Monday, September 11, 2017

Summing up Summer

I think this might be the longest I've gone without posting... That definitely wasn't my goal which is why I'm not going to extend that time any longer! So without further delay, here's a brief summary of my summer. It's been over 6 months since I last posted, so I'm actually going to to start with a few old pictures of notable moments from the end of last season. And I threw in few pictures from my spring vacation... because who doesn't want to see a few wildflower photos!

In March, four of my teammates and I
competed at World Cup Finals in
Quebec City (not pictured is Ben and Ida).
It was really fun to be there with my GRP
teammates and to have so many friends
and family members cheering for us
(photo: Gretchen Powers)

We wrapped up our season with SuperTour Finals in
Fairbanks, AK. The definite highlight of the week was the
team relay. Our wax-tech/friend Ollie stepped up to the plate
and raced the anchor leg so we could have an official team
which was awesome and a ton of fun!
Exploring Virginia! My mom and I camped on Lake
Moomaw for a few days which was lovely.
 It reminded me a bit of Vermont. 

More Virginia scenery

And, of course, some wildflowers!
This is a Bloodroot flower
(Sanguinaria canadensis)

And a flowering Eastern Redbud tree
 (Cercis canadensis)
One of my spring projects involved making a few
cork boards from wine corks I collected in middle school
from the park in front of the Eiffel Tower! As you can see,
I've been meaning to do this for a while...

As always summer has flown by in a blur of training, work, and family time. We do the bulk of our training volume in the summer as well as most of our work for the Center so we are kept on our toes. It's also the most time we spend at home in Vermont which makes it the perfect opportunity to hang with my family. I find it easy to be busy, but much harder to take the rest time I need. I'm getting better at that though! This summer we were again joined by three college skiers who were a lot of fun to train with and get to know. Here's a smattering of summer photos to illustrate some of my summer activities/adventures. There are quite a few nature photos, but just know that I did weed out a lot of them...

View from the top of Belvidere Mountain during 
an early summer hike with my sister
Looking out from Heavens Bench at Kingdom Trails.
I was quite happy to make it to Burke twice this summer
to go mountain biking!
Drafting some farm equipment (photo: Pepa)

Local barn dance fundraiser at the Rowell's! The barn
floor was bouncing so much I thought it might break!

Roof rafters

Finally some good weather for the weekly Tuesday Night
Citizens' Race! We have notoriously rainy/thundiferous
weather every Tuesday so we're always grateful when the
 sun peaks out. The solar panels also appreciated
the rays...  And the rainbow was an added bonus!

Got to spend every Wednesday afternoon 
biking with this fun crew!
My favorite view driving home to Elmore

Some cows chilling in their field

George the hiking newt

A Wood Turtle munching its leafy lunch

A dewy spiderweb

Some Chicken of the Woods

Off to the Entmoot!!
Millers on vacation - knitting and napping on the beach

One of the giant spinning machines at the Green Mountain
Spinnery! I had a lot of fun checking out all the machinery
and would love to see them in action sometime.
So much yarn! I've been doing some knitting
this summer in preparation for restocking
my Etsy shop this fall.
Summer at Elinors!

That's all for now. Thanks for reading and my next post will be from snowy New Zealand! And I won't wait six months to write it!