Liam, snakes and gardening

WOW, I really thought that I had already blogged about this.  One of our first years at Coniston, Christopher walked up the boardwalk to the house and jumped back when a snake slithered out of the woodpile.  My sister stayed here for a few weeks and named the snake Liam.

Rod said when Christopher jumped back "He is a lot more afraid of you than you are of him."

Christopher said "Then he must be shitting his pants."

We have retold this story many times since that day.

Today while out gardening, weeding actually, a snake slithered out of the weeds and I jumped back and screamed loudly.

Rod said "What, a snake or a spider?"

Sally said "A snake, I don't scream for spiders, and only call you for wolf spiders."

So, Christopher comes by this fear of snakes honestly and I have yet another reason not to garden or weed.

Packing for a Month

This is a crazy summer.  All good things are happening but maybe just too many of them all packed into the same summer.

In light of that I reflected on packing for all of these trips.  We went to Star Island last week, and I usually reserve my Star t-shirts to wear for the week.  After Star we will primarily be staying at Coniston so rather than pack again for Vermont and Coniston, I am going to wear my Star t-shirts all summer up there.  EXCEPT, I will need a few collared shirts for golf if I want to play golf this summer up in Vermont.  OK, so when I go home this week for 3 days, I will have to remember my golf clubs and because I want to sew some quilts I will have to remember the correct fabric and all the right accessories for those quilts.  YIKES, this is getting very complicated.

I wonder how Mom used to pack for the summer when we went to stay most of the summer on Gardiner Island on Lake Champlain.  Did we just throw all of our clothes into a duffel bag? did we pack our own bag or did we pack with a sibling?  We always seemed to have enough clothes although we spent most of the summer in our bathing suits so maybe it did not matter.

For our first wedding of the summer we had to pack for a black tie wedding.  Evening gown and tux.  For our second wedding of the summer, just a regular dress sufficed, and a suit for Rodney.  For the 4th of July, I remembered to pack my red, white and blue hat.

So it will be a miracle if I remember everything, and if everything is in the right place, but when it comes down to it, as long as I have something to wear, I can rent golf clubs and sew something with the fabric already up at Coniston, or I could go buy more fabric.  These are all first world problems.  I carry the essentials in my backpack and everything else is just an add on.

There has to be a better experience than this

No one likes poor quality, however, sometimes what you have is worth dealing with versus changing when you don't know for sure that the new product or situation will be better.  As well, with time our expectations of service change based on what we have.  As an example, my first wordprocessor only saved 1/2 page in memory, and my Yahoo mail account used to have a storage limit.  I had to actually delete emails to get below the storage limit.  Same with my work email.  This would be unacceptable in today's email environment.

We bought Coniston, our house in Vermont in 2008.  It is in the boonies of Vermont and for a few months we went without Internet.  We quickly decided that we needed to add some technology to this paradise of quiet.

Rod did quite a bit of research including having one provider come visit the house for a microwave dish, but they could not find a signal.  We ended up with a local provider Wild Blue which provided up with a satellite dish and very very very very slow speed for browsing, reading mail, searching google, etc.  We stuck with it since this is not our primary residence, and for the last year we have been considering Fairpoint, a DSL through the existing phone line.  NO, we are not putting in a land line although for billing they had to give us an unworkable one.  Our last dozen visits we have used the hot spot on Rod's iPhone which was faster than the satellite dish.  This is just unbelievable that an iphone has faster connectivity than a huge dish.

We brought the Fairpoint wireless modem up with us last night and after one call to tech support, we installed the wireless modem.  Ipads, iphones and my Mac are all connected.  We do not even have to have a computer hard wired to the modem.

The difference in speed was unbelievable.  It is not painful to browse websites and check mail, and make casebook updates about the impending birth of our granddaughter.  We immediately got on the phone to cancel Wild Blue.  I do not want to pay one more cent to them for inferior service.  We have choices about what we use for service, but I feel like they are not being competitive and their prices is high for the service we get.

