City Views, Country Dreams

Good evening from New York.

The humidity is bearable, as is the temperature. We were able to sell quite a few wool and cashmere sweaters at the shop today. These are strange times.

I think that the incredibly wonderful Cowgirl has asked me to come up with some random thoughts. Random thoughts just run through my mind all the time. Let me choose a sampling.

1. I prefer pasta to rice for my carbohydrates ... but there is nothing like a baked potato.

2. I can live along with a lot of dust at home, but need to have my workplace clean, clean clean.

3. I wish that I had a sister, but have found many surrogate sisters though friendship.

4. The last time I was in a church for a service was at my father's memorial service, some years ago.

5. I hold out hope to some day have a garden, and a puppy ... Milla ... that one is for you!

6. It really bothers me that I learned Latin, French and Russian, and now feel each of them drifting from my mind. Latin was to give me eternal help in spelling and any reader of this post knows that has not held up.

7. I do think of 7 as a lucky number, but also quite like 3 and 9.

Pleasant dreams to all. xo

City Views, Country Dreams

Good afternoon from New York on a darkening Sunday afternoon.

Forecasters predicted thunderstorms and one of those storms seems to be trying to arrive as I type. My little living room grows darker and darker. Usually around this time in late afternoon, my south-facing window is flooding the room with light.

Earlier today I did manage to take a walk over to Central Park and will be sharing some of my photos with you all, but not all at once. It seems so difficult for me to find time to write blogs these days, that maybe having a stock of photos will help to encourage me!

How I wish that the shop was not taking so much of my time. We are having wonderful successes with each month's collection, and making many customers happy, but this effort is just not the same as having a summer holiday.

My armchair travels have included reading many beautiful blog postings, and it's really quite amazing to have a quick hop across an ocean or two while eating breakfast.

My other way to visit the world comes when the shop is visited by tourists from so many countries. I have had the pleasure of chatting with folks from France, Italy, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Spain, Turkey, Israel, Ecuador, India, Pakistan, India, Chile, Argentina, Japan and on and on. As a young girl growing up in Virginia, I never dreamed that I would meet people from so many places!

This chatting, however, sometimes just makes me yearn to actually go somewhere. The shop's scheduling requirements keep me from getting too ambitious with this dreaming, but I have determined from my boss that it will be permitted for me to have as many as two weeks' off at a time. Most likely I will be doing this in late October stretching into early November. (This could mean that I will have to apply for an absentee ballot to vote in the upcoming elections.)

Many of you, whose blogs delight me, live in places that I have visited and would love to see again. However, I keep thinking that I would also like to see a place that would be new to me.

Please do let me have any suggestions that you'd like to leave. Maybe setting travel as a theme will encourage me to blog more frequently.

Meanwhile, best wishes to you all.