ROAD BLOG AHEAD

My apologies to those of you who were put off by my whining about being homesick in the last post. I know I have it a lot better than many of the people on this planet. I have a home (even if I’m not in it) I have a sense of purpose in my life that is the underpinning of everything I do and gives both joy and stability to my existance. And, above all, I have wonderful friends and family, people whom I love and who love me and show it in a million ways, small and large. I don’t ever forget this, nor do I forget to treasure any of those things that make me glad I’m me and glad to be alive. I do, however, occasionally get homesick and tired of the seemingly endless roadshow we’re in at the moment.

That said, it also feels like, with only about 3 more weeks before departure, there is SO much get done, so many people I want to see and things to be arranged that time is moving way way too fast and oh dear, how will I ever get it all done? Ain’t that one of life’s paradoxes? Time is so long and so short all at once! I’m having to sift my way through hundreds of e-mails every week and, at this point, I have to prioritize those directly related to my work for Wangdor RImpoche. If you think I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole, well, I guess I have and I can only hope you will still love me when it’s all over and I emerge out the other side of the hole, somewhere in China. In this case, that’s probably literal as I just may email you from the waiting lounge in Hong Kong!!!

I am also aware that my blog tends to suffer from a kind of multiple personality disorder. Sometimes it’s a travel blog, talking about the places I go, the people I meet, the strange things I get to see as we trek around the planet. I write about traveling with my Tibetan Buddhist Guru and what that’s like, what he’s doing etc. Sometimes I get to sit awhile somewhere and then I post about my projects, mostly knitting or spinning, though I do have some writing projects in the works as well. And then there are the moments when I’m busy being Mom or Grammy and I post pictures of cute grandbabies or adorable kittycats.  I know there are bloggers out there who only blog about a particular thing: their families or their trip to the South Pacific or their knitting works in progress. My life is much more a buffet of all of the above in spurts and fits so there’s no way I can pick one topic and stick to it.

That’s my way of saying I have a whole bunch of odds and ends to post from the last couple of weeks and it’s rather all over the map in terms of subject matter.  Instead of trying to stick to a single topic, I’m just going to go in semi-chronological order and switch hats as necessary.

I got back to my daughter’s house in Oregon from New Mexico just in time to spend one day at the Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene.

If you’re not among the fiber cogniscenti, Black Sheep is one of the West Coast’s premiere sheep and wool festivals, bringing together spinners, knitters, felters, farmers, kids with 4H projects, artists and just about anyone who has any interest, either creatively or commerically, with the fiber arts. And it’s not just sheep either, though there are certainly plenty of those:

There are llamas and angora goats (no rabbits this year which was a huge disappointment for one young lad I encountered who had come a long way to see bunnies.) There are dogs and kids and people of every shape and size. There is raw fleece and undyed fibers as well as dyes and tools to turn it into yarn or sweaters or woven goods. And there is yarn. Oh my goodness, there is yarn!!!

Three large buildings full of vendors, in addition to the animal pens and buildings. I got there on Saturday morning when the vendors rooms opened and managed to get to the Blue Moon booth before the other fiber vultures snatched it completely bald and managed to score some seriously good yarn.

Can you believe, they had factory second skeins (that looked top rate to me) for a notably reduced price. I got some Socks That Rock for me and some for Nyondo. And some for me… Not seconds, but the lightweight fingering weight in Fire On the Mountain colourway - 4 skeins. It’s gonna make an awesome and vivid shawl.

That was it for yarn this year - I have to get it back to India after all. But I did pick up some spinning fiber. Some baby camel down, a bag of guanaco (which is unbelievably soft! - I mean really hard to believe it!) and, because it was so utterly gorgeous that I was seduced into turning over my credit card immediately - some Bombyx silk sliver dyed by Chasing Rainbows in a colourway called “Moonstone” - silvery taupe, plum and copper in pale, moonlit shades.

I met up with Socklady Lynne from BC (that’s in Canada ya know) who I first met at a Black SHeep Gathering a few years ago. Lynne is an accomplished handspinner and sock knitter. Unfortunately, the only picture I got of her was of one of her legs. She got away too fast I guess. She also gave me a bag of spare knitting needles, both circulars and dpns, to take back to share with people in India. Thanks Lynne!! We had a Thai lunch at a local restaurant. In addition to Lynne and I, there were her friend Rena, Joan Shrouder, JC, and two lovely women whose names, unfortunately, escaped me. So that was a wonderful outting and a really nice change from running around being the lama’s other hand.

Back at Veronica’s it’s all about baby things. The kitten has gotten big enough to  be both seriously cute and a big nusiance. Here she is folks, the original cat in the hat:

And I cannot let the opportunity to post yet another pic of the apple of my eye, the spunky and winsome Danika Rose:

From there it was back to Bolinas, California where I have been buried in paperwork and correspondence for a week. It got so bad that we rearranged plans. Orignally, I was to drive the lamas up to their next teaching location in far Northern CA, leave them there at the center and continue on up to Oregon, back to Veronica’s place. Two things intervened. First, the weather turned obscenely hot. Most of the country it seems is having a heat wave. Which is, of course, not at all due to global warming, oh no, of course not… My Subaru does not have working air conditioning. Taking them through the Central Valley in 110 degree heat for 6 hours without AC did not sound like a sane plan. Secondly, the paperwork situation is absurd. I had a meltdown earlier in the week of the “I can’t do it, I just can’t keep up with it!” variety.

Since I’m not in a situation where I can have a nice shot of Jack Daniels and take to my bed for a week, we looked at the situation and decided that it made a whole lot more sense if Winna drove the lamas up to Junction City in her car (with AC) while I stayed here in Bolinas and tried to make some headway on the correspondence/database/troubleshooting front.  It gives me a few uninterrupted days to slog away at stuff and even to try and see a few clients in the next couple of days. Then, midweek, I’ll drive back to Veronica’s. I need to be there by the 15th of July for reasons which I’ll go into an another post.

It’s  much cooler here in Bolinas. I have the house to myself. Well, there’s the dog, Oscar, but he’s fairly mellow. At least with me he is. Oscar has been known to try and eat people, but, for whatever reason, he really likes me. He’s my buddy. So we hang out and listen to the wind in the trees and the sound of the ocean pounding the shore just a little distance away. I love that I can lay in bed and listen to the surf at night. I love that I can wake up in the morning, look out one window and see the ocean and out the other window and see the lagoon in the other direction.

And, amazingly, I am getting a lot done.