28 Minutes to Change

Last week I was listening to a webinar about using a 28 minute meditation mp3 to change the way I think about success. That is, I will become successful if I use the meditation every day for at least 28 days. I downloaded the mp3 and have been using it every night when I go to bed for a week.

I hadn't thought about it before. On Friday I was shovelling snow, as you know, and while doing it my mind was turning over an idea I have had for a while. This is for setting up a business. I have been reluctant to start before because I had the usual thoughts going round my head. I'm not good enough, I can't do it, It won't work etc etc.

On Friday I decoded I COULD do this, and I WOULD do this. I went indoors, thought a bit more, then told hubby what I was going to do. He wanted to know where this had all come from, as I had never told him about my idea before. He was surprised I was so certain about the idea, and questioned me about it. What did I know about it? How would I do it? What about marketing? Costs? Niche?

Well, I hadn't thought about all those questions - I was just so confident about doing it, and still am. So I have some good questions to answer and integrate into my idea. That is what I will be doing for the next week alongside all the normal daily chores and listening to hubby's ideas for a citizen journalist site he wants to start.

The down side of snow shovelling

I woke this morning with a pounding headache and sore throat. So I've been relaxing on the sofa all day and am just making my daily write-up. Short and all I can do!

Here we go again!

The front path was covered with 10 inches of snow this morning. Not as much as we had thought - enough to take 5 trips with the snow shovel to clear it and the post box. I had not realised how hard snow clearing can be with a snow shovel. The banks of snow either side of the path and along the road are at least 5 feet high, so to throw each shovel-full up and over takes a lot of muscle strength. Hence the separate times of shoveling. I had to sit down, have a drink and recover. I didn't need a coat on as I got very hot exerting my muscles.

The temperature had risen while it snowed last night, up to 22F. Now the sky is clear again the nighttime temperature is dropping quite rapidly to 4F. It was nice to have a sunny day though, as we can leave the wood stove to go out about 10am and let the solar heat in through the south facing windows. This keeps the main room and kitchen warm until the sun diappears behind the barn at 3:45. So we light the fire about 3 or so and keep the warmth going.

I have decided to set up a website for my coaching business, so am in the process of making notes about what I would like to have on it. I've been searching for examples of other sites to get some ideas of what I might want to put on the site. I've come across some nice and some not so nice ones and will be looking over them tomorrow. After a time my eyes find it hard to focus on the computer screen!

Boring?

I can imagine that these posts come across as boring to anyone reading them. Please consider that I have spent most of my life avoiding writing and am using this blog as a way of letting my thoughts flow and improving my skills. I am hoping that over time the content will become more interesting and better expressed.

There have been some evenings when I felt like leaving the blog. Then I remembered it was a challenge and if there are any readers out there, I would be letting them down as well as myself. So I have kept up the daily output so far. And I am proud of myself for doing so even when I have written short amounts.

Now I have a blank mind. I have heard some people say that they do not believe it is possible to have nothing going on in their minds, even when they are relaxing. Well, I do have times when I can sit and have quiet in my head for a time. Then I realise I have been without thoughts for a bit and noise enters again.

Those moments of quiet are so calming. I feel at peace with myself and the world. Nothing can take those moments away and I find myself being calm and quietly joyful a lot of the time. I have no income or work right now, yet I know I do not need to worry about that. I can trust the universe that all will be well.

Loose Ends

I have completed one of the hats I am knitting for hubby. The loose ends had to be woven into the fabric and disappear. I now have to finish the other hat which only needs maybe a dozen rows at the top completed. And the loose ends sewn in! Although that's not really true.

I have already woven in all the ends on this hat as I finished it last weekend. I used a new decreasing for the top method and feel the hat needs some extra rows in the top as it came out a bit tight. So I have undone two thirds of the top for reknitting.

Yet another project with loose ends is the weaving I talked about before. So far I have woven 3 inches. It has been sitting on the table since then. In some ways I am reluctant to work on it as the loom looks so nice warped and ready with the full shuttles lying underneath it. And I am a perfectionist, wanting the edges to be straight with no draw-in. I will just decide to go for it one day soon and whip it off. Just need to psyche myself up to do it and accept how it comes out. With some care taken in the weaving anyway.

