Checking in...after a LOONGG Hiatus

Well folks, I survived the never ending winter. The trees did not leaf out until very late June/early July...eek. Very late spring for my taste and compared to what I am accustomed to. Summer is finally here, the weather has been perfect, my parents came to visit, I picked up some part-time internet based work and I have finally had enough with my excess cushioning and am trying a new fitness routine.

A horrible bout of the blues kept me from...everything for too many months. I have been wanting to run away from my life. Many days I have searched for the cheapest airline fares from this city to any other city in the world that sparked my interest in that moment. I don't have the money to purchase one of those tickets, but I can dream.

The 20-minute walk project fizzled out very quickly once I realized winter refused to end. From there I did nothing. I tried to rollerblade once the snow melted, an activity I used to love, but found I have lost so much muscle I felt too unstable on the rollerblades and was afraid I would hurt myself. So then I did nothing for a while again.

In the last month or so I have been extremely lucky to pick up some part-time, work from home computer work. After each block of time I complete I am doing a session on my yoga videos. It helps the posture and pain issues I am feeling from sitting at the laptop for several hours, and it is helping build muscle...with the goal of burning off some of this squish I and my pants disdain.

So new goal is to maintain the daily yoga practice, contribute to this blog more regularly and generally feel like I am accomplishing more than I had been before. Game on!

VB's Hunt for Silver Linings

To piggy back off of Megan's idea of seeking the silver linings, I thought it would be a healthy and inspiring activity for me to try to see my own silver linings. Today I am home at my family's house trying to purge belongings I love and became very upset upon shattering an antique mirror I was going to sell today. Still really rotted about it...so trying to focus on good things might help heal this cutting experience.

I can see the ocean from my front door. It's interesting to watch the change of the sea depending on the weather. I also like to watch the sunset over the ocean. Very vivid colors. I have taken many photos of the sunset here (so does my husband, here's one of me).

I have been learning about wild harvest - foods that grow in nature that one can pick and eat. We picked wild blueberries and the freezer is filled with them. We also picked chanterelle mushrooms and made amazing cream of mushroom soup. Here is the recipe on a blog I like, "Hunter Angler Gardener Cook" We actually made this a couple of times while we had fresh mushrooms. We tried to dry the surplus but they got moldy almost right away. Suckfest. 

Along with this theme, I learned to fish for the first time ever. Here, the regulatory agencies open the fishing season to everyone for 2 weeks to fish without a license. It's called the food fishery. You can catch 5 cod fish per person per day with a max of 15 fish per boat. We took advantage as many times as we could find a willing boat owner. Our freezer is still stocked with ocean to table fish! Here I am with one of my larger catches. Pretty impressed with myself that day. 

I am also grateful for the freedom to work on creative projects and the leisure/desire to cook complex foods. I have been focusing my creative efforts on avant garde jewelry-making (my jewelry projects can be viewed here: facebook.com/yazberryfashion ) with found, vintage and new materials, painting and refinishing small wooden projects and have recently been exploring the local past time of rug hooking. I find it relaxing and satisfying to work on something that could be useful. Here is a jolly picture of my progress so far on my first hooked rug. I made up my own design. 

Right now, these are my silver linings. 

GOAL: Focus more on the silver linings and less on the loss of: belongings, social interaction and feelings of accomplishment. 

BREATHE....