Catching Up

 It looks like spring is springing this week. We've had rain and grey skies with a sunny day or two sprinkled in, but this week is supposed to be warm and sunny. I'm of two minds about this. It will be helpful to catch up with the laundry--because I'll be able to put it outside it'll dry faster than it does inside this damp cottage. On the other hand, the transition to spring has really been kicking my butt this year and I've spent too many days functioning through a fog and being very tired. I'm not looking forward to the increase in pollen counts and fungal spores of a certain type, but there it is. It'll end. Just a couple of months until solstice. I always feel a bit more hopeful when we're losing daylight again. I'm trying to get as much rest as I can both so I can function on a day-to-day basis and so I can have some energy for the large project that we have coming up. There's nothing I can do for that just yet, but it'll soon be a bit of a mad dash, so I'm preparing myself.

My textile journal class came to an end a couple of weeks ago. It was a fun and interesting experience and I might be teaching it again in a different location later in the year. Each participant created a different kind of piece. There were books of different kinds and a pouch with pockets to put things in. The themes and intended purposes were different as were the approaches to the project and the stitching. We shared stories and examples of other work that we do. It was a different kind of teaching experience for me because in the past, whether it's been a university class, a continuing education class, a class in a yarn shop, or individual instruction, there's been a path and a clear goal. I knew what it was that I wanted to communicate and of course, I adapted how I did this based on the questions and needs of my students, but there was a more concrete goal--teach people how to needle tat or crochet, or provide them with a basic grasp of the subject matter, for instance. Here it was very open-ended. There was a concept. I showed them an example. They took off in their own directions. It was great! My job wasn't to tell/show them what to do in a step-by-step way, but to help with ideas so they could get the results they wanted. So each week I came in with a new example based on what they said they wanted to do or just to show some possibilities they might want to incorporate. I ended up doing a fair bit of work outside of the class and I got some fun ideas for myself as well. I did find myself thinking about it a lot in between class meetings, which was interesting. I found myself pretty much focused on that for the entire time the class was running, so once I was done, it took me a few days to sort of slip back into my normal mindset, especially since I was dealing with the seasonal crud and everything just takes a little bit longer at this time of year.

A couple weeks ago, I discovered a crack in my slow cooker crock. I was bummed. I love my slow cooker. On Friday, I rode with a friend to a nearby town where she goes every week to do her grocery shopping and that of a couple of elderly friends who don't drive. She drops their groceries off for them along the way, which is so kind. She took me to the recycling center so I could recycle it. Then last night my induction hob decided that almost 5 years of near daily use was enough and it stopped working. It was kind enough to wait until I was done making supper, though. So there's another electrical item for the recycling. I hope that'll be it for a while! I made pancakes this morning and had to use the stove, which was just weird. It seemed so low. Fortunately, this one works OK. I had one once that took 20 minutes to boil a small pot of water. When I told a friend this, he gave me the induction hob and I used that and loved it. It will be replaced. Oh, and the slow cooker has been replaced. It was cheaper to buy a new one than to replace the crock.

I was quite excited on Friday to find Swiss chard seeds in Lidl. Chard isn't something I can find in the grocery store or at the veg men, when we've had them in various towns and villages. The only place I can get it is in bagged salad mix, which contains baby chard. Now I can grow my own. 

Also on Friday, the smoke alarm in the living room started chirping in a weird way. Three quick chirps every 30-40 seconds. I was up on a chair trying to balance whilst getting the thing off the ceiling so I could see what kind of battery it needed. I got the thing down, it was wired in, and I couldn't get the plug thing out. Then I couldn't get the thing back up. I left it hanging there and sent a message to the manager, although by this time the noise had stopped. The handyman came while I was out with my friend and he struggled with it for a while before he managed to replace the battery with a new one that said it was good until 2030. Later on, the alarm started chirping again. It went on for over an hour. I messaged the manager who didn't get back to me until 10:30 that night, saying he'd send an electrician. I don't know whether that's needed--it does seem like a battery issue or a defective alarm because when the chirping didn't stop, I climbed up onto the chair again and turned off the circuit for the smoke alarms. Then I went back into the living room and onto the chair to get the alarm down again--because it was still chirping. I got it unplugged this time and handed it to Bill. It was still chirping. The cover for the battery compartment wasn't easy to remove, but he got it off and took the battery out. The chirping ceased. 

The knitting and crochet group at the library continues to be fun. We're a small group but the conversation is always great and the time flies by. It's fun to see what everyone is working on and there are always goodies. Playing with yarn, chatting with friends, having tea/coffee and chocolate/biscuits, all while surrounded by books. I don't know how it could get any better!

I remain grateful for my quiet, simple life, even as I am not the biggest fan of this particular time of year. I hope you're doing well and enjoying the season in your neck of the woods.

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