Ann of Owlshire

Yes, this kind of part/full shade woodland flowers are exactly what we're thinking! (We already have all of the things listed around the property in places, but I want some concentrated in this particular set of beds.)

Hi! I've been away, now I've returned. On Monday morning we headed south to Exmoor for three days! It was a good trip. We visited some friends, and then hit a few interesting sites: Tarr Steps (old clapper bridge); Dunster Castle; and Knightshayes. There was a lot of walking on day 2 and 3 (not so much on day 1 which was mostly driving and then hanging out inside at our friends' house as it was bucketing rain). (The right photo is me trying to show Enting how to assess risk and cross stones and land bits in the Barle River. Not shown: a minute later when he decided to start scrabbling off on his own and in my haste to stop him I lost my footing and fell in myself! Luckily, I caught myself well and only had a sore bum and a wet sleeve. Could have gone much worse!) I had set out some geocaching routes, but we didn't get to them. However, Enting kept wanting to geocache in places that there weren't any, so we made a game instead of peering around in nooks and crannies and "odd looking things" searching for places we'd investigate for a geocache if there were any. Apparently pretending to geocache is almost as much fun as actually doing it! I have ideas for the garden! Knightshayes in particular had a cultivated woodland garden, that I feel may be some of the answers to our own untameable front garden. I'm ordering appropriate wildflower seeds to start the process of turning it from an ugly, left-to-seed-by-previous-owners overgrown mess to a slightly more cultivated and intentional wild garden. 5 days of holiday left.... Hi everyone, I hope your first week is going well!

Stardewlike Funny, I thought I'd be posting here more on my holiday, but it's been a lot going on! Especially out in the garden. I've cleared two beds (one with a major invasive species), replanted them (wildflowers seeds and primroses); potted three rose bushes on our patio... I'm extremely sore. I can walk forever, but apparently my digging and standing/squatting muscles were underworked. Oof. I haven't been on many dog walks, other than a short one in our woodland this morning to check on the Bluebell Status (beginning to bloom!). I'm still getting my mileage in from everything else though. I'd planned to clean up the patio (such a mess, made worse by potting the roses) and start on the veg garden today, but I didn't get far into either: the weather was quite changeable! Sunny and warm one minute, dark and cold and pitching down rain (and sometimes hail) the next. It carried on like that through the day, so I focused on indoor chores. Like packing and preparations for our upcoming trip. I also did a local event today! I'd found out there was going to be a Spring Equinox Pageant, so I took Enting along with me. They cut it short because of the weather conditions, but it was fun while it lasted. There was singing and morris dancing and the ceremonial planting of an apple tree and (Enting's favorite part) we were given lots of wildflower seeds to sprinkle around the wildlife reserve, plus some to take home.

It'll take the Mr a full year anyway, he hems and haws and researches forever on stuff like this If it were me, we'd have already got a cheap starter one from the home improvement discounter because I learn by doing

“If you're reading this, you must be in dire need of a change. The same thing happened to me, long ago. I'd lost sight of what mattered most in life... real connections with other people and nature. So I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belong.” — Grandpa's Letter Welcome to RL Stardew Valley! We're now moving into spring and as usual I'm behind on getting the garden beds ready, sowing my seeds, and all that jazz. Briefly, an Origin Story: I'm a 44 year old American woman living on a 10 acre woodland property in rural England I call Owlshire with my partner, son, bouncy golden retriever, and a flock of plucky rescue hens. I work fulltime in games development, and as a family we enjoy nature and playing games. During this challenge we will be on holiday (part staycation, part travel) during half of Week 0, all of Week 1, and the beginning of Week 2. More on that in the challenge updates. Health/Energy / Less is More Last challenge I cut snacks, and it did not result in loss, but it did result in my weight stopping its slow upwards creep. That's something! For this challenge I'm going to begin a slow and gradual reduction in portion sizes at meal time. I don't calorie count or measure because I find it too tedious to maintain, so this is going to be a hard one to track, but basically it comes down to asking "could I take a little less?" at meal times and trying to find the right balance. Exploration Lately we've gotten into geocaching, and of course the dog needs her daily stomp 'round the woods (and for that matter, so do I!) Last challenge I was aiming for four miles a day total clocked into my Fitbit. This challenge I'm changing it to 30 miles a week (slightly over four miles a day on average). This gives me a little bit of flexibility, because, hey--life happens and some days I clock seven miles, and some days I only manage three. Stardew Living Last challenge I kept an informal log of my "Stardew Moments," and while I may not do that every day on this challenge, I want to focus on the things that make me feel like I'm living Stardew Valley dream, rather than the things that make me pulled away from it. The Farm It's spring! I need to get the seedlings going, have a plan, get early seeds in the ground, prepare the beds... hm, maybe not in that order. [ ] Revise Plan [ ] Prepare beds [ ] Get early seeds in [ ] Get Feb/March/April seedlings going We're also researching a green house, but I don't know if that will result in an actual greenhouse by the end of this challenge as this is mostly the Mr's initiative. Mend and Make Do I have a huge pile of mending, and a desire to try visible mending on some of my items, but have I touched any of it in the last mumble-mumble-years? Uh, no. Mend at least five items of clothing from the Pile of Doom. Festival TBD At the end of each season in Stardew Valley there is a festival--I'm using this as my challenge celebration. I haven't decided what it is yet, and that's okay.

