Shut Up and Write Tuesday

I was really looking forward to Shut Up and Write on Saturday. It was the only social event on my calendar. We had a little think, and decided to move to three times a week instead of just the normal one.

On Monday, I watched Ocean's Eleven. Whilst I enjoyed it, there were rather a lot of plot holes regarding forensic evidence and what to do with all of that money.

In the film they stole $160 million. Just how much space does that amount of money take up? Would it be new notes or old, and if new, would they be sequential? Is a hundred and sixty million stolen dollars really worth $160M? Would you have to sell the 'dirty' notes and buy back 'clean' cash and funds?

This led me down a rabbit hole, and when I dive down rabbit holes I start learning stuff, and stories begin to come to mind.

What I have learned today is:

o £1,000,000 in £20 notes will fit into a large suitcase, and £100,000 will fit into a briefcase. 

o There is a legal requirement to declare if €10,000 is being brought onto, or off, the Island. This applies to cash, cheques and pre-loaded store cards, or tokens with monetary value. 

o Money laundering attracts a 14 year custodial sentence.

o It is illegal to hold money gained through criminal activities.

o If you suspect money of being gained through criminal activities it must be reported, and if you don't you can be imprisoned for 2 years.
o Scotland issues £100 notes, but the highest in England and Wales is £50, and it is far more usual for people to pay using £20 notes than £50. 

One Old, One New

My aim just now is to finish projects by alternating between UFOs and brand new projects. 

After finishing Ducky Duck Duck Duck, I tried to make a crocheted hat. This was frogged a number of times, and an knitted one was made instead. The leafy design is from Arne and Carlos' Quarantine Knitting KAL. It is one band of "Golden Pothos".

Whilst looking for fabric to start a new project I came across a hat needing four ends to be sewn in. (Why do I do this?!) Anyway, it will be a very quick UFO to complete.

Ducky Duck Duck Duck

It's finished! IT'S FINISHED! The Duck quilt has been completed! Yippee!

The first time I blogged about this was back in June 2018. It's taken almost 2 years, and it's appeared in the 'Goals' numerous times, but no more. It is done. 

This is the first quilt I have made using applique (ducks), and also using a walking foot (quilted waves). I've learned a few other things. The most notable is 'Don't sew on embellishments until the quilting is done.' I had sewn the button eyes on before I had finished the hand quilting of the clouds. The thread kept getting tangled around the buttons. At one stage I thought of cutting the buttons off, and reattaching them after quilting.

Grandpa's Surprise

Duncan sat back in his chair. Being a husband was good, being a dad was good, being a garage owner was also good, but these all paled beside the joys of being a grandpa. Being a grandpa was the best. There were baby snuggles, baby gurgles, and baby smiles. As Duncan looked at his tiny granddaughter his heart melted all over again.

A little smile played around the corners of his lips. He reached down into the pram and lifted out his lovely little one. She turned her face to him and smiled. This was a new thing, five weeks old and smiling. That must surely be a record! Such an advanced baby! The best baby in the world. "Come on little one, come to Daddy."

Anne cleared her throat slightly. "Come to Grandpa. You're not this one's Daddy." Duncan kept making this mistake, and not just this mistake. Jean, his wife, was most often called 'Mummy', although Anne, his daughter, the baby's actualy mother, was sometimes called 'Mummy', but equally often 'Aunty Anne'. It was going to take quite some time for Duncan to straighten out all of these new relationships, and fully grasp hold of the idea that his little girl had a little girl of her very own now.

Duncan cradled her on his chest; the little head snuggled into the crook of his neck. There was something about baby powder that smelled so good, clean and fresh. He loved the smell of little babies. But not THIS one, not NOW! With a crinkled nose and a sour expression on his face, he bellowed "ANNE!" It was gentle enough so as not to disturb his little angel, but loud enough to attract Anne's attention. Holding out the baby at arms length he declared, "Your baby needs a clean nappy". "Hurumph" thought Anne, "So he's remembered she is MY baby now?!"

Jean walked into the sitting room. She'd overheard what's been happening, and has had a little chuckle to herself. "Duncan, here's your tea, and a wee biscuit." "Ah, just the thing!" thought Duncan, "A nice wee cuppa, and by the time I'm finished the baby will be done too." What he said was "Thank you dear."

