Days Of Gratitude - Schoenstatt, Singing, And The Sunday Assembly

November has gone.  December arrived.

Here then are some simple gratitude posts from the end of November.  It's been a good year of trying to post in the Sunday Assembly group every day - which is what the rules say.  But I've come to a decision.  I think.

I will be stopping posting each day in the group.  I'm going to keep it up until the end of December and will then withdraw.  Next year I can find some other way to focus on the joys.  The group is almost nothing now anyway.  130 members.  Sometimes three posts a day.  Sometimes two.  Sometimes just one.  Me.  It's not really a group and it's not a place where seeing other people's joys every day brings you joy.

So I'm going to find something else for 2017.  I have another 24 days to work out some possibilities.  No pressure!  Whatever happens, I will have an entire year of days of gratitude to look back on.  And that's something very precious.

These were the final five days of November.  A period that began in a mental low and saw some improvement.  The last photo reminds me that dark days - such as 26th November - don't last forever.  There will be days of brilliant light again.


26^th November


Grateful to have got through the day.

Grateful to have turned up for something a week early. Rather than a week late.

This odd photo is from the previous Saturday. Never mind! 

27^th November

Grateful for the Sunday Assembly and for meds that enabled me to be there.

Grateful for plaques I haven't read before and for this egg from Jesmond Dene.

28^th November

Grateful to have asked for a writing prompt. The result may not be stunning but I am enjoying it.

Grateful to be able to get to a free event at the Lit & Phil with poems about stuttering.

The only photo of the day - my warthog, who was wishing goodnight to someone.

29^th November

Grateful to have been able to get to the Writers' Cafe and not walk out in a complete state as I did last week.

Grateful to be feeling amazingly better than a week ago.

That photo seems apt.  A pleasing sky for a pleasing state of mind.  It's was taken at the start of October and shows part of the view from the Schoenstatt Shrine on the edge of Bolton.

30^th November

Very grateful to be able to be at the choir after having to miss four sessions in a row for different reasons.

It means a lot to me.

Another out of time photograph, taken on the same day as I visited Schoenstatt.  This is the River Irwell.  A bright sunshine is fitting for a day on which I got back to the choir.

[As I post this on the blog, a week later, I'll be leaving for choir again very soon and enjoyed an extra rehearsal at the weekend.  We have our first ever little performance on Saturday.  Eek!]

Days Of Gratitude - The End Of The Snowdog Quest - And A Bit On The Side

My Snowdog quest is over.  We did it.  And we each have a certificate of completion too for our Snowdog success.

These days contained much rushing round Tyne and Wear finding dogs.  But they contained much else too.  On two of these four days we didn't see a single new Snowdog.  Instead we spent a day in Bradford, went to a cinema, accidentally spent time on the wrong Metro station and had a few hours of resting.

In a way I'll miss searching for those dogs.  But I'm sure another obsession will arise to take their place in due course.

12^th November

Grateful to have been able to go back to Bradford for the first time in over 20 years. Even if my old home is now a car park and the pub I liked is now a betting shop.

Seen on a Bradford wall

Grateful to have seen Amanda for a few hours. To have walked through a tunnel of water. To have found somewhere quiet to drink tea.

And for silly things.

13^th November

Grateful for a free movie showing at Side. My first ever visit to the cinema there, but not the last.

Grateful that getting the wrong Metro is not the end of the world and that some unexpected time at Longbenton station was more a reason to take some pictures than to whip myself for being silly.

14^th November

Grateful for another crazy Snowdog day.

And grateful that this arrived in the post.

It has my name in it.

And an F not an M.

How many of you needed a psychiatrist's letter in order to get a passport?!

15^th November

Grateful for this: Blob Thing, Winefride and I completed the Great North Snowdog trail. Kind of. We found all 97 little Snowdogs and all 61 of the big Snowdogs that were in Tyne and Wear. There's a 62nd dog but that one was living in Kielder so we're not counting it. At least not until we see it at the farewell event in a couple of weeks.

We finished!