My challenge was a "get things back in order" affair, and I think it was mostly successful. Cutting the snacking habit didn't result in weight loss, but it also stopped/slowed the upwards creep, so that's something. I tried to be more social on threads, which mostly worked, except in the last week. Looking forward to the next challenge going up!

Eek. I struggled to keep up with the forums at all on Week 5, but I still did my challenge! Check Planner: 7/7 (35) Update Planner: 7/7 (35) 4 Miles: 6/7 (30) No Snacks: 6/7 (31) 80% was my goal, which is 28 so I managed to make my goals! Time to go shopping for some cute dungarees! Onwards to the next challenge!

Week 4 Update Check Planner: 7/7 (28) Update Planner: 7/7 (28) 4 Miles: 7/7 (24) No Snacks: 6/7 (25) It's been a few days since I last updated. The Mr returned from Germany (with minimal disruption), and on his heels were two guests that came to stay for the weekend. It was a good visit: A 4.5 mile walk in a new location + geocaching (found 4/5 caches) Building a den with sticks in the garden TTRPG (Savage Worlds Pathfinder), including the Enting joining us and being really, really good and engaged. Catching up with some of my oldest friends: I met them online in a chat-based RPG back around 2000 (they were university roommates in Bath at the time), we kept in occasional contact over the years, and in 2010 I met them in person on a visit to the UK, and in 2016 I moved to the UK and we become IRL friends! Turns out it was one of their's birthday on Sunday (I have no memory for birthdays), so I whipped up some lemon drizzle cupcakes from scratch to celebrate! For Reasons, it had been two years since they'd been to visit (post-Covid we live further away), but we're already making plans to have them back in May! My brain is buzzing with ideas for the next challenge, but we we're not done here yet! Onwards to Week 5!

Stardew Moments Tuesday: More Dungeon! with Enting. Breakfast, afternoon, after dinner. He wanted more stories about our game, too. Took a long walk at lunch, still exploring the new woods. And then got myself stuck in boggy mud (churned up by logging vehicles), fell over, managed to pull myself free by grabbing a branch and then got on my way only to realize my phone was missing (fell out of my pocket) and then I had to go back into the boot-sucking mud to find it. I came home sore and extra muddy. The glamour! I've been eating a combo of leftovers and such over the last couple of days, but tonight I made myself a big batch of yummy Thai chicken green curry. Looking forward to nomming on that for the next couple days. The workday had a lot of things I needed to pay attention with my eyes/mind, but my hands were free, so there was knitting. Lots of knitting. The evening was again knitting on my jumper with a small measure of Bailey's to sip on. I've had a lot of my mind of late. Wednesday: Because I spent my lunch break (and then some) dealing with the taxman (see below), I had to take a shortened walk close to home, but I took a route I don't often take and it was so glorious. Sunshine, mushrooms, moss... Rough morning with the Enting, but the afternoon was much nicer. We listened to a lot of science podcasts together, played a bit of Dungeon!, and then he wanted something to listen to at bedtime so we listened to some piano instrumentals while he fell asleep and it was the first night we didn't battle over bedtime while the Mr (who usually does bedtime) has been away. And it's more jumper knitting and sipping Bailey's tonight. If all goes well, the Mr will be back by dinner time tomorrow. This morning I got a letter from the taxman that I hadn't filed a tax return for (UK) self-employment and was being charged a stiff penalty due post haste, despite that I haven't been self-employed for a couple of years and have notified them multiple times of such. It took an hour and a half of phone time with HMRC, but I was a pleasant human with the agent and he was pleasant human with me and he wiped out the charge and fixed my status so hopefully this won't happen again this year. A+++ Adulting. I'm proud of myself for dealing with it swiftly, because I assure you I didn't want to!

I'm talking more about my planner/notebook, but it depends for me. If it's a short jaunt, then I usually don't bother unless it's something that I think I will actually want to take notes on and even then I might take a little notebook and pen to save space. (I can't type on my phone worth anything.) If it's a longer outing where I might have time to sit and pull it out and consider it, I bring it along.

