Categories
Diversions Get Crafty

Stitching – 8 Dec

So, exactly how much stitching did I get done this week?

Oh you know

It really is hard to get anything done with a puppy around.

So here’s the last thing I did as part of a group project known as Steotch and it’s most recent Steotchalong. I had a deadline. I knew I could barely make it. So I was a few days late but I did it.

Toronto as touque. Our team picked a Canadian motif; the touque. Or toque. Or tuque. Whichever you use is fine. I use touque. Deal.

Anyway, the team captain made up a few versions of the shape but the mess inside this one is all me. The black is all standard DMC 310 (I have a cone of doom!). The white in the cuff is blanc étoile; the tweedy in the cuff is 310 and étoile together. The stars are glow-in-the-dark threads and the pompom is a mix of all three.

Our team – the Screaming Beavers no less – has some amazing people in it and some have really gone above and beyond. Our captain keeps us all informed and motivated and others have really done so much – one is putting all the touques together to submit as our group project; a bunch of us “sang” bits of ice ice baby and others put it all together; others acted out a spoof on the fold it in bit from Schitt’s Creek (complete with a cameo from one of the actors on the show!); they made cookies; and so much more.

And WE’RE IN FIRST PLACE

So apparently the final push is the percentage of the team to complete the stitch. By December 26. Clearly I need a solid deadline and there we go….I guess I should start!

Categories
Health

Getting to PEI (weeks 3-4)

I would really like to get a bit more consistent in doing the plan 3 days a week!

The stats for weeks 3 & 4:

4/12/2022RunrandomDefault3.5 km35:1910:06
2/12/2022RunrandomDefault3.6 km36:0810:04
29/11/2022RunrandomDefault3.1 km31:4410:19
26/11/2022RunTreadmillDefault3.0 km31:0710:19
23/11/2022RunTreadmillDefault2.8 km28:2010:01

What I tried to do was “catch up” to where I would be if I had actually done three runs a week. So Friday December 2 was week 4 day 2 and Sunday December 4 was week 4 day 3 (even though I should be somewhere in week 3). It was not at all fun – so instead I’m gonna go back and actually do week 3 properly.

Anyway though, I did run three times this week! Yippie! I’ve gone up from running 90 seconds to running 3 minutes (and walking 2) to running 5 minutes (and walking 3 and then walking 2 – those 5s though are where I died so going back to 3s and then I think 4s before I get to 5s again).

A 2-week total of 16 km (ish). And about 28.5 km to date.

I’ve made it along Highway 2 (which is called Kingston Rd here) to between Sheppard Ave East (Toronto) and Altona Road (Pickering) – so I am smack dab in Rouge National Urban Park. It’s apparently the largest urban park in North America.

ADDED: I found a place to track it on a map! PLOTAROUTE

There’s an Act! *swoon* The Rouge National Urban Park Act.

The centre of the park is the Rouge River. Which is also the boundary between Toronto and Pickering. It’s part of the Oak Ridges Moraine watershed. I’ve never really been out there but it looks amazing. I really wanna go!

A picture of trees, flowers and a path. Could be anywhere but apparently it's in the Rouge somewhere.
From the Rouge’s website.

Visit the Rouge is the Canadian government website for the park. It has all sort of links to the area and planning out a trip, including letting you know how to get there and parking info and there’s even an app. Hmmmm I did finally threaten cajole Q into trying snowshoeing with me this year (I’ve never done it!). This seems like a great place to go for that.

Map of the entire Rouge National Urban Park.
Parks Canada: https://parks.canada.ca/pn-np/on/rouge/visit/cartes-maps

Oh and then I found this stunning map on the Canadian Geographic website:

A relief map of the Rouge National Urban Park - a sort of colourized street map.
https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/canadas-first-national-urban-park/#&gid=1&pid=2

I tried to find a photo taken from the park of the City and I found this from 2017 on Park Canada’s twitter account:

A picture of some dude in a hipster sweater staring (what I assume is wistfully) over fall foliage in the direction of Toronto.
Source: https://twitter.com/ParksCanada/status/921088974516518914/photo/1

If you look very carefully, the CN Tower is there (albeit very faintly) in the top left corner behind the other skyscrapers.

Anyway, a month to leave the city. And I’m a little under 4 weeks away from my first 5k race in ohhhh 4 years. What the heck race did I run in 2018? Oh yeah! A fundraising run for Shelter Movers – still an amazing organization.

Categories
Diversions Get Crafty

A stitch in time

1 December 2022 update

Okay – so here’s where I’m at in my stitching projects. I do intend to finish them all I really do!

Stupid Big Stitch:

a piece of gridded aida fabric with a whole whack of black stitches.

Everything else sort of went to the wayside when I started this. But even this hasn’t been worked on in months.

So – I need a December goal = 90 minutes a week? Sure. Let’s go with that. No wait, the baby announcement (NO! Not mine; more on this below) goes first in order of priority but I want to do a little bit on this every week in December – maybe Wednesday evenings will be to work on this one, 20 minutes? great! 60 minutes? even better.

