Willow - Not!

One drawback of the weekend....... Willow basketweavers aggressively taking nearby weaving space. I'm deathly allergic to willow. We foresee procedural changes for next year! 

A Visitor

Ed Carriere visited my classroom yesterday. What a treat!

See his profile at:

www.nwbasketweavers.org/portfolio/Ed/

Retreat!!

My view from my classroom..... How perfect is this??

Packing Up Again

Packing up again for a teaching trip - but this time it is local and I can drive to it instead of dealing with airports and luggage requirements. My guild's Spring Retreat is an amazingly creative and professionally organized basketry conference/retreat, set in a quiet, rural setting on the Olympic Peninsula.  While other conference attendance may be diminishing lately, ours is thriving and unfortunately we are having to turn some folks away because we are full!

The Northwest Basket Weavers' mission and purpose:   http://www.nwbasketweavers.org/

Established in 1982, the purpose of our Guild is to preserve and promote the art of basket making. Our members are wonderful people whose skills and knowledge vary from folks who just love baskets to beginning basket weavers to professional artists, teachers and collectors. We have more than 200 members: from Washington and Oregon, Canada, and across the country. 

Retreat 2014

Each March we enjoy a retreat from Wednesday through Sunday. It's open to members of our Guild and the Columbia Basin Basketry Guild. It's easy to become a member; you can join on the registration form.

It's a great way to relax, weave as much as you want, visit with guild members, and take classes from talented teachers. Click here for the Brochure.Retreat webpage Check out some previous years' photos.

Each year a gallery is set up to showcase our members' work. The theme for 2014 Is "United We Weave," although you don't need to use the theme for your baskets. Members submit up to three baskets for the Gallery, and we encourage new members to bring their work, and not be shy! This gallery show is for everyone, and we love to see what everyone is doing.

On Friday night after dinner, we open the Gallery show with a Gala. All of the wonderful baskets are available for close-up viewing while snacking on fine chocolates and sparkling cider. Our members are diverse and talented, and it is always inspiring and amazing to see what they are doing. This is our chance to share - we especially encourage beginners to exhibit their work.

National Napping Day

Today is National Napping Day, per http://www.mahalo.com/napping-day/.  I am not a napper myself (unless it is simply a catnap of less than 10 minutes) - I can't ever really reawaken and feel like I'm on the same planet after a nap.  So here are some pros and cons of napping....

National Napping Day was founded by Boston University professor William Anthony and his wife Camille in 1999. Napping Day is an unofficial holiday set aside to help people adjust to Daylight Saving Time and to promote health and productivity benefits ofnapping. After losing an hour of sleep by "springing forward," people are more sleep-deprived and find it easier to nap.

Mid-afternoon is a time when many people experience a slump in alertness, especially after a poor nights sleep. It is felt by many that a heavy lunch causes this trough in energy. However, research show that this occurs because it is natural for us to take a mid-afternoon nap.

Dr Gregg D Jacobs wrote in July, 2004: "A mid-day nap is an integral part of the daily routine of many cultures, particularly those near the equator. This suggests that napping may have been part of an evolutionary mechanism to get us out of the hot midday sun. However, because the urge for a nap is appreciably weaker than the need to sleep at night, it can be suppressed (or masked by caffeine) but at the cost of increased sleepiness and reduced mood and performance. Also, because naps conflict with work schedules, they are becoming less common in industrialized societies (with the exception of college students and the elderly, who have more regular opportunities to nap). Unfortunately, this decline in napping may be causing poorer afternoon alertness and performance."1

Information on Napping

1. A 2009 study in the U.K. indicated that naps could increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes2
2. Most people need between seven-and-a-half and eight hours of sleep3
3. Naps can improve ones mood and performance, according to William Anthony4
4. Studies show regular napping can deuce risk level of death from heart related problems4
5. It is a Spanish tradition, still practiced and observed by many, to take two hour nap in the afternoon.

Slower & Simpler - Slow Food

Living slower also may (should, could) include slow food I've been told.  I've honestly been slow (yeah, pun intended) to embrace this part of slow living, mainly because of all of my allergies (yes, the thought does not elude me that my allergies may be aggravated by NOT eating slow food).  So here we go, at least as a start.  As I read the list below, I'm delighted to find that in fact I DO incorporate many of these ideas into my eating life, just perhaps not consciously or naming them as such.

Slow Food is…
a global, grassroots organization with supporters in 150 countries around the world who are linking the pleasure of good food with a commitment to their community and the environment.

“Slow Food unites the pleasure of food with responsibility, sustainability and harmony with nature.”
Carlo Petrini, Slow Food founder and president.

Slow Food
was founded to counter the rise of fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.

http://www.slowfood.com/

So what does this look like?  Per the website above:

Go Slow in your life

1. Buy whole ingredients. Cook them. Eat them.
2. Avoid processed stuff with long ingredient lists. Eat real food.
3. Grow some of your own food. Even if just on your windowsill.
4. Whenever possible, know the story behind the food you buy.
5. Buy local food; find out what is in season!

Go Slow in your community

1. Cook and eat with others – not just family and friends. Bring new people and perspectives to the table.
2. Join a community garden and grow food with others.
3. Connect with your local Slow Food chapter.
4. Shake the hand that feeds you. Meet the people who grow your food. Shop at a farmers market, visit a farm or buy shares from a farm that offers a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
5. Learn about your local or regional food history and cultural dishes

Daylight Savings Time

So evidently all of the reasons we were taught over the years as to why Daylight Savings Time is a good idea have been debunked:
   The farmers like it because we have more daylight.  Hardly....same amount of daylight each day, no matter what the clock says.
    It's safer for the children....not true...by the time they go to school, it's immaterial.
   We'll save energy .....It has not been proven that a bit of energy has been saved over all of the years of changing our clocks.

The real reason??  Financial gain for retailers.  It HAS been proven that with more daylight hours at the end of the day, we are out of the house more, and going to the stores more, and spending more money.

Just want to put a bit of reality into this whole insane process.  Really, manipulating clocks (and time itself) is a bit crazy, if you really think about it!.