Leighland

Rascal was not impressed and finally won. Luckily Shadow was much more obliging.

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I was going to try and post while I was on holiday in Washington DC but the days just seemed to fly by.
Washington was great - so many museums but too little time. Nicely set out city and very picturesque.
The conference at Winterthur in Wilmington was fantastic. Winterthur is very picturesque and country estatish (it was the Du Ponts home before becoming a museum) Interesting speakers for the first part of both days. In the afternoon on day one I did 2 talks. The first talk was needleworked items from Winterhturs collection choosen by the new curator of textiles. It's quite mind boggling to see items stitched so long along with such neat tiny stitches. The power went out part way through so we didn't get to see everything Linda had choosen but it was still great. The second talk was about embroidered caskets and research by Dr Tricia Wilson-Nguyen. Fascinating the things she hs discovered about their creation.
On the afternoon of day 2 I did a class with Wendy White which was a Tiny Turtle Thimble Case. Which was also fantastic. I was unsure what I would need to bring as the enrollment just said to bring standard class items. So all I took was a pair of embroidery scissors I didn't mind losing if I happened to leave them in my check on luggage and needles. Turned out I could have left both as the kit had needles and the teacher had scissors. I got a surprise when the other participants started taking out magnifiers and work lights. I didn't finsh it but the instructions Wendy gave are very full so I'm not worried I'll forget how to do it when I get home.
I'm planning on returning to Washington again and maybe incorporating a trip to Mt Vernon and Colonial Williamsburg and or Jamestown.
But another adventure began when the plane was about to taxi to the runway for departure from LAX. Yep, we got the notice about the Qantas grounding just at that point. 3 hours was spent sitting on the plane while they dealt with the planes that hadn't boarded yet. Staff were very good and passengers were in good spirits. Eventually we got out of the plane and assigned to a hotel. Next it was down to get our luggage and wait for the buses to transport us to the Marriott Levine in Orange County. Finally got a room and to bed at 6am.
I'm glad I had packed an extra 5 days worth of medication and had taken spare blood thinning injections with me so I didn't have to worry.
Still no word on when Qantas can fly us out so Mum booked me on a flight with another airline for Tuesday evening to Sydney. She's more worried than I am.
So in the meantime I'm enjoying the adventure - room, meal allowence, free internet - what more could you want. I even ventured down to the laudry and worked out how to wash & dry some stuff. Plus I got to watch the first episode of Grimm which I liked.

I've been playing this over and over, love the line the Joker gets.

While researching what to visit in Washington I came across the Darth Vader Gargoyle at the national Cathedral. Cool !

 

Testing again using Semagic again

Testing out Seagate posting.

I'm rather excited. I received confirmation today my registration for a needlework conference in the US was processed. The conference is to do with the Plimouth Plantation embroidered jacket project during the jackets stay at Winterthur in Delaware. http://www.winterthur.org/needlework
I'd already booked the time of work and had decided if I didn't get in I'd visit NZ. Sorry NZ, you'll have to wait until next year.
Now the fun part of organising flights and accommodation. Any suggestions or hints gratefully accepted.

Shadow is now happily one of the family. She's been spayed but had to be operated on twice as when she went back to get the stitches out the first time the Vet thought she had developed a hernia. Once he opened her up he discovered she had stretched the connective tissue. He fixed that and said she was to take it easy for a week. No mean feat with an energetic young cat.
Ozarc became very ill very quickly so is not with us anymore but sorta is. Her ashes are in a nice little jar making a pair on the kitchen stereo speakers with our old dog.
Rascal really did not approve of Shadow staying and didn't come downstairs for 8 weeks. For the last 2 weeks she has come down a couple of times when I'm downstairs. Shadow used to keep her distance from Rascals spitting, hissing and swiping but is getting braver and hissing and swiping in her general direction.
Fun, fun, fun.