Production

So, lest anyone think I have been doing nothing but walking, and whiling away the hours on my test of retirement, let me assure you I have been very busy doing as little or as much as I like.  In fact, there have been days when I've planned to do nothing and gotten only half of it done. (Sorry, old bad joke but there is some truth to it).

Take yesterday for example.  I got out of bed around 8 a.m. after reading a few chapters of my book. I think I mentioned the house is heated by a wood burning fireplace and the landlady shuts down the heat at night.  I always wait until the furnace has been lit and begins warming the place up before I get mobile.  These cement floors (lino on top) are cold on the feet!

After a breakfast comprising a cheese omelet and toast I decided it was laundry day.  I stripped the bed of its sheets and tossed a load in the washing machine.  Although my landlady has asked that I not use the dryer much I really don't like crispy sheets and towels so I put them in the dryer for about 25 minutes, then left them to hang and dry on the rack.  There is a air duct from the furnace in the bathroom so I put the rack below it...even so it was still evening before the sheets were dry enough to put on the bed.  I suspect the spin cycle on the washer isn't particularly good.

Meanwhile I watched the Continental Cup of curling on television, read e-mail and blogs, did some on-line banking and read up on the news.  About 11, I decided to take another walk on the beach (pictures to follow).  I arrived back at the house just as the landlady and her friend were returning from a shopping trip.  They informed me they were heading into Nanaimo or a movie and I mentioned I was heading up to the library to the knitting group later in the afternoon.

I had great fun at the knitting group.  There were about eight of us with our knitting and another woman who came along with her friend.  Two of us were new to the group, myself and Maggie, and for Maggie this was her first attempt at knitting.  They are a great group, ranging in age from late 20`s to what I would guess would be late 80`s.  The lady next to me, funnily enough, is also named Eileen and we had a wonderful chat.  She is obviously the most knowledgeable of the group and was assisting the younger members with the challenging bits in their patterns.

She was also very helpful in suggesting where I might find good quality yarn for more projects.  Plus she mentioned there are other knitting groups different days of the week and in other locations and invited me to attend when I can.

This is one of the projects I've been working on, a pullover for a small child.  I finished one of the sleeves at the library yesterday and started the second.  But I kept making mistakes and had to rip it out.  This is actually the fifth attempt (and hopefully final) as I found I'd made another error last evening and ripped it back again!

The sweater is really quick and easy to knit up (well it would be if I quit making mistakes!) with knobbly wool and large needles.  I knew it wouldn't be enough to keep me busy so I brought along another project.

Can you tell what this will be?  Probably not at this point....it is the first of a pair of socks.  I've never knit socks before, though had some experience with double pointed needles making mittens.

How hard could it be, I thought?  Well, harder than I supposed.  I was busily knitting away on the heel flap when I came to the "turn".  I read and re-read, and re-read again the instructions and just could not picture what I needed to do.  So I "turned" to the internet and pulled up an instructional video.  Within minutes I was able to continue knitting with a realization I'd missed two rows in the instructions.  Duh!

The evening was spent making my bed, folding and putting away the laundry, knitting and watching more curling, editing the photos for this blog post, and counting up the kilometers I've walked thus far.

Silly Google maps won't let me calculate the kilometers based on my walks on the beach....apparently it doesn't think walks on the beach count?....so it's a rough estimate.  I've been averaging just around the 3 kilometers a day.....the longest day (Tuesday) was closer to 5.  Since I've been here 7 full days, that means I've walked at least 21 kilometers (just over 13 miles).  That's half a marathon!  For someone who hasn't walked any distance since our visit to England last April I figure that's pretty darn good.  The shin splints I felt for the first few days are gone and I feel like I can walk further and for longer periods each day.  Now, I just need to ponder how I can keep this up when I go home at the end of the month.

So that was my productive day.  Laundry done, bills paid, spent some time with a lovely group of women, did some knitting (and re-knitting), cheered on the Canadian team at the Continental Cup of curling, and went for another walk on the beach.   These are the photos from that jaunt.

This is the lizard/dragon from the opposite side of the previous photo I shared the other day .  I think it looks more like a lizard here.

The view from the lizard's eye looking towards the beach.

This sand bar (I assume that is what it is called) is towards the end of the beach near the point where the RV park is situated.  Every time I've been out there are, what appears to be, hundreds of birds hanging out.

The crows are quite friendly, this was just on the rocks below where I was taking photos of the duck below.  He/she wasn't the least bit concerned by my proximity.

My assumption is this duck was trying to get some alone time!  I totally understand.

There are pieces of driftwood, some large trees in fact, scattered across the beach.  

This piece struck me...that even in the death of one there springs new life as evidenced by the green moss growing from the tree.  

What an amazing, incredible, wonderful world we live in!

Time to go and be productive again today.  Curling just started and then I'm walking down the highway to go watch a Junior B hockey game. 

Have a great day everyone!