Life's Strange

I have been thinking lately how life takes surprising twists and turns, and how the best laid plans of mice and men are oft to go awry. People often ask how I cope with being in a wheelchair - well its a damn sight better than being dead - and I don't cope I just get on with my life, I just have wheels instead of legs that work. In some ways the accident might be the best thing that ever happened to me! It certainly changed my outlook on life in general, things that had seemed really important somehow weren't anymore. Our planned early retirement and a house in France didn't and won't materialise and our reduce income changed our lifestyle - we moved and down shifted. Now that was hard, mainly because we are both hoarders - we had filled every available space in a large five bed roomed house! I had a sewing room and a study, hubby a railway room and study. Clearing out was therapeutic in a way - throwing out things that we couldn't keep, but hadn't used in years did us both good. Does everyone move things from attic to attic? We had! Now if you haven't worn/used an item in a year - throw it/or recycle!!


The biggest change was in friends, old ones from work and social friends seemed to drop by the wayside - often embarrassed. New friends, post accident seem to be so much genuine, less shallow - but was that because I'd changed? University friends are all younger (some nearly young enough to be my grandchildren) with a common interest, mostly history. Tennis friends, all in the same situation and most in wheelchairs have been a real inspiration and showed me how lucky I am. A yearly girls day out at the British Open Wheelchair Tennis Tournament in Nottingham is one example. Restaurants can't cope with six women in wheelchairs...................


Lately, however, I have made a whole load of new new friends and this has changed my life again. The girls/ladies (don't want to upset anyone) who I have met through learning to spin, dye and weave have all been marvelous. Take Saturday for example - the Spindyeweavers organised an ad hoc spinning session with an American Lunch on Saturday.



Here we got to share ideas, projects and even solved the problem of my carded bobbles. Consensus was that the roving had started to felt, probably when it was washed badly.




At least it wasn't anything that I was doing wrong!

Also I got to feel one of the most expensive fibres - vicuna. Soooooo soft.




Another of life's little twists was S's dyed Falkland - what you can do with black was amazing, but more strange was the similarity between the Falkland (dyed at a workshop last Sunday January 24th) and the yarn from the first instalment of the Posh Cashmere Club inspired by Burns Night..






Well what do you think??