One of the problems of thwarting the media form of TV means that when disasters hit there is almost a sense of unreality. When the Tsunami hit a few years back it was many weeks after the event that pictures started to filter through my email... pics of the aftermath. I have noticed since then that any kind of catastrophe really doesn't touch me in the way that it touches people who are inundated with pictures on the evening news. Now when catastrophes hit, I seek information rather than waiting for information to come to me.
Today I have sat here trying to find out as much as I can about Haiti. It is hard to know what is real and what is not. I've listened to CBC mostly and can only imagine the devastation.
Two years ago Hubby and I started supporting a child through World Vision. The child we support is from Port au Prince, Haiti. Her name is Rosa de la Cruz. We of course will not know for a while if Rosa is alive. We can only pray that she and her mother have survived this horrific event and that she is safe.
Please, I ask you, if you have a moment, say a prayer for this little girl and her family and all the children who are and will be so affected by this terrible event.
And if you can..... donate.... this very poor country will need so much help.
I will go now to look again at the World Vision site.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
The Jackie Chan Version Of Tai Chi
Daughter #2: Mom, what are you doing?
Me: I'm following this Tai Chi video.
Daughter #2: Why?
Me: I've always wanted to learn Tai Chi.
Daughter #2: Cool!
(silence)
Daughter #2: Mom Tai Chi makes you look like you are Jackie Chan in really slow motion.
Me: Har de har har!
(more silence)
Daughter #2: Hey Dad, Mom looks like Jackie Chan in slow motion.
Hubby: (with a large grin on his face) You do look like Jackie Chan in slow motion.... I think it's the hair.
Daughter #1: (coming down the stairs) Why are you watching Mom.... hey Mom did you know you look like Jackie Chan in slow motion?
Me: (sigh)
Me: I'm following this Tai Chi video.
Daughter #2: Why?
Me: I've always wanted to learn Tai Chi.
Daughter #2: Cool!
(silence)
Daughter #2: Mom Tai Chi makes you look like you are Jackie Chan in really slow motion.
Me: Har de har har!
(more silence)
Daughter #2: Hey Dad, Mom looks like Jackie Chan in slow motion.
Hubby: (with a large grin on his face) You do look like Jackie Chan in slow motion.... I think it's the hair.
Daughter #1: (coming down the stairs) Why are you watching Mom.... hey Mom did you know you look like Jackie Chan in slow motion?
Me: (sigh)
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Gone To The Great Beyond
My heart is so sad tonight. Wee Reece, our small lamb died this afternoon. If only we understood why......
Wee Reece in finer days....
Wee Reece in finer days....
Random
I catch myself talking to the computer a lot. Especially when the computer does something that I don't want. (Hubby says talking is a mild word for what I do) I have a mouse with a mind of its own and the thing is.... it does things that make me really confused and slightly p.o.'d. Maybe I'll be working on something and all of a sudden there's a totally different page from the one that I was working on... It's like I'm walking along and suddenly I trip up and when I look back to see what I tripped on , there's nothing there. Hubby says that I type too fast and I'm not really that good.... harummff! I do type fast but, 'not being that good?'.... well really! Every now and again I'll be typing away and right out of the blue I'm typing in all caps... like how did that happen?!!.... I tend to think that there are little pixies that live in the keyboard and every so often they think it is... har, har... funny to trip me up mid sentence and screw around with what I am doing in an effort to convince me I'm crazy. Sometimes I think it is working.....
Yesterday was a great day to catch up on reading and rest.... having been up half the night meant that I was in no fit state to do anything. However, along about 7 p.m. I got my second wind and suddenly I was full of vim and vigor. I worked away on my Jacket commission and got a nice bit of spinning done and will carry on today on that, but in between it all, I did manage to get my silk skein of my midnight hours of spinning, into my book with a write up and so that is question 2 done. I will carry on working today on the jacket commission, as I said, but as soon as it turns dark out will come my silk rovings and I will start on a silk knitting yarn and I have the perfect idea....
One of the blogs that I follow is my level 3 instructor's blog and recently she posted a picture of a divine sweater that I adore so I am going to try to copy the cabled yoke or come up with something that is close as my 3" x 3" swatch. It is just too pretty. If I have to ad lib then I will, but my 3" x 3" sample will have been inspired by something that is just lovely. I also have an idea for my silk 3" x 3" woven sample..... but more about that later....
