For the second year in a row - third if you count the year nobody came - our January Alpine Trails Book Club outing involved a snowshoe to Gold Creek Pond, followed by an afternoon of tea, snacks, and convivial conversation at my family cabin. Watching the forecast as the date approached, I worried that we’d have a repeat of last year’s epic snowstorm, making for lots of soggy gear and photos smudged and blurred by fat flakes. Happily, by the weekend all predictions of 7-8 inches of show on Sunday had vanished. Instead, our group of 15 set out under a low, dense blanket of familiar wintry grey, with not a glimpse of the surrounding mountains to be found.
Read moreLife: Week 2
After falling into a working-from-home slump late last year, and hardly ever managing to get myself out of the apartment during the week, I’m aiming for more weekday walks in 2019. This week, I managed not one but two - a significant improvement considering I managed only one in the entire month of December! We’ve had sunny skies and bizarrely warm temperatures lately, with only the bare branches to confirm it is in fact still winter. Andy is still ridiculously busy at work and wound up working both Saturday and Sunday. While I’d considered a solo Saturday hike, I wound up sleeping in, then spending the afternoon baking and cooking in preparation for my upcoming long weekend at the cabin for the January Alpine Trails Book Club. Sadly I’m sure there will be another full weekend of work for him in the future, so next time I’ll just have to rope a friend into an adventure so I have someone to hold me accountable for getting out of the apartment!
Read moreLife: Week 1
I started 2019 on the couch, armed with soup and juice, attempting to fight off a nasty cold. While it wasn’t the best start to the year, thankfully I’m now fully recovered. Even with my cold, I managed to make it through my three-day work week and by the weekend, was even up to a long walk in Paradise Valley. Thank goodness too, since an epic windstorm Saturday night meant we spent Sunday without power and it’s no fun being stuck at home sick without electricity to watch movies and cartoons! A long walk in the chilly, muddy woods was exactly what I needed to get out of my post-holiday gloom. All things considered, 2019 is off to a good start!
Read moreLife: Week 50
Knitting. This week, that's what my life was. Outside the time I spent working, nearly every waking moment was spent in a desperate scramble to finish all the handknit Christmas gifts I'd planned. I knit in the morning, I knit at night, and on a couple of days I even knit through my lunch break. In between all the knitting, I did manage to find time for a well timed brunch with one of my oldest friends. The weather was even nice enough to walk - at least at the time we left home. Andy and I definitely found ourselves walking home in some unfortunately cold and soggy conditions. Then again, we did find some pink blossoms on a poor confused cherry tree in our apartment complex, so perhaps the weather has been more vernal than I’ve noticed.
Read moreLife: Week 49
While I loved our non-traditional Christmas tree last year, I’m so glad that this year, Andy and I once again had time for our annual Christmas Tree Hunt! It’s one of the few holiday traditions that Andy enjoys, and even with him working crazy amounts of overtime, he was able to make time for our snowy expedition. While it had dumped snow in the mountains after Thanksgiving, it hadn't really snowed much since, so Andy and I weren't sure what to expect. It turned out that the snow along Smithbrook Road was so well packed that we didn't even need snowshoes. Our tree hunt was much quicker than usual, even with Andy's stepsister's young kids in the group, because it turns out it's much easier to pick a tree when you don't have to shake off tons of wet snow off multiple trees to find the right one! After we all had our trees securely tied down for the trip home, we headed just a little further east for lunch at the newly reopened 59er Diner. After hauling our tree home, getting it into the stand proved more of a challenge than we’d expected, since our tree was a good foot too tall! After some careful trimming, we managed to get the tree in place, and made a careful note for the future that with 1-2 feet of snow on the ground, any tree taller than me should be avoided!
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