What I do not understand is why it took us so long.  We complained a lot about the speed.  When Chris and Meg lived here they installed Direct TV because of the slow speed and never updated iTunes or any other updates on their phones or iPad through the Internet.  They went to Starbucks for that.

The learning for me is to listen more quickly to that inner voice which says, "there has to be a better quality experience for me available for less cost".

I have had a similar experience with another professional lately.  I went to her for 3 years and after most visits and that amount of time, and that inner voice saying, "there has to be a better experience", I switched to a different professional.  The experience is 100 times better.  Again, why did I wait?  Inertia, loyalty, stupidity, lack of knowledge, comfort.

So Wild Blue, you lost us as a customer because you refused to upgrade the speed of the satellite dish.  Yes, we are in the boonies, but I am telling everyone I know about this experience, including this blog post, which might tell people I don't know.

Life size Settlers Game

Just now, while trying to find a new facebook profile picture, I happened upon some great pictures of this last past Labor Day at Coniston.  BTW, I did not find a profile picture, because now that I have a new camera I am usually behind the camera, not in front of it.

Brother Mike and sister in law Peg had a wonderful party early in August during which they installed a life size settlers game on their property.  They were kind enough to bring it up to Coniston on Labor Day and we installed it there.  For those of you who are addicted to Settlers of Catan you will totally understand what you are looking at.  For the rest of you wikipedia might be a good resource to understand the game.

Mind you, we spent most of the time setting this game up it was pretty dark by the time we started playing.  Coming from a family of engineers, that did not deter this group, they strung up some lights so we could keep playing.

So this was our robber, and when you move the robber you move the wagon he sits in.  Yes, it did almost tip over once or twice.

Here is an overhead shot, where you can see some of the resources.  The little flags were the roads and the taller flags were settlements or cities.

And as it became darker, some lights

I think everyone is imitating Mr Bear, aka The robber.

Rod fertilized the hexagons, so hopefully next spring the game will still occupy our front lawn up there.  In the meantime, we can dream about warmer days and nights as the temperature this weekend at Coniston is below zero.

We found the best Maple Cremee in VT!

This summer I am on the quest for the best Maple Cremee. When I mention this to many non-Vermonters, I get that "What the heck are you talking about now?" quizzical look. I am not even sure this is a broad Vermonter thing, but in the circles I move in, in the Green Mountain State, it is.

Two weekend ago, I drove north to our South Hero home, Coniston, with two girl friends. As we approached the middle of the afternoon, we were in the center of Vermont, and I asked aloud, "I wonder where we could get a Maple Cremee?". First two quizzical looks! Then the question, "What is a Maple Cremee?" simultaneously they asked. Just wait, and you will see.

Phone calls to two close Vermont relatives later, produced our first one, at Morse Farm in Montpelier, with brother Ken. This one was mapley and creamy, and a little too much of both. My two girlfriends ordered a mixture of chocolate and maple, and the chocolate seemed to cut the taste of the maple, in a good way. C+ score from me, and the small portion was not SMALL!

Fast forward to Sunday of this week. SIL Judy swears that Burlington Bay Market has the best in the same way that I swear Allenholm Farm 2.5 miles from Coniston has the best. They are the best, and the closest for both of us, which helps with our individual claims. We have both sampled the most from these two institutions and have a fondness for them. I tried the Burlington Bay one since I was staying the night with Judy and it was good, creamy and a B+.

On Monday as Judy and I headed to Long Point to spend two days with a distant cousin, Linda, we pulled the car over at the Love Shack in North Ferrisburgh. Their claim to fame are chocolate chip cookies (warm fresh ones and frozen dough to take home), AND they sell Maple Creamees!  We were approaching a near perfect one, we both agreed with chunks of actual maple candy in the creemee. The only deductions were for the size of the cone. Too big! BTW, this was our lunch on Monday!

