Wordless Wednesday

I huli the O/C1 and 2

Last night I took my small boat training. This culminated in the three students going out into the harbour with our instructor Diane, capsizing the 1 and the 2 and climbing back in to them. Once we are successful with that we get a key to unlock the small craft and we can book them out whenever we want and they are available.
I was able to get into the 2 with no problem; it is very flat and close to the water. But I could not make it into the 1. It was pretty embarassing; try as I might I couldn't get myself up over the gunnel and into the boat! Exhausted, I got into the 2 and paddled to shore. Diane gave me my key after we talked about how to practice getting into the boat. I can't of course take it out alone, but I will take it out with someone else and try to have a successful huli. I realise now what things were working against me - I had on the wrong clothes. The sweatpant shorts just don't work for boating, I knew that but was putting off buying something more suitable. Also, I didn't have my lifejacket done up tightly enough. I was also trying to get into the canoe using my right side as the dominant side, and being left handed I was not, therefore, using my stronger side. Next time I'll use the other alma to get in the boat at the bow. No one will be able to say I didn't try to get in the boat though - I have the BIGGEST bruises on my inner arms, from elbow to armpit, I have ever seen. One of them woke me up in the night with the throbbing!! My chest, shoulder and upper arm muscles are stiff from trying to get in the boat. At least I can practice and do better next time!!

solitude was productive

John is due back this afternoon; he and Amber left on Tuesday night to go to Alberta to move Emily to Vancouver. I've had a truly wonderful quiet time but i am looking forward to seeing him. I am amazed and filled with gratitude that we have weathered the relationship storms we have and we are still together, still committed to each other.
anyways....
I made some stuff. The long necklace (50") is from labradorite and silver beads. I put them on silver flexwire. it is everything from a choker necklace to something long and swingy to a bracelet.
Next, I made a bracelet with tiny labradorite beads and silver beads. I can't put it on to take the photo as it is too small for me but when Jayne gets here I'll ask her to model it. It is nice, tho...

I also made some stitch markers:


and some fun little bracelets.....



All this and more will be at my booth at the Gibsons Landing Fibre Arts Festival in August. Wow, I better get cracking!!

Wordless Wednesday

Canada Day Parade

summer thoughts

This is a good summer for our family. John has his free boat in the water and was fishing last night. I helped him drag his boat into the water (free boats don't need trailers) so he could go out and check his crab pot - which is missing as he thinks he and Sarah put it out with too little line to the buoy - and he stayed out there fishing until I came back from my AlAnon meeting. When I went to help him bring the boat in, it was certainly a beautiful sight; calm waters, John and his boat, fishing, BIG tug with BIGGER log boom chugging past, Vancouver Island in the distance. Aah I am most grateful for my life...
Yesterday afternoon Amber spotted my new beads that just came in the mail - very funky colourful shell pendants and acrylic beads - and announced she wanted to make a necklace. So I showed her a few supplies, and gave some basic instructions, and away she went! We had to stop to make supper and go to my meeting, but as soon as I got back she was sitting at the table waiting to finish it. I'll post a picture this afternoon after I get back from work; it is quite lovely and summerish!!
Tonight is outrigger paddling, I think the whole team is going to show up. It looks as if it will be a lovely day for it. I bought a few rock plants to put between the rocks where the sign is, and i'll put those in when i get back tonight. I bought 4 different plants so I can see which one I like the best. Try as I might, I couldn't find the plants labelled "Purple and pink rock garden plants that the person that lives on the detour when they are working on the highway putting in the water main" anywhere....

"NewWorldOrder"ism

There have been so many things lately that I've figured out about the past, my relationships with others. I need to start writing them down; I've forgotten some of them. This blog is as good a place as any. They aren't so much revelations, they are just ruminations, thoughts, on how things are now and how that helps me make sense of how things were.
this one came to me today, driving home from buying tahini paste:
I am hypersensitive about Johns' relationships with his girls since he's sobered up. I wasn't sure what that was all about. Didn't make me do anything weird or crazy, i just noticed some anxiety around it. Today i realised that when i was a kid, I was expected to take a side, either Mum's side or Dad's side, when they were fighting and he had been drinking. It was very difficult to pick a side; if you picked the one side or the other it would mean getting hurt or getting rewarded (which i would pay for later from the side I didn't pick). Because John has talked to his girls through all this stuff I realised that I was scared if they were talking to him it meant they weren't talking to me; that they had chosen his side, not mine.
Now that I've figured out that one, i can let it go....

Gardening

I also wanted to show you pictures of the gardens. When the folks were here last they helped me with the west garden bed. We cleaned it up and put landscape cloth down, and then John got a load of wood chips and spread them out. Looks pretty nice, hey?

Also, John made a great post for the name and house number sign. We didn't really even know that this pile of rocks was in fact a bed, a place that was probably used, years ago, for the purpose we are going to use it now! When Joan comes to visit I've asked her to go to the nurseries with me to find some suitable rock wall plants. She loves visiting nurseries, and as she'll be here three days it will give us something to do.
Here's a picture of the "post in waiting"