Sunday, February 22, 2015

What Day Is It?

We have moved through the last couple of weeks in a bit of a fog. Not sure where the days have gone.

Bill went down with his cold or whatever it was and spent much time in bed, trying to rest when he could. I carried on, trying to get a lot of garlic and veggies into his system. I made some chicken veggie soup one night and by last weekend, was trying to use up some potatoes and cauliflower that needed using. We didn't have a functioning microwave, so I had to think about how to reheat leftovers, too. I decided to make a veggie mash. I figured I could heat it in a pot on the stove or I could use it to make potato/veggie pancakes by adding egg, flour, and grated cheese to the mixture to make a dough/stiff batter.

I cooked, drained and mashed potatoes, cauliflower, and carrots. In a separate pan, I cooked an onion and a half, half a bell pepper, and a few cloves of garlic in some olive oil and then mixed it and some black pepper into the mashed veggies.
I had some with grated cheese for lunch and saved the rest. We had the pancakes a couple of times and there was a little left for lunch one day, too. By then the landlord had delivered the new microwave, so I can go back to my usual cooking routine.

I woke up on Tuesday feeling weird. The same thing has happened before in Maine a couple of times--queasy stomach and slight sinus pressure, but mostly an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion. It was hard to keep my eyes open and impossible to function for very long. I made myself get up a few times throughout the day to eat something, but mostly, I slept. I was amazed at how much I slept.  After hours and hours of sleep Monday night, Tuesday, and Tuesday night, on Wednesday I was able to at least stay out of bed, even though I couldn't do much. I didn't care when I was in bed sleeping, but I find it difficult to sit and wait for the time to pass. I wanted to read or stitch, but I couldn't. I was glad when all that was over and I could get back to my cross-stitch project!

I'd started with one of my heart charts, doing just the outline. I then worked from there to the center, stitching around the outline, each new line in a different colour. I was liking the interplay of the colours and the way the shape changed in subsequent rounds.
I used embroidery floss and perle cotton. I was partway through this when I had to set it aside and I was glad to get back to it. If a day goes by when I do not have yarn or thread in my hands, I get cranky.

Once I finished that, I started on another heart, this time working my way out instead of in.
I used size 8 perle cotton, embroidery floss and size 20 crochet cotton for this one. The aida is a pale pink. I'm using bits from the scrap pile.

I am quite enjoying this little heart doodling and I have a few more ideas to try out. I have a vague idea about how to use these doodles when I am finished with them, but that may change!

So we begin a new week both feeling back to normal, pretty much. Bill still coughs once in a while and is a little tired, but he is back to his book on the history of Ireland in the 70s and plans to finish the book within a couple of days. I picked up a couple of books from the library yesterday and am currently reading short bios of 40 irish woman artists. I am back to my stitching and getting ideas. We have the new microwave now, so I can go back to my usual way of cooking--I hated turning the oven and stove on all the time because it was such a waste of electricity! I much prefer batch cooking.

We will now start playing catch-up. We are coming to the point of decision when we will have to decide about giving notice here. This means we have entered the unpleasant territory of trying to contact letting agents. I don't enjoy this, but it is what it is--people here are used to not having calls returned and email messages replied to--we were warned about this from the beginning. We'd started the process just before Bill went down, knowing we would probably not get a reply (I should say that letting agents in Clifden and Killybegs seem to be quite on the ball and they have been the exception, in our experience). My plan was to follow up early last week, but neither of us was in any shape to make appointments or travel plans then, so I put it off until Friday when I was coherent. Next week we will either have to start pushing harder or let it go. Guess we'll see what the week brings!









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