Summer briefing

While I’m cooking up that promised weaving post, I’m going to drag you through a bit of a general status update of life at the cottage.

My focus on “making” is in some ways the same as it’s ever been, but those of you that have visited me for years can probably see that I’m not very productive anymore. I was actually hoping that working on things to work on them, and not with the short term purpose of having something to publish, would somehow UP my productivity, but that hasn’t really happened now that I look back. Something I need to ponder – I still believe in the theory, but I may have fallen prey to simply faffing about more, testing and doodling without any specific outcome because I’m not holding myself accountable to anyone. I wish I could say this has had some profound end results but right now it simply looks like aimless noodling I’m afraid.

It will be interesting to see if all of my hobbies will fall by the wayside eventually, one by one like the horseriding, plant dyeing, and if, then what will happen? Crossword puzzles forever?

Garden:

One of the few things I managed to get in the ground this year was potatoes – then couldn’t do the work of maintaining them, so I got out a few straw bales to cover them up instead of having to bend over and dig. Well, there were peas, but the deer run rampant in our garden since we no longer have dogs, and they keep eating the tops off, as well as the strawberry plants, lettuce….

Look how dry everything is! Like many places in Europe, this summer has been sunny, dry and hot. I know it’s disaster for the farmers, but I have to say I’m rather pleased after the wet, slug-infested 2017 version. Some of my tiny newly planted trees in the field have died off though, after looking just dandy in May with all new leaves; shame on me for not checking on them. We also could not light our annual bonfire because of the dry grass and high winds, so we’ll have to get rid of those piles in winter (or risk a fine apparently). All of my berries however seem to be doing well for some reason.

One side of the old hedges has been trying to fall over sideways for years, so I decided to take my trimming to the extreme – if I don’t try I won’t know if it works! The entire heavy top half came off, next year we see if it turns green again.

Exercise update:

Not going too well. I’ve had some problems working through my back pain, for a while it goes well, then I need to take a break. Multiple many migraines and headaches in winter and spring. I thought I had a handle on it again (craniosacral therapy + electrolytes!), now there’s some inflammation going on with my knees and ankle (all over actually, but a sore shoulder or thumb isn’t much of a problem for jogging). So my plans to drop those last 10 kg over summer have come to nothing so far, in fact my weight and measurements have stayed put for a year now despite getting stronger. My added focus on this is also one of the reasons I’ve not been doing as many crafty things, I thought it would be a temporary trade and then I’d be roaring along with new energy, so it’s time to ponder this as well.

In other words, my hopes that exercise would help with my back and joint pains were completely wasted – but I’m caught in the conundrum that if I just stop – then it gets worse! I’m giving my PT another shot with some new allround exercises instead of the ones I came up with myself; at least it’s become more of a habit for me to just do these things without internal arguments and prepping, the cardio too, which is something I’ve sworn for my entire life would not happen… in fact it looks like I may have overdone it when I thought I was just trundling about being all smug about the new me. (jogging “barefoot” in the woods)

Anyway, if you were waiting for results, just move along, nothing to see here… The only bit of good news is that my fatigue levels are pretty much the same as before exercising, so I have in a sense increased my stamina although I’m not feeling it, I just spend all of the extra energy from the training ON the training.

A friend recommended the book “The Wahls Protocol”. It’s about MS, which I don’t have, but here’s an interesting observation which I wonder if it could apply to ME, fibromyalgia etc: She predicts a 5 YEAR healing period before your diet and lifestyle changes have turned everything over completely. That takes a lot of patience and dedication which many people don’t have I guess – and if nothing much changes in a few months we tend to give it up and say it didn’t work for us. Thoughts on this?

Shop news:

I absolutely have not taken the time to update and promote my redbubble store. 🙁

I did order a few printed items to check on the quality, and overall I’m quite happy with them. ESPECIALLY the bags are great sturdy fabric and good print! I also ordered some notebooks, stickers, which are not quite as glossy as I’d like, the scarf my mum got was also good, the top a completely wrong fit for me. And to boot, they sent me the wrong size, which I’ve decided to offer here for half price (send me a note). But you have to be quick about it before I cut it up to make sleeves for its replacement, which I got free of charge, no need to return, I’ll give them that much.

