Life in Europe

Here is Mark looking thoughtful while he rests under this piece of Dutch art. We were always coming across the unexpected in our walks about town. I haven't told him yet, but wouldn't this look great in the back yard?



What did get done in the back yard this week was this!



Mark designed it based on a fountain in Balboa park. The front tiles are each tipped forward slightly. When the water comes down the face of the fountain and lands in the shallow pool of water at the base, small diamonds of light and water will be created in the pool. You can't see the texture here, but the white tiles are full of tiny round bumps which I love.

Here is a slightly more elaborate fountain in a garden in Paris



and in bead news I will travel to Europe this fall and teach in Germany at Das Perlament in Bonn Germany. I will meet up with Petra, Sabine, Martine, Kathrin and meet a few more German beaders.

First Mark and I will spend two weeks in Hoorn which is a good ways north of Amsterdam, staying at a friends home while they spend a vacation in our home in San Diego. Then we'll visit other friends in Friesland, and finally take the train to Germany. I've never been to Bonn, but at a knitting conference this past January I met a store owner of a yarn shop there. I am very much looking forward to my visit, friends, beads, yarn, history, architecture......it's going to be excellent.