Vermont Art Retreat

 

For years I've been wanting to attend "Meleen and Charlotte's Vermont Getaway" in Arlington, Vermont.  It's an art retreat that happens twice a year with several attendees from all over the country. Many have attended several times so sweet relationships have been built over the years.  I had a few of these ladies as Instagram friends, but we had never met in person.  I managed to make it happen this year and during October seemed the ideal time to visit Vermont.  It was a rainy week, which gave it a subtle, moody feel all it's own.  We managed to have one afternoon of sunshine, so any photos you see were during Friday afternoon.

 I flew in on Wednesday, because you can't get to Vermont by noon from Texas, just so you know.  A sweet friend picked two of us up at the airport in Albany, New York, and drove us into Vermont.  They were much obliged to stop and let me get out in the rain to take pictures of the covered bridges.

Warm Brook Barn is a lovely spot where the retreat is held. There are two houses and a new event barn. It is filled with beautiful antiques and warm hospitality. Meleen is the most generous and gracious hostess who served us delicious meals three times a day. She uses her vintage china, silver and antique serving pieces.  

We all bring a gift for each other.  Some are simple, others are extravagant. Robin brings a bouquet of flowers for EVERY participant from her abundant garden in Massachusetts. I'd love to see the garden in person. They included Dahlias, zinnias, forget me nots and cosmos.  

Delicious soup and salad for lunch.  

Breakfast was steel cut oats, fresh fruit, yogurt and cinnamon rolls.  

 Swag bags met us in the barn workroom.

I only took a picture of Becca's embroidery at it's beginning stages.  

The variety and creativity that everyone used on theirs was fun to see. 

Our Friday morning session with Rebecca Sower was acrylic painting using the flower bouquets as inspiration. Everyone struggled as almost all of us were new to painting. With Rebecca's patient help, many of us actually liked the final products. As with anything, practice makes perfect. You can see how different everyone's turned out.  I definitely have my favorites.  

 Friday afternoon we headed out for a field trip to Studio Hill Farm. 

This little building at the top of the hill was the owner's grandfather's studio. 

It still held old drawing tables and a rustic stone fireplace.

As you can tell, the sheep were highly entertaining.  

 Studio Hill has an Airbnb that is very popular in case you're interested in heading to Vermont.

I met Lauri who lives in the Kansas City area.  She and I have an unbelievable number of things in common.  It was so fun to discover the similarities. We will definitely be connecting again when I move back in the area.  

Saturday morning we went to town to visit area tag sales. We went to the Dorset Church sale which was very fun and crowded. I bought two small copper skillets for $15, and this pretty little pin for .25.

Later in the afternoon we dyed a bunch of things in the indigo dye pot.  

The sun came out and gave us quite a show with this gorgeous rainbow. It was actually a double rainbow, but you can't see it in these photos.  

  

We had another session Saturday where we drew landscapes with pastels. You'll notice that there is no picture of my piece. For good reason. We finished up on Sunday morning. There were lots of hugs and goodbyes. On the way back to Albany we stopped by Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center. Which is huge and fabulous, by the way. This is getting too long, so I'll show you next time what I made for everyone.  They loved them.  

Fall in Japan

Hello again.  What's up?  It's turning cold here in Japan.  Chilly really, not super cold.  But, I'm finicky.  We are heading to Kansas City over the Christmas holidays.  It's suppose to be arctic cold while we're visiting.  I hope Kansas City lives up to it's reputation and vacillates back and forth between cold and mild when we arrive.  What have I been doing you ask?  I know you've been wondering.

Well, the days do seem to be flying by.  Can you believe we have lived here almost 16 months? When we return from Christmas we will have about 8 months left of our stay here.  Therefore, I'm trying to take advantage of everything I can.  My youngest daughter came to visit in late October.  We crammed as much as possible into those two weeks.  We did glass blowing, pottery and indigo dyeing.  We visited Kyoto and Tokyo along with sites around Nagoya.  It went fast!

I've done some more pottery since then and think I might make several more trips there before I leave.  I pretty much love everything I make.  Here are the pieces I made from this trip. 

I've been doing a lot of knitting.  I have several friends that knit.  We meet often and hang out at a coffee shop or a friend's home.  I have a shawl that I need to finish asap as it will be nice to have this winter.  I know you can't really tell, but its a beautiful chunky Noro yarn that should be nice and warm.  I've got two scarves in process and just added two different shawls to my queue.  Although I haven't bought yarn yet.  I definitely have enough to keep me busy.  Here are the new possibilities, The Parlour and Find Your Fade.

I was also able to explore some new areas and take Fall pictures.  Fall and Spring are very big in Japan.  They take it seriously.  Japan illuminates the beautiful fall trees and it's a site to behold.  First of all, I'll show you some trees from a Shrine out in the country on a rainy day.  

Last night I went to an Illumination and took some fun pictures.  

Fall is now all over and winter is upon us.  I don't have plans to travel to Sapporo for the Ice Festival. I hear everyone in Japan goes to the Ice Festival.  It's too late to get flights and reservations, etc.  So you may just get more photos of knitting.  Sending you lots of love and wishing you all a 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  

It's a Big Deal

Fall in Japan is a big deal.  Just like many American's flock to the New England area to see the maples turn in October, the Japanese have their spots for Fall foliage viewing.  I think the consensus this year is that the colors aren't that vibrant.  It's been warm here for a lot longer than "normal", whatever that is any more.  I'll take the warmth, myself.  They definitely celebrate the turning of the leaves.  There are festivals and "illuminations" of the trees at night.  I haven't been able to see that yet, but I'm sure it's beautiful.  I have been back to Tokugawaen Garden recently and took some more photos.  

It was very tricky to get pictures without people in them.  The garden had a lot of activity that day. This mom was trying to get photos of her little girl in her kimono for a special occasion.  Last time I was there, a professional photographer was taking pictures of a beautiful young woman in her kimono, too.  I think it's a beautiful place for photographs. All the beautiful trees in this garden were Japanese Maples which are also a favorite in American gardens.  They are typically small trees with delicate, lacey leaves. If you do a Google search for Japanese maple you will see how many beautiful colors they come in and also find this wikipedia information.  They are wonderful in the typically sized American yard and provide a lot of unique interest. They are probably not happy in my Southern California area, however.  

Yesterday I went on a tour to see ginkgo trees in all their Fall glory.  A few dahlias and camellias joined in.  

These dahlias got a little help from editing to really shine. It was a gloomy day. Did you know that ginkgo trees have edible nuts? I had one and it seemed a cross between a nut and fruit to me. It had a pistachio nut type shell, but the actual nut was softer. If you've heard about the smell of ginkgo trees, you would have heard correctly. The area we went to was obviously an area where they "farm" the nuts as there were fields of trees. The smell was pretty awful. Evidently it is from the nuts. 

I found a couple of articles on ginkgo nuts, here and here.  From what I read, you need to handle them with gloves and eat them sparingly.  I hope you've enjoyed a little Fall color, especially if you already have snow on the ground!!