I made an owl!

Well, I couldn't blog about it before, because it was a surprise to my parents (who read the blog!) but I decided to surprise them for Christmas. I drove home to Nova Scotia starting on Thursday around 5:30 pm Iowa time. Usually, it's a 33 hour drive. This time, it was a 47 hour drive. The first 14 hours were freezing rain, the whole time. Every half hour we had to stop to clean the windshield and headlights. It was simply dreadful. Then, we had snow, more freezing rain, and sleet, right through into Maine, when finally the precipitation stopped. We didn't sleep on Thursday night, driving right through the night, and finally stopping at 8:30 pm on Friday in a small town outside of Albany, NY called Herkimer. We stayed there in a hotel and got on the road again at 6 am. We arrived at my parents home at half past midnight on Saturday, exhausted, but safe and happy.
We have enjoyed our first couple of days immensely. We're working on the annual huge crossword from the Globe and Mail newspaper, eating lots of mother-made treats that are just so special to me, and just sharing time with my parents, whom I see so rarely. It is indeed precious time. We have farm help taking care of the animals back home, although the weather has been extremely cold there and we have lost a few chickens as a result. Very sad, but nothing we can do from here.

In the meantime, I am learning three things. First, I bought books on how to knit and crochet. I have tried both and find them somewhat challenging but I'm learning. Secondly, I am learning how to do needle felting. This is my first ever needle felting project - it's an owl. It is a tree ornament of course. I am rather pleased with it for being my first try. We are hoping to have lots of our own wool in the near future from the llamas and sheep, as well as the angora goats, so this will be a craft I can use for gifts, etc. I shall be dreaming up new designs for other ornaments. This one was a little kit I purchased on Etsy and so it isn't my design, but of course each one comes out with its own personality!

I'm not online much here at my parents' home, but will have a lot of blog posts to catch up with when I am back in Iowa! Happy Holidays to all!