a day trip to the west coast

I know what you are thinking. Am I not already on the west coast? Well, not exactly. I'm on the east coast of Vancouver Island. The west coast is a three and a half hour drive from here. So, on Saturday, Toni and I headed west!

The first place we stopped was Coombs. Coombs is this lovely little touristy town set in the middle of agricultural land. It is the setting for a number of interesting and quirky shops. I've been on the Island long enough to not be to drawn into all the quirk, but I do love stopping in at the Coombs Country Market, where, in the summer time, you should be able to see the Goats on the Roof. The goats weren't on the roof of the main shop on the day we went, but I knew they lived out back, so we had a look. I saw this sweet little guy itching himself on the fence and went over to give him a scratch under the chin. They see people all the time, and because they are kid-height, probably get a lot of loving.

Here is is his buddy, overlooking a very steep ravine. 

 The washroom at Coombs Country Market.

 The Market is a neat place for all kinds of reasons. Their schtick is to have lots of interesting import food, some of it healthy, some if it just interesting. Dan and I have a habit of looking for the latest in new beverages. I hadn't seen this one before, different flavors of ginger ale.

 We arrived in Ucluelet some time after 1:00. We stopped in at our friends' house, then the four of us went to the aquarium. It used to be just a little trailer, probably not more than 200 square feet, with no heating or bathrooms. It was a long time fundraising goal to be able to build a new aquarium. When I left in July last year, they had reached their goal and had started pouring concrete. It was finally open!

 They did a good job of the buildings and displays but I have to say, I found the selection of species featured here a bit disappointing. Above is the octopus, which of course is sleeping (she is always sleeping!) but it is much better to see her here than how they had it set up in the old trailer.

 Suction cups!

 One of the two jellyfish displays, this is one of the tanks from the old aquarium. Kind of boring.

 With the lighting coming in from the windows and creating glare, and with my little iPhone camera, it wasn't easy to get a good shot. The above photo is taken from the back of the aquarium, looking towards the door. It's all one big room with a main display in the middle. They used as much local wood and materials for construction as possible.

 I think the flatfish display was my favourite. Mostly it was Starry Flounder but the guy with the big dot on his side is a C-O sole. Why is it called a C-O sole, you ask? Well, it's because when they first identified this species and were thinking of a name, they couldn't decide if the spot looked like a 'C' or an 'O'. I know, right? That's what I was told when I was training for my fish job a few years ago.

 At one point I felt like I was communing with these guys. A bunch of these flat fish with buggy eyes came near to where I was sitting. It's a low tank, maybe no higher than my knee, so I could squat down and be really close to them. I know they could see me. I wonder what they were thinking with their swively eyes?

 I don't think I caught it very well but there are two sculpins leaning on the starfish, having a conversation.

 Same tank, different sculpin.


After the aquarium we headed to Tofino to visit Ellie at Knits by the Sea, the yarn shop I worked at when I lived in the area. Then to Tacofino for fish tacos. Stopped back into our friends' house for a snack and to look at photos, then Toni and I were back on the road.

Oh yeah! This is the bread I bought at the Coombs Market. When my sister was visiting last year, she bought this loaf called Triple Spiral Rye bread. We loved it and it has since been made into legend in our family. I got another one in her honour. Also: fudge. This helped fortify me and Toni as we spent Sunday gardening and laying around, the Skipper had some when he got back from fishing.



We left for our trip just before 9am. With all the stops and the construction on highway 4, it took about four hours to get there, then three and a half to get back. It was a l o n g day, we got home just before 11pm. I think if we do it again before I leave, we'll do an overnight trip.

Also, if you are reading this and you live there and I didn't visit you, it's because we didn't have time!

spinning at Providence Farm

On the second Monday of every month, a few spinners gather at St. Ann's Garden house at Providence Farm to spin up the roving from the Farm's sheep. That yarn then gets knitted, crocheted or woven into items that are sold at the Farm's store. All this work is done by volunteers.

