On my way home from eight amazing days in Iraqi Kurdistan, and this morning I got to take advantage of a Turkish Airlines free bus tour. The weather was absolutely amazing (sunny, cold and windy) and just a few hours on the bus reminded me that I/we absolutely must get back to Turkey again.
Though I am willing to wait until the mayor of Istanbul is not under lock and key.
My last evening in Erbil: a lovely dinner with friends, fun math projects--and homemade yogurt to admire. My friend just finished "setting" the yogurt when I arrived--made from sheep's milk from a family member's farm. Truly farm to table...
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| partially completed dodecagon, rose pattern |
I am just coming to the end of 9 days of visiting with friends in Erbil. In preparation for this trip I decided to "level up" my unit origami skills by buying Tomoko Fuse's most recent book and spending some time to learn some new patterns, in particular the "rose units" and the "silver star units". (Rose units have a ratio of 1:2 and Silver star units have a ratio of 1:Sqrt2.)
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| 4-point football (silver star units) |
Unexpectedly, I found myself in Arizona for 5 days this week to help out with an ailing family member. After all kinds of wild weather and a new found (and deep) familiarity with the layout of the Tucson Medical Center, I am headed home. The skies were lovely, but Tucson is definitely not the place for me for more than a few days...
More book recs:
Seattle, Washington
My latest three reads (listens):
After the joys, adventures, and work (!) of wandering in Switzerland and Iceland, it's great to be home to a sparkling clean house (thank you, A!) and the comforts of home. My only regret? That I didn't get a tea towel in Iceland to match the one I found in Switzerland. Good to be away and good to be home!
On our last full day in Iceland, Frank and I finally made it to one of Iceland's famous geothermal pools: Gamla Laugin (The Old Pool) which has been re-branded as the "The Secret Lagoon." It's a far less fancy place than the Blue Lagoon or one of the other geothermal spas and lies just 40 minutes by car from Selfoss. Basically, there's just one big outdoor pool with burbling hot pools along one edge of the place. But you get the feel of the thing and it was a gorgeous afternoon for such an activity. I'd definitely recommend it for something a bit less over-the-top!