Coulee to Banff

The next leg of our journey has taken us to Alberta, Canada. I am currently posting from the hostel in Lake Louise in Banff National Park (Canadian Rockies). The computer is being difficult and slow, so I don’t have photos from before today right now. The computer freaked out when I put the DVD of photos in it and so I am just hoping that it didn’t erase/write over anything because I cleared our camera card and all previous photos are on the DVD. Trying not to panic…

Regardless, I have things to write about. We went to the last Terry wedding in Lethbridge first. The wedding and times with friends (and my favorite 1-year-old!) were enriching and rejuvenating.

I was very enthralled by the coulee (below). It was beautiful. Here are some more photos.

The Coulee in Lethbridge. You have to imagine a completely flat prarie as far as the eye can see, and then picture this glacial gorge carved out in the middle of nowhere. That is the coulee. It is still prarie - there are no trees - so you are see specks of people hiking far, far away.

Then today we took a bus from Lethbridge to here in Lake Louise.  It was a beautiful ride through the park and through a giant electrical storm. No sleeping on this leg of bus rides. Banff is beautiful. We arrived tired and hungry, but now I am just tired. Tomorrow we head out for a 4-day backpacking excursion into the Skoki Valley.

View from the bus after a stop in Banff (the town).

This computer is slower than those I used last summer in Costa Rica, so I’m going to bed and may try again in the morning. Or you may have to wait until I am home again. Good night!

wine makes me sleepy

J&C took us on a fantastic winery tour through napa valley today. It was great fun and definitely made me sleepy. But I am not sleeping…I am blogging. Oh well.

 

Our first stop was Goosecross Cellars. The pourer was generous with the portions and the wines were fabulous. We picked up a bottle of Chenin Blanc. 

Next stop was lunch at the Napa Grill. Also amazing. Then we proceeded to Rombauer.

We finished our tour with a stop at the Chateau Montelena. This is the winery in the movie Bottle Shock about the 1970’s win of California wines over French wines in a blind taste test. The Chardonnay was spectacular. 

Tonight we will finish up our stay here in Santa Rosa with some mexican food and a visit to Yogurt Time.

Calanada 2009: Santa Rosa

j&c at russian river

We are out and about traveling the continent. 1st stop is Santa Rosa, California to visit our riends Josh and Carrie. We have been to the redwoods, the rocky coast, Russian River Brewery, Bear Republic Brewery, Haight-Asbury, and two skateparks. Here are some pictures. Got to go sleep. Wineries are on the schedule tomorrow and hopefully Telegraph Hill before we fly to Calgary, Alberta on Wednesday.

I had been here as a kid, but don't remember it well. It was great to go and be a kid again.

c's car doesn't have a/c so we have had some windy car rides

i absolutely loved this...goat rock

up high on a bluff, looking down...have i mentioned i love cliffs?

sebastopol park

sf park

Pending

3 days left. This is truely my favorite part of the year. I am trying to soak up every minute of time I have with my favorite children. In my third year of teaching I think I finally have gotten myself organized enough to have enough energy to make it to the end. I have very little patience left but I am able to absorb the good moments when they come. And this week I am finding that the more I relax and just enjoy being with my students, the more I realize I will miss them. And the more I realize that I lost so many opportunities to say what they really need to hear.

…must not cry yet.

Instead, let us laugh about my insane schedule for the next 6 days:

Faculty breakfast, morning tv cast and crew breakfast, per 2 breakfast and film editing, per 3 breakfast and film editing, per 4 movie editing and watching, per 5 finishing filming, per 6 editing, outdoor club bbq, 5th wedding anniversary, youth group bbq, class day (= 300 students on inflatables and playing games) with bbq, finish all 5 films, export and burn films (this takes forever), breakfast with homerooms, awards ceremony, screening the 5 films, ice cream party, goodbyes, dress shopping, clean room, clean room, clean room, grade 8 faculty party (and remember to take off my e-brake this year!).

So the real question is…will I ever be able to eat muffins or a burger again?

Film Synopses:
Per 2: We are the knights who say TREE!
Per 3: mutant midgets brutally murder innocent people
Per 4: I’m on a boat, litterbuggers, don’t you ever forget!
Per 5:  color is a distant myth in a polluted world until one girl is inspired by a colored dream
Per 6: Recycling Olympics 

 

from the top of Mt. Moosilauke in NH

Planting Chives in the Dark

This is the most exhausting and splendiferous time of my year. My life is a non-stop party of intensive film production, travel, food, teens and breaking the mold of who a “teacher” is supposed to be (example: screaming down the hallway “I don’t like spam!” in a British accent).

As my classroom aide said the other day, “This is your favorite time of year, isn’t it?”

Yes it is.

