Birthday Trip

For my birthday, C took me to the Shenandoahs. We spent 3 days at the Big Meadows Lodge. We had some wonderful meals in the dining room. We took a 10 mile hike down to Hoover's old summer retreat. The weather was cool and luscious. It was a much needed break from the heat and work that have both been excessive this summer.

Lovely Big Meadows Lodge in Shenandoah National Park.





The lodge had a fabulous "Great Room" with a huge fireplace and windows looking out over the valley. In the evenings, guests hang out here playing board games, reading, putting together puzzles and generally enjoying the non-electrifiedness of it all.
The fireplace in the Great Room was made from native limestone.

The veranda outside the dining room. It looks out over the valley.
Over the valley at sunset from the veranda. After dark, it was even more spectacular with the stars overhead and the lights from the little towns in the valley.

The cuteness of being Zoe

How could one possibly resist such cuteness? In the middle picture, she is asleep in the awesome plushy kitty tent my mom whipped up for me. Thanks, Mom!

Let me introduce you

Welcome and please say hello to the newest member of the family. I picked her up at the SPCA offices today. Her name is Zoe. Pronounced like Joey with a Z. It does not rhyme with toe. She's 3 1/2 months and was found as a stray shortly after birth with her 3 siblings. She is very siamese looking in her build and was originally described as a lilac siamese, but her points are starting to darken up and she has a very subtle stripe in her main coat. Sort of an off-white on cream sort of thing. She is still pretty freaked out about the big move to her new home, but is exploring and playing and being very kitten like already.

Flowers in the garden

Siloam Virginia Henson

Royal Mountie.

It has been forever since I posted for all my nonexistent viewers. It rained for about a week here in Virginia, otherwise it has been too hot and humid to go outside, much less move and breathe once you get there. I did sneak out way early in the morning when it is half a degree cooler to snap some pictures of my daylilies in the side yard. The first two were planted in the fall last year. In the intervening time, I have lost their little nametags and have no idea what their names are. I smartened up with the last two. I'm keeping a book with all the changes in my garden and I'm remembering to record what and when I plant things.

Otherwise, I've been too busy with work to make any progress with the inside of the house. Last weekend, C and I went to the National Theater in D.C. to see Spamalot. If you are a fan of Monty Python, I highly recommend tracking down tickets so you can see it. Lots of hilarious fun.

April showers.

We had a recent rainstorm. Double rainbow appeared across the street with a weird combination of super-dark clouds and glowing sunset. Later, I ran outside and tested my new flash on some lovely daffodils.

We all scream for ice cream

We had a gorgeous weekend full of warm breezes and sunshine. Sunday was the perfect day to head to Bruster's and eat ice cream in the sun. This is a peanut butter cup. Vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, peanut butter sauce, Reese's peanut butter cups, whipped cream, and a cherry. Definitely not for the faint of heart. After this one, I won't need another for a very long time. Very very yummy!

Amusement with my email name

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New door

I've finally gotten around to taking down my autumn wreath that I put up in October. Yes, I know it's March. Somehow I skipped over Christmas this year. I hit the craft store today and this is what I came up with. It's a nice mix of tulips, daffodils, and iris.

Spring blooms eternal

It's been an incredibly warm winter. After the wintry blast of Prague, I came home to some early spring bulbs in bloom. What a great welcome home.

Fall pansies merging with spring crocus.

Daffodils in bloom.

A close up of a crocus

Prague

Prague was more than just a little bit cold. It was sleeting, snowing, raining and windy cold. I have a pretty decent case of wind burn on my face from all the cold and walking around in it that we did. However, we had a great time and saw a lot of the city. Pictures will be coming soon.

Yes, I know it's almost March!

Astrid was just giving me a hard time for not posting any new picture lately. Sorry, folks, there hasn't been too much exciting going on. I'm sure nobody wants to see pictures of my dead, forlorn winter garden. There's hasn't been any decorating going on in the inside either. C. leaves for Prague this Saturday. I'll be following him a week later. We'll have a week to run around the Czech Republic. Hopefully, lots of interesting photos to post after that.

In more recent news, give a shout to my good friends, Mark and Astrid. Hopefully, they will have a new addition to their family today or tomorrow.

Christmas Just Past

I ended up working Christmas day. I'll be working again New Year's Eve. It's been the first time that I've had to work on Christmas. I managed a couple of days earlier in December to fly to Oklahoma and see my parents. Of course, my real joy in going back to Ponca is visiting the best burrito joint ever....Taco Stop! So now, may I present to you, my annual Christmas burrito!

Yet more tasty burrito action!

Thanksgiving break

The past few weeks have been quite hectic. My little sister came to visit over Thanksgiving. We realized it as been 4 years since we last saw each other. The visit was brief but we had a great time. With all the holiday preparations, I haven't had much of a chance to do things around the house. Instead, I'll give you a picture of the glorious leaves that showed up on the tree in my front yard.

Pardon the Pause

A brief pause in posting there. My parents left wednesday after a two week in and out visit. They spent a good portion of their time in DC and South Carolina with visits here in between. It was great seeing them! Dad finally got to see the house. They both did a tremendous job of insulating and drywalling my garage. Now I will have a toasty warm car in the winter. Thanks so much to the both of you!!

Tasty train food

Not a lot of time today, but wanted to show off an example of an excellent train picnic. Chocolate, beer, and a leberkase sandwich. Leberkase is a tasty blend of beef and pork that is usually sliced and served warm from streetside booths. Yummmm.