Vanilla socks (really a handful of different simple patterns) were my "default knitting" for many years. Lately it's become jumpers. I used to do the afterthought heel, but these days I've come back to the flap heel as it fits my foot better. I like the idea of fancy yarn work more than I like doing it. I feel like I've done the exploration and challenging projects; now I just wanna knit stockinette in the round forever It's a good "intro to D&D" concepts as it's basically just a dungeon crawl in board game form and fairly simple. Enting and I have been adding RP and other stuff to it, too!

I'll try to remember next time I'm out and about. I don't actually live in Wales, but we're just on the other side of the English border so a lot of what we do ends up being in the nearby Welsh town.

There's a farm park/softplay center about 25 minutes away. Several softplay structures, farm animals, outdoor ziplines, etc. Largest bouncy tractor in Wales, they claim! (But I wonder about the competition...) Enting loves the place. It's the rural Britain version of going to Chuck-E-Cheese's I guess But after hosting/catering the last two birthday parties at ours, I'm happy to have a break. It's a very chance-based game with a bit of strategy. The Mr hates it, but Enting loves it and I don't mind so we play it a lot when Mr is away 😹 Many years ago I was at a knitting workshop and mentioned to the teacher that I had I wanted to do a jumper but I found it intimidating. She said "if you can knit socks you can knit a jumper" and since I could knit socks, I went on with the jumper. I prefer raglan jumpers that are seamless and in the round. (And by "prefer" I mean I've done one pieced jumper and there are just too many raglan variations available for me to bother with that nonsense again ) If you haven't done a sock or jumper before, I recommend doing a mini version to try it first. I've taught a fair number of people to knit their first socks, and we always start with the mini. From there you've got all the skills and techniques, it's just scaling up.

Stardew Monday: Hard frost this morning. Not great for the spring blooms, but good for the apple trees. Got to looking at this odd illustrated book Enting was gifted called the Dragon Ark, which I realized actually opens up talking points on a variety of topics from world geography to culture to science, and to myths and lore. The person who gifted it didn't realize it, but one of the "featured" European dragons is in Puzzlewood, which is just a few miles from us right here in the Forest of Dean. Sunny, beautiful lunchtime walk. A couple of hours later it was dark and chucking down rain. Good timing! Booked the venue for Enting's birthday party in April. So glad it won't be at ours this year, I don't have to clean the house (before or after) or do/plan the catering! Last night I cast on a new jumper, lots of progress made on it today! In the evening it was the Enting's and my traditional Board Game Takeover when the Mr is away: We set up a board game on the table with intent to keep it out until the Mr returns. Enting wanted to play Dungeon! in "co-op" and decided that this meant we would work together with the win condition of defeating monsters until there weren't any monster cards left. (In the normal game it's whoever gets their treasure goal and gets out first.) We left it on us both fighting level 6 monsters that we can't seem to defeat 😬 At bedtime, Enting wanted me to tell him a story about how our characters ended up in the dungeon. He was very intent that we incorporated the games rules in this story to the point where it practically became LitRPG. Quiet evening with a small sipping glass of Bailey's and my knitting. 🧶 Apparently there's a potential Lufthansa strike in the works and Mr is likely to get caught in the middle of it so, should be... um, is "fun" the word?

Country busses, for when you're not trying to go anywhere! (I didn't have my UK drivers licence for the first year and a half we lived out in nowhere. I think I tried the bus like once out of desperation. Half the bus stops weren't even marked!)

Week 3 Update Check Planner: 7/7 (21) Update Planner: 7/7 (21) 4 Miles: 6/7 (17) No Snacks: 5/7 (18) Stardew Sunday: Had local friends over for board games! We played Everdell, and everyone scored really well! (I came in last, but it was still a higher score than my last game by a lot.) Our friends' daughter (just 8 ) and Enting (almost 6) get along well and had a great time running about the house and outside feral while we gamed, needing virtually no parental involvement. They brought a gorgeous homemade dark chocolate/courgette cake! (Zucchini for the Yanks.) Enting and the dog having a cute cuddle. Cast on a new knitting project--a jumper. A crisp, clear night on the evening dog outing. Amazing stars. Week 4 Prologue Mr is off to Germany for work most of this week which is longer than usual (he's frequently away but usually only for a night or two at a time and still in the UK). So that'll be "interesting" My Mini-Goal this week is to increase water intake to x6 glasses a day. I drink a lot of tea (switching to decaf in the afternoon), but hardly any actual water. I've been feeling parched lately, so maybe it'll help.

I used to be part of a bunch of Rav groups and felt like I had to post everything or it wasn't real. Now it just feels like a job and I can't be bothered 😂 It's embarassingly simple: Dear Hearth Spirits, thank you for our daily bread And thank you for looking after us in these troubled times I offer you rye (add rye flour) And water (add water) I stir you clockwise to bring in the love and light (stir clockwise) And I stir you widdershins to send out the darkness and negativity (stir widdershins) that come with living in these troubled times. Thank you Hearth Spirits for our daily bread That's the Lockdown version, anyway It's not all sunshine and roses here, but I've been trying to learn to focus my attention on the good moments rather than always ruminating on the bad.

