{"id":4330,"date":"2016-05-29T18:57:43","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T18:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/?p=4330"},"modified":"2016-05-29T20:58:54","modified_gmt":"2016-05-29T20:58:54","slug":"welcome-home-sweet-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/?p=4330","title":{"rendered":"Welcome Home Sweet Home!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Right now I can barely believe that less than a month ago I was still in Cuba. \u00a0All those hot colors, the tropical sun, the friendly people. \u00a0It was an experience I’ll never forget. \u00a0Now it’s also hard to believe that I’ve been home for almost a month.<\/p>\n

Catching up at home means there has been very little time for putting down my thoughts. \u00a0It’s a beautiful spring in Connecticut. \u00a0Friends told me that for a full month before I got home it was cold and dreary. I guess I returned at exactly the right moment.<\/p>\n

On one of my first outings with friends they told me was the\u00a0first warm day of the spring. \u00a0The outing was a day trip to the Cloisters Museum<\/a> in New York, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for those of you who are not familiar with it. It houses an impressive array of medieval art and is composed of architectural pieces of various medieval cloisters from all over Europe. Some of my oldest friends, and almost all of my ‘sheep group’ treated me to this amazing day in honor of my 60th birthday back in January. \u00a0They arranged for a docent to take us through the museum, followed by lunch at New Leaf in the park.<\/p>\n

Judy and Julie put some of their photos together to make this video, which can be seen here<\/a> on facebook. \u00a0Since I cannot figure out how to post it here, I’ll just put a few photos from the day. The following photos are from Jody, Judy and Julie, my “J” friends!<\/p>\n

A stunning spring day at the entrance to the Cloisters.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1271<\/a><\/p>\n

The main reason for our trip!– \u00a0A chance for me to see the “Hunt for the Unicorn” series again after moving away four years ago. \u00a0I used to visit the Cloisters numerous times a year since I lived only about 1\/2 hour from the museum–now it’s been 4 years since I’ve had the opportunity to just pop by and see what’s in bloom and visit the tapestries I love so much.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1221\"<\/a><\/p>\n

No visit to the Cloisters is complete without enjoying the wonderful cloistered gardens. \u00a0Because of the protection from the elements of a cold New York winter, these gardens bloom earlier and stay in bloom later than the surrounding area. \u00a0This garden, the kitchen and dye garden, has been heavily rearranged since I was last here.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a><\/p>\n

After our tour we walked through the gardens of Fort Tryon Park to the New Leaf<\/a> restaurant. \u00a0It’s a gem, with a slate terrace for dining outside amongst the azaleas and dogwoods on an early May afternoon. \u00a0For my special day there were beautiful flower arrangements on the table and a 3-course lunch. \u00a0I felt like royalty….where was my tiara??<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2298\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Everyone arriving at the restaurant and taking a seat. \u00a0Look at those flowers!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1246\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A gathering of such dear friends, including two of my new weaving friends from Connecticut who joined me.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a><\/p>\n

And lunch was amazing! \u00a0Jody photographed my lunch salad. \u00a0There were two choices for each course, but now I only remember what I chose….which, of course, was amazing! Now you know I’ve totally lost it when I post photos of food, but really<\/em>, a meal here is such an experience!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1225<\/a><\/p>\n

Dessert was a mango panna cotta.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1228<\/a><\/p>\n

I am still on such a high. \u00a0I’ll never forget it, and I won’t ever<\/em> get over the thrill of it!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1233<\/a><\/p>\n

While I was enjoying one of the best events of my life Bob was sailing home through some very challenging weather off the Eastern Seaboard. \u00a0One of the rewards for enduring those spring gales was a day of complete calm after the storm, with visits from both dolphins and a humpback whale. \u00a0I know you’ll want to see the\u00a0vid<\/a>eo<\/a> that Dave (one of Bob’s crew members for the trip home) got of the dolphins and the humpback whale they encountered during the trip!<\/p>\n

The following weekend was the annual lace retreat for the New England Lace Guild, and I attended for the second year. \u00a0I managed to spend the whole weekend working on my project from last year’s Idrija lace class, until I finally gave up on it and started a new and simpler project in that lace. \u00a0I did not take any photos while there….I was too busy working! Everyone helped me, but especially Linda and Mary. \u00a0Thank you<\/em>. \u00a0Here is a look at my simpler project. \u00a0It looks a bit like a sea creature. \u00a0I hope to find something useful to do with it…<\/p>\n

\"2-IMG_2308\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Just\u00a0after Bob returned home, we\u00a0took a trip down to Baltimore to visit our older son and his wife. \u00a0They surprised us two-fold: first by flying our younger son out from San Francisco to join us, and then announcing the wonderful news that our first grandchild will arrive in December. \u00a0So much happiness and such a wonderful few days together. \u00a0They announced the news by giving me this for Mother’s Day:<\/p>\n

\"1-IMG_2290\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When being home includes such wonderful time with family and friends, it’s very hard to ever think of going away again.<\/p>\n

Returning home does involve a lot of house chores to get things up and running again, and a good bit of gardening too, Bob and I have managed to take some time for sightseeing in our lovely part of the world.<\/p>\n

We took a little river cruise on Pandora<\/em> one evening in the middle of this week, to a spot I just love, where we can watch the Chester Ferry crossing to Hadlyme. \u00a0From this vantage point the sun sets behind us as we watch the last rays hit Gillette Castle. \u00a0It is a magical place, hard to tell what century we’re in as long as we don’t look at the cars on the ferry!<\/p>\n

\"1-IMG_2297\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is\u00a0Memorial Day weekend, and yesterday we took a drive to visit Cato Corner Dairy Farm<\/a> and Priam Winery<\/a> on the eastern side of the river from where we live.<\/p>\n

Look at the charming shop on the farm property!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2307\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And inside we were greeted by an even more charming sight–a farm girl ready to serve us tastings and sell us cheese!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2306\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We took our cheese selections with us to Priam Vineyards and tasted a few white wines before choosing the one we had with lunch!<\/p>\n

\"2-IMG_2302\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once at home I baked a batch of sour dough bread…. what a great welcome home!<\/p>\n

\"4-IMG_2304\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now it’s time to stop with all this wonderful nonsense and get to work on a loom! \u00a0Hopefully I’ll be talking about that in my next post!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Right now I can barely believe that less than a month ago I was still in Cuba. \u00a0All those hot colors, the tropical sun, the friendly people. \u00a0It was an experience I’ll never forget. \u00a0Now it’s also hard to believe that I’ve been home for almost a month. Catching up at home means there has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fine-craft"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4330"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4368,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4330\/revisions\/4368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.argoknot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}