See the space in the middle with the pots and pile of dirt? That was our garden space last year. We rented a sod cutter, planning to expand by about 6 feet to the right. Clearly we got a little carried away, and now we have about 400 square feet to plant in this summer!
Bring on the good times! By the way, renting a sod cutter is totally worth the money.
Our apple trees started blossoming this week. I am praying we don't get a late frost like last year – we didn't get a single apple! Isn't it amazing that each bud will turn into a blossom and into an apple?!
The past two weeks have been so beautiful, warm, and summer-like. We've spent a lot of time trying to clean the yard up from the winter.
Worms are a gardener's best friend. I found at least 10 while I was cleaning out the beds.
So of course, I promptly moved them to the vegetable garden space.
I love it when these plants start to emerge in the spring. I have no idea what it is, but it looks like cabbage to me.
The daffodils just came up! Unfortunately, we don't have many tulips here because the deer love them, but daffodils are in abundance.
I love this picture as these flowers are just opening.
We had so many downed limbs to cut down and move out of the yard. Some of them were really big!
I love when the crocuses start blooming!
They are just so pretty with their simple elegance.
I have to say that the second night of Banff was spectacular. I mean mind blowing awesome. It was so exciting compared to the first night. The only film that wasn't great was the feature film, Finding Farley. It was a good concept, but 63 minutes of watching people canoe across Canada wasn't that exciting. In my opinion, they could have told the story in about 15 minutes.
The first film was called Medeoz and was such a different and intriguing concept! The main character managed to capture, in one frame, the six master mountain sports: skiing, paragliding, snowboarding, mountaineering, speed-riding, and base jumping. It was directed and produced by Guillaume Broust and is worth checking out below.
And the night only got better! Africa Revolutions Tour featured a group of people who went white water kayaking all over Africa. It was really exciting to see them kayaking Murchison Falls in Uganda. I went on a Nile boat tour there once, but I can't seem to find my pictures from that trip. I hope I didn't lose them!
My all-time favorite film at Banff was First Ascent: Alone on the Wall. It was an incredible story of Alex Honnold, the world's best free solo rock climber, and it left me sitting on the edge of my seat for the entire film. He climbs without a harness, rope, or any type of safety feature. On April 1, 2008, he free-soloed Moonlight Buttress, but everyone assumed it was an April Fool's Day joke. Alone on the Wall showcases Alex's successful attempt to climb Half Dome in Yosemite, at amazing 2,000 feet high. You can see a small portion of the film here. I wish I had a better clip to show you, but it doesn't look like there are any online. I can tell you for certain, you definitely wont see me free-soloing anything in the future – whether its 100 feet or 2,000 feet!
Last night's festival was great. It was long. It was exciting. It was long. It was full of crazy adventure. But man, it was so long. The entire show lasted from 7:30 until 11 pm. Thats a little late for me, but it was still worth it.
In my opinion, the most interesting film was about a middle-aged woman who quit her consulting job and rowed across the Atlantic ocean. It took her something like three months, and she did it by herself. She out herself on a regimen to row 12 hours a day. Around day 37 her 4th oar broke. Then her satellite phone broke. Then her navigational instruments starting messing up, but she still made it. I couldn't imagine rowing across the ocean by myself. Something that challenging would take an amazing amount of tenacity and fortitude.
Here is a list of what is on the schedule for tonight:
Check out the trailer for Finding Farley, which won the Grand Prize and People's Choice Awards.
I'm looking forward to spending some fun, relaxing time with my sister-in-law today. The guys went shooting, so we have lots of time to hang out, go shopping, and explore Boone.
Woo-hoo its time for the Banff Mountain Film Festival Tour at Appalachian! This is one of the cultural/entertainment events that I look forward to the most. The festival features the world's best films on mountain adventure, culture, and the environment.
Take a look at the trailer for this year's festival. There is quite a bit of time devoted to the sponsers of the festival, but theres still a lot of good action going on. Enjoy!
Here is a quick look at the "film menu" for tonight:
I'm looking forward to my brother-in-law and sister-in-law being in town to go to Banff with us this weekend. I'll keep you posted on how the films are tonight and whats on the docket for tomorrow!
This is what I woke up to this morning.
You know its been a bad winter when the squirrels can't find food and resort to eating your trash can.
I think I'll put out some breadcrumbs so they'll at least leave my trash can alone!
So we had a few nice days of relatively warm weather. Now they're predicting 10-14" of snow Friday and Saturday, and I've heard rumor that we're due mid-February for an equal or larger snow than the 20+" that fell in December. I'm currently trying to plan our anniversary trip in May, and I'm practically drooling in anticipation of the sun and warm weather.
For Christmas, some friends gave us some Paperwhite bulbs to force bloom inside. I put them in water around the 7th of January, and they have already bloomed so nicely! Their fragrant smell greats us every time we walk in the house, and it is so nice to have a little bit of the outdoors inside during this cold winter.
The weekend has arrived! This weekend will be full of playing in the garden, working in the pottery lab, collecting flowers, cleaning the house, and all sorts of relaxing!
Here is a picture to start out the weekend!
Most of our tomatoes croaked due to the mysterious "late blight". Some of these are our early tomatoes, and some are from a friend. The varieties pictured are New Girl, Polbig, Cherry, and Yellow Pear (those are my favorite, and I can't wait to grow them next year.)
Make sure to eat some fresh tomatoes before summer fades away! Visit your local farmers' market in the morning if your tomatoes didn't do as well as you hoped.
Matt sent me this photo, and I think it is so beautiful. It came from Giada de Laurentiis's new cookbook, Giada's Kitchen: New Italian Favorites. You can order if from Barnes and Noble. This picture makes me want to eat butternut squash. It even makes me want to cut and peel butternut squash (which is no easy feat!). Speaking of cutting butternut squash, here is a useful video on the best way to do that.
I want to take pictures like this. I'm hoping to take a photography class on campus this year. In fact, its going to be on my list of things for 2009. Along with a trip to the Georgia Aquarium; making taller, more cylindrical shaped things in pottery class; and eating more local produce.