Two obsessions: Fall and Yurts

I love fall and I love talking about yurts. When it came time to plan ONE LAST TRIP WITHOUT BABY OR BEING A PARENT, I knew I wanted a weekend away in the mountains and a yurt seemed like the perfect setting. Since we're on lock down for holiday travel and my sister-in-law has a wonky work schedule, we thought it would be nice to plan a family trip in a some what central location.

The family pack drove in from all parts to Falling Waters for the weekend. The local coyotes must have known they were in for a visit. They welcomed us in on Friday night with late night howls while we were snuggled in our yurt beds. On Saturday morning, the men folk went on a canopy zip line tour while the ladies relaxed in bed and went to Bryson City for a yummy diner breakfast. We spent the rest of the day exploring the city and ended the day with the Tuckaseegee Terror Tales Tour trolley ride in Whitter, NC followed by some campfire fun.

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Maternity moments

It feels like the first three months of my pregnancy went by so slowly and then the next four months sped by and I feel like time is slowing down again. I'm thinking it's because I'm on lock down in the Atlanta area until after the baby arrives.

In late September, my dear friend Maigh consented to taking a Saturday morning out of her busy schedule to shoot some baby belly pictures with me. I love working with her. I feel so comfortable with her and we work really well together if I must say so myself. Here is a link to her photo blog page for a recap of the morning: Shooting Nouns. Oh, and she's not only an incredible photographer, but she's quite the wordsmith as well.

A Perfect Circle

This week churned up some blasts from the past.

R.E.M. announced that they're breaking up the band and their music defined a good portion of my life. It's the end of an era for sure, but not the End of the World as We Know It. Sticking with the music thread, this year marks the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind album yet another soundtrack to my youth.

Fifteen years ago, Greg and I went to see Beck with a group of friends in a small venue in Charlotte, NC. We officially started dating after a summer of shenanigans. As Laura mentioned in her toast at our wedding, she remembers me saying that I would marry Greg one day so that I could have curly-headed babies. It looks like my statement is finally coming to fruition...I hope the little one gets his lovely locks.

I thought I would take some time since it's been *six months* since I posted here and circle back before my life continues on in fast forward.

Tomatoes, tattoos and so forth

When I was seventeen I argued constantly with my father about rules and life decisions, but mainly about my curfew and where I would go to college. As I neared my 18th birthday, I remember writing a list of things I could legally do after turning eighteen and posted them on the fridge. This sparked yet another debate since one of those things was getting a tattoo. My dad told me I was more than welcome to get any tattoo I wanted as long as I got "D A D" tattooed down the bridge of my nose first.

My 18th birthday came and went as did my desire to get a tattoo. I just couldn't seem to find the perfect spot or the perfect image. Until now.

A dear friend, Maigh, has the perfect spot and I'm stealing it. She approved of my copycatting in February when this urge to tattoo myself resurfaced. I told her I knew I wanted something to do with gardening and my love of flora. I let this idea ruminate for a few weeks before it finally hit me when Greg and I were vacationing in Key West (click for trip pictures). A few years ago, I stumbled upon a gardening blog with a tomato vine tattoo and fell in love.

Before I get a phone call from Turk and Doris, I don't want the whole sleeve. I just want a small portion (tomato, blossom and a few leaves) on my wrist that can easily be covered with long sleeves or a cuff bracelet (thanks again, Maigh!). My husband says I have to wait a year before I can get it and if it still stirs me....go for it. Check back in February 2012 for an update.

The last of Italy

I'm not terribly certain anyone is reading these posts anymore, but I've enjoyed chronicling our trip regardless of that small fact. We left Montepulciano by taxi to Chiusi where we took the train back to Rome. We again stayed close to the train station since we were now more familiar with the area.

Since a good portion of our morning was spent on the train, we decided to see some of the "quick hit" sights in the afternoon. We started with the Cappuchian Crypt since Greg was really into seeing crypts. If you know me at all, you know that this is not my cup of tea....seeing dead monks' bones artfully arranged on the walls and floor. It was a lovely afternoon, so we strolled on over to the Spanish Steps. I'm not certain we saw much of the steps since they were crawling with tourists. Luckily, we were really just en route to the Pantheon yet another amazing Roman structure.

Our last day in Rome is what I would like to call our Catholic Day. We spent the entire day at the Vatican. We arrived to S. Peter's square late in the morning to a mind-boggling crowd to enter the Basilica. Thankfully, it only took 40 minutes to wait, pass through security and enter the Basilica. Wowzers! The place is crazy big with a seven story alter canopy (built on the supposed tomb of St. Peter), Mass occurring in a smaller alcove, dead Popes tucked into nooks, Michelangelo's Pieta statute, St. Peter's kissable toe and the spot where Charlemagne was crowned. After lunch, we were off to the Vatican Museum and four miles of art collected and commissioned by the Church. The museum ends in the Sistine Chapel where we were able to the enjoy the recent (1999) restoration of Michelangelo's frescoes.