I was the first to arrive at my first spinning day, so I had the use of the spinning wheel that lives in St. Ann's. I spun up one bobbin of wool, then passed it on to another lady. There were seven people and only three wheels, so we took turns. There was also a bit of knitting. It made me really wish I had my own wheel. Here are the the wheels that were there:

I learned to spin when I was living in Ucluelet, attending Stitch Night at Knits by the Sea in Tofino. One of the regulars, Carol, decided it was time I learned to spin so she brought in her wheel and taught me. One of the other local gals (I am embarrassed to say I can't remember her name) also brought her wheel into the shop for me to use. I think I was still working at the shop at the time, my memory is a bit hazy. At any rate, I learned to spin and ply and I have wished I had my own wheel ever since.

One day, it will happen. I'm sure I'll be able to come by a spinning wheel in North Carolina. 

confused

I have lived in a few places in the last two years and it has me confused about recycling, garbage & environmentalism.

In the greater Victoria area, it is common for people to not flush the toilet unless there are solids in it. This has changed somewhat with the advent of low-flow toilets, with a little button for pee and a big button for poo, but on the whole, only brown goes down.

Victoria also has a sophisticated system of recycling. Everything. Whatever doesn't get picked up at the curbside, there is the Pacific Mobile Depot that makes its rounds in the capital region each month where you can take your soft plastics, your old computer parts, your Styrofoam (why did my computer insist on capitalizing that?). For many people in this area, they will only have one grocery bag a month that goes to the garbage, for all the recycling and composting they do.

When we lived in East Sooke, we had (I had) a great compost system. I had the black compost bin that I threw kitchen scraps into, and that was only if I didn't give them to the chickens first. (Having chickens around is awesome. They eat slugs). I also built a three-bin compost system for processing large batches which gave my garden lots of yummy nutrients for my plants.

Things were a bit different in Ucluelet. They do have garbage and recycling curbside pickup, but you couldn't put your stuff out before 8am on collection day because of the bears and raccoons. Very few people had compost bins for the same reason. And they did not accept glass for recycling. Water was plentiful, so there was no concern about water conservation (it is, after all, a rain forest).

Then I spent the summer in Alberta. On a farm. No such thing as curbside anything. No compost. Garbage went out to 'the pit' to be burned at some point in the year. Very few farmers recycle, but my sister does. In fact, she has quite an elaborate system of recycling whereby there is a place in the garage for everything that the recycling depot in Camrose will accept. Once a month or so, my sister will drive it all in. As for water, it's on a well. A stinky sulfurous brown water well, but there was plenty of water. Flush the toilet every time, please.

Back in Victoria, I have to overwrite and re-learn all the rules from before. Where does everything go?  What are the rhythms of the house? What can and cannot be recycled? I'm confused, see, because I'm in a borrowed space trying not to upset the fine balance of the people who live here. They are very forgiving, thankfully, and not tyrannical in the slightest. It's an interesting thing to think about though. 

Knits by the Sea One Year Birthday Party

I must tell you a story.

Way back in February or March, I had an idea that for the yarn shop's birthday, I could round up a bunch of knitters to knit squares and we'd stitch them together for a blanket that we could give to Ellie. Wheels turned, ball got rolling.  I sent messages to everyone on Ravelry who was in the Knits by the Sea group. I talked to everyone who was present at the Cookie A Sock Retreat. I approached all my knitterly friends. Lots of people were on board.

Somewhere along the way, Dan, my uber-talented can-do-anything husband, suggested that we stitch the squares to bits of fabric and quilt it. Then I had the idea of putting loops on the thing so that it could be strung through a dowel and hung up like a tapestry, say, for fiber festivals...

Squares started coming in. I had no idea how many to hope for but they came from as far away as Ontario, some across the Island, some from Tofino and Ucluelet. Erin, who is about to open Tofino's new quilting & sewing shop, provided the fabric and batting.  The rest of the story is pictured below:

 Oops - upside down!

This is actually navy, the lighting didn't work so well with my iPhone camera.

 Stack of squares early on.

 Faye helped with the arrangement.

 One of the steps in the assembly process.

 My Sweety at work doing the sewing!

 Almost there!

 Dan drew a legend of the quilt so Ellie would know where they all came from!

 He also did the wrapping.

 Ellie opening her gift.

Look at that smile!

