Random Ramblings - May 26th 2023

We’ve had several quite warm days recently, which they say will stick around over the next couple of weeks, and at some point after that it's meant to get hotter.  I'm glad it's not meant to get hotter yet.  But with it already at the high end of the temperature range I can tolerate, I’m not looking forward to when it does one bit.

 

*~*

 

    Anyway, as you likely figured out from last week's post attempt, May hasn’t been going quite as I planned.

 

It started OK.  Then we got to about the middle of the month.  I thought we might continue some of the de-cluttering and organizing.  Maybe even finally look in to getting the things we need removed that need to be disposed of rather than given away removed from our house.  But none of that ended up happening after all, and I’m so drained from the past couple of weeks that it won’t be happening any time soon, because my spoons are long since used up, and I don’t have the energy to deal with anything non-essential at this point.

 

My Mam ended up back in hospital.  This time she was there for ten days.

Ten days with four dogs (Lilie and Logan, plus Mam’s two: Izi and Cai) in the house is too much, especially when two of them (Izi and Cai) aren’t used to hearing the comings and goings of people going to the nearby shop, two of them (Lilie and Cai) are easily excitable, one of them (Cai) is an untrained puppy, and one of them (Logan) isn’t a big fan of too much play time.

 

We ended up with me and the dogs camping out in the living room so that at least Kelly could get some sleep.

 

This is what it sounds like when four dogs are in the same room, barking because someone decided to use our driveway to turn a lorry around in (which is what the beeping you may be able to hear over the barking is).

 

 

At least, I hope the clip will work for you.  It wouldn’t go on YouTube properly, even after I converted it to a format that should work, and I haven’t tried doing this kind of clip directly in to a blog post before.  I figured it was worth a try though.

 

Either way, by day four Artemis was hiding in his cave or tucking himself in his shell in an attempt to get away from the chaos.  By day six the dogs had decided they’d had enough of each other’s company, and Lilie especially was opting for sleeping upstairs with Kelly rather than staying in the living room with the rest of us.

 

Don’t get me wrong, Izi and Cai are adorable dogs.  But, like I said, four dogs in one house is too much.  Sure, we have a reasonable sized house.  But without a large back yard for them to tire themselves out in, and with people constantly forgetting that a private driveway is not a place to park when you’re goint to the shop, even if it is very convenient to park there, four dogs definitely started to feel like too many very quickly.  So everyone was extremely glad when Izi and Cai went home on Wednesday evening.

 

Anyway, my Mam is doing as well as can be expected.  That’s all I’m going to say about it though, because she specifically requested that nothing more than that was said, especially online.

 

*~*

 

In other news, I made these little flowers in a crochet class a couple of weeks ago:

 

 

~

 

Also, they were teaching Tunisian Crochet in another crochet class.  I wasn’t going to do it.  I mean, do I really need to learn another fibre art? After all, I already do needle knitting, loom knitting, and crochet, and want to learn tatting.

 

But it was the crochet group doing it, and I like spending time with them on their Zoom calls.  So I figured I’d go along to hang out with them anyhow.  I figured I’d work on my blanket while they learned Tunisian Crochet.

 

For those who don’t know: Tunisian Crochet is a kind of hybrid between crochet and knitting, which uses some of the stitches for both, plus a couple of its own, and where you often have several loops on the hook at any given time (hence needing special hooks, because they’re longer than the usual crochet hooks, with a knobbly bit on one end like a knitting needle has to stop the loops sliding off that end).

 

Anyway, I think you can guess where this is going.

 

Yep.  I ended up giving it a go.

 

I had to use a regular crochet hook, since I didn’t have any of the longer ones for Tunisian Crochet, but I wasn’t the only one doing it with a regular crochet hook.  Here’s the little sample piece I did while learning:

 

 

Our wedding anniversary was this past Monday (May 22^nd) and Kelly had been asking if I wanted anything specific from him for our anniversary.  So I ended up asking him  buy me a set of Tunisian Crochet hooks.

 

Yeah, you saw that coming, didn’t you? LOL!

 

Of course, with dealing with the four dogs, I haven’t had time or energy to play with them yet.  But when I can I’m going to make more little squares like the one I did to try Tunisian Crochet out, and then they can be part of the blanket with squares done with the different fibre arts that I plan to eventually make.  "Eventually" being the key word here.

 

~

 

Oh, and... In case you're wondering... We had pizza for dinner for our anniversary.  With the dog chaos in full swing, we didn't have the time or energy to do more than that to celebrate.  Not that we do much anyway, if I'm totally honest.  We really aren't big on large celebrations, as regular followers of this blog likely already know.

 

*~*

 

I like having fun bottles to put water in to drink.  In a weird sort of way it encourages me to remember to drink more, because I like the bottles.  Whatever works, right? And I just got a new one.  It’s a Harry Potter one.  Spacifcally, it’s a Ravenclaw one, and here it is:

 

 

One picture shows the whole bottle, and the other is a closeup on the Ravenclaw crest.

 

Kelly wants a Slytherin version, so I’m going to get him one soon.

