Time for a Pop-up Reunion, this time at Cousin David & Cousin-in-Law Tom's house. My family flew in from across the states. The family Matriarch, Aunt Arna, flew in from Phoenix, Arizona. Cousin Yvonne flew in from Michigan, her brother Eric flew up from Florida. The California contingency was Donna from Pasadena, Charlaine and Jonniann from San Diego. And I bopped over from Washington state.
Jonni greeting Arna at Denver Airport
The photos above is all of us in the gorgeous reunion tee-shirts David kindly produced for us. The tees beautifully display the Barbados flag with photos below of David's grandfather (our Great Uncle Cuthbert) and our grandmother (David's great-aunt Adele). Cuthbert and Adele were siblings, although they weren't raised together.
Cousin Donna (in white sweater below) brought us all a surprise - a box of family letters, post cards and photos other memorabilia that her mother, my Aunt Grace, had safely kept. Donna gave me the box, but knowing myself all too well, I asked David to take the box, because you don't hand family heirlooms to klutzes. Bonus, as Tom works in the genealogy dept of the a library, so he can properly scan the letters and then everyone can have their own digital copies of the hand written family treasures.
Arna spend this first afternoon reading through the letters and sharing her findings with us.
As always, we were well fed under David & Tom's watch, as they are incredible cooks! I suspect they knew Julia Child in her hey day (um.. decades).
Late afternoon, Tom ferried Aunt Arna, Cousin Yvonne and myself over to a nearby Pro Bass sporting goods store. Both Arna and I wanted to purchase a 'new to us' cannister of oxygen, called 'Boost'. The oxygen was in case Denver, the 'mile high' city made us feel any shortness of breath, in which case we would have our own little stash of O2. WOW was that store gigantic!
The entryway featured a herd of bison and antlers galore
And this is just the entryway! The lady left of center in the white tee shirt is Arna, racing for a shopping cart
Rainbow trout under a waterfall (mid-store!)
My favorite thing in the massive store was the huge tank (larger than my bedroom) where wild rainbow trout glided along.
We all did a little shopping, which included canisters of Boost. Not sure if we'd really need it, but it was relatively cheap at $8 a pop, and I do enjoy breathing.
When we got back to the house, Arna enjoyed playing various card games with Charlaine, Jonnianne, Donna, Yvonne and Eric. I'm a pill, and don't play cards at all but it was fun hearing the shouts and laughs as my Aunt and cousins played Crazy Eights and Gin Rummy, Sounded like fun - butts were kicked!
We are all excited as David & Tom rented a van for us all to drive up tomorrow to their ranch house near Hayden, Colorado.
My favorite quote, from my favorite book is as follows:
“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”
I'm not sad, and I haven't been debased of late, but I've always hankered to learn book binding. A YouTube video on book binding entered the scene and now pieces of sketching paper have been cut - nay, shredded - then sewn into 'signatures' which were bundled up, and hand stitched into a bare bones book. Acid-free glue was liberally applied to the book spine, then was used to adhere bits of netting and linen strips to secure the bundles of paper.
Fledgling book, glued, stitched and read for linings, end-papers and such.
These first 2 books have leather covers. The leather was purchased as 'scraps' more than 2 decades ago. Sometimes I buy stuff now, and figure out what to do with years later. So at last the leather scraps have found their calling. The two photos of the black book was the first book I completed. It has a strap with a key at the end, that holds the journal shut. The strap and key can be wrapped in any old arrangement, though my favorite is the one to the right, which looks rather like a star, and is my favorite. The journal has two ribbon markers each with a tiny key at its end.
Did not come up with the 'key in a slot' idea on my own. I got the ideas from stuff on line. However, the cover has a flap, and a pop through slot for the key, and that was my own idea.
The 'end pages' in books I've made thus far, are composed of Etsy purchased hand made paper.
Unfinished book with cabochon
So... what the hell is the point of making one's own leather 'empty books'? Uh... Just wanted to get the feel of how books were once-upon-a-time hand-made. The feel of making one's own book is AWE-SOME. So far I've completed 2, and am working on a third, shown on the left. Love the butter soft leather, and metal clasps were fun to rivet onto the leather, and look so cool.
This 3rd journal is not complete as yet. The cover isn't even glued to the book as yet. There is an experimental agate cabochon poking through cut out leather. It looks rough and I'm not at all sure what to do to finesse it a bit. Well that's why all this is experimental, yeah?
Next I hope to master leather tooling so my leather covers can be imprinted with pictures, borders and such. I'll get there eventually, or so I hope.
For about a year, I've been a member of a CE5 Washington group on Zoom. Our group is composed of like-minded folk, who curious about 'what's out there' and are actively seeking contact with all that is extraterrestrial phenomenon. Many, if not all of the group are also into new age enlightenment.
After a year of group meditation zoom meetings, the group, it was a total joy to meet many members of our collective in person, up front & oh so cool!
Our 'fearless leaders' are Garret and Maria, both of whom arranged the retreat and had it stuffed with loads of amazing activities. Over the course of the weekend we had daily guided meditation sessions, an energizing Qigong session barefoot in a grassy, tree lined venue. We got an incredible yoga session (who knew I could bend in the middle like that without snapping in two!) and even a past life regression group hypnosis.
Maria led us in a cocoa drinking ceremony, which made one's soul and tummy feel loved.
Garret presenting cocoa to all
Cool lady in cafeteria, reading an eerie tome
Lovely ambiance for meditation
Of course, the bit I was most looking forward to was the pair of evening sky watching. Each began with group meditation in a grassy, tree lined meadow. I was a bit perturbed with myself because I forgot to purchase and bring a 'zero gravity' chair which lets you sit or lie completely prone: the better to spot stars and UFOs. Also, the laser I brought to the meet was better suited for teasing kittens, than pointing out aerial phenomena. I shall do better next time.
Getting comfy before dark
Each session began with a group meditation session. The goal of the meditation is to invite extra terrestrials to be viewed - in any form that ET might prefer. Yes, of course it sounds bonkers, but most of us in the group have had some sort of UFO or other experience, and we're done with pretending such things do no exist. Most had green laser light sticks, used to point at constellations or pointing out satellites tracing their way across the velvet night sky. No orbs showed up this weekend (rats!) but we did get numerous 'blinkers'. Blinkers are brilliant lights, high up in the night sky, that pop on and off in, singularly or in groups. Don't know what they are but they are awe inspiring. It was arguable that the blinkers responded to our verbal calls for a light show.
My photo of Star Link (or Starling?)
Interesting, the first night of the sky watch, we were meditating and I heard some group members break the silence with giggles. I opened my eyes and followed the beam of someone's laser up to an astounding view, what looked to me to be a giant, rod shaped thing, lined with bright white lights.
I was just on the edge of wigging out, when I heard someone say 'Starling', and being a birder I thought, 'why are you commenting on a bird when a big-arse something is up in the sky!
Well, silly me! I hadn't ever heard about 'Star Link', strings of multiple low altitude sattellites. The satellites provide internet service to many countries. YIKES! When did technology advance so far I find myself still wallowing in the dark of ignorance? Anyway, I had a good laugh over my 'very nearly almost' having spotted a massive UFO.
Here is a short video of Starlink, as it passed overhead both of our star watch lookouts.
The weekend was a wonder. It was great to see the people I've been seeing on weekly meditation zooms for the past year. Yeah... next time I will have the right chair and laser, lol.
