A bit of organizing

~ Maggie ~ 5 Comments

Last Saturday I cut down some trees, but my body wasn’t up to more of that kind of activity on Sunday. So I looked for something else to do and realized it was a perfect time to tackle this mess. Yes, that’s my craft supplies. All jampacked in there because I wasn’t using it anyway. But now that I am on my way back to knitting and maybe even sewing frequently again I felt it needed a bit of love.

Also, I finally was able to bring my mom’s sewing box with me from The Netherlands. We had a giant suitcase full of miscellaneous “stuff” and I made sure this fit in there too.

So, that was my first task on the list. Trying to fit those two bins of stuff in the sewing box. The plastic bag holds some items that were in the sewing box. I left some things in the cabin for sewing emergencies and got rid of a whole lot of useless stuff. I really wanted to use this box, not keep it as a shrine for my mom.

Doesn’t that look great? I’m so happy with it!

I didn’t put it back into the cabinet. It sits in a temporary spot right now, but I want to be able to get to it easily.

I also removed my serger from the cabinet. I’m not even sure if I can sew straight lines anymore (it’s been so long! this dress was the last thing I made), and the serger has always intimidated me. I want to feel comfortable with my sewing machine first and then I’m going to get it out of storage again.

So, I ended up with this first.

So much better!

But then I realized the basket that was on top of the cabinet, just being empty, fits perfectly onto that top shelf and easily holds all my yarn.

Nice!

How about another basket?

I like it!

(yes, I know the plastic bins looked more organized. But this brings me much more joy, so this is what I’m sticking with)

After the rain

~ Maggie ~ 3 Comments

It’s been raining a lot this past week. That’s normal for this time of year and we’re very grateful for it. It’s what keeps this island from turning into a desert. It’s mostly real tropical showers: extremely heavy rain for a short period of time. Between showers it’s still warm and mostly sunny. I like that. The Netherlands (where I come from) is worse than Ireland. Gray skies and drizzling showers that last days.

The garden is thriving. I’m happy about that too, although I’m still doing damage control after being away for so long. Thorn bushes and neem were taking over and trees are crowding each other out. But that’s okay. We’ll get it under control someday. And meanwhile, I’m thoroughly enjoying having to spend so much time outside.

Unless it rains. But that’s okay too. It gives me an excuse to pause and sit and knit for a while. Until it gets dry again and I happily go into the garden to cut back another tree.

Look at that!

~ Maggie ~ 5 Comments

Do you see that? It’s happening! I’m knitting.

I know. Nothing to be excited about for most of you. But for me… apart from two simple headbands (just 2″ k1p1 ribbing in the round) I haven’t been knitting (or crocheting or sewing for that matter) at all this year.

So yes, I am very excited.

The pattern is the Flax Sweater by Tin Can Knits and Karen inspired me to try this. Mine will be a small size (2-4 years) for my grandson too.

Let’s see if I can finish this in time for me to take it with me to The Netherlands in December…

Right now

~ Maggie ~ 5 Comments

Right now I am…

… seriously doubting the idea to talk about weight loss and health goals on this blog. It’s not that I don’t want to share those things, but it’s just not making me eager to write something here. It doesn’t bring me joy (in case you’re wondering: I am doing quite well on those goals).

… remembering how this blog used to be filled with beautiful sunsets, close ups of flowers, knitting, sewing and random thoughts. It wasn’t the kind of blogging that goes viral, but it did bring me joy.

… telling myself that bringing joy is what this blog should be about.

… wondering why I thought things needed to change. Circumstances, comparing to others, identity crisis? I don’t know. But I’m ready to fight my way back.

… feeling a bit tired because I lay awake most of last night thinking about these things.

… deciding that I am going to pick up where I left off such a long time ago. Beautiful sunsets, close ups of flowers, a bit of knitting, occasional sewing and random thoughts… I can do that.

… leaving you with some beautiful sunsets and a rainbow. Because that’s what it’s all about around here, isn’t it?

