The restful life of the retiree.

Not.

There has been much gadding. (Next door village to Little Gidding?)

Nice trip to London, one of our culture-vulture bursts. We just snuck in to the last day of the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the Tate, which was wonderful! Seven, I think, rooms bursting with fabulous paintings. Such an embarrassment of riches that both back and brain gave up the ghost for the final two rooms, but I was able to find somewhere to sit and let myself gaze around enough to get something out of it. Yes, wussy, I know, but it was a BIG show. I have always loved the PRB, in fact many years ago when I worked for a short spell in Westminster, I often used to go to the Tate in my lunch hour and see them then. Either them or the the Rothkos -always did have eclectic tastes!

What else? Well, we were supposed to be going to Kiss Me Kate, I was really looking forward to it. But when we arrived at the theatre, it was to hear that the show had been cancelled. From the sound of it (and this is pure speculation) they had noro going through the cast, so, total sympathy there then! Ah, well.....

We did get to a magical piano recital at the Wigmore Hall. Beethoven sonatas, Schubert and Schumann. Strangely, we had never been there before, and it was an interesting and enjoyable, in an extremely British way, experience. It had been an absolute age since we had been to a classical music event other than opera - far too long. This was lovely, and we need to do more of it.

On our last day, we really packed things in. Took the long bus ride out to The Handweavers Studio, a treat we had long been promising ourselves. We used to go quite often in the previous incarnations of it and us, and there are changes, but certainly not in a bad way, although I did miss the shelves full of fleece.

I didn't actually buy any fibre as we had been to World of Wool last week (did I mention that......?). But I did get some yarns. My tapestry loom, a Mirrix, has been looking at me reproachfully for ...... a very long time. I hadn't wanted to mail order colours, prefer to use my eyes for real. Got a nice range. Now we just have to wait and see how much longer it actually takes for me to get a round tuit......

They package things well there, and I also fell for a pretty pack of rainbow spectrum threads that are intended for braiding. Same caveat. Plus a Wildcraft spindle and Jacey Boggs' book. She is a brilliant teacher, and writes just as well. A gem.

The bus back went all the way to Trafalgar Square, and it seemed sensible - as it was snowing and cold - to stay on it and go to the National Gallery for lunch and a bit of a browse. We chose the Dutch Scenes from Everyday Life area, a remarkably good choice. Very restful and satisfying.

And our final bit of culture was David Hare's play the Judas Kiss, with Rupert Everett and Freddie Fox. Yes, a Fox! There's a lot of them about. It was excellent, so glad we went.

Home Tuesday, day of rest Wednesday, and then another action-packed day yesterday, with friends here for lunch before going to the Bankfield for an exhibition of by Hillu Liebelt. Wonderful. I did take some photos, but I haven't uploaded them yet, too cold in the room where the pc is! So hopefully, more later! (No photos of the London trip as the weather was so foul.)

And that wasn't all - folk gig at the Trades' in the evening. So what with all that, and the very cold weather, I declared today something of a duvet day. This blog post is the most energetic thing I have done so far, apart from conferring with the DSM about the next round of travels.

Ah, well, keeps me out of mischief.

Back home again - and a little puzzle to end the year!

When I loaded the Blogger app to do this post, I noticed for the first time that there was a camera symbol at the bottom of the screen. In the spirit of adventure, I touched it, which loaded a camera (duh!) . So, as I wanted a shot of latest knitting project on the needles, I took that. Which put the image in a tray at the bottom of the screen, and that is as far as my techie abilities will take me! So, it may or may not show up in the published post.....(that is the puzzle!)

Another techie fail, too. When I bought the iPad, I also bought a keyboard. One year + later, I have just got it out of the box. OK, so I worked out how to switch it on, and even thought to go in to settings to activate Bluetooth (aaaargh!) but couldn't get them to actually talk to one another. So, some progress, I guess. Could do better.

OK, Christmas. Nice visit to DMIL, who is doing incredibly well for 97, and coped with five chatty adult offspring and hangers-on without resorting to - well, anything really. She isn't the type for violence....actually, I think she enjoyed herself. I certainly hope so.

Two main downers with this trip. The cottage we were I was lovely, but although it claimed to have wi-fi, and our three separate devices claimed to be connected to the network - they weren't. Extremely frustrating. Hence, I promise you, the lack of blog post.

The other thing? The *#%€¥$*&@!!! weather. It has rainedandrainedandrainedandadinfinitum and is still so doing. Back here, the rivers are running high, but the rain is steady rather than cloudbursty so we do not have a torrent coursing down the lane and threatening the house, although we did put the sandbags in position before going away as a precaution.



I hope I have just inserted a pic of the view from the kitchen window. We shall see.

So we didn't do all that much while we were away. A few short strolls in between rain showers (the torrents were at least overnight). We couldn't get access to our favourite beach as the roads down to it were closed, presumably through flood or land slip. This really is getting beyond a joke.

