sense of time-passing that autumn brings into my life.
And the dogs...
I'm thankful for the great company that my dogs provide, particularly in the garden. And the fact that they are patient with me, and don't bark at me so much these days (Pebbles I'm talking about you). Of course I'm thankful for all the groovy things I can do through the day. And the house cats and Minimus my cottage cat. I'm also thankful that this is my own personal gardening journal and I am allowed to be as repetitive as I like! Hee hee...
Pebbles and an Angel
OK. I have just done a Thankfulness Reality Check. It itemises a few slight modifications, and keeps the record straight.
Thankfulness Reality Check
- Speckles the Stray Cat. Thank you, Speckles for biting my elbow, just because you thought your food was too slow to appear in your food bowl.
- Thank you, stinky dogs, for early morning rolling in something gross and dark green.
- Thank you, autumn leaves on the Silver Birch tree by the cottage, for falling down before I had time to take a proper photograph of you.
My garden. What do I feel like doing first? The bonfire? No way! Weeding? Oh alright - I'll find somewhere that needs weeding.
View from the Cottage Verandah
Much later...
Another pair of muddy gardening jeans is soaking in the laundry tub. I have been weeding in the far borders of the Frisbee Lawn, dragging myself along on my bottom. I've been pulling out clumps of grass, trying to stop the clover spreading, and dealing to Phormiums badly in need of a clean-up. Not to mention trimming self-sown Pittosporums and tidying up that lovely nuisance rambling rose Alberic Barbier. And now for the end-of-the-day Thankfulness check-in. Aha! It's pretty much the same, with the addition of a few personal mobility details.
End Of Day Thankfulness Check
- I am thankful for my cottage in the evening, and my cottage cat Minimus curled up inside on my bed.
- I am thankful for Speckles, waiting in the darkness for me. Hello, beautiful cat, I say to him, as I quickly pop his food bowl onto the cottage verandah.
- I am thankful for all the magical autumn leaves, whether fallen or still tree-borne.
- I am thankful that I really enjoyed my adult ballet class, tried my best, and that my teacher said I had beautiful poise and musicality. Ha!
- I am thankful that I can garden for three hours and nothing gets too achy and I don't get bored.
Though my dogs got bored with me and humphed off back inside to snooze on their dog-couches. Oh well...