Manon always thinks she is being helpful!
This quilt project, a riff on the traditional bear-paw pattern, is perfect for incremental work: doing a little bit every day adds up quickly. I started it over a year ago and put it aside, then took it out last week when I knew the meditative, repetitive work would be helpful, and began again. The central part of the top is almost finished now, and tomorrow I'll finish sewing these blocks together and begin a border and edging. I'm looking forward to doing the hand-quilting, and hope I have something in my stash that will work for the backing, if not, I'll try mail-order and hope for the best. Most of these fabrics are William Morris prints, collected over the years or purchased specifically for this project a while back.
I didn't sleep well last night. After a solid four hours, I woke up (as I usually do) and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got up, made some of my favorite Chinese calming tea to which I added a little valerian, and curled up on the couch with my knitting. I was determined not to read any news or social media, but did see that I had a message from a close friend, and when I checked that, it reassured me and I was able to go back to sleep. I'm sure many of us are having disturbed sleep, and what could be more normal? Usually I can put myself back to sleep by following my breath or reciting familiar poetry or psalms that I know so well the words are almost automatic. Once or twice through usually does the trick. But when that doesn't work, and I've been awake half an hour or more, it's better to get up and "change my head," as my father-in-law used to say. Insomnia used to bother me a great deal. Lack of sleep was more of a problem when I was young and had business appointments in the morning, or was traveling, and I also needed more of it. Now I can function quite well on six hours for a day or two, and rarely get more than 7 1/2 - it's when low-sleep days accumulate that most of us run into trouble. On the occasional night when I do get up, knitting helps, or looking at an art book, or reading a bit if it's not too active or disturbing a book, and I can usually go back to bed in an hour or two.
The good part about this changed routine is that sleeping later in the morning is not a problem! Have you been sleeping well or not, and how do you deal with it?
Montreal is shutting down. There was little traffic today, though lots of people were out walking in the cold sunshine. Premier Francois Legault has ordered all non-essential businesses to close, including bars and restaurants. I think this is necessary, because today the brunch spots were still full of young people who don't seem to understand why social-distancing is important; last night the same was true for the popular bars. There's been inconsistency of messaging at the airports, too, and supposedly the provincial government will now send officials to make sure that every traveler is screened and told to self-isolate if they've been out of the country. I was invited, this evening, to join a solidarity group in my arrondissment; people are offering services and requesting help. I'm always impressed with grass-roots initiatives and how helpful they can be; in this case I feel like Quebec is working both top-down and grass-roots up to do the best we can in a difficult situation.
I had to read through the govt information sheets to see that my age cohort is allowed to take a walk, and I'm grateful. Our family is coping with the ban on visits to nursing homes, where my father-in-law is a patient. He literally lives for the regular visits. I've organized card-writing so he hears from us every other day or so.
Posted by: Duchesse | March 16, 2020 at 08:16 AM
It’s a flock of birds! Lovely. May the sussuration of their wings bring sleep when needed.
Posted by: Laura | March 16, 2020 at 11:54 PM