She blogged about this too - and her photo is way better:

http://tofinoknitting.blogspot.com/2011/05/thank-you.html

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in the making of this quilt. It was a really fun project

Auntie: Day 1 & 2

So while my sister and my niece were here visiting for five days, I went from being Stacey to being Auntie. It was kind of funny, actually, because the last few times my niece referred to me as Stacey and I'm okay with that. But I guess she is conditioned to refer to all her other aunties as Auntie, and I'm just another one of them. The good one. (*wink*) 

In the photo above, we are standing in front of the goat pasture in behind the Coombs Country Market. I had just picked them up from the airport in Comox not long before, and Coombs was sort of on our way back. We had to go to the Goats on the Roof market (though they don't put the goats on the roof until later in the year; for now they are in the back pasture). They have a great cafeteria that puts on a great lunch with a generous kids menu. Kid gets entree with fries, soft drink, and a voucher to get an ice cream from the shop around the corner.

I wish I had taken a photo of the triple-twist rye bread that my sister bought. It was HUGE, beautiful, and delicious. I will probably stop in and buy some my next time through. We made off with some great deals and yummy food, stopped in for the kids' ice cream (Blue Bubblegum, of course), and headed west.

Cathedral Grove is not far from Coombs. A wee jaunt around Cameron Lake, then some lovely forest walks on either side of the highway. This is an old growth forest and the trees are massive, some of them several centuries old. What I really wanted to show them, my family who lives in Alberta where what they call trees are referred to as 'seedlings' here, was the Big Tree. Here I am in front of the Big Tree (below).

My sister in front of the big tree. Now, see, blue ice cream can stain one's face blue and when you have a mother who likes to photograph every moment of your life, at some moment you notice when your mom takes bad photos of you, or photos of you when you might have food on your face. My niece knew she had blue on her face and refused to be photographed here. Too bad. 

Just before low tide on day two, we walked down the block to see a small beach, about 200 metres away. They were glad to have use of the rain gear they brought, because it was wet almost the entire time they were here. In the photos that follow, I got to play Marine Life Tour Guide. I surprised myself at how much information I seemed to have absorbed from living here just a year. It came in very handy when answering the questions of a ravenously curious six-year-old.

Let me tell you, there was *much* excitement at the sight of a star fish! 

Here I am explaining how anemones feed. My niece would later refer to these as nemones (NEH-moe-nees). Cute. 

These are not so visible at high tide, so we got there at just the right moment.

After this beach (does it even have a name? It's at the Whisky Dock in front of the aquarium) we walked to the library to get some books. The library is next to Big Beach, where we went next.

Already she was learning the difference between oyster, mussel, and clam shells. 

(All these are my sister's photos, by the way, hence the annoying date stamp at the bottom)

Ok it has to be said. Auntie likes getting her picture taken too. And we have often been told that we look alike, that she could be my daughter. I hear this happens often with children looking like an aunt or uncle.

This was a big moment. We got to see hermit crabs for the first time, a wee sculpin, and some green anemonies. It was good that niece had a chance to do some learning about these things a few days before we went to the aquarium. 

I was just so tickled at this day. She thought the beach was AWESOME and wanted to go back to the same beach. There were just so many other beaches we had to go to! And they all offered something a little different. I am absolutely relieved and encouraged by the fact that she is interested in these things, that she can be interested in science. As a result, I'll be honing the birthday and Christmas gifts to help foster this kind of learning. I can't wait until her little brother is old enough to do this too; visits to the west coast will be SO MUCH FUN for the kids.

Also, I'm not using the names of my family members here. My sister is a bit sticky about Internet privacy and, while I have posted some photos of us here, I'm just not going to attach their names. Hope you understand.

Corned Beef & Cabbage

Ok this might not look very good to you but to me it is something I have been bugging Dan to make for weeks, something I look forward to and get excited about. Corned beef and cabbage. He made this for me for the first time when we were living in East Sooke, and I don't remember liking it that much. Dan may not have figured out how to do it so well at that point, but the couple of times he's made it here in Ucluelet he has absolutely nailed it. I couldn't really tell you how it's prepared, I just know that it needs about three or four hours. Is is boiled? What spices?

