Growing

Strawberries

Spring Garden Bed

More pictures to come soon. The pole beans, winter squash, melons and corn are all beginning to peak their seed leaves up above the soil. The raspberries are filling in their bed, and the tomatoes, peppers, summer squash and basil starts are all happily soaking up this intermittent rain and sun. Here's hoping for a good harvest :)

Remiss

I have been very bad about keeping up to date on this. It is hard to find the time to update my blog when I am so busy going out and exploring :)

Here is an update in photo-form. 

Crib Quilt for a Friend

Actual Colors

 

 

 

 

 

 

Work

Monty Getting Ready for a Trip

Leaves in Vancouver, WA

Portland Flowering Trees

Adventures in Biking: 2 rides in 2 days

End of Ride #1

 

Long Awaited...

Today is the warmest day we have had so far this winter, and I am planning on taking advantage of it with a nice long bike ride :) It is lovely to have the snow all melted, the sky brilliantly blue, and the temperatures peaking above the 50 degree mark. It has been a long day coming, I'll tell you.

In honor of this beautiful day I have decided to FINALLY post some pictures of my quilt. I finished this thing back in, oh, October?  But it looks kinda springy :)

floating block quilt: no pattern

I have also recently put some of my wallets up on consignment at Sun People Dry Goods here in Spokane. If you are in the area and are in the market for a wallet, check it out :)

wallet display

And here are a couple of shots of the various activities the good Dr. H and I have been doing recently. Just to show how very different today's weather is.

skiing, cold, foggy and windy

bonfire, buffalo dogs and s'mores

Pack Your Lunch...in Style

a plethora of picnic paraphernalia

sandwich wrap and placemat

matchy matchy

a healthy snack

 Pretty cute eh? I made a little set of reusable baggies and wraps. One more step toward eliminating waste :)
I can be such a hippie sometimes.

Adventures in Stamina, Heights, and Food

Last week was a brave week for me. I took my first ever rock climbing class at an indoor gym, and tried my hand at a new yoga style.

terrible picture of climbing gym

First off: Rock climbing is awesome. I really really like it. It is hard and a little bit scary, but I think it just makes it that much more thrilling. Trying rock climbing has reminded me how much I like to challenge myself. It also reminded me that I am quite out of shape :) Dr. H will be joining me this week for a class in belaying, and then we will get to go climb together!

Bikram Yoga poses

So...Yoga. Hot Yoga actually. I have been looking around for a good deal for yoga classes, and stumbled on a studio that offers 30 days of yoga for $30. Score! That is seriously cheap! Okay, so it is hot yoga...but I had wanted to try it, right? I showed up to the first class really excited. I left dehydrated, dizzy, and extremely tired. Fine, That is normal for your first 90 minute class working your butt off in 110 degree heat. You read that right. 110 degrees! Sucker for pain that I am, I went back to a second class on Friday. It was much better (meaning I didn't start to black out), but then the room was much cooler  (105 degrees) and WAY fewer people were there. I still went home dizzy, exhausted and dehydrated. People, I have never drank so much water in my life. And I was still dehydrated! 

So I still have another 25 days of yoga left at the studio, but I am not sure I can convince myself to go back. I mean running is just as good for you, and has a much easier recovery. 

I miss regular yoga. 

view from top of Tubbs Hill

Lake Coeur D'Alene

hiking

So adventure number 3 this week was going on a little hike with Dr. H on Sunday. The super bowl just doesn't do it for us. Instead, we ate breakfast at our favorite little diner, went on a hike on icy trails, and had a Birthday Feast with friends. All set with the backdrop of a gorgeous, warm-ish sunny day! 

breakfast

And my final adventure of the week: beginning a new diet. I know. SUPER fun. But I want to be a strong, slender, power house! I have been working on the strong part, now it is time to earnestly work toward slender. When I can eat a breakfast like the photo above, does it really count as a diet? 

Happy adventuring everyone!

January-Stream of Consciousness "Poem'

Here is a silly stream of consciousness poem I wrote last night. I like to do this as a writing exercise. I choose a theme, and then write whatever comes into my head about that theme. That's it. No rhymes, no iambic pentameter, no form, really. Just random thoughts. Most of the time they are really silly, but it doesn't matter. It is just a warm up - like singing scales. 

This particular stream of consciousness poem has only made it onto this blog because of the odd photo I found below. I found this shot while browsing through this weeks photos. You can't tell, but this is a shot of some rather delicate icicles hanging on the leaves of a vine. I tried to use my flash, and this aura-ed globe is what I got. It reminded me of something... Something I had written in my little poem.

 

January

thick with ice and heavy air                    

cold days and weak light give 

                               way to dazzling night

thick ringed moon hangs low 

with weighted load                       

time for sleep and 

                                gathered strength 

             

Since I'm snowed in....

I have made four wallets in the last couple of days. I already sent one off with a friend, so I have three left for you to look at. They will (hopefully) be back on my etsy account...once I open one again. I am also looking into having them on consignment in some local shops. If you find you must have one of these, drop me a note and we'll figure it out. Let me know what you think of them :)

wallets, $35 each

quilted, magnetic clasp

double interfaced, magnetic clasp

Finally

Winter has returned to the Inland Northwest. Five inches and counting. The girls are having a great time pecking around in it. Dr. H and I braved the wind, the cold and the snow to walk over to the local pub for some sustenance. All in all, a pretty fun day.

snow coming down

girls exploring

Update

No quilt pictures yet. Or pictures of all the wallets I am in the process of making, or of the food we have been cooking, or of the trails we have been skiing. Instead we have beer and birds :)

taps

HUB 7 grain stout

carnage from beer tasting event

neighbor's flock

our flock

lake flock

camouflage

Snowshoeing

The weather these past two weeks has been oddly warm. Mid-high fourties in the day, high 30's at night. This is a touch of spring in the middle of winter, and I'm not sure I like it. Dr. H and I recently recieved cross country skis as a Christmas present (thank you!), and we have been trying to get up to the trails as often as possible. THis last weekend, we threw our gear in the back of the car and headed up to Mt. Spokane to find the temps at the top of the mountain warmer than they were at our house! The snow was icy slush, and after a quick turn around one of the easy trails we retreated to the car to begin plan B: Snowshoeing. As long as there is enough snow on the ground, snowshoeing will be our back up plan. And with a balmy 43 degree sunny day, what a glorious plan B it was :)

Snowshoe Trail

At the top of the hike we found some snow shelters made by a local boyscout troupe. Neither of us had ever been inside an igloo before, so we played a bit in them before we settled down to our hot chocolate and cookies.

Here's to an active New Year!