Do you ever get the sense that you cannot work fast enough? That ideas are flowing but your hands cannot keep up with the ideas? Frankly, I always feel this way, and it’s no fun. This summer seemed filled with obligations (fun) and too many doctor appointments and medical tests (no fun). At some point I got quite annoyed with all the time I was missing from creating.
Over the past couple of weeks I’ve felt better about what I’ve managed to accomplish over the past almost-three months. I know it’s not a good attitude to have– judging myself on output, but it does seem like a good attitude to be happy with the things I’ve tried that have stretched my skills. I have wanted to be a better ‘sewist’ for years. You can’t get better at anything without putting in the time to practice. With so many weaving projects calling to me, sweaters to knit. braids to make to enhance other projects, it’s really hard to make to time to sew. But I did it, and the skills were hard to learn. Really, I haven’t mastered them yet, but I also did manage to make some things that are moderately successful. Just don’t look too closely!
I made two fitted shirts! The first was a pattern from Modern Sewing Company. I bought the workshop rather than just the pattern to make a “Classic Shirt.” The workshop included several videos, and learning to add a bust dart to a plain front was the best instruction I’ve ever had on this skill. I’ve tried a few in the past, but since this was a video I just watched/paused/executed over and over. The blouse fits well. The challenges, after the darts, were the collar stand, the cuff plackets, and the cuffs. All done pretty well–not perfect.
Then I made a second shirt. This time no cuffs and no collar stand. It did have front darts, and two small darts in the back of the neck. What drew me to make this pattern was the Peter Pan collar. I just love them!–there is something so feminine and innocently sweet about them. The pattern is from Wardrobe by Me. The downside was that all the inside seams are serged rather than beautifully finished with French seams as the previous shirt was. Oh well. I love the shirt and the fabric I finally used that I bought years ago in a wonderful French fabric shop in Fort de France, Martinique. In both cases it is kind of a downer to have to print so many pages of pattern pieces and tape them together. That process takes a full day for me.
Then I also tried my hand at this pattern for a tunic or dress. It’s called the “Sunset Shift,” by Studio M. I saw this made up in this very fabric at a quilt shop near me, and I thought it was adorable!–summery and happy. That is not at all how I feel wearing it. It probably will never leave the house. Maybe I should have made it a bit longer? At any rate, it was a good experience to once again make something that fits, even though I don’t care for how I look in it! That is three successful sewing projects in a row, which has never happened for me before.
I have also had a weaving project going this summer. I saw it last winter on Jane Stafford’s website, and it’s called “linen Swedish canvas weave shawl.” It uses 40/2 linen which I ordered as a kit for this project. I even ordered the color that the shawl is shown in on the website–lavender. It was an easy project to warp and dress the loom and to weave! Being me, I could not fathom making the second shawl exactly like the first. I went diving into my linen stash and found a cone of blended silk and linen in a handpainted colorway of blue and natural. This yarn has slubs in it, likely from where the silk did not completely blend with the linen. It made a very different looking shawl, and is suprisingly stiffer than the all linen shawl. I love them both. I will keep one and gift the other–but which one will I keep??
And then there is knitting, and there are handbags! I’ve got two sweaters going at the moment. Neither is finished although one is getting close. It’s Kate Davies’ “Yorlin” cardigan. I think I’ll be wearing it as soon as the weather changes at home in New England. I am currently working on it in Sardinia, where Bob and I have returned to Pandora to sail for late summer and early fall. The other sweater came as an impulse purchase when I visited Harrisville Designs in mid-August. It’s called the Carlina pullover and it’s made with two colors of Harrisville Shetland. We had a tour of the spinning facility, a lovely lunch across the street at the general store, and a fun time shopping at Harrisville Designs. “We” are a tapestry group I am involved with, and we had a weaving retreat together and added the trip to Harrisville as part of our retreat. It was a marvelous week, and I have some new ideas about tapestry weaving. There is a stunning tapestry by James Kohler that hangs in the shop at HD. It’s been so long since I’ve been there I hadn’t seen this work before.
I have a bit to say about making (and loving) handbags and totebags, which i’ll save for another post! I am finishing this post from Sardinia, although I started it at home before I left. As you might imagine, if I’m traveling again it means I’m gathering again, both material goods and ideas. Hopefully my new treasures will become projects that will bring me a lot of enjoyment. I’ll stop here with a photo of the wonderful Sardinian fabrics that are always at the Tuesday Market in Bosa.