What I like about this meal, particularly now that I'm losing weight, is that this meal is only 300 calories. The fat is basically boiled or steamed out of the beef and I think the veggies are boiled or steamed in this same water. It has a vingegar-like astringent taste that I just love. Sometimes Dan makes it with carrots and yams as well as cabbage and potatoes, but it is always full-on flavour. It packs well as leftovers and when I am eating my leftover lunch in the hospital lunch room, my coworkers are all jealous. :-)

Something is Seriously Kicking My Butt

Well hey, you all wanted to know about my health, right?

I'm now in my eighth week of work at the hospital. My shift is 8:00-2:30, Monday to Friday. It's a pretty sweet shift, really. I have to drive 41km from Ucluelet to Tofino, which on a good day takes me about 35 minutes. During the past few months, however, the tree service guys have been out holding up traffic while they shear the side off the forest, lest it should get blown into a power pole during one of our winter storms. There have been several crews out, which means no fewer than four sets of flag people with their "SLOW" or "STOP" sign.

So this delay means I have been leaving around 7:15am to get to work, getting home around 3:15pm, give or take. It makes my work an eight hour day. My job is also pretty physical: I'm walking around a lot, up and down stairs, lifting boxes (with correct posture, I might add), moving supplies and equipment. Nothing I can't handle, but it is physically demanding.

Because I hadn't worked in so long, starting a new job and a new routine took some adjusting. I was in my third or fourth week of work when I got sick, had to take two days off work. It was around this time that Ellie asked me (it was before I got sick, I think) if I would be willing to take part in the relay team for the Edge to Edge marathon. Add to this my self-imposed committment to knit as many Cookie A socks as I can before the retreat. Not to mention housework.

The Saturday after I was sick and unable to work, I had a bit of a relapse. I was feeling achy and fatigued, didn't feel like I would be safe to drive much less babysit that night, so I had to cancel.

That was a few weeks ago now and I have to admit I still don't feel like I'm getting healthy. I still have tightness in my sore throat and a productive cough.

I have a history of depression. Not really bad, but I was on quite a cocktail of antidepressants for a few months several years ago. In the spring and summer after we moved here to Ucluelet, I had several depressive episodes, probably springing from our uncertainty about what our options were at the time.

I've been knitting a lot and writing a lot and typing a lot and otherwise using my hands/arms/wrists a lot and I am forced to admit that they hurt. My hands, arms, and wrists hurt. I should be taking it easy and not breaking my neck over some self-imposed challenge of knitting so many socks.

This past weekend Dan & I took a trip to Powell River, to check it out. (That's fodder for another post). We left on Saturday morning around 8:30am, got home around 9:00pm on Sunday. While it was tremendous good fun, it was also exhausting. It meant I didn't get time to rest, rejuvenate, or clean the house like I usually do on the weekend.

I have a number of health issues that have been creeping up on me. I'm not going to go into them here, but I did make an appointment to see a doctor in Tofino. We've lived here a year and I hadn't gotten around to finding a family doctor yet. Well I finally chose one (based on the ones I met while working at the hospital) and I'll see her tomorrow. I'll go in to talk about my sore throat and the fact that I don't feel like I've gotten better from that cold.

Tomorrow I turn 37, and while I don't want to be melodramatic or paranoid, I have real fears I might be admitted to the hospital I work at. I am feeling absolutely depleted, physically and mentally. Doing laundry seems to take the piss out of me. I even like doing laundry. I feel like I can't get anything done and because I have a mountain of things that need to get done, the list grows. Is my immune system giving me trouble? Am I having another depressive episode? Is this the early onset of menopause I was told to expect?  I eat well, I take vitamins, I usually get enough sleep, and if it didn't exhaust me I would be exercising. I'm at my wit's end. I'm used to being physically strong and full of energy; I am a generally happy person and often all I need is a coffee go perk me up. But now... the coffee just kills my appetite and I go to bed hours later with nausea and an empty stomach.

I think about some of my favourite podcasters that have recently had major health issues. Dr. Gemma and Susan Dolph are the ones I am thinking of. We pushpushpush ourselves because we believe that what we are doing is so important and at the end of the day, our energy stores get depleted. I forget sometimes that I need to recharge my battery. The problem is that I don't know what that looks like right now. I still have to go to work, but perhaps I will take the weekend off of everything, laundry and vacuuming be damned. I might even have to take a break from my weight loss program - two pounds a week is agressive and it means that at the moment, I am allowed only 1166 calories per day (not counting any exercise I do, which increases my allowable intake). It's been going so well and I am pleased with the results, but shrinking sick me isn't as good as healthy me.

power outage, nuclear fallout

We're having quite a blowsy storm just now with rain coming at us from a 45 degree angle. This is what we refer to as "sideways rain", but really, it's the only kind of rain we get around here.

