summersummersummer and camping!
August 13, 2011
Not my favorite season by any means, but the upside of summer is camping. I love being out of the city and in the woods. Last weekend, we went to Round Valley Reservoir in New Jersey for the wilderness camping on a waterfront. Kasy and I had camped here a few years ago, and we remembered how absolutely gorgeous it was:
Last time we had ridden our bikes there, during a 4 day bike trip around NJ. This time, we asked our two friends if they wanted to join us and so we drove up in their Prius. The campgrounds are a healthy hilly hike in (3.5-7 miles) and we were ready for swimming when we got to our site!
So we went for a good swim and started a fire. The rainstorms predicted for the weekend began to roll in, but the temperature was perfect. We made delicious food, drank some adult beverages, talked, and laughed. The rain came and went all evening, with heavier rain overnight. No worries, though. The trip was still amazing. In the morning, with the area so quiet and drying off from the night before, we had coffee down at the water’s edge and made breakfast before packing up and hiking back out. For us, non-car drivers and non-car campers, it was wonderful to still be able to use human power to get to our campsite. It made the space just a little sweeter.
What are your favorite camping spots?
passing summer days
August 1, 2011
July is gone. In the blink of an eye. It was a very hot and very busy month here, hence the radio silence. Since I am still crawling out from under a pile o’lots of work for thedaytimejob, how about some visual treats of what July was like…
the first half of the month went like this…
in short, the first part of summer involved lots of outdoors, fireworks, drinks, swimming, cooking, a wedding, and some bowling.
On a Monday
June 28, 2011
All intentions to post yesterday, but the day got away from me as Mondays tend to.
I woke up with the grumps, as Mondays sometimes bring, and did not want to get on my bike and ride part of Kasy’s commute (as mentioned earlier). But I did it and boy, am I glad I did. It really cured the grumps, got my blood flowing, and woke me up. I stopped off at home, grabbed my bag, and headed to the grocery store with one word on repeat in my brain: WATERMELON!
After consuming one fourth of the watermelon, with glee, I got started with my work tasks. An email popped up in my inbox, telling me to check the Daily News as the article I was interviewed for and Kasy and I were photographed for had hit the press. The article is good press for alternative transportation in Philadelphia, and totally makes me sound way cooler than I really am. I think that there is some information, in the print edition, that perpetuates the belief that to be a bicycle person you have to be some sort of young urban hipster. That part makes me a little sad, since bicycles are the mode of transportation for the masses. It doesn’t matter if you’re a kid, an adult, in a suit, in cutoffs, rich or poor. It’s here for everyone and should be celebrated as such.
Kasy brought home the paper copy and we were stunned to see HOW LARGE the photo of us is. You can read the article here.
And, just to add a few more bicycle photos to the mix — here we are moving my stuff from West Philly to South Philly (crappy cell phone pic) and a few shots of things we’ve carried by bike. I’m going to have Kasy guest post soon about bicycle trailers, so stay tuned for that.
Happy Summer!
June 20, 2011
Tomorrow is the first day of summer! I’ve spent the days, since my last post, working on the house, on work, on some projects, and visiting with friends and family. I have posts coming up, but until then, here are some summery photos.
(The amusement of standing in front of a bed of ‘Winter Savory’ as summer is about to begin is not lost on me)
Summertime
June 8, 2011
The temperatures have risen again, making Philadelphia a hot hot place for the next few days. Summer is always a weird time for me. It’s my least favorite season and it usually makes me feel restless and unfocused.
For the next month, I’ll be combating that with working towards better health, physically and mentally, through bicycle riding. Working from home has made it easier and easier to ride my bike less and less. Even though, when working at Penn, my commute was only 5 miles (roundtrip) a day, getting on the saddle every morning makes it easier to get on the saddle more often and for longer stretches of time. Kasy rides to and from work, a total of 22 miles a day, with most of the ride being on the river trail. Today was day 2 of me riding partway with him, down the river trail and up a big hill in East Falls before turning around and heading home. Each ride is ~15 miles and it feels good to get up and get going, and get home before 7:15am. It’s so nice to ride through city streets before many people are out and about. Morning emptiness in Philly streets is my favorite time in the city.
Over the weekend, when the temperatures were still lovely, breezy, and low 80s at the hottest part of the day, Kasy and I took our scooter out for a morning ride to Penn’s Landing.
I love the waterfront and think it is such a shame that I-95 cuts the city off from easy access to it. Terrible planning. Penn’s Landing has such potential but a serious lack of community. It’s nice to head over there every now and then, and watch the boats. I need to remember to go there more often.
Kasy and I both love being in quiet places, near water, so this was a sweet way to start our Saturday morning. Now, if only we were watching the clouds and the water from the cockpit of our own sailboat, in a small town far from here. One day…
Maryland Sheep & Wool 2011
May 14, 2011
Now that a week has passed, and I’ve somewhat caught up on the to-do list these past few days, I have a few quiet moments to share some photos from Maryland Sheep and Wool. Seems to be a theme, since Bridget just blogged about it too.