This all makes me think of life. There are many loose ends in our lives, some that we can weave away neatly and quickly, some that hang around for a long time. We hang on to some ends for longer than we ought to because the ends are comfortable. We know them so well that we are afraid to let them go, even when our inner voice tells us it is time to drop them.

Some ends are elusive, hiding or slipping away just as we stoop to pick them up. These ends are afraid of us weaving them in so they avoid completion, deny connections. With these ends we sometimes have to turn our backs on them and let them come to us when they are ready.

There will always be loose ends in our lives, no matter how many we have woven in or tied off. They creep up on us or jump right out and hit us on the nose. Yet what would life be like without any loose ends? Can you imagine going through your life, endless? Enjoy your loose ends, no matter what type they are. Nurture them, see them for the magnificent ends they are, be grateful they are there.

Magnetic Freedom is Not Free Any More

I heard today that my favourite spiritual development site MagneticFreedom.com is being closed due to the technical company that dealt with membership and videos closing on Februaury 1st.

I am very unhappy as I have used the site to access my learning videos and used the forums. Fortunately I have had time to download mp3 versions of the lessons I have done so far with lesson notes so i can revisit them when I need to. I am planning to start again as there is so much information in each lesson that I have to repeat them all.

This news is one of the down sides to the internet. It only takes one person to decide they are dropping a website and the ripple effect is felt globally. I know this is the case here, as there are people from Australia, England, Israel, Holland, Portugal, Canada and the US who use this site and are members doing the lessons.

We will all be hoping that a new site can be set up so we can meet up again and continue to develop our spiritual lives as well as our value creations.

Voip phones

It seems to me that there are a lot of highly priced voip phones out there that are given less than good reviews by users. It is extremely difficult to find a simple wireless voip phone that works with Vista. Hubby has spent several hours trying to find a phone that he can use with Skype on his Vista machine that is under $100 and has at least a decent review.

Each time he finds something that looks as if it will do the job, he discovers it needs XP or it has to be a 32-bit machine, or the reviews are unkind in respect to quality of sound or quality of design. I know there are many people who expect perfection in everything. Hubby is not like that. he accepts there will be some parts that he will not like as much. So, the search goes on. I hope I can survive another couple of hours listening to phone specs and reviews before bed!

Saturday talk

Our friend Nick came to visit this afternoon. He was ona mission - to get some drinking water in 7 gallon containers. He had a well drilled on his land and has found the water to be contaminated, hence undrinkable. He can do nothing in the middle of winter so hauls his containers around and fills them up where he can.

In return for coming over, and knowing he'd get a good coffee, Nick had baked some biscuits. They were crumbly and still warm. We had two each with raspberry jam and honey.

Conversation ranges from arthritis medications, democratic voting rights, to phosphate mining in Florida. Quite a range for a coffee chat!

Discussing new business

Hubby and I have to find a way to make a living so we have been discussing setting up our own business. Deciding what to do is a difficult process, particularly when we both have differing ideas.

Tonight we hit upon an online store selling equipment related to a news site hubby has been wanting to start for some time now. He is very excited by it all and feels we have a good idea to develop and work towards.

How we will live until we have something up and running, and can start getting back some money I am not usre. But the mortgage needs to be paid, as do the basic bills. So credit cards to the ready for a while, it seems.

I have every faith that we will survive as my angels will take care of me and make sure I am provided for, as well as hubby.

Stetson Mountain Wind Farm

John Baldacci, Governor of Maine, was at the opening of the Stetson Wind Farm just outside Danforth. The great and the good of the area were there, along with community members, or so the news blurb said.

Hubby and I thought we should go along, take some photos and see the wind turbines up close. There is one spot along the road going to the site where several of the wind turbines are visible. They look majestic, slowly turning above the trees, backdropped by the sky.

When we arrived at the site entrance, we were told we could not go up the mountain as we 'were not on the list'. We had heard about the opening on MPBN, Maine public radio and I had searched on the internet for the time, but no-one mentioned it was by invite or list only. We were shocked that this was the case as only a handful of community reisdents would go anyway, and what did they think? Someone might try and do something funny?