Anne laid out the changing mat, and set to work cleaning her daughter's mighty explosion. It wasn't just smiling where this baby excelled. She had excellent bowels, powerful bowels.

Jean headed back to the kitchen, to finish making dinner, and Duncan sat watching his daughter and granddaughter. Yes, there was promise there. Anne would make a good mother, a bit green at the moment, but she'd learn. He picked up his mug of tea and took a sip, then a long draft, yes, just the way he liked it - not too strong, lots of milk, and a half-teaspoon of sugar. And a Kit Kat - perfect. Kit Kats were his favourite chocolate biscuits. He broke it into two 'fingers' and alternated between drinking and chomping. A very satisfying experience.

By the time Duncan had finished his tea, his little granddaughter was smelling fragrant once more. She was the picture of health - a sweet, chubby little baby, lying naked on the changing mat. He swooped in and scooped her into his arms. Yes, much better. Again he cradled her on his chest, and sang silly little nonsense songs to her, enveloping her in love. "Dad! Give her back. She'd not got any clothes on."

Sheepishly, Duncan handed the baby back to his daughter. Anne got on with the business of applying a fresh nappy and clean clothes. As she did so, she reflected when her Dad was around the only time she got to hold her own baby was when she needed changing.

Just at that point, Duncan spotted a tiny piece of chocolate on his trousers. It must have broken off from the Kit Kat - a tasty little surprise. How nice. Duncan licked his index finger, and then used it to lift he chocolate from his trousers. The little morsel of choccy goodness was transferred to his tongue. His face puckered, and Duncan realised his error. Not all brown things are chocolate, especially when there's been a naked baby around.

This is a true story. I should know, as I was that baby, and I've heard this tale my whole life.

I Did a Crochet!

I've been able to crochet for quite a number of years. My Mam taught me when I was little, but it didn't stick. I had to fiddle with yarn and a hook to remember how to do it, 'Fiddling' is a good description. I've been able to do it, but haven't attached names to the stitches, nor been able to follow a pattern. 

Bella Coco on youtube has proved to be very useful, as has this guide to Basic Stitches. Using these two sources, I have now learned slip stitch, double, half treble, treble, double treble, quatro treble and quin treble. And, I feel terribly clever.

Self-raising Flour Recipe

Ingredients

150g plain flour

0.5 tsp baking powder 

0.5 tsp sodium bicarbonate

Method

Put the ingredients into a bowl. Using a whisk, mix well. Transfer flour to an airtight jar and store until needed.

Notes

I've just used this recipe, and baked some gluten-free cheese scones. It was worked really well.

Cough, Cough

My asthma has been playing up over the last little couple of weeks. The number of spray disinfectants being used made it a quite a bit worse. If it had been any other time I would have been in work and would have been using my inhaler when needed. Instead, I've been at home this week on a dose of steroids. 

Today is the last day! Huzzah! I'm fine in the mornings, but by 2pm I'm like the walking dead and need to sleep for 3 hours. When I get up my brain takes a few hours to waken up. I'm so looking forward to getting a functioning afternoon brain again!

Gardening and Laundry

A friend dropped off some strawberry plants yesterday. The Ava loves them, and thinks the addition of a salad bar to the garden is awesome. Today’s task is to find a place where I can put the strawberries away from the canine snacker! 

Decluttering proper is happening in the laundry room. I’m now up to four half-used cans of paint to go out, along with various random bits and pieces. The plan had been to declutter, clean and then to tidy, but I’m now seriously considering adding painting onto the to-do list. Most of the room is tiled, so it will be a little bit of wall, a the ceiling. The room is small, and the ceiling low. It is something I could manage by myself. 

After Covid-19, I’m going to have to Belfast sink, dishwasher and washing machine removed. The washing machine is 16 years old, and is starting to make weird noises. We’ll put down some new flooring. A new washing machine will be bought, to match the dryer. The dryer isn’t current in that room as there’s no space. I’ll have a bench top put in above the washer and dryer (both front loaders), and this will provide a lovely surface for sorting and folding laundry. 

