The Longest Month

I don't know what it is about January, but it's a never ending month. It's not been a bad one, hubby and I have gotten into a good routine with him being on furlough and me working from home. Missy seems to have figured out the new routine and has settled again too. I had always assumed that she would have loved having company all day everyday, but it seems that routine is more important to her. And a sunny window - she will abandon us all in favour of sunbathing at the French window in the kitchen. 

Despite the cold, it does feel a bit nicer. The sky is blue again and the sun had been out and about. All good things. 

This weekend has been a busy one. I know it's been mentioned before, but hubby is a magician. He and one of the fellow magicians have been doing Zoom magic shows for carers and young adults with disabilities over the various lockdowns, and he finally caved in to me pestering about a friends and family show. That was Saturday, and it went brilliantly. We managed to get a good mix online and people got to see faces they wouldn't have asked to see, but were pleased to see doing well after the year we've had. 

I'm sworn to secrecy on the hows and whys of magic, but I will say the routine had a perfect mix of laughs, magic and good old fashioned now-hang-on-a-minute, what happened there? I will confess that I do take great enjoyment in watching him perform for an audience, there's nothing better than to see someone create joy, especially in this dark, cold lockdown. 

Today was K. Its the penultimate week of #leadthewayatoz, and I do think I will miss it - its breathed life into old walks and encouraged us to get out and explore, even when it's cold and miserable out. We had planned to do the Kelpies for K, but it's outwith our council area, so we went with the Korean War Memorial instead, and honestly, I think it was a better choice in the end. The walk around it is quite steep, so we spent an hour laughing and shrieking whilst sliding about in the snow. I had to give up a few times and just sit down and slide down some parts. Missy, with her nimble paws and mountain goat ancestry trotted about with no issue and was bemused as we blundered about. 

I had a bit of a mercy dash with the sewing this week - my neice who I am homeschooling on Skype keeps chickens, and one has lost a bunch of feathers. I had a lesson where my neice spent most of it lamenting about the timing being the worst possible for an outdoor animal, and promised her I'd look into jumpers. I was shocked at how easy it was to find a pattern and assembled 4 of them (I imagine they'll need washed daily). No sooner had I sent a photo of them to her and she'd pestered her dad to drive over - her chickens welfare is absolutely an essential visit.

It would have been nice to have seen her longer than the 30 seconds she shivered on my doorstep, but the jumpers exchanged sanitised hands and were put to use. The feedback has been good, and I've kept the drafted pattern just in case I get a request for more again, you never know. 

I think I can safely say that chicken jumpers are the weirdest thing I've been commissioned to make! 

X marks the Spot

This weeks letter for #leadthewayatoz took on a pirate theme as we hunted down the letter X. I think these crossbones will do very nicely! 

It's been a strange week. I've hit groundhog day. With hubby being furloughed and me working from home, every day really does feel the same. I was horribly confused when Thursday turned out to be Wednesday and I realised there was plenty more of the week left! 

Hubby wasn't very well Friday, so as a result this has been a very slow weekend. Although we did manage a family Burns Night (he passed on the haggis and, to be fair, I always pass on the haggis, so it was a wise move). 

I'd organised an online get together and had split our favourite Burns poem: Tam O Shanter, into peices that everyone would read. Despite the whole family being Scottish (with the exception of my BIL), my mum and eldest neice (16) both opted for the English translation of the poem as opposed to the Scots (so did BIL, but seeing as it was possibly the first time he'd seen Scots written down, I don't blame him for deciding to play it safe). I had eldest neice start as she was nervous about it, then my mum and then, at the point the story actually starts, I took over in Scots, followed by hubby and sister. BIL read the last part, with youngest neice (7) delighting us with the last four lines.

BIL was apparently very nervous, but I couldn't tell and the whole thing went without a hitch. The meal time set up worked really well - I stole the idea from a friend who virtually had Xmas dinner with her family, and thought it a good way to include the very young neice and nephew without them being bored or feeling like they are being paraded about.

And that was that. The weekend done. I managed to get a little sewing done with this great little upcycle. This jumper was one of the casualties of hubby's weight loss, but I couldn't part with it and I don't need more cushions. The solution? A new jumper for Missy (modelled throughout this post). 

I'll finish on a laugh, here's the before picture:

Coasting through January

Well, it's been a long time coming. After a stint of almost a year, Missy was at the vets. I wish it was for something routine, but no, she had started limping and the usual pulled muscle strategy (reduced walks, stretches, doggy massages) didn't work so we decided to see what Vets RE Covid would be like.

