In 2009 we participated in three major knife shows: New York City in February, Santa Barbara, California in April and Milan in late November. You may check the Show Calendar page to see where we’ll be in 2010.

After the Italian show, we headed to England for visits with friends and Howard’s sister and brother-in-law. We went to several interesting places including the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum near Chichester. For an “architecture nut” like VL, it was heaven: over 40 traditional homes and village workplaces dating from the 1300s to mid 19th century. The buildings are set in the lovely rolling West Sussex countryside and all the structures were rescued from destruction and re-erected on the museum site. The Tudor kitchen was in use and there was a very open fire on the floor of the Great Hall in one manor house; no chimneys then, just slits in the window shutters. The museum also has heritage breeds of chickens and the huge Shire horses.

In May we did a drive down most of the Blue Ridge Parkway from northern Virginia to Tennessee. VL acted as tour guide to show Howard and English friend Cheryl her Miller family roots in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. We spent several nights near Luray at the old Miler family farm currently owned by 2nd cousins. In Altavista, Howard was pleased to spend a day with two of the engravers he works with, one of whom he had never met.

Our big excitement at home came in September as one of Howard’s fervent wishes came true. We finally saw a bear in our back yard! VL had just hung out the birdfeeders (have to bring them in at night from April ‘til snowfall because of bruins) and was ready to leave the house when Howard called from the workshop to report Mr. Bear who was feasting on some maggoty birdseed we had thrown out in hopes of enticing some turkeys. The bear was lying down and very carefully eating each individual sunflower kernel. He stayed for an hour and a half, eating, standing up, stretching and moving a few feet to lie down in another spot. Needless to say, VL did not go to yoga class that morning & it was a bit scary to realize that the bear had been out there when she was although neither could see the other because of the ell of the house. After his meal, Mr. B headed back into the woods. Howard took many good photos of him – a mature male weighing between 275-300 pounds and very handsome!

Several of my knives are featured (on pages 68, 122 and 353) in a recently published book, 500 Knives – Celebrating Traditional and Innovative Designs by Lark Books. Thanks to John Jensen for all his efforts to bring this book into print.

We both hope that 2010 will bring peace, good health, joy and prosperity to you.