Dear Friends,
I have just returned from a wonderful trip to the Southeast U.S. The John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina was great. There were about 200 students taking courses that ranged from blacksmithing to egg tempera painting. The school is set on a large acreage in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. Old buildings as well as new dot the campus. Housing ranges from dorm-style to upscale in a downscale fashion.








While at the school, you take a workshop, participate in communal meals and other activities and have fun. There are no awards, no grades or competition. You are there to learn. Here are a couple of projects done by students.










I was in the writing workshop. I learned better methods for writing my stories. Here I am delivering them for an audience of fellow travelers.








After the workshop I flew to Florida where I visited friends from college who have homes in Jupiter, Vero Beach and Sanibel. We are still best of friends and pick up where we left off: slipping on the ice as we left for a long trip back from the girl's gym to our dorms, ordering only tea at a restaurant and eating all of the crackers in the basket, studying all night with the aid of coffee and No-Doze. I am beginning to notice, however, that we are getting older and do not always recall the same chain of events.




My last stop was Charleston, SC where I visited a couple, both of whom had been friends of mine at Northwestern, one of whom is my long-lost cousin. She is a scholar of French Huguenot history, has written many papers and spoken at conferences in the States and abroad. We have located a match on our family trees. My mother would be so happy. Mom loved to do genealogy research and I did not give a hoot. Look at me now - visiting the Huguenot Society in Charleston, reading papers and memoirs. Here are my friends with their loveable dog and their charming home.


















Now I am home. I have vowed to write something every day. Does this count?

Love to all,
Diane