The rest of Yule & Christmas 2023

I got these Christmas cards after posting the other ones, so here they are:

 

 

*~*

 

Among my gifts was this plush Santa Clause…

 

 

This decorative bell…

 

 

And a Lego advent calendar.  The calendar is Harry Potter themed, and we haven't put all the little kits from it together anyhow, but here are the holiday themed festive little kits from among them:

 

 

I also got more Lego, some new pyjamas, and a Harry Potter blanket.

 

*~*

 

It was a pretty good Christmas.  Hope yours was too.

Lilie The #Westie Turns Six

Hi everyone.  This is Lilie the Westie.

 

Mummy finally let me have a turn on this thing again.  She’s been hogging the computer lately, so it’s hard for me to get a turn.  Logan doesn’t even bother trying.  Then again, Logan doesn’t really do much of anything if he doesn’t have to.  Artemis does try and help me keep Mummy in line, but there’s only so much something that looks like a rock with legs can do.  That means it’s up to me to try and keep Mummy in line, which is hard work, let me tell you!

 

Anyway, I had one of those birthday things this past Sunday (March 26th) so I came on here to tell you about it, since Mummy finally let me have a turn on this thing again.

 

I got a new toy.  It’s a bear in a funny outfit.

 

Mummy says it’s the kind of outfit something called a palace guard wears.  She says the humans who wear outfits like my new bear was wearing look after someone called the royal family.  I don’t know who they are - dogs only know people we’ve seen and sniffed, after all – but Mummy says they’re important people, and being a palace guard is an important job.  I know looking after your people is an important job, so I’m sure Mummy must be right.

 

Here are a couple of photos of Mummy giving me my new bear:

 

 

I also got to have some ham for dinner.  I like ham.  Logan got a share of that, but he didn’t get a new toy.  I think he was a bit sad about not getting a new toy, but he soon forgot about that when he learned there was ham.  Logan forgets about everything else if there’s food around.  Well, almost anything.  He does still keep check on where Mummy is, because he doesn’t want her to sneak off.  But food does make Logan forget about everything else apart from Mummy.

 

Anyway, it was a great birthday!

 

And now I’m six.

 

Mummy says in one more year I’ll be considered a senior dog.  I have a lot more playing to do before I’m ready to be a senior dog though, thank you very much.  I might have to have medicine because of sore knees, and also because of my itchies, but that doesn’t stop me feeling as energetic as a puppy inside, and still having lots of playtime energy in me.  I might be six now, but I’m not feeling even close to being ready to retire to a basket by the fire just yet, thank you.

 

Lots of licks,

Lilie

The Inspection + #MothersDay And #SpringEquinox Celebrations

Sunday (March 19^th) was Mother’s Day here in the UK.

 

I’d made this scarf with a stitch pattern we did in loom knitting earlier in the month, and I thought my Mam would like it, so I planned to give it to her.  I literally only just finished it in time because of putting almost everything on hold to focus on the de-cluttering and organizing.  When I say, “literally” I mean it.  I was just weaving in the ends when she called to say she was on her way over.  Anyway, I don’t know how well you can see the ripple pattern in it because of the kind of wool I used, but here’s a photo of the finished scarf, which I had her take for me before she left with it, because I wanted to be able to post a photo to share with you.  LOL!

 

 

And here’s a photo of me holding the cuddly toy Kelly got me from the petkids.  It’s a cuddly nut that’s holding a heart that says, “nuts about you,” on it.  He thought it was cute, and I agree.  Anyway, here’s the photo:

 

 

 

*~*

 

Monday was the home inspection.

 

We moved things along as much as we could with the de-cluttering and organizing, and put what couldn’t be sorted as nicely as possible.  Clearly it was enough, since the woman from the rental agency had no issues, and left happy with how we’re taking care of the place.  There are some maintenance issues she’s going to report for us, but none of those are our fault or responsibility to deal with, so all she’s doing is saving us the trouble of getting in touch with the relevant people ourselves, which is totally fine by me.

 

Since our original plan of me taking Lilie and Logan for a playdate with Izi and Cai ended up turning in to Mam taking us for a ride-along to run some errands, the rental agency woman did briefly meet Lilie and Logan through the car window when we arrived back just as she was about to leave.  They were still strapped in the doggy carseats, but she said, “Hi,” to them, and told them they were adorable, much to Lilie’s delight (Logan seemed glad he was on the other side of the car to her, so she didn’t come too close to him).

