Before And After

Before Christmas.... I liked it but very hard to maintain that hair style.... sooo.... I did this last night.

I'm not really sure about this... it's been a few years since I had my hair cut this short... but I've had lots of compliments. I was even told that it took years off me. Hmm... not sure if that was a compliment or not!

A Little Politics

When the daughters were born I was living in North Western Ontario. I was living on a Reservation and the nearest hospital was an hour's drive over treacherous roads. This is considered a mild situation to be in and during spring and summer it really was not much of a concern... but Daughter #1 was born in December and at that time of the year it was a big concern. I also had two previous miscarriages which were also a concern.  I traveled those roads for days before the baby was born always concerned that we would have an accident... and after Daughter #1 was born Teapot traveled those roads so that he could visit me and our new wee baby and to support us both. It was a time that I needed him and his love. His travelling back and forth sometimes in the worst kind of weather worried me no small amount... I was so happy when Daughter #2 was born in May.

All around me, I am hearing about the state of maternal health in Canada. I think about my situation when I was at the age where birth giving was part of life, and I think about the people who are coming out of even more remote places and I wonder how they do it. Yesterday, I was listening to the CBC radio and they were interviewing a family from Fort Nelson, which is about a 6 hour drive from a hospital that can deliver babies, and I didn't realize how difficult for them it is.  Here are young women who are having to leave their community, all of their friends and family, their complete support system and staying in hotels sometimes for weeks with their other children while their husbands continue to work at home.... or not.... as the case may be, while they wait from their due date till the time their child is born. It is a time of stress and anguish and it can't be good for the fetus. I keep thinking that there has to be a way that a non profit organization can set up a program whereby families who need to, can stay in cabins or hostels, that are set up to make the birthing experience a much less stressful event on the whole family. You know... like a Ronald McDonald house for pregnant women.

 This morning I got up and read the news and I find that our dear boy (I say that tongue in cheek), Steven Harper is at the G8 spouting on about maternal health and pledging a whole pile of money to that end.... Hmm.... I wonder where all that money is going to go... will we get our own house in order before we go raging off to save the world? He's had a year to fix the problems at home since the last G8 when maternal health was a topic of discussion and I'm not seeing a whole lot of difference.... Wouldn't it be nice if we could have mid-wives in those communities that are remote and need it... and for more high risk pregnancies, it would be nice to see something done for the mom's who need to be near a hospital... so where's all that help that our government is promising... it seems once again that our government has a whole lot of empty words in their mouths.

But then that's just my opinion...

What do you think?....

Dawn Is Creeping Up The Sky

It's only when I get up in the morning, and I'm sitting here, and I happen to glance out the window and realize that the sky is starting to get light long before Teapot and the girls go out the door, that I realize too that January is almost over. Normally January drifts by in a lazy turn of days, but for some reason this January flew past so quickly that now I'm sitting here trying to figure out where it went. Blazing by in a flurry of days, this month has left me gasping in an effort to finish the first three sections of my level 4 books. That was my goal... I haven't reached it... but I'm close, so we will see if this can be accomplished. I haven't looked at section three yet, since I'm still finishing the last question in section two. I should have that finished today. Then I will do the required reading before embarking on the next section. I just have to remember steady on... I guess.

Teapot and Daughter #2 are leaving for school. This is exam week.  Daughter #2 has two exams today and will be finished after that. Daughter #1 had her first exam yesterday, her second will be tomorrow and then her last one will be on Thursday. It is a very easy week though there is lots of studying going on.

As Teapot leaves the driveway there is a little green sky on the horizon... I know that sounds kind of weird because if I were to describe the sky, I would say that it is lime green on the horizon, then yellow fading out to a greyish yellow with darker grey clouds drifting passively by, then a soft baby blue changing into a medium blue and then darkening as you go west where it is still quite a dark blue with a half moon shining as it sinks towards the opposite horizon. It is quite lovely and I'd take a picture but Teapot seems to have taken his camera with him this morning since I can't find it in all the usual places. (Definitely time to get one of my own.)

