Play day

This play day turned into an 'odd job' day. I had plans but they evaporated yesterday when my play buddy had to go to Ontario. Then a quickly hatched plan B was a bust, too. So I just took care of a bunch of things that had to be done like laundry and shopping. I spent a big chunk of time trying to memorize my Mandarin words and practice writing the characters. That was fun even though I'm pretty bad at it. My teacher is not so very strict so I'm sure my efforts will be appreciated. My goal is to be able to write as quickly as she does. Aim high, right? Right now speaking is better than reading and writing. Which isn't saying a whole heck of a lot.

I was doing my version of calligraphy outside today under the scented rhododendron with big fluffy pink flowers. They always remind me of those tissue flowers we used to make to decorate the wedding cars. The downside to this rhody is the sticky bits that drop off the tree when the flowers fall . Walking over them gives you an extra sole on your shoe. But once the clump of sticky stuff has been pulled off your foot they're not sticky at all. Weird.

I'll post some pictures when the camera comes home.

Rugs

The house has been so quiet that I've been spending a lot of time reading. I'm trying to whittle down that pile by the bed. And reading and rug-hooking are not very compatible. But, I took these pictures last week of my current project.
This is the second Upper Canada stone house rug. I sold the first but A liked it so much I promised to make another. It's a copy of one we saw in Upper Canada Village a couple of summers ago. The docent at the farmhouse let me in to the roped off area to take photos of the only two hand hooked rugs that I saw in the whole place.
This one is quite different from the first and the house is on it's second version. I just couldn't get the stone walls to match my vision so I pulled the first one out and reworked it with different wool. I'm sort of OK with it but it's still not perfect. I like the blue sky which also reminds me of the St Lawrence River. I like the ambiguity.

So quiet

The mermaid and her happy pink suitcase flew out about an hour ago. Already it seems too quiet.

Only two pink suitcases actually made it to the airport. While packing, we discovered that our great luggage bargain had some problems. The three weren't a matched set which didn't matter at all, really. Except that the largest piece was not of the same quality and we failed to notice a damaged wheel part. Oh well, we had another two cases and didn't need the largest anyway. Out to the road with a 'free' sign and it was gone in 5 minutes!

So, A., the mermaid (and two sister mermaids), a bunch of clothes and lots of interesting stuff we've been collecting for months are on their way. I'm looking forward to the ballast of recycled garments for hooking wool strips that will come back in the empty(ish) cases.

And, by then, I may be used to all this quiet in the house.

Ready to go!

This West Coast citizen is all ready to travel to Nelson and Lethbridge. Her bag is nearly packed. And, she needs a lot of room for all the necessities that travel with her. Her happy pink luggage set was bought just for this trip. Only 3 more sleeps!