But as we had been able to visit Get Knitted on the way down, I had been successful in acquiring some Cascade 220 to make a Swirl jacket, so I was able to get that cast on. The fun bit was joining the round. You are instructed (and I would have done anyway) to work three rows and then join, but this would have been shall we say incredibly interesting without help. I had cast on around 560 stitches on a circ that only just held them workably. So I borrowed all the spare cables and tips various that my sister had with her, spread out the stitches as straight as possible, and then prevailed upon my nearest and dearest to straighten them out and to keep them thusly whilst I effected the join!

I think it may be possible that there is an easier way to do it........

So, now we are all safely back home, and despite the filthy weather very glad to be so. We have passed the Solstice, the turn of the year is made, and we can hope for the slow return of the light. Actually, I wouldn't mind some snow first.

No resolutions. No intentions either, at least not as yet. They may come in time. I may not yet have The Project I am searching for, but I have good stuff to be going on with, and some good things to look forward to in the weeks to come. I am about to go prepare a nice warming winter pie for our New Year's Eve meal, and we shall crack open a bottle.

Happy New Year!

Ah.

I've had a bit of a moment. I suppose, to be strictly accurate, several, that have just this evening coalesced into coherent thought.

Yes, really. I kid you not.

I have continued to be dilatory on the blog front. This is not because I don't want to blog. And it's not just because of the disaster that is the workroom, not to mention the geriatric condition of our desktop. (I am working on that one. It takes a while.)

A major factor is that, as I have said, there is not all that much fibre activity going on. All of a sudden, I can see that a large part of that is due to being stuck. The projects that I am working on are not working out.

One of them I can do nothing about. The finished object is so cute and irresistible that the great nevvie to be simply must have it. It will be great when finished, but the execution is a royal pain. Remind me never again to knit something with a bazillion teeny tiny body parts from a pattern that is not the easiest to follow, and that is going to have to be so carefully pressed and stitched after the drafted knitting is complete......I am SURE that there must be a better way to design such a thing!

All I can do about that is to keep on reminding myself that it will be worth it in the end.

The other thing is much harder to accept and to take appropriate action on. It is the latest shawl/stole.

Remember how I sampled and switched until my ears bled? Decided on a stitch pattern? It Isn't Working Out. I Don't Like it.

I love the yarn. I spun it well, it has a fabulous hand and appearance. But I still have not found the One True Way to make what I want to make. I need to frog, and rethink. And not only do I have to grasp that particular nettle, but I also need to decide whether or not to still focus on it, or if I should come up with something else to give myself breathing space.

I suppose, at least it helps having made this realisation! Watch this space. There may even be photographs.

In other news, we whisked off to see The Hobbit, in 3-D to boot, in the spiffy new cinema in Halifax. Well, not sorry I saw it. Will probably buy the DVD so as to have the entire opus. And it probably isn't true to say even that I was disappointed, as the book is not as dear to my heart as LoTR. But golly gee, way to much time devoted to hugely overblown battle scenes and far too much of a whiff of Pirates of the Caribbean about it, as in Our Heroes Various falling endlessly down chasms, etc, on or off bits of bridge or whatever and remaining entirely unscathed. H'mm.

OK, ladies and gentlemen, place your bets - will she post again before Christmas?

Sigh.

I'm still not blogging as much as I would like. Thinking about it, I realise that there are a few reasons, not just one.

Firstly, the state of our back room/workroom is a total disgrace, and using it is not a pleasure. I have found that there is an app for Blogger for the iPad, but I am still not completely au fait with it - must try harder. (Do so wish there was an app for room-fettling.)

Then, the computer in aforementioned room is elderly, and flaky. Ok, ok, so am I but it still makes a difference! There is an on-going conversation between the DSM and me about getting a new machine, but he still needs working on a bit.......

And more - I am still working mainly with commercial yarns for the forthcoming sproglet. Second blanket nearly finished, cute felted toy needs another machine wash and then stuffing and finishing off. Next up, a pair of delightful crocheted bootees and The Teddy. After that, we shall see. I still have yarn to use.

The only spinning going on - and it is - has been written about here already, so nothing new until finished and off the wheels. I do have a lust for a red shawlette, so am looking through the stash (also not a delightful task on account of the dratted room...)for some suitable fibre. I shall be seduced into a third spinning project if I find anything.

I have some new spindles that I should be giving a work out to, and reporting on, but for whatever reason, I can't find the enthusiasm for that, at the moment. I shall probably take them to Cornwall with me when we go for Christmas. Yes! Christmas with DMIL this year, for a change, and my sister is coming with us, so should be fun. Mind you, I have just read a rather alarmist weather report on t'internet reckoning that we are in for a really hard winter with lots of snow and ice. Now, I normally don't mind that in the slightest, but I do when faced with a few hundred miles of motorway to drive!

So, what has been going on otherwise? A certain amount of gadding to gigs, unusually. The Sunday after we got back from California, Fairport Convention were playing at the Trades Club in town, and we fancied going. They were excellent; and we learned that there was a folk weekend the next one on, so we booked for the Saturday night, and again, really excellent. And I had seen that Bellowhead were at the St George's Hall in Bradford, so we hied ourselves off to that as well. Now, I do know that they are not to everyones taste, but I love them - I find their, shall we say, raucous style exilerating. Plus we got introduced to their supporting act, a young (and rather cute, ahem) would you believe, punk cajun trio from Switzerland, called Mama Rosin. All excellent fun. And, do you get the theme, here.....??

