Let’s catch up

Yes, it has been a while (aside from a couple of days ago 😉 ). It would have been easy to let blogging slide, but I don’t want that. I love writing. Equally I love all of you, my online tribe, and I miss chatting to you.

When I last wrote I had grand plans for sewing each day and blogging each week, which I managed for a couple of weeks. The last couple of months have been rather strange, with some challenges I have had to work my way through. I am content with where I am now, and hope to be a regular writer….but we will see.

What’s helped me gat back on track?

Maybe it’s getting the right medication at the right doses. It has taken a while to get the dosage right for the Fella’s heart issues. It seems to be at the right level now. I have been changing and adjusting the medication I take for my polymyalgia rheumatica. Like many autoimmune conditions, one of the debilitating effects is fatigue. There was a period where I just couldn’t be bothered. Now I am full of beans and want to be active.

Maybe it’s trying to be more mindful, more in the present. When things are challenging it is so easy to slip into a mindset that looks for dangers, to anticipate what might go wrong, to imagine about worst case scenarios.

A little of that helps me see problems that might arise and to make plans. Too much makes me hyper-vigilant. I am trying to do the things that are good for me ~ taking time to be in the present, where nothing needs to be done, just be; to breath deeply; to engage my brain and notice things; to walk; drink more water; eat more vegetables. To create. To blog and connect with friends.

Maybe it is having had Covid, which happened a few weeks ago. I was lucky, only having a mild illness. I caught it from my mother, who also came through it okay. Amazingly the Fella didn’t get it, despite also being with my mother and then not being able to isolate from each other at home. I know the pandemic is not over; I know that I can get it again and that the Fella can get it; I know that it may be worse next time. However I also know that I can cope. It’s time to emerge, sensibly.

Maybe it is the improvement in the weather. Today is a beautiful day. The sort of day where everyone you meet says “I hope you can get to enjoy some of this beautiful sunshine today.” You can feel Spring on its way.

Maybe it is that my AFL team, Collingwood, is doing remarkably well. 11 wins in a row and 2nd on the ladder. (I am a very fair-weather supporter, and only get up and about when they are doing well!)

And maybe it is all these things coming together. The challenges are not over, but I have learnt that I have all I need within me to meet them. That’s a powerful feeling.

Now on to my creative work….

I finished the map of the Maribyrnong River that I was working on last time we met.

I am still thinking of stitching maps, and last week worked on this one of the wetlands near me. The first photo is when I thought it was finished, the second when it was actually finished. It needed to have more density around the edges, more reedy, soggy vegetation.

The tangled, tufty stitch is velvet stitch, which I learnt from my stitching wheel sampler. I like the 3D effect it gives to the work. And a close up:

I am going to do a companion to this one, and maybe more ~ I do like working a series. It’s finding the time to set it up, because caring for someone is very time consuming and what time is left is easy to fritter away. At least now I can be bothered.

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I respectfully acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land on which I live – the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung People of the Kulin Nation, their spirits, ancestors, elders and community members past and present. The land I show in these embroidered maps was, and always will be Aboriginal land.