Ordinary Time

I know I've said it before, but it is a lovely thing to have children who know how to bake and cook. It does make more dishes... sometimes a lot of them... but it's worth it in my book. D. had today off of work so decided to make quiches for breakfast. These were not any ordinary quiches as he decided to use the recipe out of The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. He made three different quiches; tomato, spinach and swiss cheese, and balsamic onion and mushroom. They were all very good.  By the time I came in from the barn, they were nearly done. Not too long after, D. brought me this. That's the tomato quiche. It was the first of three pieces of quiche I ate this morning because I wanted to try them all. I did not eat lunch because I was still so full. J. had already left for work so D. was able to save some for him. It was a good thing he did, because there's not really any quiche left. 

I arrived home last night without any difficulties. This time I only had a four hour layover in Iceland; not really long enough except to wander around the airport. There are some entertaining things to see, such as this troll. I also wandered through the stores. It was during one of the later passes that I realized I should pick up some candy for the masses back home. It's become kind of a thing when someone in our family travels somewhere to bring home a few snacks.  This morning we broke them out.  This type was licorice flavored. It was... not popular, though L. really enjoyed it. (There were a lot of licorice flavored candy.) This was more of a typical sweet type. But the shapes were a little unusual. We decided they looked like broken crayons. And now I am tired. My body feels as though it is 1:45am though the clock says 8:45pm. I'm hoping after another night's sleep I will feel more on the right schedule. It was a fantastic trip, though it's wonderful to be back ...

We are halfway through a four day certificate training. While I'm very familiar with the online version of this course, the in-person version is new. Because it is all day for four straight days, it's intense. I'm very glad to experience it once before I host on on-site training at home.  But to the topic at hand... Aga stoves. My host's have one and I'm in love. They are so cool! Well, not physically cool because they are warm all the time as they are cast iron and are constantly heated. It also gets used for everything... cooking (obviously), drying clothes, keeping things warm, and (the best, I think) leaning against when you've been outside and need a bit of warming up. I have been a bit baffled as to how one would actually bake with the thing, as there is no such thing as temperature adjustment. We all know that when I'm curious about something that I can't let it go which is why I grabbed this cookbook out of the kitchen to look at last night. So f...

Yesterday was another free day, so before I had left I arranged a lunch date with a virtual friend in London. Thanks to the internet it is quite possible to meet people and get to know them, but never meet in person, especially if they live in a different country. This is a friend who is also an adoptive mom who has children with some challenges.  It is lovely when the person you know online is just as wonderful in person. We had Lebanese food for lunch and decided to spend the rest of our time wandering around Sloane Square. The Chelsea Flower Show is currently on and it turns out that many of the businesses around have flower displays. It's really lovely.  Some were just beautiful flower displays. The flower show has a movie theme this year, which, when we discovered this made the bag of popcorn seem a little less random.  At the actual entrance to the flower show for which we didn't have tickets. A T-Rex  Those are a pair of legs sticking out of its mouth. We both...

Yesterday was a free day with nothing planned except having dinner reservations. I slept in a bit, did some reading, and took a walk. The dinner reservations were for one of the restaurants at the top of the Fenchurch Building (otherwise known as the Walkie-talkie Tower.) There's a whole garden up there. There was wonderful food, wonderful company, and wonderful views. 

This weekend was spend with the Athena Herd Foundation trainers for two days gaining more skills, building community, and having many discussions. What has been wonderful is getting to meet in person the people I have been working with virtually for a while now because they are all amazing people whom I'm very glad to get to know and work with. And they are hilarious in the very best of ways. W. and I have often discussed the importance of having a good sense of humor and the Athena trainers definitely pass the humor test. I can't quite remember the last time I have laughed so hard so often. It is a good program that is able to gather together a group of trainers who are such caring and intelligent (and funny) people. The world, both horse and otherwise, is a better place because of them and I am honored to be included.  And I can now say I've played cricket because of a very brief attempt last night at organizing a game which lasted all of five minutes due to it getting to...

I have made it to England and am even conscious now after a full night's sleep. Other than napping here and there I figure I was awake for nearly 36 hours with 24 hours of travel time.  The 9+ hour layover in Reykjavik, Iceland was a good chunk of that time, which brings me to Ascension Day. It turns out Ascension Day is a national holiday in Iceland on May 18... the day I was there. It also turns out that many things are closed that day, including museums and stores, such as The Handknitting Association of Iceland. The driver of the shuttle bus had mentioned it on the drive from the airport to the city, so I wasn't surprised when I saw this sign on the door of the store. Which means I missed seeing all the cool and interesting things inside such as this. (Look at the cute little sheep on the bottom at 7 o'clock. My checkbook is probably significantly happier for it being closed and it's not as though I really needed more yarn. The weather was in the 50's and drizzl...

I leave tomorrow afternoon, but no, I am not ready. I have a small pile of things I've gathered, I've checked in for my flight, I dug out my passport, and that's about it. (You'll all be happy to know that I checked that I have the non-expired passport. Once for that mistake was enough. ) Today was tremendously unproductive, but I did finish the mystery I was halfway through. Priorities, you know.  I'm not sure how often I'll be able to blog over the next ten days. Don't expect any regularity. Next stop will be Reykjavik, Iceland where I have a nine hour layover for a good chuck of the day. I'll get to London that evening. J. and D. will be home with the masses. R. seems stable, not happy, but is dealing with it. Thank goodness for effective medicines! 

I've been getting my submissions ready for Fine Line Creative Arts Center's student exhibition. I'll be submitting the scarf I wove in my first weaving class,  the twill gamp I wove after the twill class  I took, and a display of dyed wool from the dye class I took.  I'll drop them off tomorrow.  The other thing I've been working on is figuring out what knitting I'm taking with me. Because you know that you can't travel without a knitting project, right? (You also can't travel without books, so I've located the Kindle and put some books on it. Never fear.) But we're talking knitting. I didn't want to bring the shawl I'm working on because it's a bit fussy and I'm close enough to the end that I don't want to run out of actual knitting. So I searched through my stash and found a bag of 1000 meters of  Noro yarn that I bought on sale a while back. I then found a free knitting pattern to go along with it. It should be fairly strai...

And with my brother and his family.