Tuesday, also for lunch, we tried the Maple Frozen Yoghurt at Dakin Farms in Ferrisburgh. The counter person, when we mentioned that portions were too big, said she could split a small between two cones. A+ for customer service, and A for maple, but not a Cremee, rather a frozen yogurt. Again, this was our lunch.

Today, as we left Long Point after our heavenly two days, we returned to the Love Shack. We ate our lunch first this time.  Only Maple Cremees for three days in a row for lunch would be too much! We stepped up to the counter, and saw that they have a Baby size of a coffee/maple mixture, which we both ordered. Both of us agree that this was the A+, best Maple Cremee.

The purist among you will argue that with the coffee mixed in, this is not a Maple Cremee. We are ignoring any nit picking for this contest, and making up our own rules.

Best Maple Cremee- LoveShack, baby size, coffee/maple mixture!

Carhenge, why not a Treadmillhenge?

OK, this is a bit silly but when we were in Alliance NE for my Uncle Chuck's memorial service, we took a 2.2 mile detour to see Carhenge.  Honestly, this is a major attraction and people drive from all over the Midwest to see it.  Murg was a bit miffed that we went there instead of the western wear store, and some in our car needed caffeine, and there are not many decent lattes in Alliance, BUT they do have Carhenge.

Driving with C and M and Murg yesterday, we saw a treadmill by the side of the road, and there also happens to be one on the back porch of Coniston.  All of us laughed that maybe we should have Treadmillhenge in South Hero.  Would it get by the zoning board do you think?  The sign of a real Vermonter is a dead car on the property, but what about treadmills?

Lake Champlain flooding - and our afternoon checking it out

Murg and I just drove around the Champlain Islands looking at the impact of the worst flooding of Lake Champlain ever. Last night at 9:30 pm, when we drove across the route 2 causeway, it was one lane and we drove through up to 8 inches of water at some points. In the middle I said "I wish you were driving" to which he said "me too" and I got mad at him, but not really.

We rode our bikes down there today in the day light and took some pictures which will be posted in the future. Later we decided to go out again to buy a dessert wine at Snow Farm (yummy) and to visit the Green Frog for the first time this season. We were both in a wandering kind of mood, which drives Bee crazy, but suits the two of us fine. We then drove to the Grand Isle Ferry to see what damage had been done there, continued to Hero's Welcome in North Hero, which had just closed for the day. We continued to Alburgh, and bought ourselves a treat and caffeine to keep us awake. On to Rouse's Point, and then south to where the main street in Plattsburgh is closed because of flooding. We stopped at Gus's for a Michigan Red Hot, and then home via the Plattsburgh to Grand Isle Ferry. Mind you, our initial trip was for wine, and gift shop shopping.

This is why we are happily married. We both love to go with the flow, a tiny bit of planning and open to different suggestions along the way.

We laughed earlier in the day about our different learning styles and how different we are in general. This always precedes the conversation where we marvel once again that we found each other 26 years ago this week!

The flooding is horrific. Some summer camps are totally flooded, and some primary residences are totally flooded. Coniston looks out on more lake water and there is more water in the lawn out front, but we are lucky. At one point today I flashed back to winter blizzards where I long to be snowed in. I would not mind being flooded in here for a short period of time. I love to be nestled in with no place to go.

It is the calm before the storm you might say, as we look forward to Brooklyn and Bee's college graduation, England to see family, friends and meet two great nieces, 35th college reunion at Middlebury and then Alliance Nebraska for memorial service for Uncle Chuck. This is all in the next month. Why is May/June always so crazy?
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Thankfully I am married to a snorer

Ok, most nights I would not relish being married to someone who snores. In fact if we were not at Coniston I might still be poking him to stop. Instead at 4:22 am, after being awake since 3:09 am, I decided to move out to the couch in the living room. Channel 1 and the stars and night sky is just incredible. It feels like I am a part of the sky.

I always love the sun rises here, in fact the first year we owned the house, I got up every morning I could to watch and sometimes photograph the sunrise. The picture on my blog is to remind myself about how beautiful sunrises and sunsets are.

