06.23.08
Posted in Gardening, Travel at 10:40 pm by trueepicure
E and I traveled south to Williamsburg this past weekend. We spent the day on Saturday roaming around the colonial village at Williamsburg, and part of Sunday at Jamestown. I enjoyed the weekend immensely - it really fed my inner history buff, but I kept finding myself drawn to the gardens, again and again. There were so many happy looking gardens there. Many of the gardens had the same things growing: squash, herbs, fennel, and medicinal plants, but a few were full of flowers and other veggies.
It was fortifying to see such happy plants in abundance. It also gives me ideas for my own garden, the one in my head, that keeps morphing into different shapes. I don’t yet know when I’ll be able to plant my garden in the ground, but the garden in my mind’s eye is a beautiful place to be.
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05.10.07
Posted in Craft, Musings, Travel, fiber at 10:24 am by trueepicure
A picture of some of the loot I procured at MSDW.
Finally, I now own a Yarn Requirements pamphlet. It’s about darned time. Maybe now I will make some better judgements about how much yarn to buy at a time.
The red/orange yarn is 450 yards of baby Alpaca from The Fibre Company in Maine. They only sell retail at MSDW, so it made the purchase extra special. It is SO soft.
The green is 400 yards of superwash merino sock yarn from Spirit Trail Fiberworks. Lovely, green, VIRGINIA yarn!
The pattern is The Incredible Circular Rectangular Mitered Scarf from Strickwear. I purchased it at the Just Our Yarn booth in the main barn. They had lots of beautiful yarn, but I was trying to keep to a budget. They’re also local to Virginia, Falls Church to be exact, so I’ll be contacting them at some point in the future. The only bummer is that they don’t have a storefront. They will be at a number of festivals this year. Check out their website for more information.
Not pictured are my spinning fiber purchases: Yak down, loose carded Buffalo down, and Chinese Camel down. Hopefully one of my partners in crime can help me remember the name of the place I purchased it.
I didn’t end up purchasing a lot, but they were all worthwhile items that I didn’t turn around the next day and discover that I had purchased fugly fug. All in all, a good weekend.
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05.06.07
Posted in Craft, Musings, Travel, fiber at 10:57 am by trueepicure
I spent yesterday with two friends at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival - what an awesome day! We drove up Friday night (and spent several hours in wicked traffic) and stayed in Columbia. We arrived at the Howard County Fairgrounds at 9 AM, and easily found a place to park the E-Mobile (Thanks again, Honey! It would have been hard-going without the truck.)
I made K and Ashley promise to not let me purchase anything for at least the first 20 minutes that we were there. I was good and I didn’t buy anything for at least an hour.
We did some fiber shopping, and met some woolly folks:
I wanted to bring them all home with me, but even though our lease doesn’t say anything about livestock, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t like living in the confines of the balcony. 
All in all, a great day. I’ll post photos of my loot later.
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01.01.07
Posted in Musings, Travel, Work at 12:59 pm by trueepicure
With a new year starting, I’ve been thinking about all the things I did in the past year, and what the new year will bring.
In the past year, I got promoted, got engaged, moved across the country, got a new job. (Phew! Written out like that, it makes me realize just how packed with life changing events last year was.) It makes me wonder what this year will be like… Our wedding is planned for this year, so I know that will be a big event, but I wonder what other things will happen? Will we buy a house? Will I figure out what I want to do when I grow up? (That’s a post all of it’s own. 
) The idea of so many unknowns is daunting and liberating, all at the same time.
Happy New Year!
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07.30.06
Posted in ABCAlong, Musings, Travel at 11:29 pm by admin
Green!
This is from the last day of the Great Migration. We’re in Virginia at this point, so we’re pretty close to the end.
Every time I would visit home during my 10 years in Arizona, I was always amazed at how GREEN everything is. Arizona has green too, contrary to popular belief, but it is a completely different desert green (not counting all the imported species). A beautiful desert green, but nothing like the East Coast.
I’m so used to the landscaped rock and plant highways of Phoenix, that I had forgotten what it’s like out here, where the Right of Way is a tangle of trees, bushes, flowers, and whatever else happens to decide to grow. Highway weed control must be a completely different issue out here.
Gardening is going to be so different here. I grew up seeing gardens like everyone has here, but I’ve never actually gardened in this climate. I’ve been a desert dweller for so long, I hope I don’t kill everything.
I leave you with the esteemed words of Kermit the Frog.
It’s not that easy bein’ green;
Having to spend each day the color of the leaves.
When I think it could be nicer being red, or yellow or gold-
or something much more colorful like that.
It’s not easy bein’ green.
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things.
And people tend to pass you over ’cause you’re not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water- or stars in the sky.
But green’s the color of Spring.
And green can be cool and friendly-like.
And green can be big like an ocean, or important like a mountain, or tall like a tree.
When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why? Wonder,
I am green and it’ll do fine, it’s beautiful!
And I think it’s what I want to be.
(Kermit the Frog and Joe Rapposo)
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