• Food,  Gardening

    Bounty

    I wasn’t expecting to have this much of a harvest last Thursday. It started raining around 4pm, a heavy rain, one that I was hoping would refill the rain barrel. I was glad I didn’t have to water as the last time I went the well had run dry, spitting air out instead of water and twisting the hoses around like one of those old 80s water games. I started poking around not expecting much but I’d lift a giant zucchini leaf to find a fruit waiting to be harvested, and cucumbers cautiously hiding behind leaves. It was a surprise every time I went to a new bed, finding more…

  • Pennsylvania,  Travel & Places

    Penn’s Cave | In Photos

    We’d just left Leonard Harris State Park and had lunch when we saw the sign for Penn’s Cave. The sign was a vintage appearing sign, white background with green and red lettering, something you’d of seen in the 50s or 60s while traveling. No address. We had to pull out the GPS and search for it to figure out it was 2.5 hours south of where we were at. We’d already driven 1.5 hours north of Williamsport that morning. Deciding a cave was worth it and that we were being tourists we went for it. We took back roads for the most part, winding and weaving through the mountains, past…

  • Gardening

    Late October at the Garden Plot

    I’ll start off with a major symbol of autumn and Halloween, the pumpkin. This one is the ripest of the bunch, there are a few more that are still green. I wonder when you really know to pick them? Squash are producing prolifically. Chris had hand pollinated a lot of the zucchini so I have been picking quite a lot of them. This monster was waiting for me when I got back from PA. It ended up in a butternut squash soup I made. So you could see the size of the zucchini fruits. As an aside, that t-shirt is one of my favorites. I played softball but not for…

  • Creative,  Pennsylvania,  Photography,  Travel & Places,  Wildscape Photo

    Four Mile Run | Sneak Peak

    Since Chris and I hadn’t seen each other for two weeks we were able to get a day off together this last weekend in Pennsylvania. I was being sent home and he was going to be there for a few more weeks. We took off to sight-see around Pennsylvania and ended up at the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. We snaked our way down the trail to see several water falls and then finally to Pine Creek itself. The photo above is just a teaser to the rest I am going to process later this week. I had a bit of fun with this one, it was my first HDR image.…

  • Thoughts

    Thoughts on Possible & Adventure

    This was taken on my last day working in PA. The colleague with me wanted to get her picture taken on the log and after I shot a few of her I thought that perhaps I should go. I was leery at first because Chris will tell you that I am accident prone. It runs in my immediate family; we drop things, fall, slip, trip all the time. I just saw myself getting on this log and sliding right off and into the creek and subsequently being soaking wet for the hike back to the car. So since this is the year of possible for me and now that I’ve…

  • Pennsylvania,  Travel & Places

    Same View, Same Week, Different Days & Times

    Morning of 10/17/2011 Afternoon of 10/17/2011 Afternoon of 10/21/2011 +The overcast definitely makes for more brilliant colors, I think. +I walked on top of the ridge directly across from here. Enjoyed a nice slide down the east side of one the mountains in the rain. Had some incredibly sore legs the following morning. +I will miss views like this the most. +I will not miss the cold weather or this seemingly consistent rain. +Heading back to TX today. +Will probably wish for rain when I return and want cooler weather, too. +HAH!

  • Pennsylvania,  Thoughts

    PA Wrap Up

    +Heading back to Texas this week. Chris is switching with me, taking my place here while I go home to our cats. Looking forward to being home again and seeing my cats and the garden. +I will miss the hills and beauty of the area. I won’t miss the cold, dreary weather we’ve been having here in PA. It definitely reminded me why I enjoyed Florida winters so much. +Back in April I read on My Topography, Christina wrote about contributing to The 3six5 a blog collaboration. I was interested so I signed up for it. My day was yesterday. Go check it out! It was fun to remember signing…

  • Outdoors,  Pennsylvania,  Travel & Places

    Saguaro Tree

    I really think this tree is trying hard to be a saguaro cactus. Sometimes snag trees will have character, but this tree was very much alive and a character of its own. No evidence of a break in the crease so I’m not sure how this tree ended up like this! Want to see it? Hike the Old Loggers Path.

  • Outdoors,  Pennsylvania,  Travel & Places

    Forest Magic

    Right now the forest here in PA seems magical. It is in the autumn transition of losing leaves and going dormant. Recent rains have everything glistening and dewy. Perhaps I could venture to say soggy! I know my boots are soggy each day I get done. So many different colors and every day it seems less and less leaves are on the trees. The wind sends so many tumbling down to the ground. Beautiful sphagnum moss A ridge top pond we found. These are more common than I expected. I learned that a lot of these trees on top of the ridges are cherries. They were quizzical little meadows that…

  • Outdoors,  Pennsylvania,  Travel & Places

    Animal Encounters

    Last Friday was a good animal encounter day. My coworker Ann and I had just set off down a dirt road towards the area we were supposed to cover for the day when around the bend of the road I spotted something brown. It took about half a second for me to recognize that it was a bear. I said “Bear” to Ann who quickly looked up and we stopped. The bear looked at us for a few seconds, hesitating, and then turned to take off from us. Having seen 20 bears on the A.T. I was not afraid, definitely cautious and was planning on the whole waving hands and…