Isn’t this a beautiful bike? It is the Trek Pure Lowstep, and you will note that the pedal has a forward design so that all your foot has to do to touch the ground is just to step down without leaving the seat. This is a “flatfoot” Townie bike and can be used on different terrains. Ahhhhh, it feels good and I will be purchasing this in early March. It is a little late in the year for a new bike, but I haven’t forgotten the bike lesson from a few months ago. Before I wound up in the walking cast (unrelated incident).

Remember that I did not learn how to ride as a child, so I am a ** year old novice. Is there something BEFORE a novice? If there is, then I am that. So what to do throughout the winter to gain endurance and to lose weight? I am a member of a wonderful fitness club with great personal trainers, and they have these “easy” little classes called Spin-Cycling. This is, basically, a very intensive class in indoor cycling, and as long as I am patient and don’t push myself further than I should, it will take care of my endurance problem.

At least it gets me exercising

It is about time to start work on my next liturgical embroidery project. There is something special about doing liturgical embroidery. It is, in a way, more satisfying than other projects.  I do, in the end, prefer to do projects for others anyway, projects intended for my walls seem to rarely get completed.

The above Blackwork Cross will not be on the first Epigonation, but on the second, I have volunteered to stitch two of them, one on a red wool fabric, and the second on a beautiful white Scottish linen (which will have the above cross in the center). My design for the red woolen Epigonation is hand-drawn and will be done in surface embroidery, so I doubt that I will be able to post a decent picture here before it is done. It is my hope to have the red one completed by Nativity, and the white one for Pascha. It just depends on so many other things, but that is my hope.

The design for the red Epigonation will be quite different – basically a cross with vines and flowers. I will post a photo of that when it is far enough along. You can see the framed project in the photo here, it was for a good friend.

I tend to like large, complex projects, so I do not complete many projects in a given year. It is, however, very nice when I do This is Night Flight, a design by Amy Bear, and somewhat modified by me… I do not know when I will be able to afford to frame it, so thought that I should go ahead and post it!

I went to East Tennessee this weekend to visit my family. It was a good visit, and for the first time in my life I listened to an audio fiction book on the trip. I think I like that, and it was a story that I know well so that helped to follow it as I drove.

On the way back I took the following photo with my new camera…. it is almost perfect… This was taken at the top of a mountain, and looking over the mist-enshrouded mountains and trees one can almost imagine a hardy band of travelers, from the Lord of the Rings perhaps, or some other epic tale making their way through the fog.

Tomorrow I journey home to visit my sister and mother, and am looking forward to the trip. It is certainly a journey, in more ways than one, from Indianapolis to Maryville, Tennessee. I look forward to getting my annual mountain “fix” and getting away from my work-a-day routine to spend time with the family that God gave me. Our family is unusual, but these are the people that God chose for me to be born into. That is a good thing to ponder from time to time, it wasn’t just a matter of chance that we have the families that we have

I have that snazzy new digital camera, so will try to remember to pack it and to take some good pictures. It will be good to see the mountains again

Ok, I am finally getting to a point where I can spend some time with needlework before my new index comes at the end of the month. Writing indexes is a great way to make extra debt-payment money, but it is quite intensive.

Work continues on Night Flight, referenced in recent postings.

Work is starting on the two Epiginations. Hopefully one will be complete by Nativity and the other by Pascha, but we shall see!

I have decided to start work in the Wild Rose, a needlepainting project for a friend of mine. I hope to complete it and have it framed in time for Nativity, but time will tell. You can see it here. I WAS going to stitch the Blackwork Peacock for her instead, but after talking with her husband I settled on the Wild Rose.  I still have the material for the Peacock, I think it would look great on MY wall – unless I choose to give it to someone else. Work has kind of stopped on the Forest but this is not due to a dislike for the project – I just have too many other things going on!

In case you haven’t noticed, Wild Rose, Forest, and Peacock are all from the same designer. Tanja Berlin has a wide variety of wonderful designs and also provides free critique if desired. Ok, time to pop something into the DVD player and start stitching for the afternoon!

I love this design, but it is HUGE. I had to do something or it will never be completed. So I have greatly edited the design for the bottom half of this design. While still large, about a foot has been deleted from the bottom half – or at least close to it. I decided where the rocks would go, and will decide the stitches.  So the final design will be a combination of the original designer and my own edits and… errr…. customizations. Yeah, customization is a good word! There is the matter of a small problem with the moon that I didn’t catch until it was much too late, can’t for the life of me figure out what to do there. I am NOT about to rip that part out and re-do it as that is far too dangerous. Any thoughts?

