Yopping Update #23 - The 2nd Week of Advent shine

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The 2nd candle of Advent shine
The plants and berries on the vine.

the yellow thing is a knitted mushroom

This week my granddaughter and I have been opening the advent calendar via whatsapp.  

All ready to start

First five days

Day one was a christmas wreath but she tells me 'it looks like a donut', so who am I to argue with an almost three year old. 

My KALs have started.  I can't show any pictures of the gnome KAL but I can tell you I have now learned the estonian braid, and I am definitely going to incorporate that in upcoming designs of my own. 

The gansey scarf KAL is coming along too.  She releases about 20 rows everyday and it is perfect evening tv knitting, or as my friend Cait says, Knitflixing.  

the colour is more a moss green

I finished my Samwise socks - my eighteenth pair of socks in 2021!

I plan to use this branching motif on my next gansey

back view - hugs and kisses

I have been doing lots of walking and on Tuesday we went down to the seawall and it was so windy.  The waves were crashing and splashing against the wall and there were two kite-surfers doing amazing stunts.  

We didn't get any pics of them because both our phones ran out of batteries but it was amazing to watch them in our normally calm strait.

On my Thursday walk I found a new plant I didn't recognize.  It is called a beautyberry. 

Cool, eh?

Speaking of walking, as of November 30 I reached another challenge goal, to walk 1000 kms in 2021.

I finished the Nanowrimo challenge and exceeded my 50,000 words. As of yesterday I have actually finished the first draft topping out just over 56,000 words.  There is a lot of editting to do, but it feels good to at least have a first draft fleshed out.  

We bought our tree on Monday even though we don't put it up until Christmas Eve.  Because of the flooding in the valley near us there is talk of a christmas tree shortage so we wanted to be ready.  Our son is flying to us for Christmas.  He comes in on Christmas Eve so we might put the tree up a day early.  The tree lot was set up like a Christmas wonderland.  It was very sweet to walk through as we chose our tree. 

This one is for Liz

One other goal I have set for myself is to drink more water.  I purchased this water bottle to help me.  So far so good. 

it holds two litres

So there is my week.  My husband has his booster appointment booked for thursday.  So far they are only boostering 70+ people, but the woman on the phone told me to go with him with my form indicating my immune compromised condition and she thought I would likely be boostered as well.  I hope so.  I am due for my bi-annual blood tests but I am not going to go to the blood clinic until I have my booster in place.  

I hope everyone has a good week.  I am actually going to write some christmas cards today.  Last year I couldn't find any stamps to buy, but this year I stocked up early.  

I will leave you with a small excerpt from my novel. This is the opening I wrote on November 1st.  

Letters to my Granddaughter (working title)

I suppose one should start a novel with a kick ass opening sentence. Something to grab the reader, something along the lines of “It was a dark and stormy night”, or “When she came to she realized the knife she was holding was covered in blood”.  

I imagine that kind of opening could lead to all kinds of suggestions of where the story would go next, who the characters could be, where the denouement may reside. My writing group would say that every page needed thirty percent dialogue, and every chapter needed to begin with a crisis either being created or resolved. Where would the drama be? Or the comedic interludes? Or the point?

Yes, the point. The point is you are so very far away and at this point in time you only know me as a face that pops up on your momma’s smart phone a few times a week.You sometimes ask to call us but I think your favourite thing about our Whatsapp calls is when you get to say good-bye, blow us a kiss and then push the button to sign off. 

My worry (and I have many) is that you and I will never know each other face to face. I was there when you were born, and for a few weeks afterwards, but now so much time has passed and you are growing so quickly. Every week it seems you have learned something new to do, or say.

Let’s go back to the beginning shall we? Before the pandemic. Before our lives were, and certainly my life was, changed forever.