Saturday hikes

Usually about this time of year, as the weather starts turning nice, M and I start to complain at length at how unhealthy we are, how sluggish we feel, and how much we need to start moving again. Bikes are dragged up from the basement and random nice Saturdays are devoted to getting confused about trail markers and maps.

I'm not one for your sterile, gym-based exercise (though I'm not dissing it, good on you for working out if that's your thing!) because I am apparently a child that insists any physical activity is fun (any innuendo is unintended, I promise). That's why winters are so brutal, when we can't take hikes or go kayaking, or generally enjoy the outdoors- what's there to do?!

I still often need convincing though but luckily, even though M is also really enthusiastic about his indoor seat-based hobbies, he's much better at adulting and forcing the much needed exercise on me/us (in a very nice, encouraging way of course). 

This past Saturday, the forecast was for a high of 60 and clear skies- perfect for a hike. Sunday was a rainy day so we saved all our sitting for then and took not one but TWO hikes. Yeah you read that correctly. TWO.

We hiked Mount Misery in Lincoln, MA which was short and not nearly as bad as it sounds (though as I was hunting for the link to that, I discovered we only hiked a small fraction of it somehow). It was a pleasant enough hike but it left us wanting a little more (that sounds insane to me now that I write it out but really, it didn't take us long) so we made our way to the Gardner Hill Conservation Area in Stow. 

The Conservation area was a really nice loop of a hike, not incredibly strenuous and with lovely views. We agreed that we'd probably pass on Mount Misery but Gardner Hill will definitely be a repeat visit.

There are a lot of random small bodies of water along the hike which is definitely what you want to see, though I'm not sure why. I think there's some primal instinct or something still buried in us that gets awoken when we're out and about in extra naturey nature, and that is constantly seeking a water source.

See? W A T E R

Here is also another example of satisfying our inner caveman. Someone walked by this rock and a little something inside them said "yes. Yes, here we make S H E L T E R."

 Speaking of "a little something," here is a little snake friend that I almost stepped on. I will admit to a very undignified squawk when that happened which M will not let me forget about but who wouldn't make a little noise when the ground suddenly moves very quickly right under their feet? Luckily, he stopped to pose for a picture before slithering fulling into the underbrush. 

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So that's our hike! It was a good one overall and hopefully is starting a new trend of movement. We went on a bike ride yesterday so things are looking up! Happy moving everyone!

I Read: A Scanner Darkly

I'm going to start out by saying I just got back from a serious Philip K Dick Wikipedia rabbit hole and it was WILD.  What a guy- a classic example of a seriously troubled individual churning out amazing work in spite of it all. 

His tumultuous personal life aside, I've read many of his books--and yes, seen a handful of the 13 movies (!!!) based on said books-- and I've never been disappointed. The book I just finished, A Scanner Darkly, is no different and the only reason it took me a little while to read it is that it's dark overtones clashed so harshly with the emergence of spring here that I had a hard time delving in (I always have a good excuse, don't I?). 

A Scanner Darkly follows a narcotics agent named Bob Arctor who, as he sets out to discover serious drug suppliers in the LA area, becomes addicted to the dangerous drug "Substance D," which ruins the connection between the two hemispheres of your brain. He becomes increasingly confused and the two parts of him- the government agent and the junkie- begin hunting each other until he finally breaks down and is admitted to New Path, a rehab facility. This work was especially personal for Dick as he struggled with his own addictions.

Yeah. See what I mean about it being a bit too anti-happy-spring for me? 

All the same, I would highly recommend this book. It's not as straight sci-fi-y as I've come to expect from Dick but it's an interesting viewpoint on the treatment of a disparaged portion of the population- it doesn't quite vilify heavy drug use but it certainly doesn't glorify it either- and corruption.

Anyway, I'm off to find the happiest book I have for my next read!

Star Rating: 4/5

2021 Book Count: 4

Hello Mr. Blue Sky

My excuse for stepping away from the computer lately is actually a good one: It's been nice outside.

I've realized over the last few years- especially since I moved to Massachusetts and began experiencing longer, more miserable winters- that the weather affects me a lot more than I thought it would. What this means is, I'm a sad cold lump for several months, then the first few warm days hit and I feel like I've taken a party drug. We got out our bikes and everything. And RODE them. Even my geranium, which I dragged inside after last summer and which hated me for it, proving it by shedding a ton of leaves, has regained her former glory and is even pushing out new blooms.

