This will be mostly photos since I don't have a lot of time to spare and it hurts my back to sit at the computer for too long.
I just love living where a hot air balloon will just skim by my roof and off into the field. This morning a crow sat on a craggy old branch of a dead tree in our yard and called, "Hello, hello" to me until I went out and took it some peanuts. No, really, it said "hello." It is who we call the Hello Crow, someone must have taught it to speak and it has been around for years. Fortunate happenings like that are plentiful here.
Just a couple of hours drive can take us into some of the most beautiful and remote parts of the state. Leave your cell phones behind but get ready to enjoy the opportunity to see so many starts in the night sky that you have a hard time picking out the main constellations.
I don't live in the city thus have not taken on the useless habit of venting at the traffic that gets in our way as RGBisMe drives. He is pretty zen about it too come to think of it. This attitude helps when we have to travel in and out of New York City to visit Asrai and Ravenboy. We leave a little extra time and thermostats stay cool in the car and in our personal core. Why fret? We will get there.
On the topic of dearest Asrai and Ravenboy I feel I may share the news of their upcoming wedding. Many will be shocked and feel the event in a couple of weeks has been a quick decision. I can assure everyone that their friendship that started many years ago when they met in Chicago and has blossomed into the most beautiful partnership. Well over a year ago, they started planning their wedding. They are very private individuals and have only shared the information with just their closest friends and family recently. Our next trip into NYC will be for that joyous occasion and we will return with them for a local reception for family that was unable to make the trip.
As we have been personally planning the local festivities it has been a very exciting and busy time. RGBisMe and I have happily been putting our heads together over supper in the evenings putting our special touches on anything we can help with and trying not to overstep our bounds. The wedding announcements were just sent out, the caterer is set with the menu, the baker has the cake specifications and the venue is booked.
A lot of the hustle and bustle of planning finally let up a bit after beginning of the month. I foresaw the upcoming little window of rest so earlier in October we accepted a generous invitation to camp with Jbzfarm! This past weekend was the date and we had such a good time catching up with them.
No iPod was needed to listen to, we sang tv show tunes. No computer was needed to surf the Internet, we filled our evening with lively chatter. No stars on tv to gawk at and poke fun at, we enjoyed star gazing in the Perry County skies. Not a chance of boredom, we enjoyed multiple board games, traded stamp carving secrets and sipped secret stuff from Sevoflorane bottles. All of that was our DOWN TIME at night!
Days were filled with local trails and tales. We walked to a pond which it is rumored will be dredged for a
15 year old cold case that is being reopened. A woman had disappeared nearby. We hiked to check on a couple of lonely letterboxes. The long standing
Old Growth boxes were in fine shape and the hitch hikers that had been long waiting with their thumbs outstretched were finally moved on. We visited the ghost town of Pandemonium and another cemetery of local forestry folks.
We didn't even make a dent in all the trails that this area of Perry County has to offer. Most tempting were the remote camp sites outside of
Fowlers Hollow SP that were near overlooks. The star gazing would be premium and no one around for miles to walk through the area.
We really must return. I know I slowed everyone down because I had hurt my back just hours before leaving. I feel badly for being the bent old lady and want to go back to hike every stretch of trail with freedom of movement.
Thank you Jbzarm for being gracious and never acting like my snails pace was a bother to you. You were the consummate hosts, giving everything and expecting nothing in return.
Even though we are probably at opposite ends of the political spectrum, it was great to share a weekend with a family that appreciates the lands of central PA. We were all patting the ancient hemlocks and wondering what their fate would be with the woolly adelgid killing so many. Hunters and vegetarians hiking together and enjoying their commonalities rather than picking battles and trying to convince each other that they must be mistaken. Friendships fostered from nurtured common ground are very satisfying.
The new Apple Store Upper West Side is a temple...
...at which RGBisMe worships.
A break in Central Park.
Strawberry Fields.
Imagine.
November 22, 2009 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We are to meet in Astor Court at 11:11 AM and the ceromy should be completed at 11:22 AM.
Groom and Bride bought the group rate and handed out passes before we casually made our way to Astor Court.
We trickle into Astor Court from different angles.
The ceremony begins.
Note the guard in the back. He was more concerned that no flash photography was being used. We were all very careful to keep our flashes off.