Recently I was asked to write something about the weaving museum and workshop in Perugia that I have now visited twice. It needed to be just enough info and images to be made into a poster. Here it is, mostly because I want to remember what I wrote.
A most unusual tradition in Perugia during the Middle Ages is that women did the professional weaving that was mostly done by men during that time in Europe. The women wove altar cloths for churches throughout Italy and northern Europe, without male dominated guilds to dictate their work. Starting in the 12th c. these women designed elaborate woven patterns that they picked by hand as well as simpler patterns that could be woven on their rudimentary harness looms.
While very few of the actual textiles from this period have survived, they are well documented in the paintings by famous artists of the period, such as Giotto, Ghirlandaio, and da Vinci. Over time, due to wars and economic situations, this tradition became less and less prominent. By the 16th c. very few weavers were making these textiles. Weaving survived in the homes of women in hill country of Umbria, outside Perugia.
In the early 20th c. a wealthy Perugian woman, Giuditta Brozzetti, decided to start a business rekindling this tradition. She collected 18th and 19th c. manual Jacquard looms, which could be “programmed” to weave quite complex patterns. She gathered information about the traditional patterns that the women of the Middle Ages had woven. She hired local women who had a background in these traditional patterns and taught them how to use the more modern looms. Four generations later, her great granddaughter, Marta Cucchia, is continuing this business. Marta is the first of the women in this family to be a weaver herself. She understands the various jacquard looms, which are all quite different and challenging to use. She has studied the medieval patterns and translated them to the punch cards that are used by jacquard looms.
Her most challenging study was to decipher the patterns that Leonardo da Vince depicted in his fresco “The Last Supper.” That tablecloth is quite elaborate; even the white background fabric is heavily patterned. Marta has also documented many fabrics depicted by other artists who painted images of the Madonna and Child. The infant Jesus was often shown wrapped in a traditional Perugian woven textile.
In 1995 Marta moved the workshop/museum to a 12th c church outside the medieval walls of Perugia. This building was the first church built for St. Francis of Assissi. Over the years other, larger churches were built in St. Francis’ honor, including the enormous cathedral in nearby Orvieto. The little chapel in Perugia was sold to the Benedictines early in its history and used as a convent. During the 19th c it was used briefly as a spinning mill. It is a glorious environment to house the antique “modern” looms that now weave the traditional fabrics of Perugia.
The motto for the city of Pergia is “Per Aspera ad Astra,” literally “from hope to the stars.” Perugia suffered many setbacks during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and this motto demonstrates the Perugians’ endurance and creativity. More info check out the website.
Over the 10+ years that Bob has sailed from Connecticut to Antigua in November, song birds have found their way onboard to rest during their long migration south. These are always single birds so we imagine that they are individuals who have fallen behind the flock. It has never ended well. Most of them die onboard within 24 hours of arriving. It’s very sad, although it is part of nature. Maybe these are all older birds, but it always hurts to watch this happen. Maybe we should take comfort in the fact that each of these birds had a little rest and perhaps died peacefully. I know I am putting a lot of human emotions on birds. Nature is not sentimental.
It is now Memorial Day in the US, and over the weekend Bob and I sailed 200 miles from Menorca in the Balearic Islands to Sardinia. We arrived in a small cut on the western coastline of Sardinia yesterday, Sunday, after about 40 hours of motoring, sailing, and mostly motor-sailing. On Saturday around midday a little song bird arrived in our cockpit. I immediately had the same old dire emotions of this little bird being exhausted and dehydrated, and likely close to death. He flitted about for some time. Then he left us.
We noticed that he perched most comfortably on my little vase of mostly dead flowers. I felt that he knew there was water in the vase, but it was too deep and narrow for him to get to the water. Bob filled a lid from one of our plastic storage containers with water and set it next to the vase, but our little visitor left before finding it. During this visit he landed on top of Bob’s head!–he moved before I got my phone ready. And he landed on my hand twice, which is at the end of the video above.
About an hour later he returned. He found the water and drank for a while. He seemed to understand (again, anthropomorphising on my part) that we were not too threatening. He flitted about, and we heard one lovely note of his song. We could not identify him at this point because we were very far offshore, so cellular data and our starlink connection were not operable.
