New Year - New Beginnings - Resolutions etc...

-
Usually in the UK I am feeling quite shell shocked by now, fed up of Christmas and New Year festivities and so glad that it's all over with for another year.  I don't feel like that this year.  Christmas came and went so fast and we didn't get the same hype and build up that starts in November in the UK.  The decorations in the village didn't appear until 17th December.  What a pleasant change that was.  And then it was all over the day after 12th night with everyone back at work.  The best thing about it was that we barely spent any extra money at all!


We took a break from the olive harvest for family visitors and started again on boxing day after our visitors left.  A bout of heavy rain meant another enforced rest and then more family visitors forced us to offer the remaining olives to a neighbour.  It was a bit sad to have to accept defeat but we reckoned over 1,000 kg was pretty good going for our first harvest and it just being the two of us.  We really do need help next year and we will have to plan our visitors accordingly (able bodied and willing to help - or at least cook - during December and early January!)

Blue skies replaced by grey.  And it lasted a good week - so rare and the rain so welcome after the long dry autumn.  So different from living in England.


Here we sit with the last of our seasonal visitors ready to leave tomorrow and all our projects for 2014 about to start.  Top of the list is getting all our rubbish left over from the removals to the dump, closely followed by preparing the ground for the veggie patch, and fencing for the water meadow, which will hopefully put paid to the geese coming up to the house to sit in the bird bath.


The house still needs internal and external painting but is pretty much how we want it. I have sewing projects backing up and lots more craft and knitting projects to finish but top of all the lists is LEARNING SPANISH!  We have neglected our studies recently and our Spanish has taken a backward step.

Its great to be so busy, to have so many plans and yet not to feel any anxiety about completing them, if we get it all done great... if we don't... hey ho... tomorrow IS another day.  Goodness I think I am turning Spanish!  Have I finally taken it on board...that the destination is not important, it's the journey that counts!

Comments

Post a Comment

You must register to comment - anonymous comments are no longer accepted on this site - sorry I know it's a pain to register for yet another account and remember yet another password but I just got too much spam mail ... I do love to hear from people who read my blog so a big thank you to those who make the effort.

Popular posts from this blog

Molly

-
Image
She was a very Good Cat.


We wish her an eternity filled with defrosting chicken in flimsy plastic and lots of slow moving mice.


In the end I used the basket - it reminded me of Inca funerary containers with mummified remains inside.



Her grave marker is also plastic - the wind makes the paw move. When the weather takes its toll and it starts to fall to bits we will recycle it and replace it with a glass or china statue. It’s just that the little happy cat is very much how we felt about her.


The rest of the animals were very aware of the situation and at the end they avoided her, all apart from one. Not her litter mate but a cat we acquired at the same time as her. We allowed him to sniff the body so he knows what happened to her. The only one to come to the internment was Clyde. He followed us up the hill crying. It was fitting.



It will take us a while to get back to normal.

Read more

Tis the Season

-
Image
The weather took a downward turn a few weeks ago and apart from 4 or 5 days of sunshine we've had grey skies and rain for what seems like a very long time.



This is bad news for me since I suffer with SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder and more than a couple of days of grey skies can send me into a downward spiral that's difficult to climb out of.  I'm used to it and I have more patience than I used to and it's usually just a case of waiting for the weather to improve and my mood to lift. It will - it always does.


While waiting I try to work up some enthusiasm for craft work or cooking. This can be hard because when you feel down nothing seems very interesting but I have a strategy that sometimes works. The usual SAD affliction goes like this. I look at some sewing I have planned. The pattern is there, the fabric is there.. almost everything I need is there but the one thing I don't have.. the zip or buttons perhaps will be the excuse to not even begin the project. …
Read more

Repairing Damage Done

-
Image
A friend and neighbour asked me to repair a crochet blanket made by her mother. Her mother died a couple of years ago so this is a much loved and very precious item.



Sadly I didn't think to photograph the damage before beginning my repairs but in summary the blanket contained two different types of yarn: one synthetic (the red colour) and the rest pure wool. It had been washed in a machine - I assume on a wool setting. The result was shrinking and slight felting of the natural wool, with no significant damage to the synthetic yarn apart from pulling out of shape by the shrinking wool. There was also a fist fized hole and a couple of smaller holes along with some unravelling of woven in ends and thinning of the natural wool in certain areas.



Alot of people think that because your washing machine has a wool setting you can happily put your woollen garments into it. Nope! You can't. The misunderstanding came about because for a very long time now knitters referred to their yarn a…
Read more