The latest

I found out last week that I got the job I was applying for; quality assurance . I start tonight, hopefully it will be easy and I'll be good at it :)

I've started up with some knitting again, I'm currently working on the ugliest piece of clothing ever... a shrug, in purple....... There is good reason for me doing this. First its going to be for sleeping, not for public display. I need something warm for my arms that I can easily wrap around myself without turning into an eggroll. The colour choice was determined by looking through my recently culled stash and finding that purple was an abundant colour.

I've been cooking alot lately. I dont know if its due to all my new cute little appliances, the prettier ( albeit, smaller) kitchen, or the fact that lots of natural light and a good breeze comes in. I'm finding myself becoming a real fresh air person. All the window are open. I dont know how I survived for so long with only two tiny little windows that stayed closed for 80% of the year. Yesterday, I made butterscotch cookies, cheese and onion bread and a pot roast.

Going to go knit and rest now before tonight

Baking, Building, Composting; my new life.

Wild blueberry season is in full swing in this part of the country and so the prices are low. James bought 5lbs of wild blueberries today for 10$; that's a whole lot of berry. Baked up 3 pies

and a blueberry crisp,

which has now become my absolute favorite blueberry dessert of all time. If anyone is interested, this is the recipe:
In a 9x13 pyrex pan put approx 5 cups washed blueberries. In separate bowl, using pastry cutter combine:
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
Cover berries with mixture, cook for 30 minutes or until top is golden and berries are bubbly at 375. Serve with fresh cream.
One of the pies we covered with fresh whipped cream and brought over to our neighbourgh. I didnt think we ought to be eating this much pie.
Yesterday, James and I set up a compost pile behind the shed.

We'll be modifying the "container" at some point when we've got more compost to put in there, but for now it's working fine.
I also built a little step to go into the shed and I'm quite proud, sturdy and rustic :)

James set up a full page with pictures and commentary about our new home for those who are curious.

Home

We've finally made it! I have to say as much as I believed that things were going to fall into place, I still cant quite grasp the whole thing yet. Looking out any window now I see trees, long grass, more trees, that's about it. The dogs are slowly adjusting, Karla especially seems to feel out of place, we've moved her around so much these past few years. Tommy is loving it here, having access to most window sills. I've started a knitted washcloth this morning and I'm finally starting to relax. Gotta go help with dinner now, BBQ salmon and shrimp... :)

Almost there

The past few weeks have been some of the most intense of my entire life. None stop, things to do, organize think about. Finally the end is in sight. 3 1/2 more sleeps. I say 3 1/2 because 3 of those are here in Montreal, at my parents place, since our bed and pretty well everything else in our place is packed and ready. The 1/2 is for the one night we will be sleeping in a motel in Springhill, not quite home yet, but no longer in Quebec. I'm starting to relax as well now, most of our paper work stuff is out of the way, the only major thing left is signing the purchase papers and that will be fun no doubt :)
So that's my little update for now, I have no idea how long we will be without internet at the new place. I'm really looking forward to having a few relaxing afternoons of knitting when we do get there. The nights are already down around 10 c. there, so fall knitting is just what I'll be needing.

A Turning Point

Its important to recognize change and growth in ones life and embrace it rather then shy away from it. This is why I have changed not only the look of this blog, but also much of the content. Although knitting is a big part of my life emotionally, it doesnt take up much tangible time. I dont knit every day, sometimes not for weeks at a time. I love working in this art form dearly and will always knit, but it will never consume me. That being said, I think its time that I open up the boundaries of this blog to allow all aspects of my life and interests to shine through without limitations.

Our move to Nova Scotia is moving ahead as planned, and now things are finally starting to fall into place; We have a buyer for the condo, our new mortgage was approved and so we are looking at the first full weekend of August as our departure date. I am starting to relax again, and really looking forward to the challenges ahead. I think I've been wanting to prove to myself what I am capable of and this offers the perfect situation to learn and grow.

One of the aspects about this change in our life that I am most excited about if the continuation of our progression towards a simpler life. I dont use the term in the general sense, but to describe a philosophy that many people share. To sum up the basics I would describe it as a lifestyle geared towards responsible consumerism. This obviously is an oversimplistic explanation, and everyone who lives by the principles of simple living does so in their own fashion, with their own "rules". It certainly doesnt mean the same thing for everyone. In our case we are most interested in converting our energy source to wind power, eventually have vehicles that run on biodiesel, grow many of our own vegetables, make conscious choices not to purchase goods from companies or producers that are irresponsible corporate citizens. There are many other things we will slowly incorporate into our life to mold it into our vision of what simple living means to us.

One huge aspect of this lifestyle can be and is in our case, work. Neither one of us has ever been a slave to the corporate rat race, and have pretty well always tried to make up our own rules about what we were willing and unwilling to give of ourselves to an employer. Ideally we want to eventually run a self sufficient home based business, in the mean time though I'm actually looking forward to the oppertunities that await me. I've applied to work at Oxford Frozen Foods, which is about a 10 minute drive from our new home. They concentrate on fruit and vegetable products. I was extremely happy to receive a personal response from the supervisor of the departement I've applied to ( Quality Assurance) extending me an invitation to discuss the job further in person once I've moved.