Speaking of plants, I would like to pause in my pro-spring rant to bring you another plant pride and joy, my birthday gift to myself:

Isn't she beautiful? It's a Ficus Elastica Tineke, or, slightly less fancily, a variegated rubber tree. In the background you can see the plant that started my obsession, Rubbert Plant the rubber plant, who is my ultimate favorite- when I learned he came in fun colors, I knew I would get one one day. It was ages until one appeared in my local nursery (ordering online isn't nearly as fun, plus, the hunt his half the excitement!) and serendipitously, I stumbled across this one on my birthday Treat Yo Self trip to the garden center. 

To further deviate from the original purpose of this post, allow me to share another birthday present to myself which is a new pair of glasses. I usually have two pairs in rotation just in case something happens to one but decided to add a third because... why not. I love changing my glasses frequently so I order them from Zenni, which has a lot of inexpensive but good options (I've never had any quality issues and I've ordered many pairs). I will say though that they're inexpensive for me because my vision is normal-bad so no astigmatisms or anything- I'm not sure how it'd be for someone with bad-bad vision. 

I usually go with something in a cat eye shape but decided to mix it up a little. I was specifically looking for blue ones but I fell in love with the shape enough that I was okay with settling on just streaks of blue. I like bolder colors usually (the blue isn't so pronounced when I'm wearing them) but I'm glad I got these because they suit my face so well!

Aaaanywho, with this explosion of good feels, I've broken out of my apathy a little and started some new projects. Things are still slow-going and I'm pretty sure this is something I'll always struggle with but it's felt nice to work on some new crafty things recently. 

One of the first things I did as the weather warmed up is break out the watercolors. I love experimenting with watercolors. I've nowhere near mastered it but I think I'm getting better and am pretty proud of my recent result, which is a card for my mom who recently had surgery on her hand (trigger finger). She's much better now and is healing quickly but I figured she could use a card of support since she was unable to sew for several days (tragic!).

Chickadees are the state bird of Massachusetts and fun to draw/paint because they're basically round little puff balls. Since they are super cute little puff balls, I thought it'd be extra funny to have it yelling at my mom to get better.

I dunno, it made sense when I was painting it.

I was definitely inspired by the comic False Knees when I made this (check it out! So funny!). I think I did a pretty great job if I do say so myself and though I haven't painted anything else since this, I also haven't put my paints away. It's either inspiration or laziness, only time will tell.

That's not the only project I worked on but of course, I'm making things for people that will potentially see this so I cannot yet share but it's happening, trust me. It seems to be impossible for me to just keep making things for myself- for every thing I do for me, I have to bombard at least three other people with something I've made. I suppose it could be worse.

I've also finally gotten around to hanging some art that's been kicking around for a while and generally sprucing stuff up. Spring cleaning I suppose. That and I've been taking more walks and planting a lot of flowers in Animal Crossing, which totally counts, right?

Well, I think I'm going to sit on the porch and try to coax the neighbors cat to hang out with me. I'll just leave the natural choice for a song to accompany this post before I go. Enjoy the sunshine everyone!

Birthday Museum Trip

Like I mentioned in my last post, my big birthday plans centered on a museum visit. It ended up being a more laid back day than I was originally planning, but on the day, that's just what we felt like doing. Aside from booking the museum trip, I just didn't feel like making all sorts of plans and having to figure things out so we decided to wing it. Luckily, it turned out to be a great day and an overall nice, relaxing weekend.

The museum I landed on was the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston. I decided to choose something closer to home than my first choice,  MASS MoCA, as we thought that it would be more fun to visit when we could make a whole weekend out of it. That left a few other choices but I ultimately wanted to try something new. I'm happy to report that I was not disappointed. 

And now for the photo dump...

If you were to google this museum, you'd get hit with a ton of pictures of it's courtyard. It's a large, 3 story tall glass roofed observatory filled with an amazing array of plants that, so the audio tour told us, are swapped out every few weeks- if you look close, you'll notice that the vast majority of the plants are in pots.

The rest of the museum was filled with an eclectic mix of art from all over the world, collected by Ms Gardner (1840-1924) with the help of various artist friends and experts, including pieces from some old masters as well as work that would be considered modern for her time.

 Her occupation is listed as "philanthropist" which is basically a nice way to say she had a lot of time and money on her hands, hence the museum. She seems like she was quite the lady though, doing her own thing and successfully chasing her dream of creating this museum at a time when that was most definitely not something a woman would commonly do.