The power went out in Tofino around 11:30am, and BC Hyrdo says it should be back on by 1:30pm. Tofino often experiences power outages whereas Ucluelet doesn't. There are probably some good reasons for this, but my guess is that Ucluelet has better-reinforced power lines; those power lines don't have as far to go; there are fewer obstacles (trees that get blown over in winds like this) in the way of the power lines. The power goes out in Ucluelet once for every ten times it goes out in Tofino. So when it goes out in Ucluelet, you know that either it's a really big storm or some drunk driver smashed into a power pole. Hey, that really happened. Last fall. 9:30am on a weekday morning. Alcohol abuse is rampant around here.

I don't think our weather today is related to the earthquake or tsunami, since we get this kind of weather all winter long. This is why we buy rain gear: waterproof jackets, pants, and boots.

In other news, I guess there was some concern about the two nulcear reactors that were damaged and leaking in Japan, concerns that the fallout from those leaks would make their way across the Pacific Ocean and land on us here on the west coast. The CBC just released a story to reassure us that we are not at risk of nuclear fallout. This is good! Our friends in Japan, however, well the same is not true for them.

I lived in Japan in 2003-4, Dan lived there 2004-6. We both know people there. I have pretty much lost touch will all I knew there (most of them were North Americans who may have returned anyway), but Dan knows quite a few people who are still there. And some are missing. Some are not responding to emails. One is never prepared to deal with this sort of thing.

The day after the Tsunami Advisory

So we survived. Not much happened here. But, as I mentioned, it was literally a wake-up call for us about our present state of lack of preparedness.

Dan told me this morning about the devastation in Fukushima - these places that were affected were places that we lived near. The brewery that Dan worked at in Japan suffered significant damage, and they are not able to brew beer for a while but they can at least provide filtered water. Meanwhile there were passenger trains that are still missing.  Think about that - where are these trains? Under the ocean now? Towns were leveled.

There have been many earthquakes in the Ring of Fire in the past month. Christchurch in New Zealand, Japan, Alaska. They're saying that Japan moved two metres in one direction. That will likely place significant pressure on the tectonic plate on our side of the Pacific Ocean and people around here are starting to talk about when our turn hits.

We (me and Dan) now need to seriously consider what our disaster plan will be. What will we do if I'm at work in Tofino and he's in Ucluelet. Where will our meeting place be. What needs to be in our Kit. How do we contact people, who do we contact. We have 2-way radios - should I start carrying that with me wherever I go? I carry a knife with me at all times, maybe I should also be carrying a flashlight and a lighter too. Perhaps a multi-tool. We don't want to be caught with our pants down.

In the next few weeks as we work on preparing for disaster, I'll be assembling the kit and will blog about it. What we experienced yesterday was hopefully the worst we'll ever see in our lifetime. It wasn't even that bad but you know, everyone is worried.

Luckily it was anticlimactic

I went to work as usual, nothing out of the ordinary. The beaches and trails in the Pacific Rim National Park were closed and there were Parks staff at each entrance, guarding wanna-be intrepid souls from entering and creating a search-and-rescue nightmare. All the schools in Tofino, Ucluelet, and Port Alberni were closed.

The result? Not much really happened. Not that I knew of.

Then Dan told me what he saw when I got home today. I guess he had gone down to Whiskey Dock to have a look at the harbour. At that moment, water was sucked back from the inlet, the water line dropped several feet, then swelled again about a metre or so in the space of two minutes. That was it, that was the effect ouf the tsunami here. But water moving that fast can do a fair bit of damage, so hopefully no one was hurt.

Apparently in times like this the best place for a boat to be is not in harbour but out to sea. The tsunami waves roll under the water, only start rolling up when they reach shallower depths.

I was mildly concerned this morning because, despite having been at the hospital six weeks now, I haven't had any real sort of Disaster Preparedness training. I now where the manuals are located, but during a disaster you don't want to be coming to this information for the first time. Also: am I on the disaster fan out? Is there someone who is responsible for phoning me in case of emergency?