Vows and rings quietly and reverently exchanged.
A quick but emotional kiss.
We retired to another room for the witnesses to sign the papers and for some group photos.
A successful flash mob wedding! Congratulations Arron & Amy!!
This one has granite and no flowers, just vines.
When I experience perceived gender bias in conversations my first reaction is that I must have misunderstood the intent of the speaker. I do try to get clarification if I can. When I hold a speaker accountable for the gender bias, the most frequent response I have gotten has been, "Oh, I'm just kidding." I have also been ignored after standing firm on the issue of fair treatment by pointing out the bias. Forgive me if I do not have limitless time and energy to waste on people whose brick wall and righteous attitudes are that women are to be inherently mistrusted and put down.
At the Great Wall.
This will be mostly photos since I don't have a lot of time to spare and it hurts my back to sit at the computer for too long.
On the topic of dearest Asrai and Ravenboy I feel I may share the news of their upcoming wedding. Many will be shocked and feel the event in a couple of weeks has been a quick decision. I can assure everyone that their friendship that started many years ago when they met in Chicago and has blossomed into the most beautiful partnership. Well over a year ago, they started planning their wedding. They are very private individuals and have only shared the information with just their closest friends and family recently. Our next trip into NYC will be for that joyous occasion and we will return with them for a local reception for family that was unable to make the trip.
Days were filled with local trails and tales. We walked to a pond which it is rumored will be dredged for a 15 year old cold case that is being reopened. A woman had disappeared nearby. We hiked to check on a couple of lonely letterboxes. The long standing Old Growth boxes were in fine shape and the hitch hikers that had been long waiting with their thumbs outstretched were finally moved on. We visited the ghost town of Pandemonium and another cemetery of local forestry folks.
Thank you Jbzarm for being gracious and never acting like my snails pace was a bother to you. You were the consummate hosts, giving everything and expecting nothing in return.
Thanks to Janila, RGBisMe and I were able to find our 1,000th letterbox.
She planted a special Celebration letterbox just for our 1,000th find and packed a bottle of bubbly so we could pop the cork on the trail! YUM! Thanks Jan, it was a great day and we are both exhausted.
For the flowers and sitting with me to watch hours of cooking shows and cooking for me and getting me cold meds and watching me fall asleep to PBS's Pride and Prejudice again.
neo-pagan rites. I feel awkward at requests like these because what an outsider might notice would seem to be next to nothing. So many of the Esbats and Sabbats become so ingrained an intertwined with our mundane lives that the moments don't seem to hold much of what many would call a ritual. This forces me to have to explain what is going on, point out the shifts in the energies, audibly add back the songs and the poems that I now hear the universe singing with every cycle. It can take the magic out of the moment.
RGBisMe had to deny our new neighbor access to driving on the saturated lawn to move his furniture in. Instead, he is lending a hand with the big stuff. All this after clearing out 4 heavy branches from the yard and digging a 12' ditch to expand the new guy's parking space for his over sized vehicle. I love my big hearted man with muscles.
On RGBisMe's keyring are many different kinds of keys. The expensive one for the car that has some type of coding in it, the house key, one for his office at the university, a bunch of laminated ones sporting bar codes so we get discounts at stores and an old skeleton key that doesn't open anything we for us.
Snowfall
Spring brings this area many insect hatches, occasional flooding and the beginnings of poison ivy. Summer here can be hot, dry and plays host to of Arts Festival traffic. Autumn blows in leaves to rake, egocentric student pedestrians and more cars onto the local roads. Winter in State College can bring downed limbs, slick roads and power outages. 
What if you’re dissatisfied with other aspects of your life? Many people (in fact, the majority of people) are unhappy with aspects of their appearance (particularly their weight). If that’s the case, the realize that you are ultimately responsible for your weight, and decide to make the changes necessary to improve your weight today. If you need help, there are plenty of online sources of information available to you, and plenty of professionals out there who would be only too happy to put you on the right track!
The chill hit strong enough last night to cause our first frost of the season. Time to say goodbye to some fruits of summer; those delicate and thin skinned plants are withering in this morning's sun. Annuals, like basil, wouldn't haven't survived this first frost and we had been harvesting the seeds earlier this month and last weekend the final leaves became pesto.
