I spent a good chunk of Saturday with Ali & the kids in one combination or another.

Yesterday, I drove out to their house with pizzas for lunch to celebrate Davy's second birthday!

There's a video clip on IG wherein I finally captured Davy's adorable infamous cheeky side-eye grin. He does it a lot but it's never been recorded before! Ali made zucchini cake with some zukes from my garden... cream cheese frosting & sprinkles... mmmm!

Ginny showed me some of the changes that have taken place at her Fairy House. I'm in love with that half-log!! Pinecone-on-a-stick is also quite charming.

I couldn't pass up a Flo photo op! First of all, chickens never (hardly ever) stand still... and Flo least of all. Or so it seems... that feather hat she wears is rarely ever still!

It was a great weekend. I won't see the kids until we return from Scotland, and I've already promised a sleepover! Plus goodies from Scotland!!

We leave tomorrow! It's hard to say whether I'll pull off an actual post while we're gone. The best place to keep tabs would be IG!

He came up empty-handed last night.

What are the chances he missed a whopper? I'd say they're pretty good, based on experience! haha.

Things are beginning to look a little bedraggled.

Oh my goodness, what a difference a nap makes! I left work an hour early yesterday and slept for an hour-and-a-half... later than I usually like to take a nap, but I still went to bed early, too!

I'm a new woman this morning. Thank god.

I set my alarm for Saturday morning -- a rare occurrence these past few years -- so I wouldn't be late for the workshop with Mel Kolstad at Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum, where I letterpressed my heart out for six hours!

As predicted, I didn't glue down/collage a darn thing, but I have so much fodder for future work/play/inspiration. I was super into circles, guitars, chickens, and a particular dancing girl. The illuminated letter blocks are mine that I brought from home, along with some old tissue/pattern paper, and the photo postcard that now has a big chicken in the yard.

I snagged a couple of old card catalog & library cards, a receipt from a coffee shop in Taiwan, part of a map, and an image of some "underwater fairies" or something -- material that spoke to me. I also have a big bin of ephemera that I collected after my first workshop with Mel and, to be honest, take a bunch of the same to the curb every two weeks in the recycle bin!

I have a feeling there may have been one or two of these bad boys right under my nose back in the late '70s/early '80s when I worked as a typesetter for a local shopping guide & print shop, along with some old wood type. No one cared! I came in at the beginning of "computer photo-typesetting" with dedicated computers for the task, fonts on film strips, paper that was processed with developer & fixer. There are a number of these at Hamilton, along with plenty of bigger & smaller models -- and the museum itself is full of historical machinery!

I was assessing my printed materials yesterday and stumbled upon a starting point for next time! 

Also yesterday, Rusty & I got our 3rd Covid booster shots. I didn't get a nap, didn't sleep well last night, it's chilly & raining today (and yesterday), I didn't dress properly... and I'm FREEZING (even with the space heater at my feet on HIGH)!! And so tired. All related, I'm sure.

I better get myself used to it, as we're likely to experience the same in Scotland. I do hope we'll see some occasional sunshine, too. I've often read that it's typical to experience "all seasons" & "all weather" in a day!

RIP, Queen Elizabeth II.

King Charles* just doesn't roll off the tongue like Prince Charles has for my entire life! I remember a period of time when it was rumored that Queen Elizabeth would skip him altogether in the line of succession. I don't know if she could really even do that, but such was his not-so-great standing for a while!

As is often the case these days, I'm thousands of miles away but broke the news to Kate, who was in a bit of a work bubble and unaware of what was going on in her own backyard! So to speak.

My mother would have been enthralled. A teenager when Elizabeth became queen, my mom was a "royal watcher." She watched (live) every possible second of Charles & Diana's wedding, Diana's funeral, William & Kate's wedding. She'd have loved George, Charlotte & Louis, the Platinum Jubilee!

It looks like we'll be arriving in Scotland just after the funeral. I'm okay with that.

Charles ... “to my darling mama.”
“I want simply to say this: Thank you. Thank you for your love, and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

I'm misty!

OK. So, besides that... WHAT'S UP??

Yesterday, we met Ali & the kids at Ledgestone Vineyards & Winery for a fun evening of music. Rod's band was playing... he's the purple dude on the left.

The grapes must be getting close!

Tomorrow, I'm heading over to the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers to exercise some creative chops at a workshop called "Cut & Color - Creating Collage with Vintage Cuts." I know the instructor, Mel Kolstad, and took a collage workshop from her several years ago. I may not have an actual finished project at the end of the day, but I'll be printing my little heart out and soaking it all in!

Rusty continues painting "56 miles of ocean and sky..." which I still have not seen in person. I may get to accompany it to Mexico on the install trip, though. Hopefully in winter!!

Kate is up to her eyeballs with work, but by the time we arrive she'll have finished the gallery gig on Calton Hill and work will be 100% virtual for various organizations... but totally on vacation while we're there. She tries to take a "nature day" once a week or so, and last week it was in the Pentlands!

I'm looking forward to an Airbnb cleaning date with Ali next week, followed by lunch! It will be nice to have an undistracted visit with only her!! So far, the kids are doing great in school. Davy misses the kids during the day -- especially his big brother and sticks to him like glue after school! On Wednesday she shared the following about Malina: "The first thing she reports to me after school has been how many times she has cried . Today was ZERO!" Ginny is making loads of friends. Junah doesn't like doing homework. NO SURPRISES!!

Maddy is settled back home in Australia... and planning an epic hike with Viv! The "little" 4-day hike at Pictured Rocks while they were here was just a primer for hiking the Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia. That's 1000+ km/623 miles and coming up in just a couple of weeks!

*As I'm writing this, multitasking in a bunch of different ways, including chatting with Kate, she writes: Just saw a tweet where someone was like “I’m not going to be able to say King Charles without adding Spaniel I’m afraid” 😂

Have a great weekend, everyone!

I'm joining Kat & the Unravelers today for Unraveled Wednesday...

KNITTING:

I've been working a bit on my Temperature Blanket project again! I posted this photo on IG last night:

I've been knitting some rows in the color ZINNIA (= HOT!) and had just picked a vase of my own zinnias, so photo op!

Bonus photos for the blog (possibly later on IG):

These photos make me so happy! I'm currently heading toward the end of August, in terms of time, and the days (if not the nights) are HOT, but getting shorter. I have around 150 rows to go on this panel.

READING:

By the time I received the paperback copy of The Lewis Man, I was already nearing the end, so only read a few pages from the actual book! I dove straight in to Book #3 of The Lewis Trilogy -- the paperback is in hand but proving a bit challenging as the chapters do not align. I'm making progress, though, as I had a few hours of listening in the car yesterday. I expect to finish by the time we depart for Scotland (13 days!), and will likely take This Golden Fleece: A Journey Through Britain's Knitted History for vacation reading (if any).

_ _ _ _ _

I switched my day off this week so I could go to Madison yesterday for the funeral of Brian's mom, Doris. She died last month, just a few days after celebrating her 100th BIRTHDAY! She was born & raised in Maine and enjoyed a lovely birthday lunch of lobster rolls with some of her kids & grandkids. I really only met her a few times, but she's always felt like part of my extended family, too. She broke her hip about six months ago, which seemed to signal the end, and until that time had been in her own home. Cheers, Doris! RIP.