And the Wind Blows

Some places in the province and further West, as strong as 90K.  The flag across the back was ripped to shreds overnight.  It was new on July 1st, and mainly intact when we went to bed last night.  We have used it to judge wind strength over the years, and feel sad to see it the way it is today.  The weather lady on tv last night was joking about there being 5 different types of weather warnings in effect in MB for last night.  Truly a night to stay home.  But the sun shines today, and there is hope for the future!

The final video of my Cloth to Codex workshop was posted today.  Somewhat anticlimactic.  Only 11 minutes long and basically said that if we have any scraps we don't know what to do with, we should pile them in bundles, trim them, staple them, and call them "flip books".  I have to admit that there has been so much going on in my life that I didn't spend as much time on the workshop as it deserved.  I hope to be able to go back and re-view the videos, at a more leisurely pace and see if I can't accomplish much more than I have during the actually workshop itself.  The material certainly deserves that.  I had found another on-line workshop that really appealed to me but have controlled myself --so far.

Yesterday, my income tax refund showed up in the bank account.  David's arrived 3-4 weeks ago, and I was getting concerned.  I still haven't received the printed assessment documents, but am re-assured knowing the money is where it should be.  Now, as soon as we pay for my new right hearing aid, we can decide how much goes toward the Line-of-credit, and how much we can spend foolishly.

Part of the "foolishly" will involve a wind chime Gail sold me.  She let me pick the style and the colour of the beads.  It's so pretty that I don't want to put it out in the weather, but we haven't found anywhere to hang it in the house where the wind might find it. 

Tonight is the second half of the beading workshop I'm taking, on Zoom, with the instructor from Australia. I've spent time trying to design a small sampler piece, using the stitches taught, but spent more time erasing than drawing.  So that is put aside, for now.  I'm looking forward to tonight.  One of the items on the supply list, that I didn't have last week, was chocolate.  I'll make sure I have some tonight.

Weather not too kind...

 A bit of an update. We had a snow storm last evening and night - lots of snow and windy. I lay in bed most of night watching to see if my clock radio would flicker or go out or be blinking meaning a power outage or surge of some kind. I noticed nothing so felt satisfied. However, something must have happened as this morning while shoveling i went over to the little greenhouse and was shocked. Cold and no heater on. Panic set in of course, and i quickly started the heater again but the plants were looking unhealthy. We watched them most of morning and were discouraged to think that we had lost them after all the work and vigilant care taking. By afternoon when the sun had been shining in, we were relieved to see that although a good few were gone, there were a healthy number of plants left showing life. It was a close call. Just shows what might happen unbeknownst and in spite of your constant care and worry. So, I'll just store this away in my basket of worries until another day, and get on with today. I made myself some corn beef hash for my meal and devoured it with great delight. And then I had a piece of homemade apple pie that I had made yesterday and devoured that. And I have just devoured a Wisers Deluxe on ice. So I guess there is nothing left for me to do but close up the house and head for bed soon and read... I have been really enjoying my "before bed" reads again and thrilled to be back at it. So I hope you have had a good day as well. Take care.

Jealous, but not justified

 Beth has rain; Pati has snow, and Cathy has a fire ban due to dry conditions. I have never heard of a fire ban in March!!  Please send your moisture to us. 🙏. As usual, my days run together, but we keep trucking on. I’ve been watching curling and now have a whole week before the men’s worlds start. And then the woman’s worlds and then the mixed doubles worlds. I’m on overload. At least when the worlds start they are only broadcasting the Canada games, which is good since I will be planting the garden by the time it all ends. It is a lot at once but I am glad they are getting the chance to compete. I still feel sad that I never got to go to Newfoundland for the Dominion crib☹️ It seems that every time I look at the news there is more bad news on COVID and vaccines. I’m just going to ignore the news for a while. I don’t seem to have as much happening in my life as you two do, but I seem to be busy anyway. So now I am once again sitting on the couch, cuddling the cat and drinking a glass of wine. Sometimes all the days being the same has advantages  😊. 

White world

 Yep, got up this morning to a white world.  A good snow fall that has stayed on roofs and lawns all day.  Since here was no reason to go out, we've stayed at home all day, and hope it melts soon.  Laundry day again.  But the day's worth of loads was done quickly.  We're cooking a small roast in the slow cooker today, so supper won't be a hassle.  But somehow, I spent the whole morning doing a lot of something, and was exhausted by 2:00.  I'm not really sleeping well with this splint, and have had a bit of a nap most days this week, so today was no exception.

I don't think I mentioned that we had a phone call Tuesday from --Hold your Breath--Ron Snider.  He had tracked us down, and decided to get in touch.  He is still married to his second wife.  They are living in Selkirk and raising Welsh Corgi.  He and his wife are very active in the theatre art field locally, as volunteers.  Things like the Fringe Festival and Rainbow stage.  He's somewhat handicapped with bad lungs.  We spoke for about 1 1/2 hours and exchanged phone numbers.

I finished the big beading project I was working on earlier in the week and will be posting pictures on the other blog later.  The bead workshop I took on Zoom Tuesday evening was interesting and I did learn a couple of things.  The rest of it was a good refresher.  The instructor has suggested that we each make a sort  of sampler from what we learn, and I sort of like the idea,  I have a design in mind, but would need to buy a few more beads.  At the same time, some of the ladies in the workshop have expressed an interest in buying some of the seed beads that I would like to get rid of.  Sounds insane, doesn't it?

