Knitting and Reading

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I’m not quite ready. Each year I envision that I’ll have all my Christmas busy work mostly done in November, so that all of December I can easily move through the month, baking and decorating and listening to good holiday music. Every single year for about 7 years I’ve had that grand plan in place from January to October. Then November rushes by as fast as any month can with hardly a moment to prepare. This year I did pretty good. I didn’t fuss much over what to get anyone, I bought quickly and with firm decision. But there are always so many loose ends to finish up! Oy!
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The kids opened their advent calendar the other morning and declared (that day) that there were only 8 more days until Christmas Eve, which is when my entire back seized up and the countless loose ends went spinning through my head. Yesterday I woke up with excruciating pain bolting through my back thanks to the bolt of reality I was shocked with the day before. Nothing on my to-do list involved not moving, so I went about my day, but boy when those kids got in bed, I sat right down in that couch with a heating pad on my back and my knitting in hand. I’m still working on Relax, which is still a fitting name for a garment. The knitting work isn’t all that relaxing as you work back and forth working front and back separately. There’s a lot of purling involved, as much purling as knitting…and as I’ve said before, Elizabeth Zimmerman was right, no one wants to purl if they don’t have to. The Madeline Tosh yarn is incredible. Rain Water it’s called.
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Yes, I’m reading Taproot, but I’m also reading Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison. Though it’s the base of the movie by the same name, this book is actually a collection of three short stories, all which I’ve sunk right into. He’s certainly become on of my favorite story tellers. It’s amazing to me how good writers can combine words so beautifully.

We had a long series of freezing weather last week, which took a hard toll on our citrus. We must have had a hard freeze three years ago, right before we moved here, because the three citrus trees that were here looked dead when we moved in. Two came right back to life. The lemon tree especially. We babied that thing and this year it finally seemed to be thriving with hundreds of lemons all over it. And then the freeze hit this year. The poor thing. We wrapped with with both christmas lights and sheets. It will make it, but it sure does look pathetic now. The second unknown citrus was about to reveal it’s character to us as it had finally set fruit, but it took the brunt of the freeze and looks as dead as can be. The lime tree looks bedraggled and the kafir looks kaput. A tough winter for our citrus.

Comments

  1. Mom says

    Wow, those are Grandma’s Scotch Toffee Bars aren’t they. I LOVE those cookies. Thanks for the inspiration. I’m going to whip up a batch. Wonder why we only make these at Christmas time? We need to change that. We also need to talk about your attitude about Christmas. It will never be relaxing. Once you accept that and take the whole holiday thing on as a business challenge it is so much better.

  2. says

    The citrus down here in Santa Rosa didn’t fare any better than yours, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed they will pull out of it. Sure doesn’t look promising right now :(

  3. says

    I feel your citrus pain! For the first time ever I’ve had more than one lemon on my tree, in fact there are seven but I think the freeze has had its way with them. Boo hoo.

    I hope your back feels better.

  4. says

    Oh, the citrus! I completely sympathize, as mine are my favs! We hit single digits during that week (NEVER happens here in the Wilamette Valley) and mine were in my small greenhouse with a 100 watt bulb on. I know the Kumquat came through unscathed, but the limes and Meyer lemons? We’ll see…
    I hope your back is healed up. It’s tough to be grounded with little ones any time of the year, let alone Christmas time!

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