autumn already?

It's been a long time since Eunice walked into and out of my life (more specifically my backyard) that sunny day in June. How did it get to be almost October? And why did it have to rain all last week?

I didn't know if it was the weather, the fact that Mom, Hayley and Cece came and left, or the cold I've acquired, but I've been in a funk all week. Finally, today I figured it out, or rather this All Songs Considered post did:

"For the most part, the Arizona band Sister Cities [admitted] it's a little tough to be unhappy when the sun is always shining. "

Not only do I appreciate this band/song for how much they sound like Camera Obscura, but they nailed it. I'm just not quite used to not having continuous sunshine. Don't get me wrong, I love fall and I love South Carolina, but it was especially good in Arizona when shorter days meant temperatures dropping, sun still shining, and the perfect time to do everything it was too hot to do in the summer.

But that doesn't mean I can't enjoy fall South Carolina style. With Mom and Cece's help, I got a lot accomplished in the backyard: a container garden planted, two plots rototilled, back porch cleaned up, and a wheelbarrow purchased. Now it's time to get back to my most favoritest of hobbies: dicking around in the backyard.

Mom gets stuff done. 

I want to get out there right now and start shoveling something or another, but I realize that a lot has happened since June, so in case you were wondering, here is what I did with the rest of my summer.

-- Caitlin and Kevin were en route from New Jersey to Texas and got to stop to visit for a few days. Luckily, they got to see some of my favorite things this area has to offer: the goat farm, a waterfall, and the Kays' lake house. Plus, it reminded me that those hookers better (and this probably hurts for some of you to hear) end up at Duke next year. Especially now that Caitlin has officially set a life goal of raising goats. Maybe I can help speed that process along.

The view from the lake house's porch. To its floating porch.
I think happiness may be linked to square outdoor lounge space.

At Opossum Creek Falls 

-- I went to the Edisto Island. It was awesome. There was swimming, kayaking, bike riding, delicious food, and fun people that liked playing games. And beer. Like I said, it was awesome.

A road on the way to Botany Bay, where we kayaked.
We also biked in a marshy state park with raised paths.
Are you getting how awesome it was?
(I did not take this picture. I took no pictures there.)

-- We tried eating wild plants, and kinda failed. As it turns out, arrowhead and arrow arum leaves look strikingly similar, but their tubers taste distinctly different. The latter contains a substance called calcium oxalate, which happens to be the exact makings of a kidney stone. Only time, not even beer, can fix the feeling of a million little nano-needles in your mouth, believe me.

Wanted Arrowhead...

... got Arrow Arum

-- the 4th of July was far more relaxing than last year. We played with sparklers and watched fireworks in Pendleton on the 2nd, then I headed up to Cece and Bob's for some good ol' fashioned R 'n R.

--Dad and I went to Utah. We hiked King's Peak (highest in UT) with no ailments to speak of except the regret of leaving the PBR tall boy in the car. This trip wasn't just a day hike. We spent four nights here among the wildflowers:

Pointing towards the peak from my yoga rock.
Stretching is essential for trips like this.

And the bugs...

... the bugs...
(Can you see all three on that 6" strip of leg?!)

... the bugs!!
(Black dots on the Boy Scouts' goat are 'squiters)
And goats!!

Actually, the bugs weren't that bad. They were certainly annoying, but like I kept telling Dad, they are just there to ensure that no one sticks around too long and mucks up the place. It's way too pretty for that.

We saw tons of awesome wildlife: itty bitty baby birds, furry eared squirrels, marmots, woodpeckers, chipmunks, mule deer, and even mountain goats on crazy cliffs. But by far my favorite was the moose. And when I say the moose, I really want to say the meese 'cause we saw several: male, female, and baby! If I had previously made a bucket list, I would be checking that off now.

Tiny birdies. Almost stepped on them getting water.

The mosquito breeding ground.

-- Kitty's summer was a little rough. After battling fleas for several weeks, we had to resort to a haircut. Needless to say, she was not excited but it's growing back nicely.

Wait... that's not Kitty...

