New years musings - Hello 2018

The last year and a half has been rather tough and dreary. Just after my last update I got a herniated disc with several severe complications. It meant that I was bedridden for over a year, walked with a cane a some point, still can't bend down to pick up stuff from the floor and probably have permanent nerve damage along the sciatica nerve (neuropathic pain in my ancle and foot). I'm not going to dwell on it more beacuse I havn''t quite come to terms with it yet. But it explains that I have a new base point.

The last few months I've noticed that I have regained som cognitive functions and can think more complex thoughts again. Being in cronic pain is very taxing on the whole body and it seems a bit similar to what clinically stressed people are telling me about their anxiety levels and cognitive functions.

New years resolutions
Basically what I want from 2018 is more! More of everything, except time, as I've had too much time this year to just lay and perish

• Cognitive: More skills! I want to learn to fish, code (have dappled a bit in Python), write (thesis and in general).

• Physical Health: So much room to excell here... Regain strength with walking, biking, dancing, swimming, kettlebells and calistenics . Since I'm still rehabilitating I won't make exact goals because its important to stop before excerting myself and always listen to my body. No super tough workouts! But i would like to be able to walk semi-long walks with a spring in my step and not hunched over in a growl and be able to carry my body when bending over. Hopefully that also comes with less pain.

• Mental Health: Get rid of arbitratry guilt and self judging! I will also try to normalise my relationship with food and get away from the diet culture with it's super foods and ingrained superiority complex. I like a variety of foods and will eat them in variety. As a person with anxiety and a personality disorder my mental health goals is also to be even better at self care - not in the indulgent way of taking a bath while burning a candle (although that sounds nice) but in the sence of getting food, sleep, fresh and air exercise. Maintaining social relations, health check ups, asking and seeking help. I would also like to learn how to be better at setting boundaries and both knowing when my boundaries are being overstepped and how to respond.

• More action, less procrastination: Cultivating discipline. I've done it before but lost it in first mental health and then the whole invasive pain ordeal. I want it back! Perhaps daily and weekliy schedules will help?

• Culture: More books, more podcasts, more flute playing, more good movies and tv-series.

• More knitting!: One sweater for me with stash yarn and pattern. Hat, mittens and scarf for me (again stash everything). Socks for whomever. Mending and finishing.

How to accomplish that?
 In the past few years I've dabbled in making daily routines. I don't think a very strict scheduele with timestamps is beneficial to me, so instead I will try to cultivate rythms and more cyclical routines. Daily routines settle into weekly which again makes up the yearly. I can already feel my frazzled nerves relaxing with the thought of the more natural system of little drops gathering into streams, ponds, rivers and oceans. Life events suddenly has a home and somewhere they belong. I am myself and rythms give me life. The circle of life and the days of my life.

My daily routines consists of a morning, day and evening rythm with personal hygjeine, eating, dishes, physical exercise and learning to code, reading, listening, seeing. Putting things in electronic calenders!
Weekly is cleaning, home office, knitting group, meal plan and weekend activities.
Yearly is seasonal cleaning, holidays and retrospection of if anything needs changing.

My plans are not very formalised yet. And perhaps they'll never will be. But with a quarterly retrospection (already an event in my phone calender) I will regularly ponder over if things are moving along.

Beginner hiker

I have a tendency to think of myself as more outdors-y than what I in reality can claim. So with a lot of inspiration from Alastair Humphreys' microadventure label I've decided to persue hiking adventures more this year.

Along with a friend I've signed up for a weekend hiking event in late June. We're to hike 25-28 km a day for three days and will see some gorgeous landscapes in my parents childhood area. I look forward to getting a more intimite relationship with that area because as a child I was just sitting in the back seat drawing and getting out at my grandparents' places rather un-connected with where I was in the country.

I had a somewhat serious back problem in January so I have to be a little diligent with traning for it. Previously I've suffered a lot with blistered feet - so bad that it actually ruined a good deal of a walk on the Camino de Santiago in North Spain some years ago now. Theywere wrecked for months after that and I'm not going to have that happen again. No way!

This means that I'm also looking into pack weight and am trying to balance weight/cost/comfort. I'm a bit heavier myself so if I can scale packweight down my knees will probably like me a bit more. Along with the hiking poles I'm going to bring. Denmark is very flat but Southern Funen is very hillocky. Short and steep.. or is it short and sweet? ;)

Yesterday I bought a Trangia mini - a very cute and tiny version of a Scandinavian classic. The pot holds 800ml max and since we'll be getting the modern freeze dried evening and morning meals where you only have to pour in hot water to the pack, I think this will be fine for the two of us and our occasional coffee breaks. It comes with an alcohol burner that we won't be using on the trail since our entrance fee also comes with gas canisters. So I'm on the lookout for a cheap gas burner as well. I plan to take some training hikes with my new mini kitchen and have a few  cocoa breaks. I wonderhow much you can cook on it? It comes with one pot and one mini pan so pancakes, blinis, pan bread, eggs might work?

Another thing is that I'm finding it very fun to plan my gear and how I can use what I already have in different ways. Like in using a homeknitted sweater instead og a fancy fleece and layer with my rain jacket instead of a bringing an actual jacket. The sweater is for warmth and the rain jacket is for wind and rain protection. Sounds like no biggie but I've only seen it mentioned by a single ultralight hiker on youtube.

For a long time have I been eyeing kettlebells for general fitness and a few days ago I saw kettlebell exercise as a good type for hiking form. I ordered two beginner weights so I'll see if they're any good. Previously I've done a lot of free weights training so I'm not uncomfortable starting out on my own even though some techniques are different.

Aching sunday (no sun in sight)

I've got quite a many projects I'd like to both tell you about and remember for my sake. Hopefully documenting my endeavours will make me realise how much I'm doing AND will make this blog my personal recipe book.

Here's to hoping!

Today I have an aching back and while tending that I'm knitting away on a linen t-shirt. I'm using a free pattern from ravelry, ambiente, which is a top down shirt using the contiguous technique. Fortunately the larger size matched my gauge and size perfectly so I did'nt have to modify the base pattern. I AM adding bust darts and side shaping though as I'm rather shapely and need some structure to a garment to not look several sizes larger. 

This I'm hoping is turning out to be my first wearable knitted linen garment. It's looking promisin

With a little help...

This is how you do it!
Originally uploaded by Leneland

Sometimes I'm getting some help from a rater unusual angle. My very reserved but nosy parakeet apparantly likes to help with the knitting!

her name is Pip and normally she's not very keen on being this close to me. This is a girl who likes her distance. But maybe the grandmother feeling of knitting is luring he in. She an older bird and in the best lady like manner she won't tell us her age - 8 years is not far from it though...

I was absolutely smitten with her at this point and very excited so sorry for the blurry pictures and my "less than average" apperance as this was an instant opportunity!