Now that things have started falling into place, I've been taking a bit of time to look at wedding bands. During my search for something different, meaningfull and representative of who we are, I found this. We are so excited to have found such a wonderful alternative to the conventional metal wedding band. As well as having discovered these beautiful rings, we have quickly become acquainted with the people who make them and have discoverd that they share many of our values and ideas. This is going to be a very special process for many reason, not the least of which is that we are going to incorporate birch from our own property in making the rings.

My hope in taking this new direction in blogging will be hopefully to give me a sense of "documenting" our life. I dont scarpbook or keep a journal so this will be my little place. I also hope to giving others access to information which they may never have stumbled upon on their own, but which I believe is important to know about. Finally I also hope to give my parents a sense of connectedness with me, regardless of the distance between us. They might get to learn more about me and who I am through this then they would have otherwise if I had stayed in the city and lived "the usual life".


A special note to any loyal readers that I may have the priviledge of "obtaining" since I started this blog. If I had a link to your blog previously, please let me know and I will post it again. I havent "flushed" people on purpose, but I didnt take note of all my links before reformating and they all disappeared in the process.

Monday post

Now that my body is starting to adjust to the heat, I dont feel quite so homicidal, but my god those first few weeks of summer are hard.
I`ve finally been able to pick up my needles again and make some progress on a few various wips. Nothing photo worthy. As most of it is just endless lace repeats, its a rather long process ( for me anyways) to get even a few inches done. Since the only wips I havent packed are lace projects and that all my worsted weight yarn is in boxes, I felt an insatiable urge this weekend to go on a cheap, ( because at the moment I am broke) chunky yarn buying spree. I felt the need to alternate with a project on bigger needles. I was really good though and didnt go. I couldnt justify the expense right now.
I found these this morning, and thought my eyes were going to burn out of my skull. The stripy ones with the pompom arent bad. But for the rest, I`ll let the picture speak for itself.
Now, back to knitting and grinding my teeth while we wait for news from our Realtor.

Note to self: in the future, only purchase property, dont engage in selling it, thats much too stressful

Why am I being punished?

I know some of you enjoy summer. I do also, but in small controlled doses. What we are living through here in down town Montreal is nothing short of an attempt to eliminate the weak from the gene pool. The AC is at 70F, which normally would be very chilly, we have a fan working non stop and still I feel wilted, cranky, annoyed; a prisonner in this concrete block. I've been out for just a few minutes at a time in the past few days, mostly to walk the dog and I've run back in to the shelter of my dark cell, behind closed curtains to try and occupy my time while I sit here waiting, dreaming of what lies ahead in the next few months ( few weeks if we are lucky).

Thinking about it has become an obsession. Looking at the forecast for that ( our) area of NS on the web, closing my eyes and picturing the ( our) little house, feeling the breeze and the warm ( not hot, choking ) air on my face.

I had forgotten about the overwhelming feelings of discontentment, aggitation, and captivity that being in the city brings to the forefront of my mind in hot weather. As I fall asleep, every night, I picture in my mind the drive out there, the drive we took just over a week ago and I can smell the difference in the air, the colour of the sky. I fall asleep lulled by a fantasy that I'm already there. I try to believe it, to make it as real as possible in my mind, just to make the waiting a bit more barerable.

Knitting has been a great meditative tool to help induce these lucid dreams, with each movement I can loose myself in thought and forget where I am. Only problem is that the heat inevitably pierces through sooner or later and breaks my concentration. The only fiber I can bare to hold right now is Jaggerspun Zephyr, working on my lace shawl with it, I can manage a few rows at a time, but inevitably my focus blurrs, my eyes hurt and I am brought back to the painful reality of not being where I would like to be.

Its hard to explain, even to myself why I feel so strongly about this change in our life, why I feel so desperate about accomplishing it and why I am so filled with anxiety over the success of it, all the while feeling in my heart certain, that this will work out. I dont believe in destiny, I dont believe in things being meant to happen or not. I cant help but being overwhelmed with the notion that this is what we are "supposed" to do though. I guess if I were to take a page out of the James book of wisdom he would say that we have made the only decisions possibles for ourselves, which have led us to this point and everything that is happening and will happen are only the product of the only possible outcome. ( Sweetie, if I've misquoted you, I'm sure we'll have fun discussing it later.) There is an unsettling feeling when one realises that logic and apparent misconceptions about life dont contradict each other, but support each other. The way I look at it, what I've just said, in essence, describes destiny...

If anyone has read this far; no one is forcing you to read senseless drivel, so I hope you enjoyed it and didnt follow through to the end out of some sort of compulsive drive. Its obvious there are enough nut cases around here just as it is.