It's been two months since my trip to West Virginia, so I'm sure my recap will be limited and incomplete and (possibly) inaccurate. Hopefully, Lori will correct and clarify and amend in the comments.
My drives there and back were uneventful. I had good weather, and plenty of podcasts on my iPod, so I was well entertained.
(My most eventful trip was in November 2008, when I got a flat tire driving home, and had to wait while it was repaired. Then, as I was finally back on the road, I realized I'd forgotten my laptop at Lori's house. I headed back toward Lori's, and she met me halfway, at a Starbucks. We shared a brief snack (hot chocolate! cake!) before I started for home again. What a long day that was!)
I love my visits with Lori - pleasant, relaxing, low-stress. We play Scrabble (Lori always wins), and eat pizza from the bakery down the hill from her. (We did have pizza this time, right?)
We always do lots of walking (and talking). This time, we walked a trail along the river on Saturday, and just around her neighborhood on Sunday. (A walk around Lori's neighborhood really is a bit of a workout, owing to the rather steep landscape.)
Before we could head out for our walk on Saturday, we had to wait for the high school marching band - they were practicing, and just happened to pass by Lori's house as we were leaving:
Here are some photos from the walk along the river. It was a beautiful day, and we didn't need much in the way of coats (my recollection is that we each wore a sweater, and ended up carrying them).
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| Lori! |
I took this picture in Lori's neighborhood.
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| PumpkinMan? |
Our visits also include adventures. After resting from our walk, we drove down to Bridgeport, where we visited The Nest, a yarn store that Lori had discovered. Of course I bought some souvenir yarn:
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| Madeline Tosh Sport |
I only bought one skein, which probably was a mistake. I should never buy just one skein. But I'll find something to do with this yumminess, even so. (Perhaps a delicious hat....)
They also had some wonderful shop samples. Lori admired their Clapotis shawl, and I was attracted by a cabled scarf (I first wrote 'attacked by a scarf,' by mistake, but maybe that is an apt word when talking about yarn shops and yarn). The woman working there, however, didn't know what the pattern was, and since it was near closing time, and since they'd had an open house all day, and since she seemed to be holding the fort alone, I didn't want to make her track it down. But I did take a photo, and recently tried to email the shop to ask about it.
Alas, the email bounced back to me, and I thought all was lost. I decided to check their blog, even though my last perusal had indicated it was pretty inactive. But look! they must have a made a New Year's Resolution, because when I checked their blog, not only did they have a new entry, but it featured The Scarf, and listed both the yarn and the pattern:
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| http://www.thenestyarn.com/january-brings-the-snow-get-ready/ |
(I've since tracked down and bought the pattern, and added the Elbaite scarf to my rather lengthy to-knit list.)
Back to my visit with Lori... We had dinner at the Provence Market, right next to The Nest. As I recall, we had the special, which was a delicious salmon dinner. I think we even had dessert, though it's the salmon that sticks in my memory (so good...).
We decided, on a whim, to stop at Barnes and Nobles on the way home. It was fun to look at books together, sharing notes about what we'd read and what we wanted to read. We each bought a book, which we've since read and traded. Lori bought An Invisible Thread, by Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski; I bought The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. Both were good reads. (I need to do a book review blog entry; I have a stack of books on the table in front of me, just waiting...)
Of course, with all the time sitting and chatting, knitting happened as well. I finished the shawl I'd been working on:
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| This is the just-finished, still-unblocked version; there are more photos on Ravelry |
I'm thinking it's about time to start planning my next visit with Lori.
But first, there's this beagle still begging for her walk...
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