Look at his beautiful wings spread for flying! On this visit he found the water which made me ridiculously happy. He explored the front of our cockpit on this visit, but left again within a few minutes. I thought about him all night and on Sunday morning. To our surprise he came back about midday on Sunday. Song birds are not water birds, so he could not have spent the night on the water. On his first visit we were about equal distance from both Menorca and Sardinia, roughly 100 miles to reach either one. I have no idea how far a tiny song bird can travel, and I mostly think they travel over land if possible so they have options for stopping. Yet he arrived again on Sunday morning, and at that point we were abut 40 miles from Sardinia. It gave me great hope that he would make it back to land. Where on earth did he spend the night??
Once we got back in cellular/starlink territory I searched online for what kind of bird he is. He was the color and size of our eastern gold finches in winter–a dull olive. He had black and white bands around his eyes. According to google he is a Mediterranean warbler, possibly an olive Sardinian warbler. He does have a beautiful song, and I felt lucky to hear one note of that song while he was onboard.
Here are some still photos I took of him.
We are now in a tiny cut on the western side of Sardinia, called Cala E Moro just moments north of Bosa. We anchored here in order to delay our arrival at a marina in Bosa since we were exhausted by the time we got here and figured there would be no dock hands available on a Sunday evening. This spot is incredibly dramatic. Parts of the rock outcrops look more like a lunar landscape than earth. The rocks closer to the water are blue/green which might mean there is copper in the rocks. I have always thought that copper deposits are underground and have to be mined. I don’t know that I’m right of course, but these lower rock formations are quite an odd color.
We enjoyed a lovely sunset here, and I felt somewhat confident that our little visitor is alive and well somewhere on Sardinia!
In October of 2024, I visited Perugia, Italy, for the first time as part of a workshop in Umbria on natural dyeing and using the wool to weave tapestry. I only had part of a day there, but it was one of the best days of that trip. You can read about it here, or maybe just look at the photos of this incredible place. Almost a year later I learned that through VAWAA you can book a week long workshop at Giuditta Brozzetti. A weaving acquaintance found the opportunity, and if she got three others to join her the cost for each of us would be reduced. I wasn’t sure where I’d be during the 3rd week of April this year, but I was certain I was going to get to Perugia for this workshop. As it turned out, Bob and I were in Almerimar, Spain, facing a record number of repairs needed on our sailboat Pandora. But I took a flight from Alicante, Spain, to Rome, and met my three weaving cohorts the following morning. We took a train to Perugia and saw a great deal of the countryside. It was a magical trip from the start.
We arrived on Saturday evening and spent Sunday touring the historic area of the city. Our lodging was not as charming as described on the website, and definitely ODD. It took us two hours to check with the owner’s ‘contactless check-in.’ I don’t recommend this. To get into the accommodation we had to go through a locked gate, then up two long fights of stone steps from the Middle Ages to a locked door. More time corresponding with the owner to get through that locked door, then another flight of modern stairs to the first room. My room required yet another flight of stairs. The rooms were not quite as advertised, but they had some antique charm and we made the best of it.
We were staying in a medieval part of the town which was very scenic. This is right outside the gate to the building where our rooms were.
At the bottom of this narrow street we turned into the large Piazza IV Novembre. It was great location for seeing much of historic Perugia.
The building behind the fountain is the National Gallery of Art that is housed in a medieval castle. The collection is focused on medieval religious art, with a wing devoted to Giotti and his students, and the effect they all had on portraying figures more realistically and emotionally. A hightlight for me was a small collection of highly figured woven altar cloths that Perugian women were so famous for making during the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
These beautiful altar cloths were woven on floor looms where the ornate designs had to be picked by hand. Looms that could weave these designs had not yet been developed, so all this work was done painstakingly by hand. The tradition in the Middle Ages was to make the warp out local white linen, also spun by hand in this period, and to use very precious cotton from Egypt, dyed locally with idigo, for the patterned weft designs.
These woven fabrics are from the 13th c. so they are around 700 years old and still look so beautiful. You cannot tell how highly figured the white background cloth is. It is woven in a series of different diamonds, some created with lace weaves, and some with twills.