The laundry opens off the mud room, and it’s in the mudroom where the dryer is just now. It’s also where my husband stores his Civil Defence/mountain rescue kit, in boxes on top of the dryer. When the boxes have been newly tidied it looks great, but the rest of the time it gets rather messy. When the dryer has moved, I’ll get a clothes rail, and his kit will have a dedicated space. There will be a hanging rack, a place for boots and shoes, and also a couple of boxes (hard hard hat, ruck sack etc).

First Completed Project of Self-Isolation

I have made a cleaning pad for my steam mop, and it is working really well. The original pad was a bit of towelling that was meant to attach to the base of the mop. It wasn't fantastic at staying on. My crocheted version covers the base (as can be seen from the photograph), but also comes up over the sides and is secured by a drawstring. It stays in place extremely well. 

When I've finished my self-isolation time I'm going to buy some more cotton to make a few more pads. The cotton in the picture is King Cole Cottonsoft in the colour Aquas. I must admit to having thoughts regarding buying more of this colour and making a top for myself. It's so pretty.

The cleaning pad has been used in the kitchen this morning. Perhaps I need to make many more cleaning accessories, just to help me want to clean. :o)

Self-Isolation Goals

My goals for the month are going very well, but new situations require new goals. Therefore, my goals for my period of self-isolation are:

o finish a rainbow half square triangle quilt top

o study Italian daily

o not drive the family up the wall

Timetable, What Timetable?

My plan yesterday was to create a daily timetable for my time of self-isolation. This I duly did, and it was mighty fine timetable. It included useful things, as well as fun things too, and within 30 minutes the plan had gone out of the window!

Instead, I am falling back on a system I know I can do, the good old To-Do/Ta-Da lists. There will be a number of items that will be daily to-dos, like laundry, cook, spring clean/tidy, craft and study Italian.

Yesterday and today, I have been giving the front garden a tidy up. It's looking quite a bit better already. I've also been sitting by the front door, studying Italian. Ava is happy to be outside, watching the world go by, but wants company whilst she does this. Whilst Ava is engaged in her enrichment activities I am engaged in mine.

I have a little prediction - by the time we have finished our 14 days of self-isolation the country will be in lockdown. The Isle of Man is currently a few weeks behind the UK in terms of illness, but we are responding by implementing responses quicker than the UK. 

14 Days at Home

This is the modern log cabin where my Ewok/battlebear is choosing to self-isolate. 

Yup, my asthma has been playing up, and there's quite a bit of coughing in the morning. All of the spray disinfectants have not been helping. I called the Covid-19  helpline this morning, and explained my symptoms, saying I thought it was just asthma. They said it sounded very likely, but to have a chat with my GP as I might require treatment for asthma. We are also required to self-isolate for 14 days, just to be on the safe side.

This means my plan to declutter and spring clean has been brought forward. Might as well use the time wisely and put it to good use. I'm also planning on a Lego competition this evening after dinner. 

Latest Covid-19 Update

Five people have tested positive for the virus. At the moment, all of them are self-quarantining at home.

As of Tuesday, schools will only be open for children of key workers and vulnerable children. The schools are not closing on Monday, just to make sure no child is accidentally left at the school gates with nowhere to go. Parents have the option not to send their children to school on Monday. 

The borders will close. Only pre-approved key workers, and people normally resident on the Island will be allowed to come onto the Island. Returning residents will need to self-isolate for 14 days, and particular measures will be required for key workers coming on to the Island. 

Pubs, clubs, restaurants etc, will close at midnight tonight. Where they have the facilities, they will be able to offer delivery/collection services, provided measures are in place for social distancing. 

There are to be no social gatherings, no friends over for dinner, etc. 

People who do not have symptoms (and no-one in their household has symptoms) can go out for walks, as long as they maintain a  distance of 2 metres from people not in their household.

Log In, Then Shut Up and Write

We decided against having a face-to-face Shut Up and Write for the foreseeable future. Instead we are logging into a chat room, and writing in the comfort of our own homes.

This week, I picked up a book, "Get Creative", and it has exercises and activities to stimulate the imagination. Today I decided to design an avatar for myself. This lead me down a path of such contentment and joy.

My avatar is a cute little humanised bear (similar to an Ewok), who can grow at will into the size and strength of a mighty battlebear. 

