Yay!!!!

As of today I am now an endorsed reader with TABI.

How did this happen....from lay reader to Tarot reader in not quite five easy stages (in fact far from five easy stages).

The strangeness and richness of life. I am indeed fortunate.

And some more progress...

Just shows what a bit of obsessive stitching can achieve.....housework? What housework...

More progress

More progress...started in about January 2013:

After getting my finger out and working on her over the past couple of months:

Progress

So, here we are. It's Spring 2015 and life's moved on somewhat since my last post (ha ha, one would hope it had, really). Hmmm. 2013 was an auspicious year, the one where I spent the whole year celebrating my half-century - went to Prague and danced blackfaced Border Morris in swelteringly hot temperatures in a dance festival where we Brits stood out as a ragged, yelling beacon of insanity among various decorous Bavarian teams. Prague was beautiful and I would love to go again, if only it didn't involve going on a plane. I bought an embroidery machine and have had many a happy hour creating Stuff. The bathroom finally got tiled and finished. It may also have been the year that the kitchen was finished including a lovely Green Man tile over the cooker. Or it may not, and 2012/13 have just merged into each other. I seem to remember 2012 was the year I learned Tarot with Maggie in Stafford, where one of the women on the course and I kept on drawing the 8 of Swords. Every time, without fail. I don't draw it now...

And - drum roll - the event I never imagined, the event I had long given up on - Dave moved in, and even more amazingly, stayed. Nuff said.

2014 was the year that we got used to each others' endearing little quirks and cleared some air in the process. Quite a lot of air, really, but that's over and done and we are I think the stronger for it. Furniture also arrived (and a piece left, goodbye Court Cupboard) and we now have a huge bookcase full of Crowley. The irony. Church ministry has become a thing of the past, which is sad in some ways but better in others as I now realised how stuck in a box I was.

2015 has got off to a good start. Trips to Boscastle and Robin Hood's Bay in March, shows booked later in the year, we might even get the tent out at some point! The garden's looking better each year. Life is good.

GEORGE MICHAEL-FREE

"I'm An Alien In The Potteries Centre"....

This morning I had cause to go to somewhere I normally avoid like the plague....the “shopping mall”. At 9am it was pretty well deserted; a lot of the shops hadn’t even opened. Others were closed terminally. The one shop I wanted wasn’t open yet so I had a five minute walk around.

I felt very uncomfortable. The shops are the generic ones you find at any shopping centre up and down the country...Primark, Samuels, WH Smiths, etc. I dawdled along, little and fat in my long, shabby green skirt, sensible walking jacket and flat boots, and looked at the window displays of unsupportive scratchy underwear, synthetic knockout perfumes, platform high heeled shoes (always make my back twinge to look at ‘em!) and cheaply-made young-style dresses. I felt like an alien. None of this stuff was aimed at me. I had an overwhelming sense of being completely and totally out of place.

Not that I mind. I don’t. Those places sum up everything about modern life that I hate...the sameness, the one-dimensional marketing, the horrible grabbing materialistic atmosphere. I’m relieved that I did feel out of place!

I got what I went for, and came back home gasping for my first cup of tea of the day (hey, how dedicated was that; out before having even had a cuppa?) and when I drew up in my drive I saw the early shoots of Lily of the Valley welcoming me. 

Blessed normality.

Took these photos a couple of weeks ago. Now, this is where I feel at home.