My Year of 'Yes'

A while back I read Shonda Rhimes' book, "Year of Yes". After Skip died, I decided that since our movements had been limited pretty much the entire time since COVID started in March of 2000, I was going to seize every reasonable opportunity that came my way for the next 12 months (and maybe beyond that).

I mentioned in the previous post that I had booked a week in Colorado to visit Francey, and also the
Northern Lights/Astronomy cruise up and down the western coast of Norway. 

My niece invited me to join her extended family for a Christmas trip to the Dominican Republic. Of course, I said 'yes', and booked it the next business day. 

I then started to think about what else was on my immediate 'bucket list' and remembered a couple of videos I watched of Kara and Nate, travelling to 9 Christmas markets, in 9 countries, in 9 days. I started looking at solo tours. While at my guild's stitching day last Saturday, I mentioned my interest in doing this and Marilyn piped up, "I'll go with you". Apparently it had been on her bucket list, too. So we have also booked that tour of Christmas markets in select cities in France, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. 

I'm pretty excited about all of this. 

I am starting to get my stitching mojo back. I haven't done a ton of progress on my Cornflower Scissor case but did get a couple of leaves done the other day when I had the gang over for a stitching afternoon.

It's the fishbone stitch. I used the 3 different greens as Mary Corbet's pattern suggested. AA then AB the BB, then BC and will continue that series on the rest of the leaves for a variegated look. Of course, one can always just use one colour, too.

I still have the diamonds of the 'receptacles" (I had to google 'parts of a flower' to get the proper term) to do at the tops of the stems. They were back in the instructions for completing the stems.  The blue cornflower petal steps have been released but I want to get all the receptacles and leaves done first. 

Mary's instructions to finish the piece into a scissor case are a little more intricate than what I've done on previous triangular scissor cases but will integrate some of her good ideas.

I’ve been making good progress on the Live on Little piece. I charted a Canadian flag and got it stitched and have started the words. 

There are lots of fiddly bits to do. I’ll take some photos and look at them carefully to try and catch most of them.

I'm signed up with a Community Care bereavement group that organizes several activities. Last week I attended a cooking class upstairs at the new Longo's in Brooklin. We made a focaccia-like thing called a 'fougasse'. It doesn't look very pretty but it was stuffed with an olive tepanade, and roasted red peppers. I think artichoke hearts would be very yummy, too. 

There was a fresh arugula and sautéed asparagus salad with parmesan peels and lemon dressing, 

and a tarte au citron for dessert. It consisted of baked puff pastry topped with a lemon curd/whipped cream mixture and fresh berries. Oops! I ate some of it before I remembered to take a photo.

I'm not a big lemon fan but it was all very tasty. I got choked up when one of the women asked me how long ago Skip died (only 6 weeks at that point). Some of the participants had lost their partners as long as 5 years ago so I guess one can participate in the activities as long as one wants. Other activities include hikes at a local conservation area and a butterfly release. 

I'm on a waiting list for one-on-one grief counselling with the same agency but I don't think I'll get to the top of the list until probably the fall. At the cooking class, I was also encouraged to participate in a group grief counselling session. The last week in particular I've really missed Skip or have been triggered by thoughts or items. I know the pain will never go away but I hope it is dulled somewhat in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime I hold back the tears when I need to (grocery store, in social settings) and go with the flow and let it out when I'm alone (driving in the car or here at home). There is no right way to grieve so I'm being patient with myself. I miss him so much!

One thing that I've enjoyed doing is making the garden more presentable- largely to honour Skip's memory. He really worked hard on the garden every year. 

The weeds were knee-deep by the time June rolled around. I was late buying plant material but lucked out at a couple of places right at the end of the main nursery season.  After every rain, I go out and pull weeds. It's much easier that way. I've filled 2 yard waste bags with them. I'm not fond of getting dirty and sweaty but the shower afterward sure feels good.

The side yard had weeds that were up to my neck in some cases so I got out there the other day and completely cleared them out. I'm left with lovely composted soil as that's where the guy who mows my lawn used to dump the clippings. I still have to cut back the ground cover (I forget the name) encroaching from the neighbour's yard but it's been too hot. There's still lots to tidy up back there as Skip used that area to store a lot of stuff.

Near to the end of the summer I will either get some sod put down there or plant grass seed. There's no point in doing it now as it's just too hot.

My echinacea are spectacular right now. I'm inspired to haul out my watercolours on a day that it isn't in the high 20Cs.

I'll do a separate post with all that is in bloom right now.

In the meantime, I savour the little joys life has to offer and dwell on the feelings of gratitude that I have for all the wonderful things and people in my life.