She was extremely hands-on with the creation of the museum and in her will, left strict instructions to leave it as-is. She specifically wanted it to be a place where you go to feel the art and come to your own conclusions, which is why there are no placards giving info on any of the works. I love this idea in theory but M and I are the kind of people that enjoy taking hours to go through museums reading every little thing- luckily, these an audio tour for people like us.

This is a Raphael (no, not this Raphael). I loved the colors.

The walls here are covered in painted leather panels- the dark parts are tarnished silver. Think about how gloriously shiny that would've been!

A Botticelli.

This little alcove is a good example of how eclectic her collection was.

This museum initially got on my radar by hearing about the theft of 13 paintings in 1990 (there's going to be a Netflix docuseries about it in April!) and I was interested to find that they kept the empty frames up as  a sign of hope for their eventual return. Classical painting isn't my number one favorite but it's hard not to be a little awed seeing some of these and feeling the loss of the stolen work. 

Below that painting by Manet, was another piece by him called Chez Tortoni.

Those frame used to contain 2 paintings by Rembrandt, including his only known seascape, Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee (look at the light in that one!!).

That's a self portrait of Rembrandt as a young man, now gazing across the room at the empty frames of some of his later great work.

We topped off our classy museum visit (I even wore a dress, which doesn't often happen) with... good beer and tacos. And games (except I lost)! A good day hits all those important notes- classy, laid back, fun. A successful start to my 32nd year, I'd say.

Decisions, Decisions

This week I have a good bit of unexpected downtime at work. I've been super constructive with said free time so far and by constructive I mean I smuggled in my personal laptop and have been using it to try to decide what to do with my birthday on Saturday. Last year's birthday heralded the start of quarantine, so this year I refuse to let covid bring me down again and insist on doing something fun.

...Ok, yeah, fine, I insist on fun every year. 

Anyhoo, since covid still looms over us, my options remain limited but I have my heart set on a museum. I love museums at the best of times but now that you have to reserve your time and they're limiting capacity, the idea of strolling through one of Boston area's many museums sounds even more amazing. Less crowded! And going to a place where you're not supposed to touch things anyway seems like a pretty safe Covid bet. It's what I call making lemonade out of lemons.

To the surprise of no one who knows me personally, I'm having trouble deciding. There's a lot of good options in the Boston area/Massachusetts in general but I've at least narrowed it down to a top five. In order to 1. decide and 2. waste even more time at work (I'm a model employee!), I've decided to list out the possible choices for your viewing pleasure.

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My first choice is, as always, the Museum of Fine Arts. I've been quite a few times- when I first moved to Massachusetts, I'd venture into Boston by myself via the T and go to this museum. I felt so brave and worldly. Doing something like that by myself was a big deal at the time, especially navigating public transport. I'm used to it now but the museum still feels extra special to me.

Aside from my personal connection, it's a huge museum with wonderful exhibits and a fantastic collection of art so even aside from that, I'd highly recommend making the trip in to anyone. In fact, my favorite painting lives there. 

Sadly though, the 2 extra-admission Basquiat and Monet exhibitions are sold out which is somewhat of a let down. It's a process to make our way there so it seems a bit of a waste to not experience all the special features and I'm tempted to wait for another exhibit I'm interested in before I make the trip. 

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Next up is the ever popular Museum of Science. I've only been once and it's so jam packed with things to do and see that we didn't get to everything, making it a good option. Its fun and interactive in a way that's interesting to both kids and adults and there are plenty of shows to attend also. When we went the first time, M and I watched butterflies emerge from their chrysalis, it was pretty amazing.  

The downside to this would be the limited Planetarium shows (They have a Bowie one! ...but only Friday evenings) because M seems to think we saw the Mars one (I can't remember of course). Also, there's more touching of things involved here so I worry some exhibits will be limited but I'm sure the staff is on top of sanitizing.

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Next is a museum I've never been to, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I've heard about this museum plenty of times (mostly because of its notorious unsolved art theft to be honest) but I never made the trip out. A birthday jaunt seems like the perfect time.

The only downside to this one would be that we aren't as comfortable with the logistics, such as the parking situation and whatnot (the other museums have their own exorbitantly priced garages). Parking/navigating in Boston is not for the faint of heart and though M has managed to make his way to many a Boston concert, I don't want to put him through an undue amount of hassle.

