Spring Break'ish

Last year Spring Break was completely dominated by the Annual AAG Meeting in Vegas, which is really not my ideal locale for time away from school, although I did get to break away from the city and the conference to glimpse Red Rocks.

This year however, the meeting is later and I had the opportunity to take a week off (as such) and garden, read in bed, paint, travel near (wineries!) and far (Ashland!), and get a modicum of research done on my local project. School starts again tomorrow and I'm almost certain that tonight will find me burning the midnight oil, trying to make this week last just a little bit longer.

I went and picked out 50 rocks to try to separate the growing ground cover from the flower garden area...the bulbs are coming into their own, and I cannot wait to see what the transition is like. I'm trying to make it so there is color spring, summer, fall...winter'ish. I think I need some more bulbs, but it's our first try, so I'm going to watch and wait this year (and take pictures so I remember where we planted....)I started and finished Jasper Fforde's newest offering, Shades of Grey, which I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys reading dystopian themes and has a sense of humor.

And we painted. Finally. The back wall of the bedroom is now a beautiful chocolate brown and the bathroom has gone from a cream and taupe (read: yellow and brown...who does that!?) to white and purple. The bulk of the work is done, now I can just take the next 10 weeks doing the little things. We decided to hang the new tp holder funky to try and discourage Pocket from using it as a toy, despite the adventure that using claw shredded tp can provide.
Joe and I took last Friday afternoon out at King Estate, playing the industry game. The world changes when you bring bottles to trade and we were treated to quite the tasting. The following day we headed south to check out the Cheese Guild tasting at Rogue Creamery and then onward to Ashland where we sampled some brews from the local coffee shop, Standing Stone, and then"checked out" the canning line at Caldera.
Portland was also in the mix and we spent good time with good friends, traded up our film SLR for a digi, had a few research meetings and enjoyed excellent beer and food.

Some things that had nothing to do with school that I managed to do winter quarter, Part III

Play with dirt and rocks......well depending on the class I was in, there was some of this too, but in this case, it was in my own yard.
The front yard will always be a work in progress, which--even given my ultra uber planning mentality--is okay with me.
So for this moment, it appears that I was interested in changing the aesthetic of the front = bulbs, weeding, more sedum, Mexican red pebbles (not pictured here) and a tree stump too large to chop down for the fireplace.
Joe has also been working on a water capture system...

Intermission...

This appeared one week...I seem to remember buying the materials and making an attempt at planning, but I had nothing to do with the construction.
It's not quite done yet, but Joe turned our dustbowl into a nice pad.

Some things that had nothing to do with school that I managed to do winter quarter, Part II

Snowshoeing in the Giant Sequoia National Forest...

We hiked into a cabin (generally for summer use) and pretty much had the forest to ourselves for three days. Being completely surrounded by snow--and the enormity of the silent forest--was absolutely incredible. And at night, we bundled up again and sat with a nightcap enjoying the bliss that comes with seeing more stars than we have seen in a looooooooong time.

Some things that had nothing to do with school that I managed to do winter quarter, Part I

Make Butter:

I would never have attempted this without a kitchenaid...so when I say butter making is easy, I'm not being obnoxious...I really had very little to do with it.
Starting with cream...
The point of no return, whipped cream to milk fat and buttermilk:
Washed and unsalted butter:Results:
1 pint organic heavy cream = 1 cup buttermilk and 1/2 cup butter
Salted fresh butter:1 cup buttermilk = just enough for a modest amount of soda bread

1 modest loaf of soda bread = desire for braised cabbage, carrots and potatoes

.....mmmmmmmm