I’ve been home from Houston for four days and I’ve started packing for my next trip… time to catch up on my life?
Maybe the best way of telling you about my trip to Camp Saddlebrook in scenic Wesley Chapel is to show you some pictures…
Steve got up early to get me to the airport for my flight to Tampa…
Fellow teacher and Florida resident, Laura Bryant picked me up with my luggage after an uneventful flight.
We had lots of time so went to look at the large scale art installation in the car rental building…
Palimpset by Nick Cave in collaboration with Bob Faust.
Symbols, Systems and Proportions by Erwin Redl.
A missed turning on the highway took us to St. Pete’s for a waterside lunch.
This was going to be a hard gig? 🙂
Back to the airport to pick up Franklin Habit who was also teaching, and then north to the Saddlebrook Resort.
Scenic golf courses,
Nature reserves..,
After a day and a half of classes we took Sunday afternoon off and visited Laura Bryant’s warehouse/studio/dye works, home of Prism Yarns.
Some shopping happened,
So many decisions to make…
Time for some art?
The Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg had an interesting exhibit…
The Grasshopper and the Ant and Other Stories as told by Jennifer Angus,
You get the idea?
Next up dinner, and then back on the party bus.
I was up early enough to enjoy the sunrise on Monday morning.
At this point you might be forgiven to wondering what I was actually in Florida to do? I had checked “business trip” on my airline booking after all…
Camp Saddlebrook was a three day retreat run by the folks at STITCHES! I was there teaching an Exploration of Folk Art Stitching class, fifteen hours over the long weekend.
Classes were small. I had two students in mine. We got to know each other quite well as we learnt some embroidery stitches, tried beading on fabric, had a go at English Paper Piecing, and experimented with Kantha style stitching on silk.
Sherry and Michelle were still smiling after all that!
We went to see what had been going on in the other classrooms on the last afternoon.
Brioche stitching with JC Briar
Lace knitting with Franklin Habit,
Myra Wood‘s class were Knitting in New Directions to make unique wearables…
and Laura Bryant’s class was all about color for knitters,
and weavers.
You aren’t surprised that I missed taking pictures of my student’s work!
Tropical storm Nestor also made an appearance during the weekend but the sun came out on Tuesday morning.
Remember my goal of seeing an alligator?
I found a willing chauffeur by the golf shop (he was happy to take a break from cleaning carts for the golfers) and we set off on an adventure.
We found turtles sitting in the sun,
looked in likely places…
It took an hour and a quarter but our patience and persistence paid off…
Huge thanks to Alligator O’Malley…I think he’s found a new purpose in life?
Time to go home.
Goodbye to Tampa,
High above the clouds,
And back to Chicago, coming in over the edge of Lake Michigan.
Steve had gone to Dallas and left me the car in the long term parking lot. I retrieved it no problem and drove home… Steve’s flight was delayed… he found a friendly Uber driver for his return journey, much later that evening (actually very early Wednesday morning)
My Wednesday was spent doing the laundry and putting the last few things in my bags for Houston… no time for sitting around. The lists worked…
Houston pictures next time.
