I Know You Are All Wondering

I am ok. Well, not really... but I will be. It has all been a huge shock to find out that your whole life has been a lie. All the things that I thought were real and true have not been. I will not talk too much about what has been from here on in, because I need to spare my Daughters more angst than what they have been through.  From now on I will talk only of positive things because that is the only way forward.

The girls and I will not be staying here... we will be moving on. Plans are being made, and things are being done to accommodate this new way of life.  As I speak the renovations that I wanted so badly for so long are being finished... we will be selling our home. That is a foregone conclusion. There is more. The Daughters and I will be moving and we will be taking my parents with me. Not just down the road either. We will be heading back to Newfoundland.... the land of my ancestors, the land of my heart. For the Daughters this will be a huge upheaval. And we are not sure when exactly this will happen. We only know that the house has to be sold. That is critical to all of us moving forward in our new lives. The alpacas are for sale.... the house is for sale. Two days from now I will be heading to Olds for the last level of my Master Spinners's Program.  The Daughter's will stay with their father while I am away and they will be finishing their school year as well. When I get back, there will be packing and decisions to sell furniture and other things.  I'm sure garage sales will abound. He will be leaving for three weeks of working with the JCRs and so will Daughter #1 this year in Vernon, BC since that is where the two summer camps will be held. I am hoping that by the time they are back the house will be sold. Then I can really start in on our plans. We just have to sell the house. Everything.... everything, is contingent on that. I will talk more about our plans as they become reality. I am afraid to talk too much about what we want, for fear of not selling this house. It is too easy to lose these new dreams too and I am not sure I can take that on top of everything else.

But I am ok.... or at least I will be.... and so will we all be...

I hope.

Shattered

There's a hole in my life... a great gaping hole.  After a week of the worst kind of tumult I find myself alone, facing the future without ....

The Daughters and I are going into the future with out him in it... we will all move on.

And so will he... but in a different direction and with someone else.

Big Changes

Life is moving in a different direction. Things are changing and all is in flux. Stay tuned... I might be able to write about it soon. But not yet.

Diamond Jubilee Celebrations

Well now you had to know that it wouldn't pass by without me making some kind of comment...

I've been enjoying watching the Diamond Jubilee celebrations in London, England all afternoon... I love the Queen and envy the Brits... they were all out in force to celebrate Her Majesty's reign... and they all pulled together as Brits and did it right. You could tell that this was a day... (actually a whole weekend) to be British through and through.... It kind of made me sad for Canadians...

As a patriotic Canadian I sometimes wonder, what do we have that pulls us together... a few celebrations on Canada day really don't cut it... you don't hear much about it and you are really lucky if you can participate in Canada Day celebrations.  Canada day passes by each year and I wonder where it went, once it's past. 'What happened!"...  is what I often think... oh sure there were a few mentions of fireworks in Ottawa and maybe if you are lucky there will be a local picnic and party and if you are really lucky you will have a rock concert in your community... but how does that make us more Canadian or feel close to our fellow countrymen...

Then there's hockey... but that just makes me want to laugh... I mean how can a violent game make us more Canadian... how does watching someone chase a small black disk around the ice make us fellow countrymen... half our hockey players are not even Canadian... most of them are hired Americans paid in American dollars... And the Canucks losing in Vancouver last year just tore that city apart... I'm sure that's not country building... or pride filling.

No I watch those celebrations in the UK and I am envious... Maybe it is because we are such a large country... maybe it's because we are such a diverse nation... maybe we are still trying to find an identity that we can all be a part of and proud of. But in the end I am amazed at how well the Jubilee celebrations came off and in the end the smiling face of the Queen said it all... how humbling it must be to have such and outpouring of love for a woman who has been committed to being the best representative of her country that she could possibly be. It's not about the money, it's not about the star power, it's not about the novelty... but what Elizabeth the II has brought to England is a central figure around which the British people can rally... she has worked diligently to support her government in their decisions... she has supported all sorts of charitable causes that benefit the British people, and she has provided the British people with an icon that reminds them of their common history. I wish her many years of health and happiness and and I wish her success in all to which she puts her hand. Congratulations on Her Majesty's 60th anniversary as the Queen of England.

