Here, There and Just About Everywhere

The weekend before last was a rare weekend when the kids were with their dad and I wasn't teaching. I went up to the Fiber Revival (http://www.fiberrevival.com/) and took a shibori class. Yeah, I didn't know what it was either. It's a Japanese word, and I think the latest meaning is felting into shapes. Like tying objects in before felting to get different textures. There's an effect where you knit a scarf in alternate rows of wool and silk, then felt, and since the silk doesn't felt, it gets pulled into lacy shapes--really cool. The festival was at a beautiful old farm, where I saw my first fall leaves on the ground. Not hard to believe when (here visiting the Cape today celebrating my dad's 70th birthday) the highs were in the low seventies. I also made it up to the Lowell Farmer's Market where I bought some mysterious (to me) Asian vegetables and over to the Lincoln Farm tour.

This weekend was the Women's Herb Conference in New Hampshire. I feel so filled up--drumming, dancing around the fire, workshops on plants, folk singers. Sophie's favorite part was learning how to weave wheat. Rebecca liked the herb walks. The conference is on 700 beautiful acres with a lake for swimming. The whole thing was as always, very inspiring, and I have all sorts of herbal projects in mind now, from making acorn flour with the kids to more wheat weaving to getting Honey off Advantix and onto an herbal flea and tick and making some herbal cordials and planting an elder plant. (Last year the conference motivated me to make mead and elderberry wine, which is still fermenting and needs to be bottled!)

summer ramblings

Well summer is flying along and I finally got my rain barrels from www.nerainbarrel.com. They are totally nice there and they work to keep rain barrels affordable--at $66 they are half what they are other places, but you have to pick them up at one of their drop offs. They're almost done for the year, but next summer . . . if you need a rain barrel . . .

I totally recommend Merle's Door--maybe the best man and dog book I've read. I got the cds of it out of the library and now the kids are listening to it too. Totally makes me want to move to Wyoming. I also really liked Goat Walking about how to head out into the desert with just a couple of goats and what smart animals goats are and how to live with them.

I finally went to the www.montaguebookmill.com. "Books you don't need in a place you can't find." Definately worth a visit if you're out in western Mass. It's a beautiful old mill. They have lots of used books and comfy chairs to sit in while you check them out.

Rebecca's Quilt on Display

That's Rebecca with the quilt she hand pieced and hand quilted at the Lowell Quilt Show. Her quilt, as you can see, is beautiful. The show was fantastic. There were some great quilts that are part of the Journal Quilt Project, inspired by the book Creative Quilting. I just got it out of the library and am enjoying it.