 

*~*

 

Speaking of Harry Potter things: one of Kelly’s birthday cards was a Harry Potter themed one.

 

I actually meant to show you his birthday cards, but I forgot.  So, here they are:

 The Harry Potter one is from my Dad, and the other one is from my Grandma.

 

Most people we know don't tend to bother with cards these days, hence him only having two birthday cards.

 

*~*

 

I think that covers the main points of the past couple of weeks.  And I need a nap, so I’m going to let this do regardless.

 

I hope you’ve had a more relaxing couple of weeks than I have.

 

Not much of a post... Sorry

 

It’s time for me to put a blog post together for this week.  If I don’t write something today, there won’t be a blog post for this week, and I don’t like missing posting days.  So, I’m sitting here, trying to put a post together.

 

The trouble is, though I have a few things I could share – including an explanation as to why I’m about to say what I am - I’m exhausted, and my spoon reserves are so depleted I feel like I’m already trying to dip in to next month’s spoon supply, which is making it difficult for me to put even this much together, because putting thoughts in to words feels like wading through thick mud while carrying a heavy backpack.

 

So, I’ll just say that I hope you’re having a better, and much more relaxing, week than I have been having, and let this do for today.  Sorry it’s not much of a post, but at least it is one.  That counts, right?

A #Storm + Conversations, Organization, And Other Aspects Of My Week

We had a terrific thunderstorm on Tuesday.  It lasted a couple of hours, and the peels of thunder were impressive.  Unfortunately, since I was trying to finish up on the cooking call during the start of  the storm, and then eating dinner (we made enchiladas on the call this past week) and feeding the petkids during most of the rest, I didn’t give getting a video a thought until afterwards.

 

Yes, my dogs are calm enough during storms that I could get on and feed them even while an impressive storm was going on.  I don’t know if it’s the fact I enjoy the storms, or the fact my singing apparently has a soothing effect on dogs (to the point where my Mam has called me for me to sing to her dogs over the phone to calm them in the past).  But I used to sing to them during storms when they were scared as tiny puppies, and they learned not to be afraid of storms.  I used the same technique to teach them not to be so afraid of fireworks, and it’s only super loud ones that suddenly happen very close that they take notice of (and even then it’s just to bark a little before settling down again).

 

Anyway, besides the storm, it’s been a week of conversations and organization.  At least, that’s what it seems like; it definitely feels like conversations and organization has been the main theme of the past week.

 

Conversations, because I’ve been involved with at least one Zoom call every day, not to mention phone calls and messages I’ve been dealing with.  Nothing urgent.  Just one of those weeks where it seems the moment you sit down to have some quiet time the phone rings, or you remember you needed to talk to so-and-so about such-and-such and don’t want to forget again so figure you better send the message now – while you’re thinking about it.

 

Organization, because I de-cluttered and organized some stuff in the kitchen, needed to set up some Tweets to make sure they’ll go up on time for the ACB Crafters’ Twitter account, and some of those messages I needed to deal with were about needing to arrange and re-arrange some stuff for the schedule for the upcoming episodes of the cooking call I do with Herbie via the ACB.

 

To be honest, since there wasn’t much to deal with in the kitchen (just removing a few things I’d been given I knew I wouldn’t use, so wanted to box up to send somewhere where someone else could potentially use them, and re-organizing a few things once the spaces those things had taken up were empty) I feel like I’ve spent an awful lot of the past week glued to my phone or computer.

 

I mean, there were other aspects to my week: housework and other day to day chores, playtime and snuggles with Lilie and Logan, playtime with Artemis, some reading time (though not as much as I’d hoped to have, and a lot of it was done by making use of the option to enjoy an audiobook while doing housework – I did finish one book, and start two others though, one of which was the book for the 18^th and 19^th century book club) and working on some crochet (my blanket managed to gain another round).  I even managed to sneak in a bit of time to watch the first episode of “Wednesday” on Netflix with Kelly, which I’m enjoying so far, but will give you a proper opinion of once I’ve seen more than one episode of it.  But I definitely feel like I spent more time doing the things on my phone and computer than anything else combined, and am hoping the coming week involves a bit less computer and phone time, and a little more crafting, reading, and TV show watching.  Perhaps even some writing time? Though that might be too much to hope for when I'm still dealing with trying to tackle the organizing and de-cluttering project.  I can hope though, right?

So, how about you? How was your week?

#AmWatching + #AmReading + #AmWriting + #Beltane + A Birthday + Weather

I finally started watching “Anne With An E” on the weekend.  Ended up watching all of season 1.  I think it’s obvious to anyone who knows the books reasonably well that they’ve made some changes to the plot to keep things action-packed and dramatic for viewers, which I was a bit disappointed about given how many times I’ve heard people insist it’s so much like the books.  However, I am enjoying it well enough – even if I think the old version I had on VHS was better, and the books were better still.  Still, I am enjoying it, as I said, so I will give it a four out of five stars.