So when I got up to come onto the couch my mind was a flurry of activity. I am in the middle of a few sewing projects that I brought up to Coniston this weekend and I just started a good book. Is it too early to start the day, with my normal cup of God's nectar, AKA java? As a retiree, I don't have to worry about being rested for work. Being tired with a rotary cutter is another story but I will be careful sewing.

I will try again to go to sleep on the couch, but if I cannot sleep, then it does not suck, to watch the stars fade and to see the sun rise over Mount Mansfield, or as my Mom helped us understand growing up (through her reading Buckminster Fuller), the Earth turns to reveal the sun, the sun does not rise. Another Mom memory!

The eternal optimist turns a snoring husband into a good thing. Will I remember this back in Lexington?

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Doing more of what you want to do

Doing more of what you want to do, came up as a theme at our most recent covenant group.  This cause me to think about whether I am actively doing this or not.  The answer is maybe and maybe not. 

I very deliberately decided that this summer I would play a lot more golf than in recent summers.  I held true to this and played at least twice a week with two different groups.  I played at 7:04am yesterday morning, and on my drive home I fantasized about dropping by Pine Meadows to play another 9 holes for the day.  It is getting too late to play after work, BOO HOO, but watch out for next summer.  I will be upping the ante on golf.

I want to get more exercise, and this is a tricky one.  It needs to be built into my schedule or it slips away.  If I walk right after I get home, and get into that habit I will probably be successful.  If I wait and pretend that I am going to walk after dinner, the probability of success decreases.  Remember, I am a morning person.

Lately, because of a certain day in September when our son gets married, I have been preoccupied with wedding stuff, so my quilting has been dormant.  Need to get back to that after the wedding.

In terms of volunteer activities, I am doing what I like to do there.  I am on the board of Star Island Corporation, and hopefully having an impact keeping our beloved spiritual community viable for my grandchildren.

Yes, and at work, I am doing what I want to do.  I still love my job after 3.75 years and cannot imagine even looking for another job.  Oh, there are some days when it is not terrific, but compared to where I might be, this is perfect for me.

The older I get, the more I do what I want to do.  I have less tolerance for obligations or mediocre activities.  Should a, could a, would a, do not do much for me.  So, more golf, more quilting, more exercise, more Coniston, more family and friends and less of everything else . . .

Grief 15 years and it still catches me off guard

Just now walking down the hall, as I planned my next project, I was thinking about rug hooking.  I took a rug hooking class in Middlebury VT over 15 years ago, and like many of my classes, I have done little with it since then.  Recently I moved all of the rug hooking materials to Coniston because I think it is more likely that I can have time there to work on it.  I also found a shop in North Hero which has the same exact rug company products which sparked a new interest for me in rug hooking.  Then, I saw a quilt at Vermont Quilt Festival, of a map of Vermont and all of its counties and BINGO, my next rug project will be a map of Vermont with each county a different color.  This is how design works for me.  An idea percolates for a while and then BINGO, walking down the hall the idea comes to me.  This happened with my alphabet quilt projects a few years ago.  For a few years I imagined an alphabet quilt with the square a fabric piece that represented the letter and the letter appliqued on it, e.g. Apple fabric for A, bumble bee fabric for B, etc.  Then I saw this exact design is a quilt book, bought the book and produced multiple quilts of this design.  Nieces, nephews, auction winners at both First Parish and Star were recipients of this quilt design.  But I digress . . .

I was staying with Mom and Dad when I took the rug hooking class.  After I returned to their house one of the things I needed was a frame to put the in-process rug in.  They gave us a rudimentary design during the class that I explained to Daddy and a few hours later he produced it from his work shop.  He was like that.  A mere suggestion of an idea or need, he disappeared and came back with it. 

So why, almost 15 years after his death, just thinking about that rug frame, do I suddenly burst into tears?  Is it because I was caught off guard?  Murg said once that he grieves every day the loss of his parents.  This was my moment today to grieve the passing of Daddy.  I have the rug frame though and this weekend that design of Vermont counties will probably be on it.  Thanks Daddy!

