Garden June 4, 2008

Grr. I am slightly annoyed because I just wrote a post and for some reason it did not publish and it did not save, and now I have a meeting. I will try to get it done before people arrive but it was supposed to start a minute ago.

As I was saying, I am attempting a small garden this summer. Unfortunately the high desert is not the most ideal place to garden. In fact the growing season is only 90 days. Our farmers’ market doesn’t even start until July 14th! I am somewhat pessimistic but thought I would give it a try anyways. So far I have planted spinach, lettuce, marigolds, summer squash, and zucchini. The lettuce is the only thing that has dared to come up thus far. I am nervous that it will soon be destroyed by a frost, or deer, or rabbits, but I am keeping my fingers crossed. On a side note, as development spreads into space that was once inhabited by wildlife it becomes more and more common to see wildlife in neighborhoods. One example is mule deer in Alamosa. They roam around in people’s yards, on the college campus, just hanging out and eating. I don’t blaim them at all but I do wish they would leave my garden alone. Here is a picture I took of a couple of them in my neighbors front yard. There are two more next to them.

To avoid the harsh elements of the desert I have decided to grow my tomato plant indoors. As you can see in the before and after photos the one tomato is growing slowly but surely. I am hopeful that more will come about soon.

Before

Now

If anyone has advice about gardening in the desert I am more than open to it!

Fun Filled Week May 30, 2008

So life has been very very busy lately. It seems like it may finally be settling down but I know it will pick up again in less than a week as I will be leaving town for ten days to go home. I am excited! Anyhow the last week has been crazy. Tuesday we left town for our volunteer retreat in the Rocky Mountains. We were fortunate to only have to drive 3 hours whereas the other volunteers had to come in from as far as Seattle and Baltimore. We spent a great few days in the mountains participating in various fun activities including catching up with old friends, hiking, contra dancing, eating awesome food and so on. Below is my friend Ashley and me who is volunteering in Seattle and attended my same college. This is right before we got lost on our way back down to the retreat center. Oops.

Folowing camp we spent the weekend in Denver and Boulder enjoying various activities including a Coors Brewery tour (no me gusta Coors Beer), a Rockies game, more hiking, and the dreaded Bolder Boulder 10k that I have been “training” for the last couple of months. Unfortunately I was not as dedicated in training as I hoped I would be and thus I was not really looking forward to running 10 kilometers at a mile high. Thankfully it was a wet and cool day and the energy at the race was amazing. I also had a great running partner, Erin (second from right) who made it much easier. Our time ended up being about 73 minutes which is not great by racing standards but I was very pleased. You can see how tired I look after the race. It was really fun though and inspired me to be more dedicated to running. I think for my second race I will try a 5k though.

I Love Sand Dunes. May 19, 2008

Yay! I got a new camera as an early birthday present and was able to plug in my old memory card into this camera so my pictures on my broken camera were not lost! Sadly, I was not able to take pictures for several weeks so those would be photos will never be shared. Oh well. In celebration I am posting pictures of the Great Sand Dunes taken just moments before the old camera bit the dust, so to say.

The Sand Dunes literally leave me speechless every time I visit. Part of this is due to the fact that climbing them is very difficult and I can’t talk, but part is due to their extreme and ancient beauty. The Sand Dunes formed because our Valley has very sandy soil (because it used to be a giant lake), is very windy, and is surrounded by mountains. The sand is swept away in the wind and ends up right here, against the base of the Sangre de Christo Mountain range.
These are the tallest Sand Dunes in North America. They are so surreal you feel like you are in another part of the world, or even another planet. During the spring months the snow melt-off from the mountains leaves a little creek at the base of the Dunes that you have to pass through before reaching them. No one knows how old they are but there is evidence of humans in the Dunes dates more than 11,000 years ago.

We didn’t make it all the way to the top but I was pretty impressed with my parents’ endurance considering they had come from Missouri with an elevation of 740 feet to the valley with an elevation of about 7,500 feet.

Its hard to capture the size of these dunes in photos but here is one of my mom taking a picture from afar for a bit of reference. She isn’t even standing in front of the tallest dune. Anyhow, I am happy to be able to share these photos that were at one point stuck on the broken camera. I have learned my lesson and will never bring my camera to the dunes in the future so enjoy the pictures here. Thats all you get.