I've heard nothing further about Jessica.  Last I heard was that she was home after surgery.  She has a huge bandage on her hand--her right hand.  We'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Well, cooking supper has proven to be a challenge to both of us.  I've been on the phone with Gail for the last hour, but now, best I take a more active role in the discussion.  

The rain is here...

It never rains but it pours seem an apt saying these days ...I suppose both with the weather, but also with other aspects of one's life haha!

I just set up the sump pump outside as i do when it is to pour even if i do not know if I shall need it. It is calling for copious amounts of rain, then ice pellets and then snow. Which one should I pick as my favourite?

I am visiting Daisy and her family this morning with a tray of homemade cookies and a card since it was her Birthday yesterday. I baked the usual choc chip cookies but also a recipe for oatmeal raisin that i found in my box from you Pati.  Both turned out well so i hope there will be leftovers to keep here at home when i make up her plate.

We went to North Bay for an appt for harry yesterday and I was able to shop at No Frills again - I like to do this on occasion. They have set up a queu line for all the carts and people to check out and you line up and then as a cashier is available it says to the first person in line and announces it on a telescreen at the front of the line "Go to cashier #5" or whatever. Very efficient and fast moving and much better than people cramming all around the aisles.

Harry put an ad on the net for people to get free plants eg Garlic and Kale so I had my first customer yesterday afternoon. Cleared a few of the excess plants out of the greenhouses - only to make more room for more as Harry bought more soil and little pots yesterday as well. Oh well....

Time to go...I must get my Lottery tickets on way to Daisy's and have to pick up meds at the Pharmacy as well. Have a nice weekend folks.Sat night there are extra $100,000 draws on the 649 so I plan to buy a ticket on that. You never know...just might be our lucky day folks haha!

Hope all is well. XX

I need to catch my breath

 Compared to life a couple of months ago, I feel like I'm on a marathon.  I'm really not liking this feeling, and keep hoping for  a nice quiet day under lockdown. While I try to fight it, I see us far too quickly resuming our previous life style of picking up a few groceries every couple of days, more as an excuse to get out, than any real need. But, then, I had a long list of supplements etc that I needed to pick up  from Walmart, and took my list along when picking up a couple of prescriptions, yesterday.  Only I find them in the middle of a major re-organization of the department, and bare shelves everywhere.

I was to another meeting in Selkirk, Sunday.  I have been given this awkward stove-pipe splint to wear on my right arm when sleeping.  I just don't sleep well when wearing it, and have found that I need a bit of a nap later in the afternoon.  Sunday I came home, had a bit of lunch and fell into bed for almost 2 hours.  Yesterday, I had an appointment for the preliminary work of getting a new hearing aide. This evening I have a 3 hour Zoom workshop on beading, and had arranged to pick up a special button I need for the workshop, in Riverheights, so went on my way home from the hearing center. Then it was off to Walmart, off to buy coffee and gas, and finally home--to another nap- not so long this time. While all of this is going on, I'm trying to spend every minute I can working on the beading of, what I hope is, the last piece needed for the exhibition in May.

The workshop this evening is on beading, but the instructor is a very high profile instructor from Australia.  I would take a workshop from her in just about anything she wants to teach. Beth, it's Lisa Walton, whom we have both seen on The Quilt Show, and I also know as the past chair of SAQA, the largest and best art quilting association there is. We get 3 hours tonight and another 3 hours next Tuesday.  I want to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for this. (When I say that I always remember saying that to an old lady client I had, who responded with "well my eyes aren't so good, but my tail's in fine shape".)  I may not learn a lot, but Lorrain used to say that if you learn even one thing in a workshop, it is time well spent.  And being on Zoom, there is a somewhat social aspect to it.

Meanwhile, David is holding everything together on the home front.  I don't know how I could get along without him.  We both are very dependent on our books, to fill time. The library is open to pick up books that we have on hold, but not to browse the stacks. David is number one on the list for quite a few books, but they never come in, so he asked and found out that they are all in the Cornish library, which is not yet open.  He won't get them until it does, and then he'll probably get them all at once.

David has just told me that we have an e-mail from Amber telling us that Jessica needs plastic surgery on her hand, at HSC, and they are waiting for it, maybe later today or tomorrow. That family doesn't need this, especially right now.

Best go.  Looking forward to hearing from both of you.

Here's to another week...

 Not really much to share so thought I would start us off for another week with at least a friendly "Hello" to all. ☺

We have a few more appointments this week and next, and it keeps me busy trying to keep organized and on top of it all haha! I have committed to visiting Daisy and her family sometime this week but the date is not established yet ( due to me cancelling for Thursday as result of Harry appt in North Bay) Since it is her 93rd Birthday I would really like to go over though, and so i shall try to get that in. And to celebrate i was going to bake some goodies but again, I do not know what or when I can do that. Maybe a store bought cake perhaps???

Yesterday I made myself another veg stir fry but...and do not poo poo this.. I put liver in it! Instead of the usual frying liver with onions etc, I changed my plan a bit, cut the liver into chunks, fried it nicely and then included it into the stir fry. It was really OK if you like liver as i do.

So onwards we go ladies, and keep safe all. Take care 

I include this cute character as I really need a haircut - I shall try to fit that in somehow in next few weeks i hope 💇