an ent knits

How did it get to be Friday again already? I guess that means it’s time for at least a quick review of Rhinebeck.

Over the whole weekend, but especially on the drive up, I kept noticing how much I was surrounded by my favorite colors and beautiful scenery. The crowds at the festival aside, one of my favorite things about Rhinebeck is getting out of the city. (I love living in a city, but I need not-city at least a few times a year.)

About two miles before the turnoff for the park where I stayed (with friends), I stopped at the parking area/overlook. This view kinda reminds me of all the hedgerow-divided fields in England.

Saturday morning, we took a back route from the park to the festival. Lovely as the Taconic is, the back roads were perhaps even more scenic, and much closer to my favorite kind of driving. (I was passenging, though. My favorite roads for driving do not lend themselves to free hands for even aimless photography.)

It cleared up by the time we left the fairground on Saturday afternoon. This tree is just outside the 4H gate.

And this is the view from the big parking lot just before the road through the campground to the cabin. I really want to go back there, maybe even at some other off-peak time, just to hang out at the park. (And that was quite a nice cabin, as state park cabins go. The electricity even stayed on all weekend!)

As usual at these things, I had a fantastic time despite several things not going precisely as I’d imagined. I got to see a lot of awesome people at least briefly, got to spend longer with a few of them, and got to see scenery that is very, very different from South Philly. Except for the niggling feelings of guilt for not working, I would’ve liked the weekend to have lasted several days longer.

The work is important, though–I’ll probably continue to post infrequently for the next few months, since much of my recent work-stress was building up to my committee meeting last week, at which I received permission to write my dissertation. Unless things go terribly wrong, I’ll be defending in late January.

Rhinebeck was fantastic, but it’ll take too long to post right now, so here’s an example of South Philly being pretty. Last night’s sunset, over the library.

I’ve been really busy and stressed lately, and either frustrated with and depressed by work or blocking it out and thinking of other stuff, but I am still here and managing okay. For certain values of “okay”, anyway.

My walk to work or home from the bus isn’t nearly as gardeny as it used to be. I do walk through one garden, but I’ve been doing an amazing job of only having the camera handy when the light is all wrong for the photos I’d otherwise like to take. So tonight’s chrysanthemum photo is an old one.

I would like to have some sort of nice, coherent thing to say other than “yes, I’m still here, really”, but I need to try to get some more work done tonight. Maybe I’ll get some good knitting photos when I finally finish the blossom chart on Echo Flowers.

Oh, wait! I have new knitting! (Not a great photo, though.)

It’s a bit bigger than that now, but it still reminds me of Vermont (in outline). It’s a Hedgerows Shawlette from my Field of Screams handspun, begun on Saturday to be concert-knitting for a concert we ended up not attending.

And, with that, it’s back to work for me.