It has not sunken below zero degrees for days now and all through the night you can hear the water dripping from the roof of the house. I do believe that we will get more snow before winter's grip has loosened, but it is nice to have this mid-winter reprieve. I have been walking out every day lately which is so nice after a month of cold temperatures and bitter winds. I would walk down through the forest... my forest, but there is deep snow in there and even though the ski-doos have the trails compacted it is still quite treacherous to walk there.  I miss the woods. So I walk the road here in an effort to hear the birds and see the deer, and hear the squirrels chirping on a beautiful winter day.... but I am looking forward to a walk through the woods again and smell the rich brown earthy scents that call me out there.

The sky is quite light now and I must get back to my work... I hope your mid-winter day is as fine as mine.

I'm off to spin some camel/silk/bison blend yarn.... and dream of that Lopi sweater.... will I or won't I????

Hay, Knitting, And Spinning

It's been extremely mild this last little while, which is good for our lambs. We lost one of our lambs a few weeks ago while we were having the really cold temperatures. I always knew that he was not really healthy as he was born late. He was born in July and that just doesn't give them enough time before they are weaned to put on the fat they need to get through the -35 degree temperatures that we get in the winter. I had thought about leaving him through the winter with his mom... I probably should have but at the time he was so lively and his mom was being sold... but I should have sent him with his mom... but it was right at the time that they were being weaned anyway and I thought it would work out. Sometimes it is hard to know what to do. I am thinking though that this year I will keep the lambs with their moms and only breed them every second year... that way they will have time themselves to recuperate and the lambs can self wean. We will have a Cria this summer too and he/she will need to be with her mom too. The rams will just have to suffer on their own this year mind you they'll be fine I'm sure.  I am seriously thinking that I will keep all the sheep that are left except one black one with a white stripe on his face. I'm hoping that the hay situation will be better this year. I will also speak for hay earlier in the season and not wait for the farmers to get their hay up out of the fields. As a matter of a fact I've already spoken for next summer's crop with a fellow who we bought hay from this year. It will all be good I'm sure.

I went to a wonderful workshop on the weekend. I got lots out of learning how to knit in the Kaffe Fassett way... using colour to amplify pattern in your knitting. To be quite honest I'm having a bit of a dilemma.. I enjoyed the workshop so much I might be changing my mind about my 150 hour project that I have to do for my level 4 course. I had originally planned on spinning a cashmere blend yarn for this pattern... but now I can't get the idea of a Lopi sweater out of my mind.... I was thinking a nice Lopi Sweater with some colours that I dye myself... something like this...

I'm totally hamstrung... if you have ideas please let me know since I would love your opinion.

Lopi yarn spins fast and knits fast. Cashmere, not so much... but I have tons of cashmere...  Icelandic fleece only a little though I do have two small ones, which would mean that I would have to go looking for Icelandic fleeces now too (like that's a hardship!).

Oh! I am in such a quandry. HELP!

If you want to leave a comment... please, please, please, do so.

Meanwhile I'm off to have a shower and spin some camel down for the last camel question on the level 4 homework...

How Good We've Got It

Yesterday I got up and made oatmeal for breakfast for everyone.  I don't make oatmeal very often because I find it makes me nauseous to eat... it has something to do with the high glycaemic index and I use the old fashioned oats too.  Anyway, I made banana oatmeal... and it was good. But there was tons left over even though we had a good sized helping each.

During the morning when I went to do the dishes I looked at the glop in the pot and thought, what can I do with this... it is a shame to throw it out. We were down to the last few slices of bread since I don't buy bread but make all our bread and have done so since we got married. So I threw the whole works of glop into the bread maker and put in my usual ingredients and went to it. When it was finished it was very nice bread.... except that it had a really tough crust for some reason. Not too tough to eat just a little tougher and chewier than the bread that I usually make. It was when Teapot was cutting himself a slice this morning, that we had this conversation.

Teapot: (cutting slice of bread and having to work a little harder at it than normal..)

Me: Hmmm, that bread has definitely got a tougher crust than normal.

Teapot: Yeah, I don't know why... did you remember to put oil in?

