Montana & Home

The last leg of our journey was with Sammi & Mark- we stayed at their place back 2005 when Sammi & Mark hosted the Ya Ya gathering that year-no qualms about the MOTH here - the beer flowed freely & the politics were the same!

Montana is a beautiful place-the skies are big & blue, the people friendly & plenty to see & do.

By the time we reached Sammi & Mark's we were still reeling from the whirlwind tour with Vi & Bruce so were just looking to catch up with old friends & have a relaxing time.

On our last trip here we toured through Yellowstone & Cody- did the Custer's Last Stand out at Harden & managed to see lots of the touristy things-this visit was a catchup with friends.

We were going to go onto Bryce canyon after leaving Montana but MOTH had had enough of being on the road, there were things to sort out at home & visitors, arriving early from Malaysia. The extra 4 days didn't matter-I am glad to be home & to be able to recover from the jet lag before returning to work.

Sammi & I did a shop hop of fabric stores-I can't say my resolve was that strong- purchased patterns, chalkboard fabric to make our GS a portable drawing mat, & fabric for a quilt (yes, another one) & yarn- more yarn.....lots of it! (well, it wasn't fabric!)

I managed to pull my knitting book out while visiting & work out the cast on for the toe up sock-easy peasy lemon squeezy when I managed to apply it correctly-I even managed to knit one whole sock- the rest of the yarn in that colour had been shipped home in a box, luckily I did have more yarn to keep me busy!

Cast on a second sock in purple & knitted like a mad women possessed & got to the ankle before having to pack it away for the trip home- I am not attempting to travel with short needles again.(see previous blog on having them confiscated)

So, 2 new techniques learnt- toe up & on 2 circular needles-love the fact that there is only to yarn ends to darn in at the end & no grafting!

I must say that after seeing Sammi's stash of yarns & fabric-I think I'm just a novice at this stash building- I thought I had a lot- it would seem mine is much smaller than what Sammi calls 'stash'! Now I can tell MOTH that all my stash is nothing in compared to what my friends have!LOL

Another thing I discovered was that if you don't take pictures of the roses first thing in the morning- the sun burns them by day's end- literally cooks them! Sammi told me when they were blooming as she knows I like to do flower pics!

We did do a bit of driving around Billings to take some pictures- they had some spectacular sunsets while we were there....the week passed very quickly & off we went... to return home to Sydney-exhausted & in need of a holiday to recover.

What wonderful friends I have made through the Internet & even better that we can visit them- now to convince them to come to visit us! It's something about that 13 hour flight that scares them off...