Last day...

... of freedom. Tomorrow school begins again, this is my third year and I am terrified!
The schedule is going to be even heavier, but also clinics are looming and I can sense the expectation that things should come together and make sense, and that I should effortlessly become competent and confident and all that. I am so not ready for this...

However, my books, notebooks, pencils, recorder and bicycle are ready, so tomorrow off I will go, one way or the other.

To distract myself from what will happen tomorrow, I will tell you what happened yesterday instead. Yesterday was without doubt one of the happiest days of this summer. Here is why:

• I got to spend 12 hours with Maryse. Do you realize how much serious fun that is?
• I was instructed in the arts of dyeing wool in a rainbow (or rather 24 rainbows) of colors by the excellent Linda of Pinestar Studio.
• I was instructed in the arts of needle felting by the lovely Jill of Yarns in the Farms. And let me tell you: the repeated stabbing action required for this activity felt SO good. I see a lot of potential for productive/artistic stress relief, for me and my children, in the immediate future.
• I met a whole bunch of my old knitting friends, including Melanie! That was such a lovely surprise. And Kellee and her baby. And that was just super!
  
• I got to visit one of the most interesting old farms, up to the mysterious and alluring attics, where I felt like a child explorer.
• In short, I went to the Fiber Revival Festival in Newbury, and had the best of times!
  

Sadly, I am still camera-less, so I have no photos to share.
Luckily, you seem to like the Africa wildlife photos, and, of those, there are quite a few more......

Service resumed

Hello everybody,
I know you are well used to sporadic blogging here, so I will make no more apologies.

Just thought to resume contact and give you a brief update.



Since last post, in June, we had a wonderful family vacation in South Africa, touring their spectacular national parks, and establishing close contact with an wide variety of charismatic African animals. Unfortunately my camera was lost in transit, so I could not take any photos, but my husband has taken many hundreds, I just have posted some for your viewing pleasure.



South Africa is a land of extreme contrasts also on a socio-political landscape, of which I know nothing, but could not help notice, because of the continuous alternating between luxury (and then some) homes and cars, and bidonvilles without even the benefit of bicycles. Pretty disturbing to my untrained eyes.




After South Africa, the rest of July was spent packing, moving and unpacking. Not fun, but it had to be done. We sold our house in Plymouth and changed apartment in WestB., two streets away from the previous apartment. It was a lot of work, and a lot of time spent figuring out what to keep, what to toss, what to store and what to donate. I'll spare you the details, but all throughout the process, I caught myself thinking how come I have never seen publicly blogged the comment: "If you see me buy another ball of yarn or teacup or book, just shoot me"; because, you know, that was a pretty spontaneous refrain in my head. It's not like there has not been a number of dramatic moves in the last 3 months or so around Boston blogland, is it? Must be something wrong with me*.

And now we are trying to enjoy the last week before my school restarts. I am concentrating on China Cloud, I have one sleeve left. As much as I love it, and love see the pattern emerging, it is taking a serious effort not to pick up something easier. Since I am still camera-less, no photos sorry. And today I am washing one of my very dirty fleeces. I figure I can do this myself, (washing being one of the few chores I do not mind), before sending them for processing. That will alleviate the slight storage problem we are experiencing right now.. ahem.

And it is fun! especially when your landlady walks in and catches you elbow deep in murky brown water at the newly installed kitchen sink.......


*Believe or not, not one single ball of yarn was lost to the move. That was a power struggle and a half, let me tell you, maybe another time.