Well, the best bit was a group of protesters who felt that the whole scheme had been pushed through by the Governor without any public vote or discussion. There were seven people with placards from Lincoln - a very interesting group who are concerned about another proposed site around the Lincoln lakes that would ruin the scenery for all there. At least the Stetson farm was out away from any town, so the noise and lights would not be disturbing like the Mars Hill farm iss to residents.

So we stayed and chatted with the protesters and took pictures of them and their placards for about half an hour. We were cold by then so came home. I will be writing to the Governor to express my displeasure about not being allowed up the mountain today. will be keen to see how he responds (or whoever responds on his behalf).

Birthdays

Today was my birthday. I received many e-cards from friends on my social networking page as well as from family. I had already prepared food for today so I didn't have to do anything much, and did not get up early. I stayed in bed listening to some music on the radio until 9:30.

Birthdays invoke strange feelings in me. There are happy memories of childhood all the presents were a surprise and birthday tea would have cake, jelly and ice-cream. Each birthday as a teenager got me closer to that door of freedom, adulthood, being able to do what I wanted to do, no more listening to parents. How naive we are at different times in our lives!

As the years have slipped by, I find myself liking birthdays and the little gestures made to acknowledge a birthday. Like the time my husband and I were in Paris when hubby was working on a project with an interesting French co-operative savings club. I had spent the morning touring Paris while ameeting was taking place. When I arrived at the restaurant to meet up with everyone, all of whom I had met before, I was told I could only have a main dish to eat. I didn't think anything about that, so had a chicken plate. Then a cake with many candles was wheeled out, and the whole restaurant sang 'Joyeaux Anniversaire" to me. I was kissed on both cheeks by many handsome men and blew out the candles. it was a surprising, romantic thing for my husband to arrange, especially given he usually got the date of my birthday wrong!

Another year he had arranged for some friends to come round for a potluck, after telling me to relax while he prepared our evening meal. Today he forgot. I was waiting for him to ask me if it was my birthday, and it was only after my daughter rang in the evening to wish me a happy birthday that he said 'Oh, happy birthday. Why didn't you remind me?' And that was that, not to be mentioned again. I don't take it personally any more as I have grown through my spiritual practices. I am very happy whether my birthday is remembered or not as I have so much to be grateful for in my life.

Fascinated today

I have been fascinated by the pomp and ceremony that happened for the inauguration of the new President in contrast to changes of government in the UK. I have been watching most of the day and have been moved by the hope and optimism shown by everyone for the future.

I wonder why there is such a long period of time between the election and the new president actually taking over. In the UK, the new Prime Minister just takes over the day after winning the election, with a short speech outside 10 Downing Street. And that is that.

Here, there is the long weeks when the outgoing President can take all sorts of actions that might be detrimental to both country and the following President, especially if the party in power is changing. And all this fuss over questioning the people chosen for positions within the government. Surely the President can pick who he likes without them having to be voted on.

I do feel that there is a huge amount of expectation for Mr Obama to make many changes for the better, both in the US and abroad. I am hoping that he is someone who can bring people together in peace and harmony, and help those who are less fortunate in their lives. I wish him well.

Writing a blog post

Having set myself the challenge of writing a post on here every day, I am finding this to be quite daunting. So far I have managed to find something to write about most days and been happy to tap away at the keyboard of my laptop. I am not expecting anyone to read these posts or make any comments on them, although that would be nice.

I am finding this to be both liberating and difficult. It is liberating because I can write whatever I like and believing nobody will look at my writing makes it more so as I would feel anxious if I thought there might be other eyes on this. It is difficult as I am never sure about the content of the posting and have no idea about the topic until I click on Create Posting.

I did jot down a list of subjects after my challenge that I could write about over the weeks and as yet have not looked at the list again. I can see that I will be reading it for ideas in the days ahead once I decide I am running out of spontaneous writing. Or maybe I will always find something to type regardless of my feelings prior to opening my blog.