I have discovered that my couch is a great place to sit and spin. Perfect height, perfect slope, perfect depth for my back, perfect all round. I get to be with the family for spinning while they do homework, or work on the computer. It is great and meanwhile I still have my studio space for storing all my spinning stuff and keeping it out of sight.... that's great. We are keeping the office in the main room and putting the dining room out in the new room along with my studio and it all works out. I'll have to post pictures by and by when I can.... (my batteries need recharging again).
Well I am looking out on all my sheep and alpacas and they are having a quiet morning.... they are milling about yomping down pins from the Christmas trees. My ewes are all impregnated I hope.... there's only one that I'm not sure the ram got. So we will be expecting lambs in the spring again. I did have to fall back on my black BFL (Blue Faced Leichester) which means that I'm sure there will be a bunch of black lambs.... not something I wanted, (I wanted more white) but my white ram was just a little too young to do the job. We will be downsizing the flock as we are having trouble keeping up with all the hay they need. This summer past was a bad year for hay crops and so hay has doubled in price since last year and unfortunately the price of lamb has not gone up nor has the price of wool. I will pick out a variety of different fleeces and the best fleeces with interest and then the rest will meet their maker. I have a couple of old ones that are ready to keel over anyway so they will be on the butcher block for sure, not so much for their meat since it would probably taste strong and be tough, but I will have a look at getting their skins tanned. There is an old native lady who lives in a town not too far away who tans in the old way so I may possibly try her first. We will keep all of the alpacas.... and we are still debating on the llama... we will see.
We will definitely have to build another paddock this spring. I want my garden back. We are also thinking about changing our driveway and so that will open property up that we never used before for animals..... more pasture type land and not quite so marginal as what the animals are on now. Meanwhile Hubby is seriously looking into the Christmas tree farm idea, so we will see where that leads us.
One last random item..... sox. Ahhh! My favorite pair from the stock that the girls gave me for Christmas are by far the Angora/wool/nylon ones from Wal-Mart. At $4.00 a pair how can you go wrong? I just wish I knew if they were sweat shop made.... I hope not. Mine are black and grey striped.... I feel like the wicked witch of the west.... Nicholsville West that is.... (a good wicked though... my eyebrows are going up and down now) all I need are the red shoes.... who says you need sexy lingerie when you can have wicked witch sox..... scary thought indeed! (Sometimes it is not good to have a visual mind...)!
Well I'm off to spin, spin, spin,... hope your having a lovely mid-winter day. I have my girl Diana (Krall) playing.... how inspiring is that?
Yesterday was a great day to catch up on reading and rest.... having been up half the night meant that I was in no fit state to do anything. However, along about 7 p.m. I got my second wind and suddenly I was full of vim and vigor. I worked away on my Jacket commission and got a nice bit of spinning done and will carry on today on that, but in between it all, I did manage to get my silk skein of my midnight hours of spinning, into my book with a write up and so that is question 2 done. I will carry on working today on the jacket commission, as I said, but as soon as it turns dark out will come my silk rovings and I will start on a silk knitting yarn and I have the perfect idea....
One of the blogs that I follow is my level 3 instructor's blog and recently she posted a picture of a divine sweater that I adore so I am going to try to copy the cabled yoke or come up with something that is close as my 3" x 3" swatch. It is just too pretty. If I have to ad lib then I will, but my 3" x 3" sample will have been inspired by something that is just lovely. I also have an idea for my silk 3" x 3" woven sample..... but more about that later....
I have discovered that my couch is a great place to sit and spin. Perfect height, perfect slope, perfect depth for my back, perfect all round. I get to be with the family for spinning while they do homework, or work on the computer. It is great and meanwhile I still have my studio space for storing all my spinning stuff and keeping it out of sight.... that's great. We are keeping the office in the main room and putting the dining room out in the new room along with my studio and it all works out. I'll have to post pictures by and by when I can.... (my batteries need recharging again).
