walking to work

A combination of lack of exercise, cost of gas, and the incredible spring weather caused me to walk to work today. Now this is not a very difficult task being that the shop is only about a mile and a half away from the house. But I did have to walk home as well. I always forget how much you notice when you are on foot. Hey look at this yard, they have a whole cymbidium nursery going. And wow, that house is much bigger than it looks from the street. You also become aware of how many dogs are being walked.
I remembered while meandering home, how there is an advantage to having a half an hour to yourself before facing the homefront. It is easier to process the day. Work out the kinks in both mind and body. I realized that is has been close to 35 years since I have been able to consider walking to work. Let's hope I take more advantage of the chance.

what are these people doing?

Chris Morgan, the person on the left, in the red vest, makes puzzles. In the middle of the glass table is an object that the collective minds around the table, and some not shown have struggled to solve. The puzzle which is 8 magnets and six pieces of balsa wood, must stand more than eleven inches high, with at least one magnet at the top, and one magnet at the bottom. I believe many advanced degrees were involved in this solution. Joanne, seated on the right, gets the prize for persistence, and ultimately getting it to work.

This gathering of minds was a reunion of many of us from our early college days, living in the student coops of  Cloyne Court, and then onto Stebbins Hall. The evening collected us and our various friends who came from Boston, Chapel Hill, Bakersfield, Redwood City, Oakland, and far away Alameda. We missed the attendance of two friends from Anchorage and Reno, who hopefully, will be there next year. There was much grey or missing hair, a few pounds added here and there, but surprisingly little change in overall character. Tim Chang, the person responsible for the world calling me Agnes, had not lost any of his insanity. Which is a good thing.

the life

I pictured this all day, the life of Gris-gris, enjoying the leather chair and his favorite red blanket while I am at work. Such a life. 

quilt camp and heath ceramics

I made my way out to Point Bonita today to join my friends who are at the YMCA facilty quilting. Quilt Camp, as I refer to it, is quite a scene. For many years I joined in on the festivities and it is always good to see people from this world. I took my first quilt class in January of 1975, and fabric and sewing machines have followed me through many career changes, moves, and hopefully will move into my "golden years". If the color of my hair is any indication the years are only silver right now. Seven members of my quilt group are out at Point Bonita and we were reminiscing about trips to Paris and  New York, and the house at Point Reyes where we enjoyed get-togethers. There have been college careers followed and new families started in all the years of cloth being cut into pieces and then rearranged. We were looking at old photographs of ourselves and were amazed how young we once were. It was a good visit.
On my way back home I stopped at Heath Ceramics in Sausalito. I was in search of a specific cup, which I did not find, but satisfied myself with a new tea mug. Heath represents Marin county to me, it is hard to explain, but it has been in business in Sausalito since the mid 1940's and every home I knew seemed to have a Heath ashtray. I believe I have a broken one somewhere under my potting bench that was my mothers. I couldn't bring myself to throw it out. If I ever win the lottery and build my house on the Owens River I may have to fill the china cupboard with Heath ceramics, interspersed with my Fiestaware, of course.