I see that it has been a month since my last entry! What have I been doing? Early in the month we celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary. Even now it is hard to believe so much time has passed, and yet the calendar does not lie. What did we do? When you've been married forty years you've done about everything, dinners and champagne and surprise gifts and surprise trips. A notable anniversary a friend helped me plan a surprise trip to Los Angeles to see a play and to eat afterwards at Harry's Bar and Grill, and he was surprised and it was all very wonderful, but the thing I remember most is the stop in San Juan Capistrano for a picnic lunch, the picnic tables were adjacent to the railroad tracks under magnificent trees, and the breeze produced by the passing trains made it lovely, early November in southern California.
This year it was way more simple. A lovely, leisurely drive along the coast to a large Barnes and Noble bookstore where we had time, TIME, to browse and have a nice cup of coffee and browse some more, after which we drove back along the coast to one our new favorite Mexican restaurants and had just as leisurely a meal (and the Margaritas were two for one, yum), then continuing
along the coast we stopped at a grocery to shop for the next morning's brunch: french toast with warmed fruit topping, bacon, mimosas. The anticipation was wonderful and the result was even better. We have such a good time together.
About this time I was also considering the need to get active as I am living such a sedentary life. Drive everywhere, sit and spin or sit and knit or sit and watch tv. You know the drill.
So, I found some walking shoes on sale at wally-world, and just started walking.
Now the Bay St. Louis library had been closed for remodeling for some time, you could borrow books from a trailer set up next door, and I had heard that they had re-opened recently, but had not been by, which is a real shame because it takes less than seven minutes to walk there from home. And look at what a nice surprise I had my first morning out in my new walking shoes! This lovely statue is so charming, and yet there is no information nearby about the artist. I will have to go into the library to see what I can find out. They were closed at the moment this was taken.
And here he is in the shade. So, yes, I have taken to walking about town, starting out about half an hour at a time, and have graduated to an hour when I have time. It takes roughly half an hour to get down to the beach from home, and hopefully when I am in a little bit better shape, ( I am relying on muscle memory) it will take less time.
But I do feel better already, a bit more energy, and certainly emotionally better when there are such beauties to behold, the morning glories and bird calls and neighbors to greet, certainly much to delight all the senses.
I have also done some painting of rovings and some spinning and hope to have some photos ready soon.
And knitting. Received my copy of Cookie A.'s new sock book: knit. sock. love. And I do love it. So more socks in the future.
Happy trails everyone.
It always surprises me what happens to color in dyeing and then spinning. Here is a four ounce Falkland roving laid out with colors poured ready to be wrapped and steamed. Afterwards I did the same with a four ounce Merino/Seacell roving, trying to keep the color sequence the same. The hardest part of the process is waiting over night for the colors to take on their full intensity. And then to SPIN!
