The Beaded Tapestry

Dear Victoria,

Such a lovely spring day! The sky is an indescribable color and the sun warms the bones and chases the winter frost from the marrow. If only I could capture this moment into a sphere to take out years from now and experience this day as I sit in the coldness of space. Days like this will not be a part of my life once my relocation is complete. It would be ideal to pull out this feeling and experience it whenever the confinement of my future home creeps up on me.

These random thoughts pass through me as I sit in one of the many parks that are scattered throughout Oxford. This particular one I frequent often because it has a beautiful tree lined stream flowing through it. Weeping willows dip their long fronds into the slow moving waters as tall oaks crowd in with wide roots jutting out into their midst. Ducks paddle parallel to the shore where I sit, voicing their opinion of my presence. Many have families trailing behind their V shaped trail through the water, stopping once in a while to gaze at my watching form.

My half eaten lunch sits beside me, forgotten in my fascination with the world around. It feels as if time is frozen in this moment, holding its breath so I can describe the beauty in a letter to you before the clock starts once again. There are no human creatures nearby to break the deception; only the timeless inhabitants that populate any scene such as this. Frogs and ducks, sparrows and fish, all following a repeating pattern that gives an illusion of a pause in time. A timeless scene, repeating itself throughout the history of the Earth. Whether taking place at this moment or three-hundred years in the past, there are no markers to place this occurrence in time.
I have tried to lock the moment away in my memory; capturing all aspects of this divine juncture. The color of the azure sky, the whisper of the breeze through the trees and the smell of new growth and humid air paints a mental picture that will alleviate my doldrums when the darkness comes. That would normally be during the middle of winter, but now it will be for my long stint on the research station. At lease I will have the brilliance of the Anomaly to relieve the coldness and colorless expanse of space.

In recent days I have been working on a new theory for our ever complicated subject. It all started when I tried to compose a response to my former student Lizbeth and relieve the conflict she has between her theory and the intellectual possibilities of the Anomaly. What if the evolution of our subject is so accelerated compared to our own experience that within the last decade the creature has gone from inert matter, to the intellectual being we are seeing emerging. We know so little about the origins of the creature, how can we make assumptions about the rate of its evolvement. Since its first discovery two hundred years ago it could have transmuted from a mere collection of electrical impulses into a complex calculated circuit. This idea has expanded my concept of the being to the point where I do not know where or how to place boundaries around my theory. When thinking in this direction there are so many unknowns that I do not know where to begin. I quite lost my train of thought when trying to explain this to Lizbeth that I stopped the message I was composing to her and switched to my research notes. I wanted to capture this new direction of thinking into our own study and not try and fit it into the picture I was painting for my former student. Again I have found another distraction to interfere with the wrap up of tasks I must complete before the fall. I will have to come up with another theory for Lizbeth. This one fits to well with the direction our own work must follow.

I must leave this idyllic scene now and finish my lunch on the way back to the laboratory. Mother is leaving tomorrow morning. A day earlier than planned since I need to head north the following day to meet professor Simona at her facility. Unfortunately I will not get to visit her incredible creatures during my visit this time since they are in quarantine before the trip to New London. The meeting is a few weeks earlier than expected, so I have some things to prepare today before I head out. It has been a lovely visit with mother. I will miss her clarity and straight forward advice in the years to come.

Love Annalis

A quick project to rejuvenate the creative mind. Inspired by a Bead and Button magazine article.

The amulet bag is now complete!

The pouch and the strap are now complete. Time to work on the fringe.

Making some progress.

My character Ellyna has been on my mind lately. I miss writing about her. I found a weaver pattern in a book I have had for many years: Uniquely Yours. I will modify the image so it represents my beaded tapestry fabricator. Maybe it is time to work on book two of her saga.

Created this dragon banner by modifying a bracelet pattern. It makes a nice addition to my workbench decor.

Dear sister,

A short note to pass the time as I sit and wait for my test to run. Mother will be here in a few hours and I want to have as much free time with her as I can. Father will not be joining her since he is busy with the tax deadline looming. This is always his busiest time of year and he has planned his own trip to Oxford in the summer. It is good to have time with both our parents alone. They always seem to act as one personality when they are visiting together. It will be nice to see the individual for once.

