In which I begin again (and again, and again)

One of the things I find most captivating about knitting is its ability to produce patience in the most unlikely of subjects. I have always been tenacious, but not always patient. I tolerate imperfection only with the greatest difficulty. I like fast results (but who doesn’t?). Knitting soothes me quite substantially by its tolerance of [...]

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Patterns on the brain

The more we understand about the natural world, the more we discover that it is full of patterns, generated perhaps in random ways, but retained by nature for their strength and robustness. What it is about patterns that causes the human brain to love them nearly as much as nature does, and to find them [...]

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The Quantum Duke of York

I have a mathematical friend who once, in our university days, treated me to a very nice meal he had cooked, and afterwards, espresso and an explanation of quantum theory. It may have been a complex intellectual wooing manoeuvre, but if so, it failed miserably as I was so busy trying to bend my head [...]

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The good news and the bad news

I am ruined. There is a new shop on the corner of my street and the next one. Ok, it is on the other side of the road, but that’s not going to save me. I can sense it. Speak it quietly. There is a LYS in the neighborhood. According to Google maps, it is [...]

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Light relief

Sometimes, there are circumstances where you don’t know what to say, or make, or do. Perhaps because the options feel too big, or too many and too confusing, or perhaps because you can’t think of a single one that meets the needs of the moment. Luckily, when that problem strikes you at a glass class, [...]

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Serendipity, and mistakes

So a couple of weeks ago, I went into one of the local charity shops (thrift stores, of which we have more than our fair share in the neighborhood), just to distract a child from the fact that its sibling had a playdate, and it wasn’t invited. So, yes – basically – I offered shopping [...]

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And here’s one I made earlier

To quote a well-loved television show from my childhood, “here’s one two I made earlier.” Actually, to be honest, they dragged on a bit because I did a few other things while I was at them, and in the end I decided that if I didn’t crack on fairly smartish, I rather hoped I wouldn’t [...]

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In which I admit to a crush

I’ve been thinking a fair amount about Canada recently. I think Canada is cool. Now, obviously, a lot of the time, it is very, very cool, frighteningly cool, actually, but that is not what I mean. In fact, I may have developed a crush on Canada. I’ve never had a crush before, but I think [...]

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Thinking like a toddler

Recently the little ones have been engaged in more equal struggles. Child Three has suddenly got verbal, and therefore is better able to defend his position, and express his desires to his sister, who used to just issue decrees about what he was going to play with, and what she was going to do (not [...]

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I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I love it.

I had a whole other post planned, but Life intervened and it didn’t happen. Or not enough of it happened, so it’s languishing in Draft-land. Sorry post: at least you are not alone. Some of my best posts are there. I have spent most of the last couple of days trying to recover from the [...]

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