Home Sweet Home

I’m home again, my lovely knitty friends…and what an adventure we’ve had. 400km total on our bikes (thats about 250 miles, for my American friends), two provinces, four knitting projects and a good time had by all. This is of course, assuming that you loosely define “a good time”. I know a lot of people think that this is an odd family vacation to subject children to…but it is this bloggers opinion that strong women do not happen by accident, and that biking hundreds of kilometres will leave my daughters with the belief that they can do anything and that the world of possibility stretches out far in front of them. They are some of the only people in Canada (or the world) who can now say that they have ridden the whole distance (over a couple of years) from Niagara Falls to Montreal, as children. That’s something. That’s tough. I really believe that while they might not know it, these bike trips leave my daughters believing that they are capable of difficult, incredible things. That the next time a hard thing turns up in their lives they will turn to face it and say “Wow. That looks hard, but I’m good at hard things.” I suppose it’s also possible that I’m just torturing them, but when I’m out in the middle of nowhere on a bike, I really need to believe that I’m right on this one.

I’ll post more about the whole thing over then next few days, but for now, a little blog business.

Many thanks to our Auntie Rams, who did a great job of Blog-sitting while I was away. I will, following this spectacular performance on her part, resume the intense pressure I have been putting on her to get her own blog. The world needs more Rams.

Unplugged from the world for the last while, I was totally unaware of the tragedy in the Gulf. My thoughts are with those effected, and I’d urge all of you to give to the organization of your choice to help these folks get through what is a terrible, terrible time for them. Though there is very little to be grateful for in a time like this, we can at least be thankful that this has happened in the richest country in the world, as well prepared to help each other as any country could be, and peopled with generous, resourceful humans who look out for each other. Susan and Margene have jointly set up an effort on their blogs to raise funds for the Red Cross, and should that not be your cup of tea, Angela has a list of charities who know how to help on her blog.

In more trivial news, nobody guessed my two “stars” right, though I did like the ideas. Those of you who thought that I would pick Canadians, those of you who thought I would pick knitters, those clever ones among you who thought I would choose knitterly named stars, like “The Spinners” or “Norma Shearer”…all clever. But all wrong. (Though I do feel sort of silly for not being more clever about it myself.)

My two stars were…

George

Gracie

Surprised?


..and chosen randomly from among all the participants, is Carole! Send me your address Carole, and I’ll mail the mug pronto.

I’m off to wait for the letter carrier. Today is (other than trying to wash the smell of campfires, the sweat of 400k and the grime of 2 provinces out of our clothes, which is really enough excitement all in itself.) a very big day for me. Do you think sitting on the front steps is too obvious?