Don't like the weather - wait a minute

As I sit here on a Sunday morning, looking out Channel 1, it is fogged in. I can barely see the road and when I first saw it, I thought it was a blizzard. It should be a blizzard at this time of year but in keeping with this strange weather year, it is fog.

Yesterday, Murg and I walked out on the causeway which is an old train bed that used to connect South Hero to Colchester. There is a small "cut" in the causeway for the boats to get out of the Colchester bay/harbor. As we looked east to Mount Mansfield, they were enclosed in a cloud of either rain or snow. As we looked west to White Face, it was also enclosed in either. Looking south, we saw Burlington in a dark cloud, but further south it was sunny. This 360 degree panorama is wonderful. We also knew that at any time, the weather could change, and we could get wet.

When we got back to Coniston for 3.5 minutes we had a snow squall. I really thought at that point that we would get more precipitation, but that was it.

There is an expression "If you don't like the weather in Vermont, wait a minute." This was totally applicable yesterday.

As an aside, a truck drove over the ice while we were talking from the Colchester side to South Hero and an ice fisherman with 4 dogs was fishing out on the ice. He did not drive his truck out but only because 200 feet away there is open water, or maybe because his license plate was NH and he does not know that it is still safe to drive on the ice, apparently. The sign of spring in Vermont is when the first truck falls through the ice. This year spring will come sooner than most, given how little ice there is.

2009 - Past Christmas memories

As I sit here at Coniston, on the 19th of December, we are not in traffic to the mall or madly wrapping, or working on our annual Christmas letter/collage (although we may get around to that this year before Christmas, and might wait until after to send it this year) I have spent a large part of this Saturday morning thinking about many of our/my past Christmas adventures.

Early memories were in Colorado, when it was magical that things appeared under the tree that I really wanted. One travel Christmas was to San Francisco where we shared Christmas on Yurba Buena Island with my grandparents and cousins, and aunt and uncle. That was the first time that playing charades on Christmas night, which was a tradition of my paternal grandparents, became a wonderful tradition and memory. I was describing this recently to a group of gathered family members. As I remember it, the entire house was up for grabs for props and costumes. It was no small game of guessing words, but rather one act plays to convey a single 4 letter word sometimes.

We had charades a few times in our first Brandon Vt house where one-third of our living room became the stage and the other two-thirds were the audience. Mom and Dad worked so hard to make that magical trip down the stairs to see the tree and presents from Santa. The oldest two kids always prepared coffee for Mom and Dad to wake them up. As a parent I now realize why they were so exhausted. We argued almost every year about whether the oldest kid or youngest kid was first in line. I think it was the youngest.

After opening Santa presents and stockings (hand made by Grandma Katie, and I still make this pattern for family members), we all stayed in our spanking new Christmas PJs for as much of the day as possible. We always had eggs benedict for breakfast. EGGS BENEDICT FOR 9+ people, many of them male in gender who could eat 3 or 4. How did we ever pull that off? Both my kids see eggs benedict as part of the Christmas morning routine, as evidenced by two years ago at Chris and Meg's we had it, and Bethany asking if we are bringing eggs benedict ingredients with us to Thailand this year.

In retrospect those were the Hallmark Christmass. They were magical and contribute to what I think is important in Christmas today, and this year. My two favorite memories of my kids on Christmas are: Chris getting 3 train sets one year, and my father down on the floor with him playing with the Brio one. The negative of that picture is lost somewhere, but Chris has the hard copy and I have the vivid memory. The one for Bee straddles two years. She kept saying that she wanted Pongo from 101 Dalmations. On Christmas Eve she wrote in her letter that she wanted Pongo and Perdita. We looked at each other with that UT OH look. Christmas morning her first words in the form of a question were "Where's Perdita?" Perdita came the next year.

