November and Canadian Winter Cocooning

The weather really isn't even cold yet, for Canada, but the chill in the air and cleaning up the vegetable gardens has made me start to cocoon.  I felt a need to make vegetable soups, and stews and get some wool to start crocheting again.  One day I had spaghetti sauce and borscht (Ukrainian beet soup) going at the same time.  There is a glut of beets and carrots right now so rather than compost them, I am filling our little freezer. The cocooning feeling got so bad that I made bread pudding and a caramel sauce for serving it.  Old Man is type 2 Diabetic.  He devoured this stuff over 3 days.  Slap me up beside the head.  I really am not trying to kill my husband.

We are comfortable in this suite with a cable TV and Internet connection.  I have been watching the Israeli and Hamas crapola.  They are ALL wrong.  Get over your arrogant selves.  BUILD a BRIDGE and just get over it all.  Grow up.  After the Old Testament readings in church last week, I kept thinking, "Don't those Israelis read their Torah's?."   I start to lose patience with the whole Middle East conflicts.  It starts to seem infantile. 

Then after today's bible readings I understood Pilate's frustrations trying to work with those factions.  I had never felt sorry for Pilate before, but had a passing moment of pity today.  And the same tensions and crapola/misunderstandings go on now, centuries later.  For the first time in my life I understood Pilate's frustration, especially after he declared Jesus to be innocent of any crime.  He must have wanted to bang his head on the wall.  I confessed to the priest that I had actually felt some pity for Pilate, for a few minutes, as the governing ruler.  The response was, "Good."  I had been feeling guilty about my thoughts, so I will have to think on that response some more.

But I also finished a prayer shawl.  It is almost finished in this photo,  but ended up twice as long and bound along the sides to keep it even.    Our Bishop, Barbara, had put out a call for more prayer shawls to be knitted for the Healing and Reconciliation Gatherings next year.  The First Nations folk who got up to tell their painful stories about the damage done by Residential Schools in the last century were each given one in varying colours and patterns last year.  Their children were scooped up and taken away to teach them how to be "assimilated" into white (Shemah)  society but the scoop/stealing of children was totally devastating for Indian family life.  Last year after they told their stories they were given hand-made prayer shawls.  There were more tears, but that means some healing too.  So for this year's meeting in Victoria I made a (shades of purple and fuschia) crocheted shawl last week.  I say prayers for the healing of the person who will eventually receive it, but prayers will also be said over the shawls before they are presented.  The Bishop, who is Metis by the way, has called for BC Anglicans to make 400 shawls for the 2013 gathering.  I will try to do 3-5.  I finished the purple one and started a teal green "TRINTIY SHAWL".  Next will be a rainbow arcs patterned stoll/wrap.   I am making these designs up, and can forward some simple instructions to anyone who might want to do an easily-crocheted shawl while watching the idiocy on TV in the evenings.  If nothing else they make cozy lap rugs as they grow longer as you crochet them.

But I am also back into writing Amnesty International letters again for those who are being unjustly jailed. Dec. 10 is Human Rights Day and I have pledged to write at least 10 letters. So winter is settled in here for us.  We walk every day and can happily walk for all our needs.  Our pickup truck has not been started for 2 weeks.  That might be another 'sign of old age' but at least we can still walk.