Well I am looking out on all my sheep and alpacas and they are having a quiet morning.... they are milling about yomping down pins from the Christmas trees. My ewes are all impregnated I hope.... there's only one that I'm not sure the ram got. So we will be expecting lambs in the spring again. I did have to fall back on my black BFL (Blue Faced Leichester) which means that I'm sure there will be a bunch of black lambs.... not something I wanted, (I wanted more white) but my white ram was just a little too young to do the job. We will be downsizing the flock as we are having trouble keeping up with all the hay they need. This summer past was a bad year for hay crops and so hay has doubled in price since last year and unfortunately the price of lamb has not gone up nor has the price of wool. I will pick out a variety of different fleeces and the best fleeces with interest and then the rest will meet their maker. I have a couple of old ones that are ready to keel over anyway so they will be on the butcher block for sure, not so much for their meat since it would probably taste strong and be tough, but I will have a look at getting their skins tanned. There is an old native lady who lives in a town not too far away who tans in the old way so I may possibly try her first. We will keep all of the alpacas.... and we are still debating on the llama... we will see.
We will definitely have to build another paddock this spring. I want my garden back. We are also thinking about changing our driveway and so that will open property up that we never used before for animals..... more pasture type land and not quite so marginal as what the animals are on now. Meanwhile Hubby is seriously looking into the Christmas tree farm idea, so we will see where that leads us.
One last random item..... sox. Ahhh! My favorite pair from the stock that the girls gave me for Christmas are by far the Angora/wool/nylon ones from Wal-Mart. At $4.00 a pair how can you go wrong? I just wish I knew if they were sweat shop made.... I hope not. Mine are black and grey striped.... I feel like the wicked witch of the west.... Nicholsville West that is.... (a good wicked though... my eyebrows are going up and down now) all I need are the red shoes.... who says you need sexy lingerie when you can have wicked witch sox..... scary thought indeed! (Sometimes it is not good to have a visual mind...)!
Well I'm off to spin, spin, spin,... hope your having a lovely mid-winter day. I have my girl Diana (Krall) playing.... how inspiring is that?
Monday, January 11, 2010
The Complete Dummy's Guide To Whiling Away A Few Hours
When sleep is elusive and you are lying by your snoring Hubby and you just can't get your body to cooperate, get up from your warm cozy bed, go downstairs where the furnace hasn't cut in for a while and your toes begin to solidify in the cold and do something you enjoy. For me that is spinning... what did I spin.
TA DA!
My silk sample from a commercial silk hanky, spun, plied, washed, dried and ready to mount and label.
One more question from the level 3 done.
I am carding more wool for the jacket commission and about to watch one of the Harry Potter movies.... or Mad Max... or something as I rip my fingers to pieces again. Rolags here I come.
TA DA!
My silk sample from a commercial silk hanky, spun, plied, washed, dried and ready to mount and label.
One more question from the level 3 done.
I am carding more wool for the jacket commission and about to watch one of the Harry Potter movies.... or Mad Max... or something as I rip my fingers to pieces again. Rolags here I come.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Where Next Do I Go? What Next Do I Do?
Right... I'm ready for spring. It all looks so bare around here. Sometimes I wonder what all the hullaballoo is about when it comes to Christmas, and sometimes its a dread getting all the decorating done, but when the lights come down and the decorations are stowed for another year, there is simply a sense of loss. It's all rather anti-climatic... I look around me today and I feel rather directionless.
With all the decorations down, there just seems to be a lack lustre, non sparkly, drab kind of, pffsstt in the air! I mean, everyone likes a little sparkly in their lives, right? If your Hubby hands you a diamond ring you don't just look at it like it is mud! Well it's like that with Christmas lights... they bring a little cheer into our lives when sunsets and sunrises are drab at best and non existent at worst. Our house is getting back to normal... well as normal as it can be anyway (see annual family Christmas pic in previous post) and while that is nice... you do miss those shiny things dangling all over the place. We have wrapped and boxed the decorations
and we have shoved and pushed furniture here and there and this evening it looks like Santa never made his debut at all. I have one lonely wreath sitting on a wall with a cardinal which will come down tomorrow when Hubby stops off at the grocery store to rummage through their stock of boxes for one large enough to pack the wreath in and then that too will face the darkness of the storage closet for another year. This all means that I am ready for the snow to melt, the temperatures to turn balmy, and for my deck to start to produce pleasurable hours of vitamin D intake. Har! Not likely for another month yet and then only on a sporadic day when the sun forgets it is winter and shed rays in an effort to encourage the hibernators that something better is coming. That's me.... I'm a hibernator... I'm waiting for that sunshine to reach me and ripple my skin...
