Fall in love with being alive
I did all of the things this weekend. I painted, I did yard work, I met a friend for coffee and went to a farmers market. I went rock climbing at the recently re-opened Cornell Climbing Center. I went hiking, once for Chief’s 10th birthday and again on my way home from climbing to knock […]
I’d like to welcome the blistering hot days of summer. I’d like to welcome hikes spent in the cool shadow of a creek filled gorge, looking for hidden waterfalls tucked in on the side of lake roads. I’d like to welcome running into a hot breeze and feeling it fill up every bronchiole in your […]
Summer in the Northeast is the best. Warm nights, warmer days, the whisper of trees, bluebird skies, humidity that makes you wonder “what winter nosebleeds?” Unfortunately summer only lasts about 2 months and it didn’t start this weekend for it’s unofficial kick off on Memorial Day. The weather reached a damp 55 at it’s best […]
Do you ever think to yourself “when was the last time I was really, truly, peacefully, absolutely happy?” I can tell you when it was for me. It was Thursday. I took a guided class with REI to go rock climbing in the Shawangunks, near New Paltz, NY. The weather was perfect, the guide was […]
Laying in bed with a sliver of sunshine in my face at 7:30am I was trying to convince my tired body to get up and do something. The choice was between a 2 mile run on the treadmill or a 3.5 mile hike with the dog. Both of these things would need to be done […]
It’s rained a lot lately and I didn’t take any pictures of that. What I did do (and take pictures of) is this: I worked on cleaning the rock wall sections I got months ago by driving to the Catskills in an ice storm and still haven’t installed. Good thing we risked our lives doing […]
Sometimes I do too much. Like this weekend which saw me spanning the Finger Lakes and Binghamton with a mix of things I needed to do and things I wanted to do. Sitting down to write this is the first time I’ve slowed down since Friday. Even our weekend hike felt like it was in […]
I end up off my intended trail A LOT when I’m hiking. I’m really not sure how it happens. One minute I’m following some trail markers. The next minute, they’ve suddenly changed color and I’m half a mile in the wrong direction. Or worse, there’s no markers at all. So I took a compass class […]
I grew up in Rochester, NY, where my Dad was born and raised. But the year I started college, my family moved to the middle of nowhere on top of a hill above the farm where my mom grew up. Going back to Rochester doesn’t feel like going home anymore, despite the 18 years that […]
My aunt said “You do love your hikes don’t you!!! It occurred to me that yes, I did. But I didn’t actually have any words for why. I said that I did because I liked the quiet. Hiking today with the dog, I thought about it. I didn’t come up with much. The quiet was […]
