Well, this post has been a long time coming. I got it stuck in my head that I couldn’t post any recent stuff until I finished blogging about our trip this summer. Trouble is, I still can’t find my trail journal from this amazing backpacking trip. It is driving me crazy.

So rather than leave these photos out or stupidly let my blog slip into a cryonic state, I am posting the photos without the beautiful story. I am heartbroken about it, but when I find the trail journal I will add it and update this. Enjoy the magic!

TO SEE DAYS 2-4, CLICK BELOW

Here is the Canada portion of our trip! It was incredible!
In the next couple days I will also post the backpacking photos with the trail journal I kept during our 4-day excursion into the Skoki valley.

You can quickly scroll here OR click on the first photo and flip through the bigger versions of the photos (recommend for the best effect).

Why do I have sudden aversions to that which I know will make me feel centered and healthy?
Why do I spend my summer worrying about how fast it is flying by?
Why do I isolate myself when feeling connected makes me happy? 
Why do I think I like being alone?
Why do I eat things I know will make my stomach hurt?
Why do I always think I can do it by myself?
Why do marriages fail? Why so many right now?
Why do I not count gardening as being productive?
Why am I completely obsessed with with accomplishing things?
Why can I not disassociate the words waste and time?
Why do dying tomato plants and overcooked scallops have the power to make me depressed for a whole evening?
Why haven’t I finished any of the decorating projects in this house?
Why is the wall behind my computer monitor empty and white?

I am trying to spend time this summer reflecting on questions like these, but I have no real answers. I think that with little changes in the right direction, to remind myself of the things I know to be true, maybe I can get somewhere.

Why must I always be trying to get somewhere?

Hmmm. Good question.

This helped me get a little perspective (again).  Breathing and thinking of good things…

I got myself out of bed this morning and to yoga at 9am. It was great. I love my yoga!
I picked 15 pounds of blueberries today.
My dogs got the muddiest I’ve ever seen them this morning and then I had to hose them down. 
I am leading a 1-night backpacking trip starting tomorrow. Usually fun but I am nervous as always.
Ben is heating up blueberry cobbler right now. I think I will go get some! Then I must go pack (and ignore the aversion to it).
93 is the least amount of pictures I could select of Canada to show you when I get back! Lucky you!  

Up, up and AWAY!

SHIRTS ARE ON SALE! We are doing some summer cleaning and need to get our older styles and summer shirts out of here to make room for the new fall material! All sale shirts are $15-20 dollars! That’s more than 50% off.

Here are some of what is marked down. Please take a look and spread the word. Thanks!

Since I have been back from our travels I have been sorting through the 2500+ photos I took this winter and spring for b&j greene. Obviously that was enough photography to get several new designs. I have also been working on some promotional material as I try to sell more at local art fairs. So here is a sneak peek with some examples of various shirts I have made over the last year.

For those of you going to the Squam Art Workshops in September, I will be there with all these new branches and botanicals.

If there is something here that you love, feel free to send me a note with your request and I will make it for you!

And I promise I will be back with more pictures from our trip very soon.

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!

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.

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

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]