The Louvre has contacted me with an update on your progress to New London. Your ship is nearing the halfway point and they stated that everything is on schedule. After this the messages will be so delayed that there will be no update on your progression until after I have left for my own travels. It is still hard to grasp how far away you are from the Earth at this time. Since you are in stasis, this fact is not evident to you, but you are now crossing the threshold. From now onwards your will be closer to the Anomaly than to me. I hope our Black Swan will enfold you in her protective wings and guide you safely to your new home.

After mothers visit, I have one more month to prepare, pack and ship all the required equipment for my journey and research. It will need to be in the custom warehouse by mid-may in order for the clearance to be completed by my departure date in November. Such a long tedious process, but regulations on foreign material being introduced into the Alpha Centauri system and subsequently New London are very strict. I hope we have done our homework sufficiently or you and I will both have headaches at the end of our journeys. Whether that destination is the Phycodurus or the planetary body of New London, some major recalculations will need to be conducted if all does not go well. Luckily most of the materials we deemed necessary for your productions will be sourced from the New London environment. I envy these new discoveries that you will make during your time on the planetary surface. Maybe you will even find something unknown to anyone in your investigations. The planet has been occupied for two hundred years, but you have a tenacious mind. It is always searching for new material to enhance your creations; a new color, a new electrical emission or some other fascinating property. Such innovation will not have been seen before on New London. I cannot wait to hear what you have discovered when I arrive. Just make sure I can adjust my own work to your ever evolving creations. Our final product will not function if you exceed my capabilities to map your renditions wavelengths and other properties to the human experience. I trust you to keep to my limitations and the parametric of the human brain.

My test is now completed its run and I can button up the lab for the duration of mothers visit. Now for a bit of housekeeping before her arrival. My quarters are a disgrace.

Dream of science sleeping beauty,

Annalis

Dear Victoria,

I sometimes wonder how different my life would be without the innovative advances in epigenetic research. If these mechanisms for the information mapping had never been defined, I would not be a complete organism at this point in my life. Regeneration was a giant breakthrough using this innovative approach, and I thank them for their tenacity in solving the process of limb formation at the cellular level. Imagine a blueprint of life embedded within each cells chemical makeup. The final mechanics for this ability still are not fully known, but the capability of activating it within a specific cell location was a major step forward to understanding the entire system. Every time I flex my new hand these thoughts interrupt my current focus. I wonder sometimes if my limb is trying to tell me something.

Mother is coming up in the next few days to transport most of my personal belongings back to London. I do not have many items left here with me in Oxford, but there is still too much things to transport by mail carrier and also some things are too fragile. For one it would be entirely expensive and also most are irreplaceable if lost or damaged.
Grandmother’s tea service is on this short list, along with my collection of exotic plant specimens. Mother and father will tuck these away in our old room for safe keeping along with the items you have left. I think I will miss the tea service the most. It would be completely worthless to take this with me to the research station. It will also be impossible to find an alternative once I get there. I will have to forgo this daily ritual for the extent of my stay, since there is no practical way to replace the tradition in space. I hope you have found a suitable surrogate on New London. The pleasures of an elaborate tea ritual every afternoon is something engrained in us since childhood. I do not know how I will cope without it. I will have to find another vice for this calming activity; some replacement to realign the mind before beginning the afternoon routines.

I will keep the bare minimum of personal items for the remainder of my time here. It will hopefully prepare me for the years ahead and help me clear my agenda for the trip to come. Although my departure is still many months away, I must start the process of separation from the life I have known. For you it will not be as drastic a step since your final destination is the planet surface and a planetary life. For me I will be transitioning to life on the research station. A near military life if you think about it. Weekly safety drills, refreshed air and dispensed rations. Let us hope that is all I will need to adapt to. I will not even adventure into the lack of privacy I will encounter. I am trying not to think of that. I have a feeling the craving for wide open spaces like those I encountered in New Zealand will be higher on my wish list than any other amenities. Dreaming of a future where the dangers of a total vacuum are only a few centimeter away are gone. But the thought of being in close proximity to the Anomaly overwrites all these programs. It will be worth every inconceivable occurrence to be close to my subject.

Enough of these thoughts! As I have always said, it will all be worth the final realization of our dream.

Love, Annalis