I love vacation - long post with lots of photos

I had a great week of vacation. I didn't get nearly enough stuff done at home but I enjoyed visiting and indulging myself.

Mom and I had a great visit. I drove up to NY on Tuesday since Monday's weather was far from good. The weather on Tuesday was good for the drive and stayed nice during my visit. We went to the Bayard Cutting Arboretum where I took almost 300 photos while enjoying the beautiful surroundings. The top photo is the "house" from the river path. The next photo is the view down the lawn from the patio where we ate lunch.


There were stained glass windows all over the mansion. I took photos of just a few of them.























There was an osprey nest in one of the tall trees


and another on one of the chimneys. You can see the osprey sitting on the edge of the nest.

There were many small birds flying around, landing in and on the osprey nest. I don't know whether they share or what but it was very cool. You can see one of them in the above photo, just off the right side of the chimney. Here's one with the osprey coming in towards the nest. I could have stood there for hours watching that.




























There were several ponds with tress and bushes growing naturally all around them.

One of the ponds had snapper turtles living in them. We got to see them sunning themselves on a tree trunk. Anybody who knows me knows that I love turtles. I think they are very cool creatures so seeing them was special to me.







More NY adventures and photos with the next post.

On Friday Karen took me out to lunch for my birthday. We went to a new (to us) place in Havre de Grace called the Laurrapin Grill. We had a great view of the water from the dining room, the food was yummy and different from the usual lunch fare and the sun was shining. Thanks Karen, for lunch and the gifts. I can't wait to get dyeing.


This past weekend was the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I went on Saturday and Sunday as I have done for the last several years. I don't have to pay for lodging and the two days gives me plenty of time to really look things over. I took a class on Saturday morning this year (more about that later) and I still felt like I had enough time to see what I wanted to see.

My purchases were actually guided by a list I started a few weeks ago and that helped me to be focused and prevented the "oh, I can't believe I forgot..." lament that I have been known to scream aloud on other Sunday evenings. LOL.

I purchased yarn and the pattern to make the swirl shawl.

I bought 2 skeins of Domy heather in the Lava color. I love this wool - simple, not handpainted or anything but it is wonderful to knit with and wonderful to wear. I hope to find just the right beads and make the Mystic Light shawl with it - my interpretation of the pattern is the night sky and stars.


This fiber is actually green - more towards teal I think - but I couldn't get it to look right no matter what I did. It is wool and tencel. I think it will be a challenge to spin but I want to try. It has a beautiful sheen and hand.

This fiber is silk and wool and spins up a lovely soft green. I know. It is hard to believe. I'll show you when I spin it.



I bought a new drop spindle. I have mixed feelings about this. I have a several drop spindles and don't care for them. My shoulder hurts when I use them because I want to spin as much fiber as I can before I wind on so I hold my arm way over my head. I am greedy, I guess. I would love to try to spin while on the boat and I have to do that sitting down. I tried it standing and it didn't go well. I didn't fall overboard, but it was close... anyway, I tried many spindles and settled on this one. I want to give this drop spindling another try and I like both the look of the spindle and the spin of it.

My last purchase was a hoodie. I have been checking the website for the S & W festival for weeks waiting for them to make the gear available on line so I didn't have to wait in the ridiculous line at the fair. No luck. On Sunday afternoon the line was short enough that I braved it and secured my hoodie. ; )) Overall, I left the Festival a happy camper.