Warmer Weather

Loch Scotland
Today's cool, rainy weather reminds me a little of Scotland.

Today in Maryland it's rainy and cool in the lower 50s. I love weather like this. It brings strong memories of sweaters, wood smoke, and splashing in puddles with my rain boots on. Weather like this makes me feel like I could tramp across miles of hillsides and through acres of woods. It's strongly invigorating, as if I could do anything. The sensation is interesting, almost like an early spring feeling. What a great way to start off the new year!

I tried to get a head start on my new year's "resolutions" last month. I'm not a big fan of New Year resolutions, because I feel like I should be starting and accomplishing goals on an ongoing basis. I did get together a list of books I'd like to read this year, like getting in a few auto biographies (Helen Keller & Benjamin Franklin) and educational books amongst the slew of fiction and mysteries that I usually enjoy reading. Speaking of auto biographies, last year I read Julie Andrew's autobiography about her early years and it was wonderful!

I also got a jump start on getting caught up on scrapbooks for our kids and our family. I do digital scrapbooking through Snapfish and I love it. I can get so much done in so little time and I don't have to sit there cutting things out or taping things down. That is way, way too tedious for me! The holiday time has the best sales on photo books, and I'm thrilled that I just got 2 book printed for a sweet deal. Hooray!

When it comes to homesteading stuff, it's easy to get discouraged when you live in a rented townhouse with a sliver of a backyard and not much license to do things. But, I'm trying to stay positive! While I can't have chickens, I have actually been reminiscing with my family about the time we had birds when I was a kid, a cockatiel and a love bird. Thinking about those old birds has actually helped me feel hopeful - that we will have chickens one day and that I can have the confidence in keeping chickens because they're birds! That might sound silly, but getting animals that are unfamiliar can be a little intimidating. I'm also hoping to have a garden, even if it's a tiny one. I strongly suspect my tomatoes from last year didn't thrive because I used a mulch with black walnut wood in it, which I found out is poisonous to tomato plants!

For my homesteading skills goals I'm planning on trying out felting, becoming intimately familiar with my pressure cooker and pressure canner (I'm not quite as scared of them as I used to be) and that means reading the manual! I am also in the process of finishing my first, tiny skein of yarn from spinning to plying to finishing. Woo! I'm really excited about that. (Pictures will be coming soon.) I'm also hoping to deepen my knowledge on homesteading skills that I'd like to able to use in the future like larger scale gardening, animal husbandry, and building.

I hope that your new year will be full of exciting, fun things. Try something new!