I live in Scandinavia, in a small log cabin. Whilst it is a log cabin it is a techno log cabin, and is fully equipped with audio-visuals, internet etc. Primarily this is to ensure the happiness of my husband. He is not a bear, he just like computers.

As a bear, there aren't many clothes I wear, being already clothed in fur, but a colourful scarf is always in evidence, and I come equipped with a crafting utility belt/bandolier. 

My occupation is itinerant crafter and nature beautifier. This means I take monthly trips away from home to teach and demonstrate crafts, and create wonderful things at home. The rest of the time I'm outside beautifying nature. This can be planting trees, clearing underbrush and pathways in the woods, planting daffodils, bluebells and snowdrops, creating pretty patterns from stones, and growing veggies. 

The cabin has a large covered porch with plenty of space. There's a table with space eight people to sit comfortably. It's south facing, and has uninterrupted views. To the south east there's a sea inlet, and we look over to the land beyond. The south, south west, and west are just sea. 

The clearing in front of the house slopes gently down to a little cliff. Into the cliff is a set of stairs, and this leads to a beautiful sandy beach. Ava had free reign in the area, but only goes onto the beach and into the woods when she has company. The woods are extensive. Close to the house, it's fruit trees, apples, cherries and pears, as well as fruit bushes. Further in, there's native deciduous trees, and these then give way to conifers. 

By the side of the cabin. There is a wood workshop for the Beloved. He makes our plates, bowls, jugs, spoons and mugs. He also has a chainsaw. My ability to morph into a battlebear means it is very easy for the two of us to work together and remove the dead fall branches. This is used to heat the home in winter. 

My bear-ness keeps apex predators away, but does not frighten smaller mammals and birds. There's a few wild-ish ducks that keep the garden free of slugs and snails. They have an uneasy understanding with Ava.

No Charges Brought

The latest news is the person who did not self isolate is a homeless man, and he says he could not find a place to stay. It has been decided it is in the best interest not to charge him. He handed himself in to the Police station. There he was detained for his own safety, and the safety of the public. Accommodation has since been found for him.

Two people have been tested positive for Covid-19. 

Self-isolation and Consequences

Everyone arriving on the Isle of Man needs to self isolate for 14 days. The penalties for not complying are huge with a 3 month custodial sentence or a £10,000 fine for offenders. Civil Defence are at the sea terminal and airport handing out pamphlets to people as they arrive. No one can say they haven't been warned. 

A 26 year old man has been arrested for being out in public instead of self isolating. It has become international news, being reported on CNN, amongst other news sources. 

SHUT UP!

Pooh! Bah! And it's annoying. 

I was listening to an audio book on my Kindle when I went to sleep last night. The Kindle is playing my book at full volume, and it's not allowing me to change volume and the screen is not switching on. 

I wrapped it in towels in the airing cupboard, so I can get some non-noisy rest, but my brain has decided to be awake. I'm at 1 and a half hours of being awake. I'd rather like to sleep instead. 

I'm off to count balls of yarn. 

(7.10am The Beloved has magicked it. It's now switching on properly.)

Crazy Times in the Shop

It was very busy at work today. People were stocking up on sweater quantities of yarn, and buying quite a bit of fabric too. From about 9.20 it was busy, all the way through until 12.45. Although I must state all of our customers were, as always, lovely. They were happy to wait, and could see we were busy.

TT Cancelled

The latest in the casualties of Covid-19 is the Tourist Trophy races. To me, it seems a very wise decision. We do not need forty five thousand people coming to the island in a 2 week period. We simply don't have the facilities to cope if there is a major outbreak during that time. 

It will of course have a major impact on the economy, and very sadly, there will be businesses that will close.

B*tchcraft

Yesterday after "Shut Up, and Write" had finished, we were talking about "Women in Mann" and their crafting group, "B*tchcraft". When I was at home I looked at the facebook page and saw there was a gathering this afternoon. A few messages were sent out, and four of us headed down to the session.

It was good. I finished the face cloth I'm making for the Geek, and also a few make up removed pads. We all enjoyed ourselves and decided to go along to the monthly sessions. The next couple of meetings will be able making things Pride related.

30th of February 1712

At "Shut up and write" today I started research the clothing of the Reader of Tynwald. There' wasn't much available. Instead, I read about the date of Tynwald.

