Recently, I bought some neat little solar lights shaped like rocks. I'm amazed that they're still shining despite the gray skies, clouds and torrential rains of the past three days. The night photograph that looks like two headlights (the rocks) was taken this evening. I'm pretty impressed.

Also, Google has a new energy saving search called Blackle. I set my home page to a Blackle search instead of a Google search. Every little bit helps.

I now have a deadline of 4/14 to finish a first draft. Ut oh. I think I'll be living in the library hiding from phone and emails. Today, I was at the library rethinking the article. This evening I spent quite a bit of time researching details that will surface in the first paragraph. I've got to really pour on the steam and get moving on this article.

Mount Monadnock, Jaffrey New Hampshire

Saturday, I took a symbolic hike to the summit of Mount Monadnock, New Hampshire. Freshly charged batteries in the camera went dead after one photograph from the base of the snow-streaked mountain. The camera was left behind and the battery charger later implicated.

The park ranger suggested micro-cleats for hiking (at $60/pair, no thank you) and reminded us that whatever we hike up we have to hike down. Admittedly, I was apprehensive. This was my first ever hike of a snow covered mountain. I had no way of knowing how deep the snow was, how slick the rocks were or if we could make it to the summit. As we were trekking up we passed a young female hiker heading down, too scared to continue.

Hiking a snow and rock covered mountaintop was a different and exciting experience and that's what made it fun. I picked my way around icy boulders and trudged over packed snow. I love my packable Olympus 8x21RCI binoculars!

At the summit on this clear day, Mt Washington's snow-covered peak floated on the horizon. Boston was visible in the east. Although the temperature was in the mid 30s, I had a hard time parting with a peak that was almost mine. The real challenge of the day wasn't the hike up, it was the hike down. Walt bloodied his hand on the descent, but thankfully it was nothing serious.

As far as writing goes, I'm going to finish the book I've been reading today. Next up, I need to start formulating questions for the scientist. This is going to be a challenging week to accomplish anything so I expect to struggle for time.

Crocus' and daffodils

The first day of Spring is here at last! Hopefully, it will bring the start of better days. Despite contending with a towing nightmare that encompassed way more of my time than I would have liked I've been slogging through a thick book taking notes as I go. I think I will try and read a set amount of pages per day to keep myself moving forward.

Monday, in hard cold driving rain, the fuel efficient Honda Civic I drive broke down about 1.5 hours from home. It barely hobbled to its destination. Today my daughter skipped off to meet friends in Boston leaving me stranded without a car . It was really nice to be stranded on a beautiful day in an Adirondack chair surrounded by piles of notes and research papers. That's my kind of stranded. Outside, I spent a good deal of time reading, organizing, and assembling material. The subject makes a great story so in addition to a ChemMatters article, I've started the bones of an outline for something on a grander scale.

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to have a good chunk of time to spend outside in 68 degree weather in my favorite spot right on my deck. I love the wide arms of this chair for holding all my books and papers and it's roomy enough for furry little friends seeking attention. It is here that I seek the sunshine and get lost in another time and place.

Scientists love to draw pictures in the form of graphs that represent their hours of research and collected data. A current graph of me would show peaks of stress, frustration, resentment, sadness and empathy. Hence the need for Adirondack therapy. The outline is finally done, but I'm still reading a chapter and pulling out little details. I find this such an interesting topic.

I am sorry to say I deleted this post to ward off potential problems. Trust me, it was a good post.

Here is a link to the lyrics and another link to the video.

Case Mountain, Manchester

I'm posting some photographs of another hike at Case Mountain in Manchester CT. I would love to post a hiking map of the place because the online map I brought was the worst map I've ever used plus they were out of trail maps at the trailhead. At the trail, I took a photograph of the large map, but I've been advised that this map is likely under copyright so, it is unfortunately, not mine to post. To give you an idea why you need a hiking map, the route we took was: white trail --> pink --> gray/white --> yellow/red --> yellow/blue --> red --> blue --> yellow --> yellow/blue --> blue --> white. But at some point we missed the yellow trail.

We are very lucky we aren't still wandering around those woods.

The outline that I've been struggling to complete is almost done. But I am so overwhelmed right now it's a big struggle to accomplish anything.

Lately so many things stand in my way I wonder often why I bother trying. It's been a stormy year. Despite the sun-brella, my snowman lasted all of an hour before falling backwards. But building it was symbolic.

I'm still reading a key resource. Today I found and placed a hold on an another ILL book that has information about the scientist that I will be writing about.