What I Did on the Plane

Even in first class, it's a pain to get up and get your stitching out of the overhead bin, so I had this design in my purse. It's old and from Shepherd's Bush. The title is Summer Song Sampler. I'm almost done with it and just need to finish the area below the writing and then do the three rows of border. It went really quickly. Now to finish it.

Framed and Ready

For Christmas. My husband framed the Joyeux Noel I did earlier this year. The framing is excellent - he used cherry wood he foraged from a cabinet shop - and I really like it, except it shows up why you don't do traveling threads. There were some popcorn stitches in the middle that I didn't do individually. My mistake now because you can see them through the fabric. I'll be making another one of these for a gift, but I'll make sure and tie off each one of those stitches this time.

Vienna Finds

I told y'all last week about Petit Point, the shop I found in Vienna, and the pretty box I bought there. This is the rest of what I got - old berlinwork patterns - five of them! This top one she threw in free for me. It's of the Sandman sprinkling sand to make kids go to sleep. I like it.

This one is a simple floral circle. It should be a quick stitch when I get around to doing it. None of the patterns were over ten euros; most of them were seven. I had never seen old ones like these preserved and well used. They're backed with very thick pressed cardboard.

Two more floral circles. I'm thinking of framing one or two of these for my loom room.

My husband likes the Tyrolean dancers one best. I think it'd be darling on a purse front.

Done In Time

I'm back on track with this, and done four days ahead of schedule! Go me! Now if only I could keep up with my other projects as well. You can see it's getting rather leafy. On to part eight on Tuesday.

Another Blue Done

I got yet another blue done - there are five of them, so three done isn't bad. I'm still catching up on things here at home, which means stitching is still sloooow. Puppy keeps getting delayed by the airline - they keep bumping her off the cargo list at the last minute, notifying my companion the evening before he's supposed to drop her off at six in the morning. This has happened -twice- so far. Next scheduled date is Sunday. We'll wait and see.

Tux the Gardener

See the pretty bouquet and vase my husband gave me as a homecoming present. See the self-appointed gardener, Tux. He believes flowers are not to be too bushy, so he trims everything with his teeth. This has been a problem for the wisteria growing over the back porch, but he insists. Anyway, I love the hollyhocks, roses and irises. It's a really pretty piece, and the shells underneath remind me of my recent visit to the Adriatic.

Virpazar

After we left Split, we had to drive home. Considering the roads in Montenegro's interior, it definitely wasn't going to be a one day trip - cutting through Serbia was out of the question. So we decided to spend the night in Podgarica. Big mistake. Podgarica, Montenegro's capital, is permanently locked into communist flashback. No hotel that we could find. The place is depressing. It was getting late and we'd already driven quite a ways, so we pulled out the Lonely Planet to find a place to stay. The result: going back over Lake Skadar to Virpazar and entering (weird music here) The Hippie Zone.

Virpazar is right next to the lake, a national park that is a wetlands preservation project. Most of Virpazar's meager income is the result of tourists going out on the lake. This place is at least as poor as many places in Kosovo. It was built on a medieval fort, and most of the fort is incorporated into people's houses. For example, these stairs lead up to a decrepit place that's still used - it has a dog and sheep in the yard and some flowers, but no electricity, no running water, and so on.

This is across the street from those stairs. You can see these houses were built shabbily also on fortifications. In the valley below, there's a gypsy camp that's even more pathetic than the houses. Total population of Virpazar can't be more than a couple of thousand people. It did have one advantage over the town on the other side of the lake - no huge dump right next to the road.

And now, why I call this The Hippie Zone. The place we stayed was Hotel Pelikan, founded in the Sixties and still stuck there. We ate at the restaurant, which is more what the place is than a hotel (it has four rooms, which are basically bedrooms in the house: ours was across from the family's living room. It was small, spider-filled, and the bathroom floor was always wet from the shower overflow. We were desperate, though. The next nearest place on the way home was through all those tunnels and such, and a ski resort that might not even be open in the summer. So stuck we were.

We took a walk around the town (taking all of ten minutes to do so), and went to the restaurant for dinner. It was at least as much of an experience as the room. i was given a wilted bouquet of local wildflowers when we sat down to dinner. With the exception of the frozen mixed veg, it was obvious everything was from the local area. Our first course was mulberries. I don't think I've -ever- been served mulberries before. There was a cold fried dough, some honey, and olives - uncured, new olives. The veal was from an old milch cow from its toughness, but at least it was thoroughly cooked. Someone associated with the place came by with fresh water chestnuts he pressed us to try. By the end of the meal, we had somehow acquired a basil plant on top of that. The only other customers were a foursome of French caravaners who decided to eat out instead of cooking. All in all ... weird and definitely an imitation of an acid trip.