I have a confession to make, and it is a shameful one…. you see… I never learned how to ride a bike as a child. Not once did my feet hit a pedal.

That changed Thursday evening – with some trepidation I made an appointment with someone who teaches adults, one-on-one, the basics of riding a bicycle.

To start with she took the pedals off of the bike, for the first step was to learn if I could actually balance the thing. She had me kick off with my feet (it was a “flat foot” bike) and once I got going to take my feet off of the ground. Much to my great surprise we had success! Wheww.. hurdle one was behind me.

Ok, time to put the pedals back on – and to learn about the hand brakes. Much sooner than I would have ever dreamed I was zooming around the parking lot. Ok, ok, starting was wobbly, and turning wasn’t an option, but I was riding the bicycle! Whooo hooo! I was careful to use BOTH hand brakes when stopping, and indeed I got the stopping thing down quite well. So far, so good, no crashes…. yet.

Next step was to start riding around the parking lot filled with parked cars (obstacle course just for me and to make turns. Connie carefully explained the proper way to turn – do NOT turn the handebars. So I made my wobbly start on the bike and headed for the outer row of parked cars to make my first turn…. I zoomed around the parking lot at a great rate of speed (probably an entire 6 miles an hour), and the right-hand turns just happened. Then it became time to go back, and to do my first LEFT-hand turns.

Of course it was bound to happen. First time on a bike in 49 years (outside of a few aborted attempts in my late 20s). Concrete parking lot. I wore shorts – though I had a helmet on! And I learned that left hand turns are rather more difficult for me than right-hand turns. I headed for that first turn, cut the corner short a little, and instead of turning left, I met the parking lot. Wham! All of a sudden, instead of being on the bike, I was between the bike and the pavement. Of course it had to be expected.

Once we cleaned up the blood on my leg and elbow (not bad, just scratches), I went out a little while longer. Each attempt was better than the one before, but that left hand turn is a challenge for me.

Next Lesson: August 10 – left turns and shifting are in the agenda.

I honestly do not know if I will continue past the second lesson, I’ve a membership at a great club. Indeed I just switched today, and the new club is charging me next to nothing since I am still under contract to another club that is going downhill pretty quickly. The bike lessons are an experiment – and it was indeed fun when I wasn’t falling I will not, however, go to the expense of a good bicycle unless I am convinced that I will actually USE it. I live in an urban environment, and would have to mix with cars if I ride anywhere, unless I took the bike somewhere.

Decisions, decisions, time will tell. I just like having options

BTW, I found I really like the flat-footed cruser women’s bike with dual hand brakes (no foot brakes). I felt more secure being able to reach the ground with my feet!

The “hammer” of health, that is!

Apparently I am either pre-diabetic, or in the early stages of diabetes. My doctor is unsure which, but one of the two is certain. I do not want diabetes – none in their right mind WOULD, it is a terrible progressive disease that is difficult to live with. However, I am still at the stage where it is possible to have a strong impact and either reverse the course, or at least make things slow down and be more manageable in the long run. Those two words that we all hate to hear our doctors use – eat properly and exercise – I am under doctor’s orders to lose 28 pounds..

But HOW to lose that weight? Outside of occasional exceptions, I do not eat much, and indeed have gained a little weight! Surely I have a slow metabolism, right?

Nope! Yesterday my doctor put me on a machine that is meant to detect my “resting metabolism rate”, and to help determine the optimum range of calories I need to eat for weight loss. Much to my great surprise, my metabolism is FASTER than normal! My doctor tells me that I am not eating enough to lose weight, and assigned me a 1400-1500 calorie range for weight loss!

Now, my kind readers, this is not intuitive to me – eat more to lose weight??? Apparently women in particular can have this arise, if we are not getting enough calories (but not really starving) our bodies “thinks” that we might be in trouble and starts storing everything possible as fat.

So I’ve a caloric range of 1,400-1,500 calories a day, with a carb/protein/fat split of 45, 30,25. Time for the dietician. . .

I completed the blackwork cross and had it “finished” to give to the widower of the friend it was for. She did not get the chance it see it completed, she died much too quickly, but at least she got to see it in progress. With no further ado, here it is (and I won’t mention how expensive the framing was, I am in the wrong business!