The New Year

Well, it's 2013. I know it's a little late for a 1st post of the new year. I'm a horrible blogger, I will admit.

I've still been knitting away. I'm starting a pair of what I call "House Socks". They're just man sized wool socks knit from Briggs and Little that will be thrummed . That way there should be enough space in there for my foot and the thrums :) It's been so cold here the last week or so, I could really use them know,lol.

Whoa, Yule flew by and it's almost the New Year. I'm still knitting the last of the Yule presents :) I would have been done in time except I punched a hole in my finger with the 2mm steel knitting needle. Not a huge injury but knitting was painful. Should be done them this weekend.

I don't like to make New Year's Resolutions. I figure that if you want to make changes in your life, you should just do it. That being said, now that the Holidays are almost over I figure it's time to get off my arse and go back to the gym. I know the gyms are blocked this time of the year. I might actually start going swimming for a change until the end of January.

Do you have any plans for the new year?

I swear that today is the coldest I've felt all year. You know when you get a chill and it's right down in your bones? That's how I feel. I'm actually too cold to even knit that much. I think going to the garden and digging up the last of the carrots may have induced this chill. I'm glad we went and got them though. I have a pork roast I'm planning on cooking up this weekend and those carrots will go quite well with it I think.

Still knitting away of Yule presents(when my hands aren't have numb from the cold,lol) but only have 2 left to finish. One is for my Mom and one for my GF. I knit my Mom's when GF and I are watching TV etc. and if my Mom comes to visit and GF is @ work, I knit on GF's pressie. So it's slow going anyways bc I'm always having to hide the projects.

I can't believe I went over a month without posting. eeep . OK, so what's going on ?

Winter has haphazardly arrived here in NL. We had a snowstorm that caused numerous accidents bc people seem to forget this is NL and every year this thing called winter happens. I even saw an accident where someone rear ended a salt truck. If it hadn't been dangerous, I would have gotten out of the car and took a picture. Almost all the snow is gone again, thank glod for that.

Still knitting away @ Yule presents. I've even been knitting something for someone I don't like and it shows. I just had to rip it back about 10 rows. I know it seems a waste to knit for someone I don't like but this person is the partner of a dear friend. It will make my friend feel good that I included his BF in our holiday celebrations.

I'm still sawing away on my fiddle almost everyday. I still sound like I'm killing a cat some days but it's coming along. I might take some lessons in the new year even.

Here's one of the songs I'm learning from a band called the Show Ponies. I can't say I play this well yet but I do love this song. Enjoy.

The wedding this weekend was verra sweet. A long time couple decided to get married after 14 years together. It was sweet and I was a little teary eyed. Their daughter was their flower girl, so cute. It was a great evening. I didn't take one pic. I didn't have any pockets and I didn't finish my little bag so I couldn't carry my iPhone , so no pix. I was too busy talking to everyone anyways,lol

I am NOT complaining but swear the weather this Fall has been better than Summer 2011. I still have roses blooming in my yard and I had to open the window in my bedroom last night as I was too warm under my duvet. I still have carrots in the ground and tomatoes and cucumbers growing in the greenhouse. It's awesome.

So, today the weather is soo miserable. It's cold and windy and raining full out. I'm having a cuppa and a couple of lemon creams on my work break. I'm working on a little bag to carry some essentials (fone,house key) to a wedding this weekend. Wish it wasn't so grey out, makes it hard to see the stitches.

http://youtu.be/1gX1EP6mG-E

I can't get enough of twangy Bluegrass music, especially Old Crow Medicine Show. So much so that I am trying to relearn how to play my old violin, Bluegrass style. I only ever played Classicial. Not that I'm knocking that. Playing music in High School was probably the only reason I graduated. I'm really looking now to play music that is closer to people, to people sitting around and playing just for the joy in it. Right now I sound more like a tortured cat but with baby steps, I might just get there,lol. I'm using this book http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/item/1883206480-item.html?s_campaign=Google_BookSearch_organic .It really is a great book.

I can't believe that this is almost the end of October. My plants, including my pumpkin plants , are still blooming. It's amazing. I'm really glad that the weather has been so nice so far. I'm really not looking forward to this winter. I'm still having issues with pain in my leg and hip and can't imgine what it will be like getting around in the snow/ice of a St. John's winter.

Thanks

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal with my GF yesterday. It was just the 2 of us as my Fam was out of town and her FAM live in ON. It was nice though. She had to do 99% of getting it ready as I was working all day. I was soooo hungry by the time I finished work as I could smell the turkey cooking all afternoon.

So, yesterday being Thanksgiving and all,  I was really thinking about being thankful. What that means and how important it is. For me, I am thankful I have such a wonderful partner in life. So many people I know spend a lot of time fighting and being unhappy with their partners. I'm so thankful we take the time to try to be the most supportive that we can be to each other. No one is perfect. It's not always unicorns and flowers but I love my partner and she loves me and that's grand sure.

I'm thankful that both our families are supportive of us. Being LGBT sometimes means having to chose between living your life truthfully or having a relationship with your family.Thankfully, both our families are just fine with it all :)

I'm thankful of living in a country where I don't have to worry about being murdered or jailed just bc of who I love.