This would come as a great relief to everyone because it would mean I would shut up about Snowdogs now. Except Blob Thing has started a Blob in which he wants to talk about every single dog and share all his photos. [Clare is a very crazy obsessive]

And on our finishing day we also saw fabulous street art and the Ouseburn farm, and we ate chips in a person-free location right above the waters of the Tyne estuary, watching the birds. Stunning.

Pictures - a gorgeous dog in Jesmond Dene and Blob and Winefride having issues staying on their final large dog.

Days of Gratitude - The Height of A Snowdog Obsession

This was the height of the obsession.  The next gratitude post will also see these heights.

But now I have finished.  Seen every dog.  The obsession isn't quite over.  Blob Thing is documenting the whole thing on his special obsessive project blog, Blob and the Snowdogs.  That's going to take a while to complete.

It's not all been Snowdogs though.  Nearly.  But not quite.  Seeing them has provided an excuse to see the county too and go places I've never been before.  I was glad to find the Shipley art gallery.  There are some fantastic things on show there.  Glad to walk by the sea and by rivers.  Glad to be able to be out and to be feeling better than I had all year about being out.

They have been good days.  I'd recommend Snowdog hunting.  Except that after tomorrow they will all be collected from the streets of Tyne and Wear and the hunting will be impossible.  I met a woman on Tuesday who was trying to photograph as many as she could - but she had only picked up the map that morning.  I hope she has had some awesomely fun days chasing dogs around the county.

7^th November

Grateful to have got through a 2 hour assessment thing with sanity relatively intact.

Grateful to have been able to get out in the afternoon and find a few more Snowdogs.

8^th November

Grateful to have seen 9 more snowdogs (and the base of a missing one).

 And on the way, grateful for door knockers and handles, gorgeous views, sculptures, ferry rides, a zip wire, the sea and the river, and a really good cheap day.

Here seen - Tynemouth Priory from the north and the south. It was a good day for much walking.

9^th November

Grateful for snowdogs,

art galleries, 

the Angel, 

parks, bus routes, charity shops, succeeding in today's photo challenge, and generally grateful that there are things to smile about today no matter who people voted for in the US and no matter what policies here mean for disadvantaged people and no matter what horrors are being perpetrated elsewhere

10^th November

Grateful for the sun on the sea this morning.

Grateful to have completed two more daft photo challenges. And also that I have now seen every large Snowdog - except for a missing one and the one at Kielder. Finding them all has been a joyful process.

11^th November

Grateful to encounter this dog. This is Splodge. He's a full size Snowdog but isn't on the official trail.

Don't worry - it won't be too long before I stop posting Snowdog pictures!

Grateful when out collecting a wheelchair later to have met this friendly cat. And then to meet another. Their friendliness was cheering.

Newcastle Upon Tyne - Pictures From Market Street To The Quayside, 4th November 2016

I told in my last post of how I had not succeeded in my challenge to photograph a gorilla in a tutu.  That's a sentence to confuse any chance readers who clicked on a link based on the title.

I had left an appointment at Broadacre House - a place where almost everything seems to happen - and needed to reach Tesco in Gateshead to buy a specific pizza.  I'd decided to walk a route which would take me past the maximum number of Snowdogs.  A Snowdog obsession was gradually developing.  They've become like Pokemon for me.  Gotta catch 'em all!  Or at least see them all and take pictures.

I hadn't quite given up on the gorilla idea that day and hoped to see one somewhere.  I decided that there might be one in an art gallery and since there was an exhibition on at the Abject Gallery I paid a visit.  There was no gorilla.  The paintings were good - and if the exhibition was still on I'd recommend seeing it.  I like Abject.  Both its galleries.  Most people in the city probably don't know that these galleries exist.  They are located in Bamburgh House, directly opposite Broadacre House on Market Street.  Even if you don't like art then you should go, because Abject is situated on the ninth floor and the views across the city are excellent.

I'd also recommend going round the corner to the galleries in the New Bridge Project and in Commercial Union House and in the building next to that too.  Newcastle has lots of little galleries that very often have interesting exhibitions that you'll love or hate.  Explore them - most of them are free entry so there's nothing to lose and much to gain.  I say that as a command to myself because I realise there are lots of galleries I've not visited yet - The Outsiders, System, Gallery North, and so on.  And if you get a chance to visit the Side Photographic Gallery then do.  That can be pretty awesome.

