One night when we were in Washington, DC, we decided we would go and play music to folks passing by. We have done this in New York before and it is so much fun!

The weather could have been better, it had rained so the benches at Dupont Circle were wet. Also it was already getting dark by the time we got there (darned autumn) and so it was crucial that we find a good spot where people could see we were there.

First we went to the circle itself (a park inside a large traffic circle) and played a while. The rain did not help us much, and the lighting was poor. We decided to find another spot.

We ended up posting ourselves just outside an area where people came up from the subway, on the sidewalk just outside the traffic circle. This was more opportune, as we got the folks coming up and even a few who were waiting for someone to meet them.

There was quite an assortment of listeners. We saw a few people dressed up for Halloween (this was the weekend before the holiday). We had two guys stop and listen to many songs, who had clearly been partying for quite a while before they found us. They had a great time, but I do wonder if they remembered the encounter the next day.

There was another guy who was waiting for his lady, who chatted with us for a while. We gave him a postcard with our website on it so he could go get some free downloadable music.

In the end, we got pretty cold playing instruments with bare fingers, and we headed back. We found a Japanese fusion restaurant and got hot tea and a little bit to eat before we went back to crash for the night. It was a pleasant experience!

Thanks to Brian’s sister, Jenny, for navigating us to this spot and taking the photographs. We had such a fun time!

We went to Washington DC, the last full weekend in October. I wanted to see the exhibit of Bolivian Textiles at the Textile Museum, and that exhibit was only scheduled through that Sunday.

Somehow while we were en-route, they changed things and extended the exhibit, I think through sometime in February. (You have time to go… consider a trip!) We were already on the road before we knew of the change, and it worked out fine.

(For those interested, I put up a Flickr slideshow/set, sixteen photos, of our backroad journey the first day. We drove from Michigan to Ohio to Pittsburgh, which was beautiful with autumn colors. Some Pittsburgh photos were on the way out on the second day.)

We stayed with Brian’s sister, Jenny, who has a condo apartment in the Adams-Morgan area. We walked and walked and walked, almost everywhere we went. I love cities, and walking gives me more of a chance to see the neighborhoods.

I have many photos and not enough time to write in detail today. I will just give little captions and let the photos speak. I’ll go into the Textile Museum and other visits, in another post.

Garden in front of what I think was an Embassy, very near Textile Museum. In Michigan we had already dealt with frost, so the flowers were especially welcome.

Neighborhood street, maybe near DuPont Circle.

Building unlike anything in Lansing, possibly residences.

Building with original art deco entry. Beautiful.

Rummage sale inside (Episcopal?) church. Jenny and I found some nice things, Brian had no luck. The volunteers were really nice, and the other shoppers were a blast. Much fun, an unplanned stop on the way to Bolivian textiles.

Front counter at teahouse/restaurant where we went twice. Great teas!

Jenny looking a bit like a flapper upstairs at the teahouse.

Toddler walking away from tiny puddle, in which he splashed for a while.

Kramerbooks, an independent bookstore, Dupont Circle area. This photo is for Deborah Robson/The Independent Stitch, who really loves independent bookstores.

Bikes owned by the City of DC, for a bike-share program. You buy a card to identify yourself for a very low price for a year, no additional fees if you ride a lot. You can pick up any bike at one of several places in the city. You can keep the bike up to a certain number of hours. You can drop off the bike at any of the bike stations, not just the one where you got it. I think this is really a cool idea!

OK, that is just too many photos for one post, anyway. There will be more photos and more narrative soon!

My internet friend Paz, of The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz, likes fire escape photos. She lives in New York City but has not always lived there. She takes great photos of her adopted city in another of her blogs, Paz’s New York Minute.

I took this photo of a fire escape in Washington DC a few weekends ago (this is the first mention of that trip on my blog, there will be more photos, I promise). I seem to never be caught up on my photos here. I guess maybe I should stop taking my camera with me wherever I go?

