Blue Skies... Where Are You!

I woke up this morning and looked out the window and as I was looking the sun came up over the horizon and was shining on the bales of hay... It looked so inviting that I got right up and looked for my slippers... (which Narmin sneaks off with in the middle of the night so that he can stick his nose in them) and it is always a bit of a hunt to find them. So it took me a little while to get myself downstairs. But when I got down here the sun had disappeared. It is now cloudy and grey. Still there is a little blue on the western horizon so we might get sun again later.  And with it being 0 degrees at 8:30 a.m. it will probably be a smashingly balmy day.... gotta love that!

Everywhere you look now, signs of spring are coming. The mud is drying and the birds are twittering and even some wood peckers have arrived... I heard them this morning pounding out their mating call on some hollow tree nearby. It's enough to make a person want to buy a new pair of rubber boots and go exploring in the bush. (...and of course new rubber boots are an absolute must for that...) I am missing the early morning checks for lambs this year... that is the hardest part of getting rid of the sheep. I knew that all year long, even though I didn't miss them, that come spring I would have a hard time with lambing season. There is nothing so tickle-me-pink as seeing a new wee lamb being born and the momma nursing it for the first time. Then a few days later when they come bouncing out of the barn into the sunshine... well you just feel that life is good.  I miss the ducks too since they were always funny this time in the year. Our yard has a large natural basin in the contours of the land, each spring there are a few days when the ground underneath has not thawed but the snow on top has, and a natural pond forms that only last a little while... the ducks always loved that and they would be charmed with their new bathing place and would spend hours rousting around in the water splashing themselves and washing themselves. I really miss those wonderful times with the animals we no longer have.

This morning even the trees are starting to bud.  Very small buds that will take weeks for them to fully form are beginning to show themselves, but the trees begin to not look so bare and grey. With the wind of yesterday the deer seem to have decided to leave our bales alone in the efforts of finding the first shoots of green on all southern slopes. For now they have gone away... and I'm ok with that. Jiggs discovered yesterday a newly shed antler among the hay on the ground by the bales that the deer have knocked down. She seemed quite pleased with her find and gnawed on it for hours growling at the other dogs when they came to investigate her new treasure. For a day or two the buck that threatened Narmin last week, will be carrying a lop-sided head and I hope he enjoys his days of discomfort... because he was such a nasty bugger.

As the days get longer I begin to think of the garden... I am soon going to have to think about getting some planning done for that since we have to move more soil and spread the remains. That means thinking about my raised beds and trying to lay out a plan for that It also means that I need to start thinking about the hot beds and where I'm going to put them. A south facing wall would be best if I'm going to have successful tomatoes. I am hoping to use the old sheep feeding boxes for the hot beds... they are wooden boxes that are about tenor twelve feet long, about 18 inches wide and about 2 feet deep... perfect for my tomato plants and for growing beans and peas. Up against a south facing wall I can maybe get them in the ground about a week or two... maybe even three ahead of schedule.

Well since it is only March 10th maybe I'm starting to get a little ahead of myself. Hey... I just looked up and now even the blue skies on the western horizon have disappeared too.... poop! Maybe I'm hoping for a sunny day that just won't happen... but then you never know. I'm off to spin... yes I'm actually going to get back at it today... for real!

I hope you're having blue skies where ever you are.... see ya!

Windy Night

The inner me.... yeh?!

I'm beginning to wonder when I started to dream so much. I never used to dream a lot... but here lately...

It is 4:00 a.m. It is a full moon night and the werewolf in me is once again rearing it's ugly head. About an hour ago, I woke with my heart pounding after I had been dreaming that the school I was in began to burn with me in it and as I tried to get out I could see into a dark night, that the lights of the last vehicles were going away from me leaving me to die with no one to help me get out of the school. My heart was just racing and my mouth felt like something had crawled in and died. However, I knew as soon as I woke that it was all a dream and that I was safe in my warm and toasty bed. Still, it was a disconcerting dream and then when I tried to cool my bedroom by opening the window, I discovered that the wind outside is howling and the window began to creak as it blew. Finally after an hour of tossing and turning and listening to the window creak, I realized that that full moon was once again chasing me out of bed.  A good thing to... for when I got downstairs I discovered that whoever let the dogs in last night, must not have made sure the door was closed properly, because it was open for every mouse in the neighbourhood to come for a visit... not that the mice would be out on such a night. Tis a blustery one for sure. So here I sit in the newly neatened dining room tapping away at the computer. Yes I spent yesterday cleaning house not that it did much good! Spring like conditions are also rearing their ugly heads because each time the dogs go out they come in with a wheel barrow load of dirt attached to their undersides. I have been chasing dogs with the mop for two days. I'm fit to be tied! (Newfy saying which means exasperated). Oh how I wish for a deck on the west side of the house so that the dogs could sit on it and wait for a few moments to dry off before coming in with all that mud. As it is now... they bound through the door, after having just run through alpaca poop and mud up to your neck.... oh well at the rate we are going, by next week there won't be a drop of water and the mud will be a dry barren wasteland in all this wind.

