It's Still Life

1. I am more than just a little thankful that all the Christmas food shopping is done … because it’s a madhouse out there! Our usual supermarket had a queue of cars three long blocks down the road. And I am not one to wait in a queue for more than 10-minutes, so off I went to our not-so-usual but still quite acceptable supermarket, and managed to find a place to park right away. Bought everything on the list, except fresh fruit. Because there wasn’t any. Shelves emptied again. Darned Brexit.

2. A little white van about 2-miles away was parked along the side of the road, so I did a U-turn – he had lots of fresh fruit (most of it from central America and a bit from Morocco), and I thought “pfffft!” Christmas is no time to be counting carbon footprints or wondering if the fruit was pilfered off the back of a lorry in Calais … so I bought everything I needed included a nice ripe pineapple. No mangos though. I’m thankful that my Mr thinks he’ll survive without mangos … that’s probably because he knows there’s a delivery of Danish cheese arriving today by courier.

3. Had an long over-due haircut on Tuesday. Fringe trimmed, too. Translation: UK Fringe = US Bangs. I’m thankful to look less like a sheepdog now.

(and that’s not my dog, not my tree, not my room; not even my house; I created it using a.i. Midjourney)

4. Ever so thankful for winter-flowering Cyclamen. They give me hope and make me believe that I’ll survive winter. Hospitals in England are full again with Covid, flu and hRSV (Respiratory syncytial virus) patients in critical care units. I have facemasks for John and Gabi, but the grandchildren will need juvenile size masks.

5. I am full of thankfuls for horoscopes that are so off-the-wall that they spark hilarity in me. “Do not seek out advice from parents or elderly members of your family because at this time of year, they are confused, tired and drained.” I am the last surviving elderly member of my family, however my husband is a few months older than I am … and looking across the room at him, the words “confused, tired and drained” come to mind (he’s looking under the sofa for a hazel nut that escaped the nutcracker), and the grandchildren aren’t even here yet. (image is a.i. again)

6. Oh yes, I am so very happy and thankful that my youngest son, John, his wife, Gabi, and 2 of my 4 grandchildren, Luisa (6) and Nico (5) arrive on Friday from Bogotá via Madrid. I am apt to be “confused, tired and drained within a few days,” so I’ll discourage anyone from seeking me out for advice. This is a special time as I only see John, Gabi, Luisa and Nico once a year, not counting Facetime, so I will not be online very much.

7. For my “Tens” muscle-pain-relief electrode thingy. Totally, mange tak and multas gratias! I am over-the-moon thankful for this little fizzing-buzzing apparatus. It works wonders on the back. And my silly knee, too. I’m told it might make me feel euphoric; it just made me ravenous. I am thankful for ice cream in the freezer. And German Salami which I attacked after I finished my ice cream.

9. Thank you, Denise, for the Six Sentence Story prompts. It’s allowed me to explore writing something other than poetry (which I have to admit is still my first love). My current poetry project is mining “found poetry” from “Ragnarök, The Elder or Poetica Edda”, commonly known as Sæmund’s Edda, a study of Teutonic Mythology and the elemental powers in chaos. It’s a Norse thing.

And Denise (and Clark), my Sixes and TToTs are apt to go missing for a few weeks until my family flies back home to Colombia on 11 January.