Brian and I (as The Fabulous Heftones) performed in Ann Arbor last Friday night. We had not played in that city since 2006 for some reason, and it was good to be back.

We played the Crazy Wisdom Teahouse which is upstairs of the Crazy Wisdom Bookstore. Our friend Sam Corbin arranged for us to share a show with him. (Thanks to Sayre for taking the photos of us performing.)

We went down early, took the back roads to see the colorful leaves. Then when we hit town, we went directly to Zingerman’s Deli. I love that place! They have all sorts of food I can eat, even with my huge list of allergies. They can find out the ingredients in anything if I ask, and they are really cheerful about it.

I had a wonderful salad and some great tea. Brian had a farmer hash (it has sweet potatoes and I really wanted some, it looked great), and some bread and coffee. All top notch quality. Not cheap, but worth every cent.

Then we went to Crazy Wisdom where they invited us to eat dinner. Whoops! We got more excellent tea, in any case.

When we got to the concert, it was great to see the place fill up. It is not a huge space (a turn of the century storefront on Main Street, with tin ceilings and the works) but there was standing room only for part of the show.

Some of our uke festival friends came out. Annette did a special emailing to her Ann Arbor-area ukulele friends.

And Wool & Chocolate Leeann came, too! We had never met in person. How fun that was.

Ann Arbor acts like a big city. It is not as big as Chicago but sometimes I get a similar street vibe, the good kind.

I took a few photos out of the 2nd story windows behind the stage area. I could not resist.

It was another concert where there were several knitters in the house. I love it when that happens!

We went to Lake City, Michigan this last weekend for a music gathering. On the way up, there were pockets of trees where the color was changing. I took a zillion photos out of the car window. These turned out the best of the bunch.

I do live in a beautiful state, whether the view includes colorful leaves or the expected green. I think that looking at photos like this could be theraputic… maybe even lower blood pressure or something profound like that. Lovely, don’t you agree?

One day in July, Brian and I went on a road trip to Ohio to sing for a wedding. On that day, we saw two beautiful old cars worth photographing. The first belonged to the groom:

A Cutlass 442 from the mid-70’s. I remember a guy at my high school who tried to impress me with showing up at my house in his brother’s 442. (I graduated in ‘76 so this was probably ‘75 or ‘76.)

I was not very big on cars at the time, and did not get how cool it was. Mind you, I drove a ‘75 red AMC Gremlin and I thought *that* was very cool. It was small for the time, and it was colorful and cute. The 442 was white, yawn!

That guy went on to date a friend of mine. The cars remain cool, and now I understand.

OK, back to the Sunday wedding drive. On the way back home, we stopped in Ann Arbor for dinner at Zingerman’s Deli. I met reader Tessie who works there. She came up to me while I was in line for a cup of tea, and said “I know you but you don’t know me.” What a cool way to say hello! She totally made my day.

And on the way out of Zingerman’s, we passed by this lovely little machine:

It had wood in the dash, a lovely little zooming gizmo on wheels. My mom had a Chevy Corvair with similar curves in the back, probably a few years later than this and not at all as fancy. Why is it I remember things that are now considered classic? I’m still merely 49 years old, for a few more months.

In any case, the pretty cars did make the day more fun. The relationship stuff was better than that, between the wedding reception where we were much appreciated, and the simple act of meeting Tessie who reads this column. What a great day it was!

Rae and I both had classes cancel for Saturday. We have made the decision to drive down to the Chicago Area for one day, to Stitches Midwest (knitting/fiber-related conference). We made no plans ahead of time so we will go to the market (no time for classes). Our friend/colleague Sarah Peasley is teaching there, we may or may not see her but will look out for her.

A busload of folks planned ahead to go from Lansing, and I think it may be the same day we go (but we are not early birds so they are going first). Of course both Rae and I have been in the knitting business long enough to have friends from all over the country. We will be able to see a few folks we don’t see anywhere else but trade shows.