When I have energy and am happy my students can rightly assume that I have had caffeine. Right now they are very confused because I act caffeinated, but swear I have had none. Some teachers continue teaching in June, others pop in movie after movie, but I temporarily forget I am a science teacher and instead teach filmmaking and take students backpacking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. 

The world is green again, I am teaching whatever I want, and I am missing three days of school to backpack. I may not get paid for Outdoor Club, but I do get to miss three days of school at the end of the year. Priceless.

 

Checked off To Do List items:
plant garden (yes, I planted the chives in the dark)
order gear for trip next week 
see UP
go out to dinner during restaurant week
screen shirts for squam 

Still To Do:
embellish shirts for squam
beat my previous procrastination record (how many things can I possibly do before finishing these darn shirts!?)
plan menu for backpacking
shop for backpacking food
arrange travel in Canada 
grade science fair 

 

If you are in the Squam Lakes region this weekend I will be selling shirts at the Squam Art Workshops’ Art Fair. I have new shirt designs and lots of them. Come say hi and browse all the wonderful goodies if you can! [directions]

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 campfire on the first day of vacation

Oh my freakin goodness is about all I have energy to utter at this point. I suddenly realized last night that in the last 8 days I took 11 teens to cape cod for 3 days, facilitated 155 teens going to UMass and Amherst College, took 10 teens to Senior Design Day at UMass ECE, and spent at least 5 hours trying to determine where and when we are going to the UK this summer. OMG! When I am this tired I completely regress to the 8th grade level of articulation. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back to sleep.

Thankfully I do not have a lot to do this weekend.

These are some of my favorites from going to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens on April 19 and the Cape Cod trip last weekend.

yes, they did go in and, yes, it was freezing

Grading

I was supposed to be grading…

but how could I focus when this is what surrounded me?

Thankfully I did better once the sun set. I finished everything I brought home for the weekend. I’m still behind, but I made a dent!

Terrain Inspiration

During my trip to NJ in February A, N, and I took a trip to Terrain at Styer’s. I had seen it featured in Domino magazine and then discovered it was not far away. I found it even more amazing than the glossy pictures in the magazine made it seem. It was a delight for all the senses. (click thumbnails for a better look)

Rain It Has

1 field trip down, 4 to go.
30 weeks down, 10 to go. 

I like to tell myself that my art and my teaching balance me and that I would never be complete with just one or the other. In truth, I just feel split in two. When I fully focus on one area, the other suffers…or my health suffers. I have not read a single art blog in over 3 weeks. I don’t even know where the last 3 weeks have gone…or do I? Symbiosis skits, 5 field trips planned,  physical therapy, migraines, planning a trip to the UK, MCAS, and rock climbing. That is where the time went. I am sewing still, but there has been no paint, no shirts, and no new designs. 

And ignoring school is what brought me to these past stress-filled weeks. I ignored grading and paperwork and paid for it in worrying this week as I stalked the main office waiting for that paperwork to be approved. 

Its not that I feel I have to figure out what to do about being split. I am learning to trust the process of life and the journey planned. I just feel split like a little seed. I have potential, my life ahead of me and all that, but I am two seperate cotyledons in a little shell with a sprout headed up and out of the soil. Reflecting more on the dicot seed I am realizing that as the seed goes on with its life those two cotyledons often become the first leaves and slowly bring forth the mature adult plant. I don’t know what that means. All I know is that I feel like a little dicot seed with two distinct parts as I continue on towards the sun.

To Do Tomorrow (I have Good Friday off; yay for catholic cities!)
Post Bulb Show and Terrain Photos
Find projector to purchase for youth group
Finalize retreat plans
Grading (darn it!)
Clean out fridge
Buy gas mask to use while cleaning out fridge
Take dogs hiking
Stretch
Figure out Easter meal plans
Wash pots (every single one is dirty…)

Here Comes the Rain

…Literally and Figuratively.

It is currently raining and I hear it getting more intense as it patters down on the roof above my head. But it is also April and I will not be resting until June is come and gone. Ahead of me I have three hard months of things I love and a sprinkling of things I don’t. 

Short list:

5 field trips for a total of 7 days out and about (3 outdoor club, 2 academic)

MCAS (read: crazy-making)

MCAS review projects, Science Fair, phenology study, and environmental films

S.E.D.A.T.E. (Special Edition Daily Announcements and Television Entertainment; our spoof news show which requires rehearsing the day before) 

Youth Group retreat

Summer Travel Plans 

…and my stress-relieving activity is making more clothes. Like this top I finally finished.

 

I need to sleep or I will never make it. But I am also trying to get out and enjoy this lovely weather.  Yesterday I took the dogs up to the cliffs. It was the little pup Basil’s first time all the way up. Such a cutie! But definitely a little too comfortable at the edge. Curious puppy better watch his step. (note: he was safe, don’t worry)

 

I just love this shot.

Queen Lexi the Greatest