Later this morning... after it actually has become morning... I am going to clean up the blasted studio and the sunroom and make life a little simpler. I have already made up my mind that I can't keep pissing away my time. I actually have to wrap my head around level 5 work and get it done. Can you believe that a week of March is gone? I'll be gob smacked if I know where this last week went.

Tonight was Knit Night and for the first time in months, we all made it out for the evening!  However, Knit Night is once again moving digs. Since last fall when the Public Library bailed on us, and we had to move, we have been using the library at the school for our meeting place. But unlike the reading room at the Public Library, the library at the school is a large warehouse-like room that is cold because there is no heat on after hours and the windows have metal blinds over them for glass breakage protection, somewhat reminiscent of a prison or a barracks at best. So it is not the most pleasant space for us knitters. We decided a few weeks ago that better digs were required. So we have all been wracking our brains trying to figure out where else we could meet.  In the end I checked out a couple of ideas and concluded that the upstairs room in the church hall would make a perfect choice. We are going to go up there next time we meet and it was a unanimous decision. It is a lovely second story room in a log building with a beautiful view out over the river. It should be really nice up there for us ladies to knit and gab and laugh and drink tea.

Speaking of tea I think I'll end here since the wind is still howling and a drink of tea wouldn't go astray. With the chimes rattling in the wind and things blowing around outside, with the coolness of the room around me, it is time to wrap a warm and cozy blanket around me on the couch and curl up with my knitting needles and try to warm up... who knows I may even head back to bed at some point... that is if I start to feel my eyes getting heavy... Too bad I forgot to turn up the furnace when I first came down.... still a cup of tea while I wait for the furnace to do it's job wouldn't go astray... see you in the morning.... sleep well... don't let those werewolves just outside your door get a chance to pounce... or you'll spend an eternity sitting on full moon nights by yourself while everyone else sleeps peacefully!

Toodly doo.... (have you ever heard a werewolf say that to ya?)... : )

Running Amok

Running amok: I decided this morning to look up in the dictionary, the phrase "running mok". Apparently this most useful phrase comes to us via southern Asia... it apparently means killing spree but has recently been watered down to just going crazy. I was going to use it because I thought it meant going crazy... I had no idea that in reality it meant going on a dreadful killing spree.  This morning I feel like Running amok in the traditional sense because we have deer out ripping our bales of hay to shreds and acting like we're intruders when we try to drive them away from the bales.  One buck even tried to turn and nail Narmie to the ground with and antler.... as a result I look at him and see...

...and of course running amok seems to fit pretty well with that image.  It's just too bad that hunting season is over....

Now running amok also applies to life these days in the more modern sense.... I seem to be going crazy. I get up in the morning with my day planned out before me and I think, I can get this done. But more often than not night arrives and I have nothing done and I am left wondering where the hell all the time that lay before me in the morning has gone. See... running amok.. that's me with time. I have not worked on my level 5 homework for days... and it is seriously starting to stress me out. The sad thing is I can't figure out what it is that keeps me from getting it done. 

This is Wednesday for heavens sake and Teapot and the Daughters will be heading back to school tomorrow. No, the strike has not been resolved but the teachers are only allowed to demonstrate for three days. I'm not sure where they go from here. I think they are trying to disrupt the schools enough to inconvenience  the government so that they will do something about getting them back to work... but it's all so political that it is hard to figure out what the heck they are trying to do. I just wish that a negotiated settlement would be made once and for all. I blame the government for this terrible situation. They have resolved to take away the rights of teachers... rights that are promised to us all under our constitution.