I hope to get some Indian food somewhere in/near Chicago. I know where to find Devon Avenue which is a sure bet, but it’s not near where the show is. I hope someone will give me a lead on something good that is closer.

The drive is a long haul, somewhere between 4 to 5 hours to that particular location. When I think Chicago, I think less than 4 but this is more. I do love to drive, and I really love Rae’s company. We will take turns driving and knitting, and it will be very good. I am good driving in city traffic so I’ll do that part, and the rest we will play by ear.

I’m excited. Time to sleep, or at least try to sleep. It will be very soon when the alarm goes off!

Rae and I took Sunday last week and spent the day together at Michigan Fiberfest, in Allegan Michigan. It is no surprise that we had a good time, and no surprise that when I bought things they were the color Turquoise. Well, except for the wood item, that is. (Photo below is a garden outside the fence at Allegan County Fairgrounds, visible from the parking lot. Yes, gardens are an artform!)

Here you see what I came home with. At the left of the photo is roving/combed loose wool fibers. I swore I wouldn’t buy more this year, since I havent been spinning much this year. However, Rae is encouraging me to bring my spinning wheel to her shop for slow times and knit-in times. This fiber was so perfect (I love turquoise with just a hint of green in it), and so soft yet shiny, I gave in.
It’s a blend of alpaca, merino and tussah silk. I would love wristwarmers of this, but will have much more fiber than that requires. It’s from Yarn Hollow. That’s my friend Rita from the Grand Rapids area, we met face to face last year at Allegan but she knew me from this blog. Since then we have connected quite a few times.

The two matching skeins are fingering/sockweight yarn from Ellen’s Half-Pint Farm. I love her stuff, I make a point each year to collect something from her. Ellen and her sisters are wonderful folks and the products are consistently lovely.

This particular yarn is 50% wool and 50% bamboo fiber, which is fluffy and shiny and baby-soft. I am dreaming of a tank top or short tee. At 475 yards per 4oz skein, I can probably get any number of styles out of these. I love knitted garments made of thinner yarns, and this will be wonderful next to the skin.

The last item is a hand-turned walnut darning egg by Knitting Notions. It is interesting to me that I did not set out to do this, but the three people I bought from this year I also bought from last year. Last year I was not as stuck on Turquoise and I got wild multicolored sockyarn from Rita and a purplish-magenta handpainted sockyarn from Knitting Notions. And sockyarn (including turquoise) from Ellen.

It was a more relaxed fiberfest than I’ve had in previous years. I had no appointments with anyone, no classes to teach, no obligations. We got there when we got there, we wandered around and said hello to the folks we knew, and then we left when it was good and done.

After we left, we decided to try and find food in Allegan before heading home. Rae and I tend to eat very different foods at home, but I remembered a restaurant from the three years I taught at this festival where I thought we both could find something we would like.

Allegan has rivers and bridges and hills, and the streets meander rather than sit in a grid as in Lansing. That is a bit of a challenge for a citygrrl behind the wheel! Amazingly, I was able to find my way to the place and it was still in business.

The Village Inn reminds me of places I went as a kid, maybe around 1970 or so. It has a very clear small town friendly flavor. A young man probably in high school was our very capable waiter.

The salad bar had pretty good choices for toppings on the iceberg lettuce salad mix. I had hard boiled egg and onion and black olives and carrots, which was a really satisfying meal for someone who normally has to pick and choose because of food sensitivities.

As a side story… I somehow dropped my cell phone (which I did not use all day) in the parking lot of the Village Inn. I realized it was missing that night when I got home. On Monday I started looking at replacement phones, and in the late afternoon I got a phone call from the restaurant. A customer had found it but the inside screen was broken.

The man I talked to at Village Inn sent me my phone back in the mail, and I proceeded to order a new phone. The old phone and the new one arrived on the same day (Thursday). Verizon was able to transfer over my phone list even though it was impossible to see the menus, and I was off and running around 5:30pm on Thursday after having lost the phone around the same time of day on Sunday. It could have been much worse. Thanks to Village Inn!!!

