April 24, 2022

 So, my optimism about the fella' quickly recovering from COVID is out the window as he is struggling with head and chest congestion along with exhaustion as well. His employer is a wee bit more generous for sick days so he has been off work since the day I tested positive over 2 weeks ago while I have been back to work and doing my best to not cough when my staff or customers are nearby while dragging myself around in a fog of exhaustion. Ugh.

That being said, I do feel marginally better every day. I am feeling a lot of frustration and annoyance about how much more lost time COVID has taken from me as I struggle to kick into a higher gear. Friends of mine travelled from Maine to Paris, France this week and I can barely get out of my own way thanks to burnout and now acute illness. The burnout which had me feeling burnt on a cellular level had just started to begin to heal when the positive test happened and I feel majorly set back. A flash of inspiration did penetrate the fog the other day about how to move forward in my life, a flash brought on by the recent death of a hometown neighbour who was only 64 years old. That age is significant to me because my grammy also suddenly passed at age 64 when I was 16 years old and I am now 50 years old. There has been something quite heart stopping about how 64 is only 14 years away and how there are so many more things that I want to do! I can sit and continue to whine about how much COVID has stolen from me or I can take microscopic steps in the moments when I have enough energy to move. A minute of stretching here, putting away a few pieces of laundry there, a few stitches in my current projects on a lazy Saturday afternoon, picking up a library book on small veggies gardens to start planning my community plot in between sitting on the couch with the dogs. Eventually, each of these tiny steps will start to add up to better fitness and a smile on my face at a job well done when a project grows before my eyes.

My dollar store metal lizard blew off the fence in a recent wind storm so I took a few minutes yesterday to freshen him up with some greens and blues. My painting skills are quite basic but my technique of applying thin layers of paint starting with the darkest green and ending with the shiny teal blue has worked well, I think. Even the fella' was quite struck by the new colours which he noticed when he had to move a curious cat away from the wet paint. 

Time to sign off! We are going to take a Sunday drive downtown here in Ottawa to explore this place where we find ourselves these days. Some lunch somewhere and a stroll in a new to us spot like maybe Rideau Hall, the residence of the Governor-General or maybe somewhere along the Rideau or Ottawa Rivers.

Happy stitching!

April 16, 2022

 The joy that is the COVID pandemic is just the gift that keeps on giving. After 2 years and five waves of COVID, our province dropped the mask mandate just in time for Spring and the election campaign. I went to a hockey tournament to watch my nephew play and received a text later that day that a family member who was also at the tournament had come down with symptoms of COVID. Forty eight hours later, I was texting my boss to say that I was too sick to work. It took another three days to finally test positive which was good because I was feeling miserable and my work was about to force me back to work because so many of my colleagues had tested positive last week. The fella' tested positive four days later so our Easter travel plans were cancelled as there was no way either of us could drive from Ottawa to Sudbury, a six hour drive. 

There have been two good things come out of being in isolation: 1. our dogs have been delighted to have both humans home for endless snuggles and 2. after 3 days in bed, I made it downstairs to the couch and did some stitching since I had no energy to do anything else and I was not allowed to leave the house, according to Public Health rules. The project in the picture was one that I started last year as a 2021 pandemic project to use up my scrap threads and fabric. The threads are the leftovers from kits and the fabric comes from an old uniform shirt that belonged to the fella'. 

Yes, those are french knots. The entire piece is being stitched with french knots. I have never understood the dislike of french knots that I see so often in stitching groups because there is something very calming to me about doing the wind and stab to make each knot. It seems like french knots are even more disliked than backstitching which I find amusing because french knots are my favourites. My little obsessive brain is also fascinated by the slow filling in of all of the fabric with the knots and seeing my junk thread tangled mess slowly shrink one length of thread at a time.

The fella' is recovering quickly from his bout of COVID whereas I am battling a touch of bronchitis which is leaving me with a nasty cough and exhaustion. Fingers crossed that having a long weekend of no plans will allow us to recover enough for the work week next week.

Happy stitching and stay healthy!