I am thinking so much about "the ghost of Christmas past" because this year is going to be very untraditional. We won't have time to put up and enjoy a tree, since we are leaving on the evening of the 23rd to travel to Thailand to spend Christmas 2009 with Bee. That is most of our Christmas and what a present this is! We will hopefully make it to spend 3 hours of the 25th with her. We are also celebrating with Chris and Meg today at Coniston.

We have travelled a few times on Christmas to spend Christmas with English or overseas American family, so travel during this time of year is not unfamiliar. One year our plumbing backed up on the 25th, we had to get an emergency plumber to fix it, and we left late in the day to travel to England. That was pretty funny in retrospect. Bee, Murg and I also travelled to Burlington VT one year to celebrate with Chris on Christmas Day, after having the early morning Christmas with Bee in Lexington.

This feels rambling at this point. . . so,

This will be a fabulous year, a trip and a Christmas to remember. They have evolved over the years and the core important parts remain, family, magic, travels, and festivals of lights. Notice what is missing, most everything commercial, except maybe this year the plane flights.

Recharging at Coniston

This past month has been jam packed of lots of good stuff. When we scheduled all of this we were looking at the calendar but did we know that there would be no down time in between all these events. Probably not! Just the highlights which don't include are day to day life events are: 1) San Francisco trip with Bee to see 2 sets of old friends and then sent her off to Taipei for the start of her 9 month comparative religions and cultures class 2) "Quick" trip over the pond to celebrate a sister-in-law's 70th birthday. Those are the major events, and with our normal crazy full lives, I realized on the trip up last night how much I need "Coniston" to recharge. I put quotes around Coniston, because I am not sure it is the place I need but the activity, or lack of activity that I need. Because we have a lot less things up here, there are less chores staring at me, or maybe it is the ever present big front window panes looking out at our affectionately named Channel 1 that allow me to ignore the cob webs and mouse turds that need to be cleaned up. YES, I SAID MOUSE TURDS! OK, these do not make me happy at all, but I guess they are a given when a house is in the middle of all of this wild life. I announced to them that I was coming down the hall last night and made sure they knew that I knew they were more afraid of me, then I am of them. This is was Murg always says, so I said this out loud to reassure myself. Funny story about this concept and Liam the snake. Ask me to tell you this one next time we are together.

Back to the title of this post after that little distraction and I do mean little . . . maybe

We talked almost the entire way up to Coniston last night and tried to answer some big life questions, what do we want to do when we grow up? When do we want to retire? What does it mean to be retired?

One AHA out of that and I have realized this before but not in sure a concrete way as last night, is that when we come to Coniston it is a vacation (Murg actually said this and I have thought about this before). So 2 weekends out of every month, we are on vacation. It helps with how little vacation we get as Americans compared to the rest of the world. That means we have 48 more days of vacation every year if we come up here 4 days a month and there are 12 months in the year.

I don't think in the 18 months that Coniston has been in our lives, that every day up here has been a vacation, but for me 90% of them have.

At the very least, this weekend I have taken the time to post to my blog, which is something I really like to do and have not been able to make the time to do enough in the last month. Enough said.

Back to Channel 1 . . . Here come our wild turkeys

The ONLY bad thing about Star is . . .

The only bad thing about Star is the showers. They are few and far between and this week, there was just a trickle from the nozzle, not really enough to rinse. There were 3 of them, but none were satisfying.

I asked a lot of people at Star this week, "Why do you come? What brings you back? What first brought you?"

Many respondents said it was the people. The natural beauty was also mentioned a few times.

I pondered it myself this week, Why do I keep coming back? It is the people and the traditions. Where else can you spend an entire social hour talking about names of couples and whose name do you say first e.g. Bonnie and Clyde or Sally and Rodney. We came up with some hypotheses, but no conclusions. It was a silly conversation.

As I sat on East Rock last night at 12 midnight with about 30 others, I realized this is why I come back. Simple entertainment, the wonder of the world, laid out before your eyes, ears and nose. The fog horn on White Island and the sea gulls. Singing folk songs until you cannot keep your eyes open and falling into bed to the sounds of the teens on their last night staying up for the sun rise.