The main reason I challenged myself to write every day is that I have always avoided writing before as I have a limiting belief that I can not write. I studied mathematics for my degree, not just because I really like working with abstract ideas and numbers which I do like, but also because there was a minimum of writing involved. In many ways this is debilitating as I have refrained from applying for work where I perceived there would be more than small amounts of writing as part of the work. In this way I have misse out on amny opportunities to work in interesting fields and to make a career in any sense.

I read The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron a few years back and tried the journal writing for 10 minutes every morning. Needless to say I stopped after a few days, even though the idea was to write whatever came into my head, no worry about other reading it, no need for good grammar, just to let it flow. Not much flowed. I think I tried too hard. So now I am just letting it flow within constraints of a loose subject or post title and this works much better.

I am proud of myself for having come this far on my 18th day of posting something on the blog. There is hope for me yet!

Rushing

I'm writing this in a rush tonight as I am on my way to bed, as I am extremely tired. I think it's partly the cold weather wearing me out. On the other hand I have done a lot today, and moving wood around for the wood stove is hard work.

We have our split dried wood in a shed attached to the basement. Wood is brought into and stacked in the basement, and then taken up some steep stairs to the main room. We have enough in the main room for a day's burning at a time, so need to move wood most days. Some pieces of wood are very heavy.

I also got up quite early - I am not an early bird, liking to have my morning coffee around 8am in bed, after which I do my morning meditation before getting up. When the weather is warmer and the days longer, I get up around 7am, but winters are definitely made for stay in bed late months.

So although it is not so cold tonight, I am off to bed earlier than usual to have a read before sleeping. I just had to make a post of some sort today. Maybe I'll write more tomorrow, and something interesting too.

Costa Rica Webinar

This is a short posting as I have been listening to the wonderful speakers on the Costa Rica Webinar, running from 10 am today for 24 hours. I have picked up some great information in notes I have been making from essential listening skills to transformative sharing.

There are fewer speakers during the night so I will be going to bed at my normal time and getting up early to listen to Fred Johnson with his Accessing Power for Personal Transformation session at 5:15 am. Fred Johnson is a sound sculpturor who uses music to help people on their spiritual paths.

As far as I jnow, all the speakers sessions are recorded and will be available for viewing on the internet. I hope there will be many more people watching the recordings and donating to the earthquake fund in the coming week. I will report on the availability of the recording as soon as I know where they can be found.

So I am going back to listen to the current speaker and intend to write more tomorrow.

Cold Weather

Before I moved to Maine from England, I had never experienced the kind of cold weather that is the norm here in New England. Winters in old England tended to be damp and on bad days a few degrees below zero. If there was any snow, it would be a couple of inches that stayed for one or two days, then it would melt away.

When I first arrived at Boston airport in late January 2003, I had no idea what -20 was like. It was a fine sunny day and looked so nice from inside the airport. Walking outside to get the bus, the wind cut through my totally inadequate clothes, almost as though I was not wearing them. Once on the bus up to Maine it was fine.

I arrived in Bangor, Maine at 10:30 that night and jumped into a cab, asking to be taken to a motel. By now the temperature had dropped to -35. The motel was cheap and shabby, with thin covers on the two beds and a hard-presses heater below the window. I put all the bed covers onto one bed and slept with most of my clothes on and was still not completely warm. The only redeeming feature of the motel room was the shower which was strong and hot.

The next morning I was told that I had to cross the road to a garage to get a coffee. I set off past the doors of other rooms. At the end of the building I was faced with the full force of the wind blowing from behind the building. I was so cold I could not walk any further. I had to return to my room without any coffee and call a cab to take me to a coffee shop in a mall as I realised that I had to purchase a thick coat with hood, some strong boots for walking in snow and ice, a warm hat and gloves. Once I had those, I was better able to face the weather.

That was my first impression of the United States - bitter cold and hard walking. Now I love the winters here. I have adjusted to the necessities of winter living and enjoy walking in the snow. I have experienced cross country skiing which I just adore. I drive through snow storms and down ice-covered roads with my music on loud. Winters are great. They are proper winters, fully distinct from other seasons. Going indoors after battling through snow drifts and in -40 wind chills is devine. Getting warm by the wood stove and cooking thick soups on top, with fresh biscuits. What can beat that?