Many a Thing May 15, 2008

Oh its been sooooooooo long. In the words of Emmy “I won’t bore you with excuses”. Many a good thing happened in the last two weeks or so. My parents visited, we attended a fabulous May Day party, I’ve started my garden, we have had several softball games, and work is busy and wonderful as every. Oh and very exciting news…. My parents sent me a surprise early birthday present! A new camera! yay!!!! It is exactly like my old one that is sadly sitting on my desk with the lens still out, but a newer model. Very exciting. I will be sure to be posting photos now its going. Until then I will start updating the blog with other photos that have been accumulated, including May Day photos borrowed from my friend Lares at the safari press. So here are some for your enjoyment.

This one was taken using a polaroid camera.

It was a very windy day so it was a challange getting all of the ribbons staked and ready for people to take hold without the wind ripping it out of the ground or our hands. Not atypical weather for the Valley this time of year.

We all weaved in and out of each other forming the pretty design on the may pole.

Here we are dancing around the pole as the sun sets.

The pole when it was done. Very pretty if I do say so myself.

Further Frustrations. and something pretty April 29, 2008

So last week I wrote about how I had lost my camera chargerand so haven’t had the opportunity to take any photos lately. Which is sad because there are a lot of fun things of which I would like to take photos. Well luckily (which turns out to be unlucky later you will see) I found my charger in my desk drawer. Why I hadn’t thought to look there before I don’t know. Anyhow I found my charger just in time for my parents’ visit. Yay! So last Thursday we went to the Great Sand Dunes and I was so happy because I was able to take my camera. I later discovered this was a very bad idea and I now wish I hadn’t been

able to charge it. Some of the sand got into my camera lens. It won’t retract. It is broken. They say I can send it to Illinois to get it repaired, but I’m thinking that with shipping and a lack of warrantee that repairs w

ill end up costing about the same as buying the same camera in its latest version for about $150. Which, as a volunteer, I most definitely don’t have. Luckily my birthday is in about 6 weeks so perhaps my parents will chip in on a new camera.

So that sucks and I still don’t have pictures to share so instead I present this amazing art piece that I discovered while reading fog and thistle’s blog. Fog and Thistle does great paper cut artwork which gave her a great apprecation for artist Jiyeon Song’s art.

Using a matrix of perforations, light passes through the pavilion’s surface producing shifting patterns, which transform into the text of a poem. It takes about 8 hours to see the entire poem, with each line visible for about an hour. The specific arrangements of the perforations reveal different poems according to the solar calendar: a theme of new-life during the summer solstice. During the summer solstice, the poem will contain the theme of “new life”. During the winter solstice, the poem will be on “reflection and the passing of time.”

The time lapse video on the artist’s website shows the poems through the day and seasons. Cool huh?

Busy, busy, busy April 22, 2008

Well I have not blogged in a great while and there are many a reasons for that.  Blogging is funny.  Its kind of like a belated birthday card or call.  You forget to send a card and then 10 days later you realize your mistake.  By then you feel like crap and keep putting it off.  Well thats what I do anyways.  The same goes for blogging. I kept making excuses today why I shouldn’t blog but I decided to just go ahead and do it because the later I wait the harder it will become.

One of the reasons I was hesitant is because I have zero pictures to share.  I somehow have misplaced my camera charger and so now the thing is out of batteries and I have no way to charge it.  Could turn into serious problem if I can’t find the charger soon.

So here are some things that are new in my life.

1.  I signed a lease to an apartment that I won’t be moving into until September but I am still very excited.  My boyfriend has just moved here and will be living there and I will join him once my year of service is done.  We have been busy obtaining furniture and that sort of thing for the last couple of weeks.  People are very generous here and always willing to help out.  So far we have been given a kitchen table and chairs, microwave, coffee maker, bed, chest of drawers and have purchased at very reasonable prices a couch and a washer/dryer set.

2.  I spent the past weekend in Denver with my good friend from college enjoying my time out of rural Colorado.  On Saturday we enjoyed the sun in her neighborhood park playing wiffleball and tossing the frisbee.

3. Sunday I came home and was pleasently surprised because one of the women that I know from our local knitting group wanted to give me a loom!  It is small and portable and one that you weave bands that range in size from very thin to maybe 2.5 inches wide.  So you can make things like bracelets or guitar straps.  You can also sew the bands together for wider items like scarves, handbags etc.  Very generous gift and I am excited to get learning on it.