 

*~*

 

I enjoy seeing people’s posts about what they’ve been reading, and I keep meaning to tell you what I’ve been reading too.  But then I forget.  Maybe I’ll do a mid year round-up of what I’ve been reading at the start of July?

 

In the meantime, if you’re interested, I’m currently reading “The Borrowers Avenged” (the 5^th Borrowers book) by Mary Norton, and “Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone” (the 9^th Outlander book) by Diana Gabaldon.

 

Plus, I'm about to start reading “Villette” by Charlotte Bronte, and “The Chocolate Cat Caper” (the first book in the Chocoholic Mystery series) by JoAnna Carl, which are this month’s reads for the book clubs I’m in; those books are the May books for the 18^th and 19^th century book club and crafters book club respectively.

 

I’m also slowly – very slowly, since I’ve been focusing more on new to me books, so not picking it up often – reading the “Harry Potter” books by J K Rowling.  Yes, I’ve read those multiple times, but they’re something I enjoy re-reading; they're my comfort read go-to books.  Besides, this is the first time I’ve read them in Braille, and I have to read them in Braille too, because then I can say I’ve read them in all formats (I’ve already read them in print – in the case of the first book, in both English and Welsh - as eBooks, and as audio books).

 

Yes, I have a lot of books on the go.  I guess it's what happens when you're trying to read for two book clubs, and still want to read something you're just reading for your own pleasure rather than because the group is reading it.  It's a good thing I can keep things straight even when I'm reading multiple books, isn't it?

 

*~*

 

I actually got some writing time in.  Yes, I know, it’s a miracle! I mean, it was only a few minutes, so it wasn’t much, but I’ll take it!

 

I didn’t get any work done on any of the stories I’d like to finish writing, but I did add a couple of poems to the ones I have yet to publish, which brings me a little closer to having enough to publish a new poetry collection.  I still have some way to go to have enough poems for it, but every poem I write brings me that bit closer.

 

Like I said, it wasn’t much, but I’ll take it!

 

 *~*

 

We had two reasons to celebrate during this past week: Monday was Beltane, and Tuesday was Kelly's birthday.

 

~

 

Beltane - or "May Day" - actually fell on the early May bank holiday this year, so a lot of people were considering it a holiday, even if they didn't celebrate Beltane, since they got a long weekend because of the bank holiday.

 

Our Beltane celebrations were very minimal; all we really did to celebrate was to have a themed meal.  That seems to be how a lot of our celebrations have been going this year.  That and whatever ritual we decide to do (mine usually consisting of some kind of meditation ritual, since that's the kind I prefer) but I don't generally mention those, because we learned years ago that it suits us - me especially - better to do rituals quietly and privately, mostly not even including each other in them.  I shared a couple of rituals we did together on here several years ago, but these days I keep them to myself.

 

Anyway, our holiday meal was most definitely a really simple one.  It consisted of cheese on toast (vegan cheese for me, of course, but it's the symbolism that counts) and oatmeal biscuits (as in cookies, for those outside the UK).  A simple meal, like I said, with minimal cooking, and minimal cleanup, which we were both in favour of.

 

~

 

Kelly wanted chocolate cake for his birthday, but I don’t like chocolate cake and he didn’t want me to not have any cake, so we brought him some chocolate cake and I made myself some blueberry and lemon cupcakes (with fresh blueberries).  That way he got the kind of cake he wanted, but neither of us got left out, so everyone was happy.

 

Kelly also wanted to order pizza for dinner.  The pizza place he wanted to have from doesn't do anything I can eat - we have that issue with a lot of places, to be honest - but I told him to go ahead and have it anyway.  Besides, I was making spicy buttermilk tofu on the cooking call that afternoon (veganizing the chicken recipe that was officially being done this week) so it would only be a matter of cooking up some veggies of some description to go with it to turn it in to a full dinner, which I could do while the tofu was cooking.  So, Kelly got his birthday dinner of pizza, and I got to try a new tofu recipe, which made us both happy.

 

*~*

 

The weather still hasn’t quite settled, but even the wet days have been warm-ish.  The temperature fluctuations have been enough to irritate my asthma, but it’s been consistently warm enough to make my already low hopes they’re wrong about a hot Summer fade even more.  Oh well, so it goes.  At least I can be grateful for fans and freezers, which will mean I can do something to help me deal with the heat when it comes.  At least, I can be grateful for them right now, even if I’m going to struggle to remember to be grateful for those things while wishing we had air conditioning when I’m actually in the position of dealing with the heat.

 

In the meantime, since I was washing the blankets we have in the living room now that my brother has the other sofa (most of which then either got put back on the sofa and chair we still have, or put within easy reach for those days when I just want to curl up with a blanket on the sofa and read) and the weather has been staying warm even on the days that are kind of rainy and damp, I just kept going and washed the blankets from the bedroom too, and then put away the heavier ones we only need in colder weather.  They’re easy to grab should the weather get cold again, but right now we definitely aren’t using them, so don’t need to keep them out.

 

*~*

 

I think, all in all, it was a pretty good – and fairly busy - week.

 

 So, how was your week?