Rae and I will be going to Michigan Fiber Festival (AKA Allegan) Sunday all day. It should be fun and social and sensory overload. I am looking forward to it.

If you see me, do say hello!

A week ago Sunday, Brian and I were making our way home from Dulcimer fest via a family gathering near West Branch, Michigan. It’s a beautiful part of the state, much north of us and a bit east from the Dulcimer Fest but a worthy side trip on the way home.

Brian has a cousin who now lives in Ireland. She was back in Michigan so the family pulled together a group. This family is big. You can not believe the amount of chicken they grilled, corn on the cob they prepared, the works. They had a big house, a barn, a canopy over the food, a bonfire and a huge area with lots of chairs, a badminton court, all sorts of places to hang out with bunches of other people.

When we got there it was sunny and lovely. I took photos of the lake from up on the plateau where the house stands. We planned to camp in our tent on the grounds that night. And then the most unusual summer storm blew up out of nowhere. There was no thunder or lightning, but it poured buckets for what seemed like forever.

When the downpour came, we moved as many of the chairs as we could under the 10×10 canopy with the food and a few tables. I sat in a folding chair and watched the children enjoy the downpour. In the distance I saw the teenagers playing a new sort of badminton (huge “birdie” with a ball the size of a tennis ball, and stronger rackets to handle that side. They were mostly in swimsuits anyway (the site was on a lake) so they just kept on playing when the water hit.

But the ones to watch were the little ones. There were a good number of kids too young to go to school, and they were the most fun of all. At first a little girl maybe 6 years old ran out into the rain, face raised, arms out, almost flying in celebration of it all. Then a number of other kids joined in.

It did not take long for the ground to become waterlogged. I was wearing a lightweight cotton skirt over a pair of leggings. It turned out my feet were underwater in a puddle below my chair, and my skirt became waterlogged. I shed the skirt (thank goodness for the leggings) and took photos of the kids.

The younger ones found a low point in the ground where they ended up with a natural wading pool. There was much splashing and later someone found a tiny slide which they lined up next to this pool. At one point two of the littlest boys just shed their clothing entirely, I’m sure that was more comfortable than soggy cotton clothing.

The rain just kept on coming, so thick you could barely see out of the tent. At times the rain hit the canopy above me with such force that tiny water vapor bits came down on us. I had to clean off the lens of my camera several times.

When the rain finally subsided, we decided to give up on the camping idea. We drove home that night, getting home around midnight. It was actually lovely to sleep in our own bed again.

This is the sort of thing nobody will forget. Every person at this event will keep this one in the memory banks as “remember that time when…”

In a small town named Evart, Michigan, USA every year, acoustic music lovers descend upon the Otsego county fairgrounds for over a week. There is an official event which happens from Thursday through Sunday, but people come the weekend before and stay through early the next week because they have so much fun.

Neither Brian nor I play either type of dulcimer (this festival started because of hammered dulcimer enthusiasts). However, Brian has been teaching basic ukulele workshops for the festival for maybe a half dozen years now. I’ve helped out for 3 years, but he did it alone before that. Also our friend, Bruce Evans, always shows up at Brian’s workshops. He helps us out without even being asked.

We were in Evart this year the longest time yet. I used to come up for one day, then one overnight. This year I dove in and went up from Wednesday night to Saturday noon. We went to a family gathering on Saturday or we would have stayed in Evart through Sunday.

It is getting to be a wonderful reunion to go up there now. I know enough people that it feels like “old home week” in many ways. Ukulele is starting to really take off all over the western world right now, and it is starting to show at this festival. Instrument vendors often sell out of ukuleles and the unofficial Friday night ukulele jam session gets bigger each year.

