Women 4 Women Knitting 4 Peace

          These are some dolls made by women4women knitting4peace I look forward to seeing Susan McKee, founder, while at Chautauqua. I knitted with them last year and met some of the women who make the shawls and dolls for a Jewish-Muslim community in Israel called 'oasis of peace.'

Chautauqua Institute

         After the fun week traveling East to West in central New York, we will go to the Chautauqua Institute which is based on the arts, education, religion, and recreation.
    The Ethics of Leadership is the topic for our week at Chautauqua this year. Rev. James Forbes, Senior Minister Emeritus of Riverside Church in Manhattan, New York will be the minister each morning.Riverside is an interdenominational church of American Baptist and United Church of Christ.
     This is the write-up about the rest of the institute speakers:  

What constitutes leadership? When one is designated a “leader,” what are the particular obligations of leadership? How are these responsibilities expressed in ethical terms? Does ethical leadership imply social responsibility? Is leadership different age to age? In our annual Applied Ethics exploration, we will examine leadership from the points of view of business and politics, education and sports, from those who make headlines and from those who lead by following.

These are from last year.

 

On the Water

           Reservations have been made for a 2 hour journey on the Erie Canal. I'm so excited. It begins in Lockport, NY and goes through one of the locks. It will be great to experience this part of history.
         I have heard of "Maid of the Mist" for years and now I'm going to take a trip on her. It will be so much fun to see Niagara Falls from the water. I'm trying to figure out if I should take a spare pair of tennis shoes so I have a dry one to wear. We shall see!

 

Wonderful Houses and Museums

          The Buffalo, New York area has the 2nd largest number of  Frank Lloyd Wright structures. Chicago has the most. We are going to visit 2 of them. The Darwin Martin House Complex is a 15,000 sq. ft. house which includes his famous "Tree of Life" stained glass window and the "Graycliff" home looks Lake Erie.
          The Eastman house is in Rochester. There is a huge garden to explore and there are museum displays. Rich is looking forward to the "Colorama" display. These are 18' X 60' panoramic photos that were displayed in New York's Grand Central Terminal.

Vacation Plans

      Rich and I are planning a vacation! This is the 2nd summer in a row! It's amazing what you can afford to do when children are no long a part of the home budget. 
      The plan is to start in Schenectady, NY so Rich can visit his birth place. He wants to see his house and the church the family attended. We will, also, go to the Lake George area and visit the YMCA camp that Rich's dad directed.  

 

Happy Anniversary!

Rich and I have been married 35 years today!! It is so amazing to think we have been together so long. We were married in the 70's and my wedding flower was daisies. They are still my favorite flower. Our wedding pictures are in a "very safe place" and Rich's thrilled. You know, feeling like he looks like a dork. We went to dinner Saturday night at Saltgrass. We had steak and shrimp. It was great fun.

I got permission from Laura Nelkin at http://www.schaeferyarn.com/ to post the pictures of the pattern and yarn I referred to yesterday. My shrug is in a blue and purple variegated yarn and the one I'm making for Elizabeth Spain is called Rosa Parks. Aren't they luscious?

Home Again

Rich and I got home Saturday night VERY late. Because of a late plane we were rerouted to Chicago which put us back in Houston around 11:30 intead of 9:30. After getting home and unpacking and relaxing we got to sleep around 1 AM.

We had a great time in NY. We learned so much on the topic of the brain and we loved the Victorian era homes that were the norm in the Chautauqua complex.

I have more to share with you but will save that for another day.