It measures 48 cm across under the armpits and the back is stretchy.

Elsewhere:

I’ve been posting a bit over at the paint blog, a few vague attempts at instagramming, but been too lazy to copy or reblog and make explanations. Definitely a case in favour of having just one blog for everything!

Cold wax and oil

New experiment

Upcoming: Wet panel storage solution, Natural pigments.

10 thoughts on “Summer briefing

  1. All very intersting, my friend! It will also be interesting to see if you get this?
    I love the garden pics and those flowers are divine!
    Your Red Bubble gear looks great! Might have to give that a go. Would it be easy enough for a tech challenge dill, like me… lol??

  2. Ah, yes, that is one thing I don’t have conrol over on a free site – and since I currently have more than one, not knowing which direction I’ll end up focusing on, it would be costly to pay for three. And if I host them somewhere else I need to start from scratch finding “followers” (I don’t really like that word). My DK self-hosted site has 2 followers – and one of them is my mum!

  3. Jo, fem år er ikke helt ved siden af. FOr godt 5 år siden (april 2013) opdagede jeg FODMAp kuren. Nu er den – med modifikationer, blevet hverdag, og jeg er klar til at begynde et træningsprogram til opvækkelse af sløve og halvdøde muskler og opbyggelse af styrke.
    Så kan jeg se frem til 5 år før træning bliver hverdag 😉
    Jeg er som sædvanlig glad for at se og høre nyt fra dig, og glæder mig til at høre mere om din væning. Kan du væve dpbbeltvæv?

    1. Dobbeltvæv kan jo tage flere former, men jeg har da leget med det. Søger du nogen speciel information, eller? 🙂

      Blog om halvgamle væveprojekter sat på til fredag – så ikke alting udkommer samtidig.

  4. Crossword puzzles forever! It sounds like the slogan of a slightly wild-hearted gang of middle aged ladies who rabidly love words 🙂 I’m sorry about the ongoing pain, I hope you find some solid healing from it soon. <3

  5. Apart from the exercise regime I can relate to a lot of this, unfortunately (though I do do some resistance exercises now, but I’m taking it very slowly. I am building muscle and strength though).

    Five years for healing? I can believe that, but yes, it’s hard to persist for that long. And I found depression really got in the way of a lot of the things I usually do to maintain and hopefully improve my health – no motivation makes it very hard to do things I don’t love, like yoga, even if I do feel better for doing them. but then, I think when I’m depressed, there’s a stage I go through when I don’t actually want to feel better.

    After a couple of years (actually three) dedicated to trying to heal I’m actually giving it a break anyway – it may be the depressed me that made that decision, but I’m tired of putting off things I want to do, to some unknown point in the future, so I can focus on healing now, when healing isn’t happening, or takes so damn long. My life is moving forward, I’m getting older, and I want to create a good life even if I don’t heal. Okay now I’m going to make this a blog post, thanks for the inspiration!

    1. Yes, I can relate. I don’t get actual depressions I think, but shortlived (thankfully) mini-versions where my thinking is “upside-down” and my former motivation doesn’t even seem logical, or I don’t care if it is, because yeah, whatever and what has it even done for me? Where I take an hour to get out of bed after waking etc.

      It’s become like an obsession to get my stamina back and it definitely drains the attention to all the fun things, the painting mode of thinking having to share. I’ve learned not to hate it, but it’s still on the chores list, not the hobby list.

      And I have all sorts of resistance to trying out the new exercises I got from PT last week because it’s such a bother to have to concentrate on learning and remembering the new routine, even if it makes a lot of sense!

      So I get the notion completely about learning to arrange a satisfying life WITH the disabilities, both pain and fatigue. I’ll probably not stop, but, I’ve considered halting any plans of progress, ie no pushing longer, harder stretches, just maintaining the level I’m already at for a good while. Hopefully that could end up feeling easy instead of always “giving it all +” – This was my end goal for when I became as fit as I ideally wanted to be, but maybe it’s a better strategy even now.

      It’s like a part time job actually, constantly focusing on both muscle improvement and diet, so I get a bit annoyed when people tell me I could get a new dog for instance “so that I have something to do”.

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