This year we signed up to play on the main stage on Thursday night. It was rainy and hot, and we had a tuxedo and gown in the car just trying to wrinkle and get messed up, so we just dove in and played right away. We knew we were leaving Saturday and there are so many acts hoping to play on Friday nights that we did Thursday… and had a wonderful time.

The crowd at Dulcimer Fest is so appreciative of our music! Not only do they like the general genre (Tin Pan Alley, mostly love songs and novelty numbers from the 1920s) but they listen to what we are doing in a focused way. Three times during our 20 minute set we had the audience clapping in the middle of the song. That touches me in a soft spot in my heart, it is so wonderful to be that appreciated.

When off stage, we connect with friends, jam with them, jam as a duo, and eat pie. Well, Brian eats pie anyway. The Lions club of Evart has the best homemade pies ever. You have choice after choice and all of them are good. Brian likes pie for breakfast sometimes, and a few snacks over the course of the week as well.

He loves a good crust and I do not make crust. Because of food allergies, I have to make a lot of foods from scratch to just get foods that nurture me and fill me. I am not fond of any cooking, though baking I like a little better.

But the mess that making crust requires is just not acceptable to me, and so I either buy frozen spelt crusts at the health food store or I make crumbles with oatmeal. (I like oatmeal better than crust, anyway.) So the pies at Evart are a special feature of the week. We enjoy the folks working the booth, as well, and I get much iced tea when I’m there as well.

I guess I could say that they also have home cooked dinners such as meatloaf. For us, fruit pie overshadows mere dinner, I guess. (Well, I can’t eat the pie but it does make me very happy that it’s there.)

I made sure to get to Karol Evans’ workshop on pronouncing Hawaiian words. With all the interest in ukulele (which is a Hawaiian instrument though used for many music types, not just Hawaiian music), there was a nice crowd at their event. At the end, Karol did a hula for us with Bruce playing ukulele and singing “Lovely Hula Hands.” She looked beautiful as ever.

Friday night once more we attended a uke jam session hosted by our friends in the Uke ‘n Sing ukulele club from the southeast corner of Michigan. A big highlight of this event for me each year, is hearing Gil Ogawa perform the Hawaiian War Chant (which was based on a late 1800’s love song, but had English words added in 1936). Gil is not just a musician, he is fully a performer and a delight to watch and hear. I loved that! (He is so expressive when singing it is hard to get a photo… this was just after he finished one or another of his songs.)

Photos: 1-3) stage acts including The Fabulous Heftones (me and Brian), Uke ‘n Sing, and a trio who met at the festival… middle guy on banjo is Sam, my knitter A’s big brother. 4-5) the first workshop in the poultry barn (it’s a fairgrounds) which was more than a bit crowded but the acoustics were good with all those big metal boxes somehow. 6) later Friday afternoon workshop in open-walled pavilion, which was followed by a ukulele jam session where we numbered over 90 participants. 7) Two views of the Lions’ booth where spectacular pie can be found. 8 ) Bruce and Karol Evans at the end of the Hawaiian pronounciation workshop.9) Gil Ogawa with guest singer Nancy Penny (thank you, Bruce Evans, for reminding me of her name), at Friday night uke jam.

At Dulcimer Festival last weekend, I spotted these three very stylish traveling quarters. Two are old GMC vehicles, and one is a new thing I had never seen before. All look just artful and lovely to my eyes.

I’ve finally really come to terms with the fact that I really do care what things look like. I drove an ugly 1985 navy blue VW Golf for 250,000 miles and I adored that car, but I did in fact embellish it by painting three stars on the back side hatch. I love my ‘98 New Beetle (not that new anymore, at 134,000 miles), though, and she is SO pretty!

Looking at these “camping boxes” really made my eyes smile. So pretty! I’d never really noticed the GMC camping vehicles before, but I guess they were planning to have a gathering of about 30 of them just outside the area where we stayed.

Too cool. Very ColorJoy. Even cooler than shiny Airstream trailers, perhaps!

