Home again and busy busy busy

7:40 am

                Today I take Mom to her follow up back appointment. I will meet her outside at 12:15 so we can get to the appointment at 1. Means I must leave here by 10:30. I should make sure I am all ready to go by 10. I think before then I will try to pluck a few buns that need it – Amber and Daffodil at least, I will check on others. And the other big crucial task for the week is to get things ready for the LSSE classes. At this point I will be doing the one for the older kids, but the younger group class only has 2 signed up. If one more signed up I would do it and it would not be bad to try with that age and a small number. The other group has 5 signed up. 6 would be ideal. More than that and I would want to find a helper.

                Got home from Maine around 4 yesterday. Then I biked to the farm to get our share. Lots of veggies. I need to think about what to cook and how to use them all. The zucchini bread I made Friday came out very well. There is still quite a bit of it, but I could make more. I looked up eggplant recipes since I took a lot of eggplant.  

                While biking Saturday I found info about the Maine Lighthouse Ride which happens September 7. It would be a lot of fun. Time is starting to collapse in on me. One more day of July, then it is August!!!! Which as we know is a month of Sundays for teachers. I really have to get things in gear as far as figuring out equipment for Physiology in the fall. I have not even looked at my MHC email for weeks. Oh god I dread it. And of course I have not done the things I intended to do over the summer. As in clear out the garage. I took a stab at it and have done a tiny bit. There is just so much more to do. Sigh. Next Freecycle thing is to put on the bottles of dog shampoo that K took out of the bathroom. Then I need to continue work on the camping gear. Only first I must hang out our tent that we used in Maine since it got rained on. I don’t want to hang it directly in the sun, just out in some shade where it can dry. Maybe I’ll put it out now, then bring it in before I leave and so before the sun hits the clothes dryer.

                Today will be busy. The rest of the week will also be busy, but more with stuff I just have to keep myself doing. Tomorrow I take G to her back doctor appointment. Then I must get things ready for next week. The other fun thing I did (I was having trouble feeling inspired about anything until I came up with this) was to dye some angora with purple easter egg dye. Once it dries I will spin it then knit up a rabbit for M’s granddaughter. That will be fun.

Visit my new Etsy Shop!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/twistedmysteries

Biking Maine

Sunday 9:30 am

                So ok. Here we are in Wells Maine in a little café. We came here to get internet access since L has none at her house. Or rather she sometimes can, but couldn’t this morning. Only we arrived here, bought our coffee/tea/goodies and then found out that their password does not work. Bother. But who needs internet? I can still write and then I can post it later.

                And more so ok. Yesterday we busted our butts with the bike ride from Hell. Well not really but it turned out to be much much farther than expected. We biked Kennebunk to Portland. I had figured Wells to P-land would be 33 miles; L suggested we bike to P-land, then take the train back down to Wells with the bikes. But I called Friday and found that the bike spaces were all taken on the train. How the hell much space does a bike take? Well anyway. So we figured if we started instead from K-bunk it would be about 20 miles and we could then bike back. Only when we got to the elementary school parking lot and started off on our ride I was rather concerned to see a mile marker: “28 miles.” Was that 28 miles from Portland? Oh dear. Well it was. Not too bad going but coming back was a bit of a bitch.

That was our day. Well except in reality that was only the second part of the day, the first part being getting up, feeding buns, loading the car, attaching the bike rack, loading the bikes, driving to Maine (traffic traffic traffic), finding L, getting things together and getting to the trail start. So we did not start biking until 12:30. About half of the ride is on very nice trails, interspersed with road biking for which you have to pay close attention to not miss the signs. Was very familiar. They took the road routes on small out of the way roads to avoid Rt 1 which is very busy and kind of nasty.

We finally arrived in Portland over this lovely and very long bridge with a dramatic view of sailboats and sparkling water. And then we went to the old part of town (lots of brick or cobblestone roads there), parked our bikes and walked straight to a pub for lunch and beer. Well, “lunch” “supper” whatever as it was 3:30. We found a very nice place w/ an obscure foreign sort of Bier Garden kind of name and it was great with a huge array of beers each with its own detailed description, and a sort of tapas like menu of little portions of delicious cheese. And pretty reasonable. $4 for the MOST delicious goat cheese brie.

