Without wishing to complain or feel sorry for myself, lately I have been feeling quite keenly the lack of a community with which to share my interests and values. I do have a few friends in the village, and I run the baby and toddler group and Ivy is in school now, so I do feel fairly involved, but that is not enough to replace having a group of people who you can bounce ideas off of, and share knowledge and enthusiasm with.
My mother was not interested in things like sewing, gardening cooking, etc, so it was not a part of my culture growing up, especially as we lived in the city without a garden at all for much of my life, and it is only as an adult that I have had the freedom and resources to discover how important these things are for me. Perhaps I was overly optimistic when we moved out of the city, thinking that I would be surrounded by people who share these interests. Alas we are not, and it is tiring to be regarded as quirky for things that are so important and valuable to me. I find myself envying people who live in strictly moral communities like the Amish because at least they know what they are doing. Anyway, it's all by the by I suppose. But to anybody reading - consider this an advert; currently recruiting outdoorsy, jam-making, gardening, homey, simple friends.
Onto more positive things. It was my birthday last week and I had all of my family visiting including both of my parents who are separated - my father lives in America - so that was a real treat. I was given some wonderful presents, things that I will really treasure , the highlight of which was certainly a canner. I have been after one for quite a while and they are difficult and expensive to buy in this country. So I have been canning mad, preserving veg from the garden in brine, relishes, salsa and chutneys. I can't wait to try more different things.
Our garden is winding down now after an incredibly productive summer, but we are still hoping to grow as much as we can over winter. It will not be enough to provide all of the veg that we need, but it is our first winter growing so anything will be a success.
I am very keen to do some sewing. It has been a long time and I don't know if or how I will find the opportunity to, but there are things that I need, and more than anything I just don't have money to keep buying things every time I need something. A nice and easy project to start with is some aprons. I only have two which I find isn't enough anyway and they are both quite worn out, so I am determined to make this an evening project after the girls have gone to bed. If all goes well and I get back into the swing of it then ideally I would like to make some dresses. I am finding it hard to find dresses of a length that I like in shops, and now that I am no longer breastfeeding I don't need to be wearing things with a low neckline, and I would rather not.
I have been asked to and agreed to have a stall at Ivy's school's Christmas shopping event, so this will give me the push I need to get myself organised. I will have to have some cards and prints made, and am also planning to paint some new originals to sell as well as small one-off Christmas decorations. It will give me plenty to do but I am looking forward to it, and planning to do a couple more Christmas markets as well. I made a nice bit of money at the last one I did and it will all help with Christmas.
There is not much other news. Just wishing things were a bit less of a struggle lately.
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