The Isle of Man switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1753, a year after the United Kingdom and the Empire. At this time the calendars were 11 day out of synch (we are now at 13). Tynwald Day was a midsummer celebration on St John's day, the 24th of June. It was decreed Tynwald Day would be celebrated on the corresponding day in the Gregorian calendar, and that's why Tynwald Day is now celebrated on the 5th of July.

This then led me down a rabbit hold of Julian/Gregorian dates, and ripples in space and time, well, time. The one lodged in my brain is the 30th of February. It is a Swedish date, and only one year has had a 30th.

Countries around the world adopted the Gregorian system in a piecemeal fashion. Pope Gregory issued a papal bull decreeing the change in 1582. This was to correct the drifting of the calendar. The Julian calendar was out by around one day every century, plus a little bit. The Gregorian calendar is correct to one day every 30,030 years! The change was adopted immediately by the Catholic European countries and their colonies, although the colonies brought it in retroactively due to the time delay in communication. Protestant European and Orthodox countries made the change individually.  

Every country achieved this by skipping dates. In the first wave, Thursday, the 4th of October 1582 as followed by Friday, the 15th of October. Sweden took a different route, and decided to simply eliminate all the leap years from 1700 to 1740. These 11 'lost' days would bring them in line with the Gregorian calendar, but would mean they would be out of step with everyone for those 40 years.

It started well. but the Great Northern War interrupted the transition, and 1704 and 1708 had leap years. In 1711, Karl XII declared Sweden would return to the Julian system. Having not counted the 29th of February in 1700, they were a day out, and decided to tack it on after the 1712 leap day. This is how the 30th of February came to be.  

Sweden finally adopted the Gregorian dates in 1753, when Wednesday, 17 February, was followed by Thursday, 1 March.

A Doing Day

For the first time in a great long time, I have had a doing day. 

Things done today include four loads of laundry, baking a carrot cake, helping the Geek to declutter, watching the American television's Dirk Gently, finishing the pink hat, and doing quite a lot of knitting on the Beloved's hat.  His hat is grey chunky alpaca. It's a hairy beast, and the front of my top and skirt are now also hairy! It's just as well I love the guy.

I am feeling content and accomplished. Not a bad state of being on a Friday afternoon.

----

The Beloved and I went out on a date this evening, and I finished his hat for him to wear on the way home.

GNU Pterry

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, the clacks are a series of semaphore towers loosely based on the concept of the telegraph. Invented by an artificer named Robert Dearheart. The towers could send messages "at the speed of light" using standardised codes. 

Three of these codes are particularly important:

G: send the message on
N: do not log the message
U: turn the message around at the end of the line and send it back again

When Dearheart's son John died due to an accident while working on a clacks tower, Dearheart inserted John's name into the overhead of the clacks with a "GNU" in front of it as a way to memorialize his son forever (or for at least as long as the clacks are standing.) 

GNU Pterry - your name is spoken and you are remembered.

Italian Taxing the Brain

After more than a month off, due to bereavement, a holiday, and the Beloved's recent bout of cellulitis, it was time to get back to Italian.

Anna had us take it in turn to name things in the house, and to fit them into a Scrabble-like grid system. It proved to be very tricky. In situations like that my brain freezes, and I forget everything. After we had enough words we had to write sentences using those words. 

I have decided I need to put in a lot more effort into my Italian, and actually do work outside of class. My goal is to become familiar with 30 house related words before class next week.

My first ten includes some new, some old: il tavolo (the table), la sedia (the chair), il divano (the sofa), il cuscino (the cushion), il telefono (the telephone), il televisore (the television), le scale (the stairs), la lampada (the lamp), il tappeto (the rug), and lo specchio (the mirror).

A Crown for the Beloved

The Beloved was in the shop the other day and spotted an alpaca hat. He was rather taken with it, and asked if I might be able to knit him a new hat. A good few years ago I knitted him a red woollen hat. It's great, it's warm, but when he gets hot the hat starts to make him itchy. The hope was the alpaca would not do the same thing.

The hat has been started. It's a bit unusual. Twenty four stitches were cast on, and a cabled strip will be knitted. When it's the right size to fit around his head I'll join the ends and then pick up 72sts  from one edge. This will form the main part of the hat.  