What this morning taught me was that we need to be ready at any time. The earthquake could have just as easily hit us. We need to have a plan, we need to have a disaster preparadness grab-and-go bag in case we do have to high tail it to high ground. Gas in the vehicle, or at least Jerry cans full of gas; food & water; money and passports; a list of our medications(none at the moment) and allergies; warm dry clothing, blankets and things for sleeping, etc. There has been a lot of publicity in the area lately about preparing for disasters like this, but I admit to having felt rather cocky about not needing to prepare too much, Dan and I can defend ourselves pretty well. But what if one of us is trapped under a beam? Then we need pry tools. Yup, we need to be readier than we were this morning when Benj called at 4:30.

When The good people at Stellar Coffee came over this morning, one of them asked me to put knitting in her hands. Crap! I didn't really have any easy projects on the go! One mroe thing for the disaster preparedness kit: emergency knitting

Couch to 10k

I've told you before about my iPhone and how much I love it. It's my camera, my phone, my messaging device, my weight loss tool, my connection to the Internet (esp when I break my laptop), my Twitterer, etc.

One of the apps I have on my phone is called Couch to 10k. They have other ones, for 5k and 25k, but it's basically a training program to help you get from the couch to running a certain distance. You start the program, get your music going, and the voice will tell you what to do. "Start Walk Now" or "Start Run Now". It is similar to a running clinic I took years ago, where we would start out by walking for 4 1/2 minutes, walk for 30 seconds, and repeat until we hit an hour. Do that three times a week, and each week increase the run segment by 30 seconds until you are running for the whole hour by the end of it. It's good. I have run two 10k races from that sort of training.

I think I mentioned before I'm on the relay team for Knits by the Sea in the Edge to Edge Marathon in June. The track starts in Tofino and ends in Ucluelet, a few hundred meters from our house. I don't know yet which leg I'll be doing, 8k or 10k, or if my segment will be hilly or flat, but I'll be training around here (which means hills). I'm actually pretty excited about this. The last time I raced was ten years ago, and on the same day I took a softball in the face, requiring 12 stitches in my upper lip. Not that running is dangerous, but I was on a softball team and half our team ran the 10k and then went to play our weekly game.

Okay okay I'll tell you what happened. I was playing first base. There was a girl up to bat, she hit the ball not very far, and the pitcher caught it. He threw it to me and, for some reason, my glove didn't get there in time. The next thing I knew I was on the ground facing the other direction, blood spattering from my face. The Ump was there in seconds with his first aid kit and put the big gauze pad on my face. I felt my teeth - my teeth were fine. I felt my nose - my nose wasn't broken. It was then that I realized my upper lip was split wide open. I needed stitches. One of my team mates whisked me to the nearest walk-in clinic a few blocks away (knowing that a trip to emerg would result in hours of waiting), and I had stitches in my face within 45 minutes. I swelled up with bruising later, and it was really hard to eat for the following week, but I was back at playing ball two weeks later.

Anyway, that was a side story. I had a crooked smile before I got whacked in the face. There is a faint scar on my upper lip now, and a very prominent seam on the inside of my lip. It's gross, but if you really want to see it, I'll show you. Only in person though, I am totally not going to take a picture.

Where was I... right, running. I love running. I haven't really done it in a while. I had a few incapacitating surgeries years ago, and then I was living in a place where it was neither safe nor fun to go running, so I just hiked the regional park. Since we've been here in Ucluelet, I have made a few half-assed attempts at starting to run again, but it didn't take because I was too heavy.

No excuse anymore, I've lost 20 pounds now and I'm stoked. There are so many great places around here to run, so many trails. If I can steel myself against pelting weather, I can do this. I can train for this marathon and get a cool T-shirt. 2011 is turning out to be a great year.

a wee update on life

O dear. I had such big plans for multiple posts including photos that I was going to get done this weekend.... and then I decided I was going to finish three large-ish knitting projects all in one day, then pull out my entire yarn stash and decide what to give away the next. All good things.

