Summer solstice, come and gone already. Another year, another major setback for our used to be good ‘ol U.S of A., but now I barely recognize the place. We’re regressed to before I was born evidently.
My hobbies are what gets me through each day. Biking, for my physical activity. Knitting, needle-felting, botanical painting for my inside time. Cooking inspiration comes and goes.
The latest artwork has been a series of sunset mountain felted scenes. I took to this art form recently and very quickly. Working with wool has been a passion for years, and my sock drawer is full and if I need another sweater or shawl, then I am delusional. The felted landscapes give me another focus with wool and another artistic outlet. A final product that is amazing, in my opinion. I am happy with them to the extent that I am putting some up on Etsy for others to purchase and enjoy, if they so choose. You can see a recent example here, at this link: Blue Ridge Mountains at Sunset.
I just picked the up the memoir, Forever Boy, by Kate Swensen written by a student I had as a 7th grader many years ago. Kate’s book has already received raving reviews. Her book chronicles her challenge of raising and teaching and living with an autistic child. Already the author of the blog, Finding Cooper’s Voice, Kate has received and given support to other parents of special needs children for several years.
Although I have just started reading, Kate’s honesty as she shares her journey, her struggles, those of her family and Cooper’s siblings is heartwarming – and heart-wrenching at the same time. She takes care to remind the reader in the first chapter, though, that her book is not a sad book, but rather a journey to finding joy. The joy she finds in her son, and the gift he brings to her family and the world, will keep me turning the pages. I hope I have enough midnight oil 😉
Color has power and impact. When I think about color, I realize how almost every movement, action or interaction involves color in some way. It is a topic that feels too huge to tackle and to write about – where to begin? Color effects mood and the environment, it invokes emotion and feelings, it acts on the body and the mind, it is cultural, symbolic and has universal, national and personal associations. It can be a warning that something is wrong – or that everything is fine. It is everywhere – in everything. Color is light and light is energy. Colour Lovers, at a web site devoted to people who love color, share color palettes and talk about color. The sidebar highlights top colors and new colors and people submit colors and color palettes. And people add all kinds of comments to the color submissions, some absurdly unrelated, such as “My friend sent me a postcard. It was a satellite picture of the entire world. On the back it said, “Wish you were here'” and “Curiosity killed the cat. But for a while I was a suspect.” This site would be a place to find inspiration when designing web colors, colors for jewelry or for knitting projects. Or for putting together clothes or designing a garden. The most loved color right now, according to this site, is BLACK, followed by a slate blue color. In the top ten four are green-lime greenish, and the rest are shades of blue. The most used colors are white, followed by black, then various shades of grey, slate, then some shades of red, blue and yellow.
And then there’s John Mayer’s comment on color as it relates to people: “Life is like a box of crayons. Most people are the 8-color boxes, but what you’re really looking for are the 64-color boxes with the sharpeners on the back. I fancy myself to be a 64-color box, though I’ve got a few missing. It’s ok though, because I’ve got some more vibrant colors like periwinkle at my disposal. I have a bit of a problem though in that I can only meet the 8-color boxes. Does anyone else have that problem? I mean there are so many different colors of life, of feeling, of articulation.. so when I meet someone who’s an 8-color type.. I’m like, “Hey girl, magenta!” and she’s like, “Oh, you mean purple!” and she goes off on her purple thing, and I’m like, “No – I want magenta?”
There are now 120 colors in the biggest box of Crayola Crayons. See Crayola Crayons for a history of crayons and names of colors – kind of interesting, especially if you remember the excitement of getting a brand new box of crayons as a kid! If it is hard to find a 64-color box type person, imagine finding a 120-color box type! I am fortunate to have several of those rare 120-color box type people in my life – others who color my life with shades of love, adding layers of brilliantly hued meaning to my existence. I thank the spirit of the world’s colors daily for these wonderful beings.
I am bit behind on my chronicles. Here I am tonight at Hop Lake, a tidal lagoon where I’ve ended up today. A bit behind on my journey, due to cold, snow and some lack of motivation. I am so not motivated – I hope to kick it up a notch or two and add something of interest and/or original content here soon. In the meantime….
Looks like the day is only about 6 hours ‘light’ in Stadur, Iceland where I presently stayed the virtuual night last night along the Ring Road Challenge. I am 110 miles along the road; at 13% of the journey.
-2°C (28°F)
Northeast 14 (m/s)
Wed Jan 27th, 12:00pm
Sunrise: 10:34:19 AM Sunset: 4:50:17 PM
Stadur, was once a church and parsonage, with a wooden church that was built 1864. one of the first churches in Iceland to be painted, not tarred, it is decorated with wooden carvings. The land surrounding Stadur is fertile, and the area is home to colonies of eider ducks.
Eider ducks are the largest duck, live in rocky areas along cold water oceans and are known for the warmth of their down. The practice of killing the ducks for their down has largely reformed to eider duck farming, where the down can be collected without killing the ducks.
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My real ride was partly on Round Mountain gravel roads, and then quick loop at DuPont, where I wish I would have snapped a photo of the beautiful sunset. Learn! And a meme craze featuring Bernie, with his now famous Vermont-made mittens is rocking online, so I put him at a trail head at Dupont. One problem: he forgot his bike!!!
To the beautiful Borganes area of Iceland. I earned my first “post card’ which is a virtual postcard from me, and tells about the region. Rather than copy this put or research the info into my own words, these photos depict that postcard and the information included (credit goes to the Conqueror app).
The frost tightened it’s grip as evening fell, whipped up from the chill Arctic wind in from the sea and south over the desolate winter landscape. It plunged down from Mount Skardsheidi, past Mount Esja and ravaged it’s way over the lowlands, where settlement spread out , a glittering winter city, on the northernmost shores of the world.
Arctic Chill: An Inspector Erlendur Novel By Arnaldur Indridason
Made it to Mount Skardsheidi, 42.1 miles into my journey. I did get a real ride in today, including some singletrack riding in at Paris Mountain in South Carolina. See the photo of the very cool rock building at the park. My real ride was at 41 degrees, a sunny Sunday; my virtual ride at 17 degrees. I like this description above that includes a mention of Mount Skardsheidi, and gives an imdication of what it can feel like there in winter. The mountain is part of an extinguished volcano known as Skardsheidi is about 4 million years old.
view of Mount Skardsheidi, Iceland The Bath House (1930s), Paris Mountain State Park, Greenville
As my virtual journey continues, I am 35.5 miles in, actually seemingly in the middle of nowhere, but not too far from the small fishing village of Hofn, famous for a Europe’s largest glacier, called Vatnajokull. Don’t ask me how to pronounce any of the names. There is also a Lobster Festival there in July.
Here I am tonight, as I continue my Ring Road journey across Iceland. Maybe I should buy some aluminum. This is an industrial area – looks like some computer chip sort of businesses and aluminum. Not that interested, and so tired after all the stressful insurrectional and terroristic attacks in Washington yesterday. Gonna hole up at an air bnb and move on…..oooooh, maybe not tomorrow, as we are under a snow warming. Maybe won’t get too far tomorrow.
I did find this place to stay. If I hole up here for a day or two, I have a gorgeous view.
My real activity today was a visit with my daughter-in-law and my two precious grandkids, as we walked some trails and visited goats, horses and donkeys at the Biltmore village today. We mostly meandered, ut I walked some trails after they left for a total of 4.5 miles of walking.
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A Thousand Dreams 