Christmas has come

 

 

You are looking at the Christmas gift my husband and I gave each other this year.  It is a new wood burning stove manufactured by Blaze King, a catalytic  stove that only needs loading about once daily; one that heats our entire house for almost 24 hours on one load of wood!  This Princess model was delivered last Friday and has been burning ever since.  There is nothing as cozy as wood heat and for us is very economical since we own almost ten acres of woods in Oregon.  We have a heat pump to supplement our stove but we have completely turned off the heat pump since Friday with our house temperature staying between 68 F and 73 F degrees.  Nice!  This stove was also a real marriage saver.  We replaced our old wood burning stove which had the noisiest fan you could imagine with this stove.  I was constantly turning the fan on our old stove down because of the noise and my husband was constantly turning it up because he was cold.  This gem of a stove is quiet even with the fan running and very warm.  Now we are both happy and we had a very cozy Christmas.  The top of the stove can actually function as a cook top, so we never have to be concerned about loosing power for either heating or cooking.

 

 

 Most of our immediate family live scattered across the country from coast to coast.  Most holidays we spend a lot of time on the phone wishing everyone Happy Thanksgiving or Merry Christmas.  The post office gets a good business from us as we mails cards and packages across the country and even across the Atlantic.  This year we invited our near by neighbors to share our meal since they had no special plans for the day.  We cooked ham, sweet potato casserole, corn, garlic mashed potatoes,  cranberry relish, creamed chard and  rhubarb cobbler.  What a nice afternoon with our stomachs full, warmed by the fire and cheered by each other's company.

 

 



I had promised you that I would continue my tale of our trip to Ireland.  My cousin, John, owns several fishing cottages which he rents out year round.  He gave us the cottage about a quarter of a mile down the country road from his house for the week.  This charming cottage has two bedrooms, a full bath, a living room with cable TV, a wood/peat burning fireplace and a full kitchen with a washer and dryer .  If you are interested in an authentic Irish vacation, John's contact number is above on the cottage sign.  John lives along the river Shannon about three miles out of the town of Carrick-on-Shannon.  The town is reachable from Dublin airport by a two hour bus trip or from the Shannon airport by bus as well.  We chose to stay overnight in Dublin to adjust to the time change and took the commuter train from Dublin to Carrick-on-Shannon.

 

 Our first afternoon in Carrick-on-Shannon our cousins took us to the family cemetery in Agrium.  The church was built by the Franciscans in the 12th century.  This past year as part of the Irish "Gathering" a new tombstone was placed on the family grave with the names of all of our Conlon ancestors buried in this plot.  It was so awe inspiring to see the family name going all the way back to 1735 and knowing that I have a connection to this lovely land.

What would a visit to Ireland be without a visit to an Irish pub and some wonderful Guinness.  Both my cousins John and his sister Breda are very musical.  They played and sang Sunday night at a local pub, Cryan's.  Breda sings Celtic music professionally touring the country with her singing group for various events.  My sister Cynthia had our pictures taken the following day in front of the pub.  Carrick-on-Shannon has lots of pubs and is sort of known for being a weekend party spot.  There are river tours that run from Dublin and Sligo to Carrick and a number of condos that are rented out for weekend getaways.

 



 

 

The highlight of both my brother-in-law's and my husband's week was being asked by my cousin, John to help him haul one of his prize bulls out of a drainage ditch.  The cow got stuck when he saw an attractive young female in the next field and attempted to get to her.  Men will be men, no matter what their species.  With help from a backhoe and some ropes the bull was freed and my husband and brother-in-law became official "Irish Cowboys". 

 

 A visit to another pub on Wednesday night to listen to our cousins' music got me involved in learning some official Irish jigs.  I was asked to volunteer to learn the steps with the dance master before the whole pub was up and dancing with us.  It was great fun and I worked off some of the Guinness I was drinking that night.

 

 On Thursday we took a day trip down the west coast of Ireland.  My cousins rented a small bus and we went looking for my brother-in-law's ancestorial family in Milltown Malbay, the Nashville of Ireland.  We found the Talty pub and a relative who was writing the family history of Matt's mother's family.  On our way back home we stopped at the lovely and famous Cliffs of Moher.

