Celebration time

Welcome to Friday's post and the opportunity to Celebrate the Small Things. It's been a busy but enjoyable week.
In addition to my usual yoga classes, I led another a meditation centre at the Not Just Words bookshop, which was lovely to do. We have another couple of dates pencilled in for later in the year.

On the editorial front, I went to Nottingham on Wednesday to meet the rest of the team of one of the magazines I'm subbing for. Highlight of the day was being introduced to the term 'speedbumps for the eyes' to describe unnecessary punctuation.

There's been success, too, on the creative writing front, with my entry to the Senior Travel Expert comp being announced as joint winner. It will be published on their website in due course.

And that's my week. How about you?

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop. Visit Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. Originated by VikLit) and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog.  

Nearly there: time to celebrate

Next Friday will, of course, be Christmas Day, but for now I have more practical matters to celebrate.
First off, did you get a fabulous sunrise today? As part of my drive to power through my to-do list, I have been getting up early this week, that is to say, before the sun, so I was at my desk for the view shown in this pic.

Second, I've wrangled a lot of words this week. As well as teaching five yoga classes and two one-to-one sessions, I've written 2,000 words on llamas and started a follow-up article, and finished the subbing/proofing of my two monthly magazine jobs.
Third, it's girls' night tonight. All round to Elaine's house for food and gossip.
Fourth - and this is actually the biggest celebration - Tim Peake is safely installed on the ISS.
Have a good weekend, folks.
Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop. Visit Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. Originated by VikLit) and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog.

Celebrating new friends

I feel as though I haven't paused for breath this week, because it's all been a bit full on. Nevertheless, I'm happy to take a break now to celebrate the small things.

I met some lovely new people last night when I ventured out to a different ukulele group. I'd met the host before, but only in passing and she turned out to be a wonderful lady: full of life and interested in everything and everyone. She welcomed us into her home with tea and cake, so I knew it was going to be a good evening. Among the new friends I made was a woman who not only makes medieval clothes, but also wields a longbow. As if that wasn't interesting enough, she has been the women's longbow distance world record holder! Another was a family support officer, specialising in children with ADHD. Honestly, you never know who's around the corner.

Elsewhere, I'm celebrating the safe return of number one son from (yet another) stag weekend in  Amsterdam and the triumph of number two son's performance with his music-teacher colleagues at the grand switch-on of Kettering's Christmas lights. 

There's also been sadness, though, with the funeral on Monday of an old school friend. I was acutely aware on Tuesday that while it was business as usual for me, for his wife, who I've also known since school, things will never be the same. So as last week, I celebrating my simple life. 

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop. Visit Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. Originated by VikLit) and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog.

Wedding bells!

We have a proper celebration this weekend, as we're off to a wedding. Our friend's daughter is getting married, so I'm dusting off my posh frock and preparing to shed soppy tears.
Other, smaller celebrations are that my eyes are as they were two years ago, so I don't need new glasses; I have a reader's letter in next week's My Weekly; a potential new editing job has presented itself to me; and it's comedy club night tomorrow.

Not a bad week, all in all.

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop. Visit Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. Originated by VikLit) and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog.

Friday celebrations

Welcome to the Friday bloghop. Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop. Visit Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. Originated by VikLit) and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog.
I'm celebrating (in no particular order):

• that one of my students gave me a bar of chocolate this afternoon
• that the person who signalled one way and then turned the other didn't clatter into me
• that we had a lovely family meal this evening
• that I'm going to a gong bath tomorrow

Have a good weekend, folks. 

Celebrating some small things

It's been three weeks since I posted a CTST and then it was very hot. Today I went to town in my boots, because it's chucked it down with rain all day and the temperature has dropped accordingly. Mind you, the rain is my first cause for celebration, because my poor allotment is starting to look a bit droopy.

Other things worthy of note today are:

* Having had my creative side prodded by the poetry challenge set by friend Tricia on Monday

* The launch tomorrow of my friend Rachel's bookshop venture 'Not Just Words', which opens with a fundraising day of music in aid of our local hospice

* My sensible mother (she knows why)

Have a good weekend, folks.

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop. Visit Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. Originated by VikLit) and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog  

Last Friday of the month

It's the last Friday of the month, so that means invoice day. My first celebration today is that I've had a good June, so I'm sending out some chunky bills today.

Second, the yoga workshop I'm running with friend and fellow teacher Penny has already had a good response, which is encouraging.

Third, our ukulele group played a few songs to staff and service-users at the local branch of Headway, 'the charity that works to improve life after brain injury'. It went well and it was a real privilege to be involved.

Fourth, my central heating boiler has been passed fit for another year. Every time it's serviced, the engineer warns me it's on its last legs, but it looks like we're OK for a while yet.

Have a good weekend, folks. 