We had such a great time at Blissfest near Cross Village in northern lower Michigan a few weekends back. We knew a lot of the musicians, many had Lansing connections and are in our circle of acquaintances. It was wonderful to hear them play.

I took a zillion photos. If I were to write all details about the event, I’d never finish writing. I can touch on a few photos, anyway.

It’s a pretty intense weekend. There’s a sort of anti-dress-code way of dressing, lots of tie dye and batik, lots of color. The event is a weekend full of sensory overload… colors, sounds, foods, people. Intense in all the good ways, I’d say.

The first photo above was Rachael Davis and Dominic John (Shout Sister Shout) on Saturday. These two have a lovely baby almost a year old, and are really great people to hang around with, when they have time to hang out.

There is also a full-group shot of Shout Sister Shout on Sunday, with guest guitarist Ray Kamalay (2nd to right). Ray was SO into this piece, he has been a pro musician for decades and he’s still so excited to play one more song, it’s invigorating. His favorite music overlaps the repertoire of this band, he was a perfect guest. I loved being in the audience!

Next, Detour (bluegrass). The banjo player is Kevin. Brian has known Kevin for a long time.

This is Rusty Blaides. I know Joe Wilson (also from Steppin’ in It) on pedal steel guitar center-left, and Tamineh Gueramy (also in a zillion bands… once in a fave of mine, The Weepers), center-right on fiddle. These guys really kick out the danceable tunes, I was sorry we got there (to the festival itself) just in time for their last 2 songs.

Next, some dancers just outside this small stage. Lots of dancing is part of Blissfest, and I always hope for great photos. This isn’t great but they do look like they are dancing, anyway.

This band’s name I don’t recall. at left here is Joel Mabus, and another member of the band is Ray Kamalay. These guys have been professional musicians about forever it seems… they were already old pros in Lansing before I ever hit the scene. Talented guys, who just really enjoy playing music. Together, they are unbeatable. The guy in the black shirt, center, was a guest (he’s from the band Detour, above).

A view of some camping in the wooded area on Sunday. Some folks had already packed and gone home by this time. This is a lovely area and we camped to the left of the photo.

A stick construction/gate which opens up to the artist/craft booth area. There are a number of stick gates around the festival but I’m thinking this is the grandest of them all.

A magnificent salad made just for me, with ingredients just picked that morning. This food vendor is incredible, mostly or entirely organic, and more than accommodating. I found several things to eat there over the weekend, a true miracle with the number of food restrictions I have. This salad was WONDERFUL.

Susan Fawcett of Fox on a Hill. She is a dynamo, a wonderful talent who lives in Petoskey. The instrument she’s holding has a small drum-like item at the bottom of a single string which is bowed like a fiddle. She was singing in Spanish with it, I think it’s from somewhere in Latin America but I did not catch the details. It sounded like a woodwind instrument, it was beautiful to hear. We just chanced on her demo and I’m so glad we did.

A night concert at the smaller stage, with Earthwork Music musicians (including Susan above) and the guy at front in the hat is Seth Bernard, the strong but gentle leader of the whole “clan.”

I only wish I could have bottled the energy and the music for you all. This crew is full of hot young musicians from northern lower michigan, incredible talents.

Seth and “Daisy” May Erlewine won 4th place in a national young songwriter/performer contest that Garrison Keillor had a year or two back.Just the two of them. The three bands before them were bands, not duets, I’m told.

They are that good. And their friends are equally talented and entertaining. Prime music. I was so happy to be there. The next day Brian and I both woke up singing music from this concert. Incredible.

Also notice the intent crowd members. Brian took the photos of the backstage and of the crowd.

It was SO much fun. I’d say it was worth sleeping in a tent.

…there was writing in the sand with a stick. These photos were taken at the Evart Dulcimer (Acoustic music) funfest last week. I think one dot says “Emily.” Perhaps another says “Mom?”