Travel Knitting and Reading

Where shall I begin this post? Late last Thursday, we returned from a wonderful week with my daughter and family. We celebrated the week with as much fun, laughter, and love as was possible. Our four active grandchildren shared their joy with us. After all the violence in the world, I just needed to put my arms around all of them. Mission accomplished - over and over. We attended baseball and T-ball games, cheered the three youngest in a one mile race, went to church, walked to and from school, threw beach balls to children bouncing on the trampoline, baked brownies, read stories, admired stuffed animals, and attended Emmett's Sailing On Ceremony. I know it's a cliche but its hard to believe he is off to middle school in the fall.  

As a belated Mother's Day gift, my daughter and I spent an afternoon in New York City. As unabashed women from Nebraska, we took selfies all afternoon. Why not be a tourist? The highlight of the afternoon was seeing Hamilton. The performance was excellent. How do those performers, perform the same roles over and over?  The time with Kate was wonderful. I told her we were tucking the spirit of my Mom in our pockets. Mom loved live performance and made the most of offerings in our area. Once or twice, I heard her wish she could attend a production in NYC but never did so. We arrived in the city a little early and walked a circuitous route to the theatre. My step-count was up the entire week in Connecticut. 

I have a bit of knitting so I will link with Kat and the Unravelers. My travel knitting, mostly done on the plane, was a pair of Vanilla Latte Socks out of Fibernymph Dye Works yarn. As you can imagine, the last thing I thought about was knitting identical stripes. In fact, I'm not sure it would be possible with Lisa's Pi colorways. Somewhere over the middle of the country, I knit a heel flap and turned a heel. The colorway is a little wild but socks are a good place for crazy color. This is the first time I've knit with Fibernymph yarn and I like the hand and the soft sturdy socks. The second sock needs a toe which I hope to finish this evening. As I reenter my usual routine, the socks are good knitting and will remind me of this trip. I like to spend a day or two after I come home recalling and savoring the days away. 

While away, I finished the book, Bird Cottage by Eva Meijer. I was disappointed in this novel based on the story of Len Howard, a British woman who was unconventional for her time. In fairness, the novel is translated from the Dutch, but, in my opinion, the story could have been much more richly imagined. The book was a description of the events of her life, as in this happened and then this and then this . . . and on to the end. Fiction leaves room for supposing what Howard was thinking as she went through her life. It wasn't the best nature story but I did finish it. I'm currently reading a Ruth Galloway mystery, The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths. Ruth and the cast of characters feel like old friends. This week I need something predictable and this book came up in my library holds. 

Where did the June days go? Be well and safe.