Nearly escape velocity

 I'll try tomorrow morning to write a couple embargoed posts, and I may post from the road.

Today was mostly working on Rosiidae; going by the system I am using I got up to the Apiaceae; I still have to find photos of the local representatives and put them in the lecture material, but at least I'm still about 2 weeks ahead. Once I get those photos in, that group will be done.

I need to try to finish the blanket square; the person who will assemble had some health issues and I held off for a day or two in case they would be unable to but it looks like they still can. I want to at least finish the one before I go.

I decided not to take A Cardigan for John. It's enormously heavy and bulky and I'd like to travel a little lighter for once. So I am taking the socks I posted the photo of last night, and a pair of mitts that's *almost* done, and I dug out a sock I had stalled out on, and found the pattern (and found I still had the row counter telling me where I was on the heel) so I might finish those (which would be quite a thing; these were in stall for like a year*). And I might tuck in a scarf I've been working on since the before-times. I also put in a couple balls of sockyarn (one simple set of self striping, and one solid color along with a fancier pattern called "Captain Hastings" by Maureen Foulds. It's a knit-purl pattern that makes a partial spiral down the leg. I'm going to use a bright pinkish purple yarn, so they won't be *very* Captain Hastings (more like Poirot's blackcurrant cordial) but it's probably a good use of the yarn.

(*That's one thing I like about knitting. If you pay attention and learn to "read" your knitting, you can put a project aside and almost always come back to it and pick it back up. Well, not so much if you wind up dropping stitches inadvertently, but most of the time, you can)

I think I've got all I need in the way of clothes, and I have several books (including a huge Mrs. Gaskell novel I want to start). 

I said to a colleague the other day that if I hadn't already made the plans (back in January - you have to buy tickets early if you want a compartment) I might have stayed here and worked on systematic botany but then again - I need a break.