I could go into why the teachers are their own worst enemies and talk about how most teachers like kids... they like helping kids.... they like teaching them not only in school but out of school too... they like doing extra curricular things with the kids... most teachers are conscientious people who like to improve their teaching capabilities. They spend hours of their own time doing professional development courses and workshops that better equip them for teaching. They do all kinds of extra curricular sports programs that they don't get paid for. They go into school before classes and after classes to tutor kids who need extra help.... and they do this so frequently that the public and the government take it for granted that these "extras" are all part of the job. I have had to really remind Teapot of this. Last winter the school district that he works for, wanted him to do extra math courses but he would have been expected to give up Friday evening for two months... and because he lives so far away from FSJ where the district would be holding the course, he would have had to leave here about 4 p.m. What was he getting for this... nothing... not even a pay raise at the end of it which is what any other business would have offered. Friday night is valuable family time and I reminded him of how the last time they went on strike they had an imposed contract... he thought about it for a few days and turned them down.  Recently we found out that the Shop teacher at our school has no funding for the high school shop courses... so there are no materials to work with for these kids. Then we found out that the shop teacher was going in to FSJ to buy supplies from the lumber yard because it was cheaper and he was paying for it out of donated money since the school was not giving him any budget for supplies.... in addition, he was picking it up on his own time and using his truck and not getting re-embursed for the gas money. When asked why, he said that they would lose the program if kids didn't enroll in shop (no supplies?!... why bother enrolling) and he would be out of a job and as well as, our small school couldn't afford to lose any more programs.... The public needs to know how bad things are becoming here in Canada for public education. Sometimes I want to smack these teachers in the head and tell them to smarten up. Stop being so damn giving.... Teapot regularly has to put in extra hours doing homework packages for kids who are off sick or, what really gets his gonch in a knot, is when parents come to him looking for a homework package for kids who are going on vacation... because they are taking their kids out a week before March break or taking a week after Christmas holiday to enjoy the Carribean or a cruise or where ever.... they always come back with none of it done.... like WTF! It's just a big waste of his time. But he does it because it is expected. Just once I'd like him to say, "no... there's no point... the kid won't do it anyway". The proverbial shit would hit the fan that's for sure. But parents never take into account that that's maybe an hour of extra work for the teacher when he could be correcting...

I read a really good blog post of a teacher the other day that is really worth reading... and it was an eye opener for even me... if you would like to read it then you can go here. She talks about her situation in Port Coquitlam and if that doesn't make you realize just how bad a situation teaching is here in this province then we might as well all quit.

Ok I'm off... now that I've had my speel about the teachers I promise to keep my mouth shut on that subject again except for maybe an occasional update on Teapot. Now see I've been writing here for a good hour.... yup... once again I'm running amok. Next thing you know it will be lunch time ... for heavens sake the day will be half over and I'll have nothing done. I'm outta here....

A Few Days

Yes, I do realize that it has been a few days since I wrote here last... problem is that there really hasn't been enough going on to talk about. Teapot has been striking... I have been knitting... and a little spinning. I have been doing some research on furniture... but these are all really mundane things to talk about. I will say that I have been enjoying the more spring-like conditions and noticing the birds that are returning every time we have a sunny day. Yesterday it snowed though so I kind of got busy trying to move things around in the house... I'm on a spring cleaning bend these days and thinking of getting my living room back out in our sunroom and moving our dining room back inside again.I did a little moving around yesterday and today I will do a little more.  Teapot and I agreed on some new furniture. We are going to sell our sectional couch because it doesn't fit in the sunroom. I do realize that we only bought it three years ago but I miss sitting out in the sunshine that's offered in the sunroom where this couch can't fit. So I've been looking at options for furniture.  I really want a wingback chair in my living room and have wanted one for quite some time... the reason: because it is a suitable chair for spinning... Most of the chairs that you buy today are far too low for spinning comfortable... you either have to have your knees up under your chin or your stretched out way too far. Spinning in anything other than an upright chair is not going to happen because my back will end up hooped again. In this day of leather sectionals and other types of low slung furniture... it is difficult to find a wingback that is nice.... and I tend to want funky things as I get older. This surprises me since I always leaned toward wanting more traditional styles in home decor. Instead I see different things like Jackson Pollock paintings and I'm swooning. Definately different from the Monets and Victorian furniture that used to turn me on. I also love Salvadore Dali. So as I grow older I tend more toward odd and modern... though I can't say I get Damien Hirst's stuff though I wouldn't mind owning the jewel encrusted scull if for no other reason than to pull off the jewels to sell them! Anyway... I ended up yesterday deciding on some pretty cool things for our living room... wanna see?!

I absolutely love this kiwi green wingback... and the cool thing is that it comes in several colours...

We have red....

And orange.... like how cool is that...

I was really struggling with which colour I liked best and then Daughter #1 said just get one of each.... I'm thinking about it. Still my eye keeps coming back to that kiwi green... I really like d that one.

