Resolution: take responsibility towards goddaughter more seriously.  Can be achieved if I can only get in contact with her!  At least, let her know she can communicate with me if she wishes.  According to elder daughter, people like the above, possibly including the above, take drugs at discos.  

For once!  A whole day without having to cook a meal for someone, or collect someone, or deliver someone somewhere!!  Heaven knows how many years it's been since that last happened!  I spent the whole day in front of the computer, doing my things at my pace - it was blissful!
The evening course went well so I'm getting back into the swing of things.  The students were good, and they now realise there's serious learning to be done.  I need to give them lots of homework.

Various thoughts:   number one, stay away and don't get involved in the affairs of ex-spouses.  One only gets one's fingers burnt.  Much better accept  the money and then keep one's own counsel, do one's own thing and consequently live in peace.  Second, is it possible that some people don't need to be in love to have a successful marriage and could basically be a spouse to any number of other halves?  I imagine this mindset must allow lots of people who have arranged marriages to make a success of their relationship. Our current western culture assumes everyone has to be in love romantically in order to have the prerequisite  type of love for marriage.  And another thing, that some people have a more successful relationship with a partner who isn't nice to them all the time, or that makes life difficult, or has a difficult temperament etc etc. and conversely end up bored with and desirous of escaping from the relationship with someone who is invariably decent, kind, loving and generally problem-free.

Travelling always provides food for thought, as does going to mass.  New resolution: go to mass each  weekend!  Sitting in a beautiful and historic building, listening to the wisdom of ages, with time to reflect on the thoughts sparked off in one's mind by the prayers, sermon and whatever else, is good for the soul, without a doubt.  Whenever I go anywhere, I realise how much there is to see and how interesting the world is.  But how many people there are in it!!  The queues of traffic of people driving east towards T were quite amazing!!   The photos at the exhibition were stunning too.
Must find out some more about that photographer's work for Airone and Nat Geographic.  Photos look much better either back lit on a screen or at least, printed large. Another resolution: go to a Christmas carol service this year!!
Notice I do better when I have quiet mornings, so I can plan my day and my week.  When there's a lot  going on in the mornings I move around starting and leaving off tasks randomly.  Quite useless like that.  I was doing better last week than this. Hope this thing isn't starting to flare up again...

Some people love posting on Facebook or sending emails with advice or tips on how to live a good life, of the type:"Forgive as soon as possible, love without boundaries...". These sort of things only serve to  make me feel guilty.  I never measure up to all these  standards.  What's more, if I were to try and consciously follow them all religiously, I would go crazy, there are so many of them.  So here's my advice: when in receipt of emails or round robins giving unwanted advice, don't read them, delete them.   You'll feel better.

The hens are positively inundating us with eggs!!  I end up giving half of them away.

The weather's lovely and the garden is doing me proud.  I must get a camera to photograph it around the year.  The donkeys' flanks are bulging  disgracefully from their having stuffed themselves silly on the green grass in the R's field.  They simply love it there, and cantered and strutted - their heads held high and sideways-on to their bodies in their display posture - for at least ten minutes when I first put them there about ten days ago.  Got a surprise today, when my email to G asking if I could visit her and C, was unexpectedly and belatedly answered.  She accepted the proposal, which leaves me in a bit of a quandary as to when I can fit it in, having now agreed with S to go to Copenhagen in honour of her birthday.  
Went to look at cameras today.  There were so many it was astonishing, and who knows how to choose the right one?? For us short-sighted types, a view finder is recommended anyhow.

Good deed for the day, which wasn't at all planned, but having made that resolution I'm now on the lookout for possible good deeds  - this thing is life-changing! It went like this: I find a nice wide car parking space and promptly park.  A van comes along behind me and pauses, then the driver asks me if there is a space two cars along.  I look and confirm, but see it might be tricky for him to get into it due to other cars parked very close by on the road.  Good deed comes into my mind.  I say: "Would you like me  to go in that space, then you can have this one?"  Driver is immensely grateful and I purr with altruistic feelings!  Ha ha!
Lovely day - it's raining, in showers, the sort of rain that penetrates and rejuvenates the soil, making it come alive with funghi, invertebrate life and busy plant roots. It's difficult to find other people who appreciate rain, but one of my friends does.  Cheers, B!

To help me keep to my resolution, I add "Good deed for the day" on my daily "To do" list.  It works! What's even better, I find I do more than one good deed per day!  Yesterday I joined LIPU. Today my good deed is a free English lesson. Not bad, eh!
About the toadstools... well, they didn't get any taller but the caps expanded greatly.  I can't see what they are yet, they're still small, but I don't think they're mushrooms.

There are some toadstools growing in the lawn.  I'm going to measure their progress during the day.  At  9.50 this morning they are already visibly taller than when I first went out and spotted them at 8.30am.  They are 5.5cm tall and have developed a distinctive stalk and white cap.  This morning they appeared as a white blob.  Wish I had a camera.  Must buy a camaera...

Just listened to Malala Yousafzai on the BBC Today programme.  What an extraordinary young lady. She is an inspiration.

Yesterday I aimed to do one thing to make money every day.  Today I have a new aim - to do something to help someone or something every day.  If I can achieve that, I will feel it is worthwhile to be alive.  I'll count for something, in some small way, despite my illness.  Wow that's the first time I've admitted it to myself - my illness.