We ate, we drank and then it was time to bike 28 miles back! Ugh. The first part seemed shorter – having been over the route before meant landmarks appeared sooner. Then in Biddeford we decided to skip the little pleasant roads and just plow through on Rt 1. It was (as expected) kind of nasty but shorter and probably faster except that we got a bit confused and lost track of L our guide so there was a bit of going back and forth up, down and back up a steep hill until we got back on track. Well, the final 5 miles or so I could have certainly done without. K plowed doggedly ahead; I was really lagging. But we made it.

Then we had to load the bikes back on, and we had to go to our campsite (a very basic, “cozy” place where the tent sites have room for a tent, the car, a picnic table and that is it, and they are lined up side by side, no trees, not what one would describe as terribly private. But then privacy was in rather short order on our NY bike trip, so again, it seemed familiar and was fine. We set up the tent, then decided to hit the big ice cream place on L’s recommendation. Well, funniest thing ever, when we turned into the place, the crowd looked like fans lined up for a rock concert. It was packed!! Lines and lines. I have never seen such a thing, at an ice cream store! At 9 pm. We bailed on that one, took L home instead and K stopped to get a burger at McDonald’s on the way back to the tent site. And we fell into bed. And managed to sleep in spite of the traffic, the trains, the bathroom light blaring into our tent. Whatever and who cares, we were beat.

Visit my new Etsy Shop!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/twistedmysteries

Cooler Weather - Lovely!

8 am

                Just getting up and it’s already 8 o’clock what a lazy bum. Oh well. Had trouble sleeping last night so it is just as well. And it is raining. I suppose that is just as well too. No bike ride planned for today, as we are headed to Portland ME tomorrow and will do a long ride there. I did my short hilly ride yesterday which was fine. It took longer than I expected but then I did stop and bump into a friend who I ran into mid ride. We talked about the New Yorker reading group they are thinking of setting up. Odd because I also dreamed about it.  Only in my dream it was not a New Yorker group, but instead there was a wine and cheese component, and there was some aspect of putting tiny frogs into containers to monitor their growth. Only I of all people forgot to take initial measurements.

                Today I will need to pack. And I did not finish the account reconciling yesterday so I’ll need to do that today. There are 2 buns that need plucking, but with the temperature being nice and cool I do not feel so pressured on that. I did clip the white female baby I plan to keep. She was quite mellow about it, even though she was completely matted and it took a while.

                Kind of dull around here. It will be nice to see L this weekend. I am basically alone all day, then K comes home and talks about his work, then he either disappears to do something, or he gets on the computer. I miss my biking chums. And I will sorely miss our current housemate when she leaves. I don’t think our new housemate will be especially chatty. Of course by then work will start back up and I will get plenty of chatting there.

                I’ve had about enough of Sherlock Holmes. All the stories are about the same. They all show how extraordinarily clever he is. It is kind of dull. I do still have to read Hound of the Baskervilles which is what book club is actually reading. I read the others – Study in Scarlet and Group of Four (?) as extra. I have really not been listening to my MP3’s of books. Just sort of trying to avoid it as it is just a way to get out of my head, and maybe I need to be in my head sometimes. I have reverted to the radio however, while spinning, cleaning up buns, or cooking. Speaking of which, I think I will not cook tonight but just have whatever is left from the past couple of nights. I think there is plenty in the fridge.  I do have several eggplants and squash that will not keep until next week so I should think of something to do with them. Zucchini bread!!! Not a bad idea. I can bring some to Lucy.

                I found out about a very intense bike ride that happens in Deerfield and up into VT every year. It is a one day thing, a fundraiser for the Franklin Land Trust, called D2R2. It is a lot of dirt roads and very very hilly. Not for me this year, though when I sent a link to our chums, they thought it sounded just fine. Ok, so maybe next year. Work up to it. it is also expensive and right now we cannot spend anything extra until I figure out our finances and get G’s tuition bill paid. Looks like one of my LSSE classes will happen, but probably not the one for the younger kids. I have not really done any advertising, so it is my own fault.