This is why I come back: the rocking chairs, lime rickeys, silly conversations, deep conversations, the tears, the laughter, early morning coffee, 10pm chapel, walking up the hill in silence carrying a lantern, the din of the dining hall, children's artwork, adult artwork, the 269 other shoalers, the silliness, the healing conversations, sharing, catching up on last year, planning other visits, soaking in the sunlight on the front porch and the LACK of: TV, news, cars, outside world

It is a shock to the system to be back on the mainland. As I sit at Coniston in my daze I have mentioned to a few people that it is like being jet lagged only star lagged.

After the first great shower in a week, I feel clean again, and touched again by the magic and spiritual aspect of Star.

It has been a wonderful few weeks, punctuated by my annual visit to Star. Back to work refreshed, and healed, and recharged.

Rain, what Rain?

Honestly, and I am not in denial, I don't notice the weather. I guess this is a good thing in the middle of the winter or mud season at Coniston.

While in VT at VQF, it was only drizzily one day, but reading Facebook updates from my Beantown friends, there was a lot of grousing about the weather.

Maybe it is my old age, but "It is what it is!" I definitely cannot control this one.

I don't think twice about walking in the rain, and only take an umbrella if it is teeming down (Gordie term, and one my husband's family uses in torrential rain.)

I did not even notice that June has been wet, and that the sun has not been out.

Call me crazy, but with things like Iran to think about, and on my way to General Assembly, the weather is a hang nail that can be cut off.

I often pause when someone complains about the weather, because honestly, I have not noticed.

Sally being Sally!

VQF - update and alert - not too much posting in the next few weeks

Wow, it has been almost a week since my last post. The big news is VQF - Vermont Quilt Festival. A and I went up Wednesday night and got back at 5pm today. It is an amazing group of quilts on display, vendors and quilters from all over.

Thursday I took a class called fantasy fabric. Using tulle (pronounced like the word tool), we created 9 inch squares, put thread, yarn, other fabric, ribbons and TINZL on the fabric and then put the tulle over it to trap it all underneath. Some of the TINZL is iradescent, and when you iron it, it changes color. You can also make a sandwich of other TINZL. My final project was a quilt of Channel One at Coniston.

Friday, I worked two shifts, so that next year, I can sign up for the best classes before the masses get to sign up. We also visited the vendors and admired photographed the incredible quilts.

Saturday I took an entirely different classes, thread painting. It took me 6 hours to make a tree and some bushes, but I learned the technique.

The great thing about VQF is that is gives you all kinds of inspiration for future projects. My favorite quilt store Portsmouth Fabric Company had a great Kaffe Fassett kit for a queen size bed. I walked by 10 times and on the 11th time decided it was too good to pass up. Pictures to follow when it is done.

To be among so many other quilters, mostly women, to experience the energy, to admire and talk about quilts for 4 days is rejuvenating. Onward to General Assembly, a few days of work and then Star Island. Kind of like being retired, which was supposed to happen on June 8th of this year. I love my job too much to retire just yet and I have to pay for next year's VQF.

Not too many posts in the next few weeks, unless I steal some time at GA.

Happy Summer

Leave it well enough alone - another life lesson

Some of this post only knitters will understand but here goes. I am in the middle of knitting a yoga bag. I did not pay attention and finished the bottom off wrong. My knitting group all agreed that it was fine, but I just knew that every time I looked at it I would know it was wrong.

Last night on the way back from Coniston I started taking it apart. Sometimes you can unravel knitting and it goes quickly BUT in this case (and probably 2 other times in my knitting career) it did not go well. I took out the cast off row, and that took until Montpelier, at which point I said "If I had remembered my scissors this project would be in danger." An hour of frustration building, and in my view an hour of otherwise wasted knitting time

By Randolph with the project in real danger I put it away. Murg was also falling asleep at this point, so I was needed to drive.