Galaxy Temperature Stitch:

Ohhhh so I love Climbing Goat Designs so much it’s actually a little ridiculous. And, obviously I’m a bit behind.

A spiral of stitches on a mottled piece of fabric with sparkly bits intended to resemble outer space.

So December goal – my excel temp chart only goes to April 12 right now. I would like to get the chart at least up to date even if I don’t do any more stitches right now.

Secret Project for the kid of a friend:

Okay – I bought the pattern and pulled out the treads for this one. That’s about it.

December goal = pick the fabric because…..

Project for my cousin’s baby

(who’s obviously not getting his baby announcement as early as his sister did!) Pattern and threads have all been purchased. I even picked out the fabric for this one now.

This is going to be my primary December focus.

Random seeming bits of threads on a bluish-grey piece of fabric

Secret Xmas Project for a friend:

This is one of those things I’m gonna work on as a break from the baby announcement and not on Wednesdays lol And if I get it done for this xmas then terrific; and if not, she’ll get it next year!

Okay – I do have a December goal for this one. FIND IT! 😱

And another secret thing so secret I can’t even write about it really:

I am superduperthisclose to finishing something for a dear friend. I had hoped to get it done for min-November but that got lost in the puppy/sick Q shuffle. Should still be doable for December though.

scrunched up rainbow fabric with the back of stitches showing
Lisa tries to be “secretive”

I’m posting this stitching update on a Thursday so I’ll try and update every Thursday in December. The last Thursday might be dicey as we’ll be in BC but I’ll try!

Categories
Book Diversions Reading Review

Bookish – 3 As

My quest to “read my own damn library” began with the idea of reading three books by authors whose names start with each letter of the alphabet.

Turns out I don’t have a lot of A authors but I picked out three:

Leave me by dying by Rosemary Aubert

The Storygraph key words: emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

A picture of the cover of Leave Me by Dying which shows a rumbled white bed sheet and pillow. The book is being held in Lisa's right hand.

My key words : slow and tedious. 

It was very nifty though for the setting I thought – 1960s Toronto; and he’s a law student in the book so I know lots of the places and that was the only redeeming thing for me really. So much so that I happily put this book, and another by Rosemary Aubert, in a local little free library. Hey! This whole “declutter by reading” thing may actually work.

The Greenway by Jane Adams

The picture shows the cover of The Greenway, a woman's face highlighted dramatically looks out over shadowy people. The book is held in Lisa's right hand.

The Storygraph key words: fiction crime mystery thriller dark mysterious tense fast-paced

My version: British rural mystery. My usual love. Ugh. It was awful. But yippie! Another book out of the house.

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton 

The picture is cover of Ghosts. Primarily a sort of Tiffany-blue with a pencil line image of a lady laying on her front scrolling on a phone. The books is held in Lisa's right hand.

I’m not sure where this came from. Wait – yes I do, I ordered a sweet reads box and it was in that. Anyway, definitely something I wouldn’t have read otherwise.

The Storygraph key words: fiction contemporary emotional slow-paced

My summary: A comedy sort of; a realistic story also. A romance. Definitely not my usual genre. Gosh I loved it. Seriously. Not enough that I would read it again or anything so this one went off to SWCBNOF and there we go, three for three out of the house.

Categories
Health

First two weeks of #RedleafWalking

A couple of friends decided to come along for the run/walk thing so at least one of my runs each week has been with them. It’ll take me a bit I think to try and not be overly self-conscious / self-critical but I’ll try!

So this is the end of two weeks – I’ve done four of the six planned runs. I’m okay with this because it’s four more runs than I did in the prior two weeks, or two months for that matter 😉

So stats:

19/11/2022RunrandomDefault3.7 km38:3610:30
17/11/2022RunTreadmillDefault3.0 km30:5910:18
12/11/2022RunrandomDefault2.8 km30:1010:38
8/11/2022RunrandomDefault3.0 km30:5310:29
I track on a website called https://www.runningahead.com/

For a 2-week total of 12.5 km (ish). Note that the 19 November run included a whole extra 5 min warm up walk due to technical difficulties lol

Highway 2 seems to be my standard route out of the city going east so 12.5 km away from Nathan Philips Square along Dundas St. until it turns into Kingston Road and along Kingston Road until it almost meets up with Danforth Ave.


AND that means I’m just looking out over one of the prettiest most utilitarian buildings in the city:

Go to: https://urbantoronto.ca/news/2017/07/photo-day-rc-harris-water-treatment-plant
credit info: image by Randy Hoffmann via Flickr

Yep – a water treatment plant. More specifically the R.C. Harris Water Treatment Plant. It’s still functional despite being in use since 1941. It’s definitely an art deco delight.

From Atlas Obscura: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/r-c-harris-water-treatment-plant

It’s often been used as a prison or evil genius headquarters – in tv and film 😉 In everything from Strange Brew to Guillermo Del Toro’s Mimic; from comedy to horror and a bunch of stuff in between.