forestofglory

I have been meaning to come here and chat about my sewing projects but a lot has been going on.

We had another storm, and last Tuesday at noon or power went out and remained out until Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. our house got really cold. It's surprisingly difficult to focus even on things that can be done without power while the power is out. So my week has been disrupted.

Meanwhile my family has been having various medical issues my mother fell and now the chip in her humerus. Unfortunately she's in a lot of pain.

And my mother-in-law had a tooth extracted and is slowly recovering. She's on a soft food diet right now.

But I want to give you a quick sewing you update anyways. I finished the short sleeved top I was working on. And cut out another one which I haven't started sewing yet. And I have made a little bit of progress with one of the baby quotes I'm working on piecing. Plus the kid has wanted to do some small projects. We made a quilt and are working on some pillows for her stuffies. It continues to be slow going but satisfying.

This week I've been trying to finish up as many of my monthly goals as possible while also not overdoing things with my wrist. It's a *fun* balancing act. On Tuesday I realized that I would be happier if finished at least some of the goals rather than having them all almost done. I so I decided to focus on the easiest to finish goal and do that when my wrist allows, and then the next easiest, and so on an so forth. I've manged two goals this way, I'm not sure that I'll finish any of the others, but I do feel better about things.

Tomorrow I'm taking the kid on her first ever camping trip. She's so excited! I have not been camping in years, so I asked a friend who goes camping a lot to help us out. We are going car camping pretty close to where we live, so if things go wrong we will have the option to go home.

I’m very much a creature of habit, I like to have a routine and stick with it. At the moment part of my routine is going on a walk everyday. I’m also very repetitive about the walks that I go on. I have two regular routes and I rarely vary them. Walking the same routes all the time is a bit meditative and I like not having to think about where I’m going. I can put my brain on autopilot and think about all kinds of things. I like walking by the same gardens frequently and seeing how they change.Walks are good for thinking, but sometimes instead of letting my mind wander I listen to a podcast.

One route is a bit longer than the other, and I decide which route to take based on factors like how much energy I have, how cold it is, and how much time I have. Living in the hills means no flat places to walk, and both routes have a fair amount of ups and downs. Living in the hills also means some great views, and there are several spots where I can stop on a clear day and look out over the bay and the city and the golden gate bridge.

I've come to the the conclusion that I don't epecailly like cooking, but I really like feeding people. So this I was very happy that this Thanksgiving it was safe enough to invite local family to celebrate. When I moved back to the Bay Area after grad school I took over Thanksgiving. This was not a discussion, I just told my mom that I was in charge. This year we had nine people totally.

I cooked all day, with plenty of breaks. Kitchen help and child care provided by R and my brother. The kid also "helped out" with some of the cooking. She helped cut up bread for the stuffing and peeled potatoes! I was a little bit sick, but so so happy to get to have big family dinner.

And soon it will be Hanukkah and I will fry things in oil and feed them to more people!

In the last week I have done so many things that I had not done in ages and ages! It was overwhelming actually. As of Tuesday I am fully vaccinated! Along with all the adults in my household and my parents household. (My brother lives with my parents). We are extremely lucky to have access to the vaccines.

Wednesday my friend M came over after work. She was able to come into the house and take her mask off! I got to show her my various sewing project and she got to hang out with the kid for a bit. Then we went out to dinner and ate outside and place with table service. The restaurant had taken over a couple of parking spaces outside, which where surrounded by a bright blue fence, and the pavement was covered in astroturf We got to eat bibimbop of real stone bowls! It was so good. I've had take out bibimbop a few times over the last year and its just not the same.

Friday I saw my cousins in person! My cousins on my dad's side where in town for a memorial and we decided to have little family gathering. We met up at my parents house and walked up to the shopping distinct near by with my brother and the kid. I actually went inside a bookstore. We bought the kid some ice cream and my cousins bought some wine. By the end out it I was actually in auditory overload mode, and when we got back I had to sit quietly by myself for a bit. But after that we had lovely dinner of Burmese takeout.

