{"id":254,"date":"2010-04-19T15:25:18","date_gmt":"2010-04-19T20:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgeonedev.com\/aprilsblog\/?p=254"},"modified":"2023-11-27T12:47:03","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T17:47:03","slug":"ashland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aprilponders.com\/?p=254","title":{"rendered":"Ashland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bennett-anna-pizza\"<\/a>So why did I return to Ashland for 4 years (2006-2010).\u00a0 I will start with what I accomplished so I remember to take something away from here.<\/p>\n

1. \u00a0 (Family) Got to grow up with grandchild, Bennett who is now 5 going on 5.5.<\/p>\n

2. \u00a0 (Family) Spent time and watched the incredible growth of daughter Anna who will graduate from SOU in June of 2010.\u00a0 Helped me grow a lot as well.<\/p>\n

2.5 \u00a0 Trev and Jennifer’s wedding. \u00a0 Trev, my oldest son, married Jennifer Martinz.\u00a0 They are now in 2010, expecting a baby, Lily. \u00a0 We will hear much more about her when I get back to Portland. \u00a0 Here are Trev and Jennifer:<\/p>\n

\"trev-and-jen-wedding\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 (Spinning) Took spinning classes at Websters in Ashland and Llamas and Llambs in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

4. \u00a0 (Weaving) Was given a 4 shaft floor loom and bought an 8 shaft table loom.\u00a0 Put together the 4 shaft floor loom out of a box with Anna’s husband’s help (Sean). \u00a0 There were a few left over bolts. \u00a0 Mostly worked. \u00a0 The table loom is very\u00a0 nice.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"printable\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"loom-4-harness\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I am reminded by my other writing that in the basement of this house, the image of Spider Woman was born. \u00a0 Thanks to Kevin Lewis who reminded me that on the other side of fear, lies our greatest power. \u00a0 Like in Batman Begins. \u00a0 His fear of bats, lead to Batman. \u00a0 Creepy in a way.<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0 (Weaving) Wove small pieces on both looms plus purchased a knitters loom (rigid heddle) and wove Christmas\u00a0 presents one year rather remarkably. \u00a0 The knitter’s loom takes regular yarn and ribbon so all kinds of textures are possible with a simple weave. Took a basic class at Websters and a more advanced one there as well. \u00a0 Haven’t used the more advanced info (yet).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

6. (Spinning) Bought a drop spindle but haven’t really used it. \u00a0 Now I have a Navajo spindle that is 36 inches long to begin to learn to make yarn for Navajo weaving. \u00a0 Reichard said that it takes several (from 4-9 years to make good yarn this way).<\/p>\n

7. (Knitting) I washed, carded, spun, and knit a hat for Anna out of Romney wool that is local to the owner of Webster’s yarn store in Ashland. My mother thought I was attracting moths but I didn’t attract a single one.<\/p>\n

\"homespun-hat\"<\/a><\/p>\n

7.5\u00a0 Attended my first Blacksheep Wool Gathering in Eugene. \u00a0 Thanks to Sally Wiley. \u00a0 We met there or I never would have gotten there by myself. \u00a0 Good intentions. \u00a0 The sock below is my first striping sock. \u00a0 I bought yarn and directions at the gathering. \u00a0 Reminds me to go this year.<\/p>\n

\"first-sock1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

8. \u00a0 (Fiber) Visited an alpaca farm by the beach and bought fiber that had been sheared into bags. \u00a0 The owner said that the off white fiber was out that black was in but she had few of the black alpacas. \u00a0 Some of the fiber was HUACAYA and some Suri. \u00a0 The owner suggested there would be a fiber based economy in the future. \u00a0 I suppose that is possible.<\/p>\n

9. (Knitting) I processed and carded some of the dark suri with the dark romney and started knitting another hat. \u00a0 Haven’t completed it.\u00c2\u00a0 Though I know where it is.<\/p>\n

10. (Knitting) I had another round with the knitting machine and knitted and felted a hat. \u00a0 Talked to Zelpha about upgrading but didn’t end up doing that. \u00a0 Would like to make a baby sweater before I leave Ashland but probably won’t on the knitting machine. \u00a0 Zelpha knits for Shakespeare. \u00a0 She is a true artist.<\/p>\n

11. \u00a0 (Navajo) Now I am coming full circle to work on Navajo weaving which has become a separate category in my blog. \u00a0 Love the community.<\/p>\n

12.\u00a0 (Sewing) I did weave and sew a blanket this month for Lily who will be born at the end of May. \u00a0 I used a hand held pin loom to weave the squares. \u00a0 Photos to follow.<\/p>\n

\"Weaving<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Lily's<\/a>
Lily’s quilt and Lily’s Mom.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

12.5 Weaving and sewing a blanket for Jackson:<\/p>\n

\"photo4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mixed<\/a><\/p>\n

\"photo5\"<\/a><\/p>\n

12.75 New weaving adventure with wider rigid heddle loom. \u00a0 32 inch width allows for a complete baby blanket and or shawl.<\/p>\n

\"photo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

13. (Sewing) As a seque, I made mbira bags for MBIRA.org to sell at 2008 Zimfest. \u00a0 They sold out. \u00a0 I have fiber to make more.\u00a0 Hopefully Marilyn Mohr and I can work on some this year (2010).<\/p>\n

\"zimfest-bags-2008-2\"<\/a>\"zimfest-bags-2008\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"mbira-bag-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

14.\u00a0 (Travel) I brought back fabric for bags from Zimbabwe 2009. \u00a0 In February 2009, I traveled (by plane and by myself) to Zimbabwe to study with mbira musicians and to visit Dzivaguru (event was organized at Bushbaby Lodge). \u00a0 I have a separate category in this blog for the trip which was phenomenal.<\/p>\n