Well, that was supposed to be our last day in Rome, but the 2 1/2 hours we allotted to make our flight was not enough. Several hundred dollars later, a night spent in Fuimicino and we were finally off to Atlanta.

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Montepulciano

Our journey into the Tuscan hill country and Montepulciano began as I nervously tried to decipher the Italian bus system. We were certainly venturing into areas that were not as easy to navigate as the previous tourist meccas. The 1:10 bus never arrived and I noticed one other passenger looking annoyed/anxious by this before the next scheduled bus made it to the station. The 2 hour bus trip was stupendous. I'm so thankful that we didn't rent a car so we both could enjoy the fall drive through Tuscany. There was some confusion with our bus driver as to where we wanted to get off the bus. We were hoping to catch a shuttle up the hill since we were warned of the tremendous climb, but he convinced us to disembark early resulting in a strenuous trek to the hotel. When Chizia greeted us, she lamented that we didn't take the shuttle and hurried to grab us water, wine and snacks. The B&B also featured a wine bar and was the most luxurious place we stayed on our trip...even views from the bathroom were spectacular.

Our time in Montepulciano was spent hiking the city streets (no joke), tasting wine and enjoying Tuscan cuisine. Montepulciano is known for its Noble wine variety and most recently as a location for New Moon (see pictures). We wandered the town's wine cellar tunnels and even saw a portion of an Etruscan tomb.

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Siena

We arrived at the Siena bus station amid pouring rain and no map to send us on our merry way to the hotel. We struggled through the wet streets with our luggage and no taxis in sight until we finally happened upon our hotel. After lunch, the rain cleared and we hit the pavement to soak up Siena in a day. We began with the town's Duomo before heading to Il Campo for some people watching. We shared a street pizza and beer on the piazza. Later, we returned to the same area for dinner where we took one of my favorite pictures (me enjoying pasta) and Greg enjoyed his favorite meal.

The following morning, we set out to take some pictures now that the sun was out in full force again. While we were sauntering about the city walls, we decided to pop into the Basilica of San Domenico. Low and behold, this church houses the finger and head, but not the body of St. Catherine of Siena. How's that for a surprise?

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Florence

Ahhhh, Florence. Our favorite city. Its wide, clean avenues, Renaissance art and fabulous shopping kept both of us happy as we strolled between our villa bed and breakfast and the sights. Our first evening was a bit of a flop due to the language barrier with our hostess...she sent us to a steakhouse for dinner where we quickly gobbled down some pasta dishes before making a run for the door and to a local pub we discovered earlier in the day.

Our big day in Florence began with the Accademia and Michealego's David. INCREDIBLE. I never thought I would be so enamored with a marble statue, but you just can't beat the majesty of David in the morning light. We walked along the Arno River in search of lunch and then back to the Ufizi area for people watching after our tasty meal. Once inside the Ufizi Museum, we spent over two hours looking at Italian masterpieces. A quick gelatto to regain our strength and we were off to see San Croce. Somewhere in there we also popped by Dante's house for a peek.

We stopped by our room to rest and massage our tired feet before heading back into the the heart of Florence for dinner and sights. We woke up early the next morning to score some sweet deals (Italian leather jackets) before heading to the bus station and Siena.

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Venice

We journeyed through the better part of a day and arrived in Venice just as the sun was beginning to set. We hopped on a water taxi towards San Marco and proceeded to get hopelessly lost trying to find our hotel. I think it took an hour for us to find a hotel just a few streets away from the square.

The following day began with church bells ringing and breakfast in bed. We started our sightseeing at Doge's Palace and then headed to the Accademia Bridge area for lunch at a much recommended tapas and wine bar. Luckily, we ran into a fellow American traveller who helped us place our (non-meaty) order and chatted us up a bit. We decided to see some modern art for a change and set our sights for the Peggy Guggenhiem Museum followed by a second lunch along the Grand Canal. Yes, this was about the time in our trip that we began eating four meals a day. On the wandering way back to the hotel, we sample sweets, lattes and found ourselves in a local wine shop offering 3 Euro 1.5 liters of local wine filled in recycled water bottles. We took our water bottle wine back to the room to enjoy before heading out for dinner. Our Naples hotelier recommended a seafood restaurant run by the owner of the Venice fish market so we proceeded to get horribly lost both going to and coming from dinner, but the meal itself was one of the best we enjoyed in Italy.