Webathon this weekend

Check out the webathon running this weekend January 17th at 10am, running for 24 hours to raise money for victims of the Costa Rican earthquake last week. There are many different motivational speakers on, and if you know of anyone who would be willing to do a 45 minute spot, please go to the website and contact Bob D-F.

Webathon for Costa Rica Earthquake Victims

I have also discovered a very interesting and thought-provoking course that links the dark and light side of life through a series of daily lessons. I have just finished lesson 2, which looks at the way media forces are used to hide a lot of information and to promote what governments want us to know. There is an eye-opening video to watch, produced by the BBC, about how the public are kept in a state of fear and insecurity so power can be kept by governments. Worth a watch. And the course is definitely worth looking at to see if it is something you can benefit from - it is free, too.

Transformation Course

I think I'll leave this post at that, rather than blather on about other things I've done today while staying indoors out of the bitter cold.

Dressed Loom and Half-Knitted Hat

As soon as I sat down to write this post, I remembered the picture of the loom. I had to put the loom on the floor as the warp consists of mainly dark colours and I had it on a dark table. I took a picture from the front and one from the back. This is the better of the two pictures, taken from the back, showing the rigid heddle loom dressed and ready for the weaving to begin. The silk is dyed a dark purple with random strands of reds and blues running through it.

Now I have to decide on the weft colours. My first idea was to use a darkish dusky pink. I tried a few strands in the warp and was not to keen on the result. I have now found a nice red that matches the main red strands in the warp, and a dark purple. I might use both colours, with the purple as the main colour and work some random stripes in the red. This is an experimental piece in two ways. Firstly using a rigid heddle loom, and secondly weaving silk with rayon chenille. How ever the fabric comes out, I will make the poncho with a crocheted edging to give it more strength. I can wear it around the house or as a bed poncho.

I am just a bit over half way through the patterned area of the hat. I will knit another four stripes before starting the stitch reduction for the top of the hat. I am choosing the stripe colours as I go along, and so far I think they look nice. The colours look a bit brighter in the picture than they really are.

The pattern is called a two colour seed stitch and is very simple to do. It has four rows to each pattern repeat. I am doing four rows in one colour, then two rows in the base grey colour for each stripe. I sit and knit a stripe when I have coffee, three times a day so it is growing quickly and will be finished by the end of the week.

Sticky warp

I have been putting the silk warp on my rigid heddle loom. It has been an extremely difficult task because the warp is the most sticky warp I have ever dealt with. The slightest movement and clump, the threads stick together, wrap around each other, tangle up. I have a 14 inch wide warp at 10 threads per inch and have nearly finished threading the heddle. That leaves tying onto the front beam and tensioning. Everything else is done. I am taking a short break before completing the heddles. Then it's off to bed and finish in the morning.

I had thought of using this silk for weft originally, but was not sure if there would be enough, hence using it as a warp. I have plenty of rayon chenille for the weft and hope the weaving will be relatively painless. At least the weft will stay in place as the silk grabs onto anything! So, tomorrow's post will be a report on how easy or otherwise, this warp is to weave. Maybe I will take a picture of the warped loom as my first picture on the blog.

Tasks are piling up now. I have 5 pairs of trousers hanging by the table waiting for me to take the waist in on each pair by an inch or so. Then some will need hemming as they are unhemmed. I haven't checked lengths yet, as I wanted to make sure the fit was good first. I also have a jacket with sleeves that need taking up a bit. All this is for my hubby, as he has lost some weight recently. Not that he had any weight on him to lose - he is very thin already.

I have knitted about half the first hat. I am not too keen on the ribbed edge with the pattern I am doing. The colours are blending together well. Another picture for the blog coming up, I think.

Quiet Day

Once in a while it is nice to have a quiet day, and today is one of those days. I have been sitting around, writing emails, chatting with my daughter on Skype, and knitting the hat for my hubby.

The knitting has taken a longer than it might have if I had not followed a simple pattern for two needles without thinking about how I needed to change every even row for circular knitting. After doing around an inch I realised the pattern was not what I expected. I made a swatch on two needles to see what it was supposed to look like, then worked out what I needed to do on the circular needle. Unknitting is one of those skills that I have developed over the years, so I quickly got back to a good restarting point. Now the pattern is as I like and I am just concerned with colour changes to get a nice look. As this is for my hubby I have to be a little careful with the colours or he will not wear the hat.