Oh, there she is!

keeps getting better

This nice lady just showed up in my backyard yesterday. I guess she heard how good of an animal-sitter I am. Hopefully she'll stick around. 

Eunice and Kitty

32 days in and doing great

Summer turned one month old this week. I'm pleased with myself for making a list of goals in my last post, because now I get to go back and check them off the list. And I've done a damn good job thus far.

--made delicious things.

I don't find this picture particularly appetizing;
but chicken-fried venison cube-steak is still making my mouth water.
And sweet-baby broccoli was cool too.

--planted a porch garden. And found some "wild" tomato plants in my yard, courtesy of the chiggins. They are already blooming. I am beyond excited. I stand by my statement that it may be the coolest thing that has ever happened to me.

In a very short time, porch garden went from looking like this...

...to like this. Score.

--went to the best restaurant ever. It's called Grits and Groceries and I want it to be mine. Its own website can't even do it justice. It's tiny, delicious, and in the middle of nowhere (all the things I look for in a career). I ate praline bacon, fried chicken with eggs and a biscuit on grits, plus fresh lemonade; Dan ate sausage-cornbread stuffed quail with gravy on grits. And they just gave us a tomato pie on account of its broken crust. But the real kicker for me was the goat-food cups they sold to feed the neighbors.

Goats. My business model.  

Speaking of business models. Went to a wedding at the Chattooga Belle farm. I'd take one of them instead of the restaurant. Just in case you have one to give away.

--this guy rules. And you can even listen to his whole concert from SXSW. I have several times. Honestly, I didn't know people still made music quite like this. If I ever have trouble booking Stevie Wonder for a gig, I'll make sure to call Chuck.

--so many animals. Both wild and domesticated. One looking especially noble.

Sid, the office turtle for an afternoon.
Setting him free was definitely the best part of having him. 

Neighbor's dog.
Doesn't like men. 

Froggies who came from the million tadpoles....

...shown here eating a dead minnow.

Horned caterpillar.
Which I tried to spell capatiller.

Queen of the castle.

--I was particularly excited about being coastal this summer, but I haven't been to the beach here yet, and it turns out I don't really mind much. Rivers are doing just fine by me.

Waterfalls are the only proper way to spend an afternoon.
And the way I've spent three of the past four.

Ahhhhhhh... Summer....

i can almost count the days left til summer on one hand

So, I haven't had a lot to say lately, and I still don't, really. I mostly just want classes to be over.

What I can say is I love summer. My plans for my daily routine include the following:

--make delicious things all da time. and serious eats is really tryin' to get me pumped with this one. 

19 breakfast sandwiches

--play in the yard/rake the leaves/plant a garden/play with angimals.

--listen to things like this, and trying to remember all the stuff I learned in those dance classes I took.

--find more wild angimals (like the lizards at Table Rock, the spikey little guy on the mailbox, and especially the jelly fish (living in a coastal state in the summer just sounds like too much fun)).

--and when it rains, I'll just visit the Occasional Manatee

be careful what you blog about

So everyone (and by everyone, I mean Hayley and Mom) were all up in my grill about postin' up (sounds way cooler than 'blogging', am I right?) I knew I should cause I've been having some glorious fun since January and I wanted you all to hear about it. But a girl's busy (I am in graduate school, ya know?). So the other day, I finally go to write about my good fortune and whatdayaknow; karma slaps me right in the face.

It was a Tuesday, which are mostly devoted to lab work and such. (Caution: nerd jargon ahead) I'd been waiting quite some time to have enough volume of my four new algae cultures to do a real filtration experiment. That day had come.

Meet my new friends Nannochloropsis, Skeletonema, and Dunaliella.

Spirulina and I don't get along so well.

I did all the filtrations, which I had expected to take at least a couple days in the lab, in just a few hours.

Skeletonema is my new favorite, in case you were wondering.

Great success. I could not be prouder of my day's productivity.

So I sit down to try and figure out what other work I could be doing with my unexpected free-afternoon time and I think to myself,

Why not just take a few minutes to start a blog post, ride my bike home in the nicest part of the day, and have some time to think about what I'll actually write. Then I'll still have a couple extra hours to finish the post and/or lay in a hammock before I have to start the other productive stuff I had already planned on doing this evening.