Healthy goals

~ Maggie ~ 5 Comments

I got a very kind and concerned comment on my last post telling me to be gentle on myself and to take small steps. That was exactly what I was thinking about after posting that.
Okay, to be honest… at first I was thinking that I really want to be skinny and fit and healthy and limber and able to do it all without feeling tired. Tomorrow.
Or at least before we go back to The Netherlands for the holidays.
But that’s less than seven weeks from now. Even I (always the optimist) know that’s just not realistic.
At all.
So, I forced myself to be realistic and thought up some baby steps, starting with my health goals (because I think those are most important right now).
The next seven weeks I want to:

  • ignore the scale. I weighed myself last week and I have to lose a lot of weight. But I want this to be about feeling better, not about the numbers.
  • stick to the kind of eating that I know works for me. I know that’s a vague statement, but it would take a lot of words to explain it all. Maybe I’ll write a blogpost about it some day.
  • build up enough strength and energy to be able to keep up with household and garden chores, preferably without feeling exhausted afterwards.
  • do neck and shoulder exercises and be aware of my posture. I think that will help a lot to get rid of my back- and headaches.
  • get fit enough to be able to follow along with this video. No, I can’t – I’m a mess.

Let’s see if I can do that. I’ll keep you posted.
Will I? I hope so. That’s one of my other goals.

Oh, and sorry for the totally non-related picture. I didn’t feel up to taking one of myself and I also didn’t want to use a stock photo either.

An update

~ Maggie ~ 8 Comments

Oh wow, I didn’t realize it had been so long since I last wrote something here. So much has happened since then.

After that last post temperatures rose even more and we got to a point where we couldn’t take it anymore. My husbands heart was acting up and I was just… well, sick constantly. So we booked a flight and went to our little cabin in The Netherlands, and we planned to stay at least five weeks, probably longer.

(edited to add: I was sure I complained about the heat in my last two posts, but I just realized I didn’t. I guess that’s one of the reasons I didn’t blog that much – not wanting to complain constantly. But it’s been hotter than usual and very humid since March.)

I was going to blog from there. I had great plans to rest, loose weight, get healthy, work on my mental health, deal with the garden, get back to writing more, etc.

But I never got to it. Within two weeks after we arrived, my father died. It was not completely unexpected. He had another case of pneumonia in May and never fully recovered, but he seemed to get a little bit better every single day. Until he got something else (we’re not sure what it was – I think his body just gave up). It started Thursday night and he died three days later, on Sunday.

Some of you may remember my mom died during the lockdown, so I wasn’t able to say goodbye or be at her funeral. This time I sat next to my father when he left us and I was fully involved in all the things that followed. There were times I wished I was stuck on Curacao again (let’s not get into details about that), but mostly I’m grateful that we weren’t.

At the funeral one of my cousins asked: “Was it a coincidence that you were here, or did you feel it coming?”

Well, even though the decision was made because we weren’t able to function in the heat, I had been advocating to leave for a while and I have to admit I was extremely and uncharacteristically mad at my husband for not being able to leave (he had work to do in the area). So yeah, I probably did feel it coming. I remember myself yelling that we had to be in The Netherlands in September without having a logical reason for that statement. My dad died September 1st…

Anyway. we stayed a few weeks longer to spend time with our family and returned to the island last Sunday.

It’s still a bit warmer than it’s supposed to be, but it’s getting cooler, so I have high hopes that I’ll be able to get my life back together. You know, loose weight, get healthy, work on my mental health, deal with the garden, get back to writing more, etc.

I’m kind of thinking to use this blog to plan, document and hold myself accountable for all those things, but we’ll see how that goes. I usually choose to only write about the good things and that works great too. We’ll see. For now, I just wanted to post something as a way to reconnect myself to the blog…

Noticing, in the garden

~ Maggie ~ 1 Comment

Lately I’ve been trying to form the habit of taking a little walk in my garden each morning. I do bring a bucket and pruning shears to be able to remove a bit of unwanted growth here and there, but my main goal is to walk slowly, to connect to the garden, to be mindful and notice what is going on.

This morning I brought my camera with me to share some of the things I noticed.

Kokolode – Aren’t those tiny white flowers cute?
My guava is finally bearing fruit!
Green and ripe seedpods on the moringa
And of course there are moringa flowers too (if you water them they have both flowers and seedpods year round).
I don’t even know the name of this plant, but I love the shape of the seedpods.
Lantana, such vibrant colors

One of the benefits of taking a more mindful approach to the garden (instead of only going in to do the necessary big maintenance) is that I found things to harvest. I hate to admit it, but I have let bananas and papayas get overripe and eaten by the birds, just because I didn’t take time to really see what was going on in my garden.

Today’s harvest: guavas, green moringa beans (I’m going to try eating them for the first time) and soursop leaves (tea from the dried leaves is said to have a calming effect, among other things that I still need to research).

It was also the first time I tried guava. I really do like the taste. I’m not too fond of the seed though. It’s safe (and even considered healthy) to digest them, but they are very hard to chew and there are a lot of them. I am going to save them and see how if it’s easier to eat them roasted or soaked.