I have also calculated how many warp threads I need to wind for weaving the poncho I described in yesterday's post. I brought my warping board down to the main room, checked the sett or how many threads to the inch I need for the rigid heddle loom, and now can wind the warp. The rigid heddle is 10 threads to the inch, and I will weave a 13 inch cloth. Allowing for draw-in during the weaving, I will wind 140 warp threads, each 2 yards long. I can weave a cloth around 56 inches long on that warp. I hope to have enough silk left to warp a 3 inch scarf about 6 feet long.

So back to knitting now while I listen to some good music on the radio. From the Top has just finished. Those young players are fantastic, and most have a great sense of humour, too. They are truly inspiring and dedicated to music.

Fibre Crafts Again

I knew I had a lot of weaving yarns in a cupboard at the top of the house so I have brought all the bags down to see what is there as my husband has asked me to knit him couple of hats. I found several cones of wool yarn for him to choose from, and a book of knitting patterns to make an interesting colour combination.

I also found 400 yards of handspun and hand-dyed silk yarn. I have been thinking of making myself a small poncho and was wondering what yarn to use. Now here is the answer. I will use the silk as a warp and chenille for the weft, loosely set in. I have a rigid heddle loom that will do the job as I will be weaving a simple tabby. Colours are purples and reds, with a red chenille. It will look and feel so nice. A picture of the completed article will be posted when I have finished.

Another find was three small picture frames warped with strong cotton to do some practice tapestry weaving on. They are staying out too and I will be working samples of tapestry techniques and colour swatches using rayon chenille, as I have a lot of different colours in that fibre. So more pictures there for the blog.

I seem to have found lots of things to do on these extremely cold evenings, after cello practice which has to come first.

Costa Rica Earthquake

On Thursday an earthquake hit Costa Rica, causing a lot of damage and loss of life. There are now many people who have lost their homes and possessions. As of Friday afternoon, the main CNE warehouse has caught fire. Initial reports indicate that most of relief items (food, mattresses), expected to be distributed to the quake victims, are now lost. The Pavas airport, second one in San Jose, is now closed.

The CNE has listed relief items required so far: sleeping bags, milk, non-perishable food, candles and personal hygiene items. CNE has specifically requested 2000 blankets, tents (aprox 200), emergency medical material, as well as logistic (funding for helicopter flight time).

Note that this list may change, since the main CNE warehouse is reported to have burned on Friday afternoon.

One of the main hydroelectrical plant, Cariblanco, has been damaged and will have to cease activities for a long period according to the national power authority (ICE). One secondary concern is possible damage to hydroelectric dam(s) close to San Jose. These are being assessed.

SERIOUS HELP IS NEEDED! Please make a donation at:

Donate to the Costa Rica Relief Fund

100% of your contribution will go towards providing local residents with food and shelter!

(Text taken from above website)

Please help as much as you can.

Defiance

I'm late writing today's post because I have been watching Defiance with Daniel Craig in the lead role. This film is based on the true story of the Bielski brothers who helped many Jews survive in Belorussia in the Second World War. It is a very uplifting and moving film, showing how people come together in adversity and faith to live in the forest for 3 years. I will definitely watch this film again to pick up on all the nuances and details missed in my first viewing.

Another of my favourite films is The Pianist, another true story of how a Jewish pianist survived in Poland during the war, and the people who helped him, including a German army officer. I read the book written by the pianist on which the film is based. Apart from a couple of small changes, the film depicts the events very well as they happened.

Weaving Guild, Pot Luck, and Music-making

The Border Weavers met today in the home of one of the members for our delayed Christmas pot-luck lunch. This had been postponed in December due to an ice storm. We also checked out each others weaving books and magazines for inspiration and information.

The Border Weavers Guild was formed by a group of nine ladies who were members of a knitting circle. After several meetings where woven items were shown as well as knitted items, it was suggested that those interested in weaving could form a weaving group. And so that is what we did.