4.  My parents come to visit tomorrow.  This will be the first time they visit my new home and I am excited for them to see where I am living.  We plan on spending some time in the Valley and then going down to New Mexico for the weekend.  Unfortunately my brother won’t be able to join us.  He is turning 21 this weekend and felt like celebrating with his friends instead of his parents.  I can’t imagine why…

Ok so that is a brief update.  I know its not super exciting without pictures.  Hopefully I can rectify that situation soon.  Keep your fingers crossed.

Cebolla Mesa April 11, 2008

Well I know this post is a little late as it is now Friday and I will be talking about this past weekend, but I didn’t bring my camera along so the photos featured are borrowed from the boyfriend and roommates. I had to wait for them to share them. This past Saturday was spent hiking in New Mexico. We hiked down a gorge to the Rio Grande.

When we arrived it was super windy and chilly but as we descended we were protected from the cold. Along the path there were pretty light purple crocuses in various stages of blooming.

The water was pretty low as it has still been cold here, preventing mountain snow from melting. Because of the low level we were able to walk along rocks that are normally under the river. They were so smooth and worn down from water rushing over them.

Even though the water level was low the river was still very fast and powerful. It was good to sit and listen to the rapids.

Overall a great way to spend a Saturday.

My newest addition April 8, 2008

So last week I promised I would soon post my newest item.  As I am mainly a knitter I have been spending the last few weeks thinking about how I can take a traditionally cold weather craft into the warmer months.  During the early spring fingerless gloves seemed to be a popular item.  That gave me the idea of toeless socks!  Now it sounds funny but how many of us love to wear our sandels but feel silly wearing them with socks in the cooler months?  Toeless socks would be the perfect solution.  You can wear your socks and keep your feet warm while your toes are free to cradle flip flop thongs or what have you.

So now you are all very excited to see the toeless socks, I’m sure.  Don’t get too excited.  I decided to do some internet research to learn about the prevalence of toeless socks.  I learned they aren’t super prevalent, but I did come across an equally fun and exciting project, yoga socks.  Essentially they are toeless AND heelless socks that allow the feet to stay warm while still gripping the mat. So now I present you with my version of the yoga sock.

The yarn maybe familiar as the same yarn used to knit the multicolor scarflette from a previous post.  It originally was knitted into a gently worn sweater that I purchased from my local thrift store.  I then unraveled the yarn, washed it, hand dyed it and re-knit it into these.  For those of you who loved the idea of toeless socks, do not despair.  You don’t HAVE to be doing yoga to wear yoga socks and the toeless socks may still make an appearance yet.

New items! April 2, 2008

So I have totally been neglecting my Etsy shop. Truth is I work full-time and often don’t really feel like messing with the computer after hours, but this week I have finally been reinspired and productive!  All of these items will be listed in my Etsy shop this week.For starters I FINALLY finished the lace knit beanie that I started AGES ago.  This hat almost killed me.  It was my first lace project and I learned that you (or I in any case) cannot possibly knit lace while doing other things.  The yarn is purchased from a fellow Etisan.  She unraveled a silk/angora sweater and hand-dyed it in greans, yellows, oranges and browns.  The colors were very earthy so I decided to knit a leaf pattern into the hat.  It was very trying but I am happy with the end result: a perfect spring hat!

 I also finished two coffee cup cozies made out of a Gap sweater I unraveled.  The sweater was a gap turtleneck, aqua on the bottom, mint on the top. The first one is all aqua with a diagonal rib pattern.

 The second was also a diagonal pattern but this one used both the aqua and the mint.  It is knit in a fair isle diagonal stripe.

 On top of all of that I am about half way done with a new project I am working on.  More to come about that one later!

Zapata and Rock Stacking March 31, 2008

This weekend I went hiking to Zapata Falls on Mt. Blanca. We walked right into the rocks on the frozen creek leading up the the falls which made me kind of nervous about falling in but the ice was so frozen this was not a problem. Once we are at the falls I found a part of the ice that was broken off and you could see that it was five or six inches solid. Still you could hear the water running underneath which was a little disconcerting. The little crack between the two cliffs is where we walked through to get to the falls.

The falls were still frozen which was really cool.

On our way back we discovered some rock stacking art and felt inspired to add to it. The top three rocks are our addition.

Then we made a couple of our own.

They are amateur of course and nowhere near as amazing as our inspiration at Team Sandtastic or Bill Dan.