Travel

Two weekends past, we packed up the car and went travelling. The main focus of this trip was the Archie Bray Foundation. The primary mission of the Bray Foundation is to provide an environment that stimulates creative work in ceramics. This was maybe a geeky kind of trip, but one that greatly interested me. With the exception of the partially finished sock, the photos were taken on the grounds of the Bray. After completing a residency at the Bray, artists leave some of their work about the grounds, and there are various site installations. The circular installation is titled "A Potter's Shrine" ( I think that's correct; could be plural: Potters' Shrine). The winged figure is titled "Angel" and has a tea pot in her left hand; she is about 6 feet tall. I am truly sorry that I didn't write down the names of the artists. Trust me: this was a dream trip for me.

The Bray is located in Helena, Montana, a very pleasant little city. We spent the night there and then travelled back to Missoula, Montana, on Saturday morning to be sure we got to the farmers' market. My husband and travelling companion was confused about this portion of the trip, but it is a most excellent farmers' market. We bought tomatoes, huckleberries, basil, cantalope, and fresh baked bread; then we supplemented that with a bit of cheese and travelled on for a night's camping in the Clearwater National Forest, parallelling the Lewis and Clark Expedition's route across the mountains. This was also on my to-do list, and I appreciated my travelling companion's willingness to go along, even with a slightly bemused expression.

And the sock: this is the first of a pair of Trekking XXL. The pair is supposed to be finished by September 1st or Labor Day, something like that, but I have my doubts. The color is #36 (I think, but I can't find the ball band just now) and is growing on me. I'm using craftoholic's Mata Hari sock pattern, kind of grafted on to a generic sock pattern, which seems to be working for me.

(As part of my travels, I read Cross Country by Robert Sullivan, good summer reading, entertaining, and the first part of the book parallelled our trip across the Bitteroots.)

And as a postscript: why did they kick Alison and not Vincent off of Project Runway?