One more - back at the Trades last night, one of the founder members of Fairport with Matthews' Southern Comfort. This was in fact, probably the best gig of the lot. I liked the entire foursome, but two of them - electric guitar and keyboard - were outstanding instrumentalists.

So, having been moaning to the DSM that we never went to music events other than opera - and I was really meaning classical, but definitely not complaining - we have had a sudden rush. We intend to continue, helps keep us young - hah!

OK, I will finish off the trip posts soon, but I just wanted to bring myself up to scratch and up to date.

Just time to stash-dive again before supper.

Death Valley

Just the name.....Death Valley.......has an iconic ring to it. It is deep in our mythology, even if we are not American. Blame it on all those grainy black and white Westerns on the television weekend aftenoons when we were children. Or when I was anyway. And certainly, the walls of the restaurant at Stove Pipe Wells are hung with posters of mostly long forgotten movies called somethingorotherdeathvalley, or that were filmed there.

As I am sure I have said before, I do try very hard not to use the word "awesome" unless I truly mean it. And in this case, I do. Death Valley is awesome. And we didn't even visit at the hottest time of year. Temps between 90 and 100F were quite enough for me, and I was fascinated by the way that any moisture in your skin is just sucked right out as you stand there!

It is huge and beautiful and we barely scratched the surface. Definitely now on my list of places to which I must return.

So a few photos to try to give some flavour of it.











This next was taken at Panamint Springs. (I loved the names - Furnace Creek, Stovepipe Wells, Badwater, Panamint Springs.)



These are Joshua trees. All these years, I had heard of the things and not realised what they were like.





I am going to leave it there, gazing at the looming wall of the Sierra Nevada. I had intended to do a larger post, but the internet is doing its Sunday in Hebden Bridge thing, and I can't bear the snails pace!

I'll try not to leave it too long!

(More photos on Flickr, as usual.)

Las Vegas

Strictly speaking, Manchester first - a 25 hour travelling day to Las Vegas that we survived surprisingly well.



And that is why we went there in the first place! Taken from the pool - on our first day, we had never intended to do very much but potter around, rest, get our bearings. Las Vegas is - weird. It is like being in a giant bubble of artificiality. We didn't step out of the resort apart from going out to the pool area that first day. Everything we needed - and even more that we didn't - was right there, up to and including a tattoo place.

Right outside the resort entrance was a volcano. So, ok, not a real one. A fake one, that erupted every hour from dusk until (I think) midnight. Unmissable (?)



However they do it, there was a considerable amount of heat involved. Actually, it was pretty impressive. If you have to have that sort of thing.


Then there was the Atrium. With a mini tropical rain forest.





And crysanthemums. See what I mean by weird?

Something we saw very little of, though, was gamblers. There may have been serious heavy duty stuff going on behind the doors of the high stakes rooms, but at the tables and slots in the main areas, there were very, very few people. Those that there were looked bored out of their skulls, and many of them were smoking. Amazing how quickly that has become such an unusual sight.

Day two, back to the pool in the morning, and then a trip out to Red Rock Canyon in the afternoon. In a pink Hummer. Bizarre, no?

But stunningly beautiful and really interesting. The contrast between the natural raw beauty of the canyon and the rather down at heel artificiality of the city was marked.

A few photos - there are more on Flickr, just click on through if interested.







An agave plant. Look closely and you should be able to see the fibres.



Then as a complete contrast, that evening we went to see "Love". It was amazing. It was, actually, well worth going to Vegas for.

I didn't dislike Vagas as much as I had thought that I would. At one and the same time, my brain was telling me that this was awful, this place should not exist in the middle of the desert and that it represented the worst kind of excesses; and that in fact, it was not so bad to suspend ones' disbelief and principles for a couple of days to enjoy relaxing by the pool with the biggest mojito conceivable (I never did finish it) and to watch a show stuffed full of extremely talented people that was beautiful and exciting and reminded one of one's youth! So, yeah, glad we went.

And glad to leave, to get on the road. And more fabulousness.

Laters.

(Waving.....)

From where I sit in Berkeley CA (nearly). We have one more day before we fly home.

At least, I do so hope that is the case and that the terrible storm that has been battering the East Coast will have passed, and likewise all the knock-on effects that can ensue. I haven't actually seen any TV news, but I have been reading on line, and it all looks to have been pretty bad.

And in other news of fresh disasters.......those of you who know of Judith Mckenzie, US fibre crafts teacher and author extraordinaire, may not have heard that yesterday her studio burned down, destroying all her equipment and supplies, not to mention work space. She had not even made it back from SOAR.

OK, hiatus for an evening of wine and pizza with visitors from SOAR. So, I won't write more now after all. Hopefully, the trip will go well, and allowing for jet lag recovery I will upload the photos and get cracking on the posts! Thanks for your patience, and a bientot.