Then I picked out a realatively normal couch....

Too bad it doesn't come in purple or blue!

And this rug would be nice...

and I even found Zebra skin ottomans...

So in the end, Teapot made the decision... he decided that kiwi green chairs would be right... cause the red with it would make it look like Christmas and the orange would be too much like brown... and since that kiwi green was my favorite... that's the way we'll go. This will take some time to do but I am determined to have the coolest sunroom ever....

Anyway that's what's been consuming me over the last little while... I'm off to have tea this morning with my dear boy before he goes off into the great white north to protest... right I still haven't written why teachers are their own worst enemy... maybe I'll get to that later today. Toast first though...
See ya.

Saturday Morning Once Again... And The Upcoming Teacher's Strike

At 7:30 a.m. I am at the computer and preparing for a day of level 5 spinning. Teapot will be heading in to FSJ later today to pick up the truck which we discovered has a bad starter on it and so needs to be replaced. (Since he is going on strike on Monday and money will be shorter than usual we have decided that that $500.00 repair on the truck can wait till later in the month... for now we will have to tweak the starter each time we start the truck... these are the trials of buying second hand). The girls are going to be having a normal day after having to spend hours getting their bedrooms cleaned up yesterday. All in all it is lining up for a normal weekend.  (who knows what normal is though!) The weeks seem to be flying by and I am getting nowhere lately on my homework books. I have been trying to finish some spinning that I started at the Blueberry a few weeks ago. Somehow it seems wrong to take that off my wheel and move on to something else when I am not really finished it. I don't have much left to do and so I got up this morning early with the intent of getting that stuff finished and off my wheel before I move on to TPI questions. Clearly I need to get myself motivated into working on the homework again.

I had thought I would write this morning about the upcoming strike but I decided after all the fore bearance is the better option... Except that I do want you to understand that our rights... that is the rights of the individual (as apposed to the rights of school teachers in particular) are being undermined and taken away from us... I'm not even sure that most people realize what's happening to their rights.

Imagine you lived in a third world country... Imagine you worked for pittance a day. Imagine you worked with children all around you, them working too. Imagine the boy that sat next to you in the factory where you worked would come to work each day with a black eye. Imagine that he was getting that black eye because there was another boy who worked next to him who had problems... you know like ADHD or FAS but the ADHD boy was entitled to work too because he had a family of six little sisters at home who needed their older brother to work and bring home money for food and medication. Now imagine that the ADHD boy was a threat in the factory where you worked to all the little boys and girls working there... imagine that occasionally that ADHD boy even threatened you and made it really hard to get your work done. Then imagine that one day you decided to walk off the job and protest to the government that you needed a safer working situation and more money and that most importantly you wanted there to be help for the boy who was getting the black eye and for the boy who was giving the black eye. Then suppose you were told that if you didn't go back to work and work with this horrible situation you would be fined a lot of money or thrown into jail or you would have your job taken away. Would you say that this person was bad for stepping out and trying to make their work situation better?  Would you say that this person deserves to have his job taken away? Would you say that he doesn't have a right to demonstrate in front of his work place?  Would you say that that person was doing wrong? No... I don't think so... you would probably say that they have every right to try to access better conditions and better pay. You may also say that they were holding up work that their fight was inconvenient.... but you would not deny them the right to try to get a better working  situation.

Our government is not negotiating with the teachers about teaching and schools... they are negotiating how people will fight for working conditions. This is truer and truer each time the government imposes a contract rather than negotiate a contract. Believe me, the teachers I know would much rather a negotiated contract but this fight is not just about the teachers contract... it is the government trying to seriously undermine the right of the individual to demonstrate. Make no mistake, if Bill 22, which goes by the Education Improvement Act (which I think is a stupid cover for a more serious intention), passes, we as a collective British Columbian people will be giving up our right to walk out on a picket line to fight for better working conditions. Yes the teachers strike is inconvenient... for parents who have to scrabble to find child care or lose several days of pay... but it is also inconvenient for the teachers.... they are also losing pay and for some of us even one day of pay is a terrible loss. But I ask you what is more inconvenient... the loss of a few days pay or the loss of your rights. The loss of your rights starts with one small thing and before you know it the snowball is rolling down hill getting bigger and bigger. Soon you have no recourse... no voice... no rights at all. It is a slippery slope my friends... remember that.