Meanwhile Hubby put the three Christmas trees out in the paddocks. Now the alpacas are proceeding to munch on them.... how they manage those sharp little pins is beyond me!
I have been spinning today. Not for the jacket commission but for my level 3.... I am working on a silk sample
from a silk hanky.... 'argh' is how I would describe my progress. However, I shall persevere. I'm not sure I like silk hankies and what's more is they hurt! Drafting out the fibres rips into your skin because, of course, the fibre is one of the strongest protein fibres there is, and when it cuts into your skin as you draft the fibres it actually cuts... like bleeding cuts.... like, "oh d-mn that hurts," cuts! That's not a pleasurable thing you know... but I will get this done and by Wednesday too thank you very much!
So what does the void of Christmas leave me with??? Well here's my list..
Things I don't want to face on..
1. Losing my extra Christmas weight to the tune of 10 lbs... hmmm... : {
2. A jacket commission that I am down to the wire on.
3. Level 3 which should have been much farther along if I want to be honest.
4. A house that needs a good clean. (well that always seems the case)
Things I do want to face..
1. Learning Tai Chi
2. Level 3 homework which I'm actually excited about.
3. Courses to pay for and apartments to book for my week in Olds.
4. Teaching a friend to drop spindle.
5. A really good book to read that I am only allowing myself a half hour before bedtime.
6. Ever increasing daylight. That's a really happy one. Keep an eye to the right.... look at that we are up to 25 mins..... woo hoo!
To all of you who are old bears too..... here's to the sunshine... I'm off to drink some wine. So much for the weight loss. (sigh)
4
With all the decorations down, there just seems to be a lack lustre, non sparkly, drab kind of, pffsstt in the air! I mean, everyone likes a little sparkly in their lives, right? If your Hubby hands you a diamond ring you don't just look at it like it is mud! Well it's like that with Christmas lights... they bring a little cheer into our lives when sunsets and sunrises are drab at best and non existent at worst. Our house is getting back to normal... well as normal as it can be anyway (see annual family Christmas pic in previous post) and while that is nice... you do miss those shiny things dangling all over the place. We have wrapped and boxed the decorations
and we have shoved and pushed furniture here and there and this evening it looks like Santa never made his debut at all. I have one lonely wreath sitting on a wall with a cardinal which will come down tomorrow when Hubby stops off at the grocery store to rummage through their stock of boxes for one large enough to pack the wreath in and then that too will face the darkness of the storage closet for another year. This all means that I am ready for the snow to melt, the temperatures to turn balmy, and for my deck to start to produce pleasurable hours of vitamin D intake. Har! Not likely for another month yet and then only on a sporadic day when the sun forgets it is winter and shed rays in an effort to encourage the hibernators that something better is coming. That's me.... I'm a hibernator... I'm waiting for that sunshine to reach me and ripple my skin...Meanwhile Hubby put the three Christmas trees out in the paddocks. Now the alpacas are proceeding to munch on them.... how they manage those sharp little pins is beyond me!
I have been spinning today. Not for the jacket commission but for my level 3.... I am working on a silk sample
from a silk hanky.... 'argh' is how I would describe my progress. However, I shall persevere. I'm not sure I like silk hankies and what's more is they hurt! Drafting out the fibres rips into your skin because, of course, the fibre is one of the strongest protein fibres there is, and when it cuts into your skin as you draft the fibres it actually cuts... like bleeding cuts.... like, "oh d-mn that hurts," cuts! That's not a pleasurable thing you know... but I will get this done and by Wednesday too thank you very much!So what does the void of Christmas leave me with??? Well here's my list..
Things I don't want to face on..
1. Losing my extra Christmas weight to the tune of 10 lbs... hmmm... : {
2. A jacket commission that I am down to the wire on.
3. Level 3 which should have been much farther along if I want to be honest.
4. A house that needs a good clean. (well that always seems the case)
Things I do want to face..
1. Learning Tai Chi
2. Level 3 homework which I'm actually excited about.
3. Courses to pay for and apartments to book for my week in Olds.
4. Teaching a friend to drop spindle.
5. A really good book to read that I am only allowing myself a half hour before bedtime.
6. Ever increasing daylight. That's a really happy one. Keep an eye to the right.... look at that we are up to 25 mins..... woo hoo!
