Another January done gone.

Bandy is showing all the enthusiasm I have had this month.
I spent about 3 weeks off my feed and by the end I couldn't tell if it was me being sick or the anti-biotics making me miserable. One is so wretched I have to cut it in half and put it in a gelatin capsule to choke it down. Well, that bout is finished and I'm almost back to eating like a human.
Both James and I find January a lazy month. A few years ago I officially gave myself permission to have Januaries off, in that I don't get anything accomplished anyway.
James has had some reprieve from plowing snow and digging it off the low roofs of the porch and studio. The studio got so bad that the gutters filled and started creating ice dams back onto the roof and James ended up tearing off all the gutters and chopping ice. We will have to find another approach next summer as we do want to save water. My part in this was to ply him with Banana Bread and Sweet Potato Loaf.
I've baked very little in the past couple years since I was having hand surgeries but it is now nearly a year and a half since the last. I still can't open doors with my left hand and have to be careful not to drop things.
Every surgery would mean that that entire palm would peel so I now have no calluses left and a lot of the padding in the palms of my hands is gone. It leaves one feeling very vulnerable, especially when my hands were fairly strong for their small size. I had to realize I was doing things with the tips pf my fingers that others did with more of their finger and therefor it was not such a strain. I finger a drill "creatively" as I can't reach the control with my index finger. I use the middle one.

James painted this this fall. It is one of a series he has been working on. He has a show at Kingfisher Used Books in April and one in Nelson, BC this summer.
Our son and his girlfriend are moving from Victoria back to Calgary. I believe it will be a positive move for them as that is where they have many connections in the arts community. I've a feeling Victoria has been a lonely winter and not their common idyllic weather either. They had snow and the whole nine yards! Larry is preceding and Lisa will follow when her current job is done.
I've continued knitting on the Nifty Nitters but have signed up for some real knitting classes later this month. I can't imagine it would be as fast. I can make a toque in an evening. It remains to be seen where this will lead.
I want to find places to give some away to cold folks but I also am toying with whether I could make enough selling them, in which case those may need to be embellished.
"Heartbeat" is about to come on the TV. I mustn't miss that!

It's a new year.

Sometimes life is a mystery.
For some unknown reason the computer gremlin decides to underline everything - in blue! - from time to time.
As you can see it's still winter but we have had a week without new snow which is reason enough for hope. The weather here has moderated while everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains is locked in a relentless deep freeze - minus 40 degrees some places!!! Brrrr.
For Christmas I bought myself a set of circular looms (Nifty Nitters) which work on the same principle as the spool knitting we did as children. I've been making touques for my husband and I and a few left over.
Last fall my sister bought me a kit with eye lash yarn to crochet a shawl but I could not see to stitch it. Knitting with a strand of worsted yarn and a strand on eyelash on the loom I can see! and I can figure how I'll do the shawl. The eyelash was red with black and I used black worsted and made a really soft and fuzzy hat. I have a "fat head" and most commercial hats are too tight. I've finished 3 touques and then dug out a lap robe I started 10 years ago and finished it. It is crocheted in blues in a lacy ripple pattern.
Right now I'm making a soft hat of an very irregular novelty yarn in pinks and mauves, along with a Federalist Blue worsted, then I may go back to the shawl.
The cats very much approve of the thaw. What was over 2 feet of snow has sunk down to from 8 inches to a foot of hard frozen snow which supports their weight and yesterday they both had to go out and scoot up the electric pole just because it was there.
This time of year, and with as deep snow as we've had, they begin suffering from Cabin Fever and taking up various naughty habits. Skeeter has decided she likes the sound of pencils played with on the floor. She's found the cup I keep them in on a buffet and has been choosing her own. She also is tearing little bits off the newspapers we start the fire with and eating my plants. A nice romp over the snow is good for her!
James saw the elk in the neighbour's field last night - barely, as it was after dark, but the field is white and the elk aren't.
Now that it isn't 15 below Celsius anymore James and Bruce have started working on the conversion of the changing rooms from the old pool at the Wynndel Hall. They are removing walls and making them into a place for the Wynndel Mudders to work in clay and not have to put tables away each time.