As I mentioned in the post from 2024, Leoanardo da Vinci used these cloths for inspiration in painting his fresco of the Last Supper. The current owner of the Giuditta Brozzetti workshop, Marta Cucchio, studied high resolution images of the fresco to recreate these elaborate designs for weaving on 18th and 19th c. manual jacquard looms. Four generations of Brozzetti women have worked to keep this Perugian weaving tradition alive. Marta is the first in the family to weave hersefl; her mother, grandmother, and great grandmother ran the business rather than doing any of the weaving. In the Middle Ages and early Renaissance these cloths were highly valued and commissioned for churches all over Italy and throughout Europe, which is why Marta’s family wanted to see this tradition continue on modern looms. While most of these cloths are no longer extant, many of the painters from this time period have preserved them in religious paintings, such as da Vinci’s fresco. If you look closely at the enlarged image of the fresco, you can see the patterns on the digital image and compare them to the modern tablecloth. Marta has studied these designs and recorded them for punch cards to be woven on jacquard looms. My cohorts and I dubbed the large diamond design “da Vinci’s diamonds,” and we gave the smaller designs names as well–“da Vinci’s small birds and flowers,” and “da Vinci’s DNA chain.” In this photo you can also see how highly figured the background cloth is.
Here is Marta and I, back in 2024, looking at a high resolution detail of the fresco, along with a photo of the entire fresco and part of the woven reproduction of the cloth. Can you tell I am awestruck?
All four of us were smitten with these historic designs and used them in our own work during the week. Our first exercise was to study a simple medieval design and draw it on graph paper as if we would translate it to the punch cards used on jacquard looms. It was an excellent exercise in understanding the jacquard loom. The penciled-in squares on the graph paper represent the weft threads, and the uncolored spaces are the warp tie-downs. I used this flower in one of the pieces I wove during the workshop.
Marta and her assistant Alessia worked with us throughout the week to hone our skills in using the jacquard looms. There is a lever above the beater that controls whether you are throwing a pick of background or a pattern pick, That is the first thing you set with each pass of weft. Then you depress the one treadle which is quite heavy since it is controlling the lift of many warp threads, sometimes thousands. Next you pull the cord for the fly shuttle, which was set for either background weft or pattern weft when you set the binary lever at the center of the loom above the beater. The rhythm is binary lever, depress treadle, pull the fly shuttle cord, release treadle, beat. Each of the looms is a different width and has its own quirks in operation. One thing that was standard is that we needed to depress the treadle somewhat gently, but to release the treadle aggressively and quickly. By the end of the week I was struggling to release the treadle quickly enough. You only use one leg for treadling, your right, and the treadle is rather high. By the end of the week I was struggling to lift my leg high enough to release the treadle quickly. Not being quick at this maneuver causes small weft skips that will have to be corrected. I’ll have a number of corrections to make!
It’s surprising and thrilling to be able to weave so much in so little time. Here is some of our work
This is my first finished piece. Beyond the cloth beam I had practiced half the diamond design and some of the flowers. I was particularly smitten with these oldest designs that have been handed down through artwork, so my first piece is “da Vinci diamonds” and the ” da Vinci little flowers.”
The second piece I wove is from the London Liberty period during the Arts and Crafts period. It’s pomegranates, and I blended three colors of reds for each repeat of the design–light reds first, then medium reds, and finally dark reds. I then repeated that sequence backwards for light, medium, dark, medium, light. Each pattern weft requires three threads of 4/68 cotton held together, so all of us enjoyed creating our own color blends. The bottom border is a chain and then small trees, and the top border is several repeats of the chain. Alessia said she’d like to weave my color combination herself! Maybe she says that to everyone… She recorded all our color choices, and we did as well, not that I may ever have the opportunity to use a jacquard loom in the future. I have grandiose plans to make this fabric into a handbag, like the one I bought when I visited here in 2024.
pomegranate design from the Arts and Crafts period in England, woven using a blend of reds.
I also wanted to weave fabric of the interesting background designs. I chose several colors of cream to weave against the cream warp, and then a combination of wheat colors for the middle section. I want to do a rolled hem on this piece and little picots of bullion stitch to turn this into a table runner. At the end of this I wove a short section of little trees to cut into book marks.
In the middle of using the jacquard looms, I tried the 4-shaft floor loom when I had to wait for the next available jacquard loom. These cloths were simple twill designs that look more complicated than they actually are. There are paintings that depict the Madonna and Child with the baby Jesus wrapped in these type of woven cloths. This painting is by Pinturicchio from 1496.
