It's all about time

I'm going to do a blog challenge and update every day this month. Readers, take note!

Since it's May first I flipped my homemade calendar to a new month. The picture from this month is from the world's largest cuckoo clock, in Triberg, Germany. Triberg is in the southern part of Germany  known as the Black Forest, about an hour or so north of the border with Switzerland.

This particular attraction is along the road as you head into town, and we pulled in JUST before noon, as you can see on the clock face. It cost a few euros to go inside and get access to the yard, so we stood around in major anticipation of the cuckoo doing its glorious call.

Friends, that cuckoo was the most raggedy-ass thing you've ever seen. It emerged slowly from its door, then emitted twelve exhausted "coo...koo" calls. It didn't bounce in and out between cries, just sorta sighed on the end of its perch. Wretched.

Fortunately, we found it absolutely hilarious. I hope we didn't hurt the feelings of the woman inside, whose father created the clock, but I imagine she contented herself with our euros!

Calendar:November and December

Hey friends, you get a two-fer this month. I completely neglected to write about my November calendar image (though only a few of my readers actually RECEIVE said calendar).

November:

Yosemite is a magical place, and I went with some friends to celebrate my 40th birthday. Because I'm an August person and because I prefer my time in Yosemite to be un-crowded, I made our reservation for the upper part of the park - at the White Wolf Lodge, to be precise, and which is a wild misnomer as the guests sleep in platform tent cabins. Thanks to one of my intrepid traveling companions we got up well before dawn and drove to the eastern side of the park, in order to catch sunrise at Mono Lake. I blew my battery out before the actual sunrise, but fortunately my friend got a great shot.

December:

Last shot of the year - a statue in Greece. Is she looking to the past, or dreaming about the future?

Calendar: September

My September calendar shot is another one from last summer's trip to Greece, and it's not the last time pictures from that trip will be featured this year! What can I say, but that Greece is extremely photogenic.

I took this picture on the Acropolis, but I can't say for certain which building it's attached to! I can picture where I was standing when I took the picture, and I think that this is a column on the Erechtheion, more famous for its Porch of the Caryatids. You can see that the part below the curve has been better protected from the elements, but it's mind-boggling to think that this was created over two thousand four hundred years ago.

Calendar: August

Last year I visited a good friend in LA  - and it's a good thing, too, since he's now moved on to Tucson. Hey, just one more place to visit!

Anyway, we visited Venice Beach and while we watched the skateboarders, I practiced using the burst mode on my camera. Confession: no clue if it's called that. But you know, you set it a certain way and it takes multiple shots. And it did, and I caught this kid in flight.

Calendar: July

This month's picture is another from my trip to Honduras last May (more than a year ago already!).

I've already forgotten most of the feeling from that vacation - I know with my head I walked barefoot on the beach wearing a summery dress, but it's hard to really recapture that!

It was my first full-on tropical resort vacation, and it was amazing. I intend to spend time visiting Hawaii over the next few years, and can't wait to get back into that warm sun/swimming and snorkeling and diving/fruity drinks space.

Calendar:June

This is the third and, I think, last calendar shot from my trip to New Mexico last year. You can read my February post if you want a little more about that trip!

Sorry for the radio silence. I know it's the way in blog land. I've had a LOT going on behind the scenes with a large possibility of major life uprooting (in a good way, but it's scary too) so my brain has been churning but I haven't been sharing. I hope everything's settled in a few more weeks.

If not, well, I'm off to Germany again for a chunk of time in the middle of July, so I'll be sure to drink plenty of beer!

Calendar: May

It was never high on my list of Places To Go, but last summer I wound up going to Greece - hey, if your older brother is invited to be in the International Special Olympics, you GO. So I got to spend a couple of weeks traveling with my parents and two other siblings in Greece.

We started in Athens (and just barely missed some of the riots they were having to protest some of the austerity measures their government was implementing), in a hotel with a rooftop bar with a view of the buildings on the Acropolis. Then we rented a car and drove to Nafplio, where I'd found us an apartment. From there we did day trips and an overnighter.

One of our day trips was to Mycenae, which was the home of an ancient civilization from more than 3500 years ago. Not much is known about the civilization, which collapsed in 1200 BC. (!!!).

We also went to Epidavros, home to an ancient healing site, and a 15,000-seat theater, built in the 4th century BC, still famed for its amazing acoustics.

No Greek trip is complete without an island visit (we decided) so we did an overnight on Hydra. It was fortunate we chose an island so close to the mainland, as there was a strike and the ferry was cancelled. Fortunately we were able to drive to a tiny outpost that ran water taxis to the island, and we still got our adventure.

After our explorations in and around Nafplio, we drove on to Delphi. By showing up at the ruins around 5pm, we were able to explore them with very little company.

