Wednesday 10 June 2009

A Whirlwind of Activity

Morning sky

Two weeks ago, I had a list of projects that had been simmering on the back burner for awhile (like rebuilding spirit level and a residency application) and new projects that had tight deadlines (like knitting the sample for one class, and retooling handouts for both classes, that I'm teaching at Olds College's Fibre Week).

Well, spirit level is done (pictures on Flickr sometime next week, I hope), the application is ready to email, the sample is knit, and most of the writing on the handouts is done, although as a professional editor, I continue to tinker with them.

It's just so satisfying to get those things off, although I'm now faced with yet another list: the handout participants will get at a wine- and cheese-tasting I'm leading June 25 is laid out, but needs some fleshing-out, for starters.

Then, I've discovered another book-related competition/show to enter that looks pretty interesting. The good news is that I've got two relevant ideas to enter -- the "bad" news is the one I think would be the best is going to require a lot of model-building to get right (it's a structure I've never built before, although I've found some brilliant instructions), and the submission deadline is the end of August.

All of this means that the last thing I need right now is something to distract me from my purpose(s) at hand. Of course, I've found one: I went fly-fishing at the end of May and, pun intended, I'm hooked.

It wasn't enough to learn how to tie flies (for last year's How to Make A Peacock Fly) -- now I'm actually going to get them wet. Who knew?

At any rate, the photo at the top of this post is from that trip: those amazing clouds were the prelude to a fabulous day (we caught-and-released a lovely rainbow trout) floating down the Bow River south of the city. Additional pictures of our adventure can be found here.

Below is a shot from our most recent Sunday afternoon stroll at a constructed wetland that was visited by the resident beaver population earlier in the day.

Obviously a tasty and tidy takedown.

Beaver buffet

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