 

 Saturday, my cousins decided to hold a family reunion of all of the related Conlons at the home where my great grandfather was raised before he immigrated to the United States.  My cousin John, pictured above on the left of the door, completely rebuilt this old farm house from merely stone walls.  The thatched roof had fallen in and the house lied in ruins.  The house sits on a piece of land that has the shores of the Shannon River as part of the lot.  The view is breathtaking and I think that it must have been very hard for my ancestors to leave this land.  John's work is magnificent both inside and out and his restoration does great justice to the site.  Again we sang, ate and drank to our family, those who are with us and those gone before us.



Husband John, Cousin Breda, John Conlon, brother-in-law Matt, Anne Conlon & sister Cynthia

On Sunday we bid farewell to our Irish family as we boarded the bus to Dublin airport from downtown Carrick-on-Shannon and onto the second leg of our journey to Scotland.  I believe that we left part of our hearts behind.

A friend of mine, Jackie Weatherspoon, who worked for the UN on various peace keeping missions told me that the first time she had the opportunity to visit South Africa and put her feet on African soil she immediately felt her connection.  I know what she means.  My heart feels very happy when I am on Irish soil and it feels even happier to know my connection.  Thank you so much my Irish family!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Been Busy for the Holidays

The last time I posted I had been writing about my trip to Ireland.  Time has completely gotten away from me and I got very busy with the holidays.  I will get back to my description of my Ireland trip and even give you a post about my two week trip to Italy.  This post, however, will be about my gift making for the holidays.

Before Thanksgiving I was using my new studio quite a bit...that was before our deep freeze here in southern Oregon. I wanted to send something to my cousins in Ireland, so I wound and threaded a Christmas colored warp for table runners.  I made five of the above runners and the first day I was able to leave my house after our six inches of snow on Dec. 6th I put them in the mail to my cousins.

Next up, I discovered a book I had ordered some time early in the year, "55 Christmas Balls to Knit" by Arne Nerjordet and Carlos Zachrison.  These fellows are Scandinavian sweater designers who live in Oslo, Norway.  I love charts.  Give me cables or stranded knitting and I am happy.  There are 55 charts to follow in this book and the directions produce some of the most charming Christmas balls I have ever made.  I made three of these balls stuffing them with wool fleece and lavender.  My intention was to knit enough to decorate my tree but the above three were given away in ornament exchanges and as gifts.  I can knit and stuff one of these balls in an evening, so making all 55 balls by next Christmas will not be an impossible task.

I usually give each of my coworkers in the Case Management Department of the hospital where I work a little something for Christmas.  This year my embroidery machine was smoking (not really) as I made each person an ornament to hang on their tree.  I have an attachment for my sewing machine that allows me to sew in a perfect circle. These were quick, cute and personal. In addition, I was able to use some of my fabric stash.

There is one fellow in the Case Management Department, Ron.  Ron loves pretzels, so I gave him a bag of pretzels.  How do you gift a bag of pretzels?  You make a gift bag and give the man a bag of "Jolly".

I have had this very cute blueberry fabric in my stash for a while.  I always bring my sister-in-law in Bremerton, WA a little something handmade when we visit.  Since we plan a visit soon, I decided to make these hot pads with an Jacobean embroidery of blueberries in the center.  If my kitchen were blue, I would make some for myself.  But since my color scheme is tan, gray, peach and black I will have to make something else for myself. I have something else on one of the looms in the studio that will go well in my kitchen.  In the meantime, my sister-in-law will get to enjoy these.

I have one more gift to give.  This was hot off the sewing machine yesterday.  This is a wine bag with matching coasters.  The wine for this bag will be matched to the recipient's taste.

This year I was able to assemble and mail my Christmas cards on time.  Each year I try to include a little bit of handweaving in my hand made cards.  Last year the warp remained on the loom until after Christmas.  This year the warp was woven, cut and included in our cards.  I made over 40 cards this year. Each year I promise myself that I will make my Christmas cards in the summer.  Somehow, temperatures in the high 90's just doesn't lend itself to the Christmas spirit.  I do have my idea for the 2014 Christmas card, so maybe I will get started.

My husband and I decided this year that we would give ourselves a new wood burning stove.  The cold temperatures this month have proven too much for our current wood stove to keep up with heating our house.  We have a heat pump but heating with wood in the winter is just cozy and wonderful.  Besides,  I have wanted a stove that I could cook on should we loose power.  We bought a Blaze King and John is in the process of hooking it up.  I am looking forward to a much warmer house and a more efficient stove.

There were a few more things that I have made, but since Christmas has not come yet, I am not going to post them.  I do think that Santa's workshop has done enough for this year.  Tell you about other things I have been working on later.