 

Oh, and she was very glad to discover that Artemis was a tortoise and not a snake.  LOL!She’d assumed, on seeing the vivarium, that we had a snake, and was incredibly relieved to learn otherwise.  Kelly told me about it afterwards, and I have to admit I found it amusing, even while being glad for her sake that it was a tortoise and not a snake, since she clearly has a fear of them.

 

*~*

 

The actual astronomical event known as the Spring Equinox fell on Monday March 20^th 2023 at 9:24PM UK time.  However, for consistancy’s sake, Kelly and I always celebrate Ostara on March 21^st, whether the event itself occurs on the 20^th, 21^st, or 22^nd (or, as it does on very rare occasions, the 19^th) even though we do pay attention to when it actually is.  It’s just easier when none of the rest of the family celebrate it.  Besides, traditionally celebrations lasted at least from one sunset to the next, sometimes lasting for a couple of days, which some people still observe.  So, even though we do the main things on the 21st, that didn't stop me acknowledging the Equinox the on the 20th, and technically kicking off our celebrations the evening before.

 

I mean, not that we do much to celebrate anything, since quiet celebrations suit us best – me especially.  But we like to try and do something to acknowledge the Pagan holidays.  Even if it’s just something small like exchanging a gift, having a themed meal, etc.  Basically, just finding some way to do something with the day in mind, even if only something very small.

 

In this case, we exchanged some chocolate eggs (vegan-friendly Moo Free ones for me, of course) and made the meal I was making on the cooking call tie in to a Spring-themed menu as much as possible by adding some cheese (dairy-free for me, obviously) and greens to our dinner of spaghetti and sauce.

 

And, no.  I didn't end up making the Welsh cakes.

 

Anyway, even the petkids got in on it, of course, as they always do.  We can’t leave them out, can we? So, Artemis got to share some of the greens, and we got a package of dried sausage treats for Lilie and Logan (which aren't Spring-themed in any way, but we thought they'd enjoy having those to eat while we had our chocolate eggs).

February 24th 2023 Random Ramblings; #Blogging #WritersLife #Imbolc #ValentinesDay #Cooking #LoomKnitting #Crochet #Pets

For those who might be interested...

 

Smashwords and Draft2Digital now distribute their books to Palace Marketplace, which increases the chances you can get my books via your local library.  You can read more about it in this post on the Smashwords blog.

 

*~*

 

I've created blog lists on my sidebar to keep the blogs I follow in one place so I can (hopefully) remember to check them more often, since I'm no longer getting notifications for most of them.

 

Of course, this idea comes with no guarantees I won't still miss blog posts from time to time, but at least there's a better chance I'll visit the blogs I want to on a fairly regular basis again.  Anyway, there are three of them (as you'll see if you take a look) and they're lists where the most recently updated five blogs show, but you can expand them to see the rest when you want to.

 

If you follow my blog, know I generally visit yours, and don't see your blog on any of the lists, let me know - and drop the link in the comments - so I can add it, please.

 

*~*

 

I'm learning fast that the key to getting anything done is to keep my to-do list for each day short, and rest regularly.  But it's not easy.  It's a constant juggling act between what I need to do, what I want to do, and what my body will let me do.  Not helped by the fact how I'm feeling varies from day to day, and I never know how I'll be doing today - and how much energy I'll have - until the day starts.

  And even on good days I tire easily, which means how I'm feeling could change at some point during the day.

As those who have followed my blog for some time might already know, this isn't actually a new struggle.  It's just that - as those of you who read my post from a couple of weeks ago may remember me saying in that post - it's at the point now where I can't just expect to be able to push through, and I've had to accept that I need to admit to it, as well as reduce my to-do lists for each day.  Which, unfortunately, has also meant reducing the amount of calls I'm involved in via the ACB community.

 

I'm still on the morning crew and crafters admin team.  I'm also still doing the cooking call and hosting sometimes.  I'm just reducing how many calls I'm committing to in a day so as to give myself plenty of time to rest (and potentially deal with other things) as well.  Because, with how drained I've been lately, keeping up with all the calls I was participating in meant I was literally too exhausted to do anything else besides that most days, and pushing myself harder than I should on good days to attempt to make up for it, but actually still not managing to catch up.