Finally we returned to Athens and got rid of our car. We had an epic subway/walk/bus/walk/cab/walk adventure in order to get to see my brother sail near Marathon, and returned to Athens for a few more days of exploring.

Lessons learned: Greece is full of friendly people ready to help you out if you pull out a map and look lost. Driving isn't nearly as bad as I feared (though we avoided city driving), once you understand that what looks like a one-lane-each-direction highway actually has TWO lanes each direction: everyone drives on the shoulder, so others can pass at their leisure.

Greek food is pretty much the same from restaurant to restaurant, and after a solid-plus week of it, it was a joy to find Asian and Indian restaurants in Athens.

You should not wander into a rug store unless you are prepared to purchase a rather expensive (but lovely) souvenir.

The traditional coffee is really strong but really delicious. You do NOT get to ask to have it with milk, but if you do, they'll teasingly oblige.

Street food gyros are really really delicious.

It's a bit odd to recap my GREEK trip from a year ago when I'm freshly back from another, but such is the magic of the calendar photo post - it gives me a reason to revisit my copious pictures from the past year!

Calendar: April

My apartment is in the back of my building and faces a hillside covered with trees and shrubbery. It makes for a pretty lovely view, especially when the plum trees are in bloom.

I confess I lived here a few years before I realized it was plum trees back there, and I have yet to actually harvest and use them! They are tiny; my friend and I thought they were some overgrown cherry before realizing they were in fact wee little plums.

Many years ago a coworker brought in a bud vase like the one in the picture above. Turns out it's from a particularly nice balsamic vinegar sold at Trader Joe's. I have an apple juice jar I like to use as well...when I remember to have flowers!

Calendar: March

Hm, this makes two months in a row of pictures from my trip to New Mexico last year. Well, it was pretty!

I had a hard time choosing which picture to use for this month's page.  I wound up going for the horizontal orientation, even though I slightly preferred the vertically-oriented shot.

Perhaps I'll print that one for framing... though my living room walls are starting to get a bit full!

Calendar: February

I'm lucky, lucky, lucky to know people who are fun to travel with. Last January I went to New Mexico with a couple of travel-friends and had an amazing time. We hiked into a slot canyon,

saw cacti in bloom,

poked around an amazing bridge (which apparently was in some tv show or movie or something that I saw, but I didn't notice it.. how's that for vague?),

and explored some cliff dwellings.

We also met up with some librarian-friends of mine in Santa Fe, and went to a hot spring/spa called Ojo Caliente (hot eye!). Funny enough, my favorite memory was us pulled over on the side of the road while all three of us tried to get pictures of the sunset.

2012:January!

Hello bloggy friends! I didn't post the January calendar shot. Without further ado:

I'm quite proud of this picture! I'm not the most technically proficient photographer, but I did learn how to control my shutter speed. In a situation like this if you leave the shutter open longer than it would choose to be, you get to see the path of the fire that the dancer is spinning about her body, illuminating her but leaving her mysteriously hidden.

My friends had these fire dancers come as a surprise entertainment element for their beach wedding in Honduras, and I cursed myself for not having my camera on hand. So I was delighted a few nights later to encounter the same dancers doing a show for the tourists on the beach. I took approximately ten billion photos!

2011:12!

December, at last and so soon. It's been quite a year, but I won't get too cocky just yet - there are still 24 days left!

I always have a little trouble with photos for my winter month selections - I'm a traditionalist and think the pictures should at least be winterish even if I don't see that kind of weather much. Add in a desire for a Christmaslike December shot and it's tricky!

This month's picture is the very last of my New Zealand shots. I took it in a cemetery in Rotorua, in the tiny village of Ohinemutu.

Catch-up time

It's been a busy couple of weeks off the ol' blog:

• I'm wrapping up my beeswax project - and have managed to get wax and/or oil on every item of clothing I own, I swear! I even went the extra mile and found someone on Etsy to make labels for me. I'll link to her shop when I have pictures of the assembled project.
• I created and ordered the calendars for 2012. I think the layout will be better this year, though not every page will have a caption. The interface I use was eating up too much photo space with the text block, even though I wanted unobtrusive lettering. Fine, be that way. 
• Cleaned, made delicious apps, and had a few people over before going to see Pink Martini in concert. I wasn't going to go see them since I've gone to at least 8 shows by them, but Groupon posted a deal for $22 tickets! It was worth way more than twenty-two bucks, too - every time I see them I remember how very happy they make me feel. Their live performance energy is just so very positive!
• I made a SUPER yummy side dish for Thanksgiving: Butternut squash, kale, and cheddar bread pudding. 
• Checked in on my various boozy projects. The nocino is incredibly bitter and undrinkable, which I think is normal for its youth. This summer I wound up making two kinds of cherry bounce; the bourbon/sweet cherry is okay, but the vodka/sour cherry is outstanding, if sweet (you add sugar).
• Knitting is also proceeding apace, but those will be held in reserve for post-Christmas posting, if ever.