I was quite intrigued by what the Perugian women wove with simple, 4-shaft twill designs in the Middle Ages on counter balance looms. There are plenty of examples at Giuditta Brozzetti. I spent some time weaving a sample to take home with me. There is a possible tablecloth in my weaving future.
Here is our wonderful teacher Alessia Galassi showing us some of the woven goods at the workshop. She has a master’s degree in historic jacquard weaving, and did research on the mistakes in woven jacquard fabrics. You can find info about here here.
And here is Marta Cucchio whose family started this venture in 1921, and who has been running the business since the 1990s. She is an enthusiastic champion of preserving this Perugian tradition. Thank heaven. Giuditta Brozzetti Museo e Laboratorio. I took this photo because I’d like to make a vest like she’s wearing. I want to weave the fabric in a fine wool plain weave and knit the interesting collar.
In 1995 Marta bought a 13th c. chapel that had originally been the first church of St. Francis of Assissi. It was later sold to the Benedictines and used as a convent. Over its long history it has also been a spinning mill. It’s a stunning setting for the jacquard looms and the fabrics made here that are for sale.
I am particularly interested in this woven phrase which is Perugia’s motto: Per Aspera ad Astra. In Latin this literally means “Through hope to the stars.” Marta says it means something more like through life’s challenges hope brings us to the stars. I wanted to weave this as one of my projects, but that jacquard chain only fits on the largest loom, which students do not use. Alessia got out the graph of this design, suggesting that I might use it for embroidery. Good idea. On the image of the woven pillow the phrase is surrounded by griffons, which are the emblem of Perugia. A griffon has the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, which is symbolic of being able to fly to heaven to talk to God and to be powerful on earth.
My biggest thrill was buying a tote bag! Several months ago I had seen that Marta had designed and made a tote bag for one of the hauture Italian fashion houses for an opening event they held. I asked if she planned to make more, and she responded that she wasn’t sure when she’d have them. When I arrived at the workshop I didn’t see any, and I was too disappointed to ask about them. Then, on the last day of our class Marta arrived late because she driven somewhere to pick up the first six tote bags! I was very lucky to get the first pick since I had asked for one. It is a treasure, along with the handbag I bought when I was last here.
During our stay we managed to see and do some memorable things in Perugia. We had a number of dinners in medieval spaces that were nicely renovated for modern living, such as this restaurant in a nice corner with Chris (L) and Shari (R).
It was a lush time of year in Perugia, and we were lucky to only have a short shower one day during our visit. Here are Bev (L) an Shari (R) standing under a large wisteria vine.
The views from the medieval wall were impressive. What a beautiful city!
I had hoped to buy a piece of Deruta pottery during this visit, but Marta warned me that Perugia is not the place for that, allthough Deruta is from Umbria. My friends all bought Perugian chocolate, but I missed that opportunity–not sure why! We did find a mother/daughter enterprise who paint tiny spheres of pottery in a technique called “fuseruola.” They make exquisite jewelry and other things in this technique, which is an ancient art that was originally used to decorate the whorls of drop spindles. How could I NOT buy one of these? I chose earrings, but I was seriously tempted by a larger sphere painted with sea shells that could sit on a shelf on Pandora. I do regret not getting that. You can see their work online.
The entrance sign to Giuditta Brozzetti draped in yellow roses in April
“Per Aspera ad Astra!” I hope to have a Perugia 3.0 someday. I never realized how much I would enjoy weaving on these looms in spite of the physical challenges involved. Naturally, I wish I’d discovered this when I was younger, but I’ll take what I can get, and however long I left to weave, I hope it includes more time on a jacquard loom.
While I was in Perugia I thought that Bob and our friends would sail to Cartagena, but Bob was mired in so many repairs. Our friends were supposed to meet Bob in Cartagena, and I was supposed to fly there from Italy when I finished my workshop in Perugia. Nothing has gone as planned on this trip, except for the incredible time in Perugia. Thank heaven for that! At the end of the workshop I flew back to Almeria, our friends joined us a day later, and we all waited an additional two days to set sail for Cartagena. In our original plans I would have missed Cartagena all together, so in the long run, some bad events open up great opportunities.
I am so happy to be in Cartagena! The Roman museum and amphitheater are beyond my imagination. The museum has some terrific artifacts from the Roman period, and the work to excavate the theater is impressive. The theater held 7000 people. It was built during Augustus Caesur’s reign. The Roman empire was failing, and Augustus wanted a place to hold events honoring his reign as well as theatrical performances. Reminds me very much of our current situation in the US.
