In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan… — Christina Rossetti
My return to walking this week truly revealed the wintry bleakness with an added dash of with crazy winds and cold temperatures! I am now a solo walker as my neighborhood walkers have departed for warmer climates – so I am missing Ally the Golden Retriever and Lady Clementine the Bull Mastiff. But that lone walking is good for noticing things! One of those things I noted this week was that some of the trees are heavy laden with the promise of spring! So, as I walked with the winds whipping around me, watching the trees sway wildly – I noticed the branches are full of buds! It was a good reminder that the bleakness will not last forever!
My week was also full of intentional thinking that brought many why questions. The major why of this week was why Instagram? It is a huge time suck. My screen time average shows that I spend almost 2 hours a day scrolling through images there. Yikes. That is a lot of time! So, this week I shut off all notifications for posts and I have stopped posting there for the time being. And, honestly – it has been so hard to not “click into” the app to see what is new there.
I started easing into a podcast this week – NPR’s Up First has been a very easy entry into podcast listening. I have some other things queued up but have yet to listen to any of them.
I also spent some time this week doing something I should have done prior to cutting out my flannel Esme Tunic. I really struggled matching plaids as I shared on Wednesday – but I have since found a YouTube video that showed me the error of my ways. Today I am tracing pattern pieces and I will try matching plaids again next week!
I found a bit of inspiration this week that reminded me that I own patterns I have yet to use…I am very good at buying patterns on sale but not very good at actually using them! However, there will be a quilted Tamarack Jacket in 2020!
I love Steam Valley Lady and Steam Valley Little and if my daughter would wear a sweater, I would knit her and Vivi a matched set!
And, that is all that I have for this week – I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will see you all back here next week!
Glad to hear you’re keeping up your walking, even without company. You get to see and record lovely scenes like those silhouetted tree branches. Thanks for the First Up recommendation. I’m trying to balance and focus my news consumption (so I stay well-informed but not crazy) and this podcast might play a part. Good luck with/without IG! (Did you read Digital Minimalism? If not, I think it has definite applications to intention!)
I don’t have notifications for any social media which helps and I agree that IG can be mind numbing. I am working to limit my time on IG by only checking twice a day. Not ready to give up all the pretties. And, I also have that Tamarak jacket pattern so maybe another sew along?
Solo walking may not be as fun, but as you’ve discovered, it can be good for thinking and noticing. I think we may be getting an early spring — I’ve heard birds twittering in the morning, and just yesterday I noticed some early spring flowers starting to poke their little leaves up through the ground.
I’m sure I spend more time than I should on social media, but I find IG to be a good stress reliever for me on a typical workday. I suppose it helps that pretty much every account I follow has something to do with yarn or fiber, so it’s usually just some fibery eye candy. But I know it can be a big time suck, and I try to be mindful of it.
I love Instagram but I have a hard time keeping up with all the posts. Some days I don’t get on there at all but even when I do I don’t think I spend more than 30 minutes scrolling. I love Up First and I listen to it every morning while putting on my makeup – it’s the perfect amount of time for that routine!
I have issues with insta. I am on once to three times a week. What bothers me is that my feed is FILLED with so many photos and I have to search for my favorite people to see what they are up to. So many of my friends have quit blogging and switched to insta and I want to keep up but I LOVE how relationships are deep with blogging.
I don’t like how much time it takes to be on insta. They (facebook) make it so you are punished if you are not on it multiple times a day.
Blogging is my favorite medium.
I love that Steam Valley pattern. Why not one for you and one for your grand daughter? I bet she’d love it.
I am having trouble getting myself out to walk in the cold and wind. My dog is looking a bit wider 😉 But–yoga and swimming so that’s something.
I’ve got a bit of an IG problem myself. Working on curbing it…keeping the phone out of reach when reading or watching. I don’t have notifications so that helps. Happy Friday Kat…may the weekend move nice and slow. 🙂
I know what you mean-I have a ton of patterns and yarn. I need to work harder at matching them up and putting them on the needles.
Look at those buds! What a wonderful sight on your walk.
I hear you about IG. I have such mixed feelings about it. I love all of the inspiration and beautiful pictures, but hate that I close the app feeling like my life doesn’t quite add up — and I know it does!! IG is my last social media account – I’ve left Facebook and Twitter. I’m not quite ready to give it up. So I have a screen time limit set for social media (which is only IG for me) – 20 minutes a day and I’m done. I still feel cruddy after scrolling but at least it’s for a limited time.
Good luck with your Esme tunics. I can’t wait to see how they turn out 🙂
I rarely am on Instagram or Facebook. Good on you for continuing to walk. I feel so much better when I get out for a walk but have to push myself as the temperatures drop. Good luck with matching those plaids. My grandmother could do it. She was a fabulous seamstress. I learned some about sewing from her but not enough.
The New Year does bring a very healthy reminder to check in, rebalance, and be sure our intentions are aligned. I’m here to cheer all of it! and also, to say yay you for figuring out (how to figure out?! 😉 how to match plaids. wow! WOW!!
Curious about the video you found re: matching plaids…I looked at several and planned to send them to ya! You beat me to the punch. Glad you are on a diff track…
Go Kat Go!
PS. The one you linked is one I noted! Great minds…and all that…