I’m really enjoying doing a little bit of sewing every day still. It doesn’t seem to be affecting my hand unless I do too much. I am as happy as a very, very happy thing to be able to be a little bit creative again.

Corinne Lapierre saw my progress posts on Instagram and says she’s had quite a number of clicks from my last post here to her website, including purchases, and has offered to send me something as a thank you! How nice and totally unexpected. Thank you for clicking through to check out her site, if you did. Does this officially make me an influencer I wonder?! What will she send? Exciting.

I understand Corinne does demos on Create and Craft TV on Freeview. Have you seen any?

I saw hand drawn felt tipped numbers in the window of someone’s house the other day. This gave me the idea for a new cross-stitch. I thought I could rest my right hand on top of a hoop to keep it steady on the edge of my desk, while I stitch with my left. This is going really well and doesn’t seem to aggravate matters. The last time I did any cross-stitch was last July in Regents park, London. It feels like aeons ago.

I know the five is a bit dodgy. I drew it freehand after looking at cross-stitch number patterns online. I wasn’t copying a specific design, but went with the flow. Do you think I ought to add a bit more thickness to the bottom? Apparently it looks a bit like a letter S, but with the four next to it should be identifiable.

You can see if you zoom in when I started smoothing out my thread before stitching, and periodically letting the needle dangle from the hoop to untwist the thread. The perfectionist in me is tempted to undo the messy rows but I’m resisting.

I found myself looking at sewing kits and threads in John Lewis and The Range while away in Aberdeen. If you were around The Range and heard a man muttering about “Pikey tat” and a woman shushing him, while looking embarrassed, then that was probably us. He’s not that impressed with spending time in Hobbycraft but The Range always provokes strong emotion for some reason. Idiot.

Look at those rabbits! How can anyone resist a rabbit in a carrot racing car?

I might have spent a few minutes arranging them, but no one seemed to notice or care. The rabbits enjoyed the attention.

Lucky weather on Friday meant it was unseasonably sunny and warm. A bus out of the city to Don Bridge seemed like a good plan. We walked along the esplanade and onto the beach to collect sea glass, then had a couple of scoops of Mackies Scottish ice cream before reaching Footdee, wandering around the harbour and back into the city centre. A good walk by the sea in bright sunshine, is a pretty perfect day for me. Plus it was capped off with a selection of curries at Shri Bheemas with old friends in the evening. That was the best lamb biriyani I’ve ever eaten. The paratha were really good too; lacy and light.

I read on an airport poster that Aberdeen has 15 miles of unbroken beaches. There’s a coastal trail to drive, see here, which would be fun to do sometime.

So far I’m on target with my aim to walk 1000 miles this year. I’ve walked well over 200 miles and this despite my dodgy knee giving me jip. Fingers crossed that I can carry on because it’s a really good way to motivate yourself to walk, even on non fair weather days when the temptation to curl up on the sofa is strong. I guess another way would be to get a dog which needs lots of walking. I’d probably inadvertently get one as lazy as me on rainy days!

Tell me a few things? How are you?