 

Maybe now I've done this I can even create a little time - on one of my good days - to work on some of those in progress writing projects I've been meaning to finish.  Can but hope, right?

 

Anyway...

 

We don’t typically do much for holidays anyhow, but with me having my hospital appointment to tire me out on February 2^nd, our Imbolc celebrations were basically non-existent.  Well, dinner had a dairy (or, in my case, dairy alternative, since my cheese was dairy-free vegan-friendly cheese) theme to it, so at least we did sort of do a little something.

 

Valentine’s Day is another holiday we don’t make a big fuss about, which involved takeout, like it usually does for us.  Also, Kelly brought me some Trinket the bear slippers, which you can see on my feet with Lilie checking them out in the below photo.

 

 

Unfortunately, Trinket already has some battle scars, since Lilie decided leaving them unattended was an invitation for her to claim one of them, even though they were unattended on the shoe rack, which she knows she’s not meant to take things off of.  Luckily we discovered this before she did too much damage.  But, as I said, Trinket does now have some battle scars from the encounter.

 

*~*

 

I've been wanting to try and make flatbread for a while - had the recipe for who knows how long, and just never tried it - so was glad when it was suggested as a potential thing to make on one of the cooking calls, giving me an excellent excuse to give it a try.  We made it this past Tuesday, and I think it turned out well.  I took a photo of some of mine before I ate it all, so here's the photo:

 

 

Also, I finished a couple of small craft projects.

 

One was this little multi-coloured loom knitted stocking, which I made when I was learning to do a heel for socks.  I was going to make a pair of socks, but I just grabbed a small loom, and I had the wrong one, so it’s too small to be a sock.  I figured it would make a cute holiday decoration though, so added a loop to it with an icord so it could be hung up.  Anyway, here’s a photo:

 

 

The other was this crochet key.  It’s an old-fashioned style key with a heart-shaped piece at the end where you’d attach a ring to hang it up or put it on a keyring.  I did it in white, because that’s the colour the ball of wool I grabbed turned out to be.  Anyway, here’s a photo of it:

 

 *~*

 

Lilie often went to the petshop with us when we lived in Hastings, but – between him being a more nervous dog so needing longer to get used to go out, and lockdown happening shortly after it was time to start taking him places – Logan has never had the opportunity to go to one.  So, when Mam needed to take Cai to be fitted for a harness yesterday, we decided to take the boys to the petshop.

 

Both boys were a bit scared, though Cai especially.  The sight of all the food and toys seemed to help Logan deal with his fear and anxiety.  Not to mention, since most people were crowding around Mam and Cai rather than Logan – since Cai’s a smaller dog, plus clearly still a puppy – they were giving hme and Logan plenty of space, which is what both of us prefer.  Logan’s a big fan of social distancing, and I’m right there with him.

 

I’m actually very proud of Logan.  He was a very good boy.  No accidents in the petshop.  No stealing things from shelves (though he did clearly want, and almost take, a particular treat, which – since it was something I was fine with him having, and we’d planned on buying the dogs something anyhow – we did buy for him).  Also, when there was a point when one of the people who worked there needed to lead me somewhere, so I told Logan to follow her, he followed the woman well for me, despite not having had any guidedog training.

 

Both Logan and I were very glad to get home though, and are still trying to recover from the outing.

 

And, as I’m sure you can imagine, Lilie was incredibly happy when we got home.

 

I’m glad Logan had the experience, and he coped with it better than I thought he would, if I’m totally honest.  But I know Lilie would be much more enthusiastic about the idea of going for another trip to a petshop than Logan would.  I mean, he enjoyed the outing, but he was clearly a lot happier getting home than he was while out at the petshop – there was no wagging of his tail while we were out, but it wagged enthusiastically when we got home, and he spent half the night being sick.

Edited to add: Logan was still being sick, and also having issues from the other end to the point where he was bleeding, so I took him to the vet, who gave him 1.5ml of an anti-nausea medication called Vetemex Antiemetic while we were there, and has given us something called PROMAX to give him 18ML of once a day for the next couple of days to help settle his stomach and… Erm… Firm things up.  Logan is also on a chicken and rice only diet for a few days.  He seems physically fine, so the theory is it’s all anxiety-based, and the hope is the medication combined with a quiet few days at home will have him back to his old self by Monday.