More guests!

Today we had our first visitors from two more nations. Since the country counter on the right of the page here is set to Spanish, I paused for a second pondering Costa de Marfil. I knew the Spanish word for "ivory" but certainly don't have occasion to use it often. Then it hit me: Côte d'Ivoire, of course!

I really have not seen much of the world in person. Very little, in fact. But I sew (mostly banners and altar hangings, sometimes quilts)--and I know how beautiful fabrics from Côte d'Ivoire are. I have used several in making stoles. Stunning colors and designs.

Ah, Estonia! I almost got there.

We were in St Peterburg, Russia, on 9/11/2001. The Russian people were wonderful to us and we were very moved by their thoughtfulness. Russian bureaucracy, however, is one of the world's constants and we had to leave Russia that Saturday when our passports expired, whether there were flights home or not. So we left Pulkovo Airport and flew to Helsinki. There we spent a couple of nights before we flew to JFK. We thought we would be stuck in Helsinki even longer (and it's a lovely city to be "stuck" in, though our anxiety level messed with enjoyment) and were thinking that we would go to Tallinn, capital of Estonia, just across the Gulf of Finland the next day. But we continued homeward instead and thus missed the chance to see at least the major city of Estionia.

Welcome to both our new guests!
--the BB