Last Day of Summer

Today is an equinox, I discovered. A new friend at work is having a last day of summer/birthday party today and Paul and I are going-- our first real social event in Charlotte. I looked up soltice, thinking that this last day of summer might be a soltice. But, lo, it is an equinox. There are two soltices and two equinoxes a year, alternating to divide up the seasons. Summer Soltice is the start of summer, in June, and the equinox usually is around the 22nd of September, bringing in the fall. Just a little trivia: On the equinox dates in March and September, night and day are the same length of time.

To bring in the last day of summer, Paul and I had a fun, summery dessert last night. English trifle (Paul misses certain dishes from his homeland) without the pound cake-- we had to make due with what we had.

Our version includes:

• 1/2 can of Ambrosia custard (we buy it from http://www.englishteastore.com/ which has imported English foods)
• about 1/2 cup of heavy cream
• about 1/2 cup of fresh berries

Just layer the custard, cream and berries in a fancy glass and there you go!

On the spinning front, I finished the remnants of Tanglewood Fibers for Trish and will be sending that off, and have resumed spinning the 6 pounds of Stansborough fleece I bought from New Zealand last year (no, I didn't get to go there personally). It has taken me a year of spinning (between spinning for Trish) and I have not even finished half of the fleece to make a Lord of the Rings cloak.

I have about 3 pounds of light grey and three pounds of dark grey. The idea is spin very fine yarn of each and weave them together to form the very intricate pattern. So far I have only spun about 2/3 of the dark fleece.