The rest of my morning was spent taking down that tree we removed in January. Yes, really. We left the stump in, since we thought it wouldn’t be able to grow back after being cut down so far. When growth did appear after a few weeks, T. sprayed it with Roundup. I wasn’t too happy about that (this is my orchard and herbal garden, I’d like to keep it safe), but it didn’t work either. The leaves died, but they came back soon and new branches started to grow within a few weeks. Now, after six months, all those new branches were high enough to touch the roof again. So yeah, I had some sawing to do.

I also need to remove some other trees. I planted way too many. And then there are cactuses and thorn bushes and… oh my, I do have my work cut out for me.

But I’ll start my days with walking around slowly and noticing the smaller things. Because that is what makes me feel connected to this land, grounded and happy.

The beauty I could find

~ Maggie ~ 3 Comments

I’ve been thinking about blogging a lot. I know, I know… I say that every time when I’m not blogging at all.

But it’s true. I have been thinking about it a lot.

I never stop blogging because I don’t want to blog anymore. I stop blogging when every attempt at writing a blogpost results in something that I don’t want to put out into the world. And as time passes, my inner critic grows stronger and stronger, until I don’t even attempt to come up with a post anymore.

I do miss it. I always do. And I want to get back to it so badly.

Today I told myself to pick up my poor neglected camera, take three pictures and post them. No words needed. Just look around and find some beauty to document and share.
That’s always a good way to start, isn’t it? Because no matter how I feel, there is always beauty to be found. I just need to look for it.

So, I did just that. Picked up my camera. Took some pictures. Sat down at my computer and… Well… Four hours later I’m still struggling with the words of this post. The words I wasn’t going to write.

I almost gave up, but I don’t want to. So this will have to do.

Here’s some of the beauty I could find.

Garden doings

~ Maggie ~ 3 Comments

After trying to put things into words for over a week now, I decided to skip an update about the past two months. The good news is that we did get to have a family Christmas, we went to the Zoo with our grandson (and his parents), we visited my father a few times and we were able to be fully present at the wedding of our youngest. Let’s treasure that. The rest… not worth documenting.

I’m planning to write a longer post about my resolutions and/or goals for the new year, but one of the things I really want to focus on is the garden. It’s been doing very well the past few years, mostly since we water it automatically, but it’s a bit (ha!) overgrown. Up to a point where it’s no longer a garden. It’s a jungle.

Before. Just ignore that I already cut off a branch before I remembered to take a picture.

See that Moringa tree on the right? I planted it way too close to the house. But in my defense… a friend of ours had the same trees in his garden and they were tiny. Like only about 2 meters (6.5′) high. Ours are all at least double that height, probably even higher. And since this one is was so close to the house, the top branches hit the roof every time there was a little breeze. And that’s most of the time here. It also blocked a lot of light from our office. I already trimmed it back a few times, but it grows so fast that we decided to cut it down completely this time.

Sad, but necessary.

And then we had to clean up that mess and cut back some other stuff. It took me a while, but hey, look. There’s a path!

Isn’t it funny how patting yourself on the shoulder for results like this (although it’s a far cry from the perfect path I hope to have one day) gives you energy to work on the next thing on the list?

So I worked on this mess next:

Hmn, the photo’s don’t do it justice. But here’s another before and after:

And this one is the most visible improvement:

Far from perfect, I know, but that’s the way I tackle the garden when it’s getting out hand again. First I get the bigger messes done, then I go back for “fine tuning”. Well, that’s the plan anyway. The past four years I never got to finetuning, because there was always a reason for things to get out of hand again. But I have high hopes about this year.

Oh, and if you’re wondering what’s going on with the blue tarp and the partly white gravel… That’s where I got stuck last year with making the paths beautiful and easier to manage. We had a big mountain of gravel delivered in June (you can see it if you scroll up a bit – it’s next to the car) and we were trying to move at least a few loads in the wheelbarrow a day, but fell off the bandwagon when temperatures got abnormally high. I would like to have it all done by the time our daughter, son-in-law and grandson are coming to visit (in March!), so I need to get back to it.

But first there are lots and lots more big messes to tackle. Not to mention the fact that I need to remove that Moringa tree stump. These trees don’t give up so easily.

To be continued…

Oh well

~ Maggie ~ 3 Comments

I’m sick again. Flu, or maybe Covid.

I have been thinking a lot about the next few weeks, and I decided I need to focus on resting and trying to get healthy enough to visit my family and attend that wedding. Everything else has to go on the backburner.

So I just popped in to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I think I ‘ll be back here by the end of January.