Could Do Better!

Lindisfarne Castle

Well that's what it would have read if anyone had been commenting on my blogging in recent months. In fact it would have said: "Effort - Poor". Maybe some people might have thought I popped my clogs, but no. I'm still around.

So what's my excuse? Well to be truthful, I don't have one. I've just got involved in other things like:

• listening to children read at a local primary school. I enjoy that & it's surprising how they improve with just a few extra minutes spent with them.
• fundraising for the Apostleship of the Sea. I volunteered a while ago for this & recently we went to Lindisfarne (Holy Island) on a "pilgrimage". Well it did involve prayers, hymns  & a Mass but there were also some visits to coffee shops & a pub for lunch. Not really like the original pilgrims! It's a tidal island if you ever visit & is only accessible via the causeway when the tide is out. So you need to know the times of the tides if you ever visit.

Lindisfarne

• knitting - lace shawls for a couple of friends & some cardigans for myself. This is my favourite shawl. It's a Nancy Bush Estonian one & really lovely.

                                  

• teaching children to knit at a local primary school. I'm amazed at how popular this is, they almost fight each other for a turn at knitting & that includes the boys!
• making medieval dresses for my granddaughters. I made a Rapunzel dress last year when Lauren went to Orlando & so it was time to make them for the other two girls!

• watching my diet and cooking more natural foods since I joined Weightwatchers. I really don't like cooking so my repertoire is mainly soup, salmon, tuna, salads and pastas. Not exactly James Martin or Michel Roux!
• swimming more to help lose weight and get my blood pressure down so I don't have to take the dreaded tablets & get our GP more cash for reaching her targets!
• now that I've finally lost some weight I've been altering as many pairs of trousers as I can so I'm not hitching them up with a belt & I know I'm saving some cash by avoiding buying new ones.
• taking my turn at desktop publishing our three local churches' newsletter & keeping their website up to date. Quite a struggle as my old Dell laptop is on its last legs, crashing & freezing regularly which makes these jobs and  blogging really difficult. Hope Santa Clause has an iMac in his sack for me this Christmas.
• looking for cheap cruises! I never succeed as I'm too fussy about the cruiseline, neither of us like mega ships and my husband doesn't like inside cabins and getting off the ship! So the really cheap offers are never suitable. A transatlantic with a stop at a couple of nice places suits us both. I managed to drag him off the ship in Bermuda! Our next one is on a bigger ship, Celebrity Eclipse for my husband's 70th birthday and on the way to Florida we're going to stop at a couple of Caribbean Islands. Now I've never been to the Caribbean so I'm really looking forward to it. Watch this space! I promise to blog about it.

So I haven't exactly been lazing about but I really need to get blogging again so I'll be dropping in to see you and catch up with you soon.