Weaving is one of those activities that needs lots of different skills, from maths to colour design. And it requires attention to detail when warping a loom or following treadling orders. most of the members have a tapestry loom, made by the husband of our oldest member. Most of us have tried some tapestry weaving, albeit simple, and one lady made herself a poncho on her tapestry loom. I must give that a try. Several members have floor looms and make the most wonderful woven items - scarves, towels, shawls, wall-hangings, rugs. Everything is just so beautiful.

The pot luck was fabulous with cream of broccoli soup, chicken wings, coleslaw, home-made breads and muffins, pear and pecan crisp, brownies, key lime pie and my pumpkin cheesecake. I just love the way so many meetings and get-togethers are around pot lucks over here. Not something I had ever done in England, but I am definitely going to start whenever I am back there visiting family or working.

I drove to the weaving meeting today and had to stop on the road to let a gaggle of around a dozen wild turkeys cross the road. It was a great sight – they are big birds and looked at me as they crossed in front of the car. Of course I didn’t have a camera with me! The roads are very slippy with ice and snow on them. I enjoy driving in this weather for some strange reason. It’s been about -10 all day and is going down to -20 tonight.

After the meeting I went back to the house of my violin playing friend so we could spend a couple of hours playing together. I had taken my cello into the meeting with me as it was too cold to leave it in the car. We played some fiddle tunes that I had copied and written in the bass clef - they sounded good played on the two instruments. Than we did some Handel and Bach pieces that we like before finishing with some show tunes.

This is the best therapy I know. Music lets me leave all cares behind, yet brings emotion into my life. It is so much fun to play with others - we laugh a lot, especially when things don't sound so good! Time to go home came too quickly, so I set off along dark, lonely roads with Yo-Yo Ma and Claude Bolling keeping me company with their wonderful jazz. One day I'll sound like that. One day.....

Dancing Fire and Cheesecake

It has been a snowy, damp day today. After feeding the woodstove, I sat and watched the flames. There were several that appeared to be dancing above the logs. They flicked on and off like fireflies, floating over the logs without touching any of them. It was mesmerising. Turning, I could see the snow falling outside. Another mesmerising occurrence that allows my mind to wander into realms of fantasy.

Reality calls me back to the kitchen. I made the pumpkin cheesecake today. There was so much pumpkin that I prepared yesterday. Too much for the recipe I followed. I made two cheesecakes - very easy recipe. One of the ladies at the pot luck tomorrow can't eat wheat, so I've made her a small pot of cheesecake without the crumb base. I made two pumpkin breads as well, and froze two packs of mashed pumpkin, each holding two cups worth. After having chicken soup for tea, I tried a tiny slice of cheesecake. UMMM. It's so delicious - I had to refrain from having more, even though I was full up. So I am happy to take my offering tomorrow.

Cooking pumpkin

I slept so well last night - warm, comfortable and really dark in the bedroom, which is how I like it. Got woken up by the phone ringing at 7:30 - it was a wrong number! Snuggled down again and listened to the radio for a bit after doing my morning meditation. It's been one of those days - snowing and dark - when there's not much incentive to do anything. I did sort out my clothes, throwing away a couple of bags full of old, holey and worn things. Then I decided to cook a pumpkin I had been given before Christmas.

This is a pie pumpkin. I found a recipe online for pumpkin cheesecake which I will make tomorrow for a pot luck lunch on Friday. So I took out the seeds for roasting, scraped away all the stringy bits and put the pumpkin to steam. It needed an hour and a half on my stove before it was cooked. Now it's all mashed up and ready making into cheesecake.

As I come from England, I haven't had much to do with pumpkins, or any other squash, before. I found the taste of pumpkin pie to be quite strange at first, but with the excellent cooks I know around here, I have got used to it now, and have been known to have more than one piece. One of my friends makes her pie with molasses and honey. Now that is scrummy. So I'll use some of the cooked pumpkin to make a pie. But I'm keen to try the cheesecake recipe and will make two so I have one for home. More to follow on the success or otherwise!

