It’s been over a year since I’ve posted on my blog. Over the year, I’ve considered whether I even want to continue. It’s not like I have a ton of readers and my parents, who followed it faithfully, no longer have a computer. They keep up with their brood (or most of them) via Facebook on their iPad. There were so many things that competed for my time. Funny how things can come to a screeching halt! From a retirement life that seemed way too busy, we have now progressed to a life where we only leave the house for essentials and any visitors we have are relegated to the yard or the front porch – at a good arm’s length away. So now seems to be the perfect time to restart. Perhaps the process of journaling and writing things down will help alleviate my anxiety.

For the record – we are in good shape. We are both retired with a steady paycheck coming in and we don’t rely heavily on our investments. We have enough food to tide us over, although we’re being careful and eating up every last scrap of leftovers to stretch things out. I think we may even have enough toilet paper if this doesn’t go on too long. We both tend to be home bodies, enjoy each other’s company and have hobbies to keep us entertained. In fact, I doubt the isolation will last long enough for me to finish all the quilts I’ve started! And – to top it all off, we have a new puppy! For those of you who’ve followed the blog for a while, you know that we had a dear sweet Corgi, Maggie. Sadly we lost her a few weeks ago.

It was pretty sudden, but we are comforted that right up until the day she died she was happy and playful. She had a good run of 12 1/2 years and will always be remembered fondly. We are the kind of people who are bereft without a dog, so we started the search fairly soon, thinking it might take quite some time. But we were thrilled to find out that the breeder we got Maggie from had a large litter – 11 puppies! Poor mom had to have a C-section. She was keeping several of the puppies for show, but offered us the pick of the litter of the rest. Imagine being seated on the kitchen floor with 11 sweet little Corgis (and mom) crawling all over our laps.

One little puppy quickly caught our eye. Although not shy, she seemed very calm and laid back.

We immediately laid claim to her and named her Emma. The breeder said we had to wait another week and a half to bring her home, but that ended up being moved up because of the virus. The breeder wanted to get puppies to their new homes before any travel restrictions. For us it wasn’t a problem since she was on the island, but we didn’t argue.

Emma has proved to be an excellent little puppy. Within a day she was almost completely house trained, letting herself in and out of the doggy door on her own. We still monitor her, though, since we have eagles who hunt over the house. At first she was a little clingy, but is starting to get a little more adventuresome and looks for trouble to get into and things to chew. We had a big bowl of water for her which she tipped over (twice) and had great fun paddling around in the puddle on the floor. This morning she engaged in what we call “Zoomies”, a trait of Corgis. She starts at one end of the house and runs as fast as she can, diving behind the toilet and under tables. It’s quite fun to watch. She slept through the night the first night in her crate without whining.

She’s certainly not perfect – it is like having a toddler around and you can’t let down your guard for a minute lest she get into trouble. And at times she can be a little needy – wanting all of our attention. But she is responding well to training and we have plenty of time for that!! And how can you resist a sweet puppy gaze?

Or this:

I’ll also have time to work on my Master Hand Knitting Certification. I passed Level 2 and am hard at work on Level 3 – the last level. I have all my swatches done, one of my 2 reports, and my 2 magazine reviews. All that’s left now is a sweater and a hat. One has to be Aran knit, the other Fair Isle. I must design, knit, and write the pattern. I’ve finished the back, front and one sleeve of the Aran sweater and just need to finish knitting the second sleeve, sew everything together and knit the collar. I haven’t even started the hat. I’ve been putting it off because I didn’t have time, so . . . .

The granddaughters are continuing to grow into delightful young ladies. Isobel is in high school and Ivy has started middle school. Several months ago they spent a few days with us and we had fun sewing a quilt.

This will go to one of our quilting group’s charitable projects. I’m so glad we had this time before we went into isolation. This is one of the hardest things, not being able to hug and cuddle with them. I’m comforted that the virus doesn’t seem to hit healthy children very hard, but they can transmit it and since we are now considered elderly (when did THAT happen?), if they come they must stay outside at arm’s length. Fortunately they and their parents are taking it well and we have many other ways of keeping in touch. In fact, I will leave you with a photo that Ivy texted us from their camping trip yesterday. That girl certainly has a good eye!!