Halllllllooooo out there!

The trouble with not posting to my blog in several weeks is figuring out where to start now!

Let me say right away that Michael and I are doing great, life is great, and there are no major events to report -- a lot of 'same old, same old,' actually. But I do get to live a pretty wonderful life, so my 'same old' is pretty cool! With that in mind, let me recap some 'highlights' since I last posted...

We've cruised out to Russell Island a time or two ... the first time was during the VanIsle 360 sailboat race, so we got to see a few of the participants go by from the anchorage:

 ... and there's no shortage of wildlife out there either -- this pair has a nest at the centre of the island!

... and this poor overworked mama has no less than twelve babies! (Remember that you can click on the photo to see it bigger/closer up).

I finally took the time to visit the Gulf Island Spinning Mill! Here's my friend Carol working with the carder...

 

 ... and Amy preparing roving for spinning

 ... Bob in the background tidying up...

 ... and the spinning machines doing what they do best...

It was a fun afternoon!

Oh, something new did happen for me .... I applied to become an artist at Mahon Hall's ArtCraft, a show that runs seven days a week here in the summer - and I got accepted! Mahon Hall is a beautiful old heritage building in Ganges, and the show (the major project of the Salt Spring Island Arts Council) has a reputation for being pretty high-end - so imagine my surprise when I was one of twelve new artists who got accepted, out of over 60 new applicants, apparently!

So my lace shawls are now on display and for sale. :-) I went to the opening reception (you have no idea how weird it is for me to say those words -- I've never seen myself as an 'artist', much less as someone who goes to opening receptions!):

We have a new yarn store here on the Island, and Pat, the owner, hosted World Wide Knit in Public Day (Pat's on the right) ...

Some of you might notice a familiar icon on the left... I loaned her my 'Neatby sculpture' for the day...

The store is called Elderberry Yarns, and it's owned by the same mother-daughter team that own ElectricTree Yarns in Kamloops. She was only open for a month and then moved to an even better location -- it's a gorgeous store, and I'm hoping to teach some classes there in the fall.

I finally made it up to the top of Mt. Maxwell... the view over Sansum Narrows is absolutely stunning!

I also finally joined the Salt Spring Weavers and Spinners Guild (there is no knitters guild), and I've been to a few meetings. One meeting was a 'dye day' at Mary's house ... her studio was very full of busy people by the time I arrived, so I just observed and took pictures. This one made it into an annual publication called 'A Day in the Life of Salt Spring', published by the local newspaper!

Much knitting has transpired, of course... several more shawls and cowls are done, and now I'm working on CHRISTMAS stuff -- I promise myself every year that I'm going to start early, and I've finally done that!

This post is already too long and I have many pictures of a family cruise we took over the Canada Day weekend -- so I'll try to do another update in the next few days, and then try again to get back on track posting regularly!