Always has to be a life lesson, sometimes you dig stuff up and it is helpful and sometimes it is not so helpful.

Just earlier that day I was walking out of church rolling a ball of yarn and there was a small entanglement. Someone looked at me and said "Ut Oh!" but my response was not just a wee knot, easy to work out, kind of like life. Well this HUGE knot later was not easy to work out, and still sits in my knitting bag, hiding from my scissors.

I have only thrown out one project like this in my life and I really like my almost complete yoga bag, so only a few rows are in danger of hitting the trash can.

The Magnet just gets stronger and I get weaker

Every time I think about Vermont, I feel incredibly pulled to live up there. I don't know whether I have described in this blog or not, but right now I am stalled. Not in a bad way just stalled. We have decided not to move up there for 2-3 years, that is the stalled.

As crap happens in the world like the shooting in DC this week at the museum, I want to retreat and go to my refuge, get away from people (hard to believe for an "E"). Every time there is more negative mortgage news, or real estate news, I want to retreat, plant my garden, get off the grid and wake up to Mt. Mansfield and Camel's Hump.

So for now the antidote to craziness is every other week up at Coniston. We have a wine tasting tonight, Friday, and I insist we drive up after that. For me it will be a wine dribbling.

Not enough Coniston lately . . . The magnet is pulling me to go early and stay late and make plans to have it be permanent.

I am just saying . . .

Weeds - who says?

As I walked to D'Angelo's just now to get my lunch, I walked by some dandelions. Who says they are weeds? Weeds has a negative connotation. When Murg was trying to find me something lace for the lace anniversary, he went to a few local garden stores asking for Queen Anne's lace. By the third one, someone clued him into the fact that this is a weed. Not in our book it isn't, if it is good enough for a anniversary gift then it is not a weed.

Got me thinking about the old adage "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." So instead of weeds, we can call them flowers and if I want Coniston to have yellow dandelions at this time of year, that is what is blooming there.

I need to think about gardening now that I write this post. I "weed" the dandelions from just our front garden. That is just about all I can handle, and it is close to the street so not too removed from humanity.

So dandelions and queen anne's lace are flowers, or everything is weeds. Bottom line for me.

Good night sleep works wonders

I felt badly leaving my evening meeting early, but I physically could not keep my eyes open. I have been burning the candle at both ends, and when that happens a 9pm crash is just what the doctor ordered.

I actually feel a bit "jet-lagged" from so much sleep. Kind of like when I gave up coffee a few years ago. For a few weeks, I was really to fall asleep 24/7. That wore off, I had no coffee for 6 months, BUT now am an addict again.

I really want to get the book HELPING that I heard about last night. Don't tell anyone, but I may do the B&N trick on this book. Find a couple of hours free (that is a challenge), go to B&N, buy latte, find a quiet cozy chair, get the book and read it there. I have only done this a couple of times. I know, stealing money from all those authors. Believe me, I have bought my share of books in my lifetime. We are trying to not add anymore books to the Coniston bookshelves, so if I can I get them from the library.

Speaking of the library, are all librarians grouchy? There are a few in Lexington who must have a really bad life to be so grouchy. One in particular this week, I went in to say that I had indeed returned a book, but it was showing up on my account and collecting fines. I HATE TO PAY LIBRARY FINES. SHE SAYS: NOPE, not returned, look under your car seat. SALLY SAYS: I did return it with 2 others books last week. SHE SAYS: OH, OK I will go look on the shelves. SALLY SAYS:"No, let me do that for you, I don't mind" (smile). Not up there."

SHE SAYS: Well as I said, go look under your car seat. I start to doubt myself. After I leave she talks in a stage whisper about those stupid "customers" who lose track of books. SHE SAYS: I know it is under her car seat. I actually looked under my car seat. Not there

This morning when I logged in, miraculously the book has disappeared from my record.

Now that I think about it, I bet it was under HER car seat.

OK, I have friends who are librarians and not grouchy or devious, but this one was. I hope she reads my blog.