• Hiking,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places

    McKittrick Canyon

    When I told my dad we were going to Guadalupe Mountains National Park for Thanksgiving he recounted his tale of it being one of the hardest hikes he’d ever done. He regaled me with a story about my brother and him being ahead of the rest of the Boy Scout troop, and climbing and climbing to the McKittrick Ridge campsite they were all supposed to stay at that night, however night fell and they ended up laying out their sleeping bags somewhere in the middle of the trail. Eventually everyone got caught up together but then there was an issue of getting water and the only place was several miles…

  • Hiking,  Texas,  Travel & Places

    Thanksgiving Morning From The Top of Texas

    We arrived at the Pine Springs Visitors Center at Guadalupe Mountains National Park somewhere around 11am MST. Patrice and Justin were going to be meeting us in a few hours and I was surprised that we’d arrived at the visitors center so quickly. That and we didn’t anticipate a time change though I should have figured that we were going far enough west to have one. The extra hour was definitely a bonus. Inside the center we filled out our backcountry slips and took a look around the exhibits, watching the video in the small room behind the main desk. Killing time, we decided to get everything together so we…

  • Hiking,  Texas,  Travel & Places

    Quick Thanksgiving Re-cap

    Husband flew home from Pennsylvania after a flight delay on Tuesday night. Delayed our intention of leaving for far west Texas until the wee hours of Wednesday morning. As in 2 a.m. wee hours of the morning. Arrived in Mountain Standard Time at Guadalupe Mountains National Park and was thus happy to receive an extra hour of hiking. Our friends Deal and Steadee who we know via the Appalachian Trail met us out there and we then climbed up the tallest mountain in Texas. Got my ass kicked by said mountain. Had salad for lunch…I wonder why mountain kicked my ass? Hrm, let’s see here…. Saw a beautiful sunrise from…

  • Gardening

    The November Garden

    Some plants are waning in the garden while others are waxing. The cucumbers, zucchini and corn are done. I pulled the cukes a week ago and got the zucchini a few days ago. The corn is still drying and will be ready to pick for seed soon. The rest…well, you will have to take a peek through… The lettuce mix we started is doing wonderfully! I need to harvest some soon. I haven’t even tried it yet! I’m excited for the beets. I’ve never had them and so this will be a great opportunity to try them out. Most of the carrots are doing well. I had to thin them…

  • Pets,  Thoughts

    Weekend Happiness

    It’s been a busy few weekends and before that I was in PA so I really haven’t had a weekend to decompress in awhile. This weekend I had absolutely nothing planned. My poor cats have been sick the last two weeks. First Samson came down with a cold, sneezing and all, and then I took him to the vet. I told the vet that Leo was fine. The next day Leo proved me wrong by sneezing. He was promptly fed the same medicine Samson was getting. Though he appeared to be worse off than Sam ever was. I went to the field for work for a few days and when…

  • Thoughts,  Travel & Places

    10 Places

    I came up with the idea to do this post after stumbling across Alastair Humphreys’ post a week or so ago. I’d never heard of Alastair before that night and the only reason I had was because I’d just voted for Jennifer Pharr Davis as the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year for 2012. I clicked through to see who else was nominated and followed through to Alastair’s blog and wa-la, here was this magical blog post. Actually, there’s a lot more magic and adventure with Humprheys that I will talk about later (I’m still writing/ruminating my Living Adventurously post). Anyway, I’ve been to some cool places in my life…

  • Creative,  DFW Portraits,  Maternity,  Photography

    Afternoon with a Friend | Maternity Photography

    Last weekend I had the privilege to do a maternity session with one of my best friends. Stephanie and I met while sailing on the U.S.T.S. Texas Clipper II during the summer of 1998, between our senior year of high school and freshman year of college. I don’t recall how we got introduced but she, paired with our friends Michelle and Rosemarie and my friend from high school Erika, all became good friends in college. So, that summer we sailed through the Panama Canal and down through the southern Pacific Ocean and to the Galapagos Islands and here we are in 2011 when she is expecting her first child in…

  • Gardening

    Garlic & Dill

    +More garlic are emerging and starting to grow taller. The dill on the other hand appears to be static. Grow already! +Our 100mm macro lens was returned to us from Canon earlier this week. It had been sick and needed a part replaced. Now it is working magically! +Enjoy your weekend!

  • Gardening

    French Breakfast

    You thought I was going to write about espresso and a croissant while sitting on a quiet Paris street? I wish! But, I’ll take these sweet little French Breakfast radishes anyway. Chris bought these seeds for my birthday and we planted them in the ground on October 3rd. They are now ready to be harvested and most of them are already pulled, though a couple are still in the ground. As you can see I ended up pickling them. I just wasn’t sure that I could eat that many radishes by myself. I ended up using a variation of this recipe. Most of them seemed to have an Asian flare…