I'm thankful for having some really good people in my life, friends who don't care how crazy I can be ;) Friends who I can debate with and friends who always have an extra stitchmarker when needed.

I'm thankful for living in a country with good healthcare. I had some health issues this summer and had weekly doctor's appointments and several x-rays. Can't imagine what kind of state I would be in if we didn;t have free healthcare. I'm REALLy thankful that my injury to my hip/leg is finally healing. I felt so hopeless all summer and I finally feel there is a light @ the end of the tunnel!!!

What are you  thankful for this year?

back to work

So, I'm finally back to work. Sucks though. Still in a lot of pain so it's quite uncomfortable. Can't really do much. Late summer and fall has always a time to do alot of canning and foraging. No go this year. I can't even bend over to tie up my own shows, FFS! Grrrr. I haven't even been knitting that much bc it's hard to knit when you are horizontal on the couch with a pillow between ur knees.

I am going to attempt to pickle some beets this weekend. I just decided.We grew some nice beets this year and I want to be able to use them.They are easy to do and I know that Tammy will help me. She's been so good to me since I hurt my hip. She's best kind, my GF.

So, haven't blogged in almost a month. I feel like this summer has passed me by. It was one of the nicest summers in a long time, weatherwise, that I can remember. I missed most of it. I injuried my back/hip in July and have spent the last month hobbling around. Used crutches for the 1st time even. Didn't even knit. Anyone who knows me, knows I usually knit just about every single day of my life. I just couldn't do it, I couldn't stay vertical long enough.

I really need to take a new pic of the garden. Everything is growing like crazy. Picked zuchs and cukes yesterday and ate the 1st ripe tomato! I'm hoping I get enough cucumbers to make a bunch of dill pickles. I've pickled beets and other veggies but never made dill pickles before. Can't wait.

The gooseberries in the backyard are ready to pick and so are the handful of currants on the singular currant bush. Blueberries are in season but there is no way I will be able to go blueberry picking this year. I've injuried my hip recently and really can't doing anything that requires me to bend over. Sad really, the best summer in NL in years and I am laid up,grrrrr.

So, I haven't been posting much. Right now, any extra time or energy I have is going into our plot @ the community garden. This summer the weather has been great and the garden is showing the results. Our own sore point ( besides weeds of course) is that one of our beds has club root,grrrr. So all the broccoli and kale and maybe even the cabbage are most likely not going to make it :(

I've also been doing so light knitting. The Ravelympics start this week so then it will be nose to the grindstone for the next 10 days or so. Wish me luck.

I love working @ home but right now it is really,really hard. I can hear the trees in the warm breeze  coming in my window. I can see the sunny sky. I can smell the neighbours starting the weekend early with BBQ and Weed. I want to turn off my phone and go play in the sunlight.

One thing that I love to do is canning. I love having pickled beets @ Christmas dinner that I made. Hopefuly this year, my beets and cucumbers  will grow well and I will be able to eat them all year round. I found this great resource on-line today on the website Root Cellars Rock . It is a PDF of a canning workshop. The supplies for canning most fruits and pickles are not verra expensive and once you have them, they will last for years and years.

I've been spinning away for the Tour de Fleece this month. To tell you the truth, I have not been having great sucess with it. I'm doing well with the spindle:

 but am having issues spinning with my spinning wheel. I'm not sure why. I had always been pretty good with my wheel but had not  used it in awhile and seem to have lost my touch,lol.

So to self soothe, I have have signed up for a Stephen West Knit-a-long! I did one last summer and really liked the end product. It is supposed to be knit in fingering weight but I think I am going to bump it up to a light worsted weight instead. I like a larger size shawl.

This morning, I was amazed and overjoyed to see how many bees were in my garden.

In the community garden , it's nothing but weeds,weeds,weeds. Spent an hour this morning weeding just 1 row. One row @ a time. I figure no one needs to see pix of that,lol.

Homestead Revival: Sizzling Summer Round Up: Timber Press!

Homestead Revival: Sizzling Summer Round Up: Timber Press!: Today, Timber Press is kindly hosting our Sizzling Summer Round Up give-away! Perhaps you're familiar with some of their earlier tit...

I'm not sure if anyone reads this blog but I thought I would post this link to the 59 cent campaign. Seems like a brillant idea. Just hope Harper doesn't keep my 59 cents for himself.

http://youtu.be/TQiSe00HOec

So today I had a full day before my day really started. I had to start work @ 10.30am but had a number of things to complete before then. The main thing was that I had to go to the St. John's Farmers' Market pick up my plant order from The Organic Farm. I just purchased some Tomato and Pepper plants. They have some great varieties I also had to go water my spot in the McMorran Community Garden and put my new tender seedlings in the greenhouse.

I also drove my GF to work so that I could have the car to run my errands. I think I was not quite on the ball when I left the house . I was chatting to a friend @ the Market and she asked me if I was trying to start a fashion trend. She told me to look down.

Yup, fashion trend indeed.