It was definitely as impressive as the amphitheater in Rome that I visited while doing studies in Roman history in college—50 years ago. It was a thrill to visit something Roman again after so many decades! — almost as thrilling as getting to Tarquinia when I visited Umbria the first time, in October of 2024. These moments returning to places so important to my past life are quite exciting.
A beautifully carved capital on a column
Other capital carvings in the museum. I often imagine weaving tapestries of images that were originally carved in stone.
Afterward we walked around the area where this excavation continues. The Roman forum is not open to the public because they are still working on it. Here is a beautiful garden and fresco in the area.
Some sights from the center of Cartgena
May 1 is Labor Day in Spain, and the Spanish know how to celebrate a holiday better than we do. The shops and museums are closed on May 1, instead of being open for big sales. Afterall, it’s a holiday to celebrate workers so they should have the day off! The entire city of Cartagena was turned into a giant festival with live music, including some famous bands and singers who performed on a big stage near the city’s promenade that runs along the edge of the Mediterranean. The festival lasts from Friday through Sunday.
There were many women and young girls dressed in flamenco costumes.
And here is a group of women ‘of a certain age’ dressed in Victorian costumes, enjoying cocktails together. Gloves and lace fans!!
On Saturday the Labor Day festivities continued, and another celebration took place as well. From what I understand the May 2nd celebration is specific to Cartagena. It is called “Gesta del 2 di May” and honors the soldiers who served in the war against Napolean, when in 1808 the Spanish succeeded in defeating Napolean’s forces and expelling them from Spain. But the parade and exercises seemed to honor more than that. There were speeches that seemed to cover the history of Spain, medals were given to soldiers from various branches of the military. The ceremony opened with the military band playing while a small corp gave a 21 gun salute on the four canons that had been placed on the parade grounds. Here are the canon guard before the ceremony started.
All the branches of the military paraded in to the site while the drum corp set the pace.
Trumpets and drums playing for entrance march.
The final event of this ceremony was another gun salute on canons and the placement of a wreath on the black obelisk that honors those who served in the Spanish American war that was fought in Cuba. This ceremony was well attended by locals who heartily sang the two songs the band played that had lyrics. I don’t know which song was their national anthem, but surely the anthem was part of the ceremony. I also don’t know why this event only takes place in Cartagena each year.
Before this festive weekend in Cartagena, we took our friends to the airport in Alicante to fly home. Boy! Do we wish they could have stayed with us longer to experience this weekend in Cartagena. We dropped them at the airport in mid-morning and then used the rental car to visit Alicante, which has a castle dating from the Moorish middle ages through the Catholic renaissance.
Here is Bob sitting at the highest point in the castle.
The Castille de Santa Barbara (surely the name given to it in the Catholic period) has an interesting exhibit on the pottery shards found on this site. The first item on display is an incredible assemblage of shards from the entire time the castle was in use.
While I love pottery, I can also imagine the beautiful imagery on these pots being used for a tapestry.
The info on these pieces date them to the 1st century BC, yet they are so timeless.
There was glitch to this visit to Cartagena and Alicante. While standing in line to pay my entrance fee to the Roman museum, I got pickpocketed! I had gotten out my very smal travel wallet, then put it away when my friends paid my entrance fee. The pickpocket probably saw where I returned it to the tote bag I was carrying, and I have to admit that I was not hugging the tote to my body as I should have done. Also, there was a cruise ship in port, which always brings out the skilled thieves. Within an hour there were charges on the two travel credit cards I carry, and also an attempted withdrawal on my debit card. The banks involved caught all the attempts right away and closed my accounts. While that is a burden, we are thankful that Bob has one credit card that was not affected, and I still have one card that does not have currency exchange exemptions. We’ll be fine for the next month on our continued travels.
I returned to the Roman museum yesterday to buy a silk screened silk scarf that I would have bought if not for the pickpocket situation. It is designed and silk screened by an artist named Ron Torres. I have not yet found him online, but I will. Here is the unboxing…forigve me, but I was so smitten by the scarf and the presentation.
Wasn’t I lucky to get to visit these two cities with such long histories? There are signs throughout the center of Cartagena noting its 3000 year history. I am thrilled to be here, especially since I thought our sailing plans would make me miss it. That’s one thing no one can predict about traveling by sail, and it worked out very well for me on this adventure.