Last Saturday morning, we shepherded Philly knitters to and from MDSW on the annual bus ride from Rosie’s Yarn Cellar. It was early for most, but we had coffee and raffle prizes. The buses were abuzz with chatting and the clicking of needles.
Arriving at the fairgrounds mid-morning, the buses unleashed us on the festival. My goals this year were to not buy yarn. I followed that. It was so hard, as I was originally toying with the idea of getting some Bartlettyarns Sportweight for my first sweater design, set to commence (self-imposed start date) in January 2012. Instead, I was free to look, touch, and take photos of things that my heart loved. It was weirdly freeing to quiet those inner IMUSTHAVETHISEVENTHOUGHIWONTUSEITFORALONGTIME thoughts. Instead I bought a spearmint plant, a tomato plant (Paul Robeson tomato, if you are curious), some excellent handcast pewter buttons with big sailing ships on them (to be used on a sweater on my knitting priorities list, so I’ll show them when that is finished), and an adorable teeshirt for myself and for a friend’s wee one. The day was gorgeous, and I got to meet up with some wonderful internet (flickr/blog/twitter) friends throughout the day.
I’m only had half a cup of coffee this morning, so here are some pictures to show off the fun in the sun at MDSW.
Project Spectrum, and other things
May 6, 2011
Lolly has started up another round of Project Spectrum, and I’m so glad she did. I’ve enjoyed PS in the past but have never participated in the way that I want to. This time round, I hope to change all that.
May is the color RED, so I took the time a few days ago to look at the red items in my life right now. Once upon a time, when I was 8, red was my favorite color. Not sure why or why it changed, but red has not been a prominent color in my life since. I gravitate towards the blues, greens, grays, browns, oranges, yellows, and pinks. Even sometimes purple, if the purple is right. Red is a rare color for me, yet I’m currently working on 2 knitting projects that are bright red…and I’m enjoying it!
Since May is also the month of Macro May, these shots serve double duty. It’s interesting to see how much more I’m noticing the color red, now that the month is “dedicated” to it. That Lolly. She sneaks into your brain.
Even a photo of my dear friend Maura fits into the red category. Well, technically pink but with the spotlight it really showed up as a red on my camera. (This is from the circus show I mentioned last post. She is pretty amazing.)
Since I am still finding that my yarn, fabric, and fiber stashes are all overwhelmingly large, I thought that I would do a Project Spectrum themed giveaway this year. Each month, an offering or two will be put up to win, in the color being celebrated. Finding red yarn in my stash is proving difficult, but check back next post. I think I have a nice little something something that could be yours. I’ll be doing the standard random number generated winner from comments, but will detail all of that when I show you the red giveaway.
In the meantime, I need to tidy my house and bake some cookies. Headed to Maryland Sheep and Wool tomorrow morning, shepherding the Philly knitters on the Rosie’s Yarn Cellar annual bus trip. I hope to see many people there, this year, including Ms. Project Spectrum herself. If you see me at MDSW, don’t be shy! Say hi! I’d love to meet you! Oh, I cut my hair, so this is what I look like these days.
Happy Friday!
April 29, 2011
We have a great weekend planned, starting with seeing our good friend Maura in her first trapeze performance. The rest of the weekend consists of cleaning, organizing, purging things, and repainting our bedroom. The warmer temperatures have settled into town, here, and it is making it hard to be in a bad mood. Spring has finally arrived.
Have a good weekend, friends!
Looking Up on a Tuesday Afternoon
April 26, 2011
I took a wee break from work to go outside to take a picture of this:
and then I looked up and saw this:
Inside, a soup just like this one is bubbling away on the stove:
All in all, an excellent Tuesday. Hope your day is also going well!
Happy Earth Day
April 22, 2011
I hope you are getting fresh air in your lungs and sun on your face. It is cloudy and chilly, here in my corner of Pennsylvania. I have beans bubbling away on the stove for a big pot of soup that involves low impact ingredients, as many of our meals do. Kasy and I talked about blogging a bit about what we make to eat for dinner and changes we’ll be making in that regard to ensure even smaller amounts of garbage and recycling. So stay tuned for that!
In the spirit of Earth Day, I will take this moment to urge everyone to get out from behind the wheel of their car and get walking, get biking, get public transportationing. I’ll be posting, in the coming weeks, about how we’ve managed without owning a car and renovating a house by bicycle.
And on that note, check out Kasy’s first fully handbuilt bicycle.* It’s replacing his Surly Crosscheck as his commuter. He’s been working on it for a few months now and is so pleased to see it finished. It really is a stunning bicycle.
*Kasy works in the handbuilt bike industry making racks, building wheels, welding and brazing onto frames, etc. This is the first bicycle he has built. I am so incredibly proud. Next on his docket is retro-fitting my touring bike, an ’86 Ritchie, with S&S couplers and new racks.
