As I've mentioned before, my wife likes art and travel.(Note well the Amsterdam post). While I enjoy a pretty banal life around the ferry docks and Newport, hacking around on our sailboat, Cindy seeks out more off-beat distractions and destinations. Her latest adventure will take her on a lace-making expedition to Kintyre Scotland.

My wife has been to all of the British Isles over her life: Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland. This recent lace driven trip began at Buckingham Palace when she saw Kate Middleton's wedding dress last summer. She decided right then and there that she'd learn how to do bobbin style lace; a very intricate style of this art form. So her studies began on a 3 day retreat on Cape Cod a few months back. This led to meeting women from all over the world who do the lace thing. I really just enjoy watching her prepare for these creative adventures.

She'll wing out tomorrow for Glasgow, then catch a play about journalist Nellie Blye, "Two hours in a Madhouse," and then fly out to the Isle of Skye the next day-her people were from Skye. A guy I know from the island told me she'd love Skye, "it's beautiful," he said. He also said that his mom is from Glasgow.

After 2 days on Skye, she'll fly to Kintyre to begin a rigorous session of serious lace making with a cadre of like-minded lace women. After 5 days of study, and rambling along the coast of Kintyre, she'll head back to Glasgow for other adventures.

In December, she's planning a follow up trip to Bruges, which has a strong lace-making tradition, where artisans still practice and create bobbin style lace. Finally, sculptor Sean Hartnett, told me about a place in Italy, where grandmotherly types teach various styles of lace making on the sidewalks of a very small island near Venice called Burano; I'll go out on a limb here and say my wife will be heading there after Bruges. My wife feels that if you're going to do something, then do it. She does nothing halfway. I'll post some pix of her trip and some lace creations upon her return from these islands.