Meanwhile I will continue to ruminate on what it means to be a Canadian... and hope that I can be that beautiful and spry when I'm 86 years old.

Water Conservation 101

So I haven't been spending as much time on the computer this year as I used to. Somehow I seem to have lost my interest in it. But every now and again I sit down at the computer and I write... but today I sat down for a wee read. I decided to catch up on all the blogs that I have been following and I decided to check out APOD as well. APOD is an acronym for Astronomy Picture Of the Day. I love checking in with this site every so often because it has so much information about our universe and what's happening in it. Today I had a look and checked back over a bunch of pictures from the past few weeks when I wasn't checking regularly. This is what I found...

Explanation: How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little, actually. Although oceans of water cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the Earth's radius. The above illustration shows what would happen if all of the water on or near the surface of the Earth were bunched up into a ball. The radius of this ball would be only about 700 kilometers, less than half the radius of the Earth's Moon, but slightly larger than Saturn's moon Rhea which, like many moons in our outer Solar System, is mostly water ice. How even this much water came to be on the Earth and whether any significant amount is trapped far beneath Earth's surface remain topics of research.

For me it was a bit of an eye opener...

I've always known how precious our water supply here on earth is but... wow we really need to keep in mind how quickly we can contaminate our water source so that everything that relies on water would be poisoned to death. I can't tell you how important it is for us to take that into consideration the next time we dump crap into our water supply. We may not have good potable water for long if we abuse the little (and I mean little) that we have.

Updates On Lots Of Things

The previous post took me a couple of days to finish since I had forgotten to bring my camera and was waiting for Linde to bring her camera to my house so I could upload the pictures from our Death By Chocolate party. So I thought I would update a few things today, which means two posts in one day. Just pretend that the previous post was post a few days ago cause that's what was intended.

I just received an email from my Level 5 instructor.... 93%... ha ha ha ha ha.... That's hysterical laughter with a whole lot of relief for those of you who don't know me...! It feels really good to know that it is done. I ended up deciding to spin flax for my level 6 dyeing day... yes, FLAX... from the I-Hate-Flax person. But my latest edition of Handwoven magazine came in and in it was the neatest tunic and transparent wall hangings woven with flax and then over sewn with wool... the linen gives the background plain weave on which to make a picture... I got a brilliant idea that if I woven flax... bleached it and then dyed it with indigo it would make an awesome background for fallen white leaves in plain white cotton for summer or plain white wool for winter.... (I'm thinking cotton for summer). So that's what I am spinning.

I am not weaving cause I've given up on getting anything done for June on the Shadow Weave project... that's my summer project.

I'm still knitting on the surprise shawl but that is coming only very slowly since Teapot and I have moved into the yard... gardening is now our priority. Four nights ago I lost all my tomato plants to frost... but otherwise every thing else is coming along nicely. Teapot has turned the garden and put in two kinds of potatoes and is as I write putting in the beans and peas. We are using the large red barrels that used to be on the deck for the peas and beans. After he finishes that he is going to put in a new bed for carrots and at that point we will assess how we are feeling and where we are time wise. Meanwhile I am up on the deck taking care of deckor (get it ha ha decor... deckor!!! Gosh gotta hit you over the head with that one!) I was late this year buying my annuals so I ended up with very little to choose from so yesterday I went to the local grocery store and blew a wad on petunias. Just petunias ... which is kind of not my style but petunias are showy and easy to care for and in a way I'm kind of glad that I didn't by more varieties and put them in earlier... for sure I would have lost some to the frost that got my tomatoes. So petunias it will be... as boring as that may sound... lots of colour though.

I've convinced Teapot to help me get things sorted out on the deck too... we are going to build that screened porch finally. So as a result I am planting and preparing the deck pots accordingly. There will be a lot fewer pots to plant flowers in and it hopefully will look charming while providing us with an oasis in the middle of summer. So far this is what I have done.