                I contacted the fair co-chair about getting together. I don’t think anything re the fair has happened this summer – well, except they did print up the postcards. Boy part of me (a big part of me) would love to not be involved at all!!). OK, time to start my day.

Visit my new Etsy Shop!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/twistedmysteries

Post Biking

8:30 am

                Not written it quite a bit. Blame it on Biking. Before the trip, all I was doing was Training. Long bike rides that towards the end were taking me all day, and besides that left me exhausted. Then the Ride itself, which was basically:

Get up at 5:30 (to the sound of “zip zip” as others opened tent flaps)

Pack up stuff, fold up tent, haul all to the baggage trucks

Breakfast

Morning report on the day’s ride

Start biking – say 7 am

Bike bike bike

Morning break say around 9

Bike bike bike

Another break of some sort around 11 or 12

Bike bike bike

Afternoon break say around 1

Bike bike bike

Arrive at Tent City say around 3

Get luggage from truck

Set up tent (unless I was lucky enough to be slow, in which case K arrived well enough ahead of me to already have set up the tent and gotten luggage!)

Collapse in exhaustion for a while

Supper at 5

Sometimes go out for a beer or whatever until about 8

Bed.

Do it all again.

                So that was basically our week, interspersed with lots of socializing, since after all there were 500 other bikers and we all had an obvious topic of conversation, so there was no paucity of chatting. Sounds a bit dreary I suppose, but in fact it was tons of fun.

                And then after our ride, it took about a week to somewhat recover and get back to some sort of normalcy, and I have been trying to not go cold turkey, but have been getting in rides when I could. Yesterday I took off for Easthampton late in the day which was a very nice ride. The best thing is that a ride that would have left me beat and worthless before the trip now feels like a piece of cake. I want to make an effort to get in some workout type rides, with hills, so even if they are short they push me a little. Part of the training goal was to get used to being on a bike for 50 miles. I can do that, but it does take a good chunk of time. Better now to work on shorter rides but hillier.

                So with that in mind, I am going out this morning down to Belchertown, then back to Station rd, up through Amherst Woods, up around Echo Hill and back home. There are some decent hills in there.  Then I hope to get home and SPIN!

Visit my new Etsy Shop!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/twistedmysteries

Summer Fiber Arts Classes For Kids

Here are the details about the classes I will be teaching this summer. You can register or get more info from the Amherst LSSE website

http://www.amherstma.gov/index.aspx?NID=311

or by calling them at:  413-259-3065

332155 - Fiber Fun

Ages 5-8
Fiber Fun from beginning to end. Learn how wool comes off a sheep, even meet and groom an angora bunny. On day one you will learn how to spin fiber using a from spindle (from a CD!) that you can take home. You'll learn how to prepare fiber, dye it, then weave, knit, use yarn in all kinds of ways, and try out spinning wheels. You will make colorful, fun, sometimes-useful and sometimes-not things while learning timeless skills. A $10 materials fee will be due to the instructor on the first day of class.

08/05/13- 08/09/13

1:00P- 3:30P

M-F

$149/$159

under 5 years to under 9 years

332148 - Spinning & Fiber Arts

Ages 8-12
Ever wanted to learn to spin yarn? This is for you. We will start with drop spindles (to keep!), then move on to spinning wheels. You will learn about how to prepare fiber, how to dye, card and comb it. Using these techniques you can make beautifully colored, text red yarns. Once you've made some yarn, you'll learn how to use it in a variety of knitted and woven projects. As a added bonus, there will be angora rabbits to meet! A $10 materials fee will be due to the instructor on the first day of class.

332148-A

Spinning & Fiber Art

08/12/13- 08/16/13

1:00P- 3:30P

M-F

$149/$159

under 8 years to under 13 years

Visit my new Etsy Shop!! http://www.etsy.com/shop/twistedmysteries