Let the weaving begin again!

Okay, I have been spending way too much time not working in my work room. I have been inventorying yarn, filing papers, paying bills, ironing linens but I haven't done a bit of weaving in that room since I took it over. My true intent for HandAndHeartWorks was my weaving with hits now and then of other handcrafts. All I had on hand was the sweet little bags that I listed earlier this spring. If I want to list scarves then I must weave them! Somebody's got to do it...

Of course now I wish I had bought a bit of that amazing boucle last summer at Dotty's. I'll get to rummage through the stash to see what boucle's I have hidden away...

As ready as I am to weave again it was even more fun having a mini workshop w/one of the college girl's best friends. She found the set up process not very exciting or interesting but as the random strands of wool and mohair came together and formed the fabric of her future shoulder bag her enthusiasm built. We still need to set a time up to block the finished fabric, make the cord and sew the whole piece together. It's going to be lovely when finished! Yay - yarn is so wonderful!

Just like migrating birds

In that twilight stage of sleep this morning I awoke to the sound of Canadian geese talking with one another as they were flying south in their quintessential V shape. The image of migrating birds in flight and the vocalizing they do is such a marker for me. We, just like migrating birds, fly north for the summer and fly south for the winter. This morning HJ flew even farther south on her winter migration back to North Carolina for school. It was a bittersweet morning.

It has been such a beautiful summer season in so many ways. HJ and dad had a very productive fishing season. Having her on the boat with him kept him working hard and they had such fun working together. With the forest fires inland there were some breathtaking skies.
It was also beautiful to watch HJ pick out a pattern and yarn for her first sweater. She has been after me for years to knit her a sweater. Now that I am knitting her one she has been inspired and is also excited to knit for herself. A fellow knitter shared her college knitting history; she knit on the same sweater all through graduate school. HJ is inspired by this thought - it is a romantic notion to her (me too!). She will likely work this sweater at much the same pace as Riki shared and hopes to go to grad school with one sweater under her belt already!

While the college girl was lightfooting it around Madrid, Barcelona and Ibiza her dad and I had a beautiful summer in AK. I still never tire of watching the red salmon in the murky waters of Power Creek and picking salmon berries along the side of the road hoping to spot an eagle feather or 2. Well the salmon berries were pretty slim and the feathers were a total bust but we did find this really beautiful fungus. I was really excited to get a new pic to add to my selection of mushroom and fungus images. It's been awhile since I have added to it.
There is one more member of our little flock that has yet to make his migratory flight south but for now he is still putting in his time on the Flats trying to fill his net with silver blue slabs of cohos. I wonder how much longer he can resist his instinct to fly home...

Road trippin' the AlCan

So every summer as the school year ends we gear up for our summer "Up North". We pack our bags, clean up the house, pre-pay a bunch of bills, suspend a few services, arrange for the yard to be watered, and the cat to be fed and loved. We jump on a plane and head to our summer life. With all the changes this year in my sweet little family of course summer had to change as well. I put the college girl on a plane a month before I was scheduled to head North. Instead of leisurely mornings sleeping in or early mornings secretly making wild blueberry muffins for mom and dad she got off the plane, headed straight to Redden to get new rain gear, to AC to get a fishing license and on to the boat to go fishing. The Flats aren't really her favorite place to fish with dad but this was her summer of "Work". Her introduction into the adult world of earning your living.

I spent the next 3 1/2 weeks wrapping things up at work and home and geared up for an road trip with a few of the Fisher Wives. The 4 of us congregated in Missoula, MT, packed up the Sportsmobile and headed North to Alaska via the Canadian Rockies. The agenda was hot springs and fellowship and more than 3000 miles for the next 9 days. Our first day we spent the morning visiting the campus of Univ. MT at Missoula. What a great town and and looks like a great school... I began to visualize my girl walking to class and hiking the nearby mountain and studying in the library. Sure is alot closer than North Carolina... hmm I wonder... Kathryn, Ben and Lola were such great hosts and guides. They had good input on our first days drive and we heeded their advice.

Our first hotspring was Fairmont in Canada. We had a nice evening soak - the hot pool was glorious and the cold pool a bit too cold to spend much time in. For a developed hotspring it was nice but not fabulous. I still enjoy the undeveloped ones best but the developed ones are of course so much easier to access! The goal became a hot spring each day...