Stay tuned for the wrap-up on the various projects! I might even write up the end of the beeswax story even though a couple of the recipients may then have their Christmas surprise blown. 

2011:10 + 11

Oops, I missed last month's calendar post. I hope that doesn't mean my brother is still looking at the September image!

October's and November's calendar pages feature pictures taken six months and a quarter of the world away from each other - yet they are certainly autumnal!

Albert Park in Auckland was a great place for people-watching and fresh air after spending the night on a plane. It was very weird to go from spring in the Bay Area to fall in New Zealand, but the temperature was similar, and even though I knew the sun was low in the northern sky, I couldn't get my body to believe it.

Grape vines in real autumn: this was at a winery in Sonoma Valley last November - a bit gray and rainy, just like I like it.

2011:09

Last fall I took a road trip with a dear friend who lives in New York City. (Brooklyn now, actually.) We've been friends since we met working at a bookstore in Boston in 1995. When we discovered we lived in the same neighborhood, she gave me her phone number and said I should call if I was ever hanging out in the fun part of town - uncharacteristically, because I hate cold-calling anyone, I DID call her and here we are, road trip buddies fifteen years later. Life is good that way.

Central Oregon Coast - part of the Three Capes scenic loop

We had to refresh her memory for driving stick shift - her only other exposure had been in college when she was the designated driver and only had to lurch a couple of miles home - and we were on our way! I already posted the route we took, so here are some of the pretties from that trip.

Upper Klamath Lake (Southern Oregon)

Autumn color (and a bit of rain!) - somewhere outside of Eugene, Oregon

Mountainous coastline of Southern Oregon, south of Port Orford

As always, we had a fun time poking around. We'll have to do it again someday! We've always promised ourselves a trip cross-country, but so far it hasn't fit into our busy schedules.

2011:08

I took this picture almost as an afterthought - I spent a weekend camping and hiking with two friends in glorious Big Sur. We'd had an amazingly lovely (and butt-kicking) hike, covering ground I'd previously visited a few years prior. In the intervening years there'd been a lot of fire activity and the new growth was threatening to choke off the path altogether! So I assure you that sitting down and enjoying a beer together felt like a bit of heaven:

Only as we were leaving did I look back and see the sunshine on the glasses and think that it represented a lovely piece of time.

2011:07

When I took this picture I knew it was destined for my calendar, and indeed, I think it's my favorite of all the pictures I took in New Zealand last spring.

It's a fence post that we passed when walking into the small village called Ohinemutu. Using a bit of shell for the eye was a brilliant touch!

2011:06

Hello June! I'm back from an amazing trip to Honduras - I highly recommend a visit to Roatan if you're looking for a sunny tropical vacation with amazing snorkeling!

I took June's calendar picture after a steep walk up into the hills a few miles from my place. The views up there are amazing for sure, and the yards are full of flowers. I'm not sure I would want to be quite so far from a flat place to walk though!

Long after I took this picture, I realized there was a teeny tiny worm in the center of the daisy!

2011:05

Welcome to May, otherwise known as spring in the Northern hemisphere. This month's calendar picture was taken in May but in the Southern hemisphere, on my trip to New Zealand, as they tipped through autumn toward winter. You sure can't tell it's autumn by my picture of Onetangi Beach, though.

 

The beach is on the north side of the island, giving it the best sun exposure (remember, southern hemisphere!).

Onetangi Beach is part of Waiheke Island, eleven miles northeast of Auckland - a great side trip on a sunny day. This was only our second day in New Zealand and we'd been extremely busy on our first day, but we were up and out in time to catch the morning ferry. 

It was rather exciting to watch the skyline recede - as interesting as a city can be, I am exposed to urban life on a daily basis, and I was ready to see something a little different! After about a 40-minute ride the ferry dropped us off on the island and we hopped on a bus tour, since there were limited options for seeing the island. We'd hoped to go wine tasting but settled for beer and fish and chips on a deck overlooking another bay. 

The Matiatia Malt by the Waiheke Brewery was the best beer of my entire visit, due only partly to the setting!

2011:04

I should probably just get used to the idea of feeling like the year is flying by, hm?

I took this last November (hey, sorry, I live in California! It's crowded for a reason!) when I went to wine country. One of my friends has been a member at a couple of different wineries over the years, and I really love that she opts to pick up her quarterly wine delivery instead of having them mail it. That gets her to recruit friends to go on a day trip - and without that kind of nudge I could go a long time between visits to Napa and Sonoma and those parts.

This flower was at Gundlach Bundschu just outside of downtown Sonoma. They are friendly, gracious, have lovely grounds, and their wine is really tasty. I highly recommend a visit if you're ever in town! If you can go with a member - all the better, as the tastes are free!