After the Vacation

Many folks take a summer vacation and invariably upon return discover that they also took a little break from healthy habits.  I am no exception.  I took a short little camping trip with about 30 women that all like to cook "comfort food" then immediately spent a week with my sister from Texas who is also a big fan of southern cooking.  In that period of time the only exercise I managed to get was moving my campsite three times in as many days to avoid rising flood waters.

We had to double up on campsites.  Fortunately, I travel light in my roving American TARDIS.  Yes, it is bigger on the inside and all of that did fit in the truck!
Anyway, I gained 10 pounds over the last 2 weeks.  Ugh!  I feel like a slug!  So, I have started working out again and logging my food intake.  I am doing 30-40 minutes of cardio (either the stationary bike or treadmill) and I have already started the 30 day ab challenge,  It actually does not start until June 1 but I was having trouble getting through the first set of 15 sit-ups!  I figured that a few days of practice was needed.  Oh my! I am so sore and tired! I was already about 40 pounds overweight before the vacation that sent me over the porky edge.

So, here I am with my happy salads and blueberries. My diet will not have any comfort foods or good ol' southern cooking.  I am on the "whole food and mostly locally grown diet.  I firmly believe that we (humans) need to eat food that resembles what humans ate before pre-packaged, highly addictive preservative riddled, genetically modified food substances were developed.

So, if it has more than five ingredients, I will make it myself.  If I can buy it at the local farm market, I can eat it.  Unless it is a fruit or vegetable, if it is trucked into the area, I can't have it.  I can have one meal per day that will contain locally raised meat but most of my food will be veg-based. That is my diet.

I will likely be blogging about this subject again as I work through the next few weeks.  I think the 30 day ab challenge should be interesting since I have never tried anything like that before.

MayApple Story

Most folks that know me know that I enjoy morning walks in the woods with my old dopey dawg, Chloe.  Spring is a particularly great time for this.  There is just so much to see on the mountain and it is a magical time.  I enjoy letting my imagination run wild.








When the dogwoods and the wild begonias are blossoming on my mountain, the MayApple valley comes alive with the faery folk, woodland sprites, and  every kind of magical & wee folk from all over the world.   Spring is the time of the gathering in MayApple Valley.








There is so much to do and eat in the valley for the faery folk...It is the time to look for morel mushrooms and fairy potatoes which grow in abundance in MayApple Valley.  And don't forget the MayApples too!









The wee folk always take time to enjoy a little romp with the dopey dawg!








We love all the faery folk in the forest, however, some woodland sprites are shy and are reluctant to come out with all of the commotion and when so many different creatures abound.



Others creatures act as sentinels for everyone in the gathering.









I think the locals enjoy the company of all of the wee creatures visiting their home.  Some come back every year because this spring gathering is a great learning experience for all.

So, if you find yourself in a MayApple Valley, choose a MayApple umbrella for your brief  home away from home.  Settle in for a while and enjoy a wonderful show.  You might just see a delightful faery dance performance upon the new spring leaves.  Feel free to appreciate the moment.

When Spring Comes

Spring in the Potomac Highlands is a wonderful experience. I get itchy feet and want to toddle around constantly with my camera and share my point of view with everyone that I know.  Mostly, I like photography for selfish reasons in that I like to practice drawing from the photographs.  My photos become my inspiration for other works of art.  Sometimes I use my photography for altruistic reasons because I know so many folks that suffer from seasonal depression.  I just want to share the amusement and beauty of the world that I see and what is more fun than bug love on a blossom.
I have tried to go for a hike without my camera but I just feel lost without it. So, it has become part of my hiking attire.  It is the same with my dopey dawg, Chloe.  She is my hiking partner.  I adopted Chloe as a rescued & quite pathetic mess from a puppy mill.  She was about 3 or 4 years old and had never been out of a breeder cage and had no understanding of the world around her.

 At first, I thought she was blind because she constantly ran into tables or chair legs but she just never developed any sense of space.
She was terrified of everything including ceiling fans, dog toys, leashes, walking sticks, and any sounds.  I was her last hope because the rescuers had decided that she was not adoptable.    It took several months of patience and we started going for little walks.  I will never forget the first time she broke into a joyous romp in the grass. She had finally managed to coordinate her front end and back end in a weird pacer type of run and from that point on it was "game on" for her and she became my hiking partner.

So, every spring we start our day with a little 1 or 2 mile morning hike up or around our mountain. Sometimes we go to a park for a hike around the lake or to find a new waterfall or just a new trail. I enjoy toddling around the mountains with my camera and my dopey dawg all year long but especially in spring.  We hike around the highlands until we get snowed in and are forced to hike around the mountain again. We always see something wonderful where ever we go.