The Happy Gardener

The sabbatical is over and C & I are back at work. (Well, we've been back for a week now - this is just a much delayed post). It was such a wonderful break. We got to travel across the globe, to the other hemisphere and see wonderful and wondrous sights. Beautiful, sublime, breathtaking, heart-aching, jaw-dropping, eye-filling, sigh-generating, smile-bringing, head-shaking and heart-stopping sights.  Over this time, I did a lot of things that I wanted and many that I didn't expect. I got to experience that happy state where you are glad you traveled and saw/did all the things you saw/did and yet, are happy to be heading back home. I got to be barefoot for 5 days on a remote island in the Pacific. I got to jump from a cable car with a rope tied to my feet and my heart in my mouth. I got to snorkel with dolphins. I spent an inordinate amount of time on my garden (and a corresponding amount of money). I never did paint, unless you count the coat of primer I painted on some of...

The brown girl is back from all her travels. And the reason you didn't hear from her sooner is because C, the slave driver, got her to "help" with his basement work. OK, this post is beginning to sound racist and even my not-so-strong conscience won't let this go. No no, a bunch of things have kept me occupied, the foremost of which is inertia. I seem to have given up regular blogging a while ago and I just couldn't get myself to get my laptop out after dinner, etc to write about something uninspired and uninformative. Not that such things bothered me when I was on the blog train. Anyhoo, to start things off, here's something from recent history.                                                ***************** It's 2:16 AM and I am eating a lemon-orange mini muffin that I am only minimally interested in. My right knee feels weird and I'm wondering if I am suffer...

Have more than a couple of incomplete posts but haven't really found the time and inclination to sit down and finish them up. Tonight too, I could have done this post an hour ago but instead, I spent that time being fascinated with the various options and settings that blogger gave me to redesign my blog. As usual, it was hard for me to pick one template that I liked but I realized that really, I could have a template a day, if I chose to. Having attained this wisdom, I promptly settled on one and here I am. It was a good weekend. An ultra pleasant visit to Seattle to see dear old J & co. And a lovely drive back to OR along the scenic 101. It's crazy because, after a while, your mind adjusts to the amount of beauty around there and tries to push it into the background. Around 6 hours of driving, all on simple roads, along the coast, evergreens all along the way, through little towns in between, with occasional photo stops, through a few mountains and one really cool bridge,...

There's stories of course. But the pictures are cooler. And easier to post :-) A few pics at home from last week And a few from last night, on the Historic Columbia River Scenic Highway...

It's been another happy day in OR. Was off to Portland to have dinner with some old friends. And on the way to dinner we stopped by this ginormous bookstore called Powell's. This place actually occupies an entire city block. An entire city block! and has diff levels/floors! Amazing, I tell you. I wandered away happily for 20 mins and didn't even get through half the store I think. It was so lovely to see the rows and rows of books out there. Of course, I just couldn't resist it - especially 'cause they also had used books that you could buy for real cheap. So I bought a book that has all that I want - something that I love to work on and filled with lovely pictures. Joy is in a book. I think the future for the female species is pretty bleak. I was driving last evening and was listening to some radio show where they were talking about how men and women respond to break-ups and how they deal with them. Based on the 20mins worth of conversation between the hosts and so...

I arrived in Oregon on Sunday night, past 11 pm. Having installed myself in the sweet, new and unbelievably clean city that is Hillsboro, and having spent all day Monday going about the business that I was here for, I decided to spend the evening visiting an old friend. The Pacific Ocean. It was around 6:30 by the time I was able to leave for Tillamook. It was dark already and there were clouds on the horizon but there are always clouds on the horizon here. I had done this route before, a couple of years ago during the day and I know that the drive is very pretty. But my free time on this trip is short, so I decided to do the drive in the evening anyways. It was a beautiful drive. The road is windy - I saw very few cars during the entire drive. There are tall, tall trees all around - trees that have probably been there forever. And it gets dark. It was around 7:30 and it was dark as the Devil's waistcoat out there. And then, I saw the stars. So many of them. I was amazed that I cou...

Ah! The crisp air, the slightest invigorating chill, the early dusks of Fall. The time when the lights at home seem warm and welcoming as you drive back from work at night. Well, in my case, the lights are all switched off until I actually get into the house and switch them on but you get what I mean. I am a happy camper. Have had a blissful set of days lately. From Mississippi to Reykjavik to back home in Boston. All those fantastic and wonderful sights and experiences. And just in time for that transformation from summer to Fall. Yes, things are good. The only fly in the ointment when I got back from my vacation was my worry about the upcoming Cape Ann 25k on Labor Day for which I felt woefully under prepared. But Goofy pulled it off yet again (Goofy is my guardian angel. Yes I have a name for him and yes there's some history to this but we'll get there later). Anyways, after just a 6 mile run the day after I got back and a 4 mile jog-walk two days after that, I was able to f...

Colorado is a beautiful place. I was out there for the long weekend and had a great time. I've been meaning to write about it ever since but well, things got in the way - in the way of my generally lazing through life. It didn't start out so promising, though ( and here I am referring to my trip, not my lazing or my life - though it probably could be applied to both). I was supposed to get to Boulder on Thursday night but on my way to the airport here, I was pleasantly informed that my flight was delayed and that this would result in my not being able to catch my connection in Dallas. After resisting their incredible offer to enjoy a full night's stay at Dallas all on my expense, I managed to get a ticket for a flight out from my home town early next morning. The journey out and the first few hours in Colorado were pretty uneventful and pleasant. Once S and I stopped sneering at the smaller Rockies, and the snow caps and 14ers made their appearance, all of us enjoyed the wo...

I've been light headed for a couple of days. Mostly because I pared down my long locks over the weekend. A nice summer cut and now I won't get the pony whiplash when I run. So I decided that I'll tell you the story of Bald Mountain. This was a hiking/camping/backpacking trip that P and I attempted three years ago during summer. It was, I think, ~ 20 mile round trip. It was somewhere in Vermont ( I am too bored to look it up now) and on the Appalachian trail. The plan was to for us to meet at the trail head, hike up carrying our backpacks (loaded with sleeping bags, camping gear, etc), camp at the top of the mountain (not the Bald One), and hike back down the next day. This is one of those memories. I doubt if I'll ever forget any part of it. We met around 9 or 10 at the trail head. We'd discussed this the previous night and we both planned to bring water filters so we could filter water from streams and other water bodies on the hike so we didn't have to carry t...

Back after a busy week or so and a fun, relaxing weekend in Cali. Tangent: Had switched on the TV as I picked up my laptop to blog and happened to watch Anoop Desai sing "Angel of Mine" on American Idol. Simon Fuller, after listening to the song, told this guy that he had (and I quote) "massive likeability". Massive Likeability. I like that. Next time I am asked to do a peer review for one of my co-workers, I think I'll put that in " X needs to work on his/her planning abilities but, on the other hand, has Massive Likeability". Back from Tangent: So came back after a nice break. It was just what the doctor ordered. A clean break from work and the usual routine. And loads of fun too. Got a chance to catch up with old and close friends after a while. Actually the last few weeks have been interesting like that. Old friends have been popping in and I got quite a chance to observe and learn more about them. I am intrigued by people and I think it's fasc...