May Gray

Last month, we had enormous quantities of this:

Sunbathing kitties all over the place, any time of the day- morning, noon and, partially, night, too. But now, with all this May Gray- low morning clouds- there is no sunshine. Instead, we have sleeping kitties burrowed as far back into closets, under beds, and in the darkest corners she can find. I am the only creature stirring in this house…

I am actually making stuff again! Nothing I can show you yet, though. Mother’s Day presents, a baby blanket, wearables for me, bag knitting- again, for me! I haven’t had a new dice bag in, err- um ever, it seems. No wonder I’m excited! Pictures soon- I’m waiting for the sun to come out again to get some good ones.

I don’t like to complain here, but something pretty big has come up that has been making it hard to post here, so I thought I’d lay it out for you- I’ve got two bum rotator cuffs this year that are creating havoc with my daily schedule. I’m currently in Physical Therapy, which is hard to do- but seems to be helping- so yaay for that! And remember earlier this year when I announced that I was doing this… well, apparently I am the one person who cannot get from her couch to a 5k, in any amount of time- I pulled a groin muscle in week two! Talk about anticlimactic. But that’s okay, I’ve got a plan to get me there, it will just take a bit longer. I love walking, hiking, swimming and biking, so with the summer on the horizon I’ll have plenty of time to work on my goal!

Now if I could just find my pedometer- last time I saw it, the Faeries were using it to time their chess tournaments…

Weekend Booking and other things…

Whew! That was a crazy, whirlwind weekend, wasn’t it? Appointments, family visits, heavy rainstorms, no grocery shopping, a garden overhaul, and some last minute-but-really-good! booking:

The King Arthur Whole Grain Baking book- I’ve loved this ever since it was first hinted at, even if they faked me out and printed the regular-flour-cookbook first. Baking with whole-wheat is so tricky without help- stone biscuits and rock pancakes was on the menu at our house when I first tried baking with it! Ah. . . now it’s feather-light whole wheat scones and faerie cakes. (no, not faerie-in-or-is-a-cake! You faeries get outta that flour bin right now!)

Delia Smith’s Christmas- English Tradition Christmas, with time-charts! How much fun is this? I’ll be dreaming over this one for the rest of the year. Apricot Orange Chutney, Mince Pies and Pheasant Terrine! Okay, maybe not the Pheasant…

The Foster’s Market Cookbook- I check this one out from the library every spring and summer to ogle the luscious pictures of farm-fresh veggies, dreaming of opening my own restaurant someday, which oddly looks just like Foster's Market does in this book…

And I scored a hardback edition of The Best of Martha Stewart Living Great Parties! These are all so much fun to browse through for ideas, without having to dig out my collection of old magazines. I love that they have collected all her party layouts and Good Thing’s section from a few seasons of the magazines and bound them into a book- they’ve done this with a lot of the categories from the magazines. I especially like the Christmas ones. Great resource, and lots of fun to just flip through, dreaming of spring parties.

Lastly, I wanted to note here that I have officially started the Couch to 5K exercise program today. It went great! The stretching guide is the best part- it helped fix the first calf muscles cramp I’ve had in years (!!!), and got my heart rate down to where I didn’t need a nap after I got back from my run. (eep! I just went for a run! Who is this girl?) Go me! Actually, I will get going just as soon as I can peel myself off the floor- I haven’t done anything like this in about 5 years! Wish me luck…