New bedroom tonight and friends

At last I can sleep in my newly insulated, sheetrocked, painted and papered bedroom. All the furniture was moved in this morning from a cold and miserable looking undone room. So I keep clock watching to see if it's time for bed yet. Having spent many winters sleeping in the main room on a futon bed it will be such a treat to sleep in a real bed, and know that if my husband does want to stay on the internet half the night, I will not be disturbed. Bliss!

One of my best friends came by today. I have been in England (my home country) working for the last 2 years so have only seen my friend once when I was visiting last year. She is currently living and running a small retail shop in a coastal town, roughly two and a half hours drive from here. So it was a surprise to find her at the door this afternoon, hubby in tow, and with a new dog. She already has an older dog and here she has a young and oh so friendly spaniel. She was very impressed with all the work that has been done in the house and with how warm it is in here. We remembered shivering near the wood stove on previous occasions, trying to play our instruments with cold fingers. She is a violinist, as is my other best friend who lives locally.

There was a time before I went back to England when we had a string quartet. Both my best friends on violins, an ex-music teacher and multi-instrument player on the viola and myself on cello. We would meet every Monday evening to play for up to 3 hours. We laughed and cried, stamped our feet, talked, and played, played, played. It was our weekly therapy night and I miss that a lot. One of the casualties of us moving apart physically. So any opportunity any of us have to play together, we take it. I'll write more about music making in another posting.

So, back to new bedrooms. I have new flannel sheets and pillow cases, plus a new duvet cover all soft and warm waiting for me upstairs. Goodnight all!

Bread and wallpaper

So what's the connection between bread and wallpaper? Just that they are both things I did today - baked bread and hung wallpaper. I've often heard people say that they don't have tine to make their own bread. My response is that the actual time spent on bread-making is quite small. If someone can watch TV for several hours in the evening, then they can also make bread. Although these days there are a lot of electric bread-makers around, I'm not sure the resulting loaf is the same as one made by hand.

But that's by the by. I made four loaves using a combination of stone-ground wholemeal flour, spelt flour, unbleached flour, buckwheat flour, and rice flour. For good measure I threw in a couple of handfuls of sunflower seeds and some ground flax seed. The loaves came out so good - two slices keep me going for a long time!

My husband and I have been renovating a 1920 Dutch Colonial in Eastern Maine for the last 6 years. We bought wallpaper for the bedrooms and main living room soon after moving in, expecting to be decorating quite quickly. Little did we realise what we had taken on, and I shall be telling some tale about that in future postings. Suffice it to say that we are extremely happy to have just finished wallpapering the first two rooms today.

Making bread and wallpapering are both satisfying for my soul. They both require a certain amount of dedication and skill to accomplish good results, and both give a feeling of achievement when finished.

Roll on tomorrow when we get to move into the bedroom, after having some excellent toast for breakfast, of course.

New Year - Is this time to start a journal?

Keeping a journal has long been one of those 'one day I'll do that' items on my list. Having access to a blog page makes me wonder if now is the time to start. After all, it is not necessary to write every day, especially when it seems as though nothing much is happening from one day to the next. But is this a truth? Can I really say that nothing happens during the course of any day? As some one who has long professed to being a non-writer, perhaps I deliberately ignore happenings so I don't have anything to write about.

So, this then is my New Year Resolution number 1. To find something in each day that I will write about, no matter how small, or how little I write. But hang on a minute I say to myself. This is the 4th of January - what happened to the first 3 days of the year? My answer is that I allowed myself those days to ponder the sense and feasibility of setting myself this challenge given my normal reaction to any mention of writing - run and let someone else do it.

Since taking a course in Neuro-Linguistic Programming I have realised that my long-held belief that I am no good at writing stems from a buried memory of a school teacher slamming my workbook on the desk and telling me that what I had written was a load of rubbish! What a disasterous thing to tell a young child. I have spent most of my life since then avoiding as much as possible anything that involves writing. Now I am aware of the reason for my reticence I can work on reversing the limiting belief, and this blog is the start of my awakening ability.

So I will set myself the challenge to write evey day on here for this year. I allow myself to miss an occasional day when travelling, as long as I have recorded the missed day and reasons in the previous days post.Let the challenge begin!