Saturday, January 25, 2014

Such Strange Weather!

I will not whine, for today is a lovely, sunny day.  I have been working on yard work.  From this time forward, each pretty day is spent on clean-up yard work.  It is my habit and my work that keeps me sane.

Two days ago it was 5 degrees and the wind chill was unknown-cold anyway.  The wind was from the north.  I even put blankets over the door to the screen porch and the back door.  I had a draft snake against the front door.  The insulated shades were down on the north windows.

Yesterday the sun returned with some scattered clouds.  It was still below freezing with a wind. 

So today and tomorrow will be yard work days.  It is still windy, and we are still in a fire alert ban.  Not for the lack of moisture, but the wind will carry a fire a long ways.

The dog and cat have been enjoying the outdoors with me.  Patty gets bored watching me and wanders around looking for cat s..t.  I don't know why she is so intent on finding that stuff.  It is so gross to see leaves and grass hanging from her mouth.  I always know where she has been.

I am currently hacking away the honeysuckle on the west side and trying to save some of the trees it covers.  I will leave enough for birds and critters to nest, but it is encroaching the yard.  The trees in their desperation are bending and sending out weak limbs for any sunlight that can be found.  So whack away and trim the tiny trees and the weak limbs.  It all works out in the end.  By the heat of summer I am lost to the weeds and the honeysuckle and I can barely get the grass mowed.

The birds are eating tons of sunflower seeds.  I cannot believe that I fill three feeders twice daily now.  I even throw some out for the ground feeders and put a little bit in a pan on the floor of the porch.  I am concerned about one female cardinal that I think has a disease around her eyes.  A friend told me that there is something that does that and that she has seen that on one of her finches. 

I did get a lot of knitting done on the medieval sweater during the coldest day.  Last night I cast on and began the second sleeve on the red sweater.  I went through a period of several days that nothing I was knitting interested me, and I just did not knit. 

I am plying the second skein of blue yarn, and I am anxious to get it done.  I dyed some BFL roving yesterday with a new technique I wanted to try.  I only dyed 4 ozs, and I like it.  I think it is going to spin really nicely.  I want to spin that up next just to see what it will look like. 

Well, I want to eat a bite of lunch and then back outside to whack some more honeysuckle. 

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Back To Somewhat Normal!

Today is bright and sunny and very cold.  It is deceiving to look out and see the brightness.
Yesterday was very warm, and just a perfect Spring day in January.  It creates hope to have warm days pop in periodically like this.

My friend GO died on January 10.  His memorial service was last Wednesday the 15th.  It is a slow change to get back to a normal routine.  I have been spinning the pretty blue yarn and watching Netflix.  I have not gotten back to my normal knitting routine.  It just seems so tedious right now.
My friend CJE came over on Saturday to divert my attention.  We went to the Thai restaurant for bowls of soup and it was marvelous.  We sat in the kitchen and knit.  We talked about books and writing and the usual chatter.
 
I am now nine weeks into my new medications.  I noticed a change yesterday that I cannot describe to anyone.  I think the Vitamin D therapy is helping my chronic depression.  I mentioned to CJE that my SAD has not kicked in.  I attributed it to all the chaos of the past two months of taking care of GO. 

Yesterday I began looking up info on the internet about symptoms of Vitamin D depletion, etc.  I found psychiatric papers linking Vit. D therapy with Depression therapies.  Hmm.  So all these years that the doctors kept trying to drug me out were wasted years?  None of the usual meds helped and one doctor determined that perhaps it is a chemical problem and not an emotional problem.  You think?  I am going to keep looking into this.

I missed my class last night at the university.  It is a beekeeping class that is held by the state beekeeping group.  I am certainly not interested in keeping bees, but I am interested in learning more about them.  I have tried to encourage flowers that are attractive to them for a few years.  I have noticed that there is an increase in honeybees last summer.

A friend told me this is not a good thing.  Prior to the importing of bees along with the Spanish friars and the English, there were multiple species of wild bees in the U.S.  The honeybees have taken over and there are extinct wild bee species now.  I like honey; what can I say?

I bought a new suet feeder that are holes in a piece of wood and you put plugs into them.  I tried several places and no interest.  So Sunday I put it into a tree very close to the trunk.  Yesterday I noticed that even the cardinals were eating suet.  I never knew cardinals liked suet.  Maybe this method will keep the big old bullies (all the blackbirds) from swarming into the feeder and gobbling it up.  The things we do for our wildlife.

The last snow storm there was a bobcat trotting across the driveway and then across the street.  I was amazed.  I guess I will have to watch Noodles a little closer now.

I had determined that I was not going to do any shows this year.  Yet yesterday I made a check out for a booth in Missouri in October.  I did good with this show last year.  This year they are changing the date and the venue.  I don't know if that will change the outcome.  I have nine months to think about it.  I cannot decide if I want to do another one or not.  I like playing with my stuff, but I like to give it away too. 

I am now into the second editing of my book.  I like this process.  I am learning so very much.  I am really kinda sick of reading the stories over and over.  They are so done in my mind.  I am trying to just do the corrections first.  Then before I submit it back to RW, I read it through.  I have found a few mistakes of missed "the's" or other minor things that way.  I am crossing fingers and toes that we can get this done in time to take books to the show in October.  Pushing my luck, but we will see.

CJE told me about this site called First Line.  They provide a first line, and then the writer writes a story from that.  She is submitting one for February.  Pretty clever.  It's fun to play with writing.  I don't pretend that I am anything but a crazy woman who likes to record dreams.  I am not a "writer".

Well, I am ready to get to work.  Actually it is almost time for lunch.  I guess I should eat first.  Then I won't interrupt the flow with stopping to look for lunch.

I am glad to get back to this page.  It is fulfilling to just have streams of consciousness flow and magically appear on page.