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Sorrento and Naples

We overslept in Rome and hurried to start our journey to Sorrento. I managed to correctly order our coffee in broken Italian that morning but ended up with sweets for breakfast instead of croissants. We took the local train to Naples (bad idea...take the Eurostar) and then another local to Sorrento. We stopped in downtown Sorrento before heading up Via del Campo to the hotel. Our room had a balcony overlooking the Gulf of Naples and Mt. Vesuvius. That evening, we ordered a bottle of Chianti from the bar and sat on the windy lounge balcony sipping wine and watching a fireworks display across the gulf.

We awoke to a sunny view of the gulf and spent the morning wandering the hotel gardens before heading down the hill to Sorrento for window shopping and a winding walk down Via del Mar to the waterfront. We ate a lovely seafood lunch on the water and climbed the stairs along the rock wall, through back alleys and returned to the downtown area. The afternoon brought in some rain so we napped and read at the hotel. After dinner, enjoyed an evening out with locals and tourists at an Irish pub.

The following morning, we enjoyed our the morning in Sorrento before heading to Pompeii on our route to Naples. We spent over four hours walking the ruins at Pompeii. We were both impressed by the city's vast expanse and Mt. Vesuvius in the not-so-distant horizon. In the late afternoon, we headed back to the train and found ourselves in the crazy city of Naples. Paolo, the most gracious host in all of Italy, arranged for a taxi to meet us at the train station and take us to his family home on Vomero Hill. He upgraded us to a suite for our stay and then walked us to dinner where we enjoyed the house speciality pizza. Napoleon pizza in Naples. 'Nuf said.

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Roma: Part One

We arrived in Rome at seven in the morning and watched the sunrise on the train to the hotel. We began our first of many hunts to find our hotel room and quickly shed our luggage to go and explore ancient Rome. Thanks to our Rick Steve's guidebook, we avoided many a line and our first day was no exception. We bypassed the line at the Colosseum and headed straight to the Palatine Hill and the Forum. Our guidebook didn't provide a lot of insight nor was there much signage explaining what we were seeing on Palatine Hill, so we wandered about aimlessly taking pictures and eavesdropping on tour groups. Once we hit the Forum, our audio guide kicked in and the ruins began to have more significance. Who knew I would actually stand near the spot where Julius Caesar's body was burned?

We were famished and ready to begin our Italian dining adventure. We popped into a cute wine bar and started off with a glass of red wine, marinated artichokes and mushrooms, and pickled onions. We both ordered the vegetable lasagna since we couldn't seem to translate most of the menu even with a menu decoder. I was more impressed with the first course and Greg happily finished off my remaining lasagna remnants.

Off to the Colosseum! We started up our audio tours and settled in to enjoy more history. I'm not sure how long we'd been awake...neither one of us slept much on the plane and it was now late afternoon. At one point, we sat down in the shade and we both started nodding off. It was time to head back to the hotel to shower and take a quick nap before dinner. We were happy to find out that we were upgraded to a suite for the night and took the owner's advice for a pizza dinner at his childhood friend's restaurant.

We wrapped up the evening with a quick stroll to the Trevi fountain, a coin throw to ensure a return to Rome followed by a pistachio gelato. Ah, Roma!

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Bella Italia

Rome + Sorrento + Naples + Venice + Florence + Siena + Montepulciano (Tuscan Hills) + Rome again = Happy Gwen

Vancouver, I love you so

I was fortunate enough late last month to go on a business trip to Vancouver, BC. I'm not usually a fan of solo business travel, but both the city of Vancouver and MPI's World Education Conference made up for it.

My first full day in Vancouver was a busy one. The volunteer project hosted through WEC began the day. We took a bus to Vancouver's north shore and learned about the salmon life cycle. We even learned how Vancouver's Convention Center has a fish estuary underneath of it to help the teenage freshwater salmon transition to adult saltwater fish. The second portion of the project took us to Lynn Creek where we spent an hour or so pulling up invasive plants along the creek and pathways. I had the duty of pulling up knotweed which was pretty close to trying to rip up bamboo with your bare hands.

After a quick lunch, I headed for a Historic City Tour again set up through the convention. We toured by bus, trolley, foot and boat through Vancouver's main neighborhoods. The majority of my pictures are from Saturday since the sessions kept me pretty booked.

The opening night welcome party blew my mind. It's been years since I've been to an event of this caliber. They friggin' lit the Olympic cauldron for us! There were performers of all types, a raw seafood bar as well as an excellent selection from the open bar all while we overlooked the Vancouver Harbor. When the party started winding down, I raced a mile and a half down to the Burrard Bridge to see the fireworks over the English Bay. What a day!

