Days of Gratitude - Puzzles, Plinths, Pills and a Hero

April is here and I'm quite surprised to have kept up my gratitude diary for three months.  I'm usually very undisciplined and keep things up for three days!  The first couple of photos will be familiar to anyone who read the posts about Jesmond.

 

1^st April

Grateful for the sudden decision, when the Metro was sitting at Ilford Road, not to go into town after all but to get off and have a quick wander through Jesmond Dene.

I somehow managed in under an hour to take enough photos on my cheap camera to fill two blog posts that now need to be created. Oops!  (And then it turned into three.)

Gratia - Latin that can mean gratitude as well as grace or favour.

Monument, by Rachel Whiteread.  Image taken from here.

2^nd April

Head wasn't up to going out but it felt good to write something. I asked a friend to give me 20 words to put in a story. It's not exactly going to be novel length but for me it's long. It's not finished but I'm actually pretty pleased with what is there so far. Yeah, it feels good when I write and I need to be doing a lot more of it. I'm grateful for the times when words flow and when I don't worry that they're not perfect or the product of a great skill.

The photo is Monument by Rachel Whiteread. A mirror image of the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square, which was part of the fourth plinth project in 2001.

One of the 20 words is plinth. Which is apparently the king of words!

3^rd April

Grateful that thanks to the discount supermarkets I can afford a muesli with as much fruit in it as this one contains. It's pretty lush. 

4^th April

Grateful that brains work in different ways, for neurodiversity.

Some things I can't do, that most people take for granted. Some things I can sometimes do very well.

For instance these two puzzles from the day. Grateful we have strengths as well as weaknesses.

5^th April

Grateful for this: It's finished.
I asked Amanda to give me some words and said I would write a little story for her birthday containing the words. A gift for her but I knew it would be good for me too.

I thought it might reach 1000 words.

Turned out to be 9500. It feels good to have done it and I am grateful for this further step in unsquashing myself after so many years.

Grateful too that I managed it in time.

6^th April

Grateful for these.  Extra pills.

It's been nearly two and a half years since my first appointment at the gender clinic. With these extra pills my hormone levels might approach what they are meant to be.

At last.

 7^th April

Grateful, not because I made these but for what they represent.

Heading for Manchester tomorrow and these form one part of one of the odd birthday surprises prepared for Saturday. There will be costumes, a ukulele and calypso. For no sensible reasons.

And somehow we have to hide 50 chocolate eggs for someone while they are in the house without them knowing.

Grateful that my life now includes these people.

8^th April

Grateful to be heading back to Manchester today. To my magic friend.

She's made a sensory room since I was last there and I look forward to sitting there with her.

This is what one of the lights does to the room.