bits and pieces

been awhile since i posted, and i don't have too much to say as we're still chewing on things and pondering things and piecing bits of work and study and conversation and projects together into a week and then another week and then i realize that it's been a month and ... the days do march, don't they?  so here's a small wander through my pics since i last posted.

we visited this lovely couple in march, after first meeting them at a health expo in january.  don and patty run a place called the Well Being Conference Center up in Tazewell TN.  they've built it entirely themselves in the last 6 years or so, and as their vision of having a place in the woods where people can get together and talk and learn and play is somewhat related to our goal (and they're actually doing it!) we thought we'd pay them a visit and get a tour and a reality check and maybe some wisdom, along with the views. 

they delivered all that, and more, and were most delightfully gracious hosts who gave thoughtful answers to my many questions, and asked some great questions of their own.  a great day out.

more recently, we spent Easter with friends at their family's lake house, and had a delightful day playing with boats and bows and arrows and jelly-bean laying chickens, and chatting in the sun.  another welcome break.

spring has hit fully and properly here, with storms (ahhh i've missed thunder and lightning!), dogwoods, azaleas, irises, and even an 80 degree day or two.  we were back to three wool blankets in the camper two nights ago though, so it's not all that consistently warm yet.

a few times lately i've been up near sunrise ... shocker to many, i know ...  and after trotting in the house to the bathroom i've grabbed my camera and gone prowling.  it's a magical hour, and almost enough to make me get up earlier on a consistent basis.  the key word being almost.

i've had some pretty depressed days, which somewhat accounts for the lack of words.  i miss being creative in my own right, honestly.  all the work of starting a new venture and working on documenting it, making it happen, and figuring out how to finance it while on the road via freelancing and creating new stuff to sell ... i haven't prioritized making stuff that i just plain like to make, that has nothing to do with heartLOOSE.  not sure where or how to make that happen, but taking pics helps, and talking to cool new people helps too.

which i got to do a couple weekends ago, when the boys put on a lemonade stand during the neighborhood-wide yard sale. 

keren made cookies, the boys made lemonade ... and actually sold more than they drank ... a surprisingly successful venture!  fynn's "lemonade dance", performed while running alongside approaching vehicles, likely had something to do with that.  so did Douglas' steadiness in sitting in the back of the truck for hours while Fynn ran around shopping at the yard sales and hanging with his friend C down the road. 

i went on a long wander with Fynn at one point, and found, to my great delight, a trio of lovely rotten kids selling their odds-and-ends while chatting and eating their breakfast in the sun.  two were sisters, two were neighbors, and all were my kind of ladies.  i bought a candle holder just to have an excuse to hang around, and could have sat there all afternoon.  full of delight and wonder and questions and happiness ... they reminded me much of my Grambie and how much i've missed her and her voice and hands and very warm lap.  i was so glad to find them.  cool new people for sure.

earlier this week we had a two-evening long event which was designed and orchestrated by Fynn, and as he's tasked with blogging about it, I won't do more than share the pic above of one team's prep area.  it was way more fun than i expected it to be :).

today we went downtown hoping to catch the farmer's market before it closed up for the day, and after wondering why the parking was so scarce and some roads were closed off ... we found that it was the Rossini festival with food carts and vendors galore, opera being sung, swords being swung, and nary a green vegetable or fresh flower in sight.  oops.

we spent part of the market budget on street food (ugh) but had a jolly time and got to talk to some interesting folks, and see some cool sights.  fynn even got to try on some real chain mail!

we spent a long time at one glassworks place, and michael modeled one of their eyeball pendants quite handsomely, don't you think?

we found Art Alley, which was a block-long stretch of graffiti/art work, and a great way to avoid a stretch of food tents and crowds when i got a little tired of them.

when we walked back to the car at the end of the afternoon, i laughed to myself ...

... the arch we'd come under 3 hours earlier was now struggling at half-mast, dragged down by deflated balloon tails and the ravages of increasingly gusty winds.  i felt a kinship with it, like it was a rather silly but apt expression of my recent moods.  afloat, but tattered.  i'll take it. 

as my SIL called to remind me the other day, we did get a truck, and we did get a camper, and we are on the road, even if it's not going the way we expected.  true, that.  and a welcome reminder. 

onward ...