Mini Adventure and Blueberries!

I haven't gone on a true solo adventure since May. I had the Energy Fair with my dad in June. And before that I had my last truly solo adventure. (Read about it here part 1, here part 2, and here part 3.) My first solo adventure was only two weeks before my second. (Read about that one here.) But as my summer started to get moving and pottery became my focus, my solo adventures came to an end as quickly as they started.

I've been so focused on making enough pottery for my shows and now the three shops/galleries I am in, that I have not taken any time for me. Then I decided to hike the Ice Age Trail and my solo time became about seeing how far I could walk each morning. I haven't given up on the Ice Age Trail, I'm still planning on going, I'm just so preoccupied with getting gear for that and my practice hike this fall, and with keeping my pottery supply up that I haven't been walking very much the last little while.

My new gear. I still have a lot more I'll need before I can even do my practice hike.

I did manage a sort of mini solo adventure. It wasn't really outside of my comfort zone except for the fact that it wasn't part of my normal daily routine. And that includes that normally I wouldn't have gone unless someone was going with me. Last Friday after making a run to Artistree Gallery with some work and to check my inventory, I drove right past home and headed to the high school to check out the Ladies of the Lake Quilt Guild Quilt Show. I didn't take any pictures of the quilts, but there were many I found beautiful, several that I went back and had to study the stitching up close a second time. The show only happens every three years, so basically I have three years to finish some quilts to enter for next time. (I asked, you don't have to be a member of the guild in order to enter.) I have a couple quilts started now, the problem is I really don't know how to quilt large pieces on a domestic machine, or do any of the fancy stitching I saw on many of the quilts. But I have three years right?

New fabric. I want to combine the blues with the green and cream to make a quilt.
The black is for a quilt I have started but needed some black to finish it.

I did buy myself some fabric, because I can't help myself, and maybe I'll use this fabric to practice my quilting before I try on my really big quilt I have started.

They are having a really good crop this year at the farm we always go to.

Then this weekend we had a family adventure. Every year we try to go up to Bayfield to pick blueberries. We freeze them and then eat them throughout the winter in yogurt, baked goods, smoothies and any other way we like. I may be dehydrating some of them for hiking food.

Three boxes stayed with my parents and me and one box went with my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew.

After picking we went into town to see the two stores we always stop at. No one was in the buying mood though, I had gotten my spending spree out at the quilt show and didn't feel the need to spend any more just yet. So we headed home, bagged up my brother and sister-in-law's berries and said goodbye to them, then my mom and I bagged up ours and got them in the freezer. I had some for supper and some more for breakfast. We're very excited to have blueberries this year, we missed the very short season last year and had to buy from the grocery store. The ones from the store aren't nearly as good as the ones we pick and freeze ourselves.

I'm hoping to have another solo adventure soon, I just don't know when I'll be able to fit one in with two shows this month and my big four day Renaissance Faire next month, I'm making pottery as much as I can handle. Then I'll be attending a Ren. Faire with my sister-in-law next month to see what the big ones are like and taking a practice hike with an experienced hiker in October. My time for solo adventures is a little non-existent right now. I'll see if I can squeeze one in sometime.