#StDwynwensDay + #Blind #Crossstitch + A #Knitting Project + #Snow + #Imbolc + #AmWriting + #Febookary

January 25th was St Dwynwen's Day (Dydd Santes Dwynwen) - as it is every year.  St Dwynwen is the Welsh patron saint of lovers, so it's basically the Welsh Valentines Day.  We didn't celebrate it though.  I mean, we barely do anything for Valentines Day, let alone the lesser-known Welsh equivalent... Valentines Day isn't really a big deal to us, since we think you should show the person you love that you love them all year, and not just lavish attention on them for one spacific day.  I just thought I'd mention it, in case anyone was interested.  Plus, I thought it would be nice if I at least acknowledged its existance.

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I've learned a lot in the years since I lost the last of my sight, and one of those things is that - more often than not - the thing stopping me from doing something I want to do that I could do when I had some sight is actually often myself, and my refusal to try and find a way.  So, I decided to have a go at crossstitching for the first time since losing the last of my sight - especially since I just inherited a whole load of supplies from my Nan, and it would be a shame not to use them.  Nan was the one who taught me to knit, sew, and crossstitch.  I know she'd have wanted me to try.  So, I did.  For Nan, for those who need to learn what I learned about the limitations of a blind person, and for myself.

So, how did it go?

Well... It went OK.  I mean, I think it's going to take some practice - and a whole lot of patience - but I don't think I did too terribly for my first attempt, and think I can potentially make it work for simple designs anyhow.  Here's a photo of my first attempt.  It's supposed to have been three little Christmas trees... Even if they are red... I think I did best with the middle one.  What do you think?

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I mentioned to Kelly that I wasn't sure where to startwith craft projects, so he suggested I start by knitting a cosy for my new teapot.  I agreed it was a good idea, so that's what I'm working on now.  Well, when I'm not busy attempting to organize all the crafting supplies, of course.  Hey, at least it's something I can do amidst the chaos that the craft room is currently in from Dad bringing over more of what used to be Nan's crafting supplies recently (which I haven't had a chance to sort through yet).

The cosy's got two colours in it: purple, of course, and a shade of off-white called vanilla.  Also, it's made from 100% cotton yarn.  There is some sheep wool among the things I got from Nan, which I'll use for future projects - since it's here - but this wool is from my own stash, and I've only been buying the 100% cotton yarn. It costs a bit more, but I personally think it's worth the extra cost.

 

Anyway, the tea cosy isn't finished yet, but I'll show you it when it is, which shouldn't be too far in the future, since it is coming along nicely.  Would have been even further along if I hadn't dropped my purple yarn and wasted a LOT of time untangling the mess it got itself in to. *sigh*

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We got more snow!

 

Yes, more of it! It happened this past Sunday.

OK, so there wasn't much of it to enjoy, despite the fact it was drifting down for a couple of hours, so technically a couple of inches probably fell, because it was melting almost as fast as it hit the ground, and it was completely gone by the evening.  But still.

Here are a couple of photos of Lilie and Logan out in the yard during it:

And here's a short clip we got during the best part of the snowfall:

Sorry about the noise in the clip, but someone decided to come to the nearby shop while we were doing snow videos, and used what's meant to be one of our parking spots for the purpose, waiting there with the car running for a while.  They do that a lot, because of our proximity to the shop.  Any time they see us out there when doing it they ask if we need them to park elsewhere, but since they're only popping to the shop a couple of doors down, so gone pretty quickly anyhow, and we don't have a car of our own so aren't in any real need of our two parking spaces, we let them do it.  I mean, why not? After all, they aren't in our way, and they aren't hurting anyone being there, so... *shrugs*

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So... Last year I'd planned to make more effort with doing something for the Pagan holidays other than Ostara, Samhain, and Yule - something I've gotten abit lazy about in recent years.  I wanted to at least acknowledge those lesser-known and more commonly ignored holidays that are part of my beliefs.  But 2020 was... Well... We all know what 2020 was.  Anyway, I'm determined not to let the same thing happen in 2021, even if it tries to be another year like last year.  Wish me luck with that.  Ahem.  Well, at least I can say so far, so good.  I even remembered to acknowledge St Dwynwen's Day, which is one I generally always ignore (and counts as one I should acknowledge because of the Celtic influence in my beliefs, even without the consideration of the fact I'm Welsh by birth, and have now moved back to Wales).  And then there's Imbolc...