For two days I have watched emails coming in from the Union to Teapot (he is the union rep for our school) telling them what they can and cannot do under the guise of the law. He is not allowed to wear a placard but he is allowed to carry a sign. This is because evidently a placard suggests that there is a picket line and that infringes on the rights of those who would cross a picket line. They are not allowed to form a picket line but they are allowed to pass out leaflets. Once Bill 22 passes they have no right to do any of this and they are not even allowed to negotiate working conditions... pay... benefits... and that includes health benefits....

Teapot likes teaching... and he is a good teacher... that has been told to us over and over. Each year he gets up at the end of the year to hand out awards to his students and he invariably chokes up on stage as he is doing this. We are beginning to think that teaching might not be the best career... he certainly doesn't get the respect due to someone who holds the education of our children in his hands, and he certainly wouldn't encourage others to go into this profession... why would he?  According to the B.C. government and the media, teachers are the scourge of the professional world.

I heard an interview on the radio not too long ago... the person talking, I think, was a member of the UN and she was saying that we in the West take our rights too for granted. That it is easy to lose them and not even notice that they are going... It is easier to SEE what is happening when you stand from afar... we are very close to the situation... we need to every now and again step back and look around from another point of view. I ask you now... stand back... think about your inconvenience when your child doesn't go out the door on Monday to school, a little inconvenience now might mean that when you need to demonstrate,  that your right to do so will be there. Remember the whole problem in Syria started with some teenagers who wanted to demonstrate and what they received was torture and death.... I hope we here in Canada never come to that.

More tomorrow about the teacher strike... why teachers are their own worst enemies.

Blue

Brilliant blue seems to be a part of my life these last few days.  I was awake early a few days ago and happened to look out the window as dawn was coming. The sky was a bright brilliant blue... outstanding like something you only see at this time of the year. I did take a picture of it but as is the case with all pictures it just doesn't do the colour justice. Here's the picture of the sky as taken through my living room window...

Now isn't that an outstanding blue.

A few days later I had a dream that had a brilliant bright blue in it too I dreamed that I was visiting Sweet Davey's parents who just so happen to be my aunt and uncle.... (they read here so now I'm thinking they feel famous... snork!) Anyway, everyone was there... all my cousins and their families and my aunts and uncles and my mom and dad because my aunt and uncle had just bought a huge big Victorian style house in Toronto and we were having a celebration of sorts... (I have no idea where I was getting this but you do have to remember that it was a dream!!!) It kind of reminded me of my paternal grandfather's house which was kind of Victorian but not really.... but the house in my dream was even more huge.... I kept walking through the rooms and thinking how beautiful it was and finally I opened a door into what was obviously a rental space (my aunt and uncle were going to rent it to someone they knew.... this was all part of my dream)  but it too was Victorian and beautiful. There was scroll work in every corner of the ceiling... and there were beautiful wrought iron rails and even the french doors that led out to patio had wrought iron scroll work. When I walked out onto the patio there was a park, like something you would see in the English countryside. The patio was made of stone and the stones were grey with moss in between them. And all over the patio were the most beautiful little blue birds that were tiny.... even smaller than humming birds. The blue of these birds was the same colour as what you see in the above picture.... and they were friendly birds... those wee birds would come and land on my hand when I held it out. honestly that dream was like a small piece of heaven... I was very sorry to wake up from that one. I wanted to stay in that beautiful place with the beautiful birds on that quiet patio with elm and oak trees spreading away from me with thick rich green grass. Lovely.

This morning everything is anything BUT blue, green and lovely. Our truck, (white) which has been having trouble with the transmission from the first day we bought it, had to go to the dealership last week for repairs.  Supposedly the dealership fixed it and we picked it up on Wednesday of this week... Last night Teapot took me into town for Knit Night with the intention of him going to visit a friend while I was knitting. He had taken the recycling to the recycling depot before he went to visit his friend and there the truck died and there it still sits. It will need to go back to the dealership for more repairs. On top of that the teachers, with which Teapot shares the his career, are on the verge of a massive strike. (I will write more about that later... like maybe tomorrow...) The morning is sunny but I am feeling at odds with the sun... I am thinking of the blue birds... and I am thinking of peace.... and having read the news this morning there is anything but... So what's a body to do when everything seems topsy turvy and not at all like my dream....

I guess I will try today to put it all behind me... maybe today is the day for that fire out on the deck in the fireplace.... and maybe I will daydream a little about that beautiful place in my dream. Here's thinking of blue.... blue birds and blue skies...

Hmm... Aahh.... Ummm... Can't Think Of Anything To Say

When I'm stuck for words... then the world must be coming to an end.

I might have something to say later today... that is if the world hasn't come to an end!

In the meantime... rock on...