Really I haven’t abandoned you dear readers. It is summer. There are places to go, people to see, produce to enjoy. My days are full and there isn’t much to write about as far as goings on in the studio. I look at my stash, my looms, my machine, and I haven’t accomplished a thing, because, well, it is summer, and there are places to go, people to see, and produce to enjoy.
Sunday we took a drive to the Jersey Shore. Long Beach Island to be specific. And old college friend visits every year, a fiber buddy from the west coast. I’m usually on the road but the stars aligned and my husband and I headed down. If you have never been to the Jersey Shore, there is nothing quite like it. Just smelling the air, hearing the gulls, feeling my toes in the hot sand, brought back every childhood memory I had of summers down the shore. Made me smile. A lot.
We had a visit last week. A large and unexpected visitor. If you have ever seen my lovely 1/2 acre, fenced in property and know my gardens and ponds, you will know how shocked we were when the neighbor called to tell us about this…
Yep, and when he was finished with bird feeder #1, he wandered over towards the other side of the yard.
He demolished the feeder #2. The town’s police force were all there watching. Nothing much they could do.
He was beautiful, majestic, and it was sad that this bear was wandering around densely populated suburbia because all of his habitat is disappearing. He finally wandered towards the front of the house, safely alongside the greenhouse, not touching one plant in the garden, and broke the fence down and wandered off to the neighboring property.
It is produce season. This is the afternoon haul. I make trays of oven dried tomatoes, quarts of tomato sauce, zucchini fritters and zucchini bread, taboulleh, gazpacho, pickles, and pickled cucumbers. Not a lot of time for much of anything else.
And so my summer fun is just about over. I hop on a plane to Chicago tomorrow morning at 7am, then on to Green Bay. Someone from the staff at Sievers School of Fiber Arts picks me up and we drive to the northeastern tip of Wisconsin, Door County. We hop on a ferry. And for the next ten days, I get to be on an island again, with my favorite group of students, for my ninth year teaching at this little place I call fiber heaven. I’m all packed, including my next knitting projects.
And so the fall season of classes is about to begin. There is still space in my five day beginner weaving class at Peters Valley, and a few spots in my classes left for Fiber College in Maine the beginning of September. And of course my annual trek to Harrisville for another Wearable Extravaganza. My other group of favorite students. I love this particular workshop when I can repeat it in a location on a yearly basis. I have lots of repeat students and I have really learned their bodies, their styles, the kinds of things they like to wear, and enjoy the new and challenging projects they bring me. We all grow. Check out my schedule with links for the next couple of months here…
And I’m finalizing plans for next February with Kathrin Weber of Blazing Shuttles for a team retreat, weaving fabric with Kathrin and then garment construction with me, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I am sooo excited about this and Kathrin and I are busy creating cloth and garment samples, so stay tuned for more about that as we get closer into the fall.
Meanwhile, it has been a great summer, one of my favorites in recent memory. I got a couple real vacations and some down time with my family. We have all settled into a routine, cohabiting fairly well. The dogs still get into trouble now and then, but fortunately they were inside and missed the bear incident.
Stay tuned…
Enjoy Sievers. When I lived in Chicago it was one of my most favorite places to go. Now, for my real comment….having lived in Philadelphia now for 17 years….I still do not understand the grammatical construct which has people say “go down the shore.” No one goes “To” the shore in New Jersey (and, actually, I thought it was only Philadelphians who said this, not people from New Jersey themselves). Everyone goes
“down the shore.” Why???? puzzle that one out for me while you are happily up north on the island!!!
Bettes
Sievers School of Fiber Arts! You’ll get the name right for your 10th year of teaching on Washington Island!
So sorry Susanne! You are of course correct!
Bettes, I chose the words carefully, you would never go to the shore in NJ or in Philadelphia. You always go “down” the shore, even though the shore is directly east. From the New York area it is south east, but the “down” the shore is a south Jersey/Philadelphia slang for heading east. There are no words…
A busy summer, haven’t gone down to the shore yet and it’s already August. Love all the veggies, my one poor tomato plant still hasn’t produced ripe fruit. Love the new class with Kathrin Weber. Sounds like great fun and outer banks a great site! Keep us informed. Hope to see you soon.
Wholy Maloley………….BEAR!!! Thank the Goddess the dogs were inside. Here in ID I have only seen one small bear in the woods and I am in them EVERY day, except hunting season 🙂 Yes, I loved going DOWN to the shore and Long Beach in particular. Enjoy everything while you can before the roller coaster starts for you. Cheers!
I sooo used to love to go to Long Beach Island, every summer, visiting a friend whose family had a home there. Always came back realizing I had not been careful, sunburned. Last visit 1983 in the fall on a blustery sunny day. Glorious, and no crowds!