The yarn is King Cole Alpaca Chunky in grey. The balls are 50g, and I expect to use 2 balls.

Carrot Cake

Ingredients

285g self raising flour

340g sugar

2 tsp baking powder

85g flaked almonds or chopped nuts

3 tsp ground cinnamon
0.5 tsp ground ginger

300ml sunflower oil

285g grated carrots

4 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

Method

Place all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the oil, eggs, vanilla and carrots, one ingredient at a time, mixing well between additions. Pour into a baking tray (30x20cm, and bake at 180C for 40 mins.

Notes
The original recipe called for 2 tsp of ground ginger. This was way, way too much for my tastes, and I have knocked it back to half a teaspoon instead. 

The first time, I make carrot cake I used chopped cashews. That was all I had available. They were okay, just. The second time, I used pecans, and that has worked a great deal better.

Plastic Busters!

Plastic Busters are busting plastic in the area around 'Pets at Home'. I would have loved to have gone, but it overlaps with 'Shut Up and Write' in a different area of town. Instead, I've decided to do an hour of litter picking around the area of 'Shut Up'. I won't have the company of fellow Plastic Busters, but I will be able to be silent for an hour, writing with other writers.

In previous weeks, I have been writing about Finn and Onni, Dwynwen, The Knights of the Talking Hat, and The Despicable Sprue. This week, I have been writing a week of blog posts.

My goal for nest week is to write daily. We'll see how that works out!

…

And, I've just realised the Plastic Busting is next week, not this one!

Even More Nothing

How much more nothing can I do?  And does binge-watching Netflix count as 'nothing'?

More Nothing

More nothing. That's wrong - more being in the moment, and not requiring myself to be creative nor crafty. It's good. 

Although, I did finish knitting a pink 'kitty hat' which had been started in February.

Miso Sabbatico

We've had a break from Italian classes for the last month. This is my last free Tuesday afternoon, and I managed to fit in a whole load of nothing.  I have no guilt, nor shame in the doing of nothing. It's doing it's job of bringing me back onto an even keel, and I am deeply appreciative.

I've also gone back to quilting. It's good to be back. My Ducky Ducky Duck Duck quilt has almost been completed. This is rather good as my boss has asked if I have a quilt she could display in the shop. There will be a photographer in, and my quilt will add a bit of colour.

Happy St David's Day

Happy St David's Day! Leeks, daffodils, dragons, and all things Welsh. And for my elder offspring, Stitch, "Mousey Cunta".

When Stitch was a little bit off her fourth birthday, she started learning about St David.  One of the songs she was learning was "Mawrth y cyntaf" (The First of March). This was mangled into 'Mousey cunta'. Each year, I remember the cute little almost 4 year old, and wish her a 'Mousey cunta'.

As well as today being leeks, daffodils, dragons and all things Welsh, it is the start of Plastic Busters' March Challenge - pick up 3 pieces of plastic each day.

My first day out brought in quite a haul. It is so incredibly hard to stop at 3 things. Instead, I picked up plastic, paper, metal and cigarette butts. The largest item was a hub cap! 

I had a wonderful thought, I'd save up all of the litter, and photograph it at the end of the month. The Beloved vetoed that brilliant idea. His reasons were hygiene and smell. Pathetic!  (But also right, which makes it worse.) My collection was photographed and tossed in the bin.

March Goals

1. 'No buy Sundays'

2. finish pink 'kitty hat'
3. make a hat for the Beloved
4. finish Ducky Ducky Duck Duck quilt
5. 30 day wish list

Every so often I want to have a 'no buy month', and each time I have failed. Two things I have learned, 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.' and if the task is too big, break it down into smaller chunks.

A month is too big, too hard, but I reckon I can manage 'no buy Sundays'. I shall practise this idea this month and see how I do. If it goes well, I'll add in a 'no non-essentials Mondays', and gradually build up.

The fifth item on the list is '30 day wish list'. I've done this before, and it was a great way of reducing impulse buys. If I want an item it is written on my list. If at the end of 30 days I still want it I can buy it. What happened last time was I would then take the time to find the best version I could rather than buying the first one I saw.