Agapanthus, Yard, First Official Notice of something

I couldn't think of the name of "agapanthus." When I bought mine it was labelled "Peter Pan Lilies of the Nile." And before I can think "agapanthus," I think "australopithecus." Because my mental filing system is cluttered, I'm likely to call them australopanthus someday, especially since I've learned they're growing like crazy in New Zealand. And yes, yes, I know NZ and AUS aren't the same and they're not twins or buds, but from my point of view Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico have nothing in common but borders and highways, but I do understand if people from Australia or Texas can't tell them apart very well. Poor Texans have so much Texas history, geography and trivia to learn that they just can't keep the neighbors straight. That's okay.

Julie Daniel is the one who told me "agapanthus," at her house in Ashford, near London, last year. NEXT year (barely 2011, early January), Julie, her husband James and her son Adam, will be in Albuquerque to visit, and are interested in meeting other unschoolers (though where they live the term is "autonomous home education"), and I said I would try to stir some up!

Last January we did the serious SUSS gathering in Santa Fe, for parents and older unschoolers. This January, though it's not named yet, there will be events and some shared meals, but no "site" really, except my house sometimes. Adam is five, and so young children will be the focus again. People who already live in the area might host friends, and others can stay in an inexpensive motel (or wherever you want, but I'll find a place to recommend that has space and internet and not too far from here and the freeway). Other options would be The Hotel Albuquerque (not inexpensive, but walking distance of two of the museums we'll be going to) or one of the places near the airport, if someone wants to try to do this without an automobile at all. There's a bus stop within a few hundred yards of my back gate, and buses go to Old Town, where the museums are.

More information on things like that will come within a few months, along with a name for the plan, but it will be three days or four, January 7-10 or so. No reservations are needed, there's no fee, contributions of food might be appropriate a time or two. There will be fees to get into The Natural History Museum and to Explora, two of the planned meet-ups. You might have reciprocal admission from other museum memberships; you have half a year to check on that.

Here's the official visitors' site for Albuquerque. http://www.itsatrip.org/