\"cloth-from-zimbabwe\"<\/a><\/p>\n

15. \u00a0 (Mbira) Leading up to this trip, I went to an 8 day intensive in Berkeley to learn from Patience and Jenny who traveled for the first time from Zimbabwe. \u00a0 I met Rosalie during this camp. \u00a0 Patience and Rosalie remain two of my favorite people.<\/p>\n

16.\u00a0 (Mbira) Studied with Musekiwa in Eugene and Ashland and\u00a0 at Camp Pagungwa from Cosmas Magaya and Ambuya Dyoko.\u00a0 Both in 2008.<\/p>\n

\"camp-pagungwa-2008\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"camp-pagungwa-evening2008\"<\/a><\/p>\n

16.5 (Mbira) and Camp PaNyanza 2009 with Patience in Florence.<\/p>\n

\"kutsinhira-camp-2009\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Camp-PaNyanza-2009\"<\/a>
Camp-PaNyanza-2009<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

17. (Mbira) Performed two mbira benefit concerts, one for Ancient Ways in Ashland with Steve and Joseph, and one for Kutsinhira in Astoria with Joseph and Rosalie (Steve was recovering from open heart surgery.)<\/p>\n

\"three-mbira-players\"<\/a><\/p>\n

18. \u00a0 (Mbira) Playing mbira weekly with Steve so my mbira playing has been greatly improved while living in Ashland. \u00a0 (two trips to Berkeley for private lessons with Erica, one learning Marenje and the other Vasina Katura. both on gandanga).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

19. \u00a0 (Harp) Flirting with harp. \u00a0 Purchased nice dusty strings harp (see below). \u00a0 Took lessons and dan helped me add some sharpening levers. \u00a0 Licia, an mbira friend in Portland helped me connect with a harp sales person in Portland. \u00a0 When I return, I hope to continue harp lessons in some form.\u00a0 Hasn’t jelled for me yet.<\/p>\n

\"harp\"<\/a><\/p>\n

20. \u00a0 (Dogs) Bart passed away which was very sad as I was learning from him to live a dog’s life. \u00a0 Shumba and Emi are 8 months old now.\u00a0 A boy and a girl.\u00a0 Shumba loves mbira, Emi loves to snuggle. \u00a0 Both small miniature poodles.\u00a0 Well house broken. Very intelligent.\u00a0 Sleep on the bed with minor opinions and nosings.<\/p>\n

\"bart-resting\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"picture4192010-583\"<\/a><\/p>\n

21.\u00a0 (Family) Connected with the family tree. Have assembled all my dad’s files and my mom’s notebooks on family history.\u00a0 Dan had the file and sent me Family Tree Maker. \u00a0 Now I need to start entering where my dad left off.\u00a0 Not sure how much to fan out the families of husbands and wives of children and siblings. \u00a0 Will do what I can and add photos and info.<\/p>\n

22. \u00a0 (Reading) Reading everything I can. \u00a0 I read a lot of junk, thrillers, but also Navajo weaving and history, Shona history, accumulated the books from the reading list of Pacifica thinking I would start on my PhD. \u00a0 Still plan to but when, where? \u00a0 Read some of Richard Rohr.. though I am not a Catholic, he speaks to me.<\/p>\n

23. \u00a0 (Reiki) Visited Idaho twice. Once for a family constellation (my 5th) and once for a Master’s gathering with Paul and Susan.\u00a0 Gave up my membership in the Alliance waiting to see what evolves here.\u00a0 Interesting journey.<\/p>\n

24.\u00a0 (Travel) Visited Anne-Marie in New Mexico for a week of reiki and lessons with Joy.\u00a0 She really helped me to get the kutsinhira in the right place on Marenje and Chipembere. \u00a0 Visited Anne-Marie at a Eugene camp with Patience in 2009 at Florence. \u00a0 We talked about the water spirit.\u00a0 Seems to be a link and maybe our ancestors in Alsace Lorraine.<\/p>\n

25. (BBS TV) Watched every BBS mystery series on DVD from DJ’s video. \u00a0 Just found a new series on Netflix, Waking the Dead but it hasn’t all been converted to US format and probably won’t be.<\/p>\n

26. \u00a0 (Family) Watched as my folks continued a downhill spiral into different forms of dementia. \u00a0 Dad fell in 2009 and broke his hip. Hasn’t really been the same since and we had to have a 24 hour care person here to bring him home over a year ago. \u00a0 This was the most difficult part of the stay here. \u00a0 Hard to really grasp the difficulties that they have faced and how tired I became towards the time for me to go back to Portland. \u00a0 We have moved them to Salem where Tim is overseeing their care. \u00a0 Bless you Tim. So this is only the beginning. \u00a0 Lots has happened since I have been here. \u00a0 I just wanted to remember all of it. I will add some pictures when I can. \u00a0 Came for Bennett and Anna and I learned a life time of lessons while here.<\/p>\n

\"nap-time-at-home-at-last\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Over and out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So why did I return to Ashland for 4 years (2006-2010).\u00a0 I will start with what I accomplished so I remember to take something away from here. 1. \u00a0 (Family) Got to grow up with grandchild, Bennett who is now 5 going on 5.5. 2. \u00a0 (Family) Spent time and watched the incredible growth of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilponders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilponders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilponders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilponders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilponders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":104,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilponders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1374,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilponders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions\/1374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilponders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilponders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilponders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}