The on Saturday I went to children's birthday party which was held outside in a friends backyard. We all wore masks except while eating. My kid had a great time. There was treasure hunt with pirate themed treasure and pizza and cake and ice cream.

After more than a year of isolation this was all so much. It turns out that interacting with the built enviroment outside my house is just a lot. Things that wouldn't have been a bid deal before the pandemic felt like too much stimulation. I spent all of Sunday more or less in a fugue state to tired to really do anything at all. I

So one result of my recent enjoyment of Chinese dramas is that I've been learning about and tasting more tea.

It started when I was working on my Guardian Food and Drink Project. Someone commented on one of my posts about it with a link to this the Tea House Ghost Youtube Chanel and I enjoyed those videos very much! But for a while that was all. Fancy tea is intimidating, its expensive and it seemed like you need a lot of special equipment.

However earlier this year I decided that rather than being sensible and finding some good surveys of Chinese history I was going to dive into the deep end with some very focused academic history books. And the first thing I read was Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History by James A. Benn. Which I really adored.

So that got me to take a few more steps. I order a tea filter and a few samples of different Chinese style teas. The tea filter is just a mess basket that sits in my tea mug, and you put the leaves in there while the tea is brewing. I also started actually timing how long my tea brews for, which isn't as complicated as I thought. I can use the clock on my phone.

So the tea samples where very enjoyable, and I wrote a fic featuring a lot of tea, and read another book about the history of tea in China (The Rise of Tea Culture in China by Bret Hinsch) so I decided to order more tea. After asking around I ordered form TeaVivre I still wasn't sure what I liked so I ordered a bunch of sample packs and also some things that where on sale. It's been great to have lots of try.

So far I've learned that I really like pu-erh, and don't like oolong. (I sent the extra oolong to a good home). Not only is the pu-erh delicious but its relatively low fuss. I got a bunch of mini tuochas or tiny cakes of pressed tea so its all pre-measured. Unlike some of the other teas I have it brews with boiling water so I don't have to fussy with trying to cool the water down. Also it can be brewed many, many times!

With green teas I'm still figuring out what I like. I've enjoyed the dragon well tea I have now and the sample of Bi Luo Chun was very tasty too. The fact that I don't have precise control of the water temperature is making trying the green teas a bit more difficult. I have fancy kettle that does variable temperatures on my wish list, I'm hoping some one will give it to me for my birthday if not I will buy it for myself.

Tea is great! It has been lovely to learn more about the history of tea and also taste a lot of different teas. It is a bit complicated to do loose leaf tea, but its simpler than I thought. Do you have favorite teas? I'd love to hear about them!

Bits an bobs is my many short unrelated things make a post category. Comments on any topic welcome, no need to comment on all of them.

*Our neighbor got some yeast form her daughter's restaurant and shared it with us! R made some yummy sandwich bread and I the kid and I made challah. We also got some bread and pastry for a local bakery. There was mix up and our order was ready to pick up on Friday instead of today, so for bit we where worried we would have too much bread! But we gave my mom a loaf of the challah an where able to freeze some of the other bread so none of it should go to waste.

*We have been taking the kid on some walks and such to try and get some of her energy out. Last Wednesday for Earth Day we went on a longer walk with some signs telling us about the native plants. It was nice, but the trail was super narrow it was hard to pass people.

*The weather here has been pretty nice. It was so rainy last month that everything is still very green! But except for the last few days which have been a bit too hot it has been pleasantly warm outside, which makes for especially lovely walks.

*I have gotten slightly further with the dress I'm sewing that uses a new pattern. I have printed out and taped together all the pieces! Meanwhile I have also cut out all the pieces for yet another quilt top -- yes I know I have three unfinished quilt tops, and I shouldn't really start another one. But I like making them so much. Sadly I don't like making the rest of the quilt as much as I like piece the tops, but I am making small amounts of progress towards finishing the others in that I have ordered fabric for backing, and batting. My local fabric store is doing curbside pick up!

