It was so nice to unpack and settle in, knowing we'd be here for 6 nights. Karen and I got a third floor apartment in this beautiful building. We share two bedrooms, a living room and kitchen with Rae (from Kailua!) There are views of the countryside out of every window - it's picture perfect.  This morning the sheep came to graze in the pasture below us and you can hear their bells tinkling. Idyllic to say the least!

Traveling with a group for the first time has its ups and downs. Even though I love doing  research and planning, it is pretty great to just go with the flow, and being told when and where to be. The downside is, being told when and where to be. Luckily Cari knows we are competent humans and so if we want to ditch the tour or go off on our own to shop or eat we just find out when and where to meet everyone. And, with a set schedule, there are always places that you wish you had more time, but that gives me a reason to come back! There are also places we have gone that I either would never have thought of, or couldn't have accessed which have been really terrific.

We started our weaving workshop and it has been challenging for all. Lynne is a master at her craft and she does really intricate work. Can you believe that photo is stitched? She brought one of her pieces to share and we had to step up to it and use a magnifying glass to see the stitches. It's like she paints with thread and it's amazing! She caters to all levels though and she had me make three squares initially then some triangles which I happily did, thinking, woo hoo, I'm making me a pot holder! In and out! Ignorance is bliss!  Meanwhile all the people who actually knew what they were doing were still threading their looms, drawing an image to create or puzzling over thread colors. They all had something in mind and there was a big learning curve with this new kind of loom and Lynne's methods.

More weaving progress to come!