More craftiness

In a continuation of my wreath theme, I put this one together for the guest room. Up close, it has a dried, faded flower look that I like.

The guest room with the addition of the wreath. I hope to build a picket fence style headboard this winter after the garden is put to rest.

I recently found a book giving instructions on how to knit teddy bears. Here is my first attempt. The pen is there just to give you a size reference.

Here's a close up of his face. He's so cute! Handmade teddy bears may become my new standard baby gift.

Austrian photographs - not photographs of Austrians

This fountain was around the corner from our hotel in Salzburg. What a wonderful site to walk past every evening!

Fabulous summer palace and gardens in Salzburg.

The clock tower in Graz. The hour and minute hands are reversed.

Tasty Austrian breads in Graz.

For anyone who doesn't know him, C. is a certifiable coffee freak. Thus, the classic Viennese coffee house.

More pics of Rome

One of the great halls in the Vatican museum. Our necks were a bit sore after this museum visit.

The Romans weren't vain at all. This little sign was found in the Roman Forum basically declaring Rome the birthplace of civilized life.

The Mouth of Truth. Very cool....seen formerly in the movie "Roman Holiday. They think it may have once been a drain cover in the street. Rumor has it if you tell a lie with your hand in the mouth, the mouth will clamp down on your hand forever.

More roads to Rome

We took an overnight train to Rome. What a big, overwhelming city. There was so much to see and so much history on top of history. We went to a church that was built on top of another church and that was built on an ancient temple which was on top of a burial ground. Here are a few pictures to get you started.

We spent a good chunk of time walking to the top of one of Rome's seven hills. There were a lot of monasteries and cloisters up there. We found this cool building. Look below to see it.

Cool building, but what is that guy doing? Let's take a closer look, shall we?

A closeup of the door and its tiny little keyhole. C tells me this building is owned by the same group who went off on the Crusades a long, long time ago.

Peaking through the keyhole.

An awesome view of the Vatican (technically the dome on St. Peter's cathedral)
on the other side of that keyhole!

The Trevi Fountain. When I was here before, it was the end of February and there were no crowds. This time, even at the beginning of the shoulder season, this square was mobbed with tourists, cheesy vendors, and pickpockets. We managed to get close enough to throw our coins in...Thus guaranteeing our return in the future.

We looooove gelato! Braum's will always be first in my heart when I'm stateside, but real Italian gelato has it beat hands down. On the left is hazelnut and on the right is dark chocolate.

In the beginning...there was Paris

After a super long overnight flight to Paris, we decided to hang out for a day or so to get our bearings and walk off the jet lag. The weather was gorgeous, sunny and slightly cool. Here are a couple more photos in addition to the ones below.

A grotesque, not a gargoyle, on the side of Notre Dame. Gargoyles function as downspouts. Grotesques are purely decorative in a, err, grotesque manner.

The back side of Notre Dame with all of its flying buttresses

New Toy

As you probably know, on my recent Europe trip I ended up having major camera issues. First I broke my camera and then it was stolen on our Paris to Rome train. Today, I replaced it with a wonderful new piece of equipment. Check out the intial results below. I'm quite pleased with it

I like the contrast of the lavender flowers with the white leaves.

My lavender dahlias are doing fabulous now that the weather has cooled off a bit.

I've been feeling crafty lately and broke out the trusty glue gun. This wreath is the result.

Photos from the trip

C. was here this weekend and I was able to download photos from our trip. They are not organized and not edited, but I figure there are at least a couple of people chomping at the bit to see proof of our escapades.

I love the lighting in this picture. Our first evening in Paris was gorgeous and warm. We're looking south towards the Eiffel tower and the Left Bank. The other photo is detail from the tower itself.

Home at Last

We did return relatively unscathed last Saturday night after enduring French airport hell. My recommendation...If you can avoid any Paris airport, do! C had Monday off for the holiday, but I had to immediately go back to work. Hopefully, we'll get our pictures downloaded and sorted this weekend so I can post a few.

I have some gorgeous lavender asters and dahlias blooming right now. I would love to post pics but some heathen stole my (broken) camera off the train to Rome. I think that's an excellent excuse to get a new and improved device. Anyone have any favorites they can recommend?

As for our trip, I must say that Europe is much tastier when one can afford more than bread and oranges to eat whilst traveling. We had lots of fabulous Austrian food and I'm currently searching for a good cookbook so I can have an all out Austrian feast right here. Strangely enough, I already have a spaetzl maker so I'm good on that front. We had a very bizarre dining experience in Paris. La Cucaracha was highly recommended by the guidebook...Nevertheless, we should have been more wary of Mexican food in France. My beef burrito was bland, but tasty. Mexican rice consisted of white rice and corn. The beans were plain old red beans with a bit of cheese melted on top. C's enchiladas with mole sauce were spectacularly bizarre. Mole sauce should be relatively spicy since it is predominantly various roasted chilies with a splash of unsweetened chocolate. What was on C's plate was not spicy and could have been used as a dessert sauce. Yes, you read that correctly. C really had enchiladas with hot fudge sauce. He was so sated with chocolate that I didn't get dessert that night. Oh well.. The beer and the salsa were tasty and oh so worth their inflated cost.

The Hills are Alive....

We are now in Salzburg. We had a quick half day trip to Vienna after leaving Rome before we headed to Graz. C wanted to see where I had hidden during our second year of college. The place has changed a lot in the past 10 or so years.

Now, we are in a rainy, chilly Salzburg. Our plan is to gorge on Mozartkugeln and Sturm. More on that later....