*Yesterday was my mother's annual tea party. She has one every year to celebrate the anniversary of her cancer diagnosis. 23 years this year! We have whole menu that we do most years, scones, and ginger pound cake, and little sandwiches. Of course we couldn't do that this year. But I made some scones and my brother took some across town so he and my parents could have some. And we had Zoom call with lots of my mother's friends. It was nice that some far away people could join us, who normally wouldn't make it, but I still wished that I could feed everyone scones!

I thought I should write an update about how I'm doing. ( cut for current events )

Well we are now halfway through February so it's time for another goals update.

1) Post some Hugo recs
I have gotten started on this over the last week. I hope to post a few more categories before the end of the month.

2) Read or DNF all the 2019 short SFF I have bookmarked
I'm making progress on this! Despite having added a bunch more stories to the list, I think I now have fewer to-read 2019 stories that I did at the start of the month. I've also read a couple of the novellas I had on my ereader, though I have a acquired a few more. Plus I have two on hold at the library.

3) Write at least one sentence about nature or the built enviroment everyday
So far so good. I was secretly hoping that doing this would inspire me to want to write something longer on these topics and so far that hasn't happened. But its nice to write about this stuff without worrying about other people reading it. When I try to write something people will see I always get so tangled up in not knowing what is common knowledge and what I need to explain.

4) Finish the shirt I'm sewing and cut out another one
I have finished the shirt except for the buttons and button holes. I got some really cute rabbit shaped buttons but now I have to figure out what size to make the button holes and its a pain so I haven't sewn in a few days.

5)Finish School Enrollment Paperwork
I did this! It was epic. I need so many forms and profs of address. Then I had to go in person during business hours. A lawyer friend called the process "unreasonable and burdensome" when I told her about it. However its done now and I don't have to do anything until June.

6) Enjoy the long weekend where R will be at a con and my cousin and her family will be in town visiting
This is starting today. R is heading out for his con this afternoon and getting back Monday. My cousins will be showing up tomorrow. I am looking forwards to seeing them! I expect I'll need to go flop for a bit on Tuesday though.

7) Book flights to WisCon!
No progress on this one. But I still have two weeks so hopefully soon.

Well I feel pretty good about how I am doing with all of these goals. It's nice for me to have these check ins so I can see concretely that I am getting stuff done. Otherwise I just feel like I'm not doing anything with my time. (Of course theirs the other part of my brain that's like you can't post about how much you are getting done that would be boasting. Sometimes my brain is a jerk but I'm working on doing stuff anyways.)

How is your month going so far?

Bits an bobs is my many short unrelated things make a post category. Comments on any topic welcome, no need to comment on all of them.

*It has been raining since Thanksgiving, and everyone in my household expect me has been sick with a bad cold. The kid stayed home on Monday (which is a work day for me) but was well enough to go to preschool yesterday and today. However this morning she slept in almost and hour and was late to school.

*Many of my internet pals have offered to send holiday cards and I have signed up for a lot of them. I'm excited that I will be getting mail, though I feel a little bad that I'm not sending anyone anything. I am however pleased that I realized I can used some of the space I created by getting rid of books that I'm not friends with to display all my holiday cards. I now have a nice empty shelf waiting.

*I have stared reading Winnie-the-Pooh to my kid! As you might have gathered form my icons, I'm very fond of Winnie-the-Pooh, and its lovely to share something something I love with my kid. Also rereading the stories again, I'm charmed once again by the characters and the the prose.

*I have been meaning to upgrade to a paid account for ages, and I finally did it yesterday since the sale announcement reminded me. I'm not sure if I will actually use any of the paid features, but I'm happy to give DW some money. Maybe I will go upload some more icons? I have been remembering to use different icons for posts and comments slightly more recently and it might be nice to have a few more. Anyone have recommendations for places to find icons?