Celebrate the Small Things  is a blog hop. Visit Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. Originated by VikLit) and co-hosted by L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits Blog

A quick celebration

 

I'd like everyone to celebrate the genius of Caitlin and Caz Moran. What do you mean, you're not watching Raised By Wolves: put that right immediately. I've long had a fondness for the phrase 'bifurcated ripple crest' (it's an earth sciences thing - see pic below), but on this week's episode of said comedy we were treated to the glorious expression 'bifurcated arse cheeks'. 

I have other things to celebrate, of course, not least that it's my Uncle George's 90th birthday.

Must dash. I'm playing with the ukulele orchestra this evening and we have a sound check in a hour's time. Eh, hark at me!

To be part of the Celebrate the Small Things blog hop, all you have to do is put your name on the linky list on Lexa's Blog, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week. 

Let's celebrate

To be part of the Celebrate the Small Things blog hop, all you have to do is put your name on the linky list on Lexa's Blog, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful  for that week.  

This week's celebrations are:

• Lovely yoga students at my workshop on Saturday and all my classes; what an amazing bunch
• A walk around Stanwick Lakes (it's amazing what you can do with an old gravel pit if you try) and lunch with my friend Will
• Learning to play Meat Loaf songs on my ukulele
• The arrival of a 'Save The Date' card for a wedding in September

How about y'all?

Where did the week go?

Can it really be time to Celebrate the Small Things again? I had such plans for this week and haven't achieved as much as I was hoping to. I blame the weather; I don't like this dreary stuff.

To business:
Went to the Royal Theatre in Northampton on Monday to see The Woman in Black. I've seen the film, but this was quite different. I've had to put the book on my Christmas list, so that I can compare and contrast.

I've managed to write and submit an article in which an editor had expressed an interest. It was one of those jobs where I spent far too much time researching because it was just so damn fascinating. Don't you just love the internet?

I'm playing with my ukulele group tonight at a fundraiser in a village nearby. We're promised refreshments!

Following on from Stuart Maconie last weekend (another signed book for the collection), I'm sticking with the radio presenter theme tomorrow as I'm going to see Mitch Benn, which I'm really looking forward to. I've just read his novel Terra, which is lovely.

Have a great weekend, folks.

'Celebrate the small things' is a bloghop instigated by VikLit on her blog Scribblings of an Aspiring Author and co-hosted by Diana Wilder, LG Keltner @ Writing Off the Edge, Cyborg Mom (Katie) and CaffeMaggieato @ mscoffeehouse. Details are here. 

Let's celebrate the small things

Today, as we have the first properly cold day of the season, I'm celebrating the wonders of central heating. I know that come the day when we run out of fossil fuels, those of you with wood-burning stoves will be laughing, but for now I love being able to press a button and have instant heat.

I'm also celebrating the receipt of a gift voucher from Amateur Gardening, which has published my letter in the latest issue. It relates to a wintry topic, but I submitted it back in May with a photo. Seems that planning ahead has paid off.

As if that wasn't enough, I've had an Amazon voucher from Creative Frontiers for my winning entry in stage three of its accumulator story. If you want to have a go at writing the concluding episode of the adventure, you have until 31st December and you don't have to have entered any of the previous stages to be eligible. More details here.

I'm meeting up with some friends tomorrow for a Come & Sing event. We're doing Captain Noah and his Floating Boat. Seems appropriate, given the weather.

Have a good weekend, folks.

'Celebrate the small things' is a bloghop instigated by VikLit on her blog Scribblings of an Aspiring Author and co-hosted by Diana Wilder, LG Keltner @ Writing Off the Edge, Cyborg Mom (Katie) and CaffeMaggieato @ mscoffeehouse. Details are here. 

You can't have too many bookcases

This week's principal celebration is the purchase of yet another bookcase, which we have installed in an alcove in our front room in a space that has appeared since Joe and his drumkit moved out. We bought it from the British Heart Foundation furniture shop in town, which is always our first port of call for household stuff. It's amazing what bargains there are to be had, although you can tell some of the stuff is house-clearance, which probably means someone died, which is sad.

We've moved some reference books and non-fiction titles into this new bookcase, which has created room elsewhere for a bit of a sort-out. We spent a happy afternoon rearranging, moving books to a new shelf and then back again, creating a pile of books for the charity shop and then reclaiming them, and deciding what goes where. His Lordshop is as avid a reader as I am, but does not have an editor's brain. For instance, if you have a book that has been signed by the author, do you put it with other books by the same person or with other signed copies? If you have an anthology of Doctor Who short stories, do you put it with other short story collections, with TV books or somewhere else? Discussions were held.

Eventually everything was stored, but during the process we discovered several books we'd forgotten we'd bought and hadn't yet read. This means we have both added to the teetering heaps on our bedside table.

Next job: sort out the CDs.

Have a good weekend, folks.

'Celebrate the small things' is a bloghop instigated by VikLit on her blog Scribblings of an Aspiring Author and co-hosted by Diana Wilder, LG Keltner @ Writing Off the Edge, Cyborg Mom (Katie) and CaffeMaggieato @ mscoffeehouse. Details are here.