There wasn't a gorilla in abject.  There were paintings such as this, painted by a contemporary Chinese artist.  They were well painted but on this occasion weren't quite my kind of art.  That didn't matter.  I think it's good to see art and it's possible to find pleasure in it whether or not it matches your taste.

I left Abject and walked down the hill, in the general direction of Snowdogs.  As I descended I passed a couple of examples of art.  Some sticker art on a signpost.  And a piece of stencilling on the wall by the entrance to World Headquarters.

Down the hill some more.  I found this notice board containing all the useful news and information anyone would ever need in the city.  I wonder when these boards last contained information about anything.

And then into the tunnel near those boards.  It wasn't signposted.  At all.  I didn't have any idea what I would find at the other end but it seemed to be going in the right direction, seemingly under the city motorway that rips through our city.

I followed the tunnel.  It led to stairs and more stairs.  And then to a sign proclaiming that I was now in a multi-storey car park.  That wasn't the plan!  I thought about going back and finding a more normal route to the river.  But perhaps there would be another way out of the car park.  These steps couldn't be the only way.   So I stepped out of the stairwell into the light.  The view that greeted me was worth the stepping out.

I stood by the wall and looked down and for the first time in a long time I experienced a profound sense of vertigo accompanied by dizziness.  Far below me, immediately below me, was the city motorway.  And I had to step back.

I decided to climb to the top of the car park - or at least as close to the top as you can get.  And the view improved.  This is The Sage from a pleasing angle.  I spotted that the big graffiti wall behind the sage had changed since I last passed it a few months ago when that particular panel had been painted in tribute to David Bowie.

The tower is that of Holy Jesus Hospital.  I hadn't known there was a tower.  It was built in the mid-17th century, sometime during the Interregnum and thus predates the building of the actual hospital.

To continue with the views from the car park - of The Sage, Tyne Bridge, All Saints Church, and in front of them the main east coast railway line.

This is Manors railway station - not to be confused with Manors Metro station.  It's a quiet station.  Newcastle station serves 22,000 people a day.  Manors serves 6,500 people a year - that's 18 passengers a day.  I should go and visit the station one day. 

I couldn't stand in the car park all day.  Marvin the Paranoid Android was once asked what he was doing in a car park.  His response asked what else he would be doing in a car park except parking cars.  Marvin, with a brain the size of a planet, was wrong.  I had not parked a single car in that car park.  But maybe the car park at The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe didn't have quite the same views as a car park in central Newcastle.

I found a promising way out from the car park and passed under the railway to city road, close to the CastleGate which houses a big church that meets in what was the turbine hall for the generators that ran the electricity for Newcastle's tram system.  Heading down the steps I found myself here.

I also found myself near my first Snowdog of the day - but this is a Snowdog free post.  As you walk down towards the river a passageway on the right leads to this place.  It's another place that most people probably don't know exists.  Unless you're in the habit of looking up unknown parts of the city or you're in the habit of walking down passageways just to see what's at the other end it's unlikely you would know about this.  Fortunately I have both of those habits.

This anchor came from one of the ships from the Spanish Armada.

This green space is connected to Live Theatre.  Yes, theatre.  Newcastle doesn't just have a thriving group of art galleries - and enough artists to fill them with an ever changing set of exhibitions.  We have a thriving group of theatres too.  And we have writers.  Many writers.  It's really great to live in a place where the various creative arts are evident.  I'm only just beginning to discover them and I think the path of discovery is going to include some crazily exciting moments.

To close.  My one moment of sadness for the day so far - because not finding a gorilla in a tutu hadn't saddened me particularly.  At the back of the theatre was this skip.  And in the skip there were these two boxes.

My sadness?  That the boxes were too heavy for me to walk off with.  Perhaps I should have gone into the theatre and asked about them and then pleaded for someone to deliver them to me.  I'd have liked them.  Never mind.  Such sadness wasn't going to dampen the day.  There was more journeying to be done as I reached the river and headed for my destination:

Tesco in Gateshead.

Sometimes the journey really is more interesting than the destination.