Miette, Dyson & tomatoes
So I left 19C Cornwall for a week, and participated in 21C Wetville a little more. League has finished for the year and the freedom we had in the weekend because of that was beautiful.
We went to Shantytown and hung out in the rain, and the next day we went to the swimming pool. We bought a new toy which prompted some housework.
What toy does that, you ask?
The old vaccum cleaner had lost its suck. I'd kept it going for an extra two years beyond when I first thought it needed replacing by lots of cleaning of the brushes and making do (and, it could easily be argued, by not using it very often). I thought I'd shift from my Dyson, but when I researched my options, Dyson came out on top by a million miles.
So the house is quite a bit cleaner than usual which is lovely. Long may the interest in using the new toy last.
I'm making quite good progress with my Miette cardigan. I'm knitting the pattern as per the size 42" instructions. I wasn't confident to make changes to the pattern this time round, but I am learning from the process and think I could another time. Like lower the bust darts. I've started those as per the pattern and I can tell you that even with the best bra engineering that money can buy, my bust point ain't going to be right up there beside my armpit. There will be some blocking going on at the end. I'm not unravelling at this stage, just having powerful learning experiences.
Still no news on Spring Creek. I alternately feel grateful we still have quite secure jobs, and guilty that we do when so many of my friends and acquaintances face the job axe. I've been reading the recent Listener articles on retirement planning and trying to be as sensible as we can. I think Diana Crossan the retirement commissioner has a lot of good things to say. A month or so back I wondered if we could be radical enough to drop to one income for a year and I would return to the garden and be at home for the kids some more. After the Solid Energy initial round of cuts and terrible intimations of more here on the West Coast, staying home when we were lucky enough to have two income streams started to seem quite insane. Our kids and indeed all four of us are really lucky and a bit of crazy busy-ness won't kill us- by some big city standards, our life is probably quite zen.
The time I spent at home when Brighid was a baby was valuable beyond the time I spent with her and four year old Fionn. We'd only bought and moved into our home three months before she was born and in that first year I spent a lot of time creating vegetable and herb gardens. Now there are more flowers, but the important groundwork was done then and now it is relatively easy to grow food. I transplanted my tomato seedlings into small pots in the weekend. It rained before I could do anything further gardenwise, but every small step leads to more yummy and cheap food in a few weeks or months' time.
We went to Shantytown and hung out in the rain, and the next day we went to the swimming pool. We bought a new toy which prompted some housework.
What toy does that, you ask?
The old vaccum cleaner had lost its suck. I'd kept it going for an extra two years beyond when I first thought it needed replacing by lots of cleaning of the brushes and making do (and, it could easily be argued, by not using it very often). I thought I'd shift from my Dyson, but when I researched my options, Dyson came out on top by a million miles.
So the house is quite a bit cleaner than usual which is lovely. Long may the interest in using the new toy last.
Still no news on Spring Creek. I alternately feel grateful we still have quite secure jobs, and guilty that we do when so many of my friends and acquaintances face the job axe. I've been reading the recent Listener articles on retirement planning and trying to be as sensible as we can. I think Diana Crossan the retirement commissioner has a lot of good things to say. A month or so back I wondered if we could be radical enough to drop to one income for a year and I would return to the garden and be at home for the kids some more. After the Solid Energy initial round of cuts and terrible intimations of more here on the West Coast, staying home when we were lucky enough to have two income streams started to seem quite insane. Our kids and indeed all four of us are really lucky and a bit of crazy busy-ness won't kill us- by some big city standards, our life is probably quite zen.
The time I spent at home when Brighid was a baby was valuable beyond the time I spent with her and four year old Fionn. We'd only bought and moved into our home three months before she was born and in that first year I spent a lot of time creating vegetable and herb gardens. Now there are more flowers, but the important groundwork was done then and now it is relatively easy to grow food. I transplanted my tomato seedlings into small pots in the weekend. It rained before I could do anything further gardenwise, but every small step leads to more yummy and cheap food in a few weeks or months' time.
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