The remainder of the visit was spent at incredible educational sessions and networking events. I snuck in a concert one night and even managed to start one day off with a bike ride along the seawall at Stanley Park. It was a great trip and I can't wait to head back with Greg to take advantage of Vancouver's great outdoors.

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Beachy Family Fun Time Haiku

Gulf summer breezes

White, sandy beaches shine on

Warm, laughter-filled hearts

[pictures]

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June came and went without one post to my little failblog. Winslow was lost, Greg had sinus surgery, Winslow was found and Greg went to the ER for the most massive nosebleed ever. I managed to schedule two girlfriend getaways within days of each other and that's what I'd rather focus on. Shall we?

Trip One:

A co-worker shares my love of horses and bookish things so we hit the road in her sweet MINI Cooper. Our first stop was in Milledgeville, GA at the home of Southern Gothic Queen, Flannery O'Connor. After exploring the property and main level of the family home in the scorching heat, we set our course for a nearby horse ranch/B&B. The B&B was a tad dated, but the ranch itself made up for it with the abundance of baby animals: foals, fawns, gosslings, bunnies and puppies. Seriously. The cute o' meter was on overload. I also managed to fall in love with Madison, GA.

At some point during our planning process, it came to my attention that said co-worker had never been to Charleston. As any good Carolina girl would do, I made sure to include Charleston (specifically Folly Beach) to our road trip. We enjoyed a few days lounging around and we left Folly Beach knowing I would return in 2 days.

Trip Two:

There is a group of women that I exclusively belong to that share for the most part a single defining trait with me. We dated our husbands for at least 10 years before we got married. I call them the Greenville Girls and we had our first girls only weekend in Charleston this June. The highlight of the weekend by far was the Palmetto Ski and Outing/Greater Charleston Ski Club joint beach party on Folly Beach. We were the youngest *adults* by a good 20-25 years, but these people know how to throw a party! It rekindled my love for beach music after watching couples shagging on the beach. The dance, people. Add to that, a charming gentleman (probably close to my grandparents age) mingling among the beach umbrellas with shots of Almond Joy or Jell-O shooters from giant syringe. We ended the day watching a wedding on the beach topped off by a dinner of local seafood at Bowens Island. Well played, ladies.

Click for pictures and one quick video.

My favorite recent purchase

Just in time for berry season!!

Year Two of the Garden

I have a solid year under my belt now in terms of vegetable gardening and things are looking much better this spring. I have a few items still in the ground from the winter: two broccoli plants, one brussel sprout and a few rows of Red Russian garlic. The winter was so cold here, I had to rip out a good bit of the cold weather crops like the cabbage since they bolted as soon as it warmed up.

The spring crops went in:

• Sweet Georgia onions


• Yellow neck squash


• Italian black eggplant


• Black Tula tomatoes


• Sungold cherry tomatoes (a fav hybrid from the local farm stand)


• Yellow golden peppers


• Tam jalapeno peppers (the jerks that killed my eyeball last fall)


• Russet potatoes (started from sprouted pantry taters)


• Suko cucumbers


• Strawberries (rescued from the Oakhurst Community Garden compost pile)


• Soybeans and Blue Lake bush beans


• Herb pot and window boxes: lots and lots of basil, sage, sorrel, mint and an attempt at fennel

So, I ran out of room at my place and headed over to Danielle's while she was out of town to install Gwen's Annex Garden. She got a bit of the leftovers from above plus a ton of sunflowers for the girls and the birdies to enjoy.

Enjoy a few pictures. You'll see just how much Tamale loved having Winslow over while I gardened.

If you're missing me, this is where you can find me.

Thanks to my super duper husband, we now have a place to relax in the sunshine after a long day at work.

Aruba

Tonight seems like an appropriate night to think back on our recent Aruba trip. A week ago, we were just returning from a four day/three night stay on the lovely isle of Aruba. Tonight, I'm suffering from allergies with a low-grade fever of a 100 degrees (upcoming sinus infection?) and sucking on a freezie pop.

Aruba, on the other hand, was only 90 degrees and SO welcome after this horrible winter we've suffered in Atlanta. When I initially booked the trip, I thought the first weekend in March might be too close to nice weather here. Not so much.

We stayed at the Westin resort and enjoyed our most memorable meal at Passions on the Beach thanks to a recommendation from one of my book clubbers. Greg was impressed with the LED menus and I simply luxuriated in enjoying dinner with sand between my toes.

I have nothing else to report. It was a quick trip to unplug from the daily grind and spend time together. Check.


Click here for pictures.

6-8 inches in Durham

I recently enjoyed a weekend working in Durham, NC. It snowed. Enjoy some pictures.