Well that was handy I decided I was speaking to my phone to do my blogging today to save me typing it all out, and after I'd pressed the mic button Alexa piped up with a notification!

I walk along the canal or river and or river who knows which one is which anymore I give up I see three rivers or waterways down there so I don't know which one I'm ever on now, as I was walking along here there was a rather large Swan out of the water which I had to pass by and I'd forgotten how huge they are out of the water and stretching up like that! 

Beautiful to see but rather frightening to be next to I came past him and then then next to the lock was the partner swan, I took a small video of them getting into the water on the other side of the lock I will upload that now..

I also had a chat with a couple I saw them twice going in each direction, excuse me I just sneezed three times not that you know

Just checking that I did only walk three miles it seemed a lot longer, I was listening to music and or my book, I've ordered one of those sticks that has a pointy end to it just to help with walking around some of the muddy banks and woodland around here, I did have one in Spain which I've obviously left along with a whole bunch of my other treasured possessions!

Let it go!! Did I hear you shout!! Nope, that's not gonna happen I'm always going to remember what I've lost and I still can't believe that what I can't find were some of the most important things...

As you can see the weather isn't that great today, but it's dry, snow is forecast for later, we'll see. 

That photograph above is of a really old bridge that used to be over one of the rivers I was walking along this morning, some time ago they stopped the river just prior to the bridge, which seems really weird and only another twenty foot from this side of the bridge the river or a stretch of water is there still.. it is like the river found its way but it can't get through... It's disconnected now.. and ends again! 

There is a gap under this bridge as you can see, I tried to see what's under there... But knowing me I'll slip in and under it!! 

I have to tell you of a dream I had last night, I'll try to cut it down, in one part of the dream I was talking to a man and we went outside of a party we were in..  we walked around, I was suddenly on his shoulders like a small child and I actually felt like a small child my head really was not very far from his and I felt very small.

Then we were walking side by side again, we ordered some food from a food truck on the street, the guy said 'I'll call you when your food is ready' and we were just wandering around the area then the man I was with disappeared behind a sheet or a carpet that was hanging over a metal fence, and then disappeared!

I walked back towards the food truck and the man shouted that the food was ready and he placed a tray on a nearby table and there was only food for one person!

After thinking about my dream I wondered if the man was even there or if it had been just me wandering around talking to people, ordering food, and why was he carrying me for a small while and why was he walking by my side...

M.

Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.

Dale Carnegie -1888-1955, Author and Speaker
 

 

Bit drizzly today and yesterday, but nothing bad, nothing like the awful storms hitting the Iberian Peninsula.. still hitting hard.

Tried to share a little video I made in September 2017, but couldn't directly, so this is it, by way of YouTube..

I was looking for something else, and as always stumbled upon a happy memory to make me sad..

Yesterday a visit to The Range, followed by coffee in Costa Coffee with an almond croissant, of course, and then Morrison's for groceries.. updated my Morrisons card! Such excitement.

 Sorry that was sarcastic.. 

Not quite the old life is it.. Still a life I should be better at living in a better way, a calm happy contented way.. I must stop struggling and go with my flow, stop battling against the.. against a life I didn't see ahead.. I guess..

And tomorrow I shall get the bus to town!! Keep telling myself I'll do it! It's not like I haven't taken a bus before!! 

M.

You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.

Jim Rohn -1930-2009, Author and Speaker

Just posted onto Facebook and these words below showed up on my feed.. they do, indeed seem to be very appropriate for these days..

What might have been and what has been

Point to one end, which is always present.

Footfalls echo in the memory

Down the passage which we did not take Towards the door we never opened.

-T. S. ELIOT, "BURNT NORTON"

Apologies as always in my procrastination! Above two coffees from before my flight here a week ago Monday! Landed in Blighty about midnight, a little early, and after leaving twenty minutes late! A busy full flight, mostly with the seatbelt sign on due to very bumpy ride!

And landing in East Midlands, I think it was the coldest I have ever been in my life! Am I exaggerating? Not sure, we spent that wonderful week in the cave house back in 2007.. For Christmas and New Year..

Was wonderful, wish I could go back to live that time, around and around and around... Franco the Pipster and me... Found a cigarette on the massive mantle piece, it had been Franco's, but I didn't know it, he was being a secret smoker.. bless him...

Anyways!! It was -9° in the mornings and in the minus all day, every day, still didn't feel as cold as it was the other Monday in the middle of the night in the freezing wind at East Midlands Airport.

I've still not tried buses yet, since I've been back, Monday I am! Off to Nottingham and on the bus! For freeeeeee!

Last week can you guess from above where I was? Yep! IKEA! Of course, wonderful! 

