Is it true?

Is there a new set of Tampopo (or whatever it's really called) teaware for me to covet?

Almost there...

Hey! It's nowhere near 2am and I'm almost done packing. I think this might be a first. Secret - iron the night before. It's the only way.

Finishing now. Off to the woods in the morning...

End-of-Summer Reading List...

Last week, in some all-important before-camp preparation, I went the library, and not just any branch, but the Central branch. And while I was looking for specific things, I also love to browse the recent arrivals for something new. Much to my surprise, I picked up two books outside of my norm of mysteries. The first is even non-fiction!

I love and have read all of L. M. Montgomery's books for kiddos, most notably the Anne of Green Gables series, and what I have just learned is supposed to be semi-autobiographical, the Emily of New Moon series. But I don't really know much about the author. I think it was the Gibson Girl on the cover that made me take it from the shelf, but I was excited to find Irene Gammel's Looking for Anne of Green Gables, just published this July. It focuses on the particular period when Montgomery was writing the Anne series and what went into the formation of the most famous of her heroines. When I'm done with this one, I want to seek out Gammel's other writings on Montgomery. Go figure, Gammel is a professor of English at the University of PEI. I think I will need to go there to seek out those writings...

The second book I found is Loving Frank by Nancy Horan. This one is a novel which fictionalizes the love affair between Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Cheney. I'm interested in Frank and in his architecture, but I don't know much about his life outside of his buildings and his personality. I can't wait to get to this one.

Who am I kidding. I never read at camp...

I can't tell you how thrilled these make me...

The first of four glass shelves to go in my dining room closet. They will eventually hold glassware.



Not glamourous, but oh so useful - a shelf to hold laundry supplies.



Pot lids! Awkward in the cabinets, now they have a place to live (not that this is by any means all of my pot lids - just all that will stay on the hooks.).



And finally, Joanna starts to decorate. There are magnets on the fridge and my first wall hanging.

In memoriam...

Marianne Taylor lost her battle with cancer today.

There are so many fine things to remember about Marianne - her spirit, cheerful disposition, gift for teaching and utter devotion to the dance community, but on a more personal level, there was no one I would rather dance next to.

When I was on crew at Pinewoods, I would go the the evening dances during FAC Week and stumble through the patterns of the International Folk Dances, or at least the ones that were slow enough so that I could understand what was happening. But if I was lucky enough to be standing next to Marianne, who would sometimes make that happen on purpose, she would not only whisper the steps to me, she would say them in a dance language I knew so that I could keep up and if briefly, become a part of that community.

Thank you for that Marianne, and for so much more. It was a privilege to know you.

For more information:

http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/viewMyStory.do?method=executeInit

The next kitchen project...

I think these would be so useful - for utensils and potholders. That's up next after the glass shelves are up in the dining room closet...

The next kitchen project.