I got my fishing license Saturday and went to Ames Pond and fell in ;)
I’m taking Monday off to have extra time to finally redo the kitchen this weekend and to, plant, fix window boxes, clean, organize, etc.
I went to Big Basin which is an old growth redwood forest in California... so they weren’t cut and regrown. Some of the trees there are 1500-2000 years old!! It was astonishing really to see the size of these trees. It’s hard to put into words how nice the forest was.
I’m heading to the airport to go to Silicon Valley in California until Friday for work...taking a red eye flight home on Friday night.
I woke up at 4AM and took an early morning hike through a nearby forest. It seemed small when I first went there, but I’ve since found out it’s 26 miles around and it’s right near another forest that’s just as big! There are endless trails and things to see. I tried a different entrance today and right after I walked in, I found a nice stream. Every time I go there I see some wildlife. I’m lucky it’s close by as it makes is easy to get back to nature.
When I got back, I put the window boxes on the house and planted a bunch of fruit trees. I’ve got apricots, apples from France from the early 1600’s, pears, goji berries, gooseberries, grapes, and a few more things. I seeded the window boxes and planted flowers in little pots to transplant into the yard when it gets a bit warmer too. I realize now looking at the house…it’s going to need to be painted soon. That’s a big job, but I’ve painted houses before… but what colors to use!?? If you have any ideas, send them along.
I bought the house a year ago today. I remember sitting at the lawyer’s office with the pen in my hand just signing and signing and thinking “Is this what I really want to do”? It was sort of a passing thought and then I decided I’m just going to go for it. Hell, you only live once right...A year later it finally feels like home now. It’s a nice feeling to think this is my land, my space. No landlord, no fire inspections unless I want one, no security deposit, no rules for what can go where, everything is my choice. I may still want to try to live in another country or Boston or Colorado some day. If so, I can always sell it and find a new place. For now though, I’m really enjoying owning this small piece of the world.
So I planned to have an awesome weekend where I only did healthy, positive things and I wanted to clean the whole house and fix a bunch of things. Well I didn’t do all the things I planned... but I got the house half cleaned…had to work and went to the gym half the days… ate half healthy lol. I did get a haircut though. I’m going to try again next weekend for the same thing and see if I can do a little better this time.
It’s finally April. I think most of us are ready to enjoy some sunlight! I like all of our seasons, but spring is the one I think I most look forward to. It’s sort of like a reset for me and I plan to make this an awesome year. Pretty soon there will be rabbits in the yard, a well planned out garden, fruit on the trees and grapes on the vines, bees making nests that I’ll whack down with my broom and run from, flowers in the new window boxes that I made, green leaves on all of the trees, and more animals. I’ll be driving with the top down and the doors off. The lawn will need to be mowed, which I enjoy. It’s a little cold tonight, but the wood burning stove is just enough now to keep the house warm enough without oil heat. The fire pit outside will be fun to sit by with friends and burn the brush. I’m excited for the warm weather and trips to new places :)
I decided to clean up both my house and my self for spring cleaning this weekend :) I am doing all positive things including cleaning the whole house, eating healthy, working out, planting, fixing the gutters, etc. I worked in the morning and had lunch with my family, played football with my nephew, shot rocket ships and sewed a purse with my niece. After that, some friends and I went to an escape room on a train which we miserably failed lol… but it was a lot of fun.
It was a very busy day, but it was also a long ride home after… back to this house. I did find new motivation recently to do all the things I’ve been putting off and to get me back on track with getting myself to where I want to be in life and I can’t wait for when that time comes. I’m having a nice weekend and I hope you are as well.
After the Llama farm, I went to an old abandoned quarry. It was in operation from 1860-1960….and when they left, they left all their mining equipment. Now it’s basically a ghost town with hiking trails.
The coolest thing there that I found was a cave that had these amazing ice formations inside. Each one was filled with water... The water was dripping from the ground above and somehow filled the ice like little tanks. It was a really interesting place.
Tonight, I’m staying at a Llama farm that runs completely off of solar power. I drove past Greenfield on route 2 then south and west a while to go to an interesting park tomorrow. Here’s some photos from today:
I took a hike through the Leominster state forest tonight after work. It’s only a few minutes away from the house and I see interesting new things there all the time. Last time, there was a red fox that walked out of the woods right in front of me… looked in my eyes for a second then turned and trotted off down the trail.
I’m enjoying the camera and excited to share photos with you all, so I started a photo gallery page on this website to keep my favorite ones in one place. It’s a nice week so far…just home resting right now. I plan to get out into the woods this weekend and to take a little trip somewhere. Sunday looks like 60 and sunny and tomorrow is the first day of spring :)
I can’t wait for the warmer weather and longer days!! Hope you’re doing well.
I hung out with Kasia in Boston yesterday and it was a lot of fun. I took some more photos… but not too many because we wanted to walk around, talk, eat, find some sunglasses, etc. I realize with the photos that I’ve been taking lately… they all look very nice, but they need time to set up. I took much more interesting pictures when I had my manual camera because they showed unique moments that were captured. I am going to try to mix my photos with both these surreal/real looking ones, and the more interesting/unique pictures moving forward.
These are some of my old manual camera photos to show you the difference. The clarity is nowhere near the new camera, but I like these more than the ones above. I’m excited to see what I will take with the new camera when trying to capture things like this.
Some pictures of things around the house
After my very short, but very long trip to Canada last week… I decided to take it easy this weekend. I hung out with friends last night and stayed in Lowell, ate healthy today, went to the gym with my cousin in NH and played with the kids for a few hours. They are all so much fun… It must be wild having three to take care of all the time! I stopped at my parents too to show them the new car and they are doing really well.
I’m just resting at home now watching Netflix and burning incense again lol. I guess this is what I do in the winters to relax now. I have three seltzers next to me ready to go too. I’ll be much more excited when it’s a bit lighter a bit later and warm enough to go to a forest to relax…But for now, I’m really enjoying myself at home.
Have a nice weekend!!
I just got home from a weekend trip to Canada. I’m soooo tired of driving lol, but it was fun to escape for a while. I have a tradition of going on a trip after getting a new car… so I’m counting this as my trip. I’m excited to just stay around here for a few weeks now! Here’s some photos I took with the new camera:
I got a late start to my trip this weekend, so I headed north and put a town in Canada into the GPS to make some progress. I got pretty tired around midnight, so I stopped at a motel by the border.
Tomorrow I’m going to head into Canada. I got a new camera and I’m on YouTube right now trying to figure out how to use it! Hopefully tomorrow all my photos will be from the new camera. I’m real excited to see how they come out.
I can’t wait to take a trip in the Jeep soon with the doors off and the top down, but for now I’m enjoying it in the freezing cold!!
I’m going on another adventure this weekend :) This time I decided not to pick a destination. I’m going to just drive my new Jeep either west or north to places that I’ve never been to and take lots of photos of the things that I find. I’m going to stay in different places tonight and tomorrow night and I’ll update the blog as the weekend goes on! I’m getting away from it all for a few days.