To all of you who are old bears too..... here's to the sunshine... I'm off to drink some wine. So much for the weight loss. (sigh)
4
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Is It Really 2010
Sorry about not blogging yesterday. I actually sat down and started to write but somehow what I wrote seemed boring.... (well I can't always have scintillating things to write about!) All day I kept thinking, I'll get back to that later, but my brain was on Rodent mode and we all know how small a Rodent's brain is.
Mostly I was spinning yesterday. I didn't blow through my rolags as I thought I would. But I am almost out of them now. I have a spool of spun singles that I am happy with. Today I may do some more work on preparing more rolags or I might actually get out some silk hankies and try to do my level 3 homework. We'll see.
Today is our last day with the Christmas decorations. We will be taking down our trees and all our decorations and settling back into our regular household scheme.
It is hard to believe that 9 days of 2010 has gone by so fast. As I get older I realize that time moves more quickly than it used to. 1 week out of ten is done and then we will have March break. I realize that wishing your time away is not good so I try to live in the moment as much as possible. There is one thing I am looking forward to and that is the NPSW annual February retreat. The third weekend of February I will be heading off to a log lodge for a weekend of laughter and fun while spinning and picking wool with others who are of a like mind. For a while I thought that I would have to bring the Daughters with me as Hubby was scheduled for a trip to Victoria at the same time, but that has changed. Yesterday we received an email notifying him that his trip would be postponed to a later date due to a conflict with the 2010 Olympics. That's about the only good thing that came out of the Olympics (oops! did I say that out loud?!!) So I will be traveling to the log lodge of my dreams with no children attached for a weekend of pure pleasure.
This week has been a shock in more ways than one. Daughter #1 had a terrible shock when she got back to school.... it was a rough week with two tests and a major power point presentation for homework. She made it through though, and I am happy to say that she did quite well with her marks. We still don't know what her mark is on her power point... that will come next week. She is starting on her first set of mid-term exams in a couple of weeks... we hope that goes well for her, as she stresses over these thing a lot.
So there you have it a little bit of an update on life here on the funny farm. Last night we took our annual family portrait in front of the Christmas tree. After taking lots of pictures with one camera and then the other when the battery went dead on the first, and this one's hair being slightly askew, and that one's smile not being right, and Hubby not making it back to the seat before the timer went off on the camera,and my nose looking like Rudolph's, we all agreed that this was our favorite.
Ahhh! Now you all know why we call this the funny farm!
Mostly I was spinning yesterday. I didn't blow through my rolags as I thought I would. But I am almost out of them now. I have a spool of spun singles that I am happy with. Today I may do some more work on preparing more rolags or I might actually get out some silk hankies and try to do my level 3 homework. We'll see.
Today is our last day with the Christmas decorations. We will be taking down our trees and all our decorations and settling back into our regular household scheme.
It is hard to believe that 9 days of 2010 has gone by so fast. As I get older I realize that time moves more quickly than it used to. 1 week out of ten is done and then we will have March break. I realize that wishing your time away is not good so I try to live in the moment as much as possible. There is one thing I am looking forward to and that is the NPSW annual February retreat. The third weekend of February I will be heading off to a log lodge for a weekend of laughter and fun while spinning and picking wool with others who are of a like mind. For a while I thought that I would have to bring the Daughters with me as Hubby was scheduled for a trip to Victoria at the same time, but that has changed. Yesterday we received an email notifying him that his trip would be postponed to a later date due to a conflict with the 2010 Olympics. That's about the only good thing that came out of the Olympics (oops! did I say that out loud?!!) So I will be traveling to the log lodge of my dreams with no children attached for a weekend of pure pleasure.
This week has been a shock in more ways than one. Daughter #1 had a terrible shock when she got back to school.... it was a rough week with two tests and a major power point presentation for homework. She made it through though, and I am happy to say that she did quite well with her marks. We still don't know what her mark is on her power point... that will come next week. She is starting on her first set of mid-term exams in a couple of weeks... we hope that goes well for her, as she stresses over these thing a lot.
So there you have it a little bit of an update on life here on the funny farm. Last night we took our annual family portrait in front of the Christmas tree. After taking lots of pictures with one camera and then the other when the battery went dead on the first, and this one's hair being slightly askew, and that one's smile not being right, and Hubby not making it back to the seat before the timer went off on the camera,and my nose looking like Rudolph's, we all agreed that this was our favorite.
Ahhh! Now you all know why we call this the funny farm!
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