It's been a busy week, not sure why.  The photo below is the colors and pattern of the quilt I'm working on for my girlfriend, the photo is for Ms. Moon who wanted to see the quilt.

I can't show you the quilt spread out yet because the big guy is working on calibrating temperature monitors for a fridge at work.  

It's been snowing all day here.  We took the dogs our for a walk.  It was a winter wonderland.

Heidi loves the snow.

Even the trees got decorated.  And yesterday we saw a pileated woodpecker near this little tree.  It was huge and amazing.

I'm making supper for friends who are coming over shortly.  Take care and wash your hands:)

I got up this morning, ate breakfast, showered and went to work with the big guy.  When I got there they asked me what I was doing there.  I'm off today.  It's almost the end of the vacation year and I have a few days I had to use up and today was one of those days.  I laughed and drove back home.  

The dogs will sleep and I'm going to quilt today.  I keep saying I'm going to quilt and then something comes up but today, today I will quilt.

I think I'm also very reluctant to say much of what is on my mind.  The world seems to be going off the deep end, including my small corner of it.  The US has tRump and Alberta has Jason Kenney who is equally despicable.  I've tried to leave messages on Facebook but there is so much hatred and venom I find it shocking.  These are the people I live with and I guess that bothers me.  There is also the fear of sticking one's head up above the foxhole.  I was bullied terribly as a child and I learned my lesson, keep your head down but I also want to do something.  I don't like how things are going, I want to make my opinions known, I want things to be different but I also don't want to be attacked so I stay small and keep my head down which is very dissatisfying.

And then I read this on Stubblejumpers Café and it resonated with me.

*Anger is not a feeling; it’s a defence. When you can’t acknowledge your true feelings because they’re too excruciating, you defend against them with anger.

I don't want do to that again but it seems to be happening all over the world.  The world seems angry right now.  Perhaps we're all feeling scared, defending ourselves from real or imagined or fabricated threats.  Now that I think about it, tRump and Kenney have both fabricated threats and that is part of how they operate and recruit followers.  Fuckers.  Playing with people's minds.  But I guess that's not new either.  Sigh.  I'm feeling frustrated.

My week in photos.  

Heidi loves to sit outside and the snow doesn't bother her one bit.  She watches for birds and just like to play in the snow.

A sink plugged with cat hair first thing in the morning.  It's a cat thing.  The comet has been sitting there for a week and I still haven't cleaned the sink.

Poppa blowing bubbles for the little guy.  He spent yesterday and today with us.

  Miss Katie watching horseback riding at the equine centre.

Miss Katie insisted that I take this photo of her.  She sees other young people taking photos of themselves and I think she just wants to participate.  She doesn't miss much, even when she doesn't seem to be paying attention, she is.

I took Heidi out for a walk at the dog park yesterday.  It wasn't too cold and the sky was so blue.  She's a wonderful walking partner.  She's off leash, comes when called and loves the snow.  Mostly she just loves being alive I think.

I finally feel like I've recovered from the flu and slept well last night.  It's bloody cold today so a day to stay indoors and quilt and make some cookies.  I'm trying to get some exercise in so I biked for thirty minutes on my stationary bike while I watched The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

I'm not depressed.  Winter has us firmly in her grip and I still feel good.  The walking outdoors helps so much and of course the days are getting longer.  We ate supper last night at 5:30pm and it was still light outside.  Awesome.

We also went to the greenhouse yesterday and I bought myself a primula because I need to see a live flower to remind me that spring will come, in a few months.  Mostly I'm thankful I'm not depressed,  February is a difficult month for me, both of my parents died in February but this year I'm good.

#3 Reading/Books

I love reading.  When I was a kid I would read under the covers, by flashlight, and when I heard my mum coming down the hallway, I would switch off the flashlight and pretend to be asleep.  My mum had a terrible accident in 1971.  She fell and smashed the kneecap on her left knee.  She was in and out of the hospital and casts for what seemed like most of that year.  She also ended up with a bad limp which the doctor told her she would have for the rest of her life.

After mum's accident I could hear her coming down the hallway.  My dad never checked on me but mum always did so I would only shut the flashlight off if I could hear mum limping down the hallway.  What the doctor didn't understand, was how stubborn my mum was.  She worked on her physio and on her walk until one night, I couldn't tell it was her walking down the hall and I got busted for reading under the covers.

Mum and Dad, circa 1968.

The first chapter book that I remember reading was "Charlotte's Web".  I then discovered the library and "The Black Stallion".  Then even better, I discovered that writers will write series.  Awesome!  Every Saturday dad would take us to the library, I have no idea if mum came along or not, but my brother and I would go downstairs to the children's section and I was in heaven.  I discovered all kinds of worlds down there.  It was heaven for a shy girl.

Since then, I've never stopped reading.  I used to read more before the advent of computers, but I still read.  I read when I brush my teeth.  I read at bedtime.  I read when I sit on the toilet and I used to read when I blow dried my hair.  When my children were small I would lock myself in the bathroom and read.  I had a chair in the bathroom, just for reading.

One of my favorite books is "A Prayer For Owen Meany".  I don't know how many times I've read it but I always enjoy it, over and over again.

My favorite books entertain and educate me.  I learn something that I didn't know before, from life in Nigeria, to growing up in Afghanistan to living in Sweden as an old curmudgeon, and they make me see life from a different point of view as well as share universal truths.

So today's awesome is books and the ability to read.


What's your favorite book and why?

Medicine Lake, my hubby's favorite lake, before the fire in 2015.

It's late for me, almost ten pm and I'm wide awake.  I've been having such a hard time sleeping these past few nights.  I close my eyes and a kaleidoscope of very vivid memories appear.  It felt like someone had turned on all the lights inside my head and opened up every filing cabinet that my memories are stored in. I could go back to when I was a teenager, or more recently when my ex-husband and I split up.  The memories just kept coming and coming.  I could see the everything, feel everything again.  It was weird.

I was lying in bed, wide awake, trying to stop the memories when I wondered, what's different?  And then I realized I've been taking cough medicine.  Then my hubby started snoring and one of the dogs started dreaming and twitching and I gave up and came downstairs.

So I looked up the main ingredient in the cough syrup, dextromethorphan, and sure enough, one of the side effects is insomnia.  Another uncommon side effect is spontaneous memory recall.  It can affect your sense of smell as well which would explain why I couldn't eat my supper, couldn't stand the smell of it.  At least that mystery has been solved and I'm not losing my mind, yet.  I think I'll live with the cough for now.