It was the weekend

Did a clean, visited the store and then went to the train station in Wilmslow to pick up Andrea who was returning from DC after a few days of meetings.  This was her second trip back to the US since we arrived here.  She has one more in a month and will go to Boston to hang out with science folks and see her sister.

We hung out at home after she got here - the girls did projects in the back, Andrea caught up with some things and I did some cooking in preparation for a get-together with Ben and Julie in the evening.  Before they came over we met at Little Moreton Hall where we toured the grounds and visited a local weavers' group who was showing its wares.  They had some amazing things and had some wonderful displays about dying wool with natural materials.  The colors they achieved were not as bight and flashy as one normally sees in commercial wool, but they were beautiful in how delicate and soft the colors were.  Some of their items were for sale and it is a shame that I didn't need anything.  The things they had were first-class and being sold at charity shop prices.  For example.  There was a pair of fingerless gloves for sale that were knitted in a simple, but interesting pattern being sold for 8 pounds.  They had to have taken four hours at least to make.  Do the math.  Consider the fact that the wool was hand spun and hand dyed with natural materials (plants and things).  Amazing.  Writing about it makes me sad that I didn't buy them.  I did buy a lucet and a couple of other items.  A lucet is a tool that is used to braid cord.  We'll see if I can do anything interesting on it.

After seeing the textiles, we went for a walk to the canal which is about a mile from the house.  There had been a couple of sprinkles throughout the day, but we set out optimistic that things would work for us.  Umm....  When we got to the canal we were happy that there was a bridge that we could shelter under.  Problem was that the rain didn't look like it was going to let up and we were afraid that the National Trust parking lot where our cars were was going to close.  We were all quite happy waiting out the rain, but didn't like the prospect of having to walk home so we made a break for it.  We got super wet.  Back at the cars, some of us stripped of our wet clothes and made the drive home.

After going home briefly, Ben and Julie arrived for dinner.  It was sunny by this point and it was doubtful that it had ever rained in Alderley Edge.  Things were dry and by this time so were all of us.

Good time in the evening with Ben and Julie.  Twice for dinner with them in one week.  Excellent stuff

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Sunday now and it is raining here and everywhere in Cheshire.  We went to the Science museum in Manchester and the highlight for me was riding the steam train and having the express to Edinburgh honk at us when we went by.  We blew our whistle at it.  It was a really cool moment.  I love those times when people give the thumbs up to something because they respect it or they appreciate it even if most of the world doesn't even know what it is or have any appreciation for it because it doesn't have anything to do with them.  I still smell like smoke of coal and that's okay by me.