Where in the World is Daryl…

I’m just surfacing from a long couple of weeks, where normal daily activities came to a screeching halt, and there was barely time to eat and shower, forget about posting a blog.  But the worst is behind me, at least for the next couple of weeks, and I can catch my breath and catch up on some projects in the studio.

I left Virginia the beginning of May, after a very successful workshop, it seems like months ago, not merely a short week.  I drove up through West Virginia, a gorgeous drive as you can imagine, and made it to my sister’s home in northern Maryland.  We drove last Monday up to Longwood Gardens in south western Philadelphia, to celebrate my mom’s 80th birthday.  You go mom!

If there is anyplace that can inspire it is Longwood Gardens.  Every time I’ve gone, I’ve come home with stacks of gorgeous images and lots of inspiration and a huge desire to lay down in a bed of flowers and melt into the earth.

My sisters and my mom gathered for a family photo, and yes dear readers, for those paying attention, that’s me in the suit I finished a couple months ago, with the handwoven trim.

Enjoy the photos of the gardens, if you ever get to the Philadelphia area, it is a wonderful place to visit year round.

After teaching the last class in the series at the Newark Museum on Tuesday, and the last fibers class at the county college Tuesday evening, I collapsed in bed from sheer exhaustion, and then in the morning drove to the airport to pick up Robyn Spady, whom I would be housing for the next few days while she taught a two day workshop on Double Sided Cloth for our weaving guild.

I took not a single photo, but suffice it to say, the workshop was wonderful, and it was the first time my daughter attended a weaving workshop, I pulled her out of school for the two days, and she blossomed.  She raced through the round robin style workshop like a pro, understanding the structures within minutes of looking at the drafts.  She invented some interesting color effects, and was generally a great help in getting the workshop set up and broken down.  I am so going to miss her next fall when she heads off to college.

I dropped Robyn off at the airport Saturday morning, and haven’t stopped until this morning.  Between theater tickets, trombone recitals, dinners, and working in the yard because the weather here is just too glorious not to, I’m pooped.  I’m trying to make sense of my studio, put everything back in its place, step over the new computer system my husband is building for me since this one is dying.  It will of course have Windows 7, and I’m sure there will be great gnashing of teeth while I adjust to it all!

Yesterday was Mother’s Day.  It was a glorious day, and my entire family, kids and husband were home in the same state in the same country at the same time.  🙂

My son cooked not one, but two meals for us on the new grill.  The old one was slowly dying, I’d find various parts rusted off and lying on the ground when I would walk out on the decks.  So we ate outside last night, and enjoyed grilled salmon and steamed mussels.  Life is good…