February 2nd was Imbolc - the first festival of Spring.  Well, technically people celebrate it any time from January 31st to February 2nd, sometimes literally celebrating from sunset on January 31st to sunset on February 2nd.  But since February 2nd is the most commonly recognized date (or, with a lot of Pagans, sunset on February 1st through to sunset on February 2nd, since sunset to sunset celebrations are common) and I don't personally feel like it's one of the holidays that needs to be celebrated for days - though I can totally see why people might have done so in the past - we just acknowledge and celebrate it on February 2nd.  Or try to anyhow.  Really though any date from January 31st through February 2nd is correct.

 

Either way, we don't go in for big celebrations anyhow, and our Imbolc celebrations especially have never been elaborate or fancy in any way - on the years we've remembered to celebrate it, I mean.  Sometimes we'll go on a walk to search for signs of Spring, and call it an Imbolc walk (even though we regularly go out with the dogs anyhow).  But beyond that we usually just have a special meal where at least some part of it is conciously being linked to Imbolc, and then do our own thing to celebrate.  In my case that generally seems to involve lighting a scented candle to enjoy while I write - and nine times out of ten also read - some poetry, often followed by a bit of quiet meditation, which has led to more poetry writing in the past.  The main difference between that and most writing days being the addition of the candle, which I wouldn't usually bother with for a writing session, and the concious thought of the fact it's Imbolc when sitting down to do it... It's all about the intentions behind the actions.

Anyway, traditional herbs, food, and drink for Imbolc include:bay leaves, cinnamon, basil, vanilla, blackberry, all dairy products, breads, cakes, scones, muffins, raisins, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, greens, bell peppers, onions, garlic, herbal teas, ale, mead and spiced wines. Of course, with my being vegan the dairy products were out for me, Kelly doesn't do raisins, and neither of us drink alcahol so those were out for both of us.  But that still left us with plenty of options for connecting our meals to Imbolc, especially since - while we might have similar meals sometimes - we almost never actually eat the same thing these days (our different diets makes it too complicated, so we just plan our own menus).

 

This year I decided to theme my Imbolc Eve dinner and Imbolc breakfast for Imbolc too.  So, Imbolc Eve dinner for me was a vegan omlet (consisting of tofu, vegan cheese, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, garlic, and turmeric) with chips and baked beans, Imbolc breakfast was homemade orange marmalade on toast with a handful of raisins, and Imbolc dinner was vegan cheesy mash with green beans and carrots served with onion gravy and a bit of bread (it would have been a bread roll, but I didn't have any, couldn't be bothered to make some, and decided to just have a regular slice of bread instead of sending Kelly to go look for some).  Simple food, quick to make, but still themed for the sabbat.  Kelly went for simple too, and only bothered making sure his Imbolc dinner was linked.  He had chicken and cheese wraps, plus a bit of chocolate cake, in case you're wondering.  I'd planned to do some baking so I'd have some cake for myself too, but a few bad nights in a row had me exhausted and needing a nap, and my planned hour to recharge turned in to a four hour nap.  Oops! Well, I obviously needed it.

Anyway, I finished up the day by spending about an hour writing some poetry while enjoying the scented candle I'd had for my birthday from my Mam, followed by reading "Pass the Turkey: The Small Dog's Christmas" by Sue Vincent, and a few minutes of meditation.  It had to be a few minutes only, since apparently that was a relaxing enough evening that I was ready to go to sleep at a decent time despite my longer than planned nap... Slept for a solid five hours afterwards too, which would have been a good night for me even without the four hour nap.

 

 ~

 

Other than the poetry I wrote on Imbolc, I also wrote a couple more poems so far this year.  I still haven't done any work on a story, but at least I've been writing again.  Hopefully I'll get back to working on one of my stories soon.  That's definitely the plan anyhow.

First though, if I plan to be a part of it, I need to write something for the Sue Vincent Rodeo Classic that's going on over at The Carrot Ranch right now (click here to see the official contest post at The Carrot Ranch).  Plus, I definitely need to either pick a couple of my new poems to submit to an anthology I'm contributing to, or write some new ones spacifically for it very soon, since I've got to have those sent over to the person arranging it before the end of this month.

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I'm joining in with the Febookary reading challenge this month too.

 

Febookary is a challenge created by my friend Cat over at The Strawberry Post, which is designed to encourage you to try reading something outside your reading comfort zone, like a different genre, for example.

At Kelly's recommendation, I'm reading "Mech Warrior: Born of Steel" by James David Victor as my Febookary challenge book.  He picked well for me last year, so let's hope he did this year too.  The book's blurb makes it sound good anyhow, so I'm hopeful he's picked me another great read.