Weekends and other adventures.

Oops, this post has been malingering in the drafts folder instead of being out and about...

Sharon and I have had some wonderful adventures together in Nashville over the past 10 days or so. Having a car in this sprawling city opens a lot of options not available if you are limited to a bicycle. (Well, one can bike pretty far, but you know what I mean).  Sharon's younger brother and his wife came to visit this past weekend. Sharon is a master planner of fun times and she did not disappoint this past weekend.

First, she took us on a snipe hunt -- err, a search for mating woodcocks at Bells Bend Park. Look at what we could have found but didn't:




Then we went to the Frist Museum in downtown Nashville, where we saw this very life-like sculpture in their new exhibition:

This was followed by ice cream and honky-tonks.

The following day we made french toast, then went to a huge flea market at the Nashville fairgrounds which only happens once a month. Sharon found a cool hat and I a weird padlock:

It has no opening for a traditional key. Instead, a magnetized key is placed alongside the lock and it either repels or attracts the locking pins inside into place to let the lock open.  I, however, do not have the key, but for $1 I got a good story and the chance to pick a very unique kind of lock.

After the flea market, we swung through the Goodwill Bins (quite possibly the most competitive thrift store experience ever), and then sated our super-hunger with delectable Chinese food. Fully nourished, we went over to the Gaylord Opryland Hotel where they have 3 indoor atria, each larger than the last, complete with rivers, waterfalls, fountains, palm trees, and plenty of tropical ornamental plants everywhere. If you're ever in need of a simulated tropical paradise in the middle of winter, then step right up!  Just take a look at this place, it's crazy:

Sunday we set off towards the northern terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway to eat at the famous Loveless Cafe.  This is a southern biscuits-and-gravy kind of place, and a plate of biscuits comes to every table for you to snack on while you wait. ( I consider myself somewhat of a breakfast snob, though, so I was not overly impressed with their version of homefries and my taste of Sharon's omelette was not up to the grade-AA omelette that I'm accustomed to at Honey's). Overall, it was good, but I'm not aching to go back any time soon. Afterward we stopped by Antique Archaeology, a store famous for its owners who star in American Pickers.  We swung through the store fairly quickly (t-shirts, stickers, and expensive antiques) and made our way to the Vanderbilt area, where we walked over to the Parthenon replica then had a mid-afternoon treat  of gourmet popsicles at Las Paletas.

Afterwards we parted ways with the younger set -- they headed back to Knoxville, and we facilitated a workshop on seed-saving.  It was a fun weekend filled with long walks and good talks.

Thursday we start driving north to Philadelphia for spring break (or as it's better known, SPRING BREAK!!!)!

The waiting game.

Well, since my last post sounded so dire, I felt that I should update what's going on with me. First off, luckily I am in very little pain (almost no pain) right now, for which I am very thankful. I do feel a little guilty being off work for an injury but not being in pain to the point that I can't carry on with my normal activities (though I'm sure if I was lifting 50lb-logs all day I would indeed be in a lot of pain). Next Tuesday I have outpatient surgery and then begin my 6-8 weeks of recovery. It's strange to think that I have yet to begin my recovery process, but that's just how it is.

So how have I been spending my time? Well, I've been hesitating to mention publicly that I applied to a graduate program last fall (for fear of not being accepted and everyone knowing, of course). This particular program runs its admission process somewhat differently than most: they invite the top 10 candidates to the school for a weekend of interviewing, meetings, get-to-know-you events and such. At the end of the weekend they decide which 5 to keep. Survivor weekend. So, that weekend is this weekend, and I'm stressing out about it. I need to prepare a 5-minute presentation and for an interview with the selection committee. I had to go shopping for clothes because I need to be in a jacket and tie for the entire weekend (um, some wardrobe gaps had to be filled). To be perfectly honest I hate jackets, mostly because I feel like a little kid wearing adult clothes. They're always too big even when they are "my size." The jackets at thrift stores are okay, but man -- is everyone that much bigger than I am? I guess so. Anyhow, here's the jacket that makes me feel all slim and trim:

 

Pretty great photo, huh?

While I've been out and about in the city, I've been going to free lectures at the Philadelphia library and Academy of Natural Sciences. One was on Haiti and environmental degradation; honestly, I was more informed about reforestation/deforestation than either of the presenters, but I just sat quietly and didn't say much. I was surprised that most of the photos were "borrowed" from this photographer. Granted, neither of the presenters work in reforestation (one was a sociologist and the other a herpetologist), but I still expected more. 

Afterward one attendee asked me why I was there, and told me that he goes to Haiti for 2 weeks every year and has done so for over 25 years. When he asked if I go back to Haiti regularly, I told him I had no plans to return. He asked why, and I said that to always stand out as a white/Westerner is not easy for someone like me. He replied that he felt very comfortable in Haiti and then walked away. This made me somewhat mad, as I spent two years in the Haitian countryside living and working through floods, earthquakes, etc., and this guy goes for two weeks a year with his supply of money and aid projects, where he is most likely treated like a movie star, and then he leaves. Why wouldn't he like Haiti?  Yes, apparently this is something of a raw nerve for me.  

The other talk I attended was about the race to the south pole in the early 1900s.  It was somewhat interesting, but it really make me realize how different our world is today. These guys spent years preparing for the trip, years on the trip, and then many died in the process. Today people fly down in helicopters and go to Antarctica on cruises.

I've also been trying to find small gardens in Philadelphia to explore, and I found a nice little historic garden at the Pennsylvania Hospital. It's a "Physic" garden, and while not in its prime right now, it looks like a nice place to come back and check on again in the spring or summer:

It's mostly an herb garden, which is nice, as I have been admiring small herb/kitchen gardens for a little while and definitely like finding them in the city. There is something very nice about the interaction of city life and plants that I just don't see in the suburbs or in rural areas. The persistence of plants growing in urban areas is always encouraging to me. When I see a similar plant growing in the suburbs without a care in the world, (besides being tended too much by an overzealous gardener), I want to take it on a field trip to see how its city cousins are doing.  Cities + plants = happy me.

I will hear back from the program selection committee shortly after the interview weekend, so by this time next week I should know about the program -- and be a few days into my actual recovery process. Wish me luck!

May review/June preview

 Sideyard = only place to be on long summer evenings.

 

  

What's a month-long silence between friends?

 

Those of you who still mosey over to our corner of the blogosphere have probably noticed that things have been a little quiet around here. We've been preoccupied with doing things like seeing each other in person (!), celebrating the holidays, and generally taking a break from our online life. Now that I'm headed back to Nashville tomorrow to start the spring semester, we figured we should reactivate our blog for the new year. 

 

And what better way to do so than with low-light, high-drama photos from Longwood Gardens? We canceled our pre-Christmas visit because of snow, so we actually just went on Thursday. Highly recommended.

 

 

 

  
More soon -- promise. 

Weekend in the...city?

Yes, we've gone agricultural again, what with all the blueberry picking in New Jersey...

 And the hours of labor in the side yard:  

(Yes, that is a bag of trash, but hey! It's bagged up!)

I should have taken photos before we got started, because then you'd be super-impressed at the amount of work that went into getting the side yard to this point. It may not look like much more than a trash garden to you, but at least now we can see what's happening and make a real plan.

I was going to say we cheated a little and got a few starter plants, but a.) it's almost July already, so we needed to get a move on; and b.) we also planted seeds.  

I have to move to Nashville in just about seven (short) weeks, but I was thinking that if my Philadelphia legacy is a sprightly little garden and a freezer packed with blueberries, that's really not so bad. Not bad at all.