Nice Weekend

We had a really nice weekend.  Today we went to San Rafael and picked up some things we got from a woman off Craigslist.  I bought a spinning wheel and to sweeten the deal, they gave me a whole bunch of darkroom equipment.

I have really wanted to set up a darkroom, mostly to develop black and white photos.  I got an old Bessler enlarger.  I have used one similar in my photography class.  It came with two lenses, though one looked pretty dirty.  It also came with filters, a negative holder, a grain focuser, and then something I am unsure of…that has to do with slides.  I might put that on ebay.

I am still a bit away from setting up a darkroom.  I still need a bit more equipment, like trays, a timer, and some other misc things.  I could do it in my garage as there are no windows, but it isn’t ventilated with a fan, so I would need to look into ventilating it.  This may just need to sit in my garage until when Tony and I get it together to buy a house.

I also got an Ashford Traditional spinning wheel.  Why would I need another wheel?  I don’t know.  I think I am hoping to encourage some local friends to come over and spin with me. I set it up in my living room and within a few minutes, got it spinning.  It actually spins really well.  The bobbins that came with it seem old and rough.  I might have Tony sand them a bit for me.

It came with an old lazy kate.  It only has two of the wire bars, it should have three.

It also came with a Mattson Mora bobbin winder.  It winds these bobbins that you put into shuttles for weaving.  I do not plan on weaving so really do not need this little gadget, that resembles a vintage drill.  I am going to put this on ebay.

Finally, in the box of stuff were some books, one was a French lace book…written in French, I believe and a book about tapestries, called, The Tapestry Book.  I have no use for these books.

We then drove over the Golden Gate bridge.  Did I mention I forgot my camera.  Oops.  I remembered before I left the house, and then quickly forgot.  It was the first time for Tony on the Golden Gate.  He really enjoyed driving over it.  It was a perfect beautiful day there.  There was no smog or fog.  Sorry, Su, I should have told you we might be in your area.

We then drove on Highway 1, and kept laughing at the fact that you can never take a Left.  So we decided to finally take a Right and swung back around to the Beach.  Sierra, Madeleine, and I made sure to run around on the wet sand barefooted.  We found shells, all broken, but it didn’t matter.  Sierra got the most wet, by sitting down in the water, which bugged Tony.

Tony wasn’t allowed to play in sand or get dirty when he was a kid, so while he enjoyed watching us, he wasn’t an active participant….maybe next time.

We then drove down Fulton, towards downtown…again, No Left.  We made jokes that they sold vehicles in San Francisco without lefthand turn signals, as they were not needed in the city.  Apparently, in order to drive anywhere you could only make right turns, it is an odd city.

We didn’t hit any of the major attractions, got on the bay bridge and then drove home.  Next time we will plan to go there and do some more things.  Todays trip was just a drive out of town.

It was really nice to just get out.  I got some sun today, which felt good on my skin.