Not as bad as expected. Hubby drove there, rang to say he was outside, was directed to a  designated seat in the waiting room, they took Missy in and then popped out again to explain whats wrong. She has an ulcer, right up past the pad and in between her toes. Probably caused by all the salt and grit - I felt awful for waiting a few days assuming it was (yet another) sprain. We've been religiously washing her paws after every walk for weeks now, so I have no idea how that's happened, but now I'm applying cream to it twice daily, it's definitely a wound of some sort.

However, three days later and she's trying to chase squirrels again and decided to play wrestle a collie, so she is clearly in the mend and swiftly! 

Despite protests against, we've been sticking with the shorter walks to make sure it heals properly. That meant today's letter of "Q" was decicidingly difficult. Hubby came to the rescue and suggested we do the Julia Donaldsons Stick Man trail at the community garden and hopefully they would have a Quote from the book up on a sign. It was a long shot, but we took it! 

And quotes there were. All on cute little signs, each with a little bench to sit on. We found 5 of the 6 (how two grown adults were beaten by a trail aimed at 3 year olds, I don't know!) and decided to keep exploring. A lot of work has been done to the place over the various lock downs, there's a Fairy Glen and The Darkwood all ready to explore. We'd avoided the place over summer knowing it would be busy, and I can't wait to see it at its best this year. Definitely a place to take the youngest neice and nephew when they can eventually visit. 

I was quite happy with the Stick Man photos until we came across a tiny Storybook Glen. Lined up were quotes from Roald Dahl books and paintings of the illustrations. Whilst I found the one from Matilda the most appropriate in this modern world, my hubby loved most the one from his favourite of all the Dahl books: The Giraffe, The Pele and Me

With short days and short walks, I've done well this week with baking and crafts. I've tried 2 new recipes from a book I received for Christmas (a new rice krispie squares varient and a fruit struesal cake) and both were excellent, so that book has now gone on the shelf of useful cook books. Craft wise, I've been helping hubby make miniatures scenery and also got the sewing machine out:

Little craft buckets for my long term projects. All of them are ticking along nicely, and despite my desire to plough through and finish them, I'm taking my time to get them right. 

Well, that's all for this week, I did the maths (is it maths when it's alphabet related?) and worked out I have K, W and X left in the #leadthewayatoz. K and W, I have plans for, as for X, goodness knows! Hopefully my hubby will be clever again if I haven't thought something out by then! 

Leaping Lemurs!

It has been another week of sub zero temperatures, with us being greeted one morning to - 6C, so we didn't have much planned for the weekend except doing our best to keep warm.

Then I saw that the Five Sisters Zoo was allowing non reactive dogs in as part of thier "we're allowing local folk in for free to have some exercise, please please donate on your way out" policy. This was an opportunity I could not allow to pass me by. We pegged it for the weekend in a "when the best gap in the weather comes" space. 

Saturday was a write off. More snow. Sun zero (again) and, despite my best efforts, my arthritis was kicking in with a vengeance and I was hobbling about. We ended up doing the food shop and got a new fleece jumper for Missy (which I plan on using as a template to upcycle some jumpers with). 

Then Sunday arrived. It was above zero! And the snow was melting, meaning the ice now had a lovely wet slippery film all over. Glad we had no plans to drive today! And the #leadthewayatoz letter? L. Could the fates not have smiled on us more? 

We wrote a hit list of all the animals we could begining with L and hit off lucky pretty quick when the Lar Gibbon (second photo) came down to say hello to Missy. Content that my goal was a success, we carried on. 

It was interesting what animals were curious of her. The monkeys all came to investigate. The cats - fisherman's (above) and Scottish Wild Cat (sorry the snow leopard was to far away to make the cut for the photo challenge) would watch and follow her, then hide away if she looked at them. I know from past experience birds of prey dislike dogs, so we kept away from them, but the song birds, parrots and emus were completely disinterested. 

The bears and lions were asleep, as was the Fossa, although his enclosure smelled divine to Missy who would not leave it alone. We stayed clear of the badger in case Missy wanted a rematch after meeting the wrong end of one many years ago. Then the wolves, which were fascinating. They wouldn't approach Missy, but instead followed us all around thier enclosure. They stopped when we did, and casually moved away into the undergrowth, and would then come back out anew when we moved on. 

It was the only time people made comment about Missy, to marvel at this strange dance where the wolves, clearly unthreatened by her, where still making sure she would not cross into thier territory. 