I've been walking along the canal, that I've been calling the River Erewash, but now the trees are so bare and the river so high, it looks like it's the Cromford canal I've been walking along?? Says three meet here.. 

I took the above in black and white.. Seemed appropriate and looking now at this .. only a few clues to it being taken in the 21st century..

As I was walking earlier in the week, listening to Harry Potter, still .. I came across a lost wand! Sono left it on a bridge for it's owner to find! Magic eh!

Doctors I visited the doctor because of tiredness, seems a silly thing to bother him with, but I am so incredibly tired, exhausted.. so getting bloods done Monday.. and going to see a physio about my still sore, after two months, knees..

A photographs more from my canal side walk... 

The mushrooms, Jelly ear or wood ear, mushrooms.. below, apparently are edible?? Should I try them!! It's okay, I think not!

 

Terrible storms back home, trees, electricity WiFi!! And I still worry about my house, my home... 

Always..

M.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life

Steve Jobs

As the sun rises this morning over the Guadalhorce valley...

Coffee at Bar Cruz, times two, nos vemos pronto to friends, just one more visit to an especially favorite clothes store!

A visit to a friends apartment.. and Mercadona for food for later...

And now a coffee, yes more! At Mori's ..

Writing just one more time before flying this evening..

Maybe I'll post this before I fly..

M.

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.

Winnie-the-poo

The Thyssen gallery in Málaga 

Many more photographs from last week's visit to the Thyssen gallery in Málaga..

The link may help where I have failed to add any artists names... And dates of work! 

Next time, I will go slower and take more time..

Although we took time, I know when I go alone I take more .. maybe without the worry of who I am with...

Time has flown as must I later today...

Here all day really, flying at 22:00... And after a bit of a mixed weather day yesterday, today is bright and sunny with a mix of clouds..

Above I do know, I'd in the room with the Rembrandt collection..

M.

One who knows how to enjoy life does not need riches 

(I add, it would help though!)

Museo Carmen Thyssen

I should have taken more note of who painted everything I took photographs of .. 

Deepest apologies.. 

I took way too many photographs, hadn't been in the Thyssen for about.. mmm maybe five or six years? 

Good to be back there... 

The picture below, Emilio Sánchez-Perrier, Winter in Andalucía

Looks so incredibly modern, the poplar trees, the sheep... Almost photograph like..

Painted in 1880...

I miss going to the gallery's and museums of Málaga, the rich history.. artwork painted over the last couple of hundred years; some more.. we saw some of  Rembrandt's work ... from the 1600's..

To see all this amazing beauty, then step out in the old part of Málaga.. wonderful, fills the heart up, recharges the soul.. I am so lucky.

Just ran through my decades of views of Málaga, to place one here from the past, but wasn't a helpful exercise! The happy times...

M.

Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me.

Carol Burnett - Actress, Comedian, Singer

A couple of photographs from my friends terrace.. The mountains never look the same, different times of days, different times of the year.. The photograph below, only the mountains in the foreground can be seen in summer, those looming behind disappear in the heat of the day..

Yesterday we went to Málaga, us three girls, bus there and back, a fast bus, cutting out de la Torre and Churriana.. etc etc etc..

When we arrived we stopped at the nearby bar for coffee, times two for all of us, and a bite to eat... Before walking over into the old part of the city and...

...the Museo Carmen Thyssen.. 

I took a lot of photographs of paintings... Will post them after this... Minus the chattering!

These two I took from the smoking terrace, the view was lovely, not so the extremely penetratingly high pitched noise coming from somewhere, an alarm maybe? We mentioned it to them when we came down..

It started to give two of us a headache!

After the gallery we only visited one store, for S. who got some shoes, then it was all systems go to get to the bus station and home to Alhaurín!

It's been a fair weather day, after last night's stormy wind and a little rain... It feels cold in the shade, and warm in the sun..

Another good day..

M.

To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, so do it.

Kurt Vonnegut - 1922-2007 - Author

Selfie! Sorry! Taken Sunday on the coast, not sure about the little orb floating nearby!

Took these Tuesday morning, walking up to Bar Monika, although I didn't make the bar as stopped to talk to a friend at Bar Cruz.. 

Top two photographs are along Gerrard Brennan, just before 9:00 so fairly quiet...

The one above is near my house, Plaza Alta, so quite a few of this already in my (phone) gallery, over the decades!

And here above of course another well photographed view looking down over the valley...

The streets look so blue... The town still isn't rh shade of the Sierra De Mijas...

I of course, did not walk down my street, I glanced up as I passed before the ayuntamiento, and walking back down, risked a quick glance up the street.. I wonder if I'll ever have the strength to pass my house...

I feel at the moment still, that I won't, and that's okay.

M.

A river cuts through rock, not because of its power, but because of its persistence.

Jim Watkins - American Anchor and Journalist