Ah, thats cool. Will have to see if i can get those here The Glos county system uses BorrowBox, not sure if that’s more common here.

Oooh, I've heard of it! It's about an hour and a half away and always falls on an inconvienent weekend (sigh). I think last year it was the weekend of my son's birthday. We have guests coming by that weekend this year, but when I mentioned it to the Mr, he said that those guests (old friends of his) would be fine if I wanted to take off for a day to check it out. So I might just do that! Thanks for reminding me it's happening!

Stardew Moments: Friday: Finishing our game of Everdell with the Mr on Friday night Snuggling on the sofa with Mr and popcorn (technically a snack, but not a mindless one) Another extra long lunch time dog walk (worth it!). There was sun, downpours, sun, etc. I talked over with the Mr that I felt guilty about adding an extra 10-20 minutes to my walks, but honestly the benefits are worth it. I'm so much more focused/productive afterwards. Saturday (so far): ❄️ SURPRISE SNOW!!!! ❄️ We woke up to two+ inches of unexpected snow! So we canceled Enting's Saturday morning swimming (we're basically trapped on the hillside in snow/ice conditions), and instead sledged, had snowball fights, built a snowman, etc.. It was like 6:45AM when we got outside but we don't get snow often, so we seized the moment. By lunchtime it was mostly melting off (and now it's even muddier...) but it was a great morning. A warm fire and cinnamon coffee We came in for sausage and eggs for breakfast And beef stew and homemade sourdough bread for lunch I finally got the sunflower seeds I sprouted in a paper towel into potting soil after, um, two weeks. Mr and Enting went out to the shops in the afternoon when the snow had melted off, and the Mr brought me back a dozen red roses 🌹

Oooh! They have a good variety of colors similar to what I used to use a lot of with the Procion. I like blending, but I also like not having to blend (especially the harder to manage shades which of course are my favorite ones). Thank you! I'll give them a try when I'm ready to try dyeing again. (There's some needed set up at Owlshire first to make it comfortable (for me) and safe (for child and dog.)) And World of Wool has been my go-to for most things woolly since I moved to the UK! All my components for my blending board come from them, as does my jumper quantities of yarn! But their selection of dyes just did not inspire me

Thanks for the tip! I primarily used Procion acid dyes in the States, with some Jacquard (which I have found some carriers for in the UK). For Procion the only thing I've found available in the UK is the Procion MX, which is for cotton and such, not for wool and other protein-based fibers. I sold mine when I left the States (along with a lot of other things like my looms and wheel), but I got the blending board a few years ago as a half step investment when I was dipping my fingers back into fiber play after some years dormant. More manual work, but a less expensive outlay I keep thinking I should update the label, but I find it amusing I love making bread by hand, but given a busy schedule, I've learned to make sourdough (the real deal, not sourfaux) in my bread machine. The loaf isn't as pretty, but it's just as tasty!

Week 3, Day 4/5 Stardew Moments Thursday and Friday morning: Took a cheeky extra long woodland dog walk on my Thursday lunch break (about 3 miles; usually do 1.5-2 miles), but I needed it to clear my head and still my soul, at least for a little while. I had some of my most focused and productive work done in ages after that walk! It was another evening of spinning next to the fire. I'm almost done with the Corridale singles, and maybe I'll get on to plying this weekend. I'm nearly out of my dyed variegated wool spinning stash (I don't like spinning undyed wool, I find it boring. I love watching the colors mix!). I've been looking a lot at what dyeing supplies are available in the UK (not what I used in the US, alas!), and also digging out and dusting off my blending board to make some spinning batts from my existing supplies. Inspired by @Darciana , I've been trying to do my sourdough blessing again. I used to do this during the pandemic, say a little prayer to my gods/spirits when I was feeding my sourdough starter. I need to revise the chant slightly since it was Lockdown specific, but the words still rise from my bones when I call them. I'm way behind on challenge threads, I hope everyone's week 3 is going great! And if it's not, I hope it starts picking up from here ♥️

Corridale wool, I think it is. I'll try to remember to get pics... at some point. I always forget to get pics of my projects these days.

Week 3, Day 3 Stardew Moments: It is now light enough on the first dog outing (around 6:30AM) that I don't need to bring the torch! This morning was full of fog in valley against the dark blue of the sky. Lovely. Drove out a bit on the lunch dog walk so I could spend it exploring the new-to-us woods (without 30 min of the walk just getting there and back). It's fun to find a new stomping ground! And the dog needs practice getting in and out of the car, anyway. Mr had an online "playdate" with a friend tonight (gaming), so it's was quality time with my spinning wheel.