well the holidays happened. and they got in the way of writing. ho ho ho. oh they were busy this year! one exciting thing is that i wasn’t on assignment like i have been for the last three christmases, so i actually got to take time off! it’s not generally a big deal for me to work over christmas, except that other people in my life get large chunks of time off then, so they end up doing fun things that i want to do too!   

a short list of momentous things: i smashed my phone (accidentally) on a super frustrating day, but this led to me getting a new phone that i can take panoramic photos with! woot! i had a lovely xmas eve dinner at my nieces boyfriends mom’s house with a lot of other great people. moving back here means i get to spend time with tian – my niece – again which i am SO excited about! jeremy came to visit and we went snowboarding on the mountain in whiteout conditions. no joke it was like almost going down blind. being only my third time snowboarding this was a bit scary, but nevertheless a m a z i n g. (unfortunately no photos of this experience:() the mountain is so beautyfull and HUGE compared to those manitoba hills, hoo boy. it’s about an hour and a half away, but i think i need to go back at least once more this winter. on a clear day. j and i then headed to tofino and stayed in a sweet air bnb. we wanted to both surf and take the boat to the hotsprings, but both were cancelled because the waves were too big! (for surf lessons and the boat). lots of beachcombing happened instead.

for new years we went to the wee island to spend time with tian and to show jere the land. i am really enjoying visiting people right now to get ideas for my future home. the house tian and her boyfriend live in was built by his mom and dad. there were two different counter heights, which hadn’t occurred to me. in my bus i made the counters lower than regular, but am missing having a higher space too, i find myself slouching a bit. and there was a pantry (cold storage on the north side)! which i had forgotten about. not that i have started designing on paper yet, but i am loosely in my head, and a pantry was not in there. in the air bnb, the 2nd floor loft slanted from about 6 to 8 feet, i loved the coziness of it for a sleeping space. jere left at the beginning of this week and i am slowly getting things done and tidied that i had left fairly unattended over the holidays. i am also back to watching lots of homesteading, cabin-building and bushcraft videos on the internet:) here are a couple of favourites. oh, and! i found my copy of the blue castle so i have been indulging in that too!

one more exciting thing! i got a guitar! i had been craving playing about a month ago (i learned how to play about 5 years ago), and was going to go to a music store and get a 3/4 size one as they aren’t that expensive and i like the size. but then a co-worker and i got to talking and he found someone in my neck of the woods selling a used classical guitar for $100.

perhaps not such a short list after all. and of course a gratuitous cat photo.