Me: Yes.

Teapot: Sometimes if you leave out the oil then you get tougher crust.  I like it though... it is kind of like French Bread.

Me: Yeah, I like a bread that has a chewy crust... I didn't always though.

Teapot: When I was little I would have complained about bread with chewy crust and I probably would have cut it off.

Me: Really!

Teapot:  Yeah, the girls (daughters) love the crusts especially when they are chewy.

Me: Hmm....

Teapot: I hated bread with holes in it too.

Me: That's weird... why?

Teapot: Because when I put molasses on it the molasses would drip down all over my arm. It was gross.  The kids these days don't know how good they've got it....

Me: : \

Isn't it terrible to get holes in your bread.....especially when there's people in this world who would love to have holey bread.... they'd eat it holes and all!

Enjoy the privileges that are yours today... including holey bread if you have it.

Yesterday... And Tomorrow...

No I'm not going to get all sappy and start singing that old song by Paul McCartney...

Actually, yesterday was a great day.... I finished 2 questions on level 4, went out for a walk in the beautiful warm sunshine, got some really lovely cinnamon Tussah silk in the mail, and had an awesome evening at Knit Night.

On the down side, (which I'm debating whether I should even talk about since I hate dwelling on not so good things) I found out about a couple of friends who are separating and thinking about a divorce after almost 20 years of marriage. They have a daughter and a son, one of which is disabled... I hate to see them going through such trying times. Also I didn't get a call back about some hay I'm trying to purchase, I discovered that Fanny is about to drop a lamb in January which is not good, and discovered that Benny (alpaca) has an eye infection.

As a result of these things I'm going to continue to work on the level 4 homework, go for another walk if it is not too slippery, stroke my cinnamon Tussah silk in glee, and bask in the pleasure of a good turn out at Knit Night.

I will also think hard about my friends... and say a prayer for them... (if my prayers are any help at all). Then I will try again to get in touch with the hay guy, Hope that Fanny will carry for another few weeks before she drops, and call the vet about Benny's eye and hopefully get some drops for it.

All day yesterday the water was dripping from the roof which pleased me greatly because the Chinook had ended and still it remained balmy. Perhaps a nice January thaw. It was an absolutely lovely day. Gorgeous in fact. The kind of day that you just can't pass up... and so out into it I had to go... a walk was what was needed. I didn't go far as there was quite a bit of ice under the snow and several times I felt myself slipping but at least I didn't fall down. After that I confined myself to the yard where the ice hasn't formed. Still it was a reprieve indeed.

In other parts of B.C. I hear that the Dafodils are starting to poke through the ground but we are a long way from that. Still with warm air stirring, it does make you think of gardening.  Teapot came home after school and brought with him the mail and there in front of me were seed catalogues. What a pleasure to look through their pages. It made me think of florists and vases of flowers... and colour blooming everywhere.

There will be colour in this house too, as another of my Christmas cactus' are putting out buds in an effort to become glorious for spring. Now that a few weeks have passed, it feels like the colour and sparkle of Christmas was all a dream. We need some colour in this house.

I passed a house last night on my way driving to Knit Night and there was a Christmas tree standing in the front room in all its winter splendour.... and I thought about the family (who I do not know) and thought how difficult it is to let go of all that sparkling glory. To trudge onward through the dark days of winter until the next bright spot of cheeriness... what will it be?

Since the solstice we have gained just less than an hour of daylight. 1 month today since the solstice. That means that our daylight is equivalent to that of Nov. 21... 2 more weeks and it will be much more bearable. Perhaps I will decorate the house in groundhogs...Wireton Willy Day maybe!

Slowly, slowly the light is creeping up the sky... and so the day begins.
I hope your day is full of warm breezes and bright colours.... though I know someone laments the joys of Las Vegas!... you know who you are : )

Oh Dear!

Is there anything so heart rending as seeing two friends in distress... I wish I could help but then all you can do is stand back and watch because interference from the outside will only add to the problems... my thoughts have no place there.

I say a prayer that all will come right in the end...

Divorce is such an ugly word...