I still need a little something for the top of that log on the left.. but the wind chime has been painted and is looking pretty good. Once those flowers thicken up and grow I'm sure this will be lovely.

It was a lot of work to move those huge heavy logs over. And I think the whole thing looks pretty darn good.

I love the fact that the wee sheep looks like it could take out the gnome quite easily by rolling over. I can only imagine what the gnome is thinking! I still have to plant the square planter on the chair...and I need a couple more planters down in front of the rocking chair but that's how far I got yesterday before I ran out of steam. So today I have to carry on with that planter and around the corner to the side of the house where I am hoping at some point this summer to put a fountain since our fountain died last summer once the pump froze early in the fall.

This is our horse shoe shaped potato garden. In the middle stand one of the strawberry boxes. There are about 8 Strwaberry plants in there.

The other 22 strawberry plants are in these boxes in the front of the house. I guess we really need to think about putting some siding on the house... hmm I wonder if we can suffer through another winter or maybe we should get to this in the fall. Oh for heaven's sake I have to get the flooring finished before i start to think about the siding... really!

Anyway the deck is calling and the day is calling and the sun is shining and the wind is whispering and the birds are twittering as they swoop past the window... I need to get myself organized before the day is over and I  wonder if Teapot wants help with the planting of the peas and beans.

I'm off ... till next time.. I hope your spring is blossoming into a lovely summer of lazy days and restful evenings. A little more business for me and I'll be happy to enjoy lazy days and restful evenings...

Women!... Sheesh!

Thursday night was the last day of knitting for the year... we had a party. For weeks we've been planning to have a Death By Chocolate party... We wanted to make things that were delectable... delightful and generally mind numbingly yummy. We succeeded. We had decided to have our wee party on the banks of the river at the house of one of our members... now this group of dynamic ladies are truly the odd people at their best.  Now that sounds strange I realize... but I don't mean that each individual is odd in and of themselves... just that we are all so different you would never think that we would come together so well... it is odd to have that much diversity among a group and have them get along so well. I can safely say that they have become some of my best friends ever... I love em to bits... cause they make me smile.We range in age from 47 (that would be moi) to 63. We range in income from those who have good solid jobs to those who are on fixed incomes. We range in religion from those who don't believe to those who aren't sure whether or not to believe to those who have very strong beliefs... to those of all beliefs. We range in self image from the those who care about it to the those that don't really give a shite any more. We range in yarn snobery from those who would never be caught dead with acrylic (blah ick ugh can you tell who the yarn snob is!) to the those who don't use wool... (out of their league). We range in everything we say and do.  When I first started the knitters group and saw who had come out for the initial meeting I thought... how in the world am I ever going to make this work... but over the years and even though we have lost a few members through attrition, a core group of us continue to faithfully meet each Thursday night come hail or cold or sun or lack of space to meet. At first I thought it was the need to get out of the house and exchange ideas on the craft we love so much. But I have come to realize that these women have become friends.... real true and good friends. We hardly see each other over the summer months at least not all together... but little friendships have developed outside of our group that make us all so comfortable together. We are great together and that is that. There is no jealousy or wariness that sometimes plagues groups of women... there is no envy or greed that also plagues women's groups... there is no criticisms or irritation. We just like being together.... 'cause we are all awesome.

Each one of us has talent... talent that's amazing.... we all make beautiful things.

This is the famous chocolate fountain...

This was taken before diving into the chocolate stuff... From left to right... Linde, Me (in the back), Valerie (in the front, Carol (in the back) and Marie (hiding behind the chocolate fountain)...

After diving into the chocolate stuff....

 It really was a fun evening and I am so glad to have had the opportunity to get to know these ladies... they truly have become some of the best friends I have.... even with all of their/our oddities. They're a hoot to know...

While I am ready to end with Knit Night for the summer now that gardening time is here, I do miss them and always look forward to the fun of our evenings together in autumn when Knit Nights will start again. And I am hoping to see them from time to time over the summer.