For October, imagine this, I had another stitching retreat. Up and down the east coast I went. All I can say is that retirement is great!
So, let me share a downer with you with an ongoing issue we are having that is really getting on my last nerve. We had an addition added to our house about 22 years ago. This 16 x 20 room is where I spend almost all my indoor time. A sunroom with windows all around. It is where I stitch, where I watch TV, where my desk is, where I watch the seasons change, etc. We have had isolated tripping of the circuit breaker over the last 15 years, maybe once a year. Since August it has progressed to a continual tripping and escalated to now it cannot even be reset. I am on a first name basis with the electrician and all his staff. They have tested every outlet, tested every switch, tested every thing plugged in, tested the outside GFI’s, been under the house, tested the draw on the breaker, replaced the 20 amp breaker with a new 20 amp, replaced the new 20 amp with 2 new 10 amp breakers and are scratching their heads. Mr. Gloom and Doom, aka Mr. W, is freaking out that the whole house will need to be rewired (?). Chill Geoffrey! So for the last 4 weeks I have dealt with heavy duty extension cords running from the living room and dining room into my sunroom. Slowing the diagnosis has been all the rain and water in the crawl space. Why not just avoid this room….well this is where the TV is, the internet comes in and where I stitch…..so a work around with extension cords. I know that this is not the end of the world and almost everyone else has far worse issues but furniture pulled out and extension cords are starting to really get on my last nerve. Ok, venting done.
On the upbeat, I was at Hobby House the first week of October. You know, last fall when that retreat was posted and it was the only thing on my 2023 stitching calendar and then somehow, 2023 was filled with fun things to do. I have a foreboding for 2024……the stitching calendar already had at least a half dozen events on it! Yikes! All I can say to defend myself is the words of my elderly friend Roxanna….she says, “do it while you can because there will come a time when you can’t”. Besides, haters gonna hate regardless.
On the way to the Woodcliff in Fairport, we stopped at Corning Glass Museum in Corning NY.
We made our own glass pumpkins. It is filled entirely with my hot air!
Wednesday morning found us heading south from our hotel in Fairport to Canadaigua, NY. When visiting Hobby House in July we toured the Sonnenburg Mansion and Gardens. Spotting information in the Billiard Room about the samplers that used to hang there, we found they were now housed in the Ontario County Historical Society. We contacted the curator and arranged to make a visit on our next trip to the area. If want to do the same, you need to reach out two weeks prior to your visit to find out if a tour is possible.
This private tour did not disappoint. Wilma T., of the museum, was so accommodating and so very knowledgeable. She had pulled samplers from their archives and we spent a couple of hours gasping at the treasures. Stacy had reached out to Beth Seal of Summer House and Beth hit the road at 5 a.m. in order to be at the museum by 10 a.m. and join Stacy and I. It was an interesting spin to have Beth with us with her knowledge of samplers and things she could pick out that I, a mere lay person, would not.
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