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The last one is another option I haven't been to before, the Lyman Estate and Greenhouses in Waltham, outside Boston. The Lyman Estate apparently has some of the oldest greenhouses in the country. The estate itself can't be toured currently because of covid but the grounds are admission-free and you're welcome to walk around and yes, there are plants for sale (!!!). 

While I definitely want to visit this place for sure, it doesn't seem like a full day trip as much as the other choices. I'll admit, part of the allure of the other museums is a trip into Boston- it's been about a year and change since our last visit to the city, which was for a concert (thinking of all those people crammed together without masks makes me dizzy). I'm wondering if I can convince M to take me here on Sunday as a bonus excursion...

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As a complete alternative to the last place, this option is the most extreme day trip and completely in the opposite direction from Boston. The MASS MoCa is a bananas-huge museum/art space of contemporary art in North Adams, MA. We've always wanted to go here but it's a 2.5 hour trek for us and it's the kind of place you could spend a weekend at, so it's a pretty intimidating trip.

According to their website, due to covid's capacity caps and the sheer size of the place, you often have whole exhibits to yourself. Sure its a serious drive to middle-of-nowhere western Mass but how tempting does that sound?

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So there's my top five. Plenty of good options with their own pluses and minuses. I'm not sure if that made it easier for me to decide (the only way to make it easier for me to decide would be to get me a new brain) but it's not a bad thing that I've put more thought into it. At least when M asks me what I want to do for my birthday I have something else for him other than my usual "uhhhh...."

I scream, you scream, The Scream

I'm fresh off the weekend and... I don't know how I feel about it. I was going to talk about it at length like I do, mulling over how my desire to do nothing is constantly at odds with my anxiety that I SHOULD be doing something, but instead, here's some memes:

Anyway, now that we have that all cleared up, I can move on and show you the thing I did, in fact, actually do. The benefit of enjoying hobbies such as sewing is that you can essentially spend all your free time parked on the sofa watching you significant other play Breath of the Wild while doing it and not change out of your PJs all day (don't worry, we did take a walk on Sunday) but if someone asks you what you did, you can show them your project, which I will do now:

Do you like how I also forced you to look at my plant in this pic? Check out that variegation!

I've been working on this piece on and off for ages. It, for some reason, turned into the thing I did when I was between other projects- after my initial spurt, I largely ignored it. I'm not sure why because it was super enjoyable to work on. It's my first full coverage piece and though it has a lot of swirling colors, they're placed in such a way that you don't have to switch threads a ton, making it most definitely NOT tedious to work on. It's a 6 inch circle and yes, I did cut the fabric way too small (Somehow I only noticed this pretty late in the game) but I've ordered a round frame that should- hopefully- work. Per usual though, I'm too impatient to wait until it's framed to share it. 

I bought this pattern last year from an Etsy shop that is, apparently, no longer in existence (but just to give credit where it's due, it was HarpSealCrossStitch), and in case you did not know, it is Edvard Munch's "The Scream" mashed up with No Face from the Studio Ghibli movie "Spirited Away." I'm extremely happy with it and I can't wait to find a place to hang it up.

Now that this is complete, I find myself without a ton of projects to jump on. It's strange, I thought I'd feel better about getting things done but I already miss not having something in the works already. Its partly an exciting world-of-possibilities feeling like you get when you finish one book and it's time to figure out what to read next, but also partly an ugh-now-I-have-to-do-all-that-new-project-prep-work feeling. The work leading up to starting a new sewing project is, for me, not something I feel like doing when the urge to sew is upon me. A different brain space is involved I guess.

Actually, technically I have started a new project in the form of a literary themed embroidery stitch-along that's been organized by a Facebook group I'm in. I figured it was a good way to delve into embroidery, something I've been meaning to do for a long time but didn't know where to start. The project will be a total of 5 bookmarks (though, I'm not separating them into bookmarks), each one being a design based on a literary genre. I'm currently working on classic romance but the next genre will be out in a week. I think I'll enjoy it- I already am- and it's good that I'm working "with" people (so to speak) because that way I'm more motivated to follow through with the project and also I can ask questions along the way (they're also putting out helpful videos!). 

It's most definitely a lot different from cross stitch though, so I've still got "find another project" on my plate. I'd like to switch back to working on my own designs which is another brain space altogether. 

I'm realizing as I type this that my brain is filled with a lot of weird spaces that clearly don't like each other...