I'm stoked.

Yes! Great idea! I love being outside in the afternoon! 

So about this post... 

It seems fitting that I start by mentioning how the weather is showing signs of Spring on the horizon...

In the draft, I had a caption about how it's non-full-length pants season.

I dislike full-length pants. I am also anxiously awaiting sandal season.

And that's about where progress stopped. All I could think was...

Yup. Time to go home. So I packed up my backpack full of stuff, changed clothes, and loaded up to take my mass of shit (too many three inch books for a bikeride) to study-buddy extraordinaire's workjob, and he was just going to bring it when we did homework later. That way I wouldn't have to lug it all the way home on my bike.

Google tells me its a whopping 600 yards from the lab to Dan's  place of employment.

To make a short story that I really don't feel like telling shorter: I had way too much stuff to be riding up the big hill out of the parking lot. It didn't end well.

We're talkin' pretty steep here.

Approximately 100 yards into my journey...

Dammit.

I spent the remainder of the day and most of the following day whimpering.

Those productive things I thought I was doing later? None of them got done. In fact, the unproductivity extended into the next day when I took time in my first class to pretend to take notes while drawing the pictures above. And whimpered silently.

Now I want to tell you about all the stuff I started to in that post. But I'm pretty sure karma hates it when I brag-blog/blog-brag/blag/brog? So I'll be as brief as possible. 

The weather has been nice. I've been having fun. I am now the proud aunt of the cutest, squishiest human I know. This girl has skills, let me tell ya. She comes from good female stock, of course. 

Senorita Cheeks: Ms. Haven Lucille.

Kitty's been doing very well. She too is enjoying the weather. And has started dating a pair of Toms. She tells me they are very good to her.

I went to a concert in Asheville a couple weeks ago. The band, Lotus, I'd never heard of before, but let me tell you. Fun-plosion. I've never been to a show with so much groovin. Last time I danced that much was Memorial Day 2008. 


I cannot wait for this week to end. Oh geez.

iPhones: bringing you more picture-licious posts since 2011

It's been almost a month since my last post. Shame on me. A lot has happened since then, including me acquiring an iPhone, which makes this blogging thing a lot more fun and a lot more colorful. Here's what's been up.

When I got back from Christmas break, my cilantro was dead (as expected).

So since then, I've started a tabletop greenhouse for some herbs. Cilantro, basil, and chives for now. 

These little suckers grow like mad.
I just hope they keep it up.

There was a snow storm right before classes were supposed to start. First day was cancelled, which got the semester off to a slow start, but I had a great time in the snow. Improvised sledding, squishy ball playing, and kitty and chiggin' snow antics. All entertaining. 

Squishy balls + cardboard + duck tape = infinite gaming fun.

I wiped off a little section of snow from the bench and put her on it.
She didn't move the entire time I was outside. What a weenie.

Totally unfazed by the snow.

School happened. No pictures to show from that, but expect some algae pictures soon. They are such a lovely color of green. 

I've done some hiking in the Clemson Experimental Forest recently. What are the experiments you ask? I wonder the same thing. 

The bamboo forest in the Clemson forest is purty. Think that's an experiment?

This weekend I went down to Atlanta for a concert: the Head and the Heart opened for Dr. Dog. Good show, pretty packed. I woulda appreciated more dancing space, but I guess that means I can't complain about the music, right? 

Stayed with a friend Friday night, then went to the Dekalb Market on Saturday. It's for sure my happy place. It's as if you combined Sunflower and Lee Lee's into one magnificent oasis of fresh food. I'm stocked and stoked for meal time(s) this week.

The produce: Japanese eggplant, arugula, pesto, purple potatoes.
(Have I mentioned how much I love purple?)

The cheese: thick-shredded parmesan, Maytag blue,
Bruder Basil (smoked and not processed), havarti.

The lone meat: thick ass bacon.

The finely ground powders: cumin, chili powder, coffee (organic, fair trade
Ethiopian for $6.99/lb? Yes please),  blue cornmeal (almost purple).

2011 is shaping up to be a pretty sweet year.