We finished at the lemurs. And what a show we had as first the brown lemur came out to curiously watch her. He bounced back and forth, singing away whilst the rest of the family curiously watched from the door of thier bedroom. We moved on before Missy could be accused of taunting them, and had the same song and dance with the ruffled lemur. Ring tails stick as a pack, and decided to observe this strange animal from their indoor enclosure. Like with the Gibbon, there was no defense or caution, and instead they moved in closer to figure out this strange new breed of spectator. 

What a day we all had! 

As a final note, I want to take an aside, and point out the first photo. This was the real objective of the day. 

That old, half tailed lemur is Stumpy, who my sister very fondly remembers from a summer placement at Edinburgh zoo almost 17 years ago (I had the pygmy hippos!) And yes, we have verified, that Stumpy, is HER Stumpy. Everytime she visits, she has to go see him. And cries a little bit. I think he is a rare tie in the world to her of the sunny memories of that summer, rose tinted from a time when we were safely protected from all the world by our youth and yet it was the first time we were free of our parents to be adults, and invent ourselves anew to become the people we are now. He doesn't know how special he is, and is simply older and wiser, the Great great grandfather of the bachelor pad he commands.

So I had to. I had to get a photo of Stumpy and all he means to her, with Missy and all she means to me. Past and present. Creatures unaware of the live they have captured. 

And I know it is special only to us, but isn't that the wonder of life and the stories we weave? 

So, on that warm fuzzy note, I will leave you all until next time. 

Following the Yellow Brick Road into 2021

Well, lockdown 3. 0 (for those on the western side of the central belt) has just been upgraded, and we're only 4 days in - my haphazard joking of the zombie apocalypse may yet come into fruition.

Jokes aside, I'm trying to remain optimistic and upbeat as we sail from 2020 into horizons unknown. Looking back at 2020, at the dumpster fire memes, at the bemoaning of a year wasted and a record breaking summer of sunshine lost, and... It wasn't all that bad.

I am very lucky. Whilst I know several people who have caught the virus, they have pulled through the other sides and, whilst recovery hasn't always been quick, they are all on the mend. This year we travelled to Chester, to Disneyland Paris, to Perth and our gorgeous shepherds hut and our surprise getaway to Durham. My husband spent an idle summer building me the wartime garden I've always wanted and, between shifts, we grew that beautiful garden together. He also beat a personal goal and lost 2 stone, the bugs bit him and he's determined to carry his good habits into this year.

Redeployment sucked. And it didn't. Seeing people daily whilst everyone lamented loneliness made me realise I was lucky. I got to feel valued. I stepped up and did something important. Of course there was frustrations and long days, but Missy was always ready to greet me with a smile and the hubby a hug. Honestly, they were my rock. 

Homeschooling on Skype wasn't easy either, but that has paid off in ways beyond what I could have hoped. My neice, a girl recommended not to do science, now has her teacher urging her to aim for a higher grade next year.

So I enter 2021 with optimism. Of course this new strain worries me, I look at my whole family, and my extended branch of close friends, who have weathered the year and sit like a house of cards around me, and, as always, I will endeavour to protect that stack in any way I can. So expect more random adventures and photos of Missy either looking like a badass heroine or an absolute goof ball, and expect more ramblings as I try and process the is strange new world. And stitching too, one mustn't forget to take time for thier own mental space.

Enough rambling. My Christmas/New Year break was quiet and refreshing. I slept, a lot. I ate sweets and chocolate, a lot. I crafted and stitched plenty and most of all, enjoyed the company of hubby and Missy. 

I feel refreshed and content. 

I had a really enjoyable Skype call with mum and sis building the family album (I may have got them over keen by enthusiastically pointing out how important 2020 would be in years to come) and today managed a social distanced walk out with my older sister, her hubby and eldest neice and nephew. This weeks letter for #leadthewayatoz was Y, so credit to my nephew who found us a Yellow Brick Road.

We also found some Yellow Girders too! It was very icy underfoot so we bravely skated our way around the Manuel Fire Brick and Refractory Works, abandoned in 2006. Missy looked pimp no matter where she posed and we all laughed about how the photos looked like a zombie apocalypse, and then our phones all went and we realised lockdown had been ramped up. That walk was the last time families could meet outdoors until, hopefully, February 1st. Two people from other households can meet, but not groups.

So a well timed get together! 

In other news, I managed to complete one project between Xmas and New year, this lovely sewing machine cover. It's retro and twee and has baby Lady in her hat box on it and I honestly love it to bits. My plates very full with 3 rather large projects, so it might go quiet on the craft front for a bit!

Well, I've rambled enough. I hope 2021 brings you all everything you wish for, and I wish you all luck and good health, and a dose of optimism.