I have a new sense of motivation. I have made some decisions lately regarding my knitting and yarn habits.
1) I will endeavor to have no more yarn than I can reasonably knit in the space of a year
2) I will finish or frog all my WIPs in a timely fashion.
3) I will not acquire yarn for the sake of acquiring yarn - I must have a project in mind when shopping for yarn.
4) In preparation for the Cookie A Sock Retreat in Tofino in April, I am planning to knit half of a pair of seven of her sock patterns. There is seven weeks until the retreat and I figure I can bang out a sock a week, my sock mojo is back! After the retreat I'll go and knit the partners to all the socks. The first socks of each pair will go on display at the yarn shop, so Ellie can show people Cookie A's designs as well as show off what the yarns she carries look like when they're knit up. I am already one chart repeat into Eunice, a pattern from her book Sock Innovation, which I received for Christmas. I'm using Gaia's Colours yarn for this first sock, and have enough of GC yarn in different colours for three more pairs of socks. I have lined up the yarns with the patterns I intend to knit them into. We'll see how it goes!

5) After reducing my stash to less than a full Rubbermaid bin, I might do this same thing with my fabric stash as well. I'm not much of a seamstress and have three fabrics & patterns for garments I wanted to make a year ago or more, despite having received a sewing machine for Christmas 2009, and I just don't use it enough. I know I need more practice but I think I need to bite off smaller pieces and work on simpler projects. Most of the fabric in my stash is stuff I'm not really interested in working with. If Dan wants to keep it, he is welcome to, but I will soon abdicate responsibility for managing that stash too.
6) In the spirit of de-stashing and clutter-busting, I expect to feel a lot lighter, and potentially mobile. All of my music is already in electronic format (and, truth be told, I listen to podcasts way more than I listen to music anyway), so we are considering buying a Kindle when we have a bit of extra money. While we love the feel of books, it is far more practical for us to have an e-reader. Only about 10% of our book collection is currently on display, and the rest of it is in boxes in the crawl space for lack of bookshelves.

It feels like a bit of a watershed moment for me. If I can slough off those things that I have large collections of, then I think I will feel a lot better about myself. I am also sloughing off a lot of weight physically.

Since starting this program eight weeks ago, I have lost 15 pounds. I am, as of today, at the point where my favourite jeans are loose on me and I might have to dig up my less-than-heavy jeans. I don't quite fit into my thin beige cords that I bought in Korea (that's my litmus test), but I'm getting close. Once my weight comes down ten or more pounds, I will have quite a bit of clothing I won't wear anymore too. I will once again be able to fit into lots of the pretty things I wore six or more years ago. Living where I live, it's totally acceptable to go around town in sweatpants or pajamas (not that I would ever do that), so if I don't manage to replace my wardrobe with Thin Clothes promptly, it's not a big deal. I wear a uniform to work (scrubs!) so that's not an issue either. But I will have to consider a clothing budget at some point. I'm really looking forward to that.

Next weekend we have some house guests coming, and I think that will be the beginning of the season of visitors of all the people who said they would come up here 'in the spring'. This is a good opportunity to give the house a thorough spring cleaning, much welcomed by the above mentioned clutter busting. I'm realizing I don't need all the stuff I have; it does not define me. Less stuff means less stuff to clean, organize, manage. It will be easier to clean up the house and get ready for house guests and I'll feel more in control of my life again.

On a final note, the expression 'when it rains, it pours' once again applies. Today I was offered another job, evenings and weekends. If it wasn't for the unpredictability of the hours, I might consider it. But I need to know that I'd be off by 9 so I can get home and get to bed because I have to be up at six the next morning and I know this job doesn't offer that kind of regularity. (I bet she would let me knit at work though!) No, for now, what I have is good. I'm two weeks into my current job and I'm settling into my routine.

In short, life is good.

Ucluelet /= Burnaby

If you look at the FeedJit tool at the side of my blog, for some reason you will not see "Ucluelet". That's where I live. When I come to the page, it shows up as Burnaby.

??

This makes no sense. Burnaby is hundreds of kilometers away from here. I'm on the far west coast of Vancouver Island, Burnaby is on the mainland. But the computer is reading the location of my Internet Service Provider, and although I get my Internet through Ukee Cable, for some reason it goes through Burnaby.

It's the same with Tofino - if someone from Tofino reads my blog, it says "Courtenay".

Ah, living in a remote community. Gotta love it.