Susie's Meanderings

Lazy Sunday Morning? (and Evening)

9:00 am

10:30 am

5:30 pm

Blogging from the Hammock

My apologies for the slightly grainy quality of this image, I'm playing with my new webcam out here in the backyard. I'm tempted to set it up for motion detection to see if I can catch the squirrels and the deer in their attacks upon my mothers flowers, but I"m not quite ready to sacrifice my laptop to the brutal outdoors. Much to my delight, however, the wireless signal stretches all the way out to the hammock, so I can lie here in the glorious late Oregon summer and still enjoy all the advantages of being wired. After an exhausting morning traipsing around the farmer's market with my parents, (and to the French bakery for pastries, and at the opposite side of town, the Italian deli for Bresaola and Prosciutto) it's precisely what's called for.

Snake Run

Had a really nice run this morning, but it turned out to be a little hot, since the snakes were hogging all the shade on the trail. Actually, it was just one little snake, sitting aggressively in the middle of the path, and after I got over squealing and leaping around, I think it might have decided to find a quieter place for its aggression, since it was gone when I came back. Nonetheless, you didn't catch me running in any shade all the way home, since in my running delerium, I wasn't entirely which patch of shade harbored the beast (which was at least 8 inches in length, if not 9). Meanwhile, Mom and I are going down to sign up for a 5k run this Sunday. Wish me luck.

Why I Love Summer in Oregon

From the farmer's market....

First Day Home

To be fair, it's really my second day home, but the first day was lost to the delerium of jet lag and the renewal of my acquaintance with high speed internet.
However, today started with a bowl of Cheerios and fresh blueberries, followed by a nice long run which didn't involve heaving decks or steering around strolling couples. In fact, it smelled delightfully of sun warmed blackberries. A little shopping with Mom, where we explored the only Italian deli in town (where I could choose from "imported or domestic" prosciutto, sliced by a rather glazed teenager) It's no Livornese prosciutto, but it will suffice. A little cooking, lots of nice coffee and the perfect gin and tonic rounded out my day.

Gibraltar

I can't exactly take credit for this picture, since the camera wasn't in my hands when it was taken, but I like it anyway, so here is the best of the ape pictures from "The Rock". I was pleased to escape without having a single ape jump on me or use me as a springboard to get to another ape (as happened to a few other people while I was there), but I felt my minutes might be numbered, so we adjourned to lower Gibraltar for a pint or two and some so-so Indian food. Now it's back to sea and a frenzy of packing. I'd like nothing better than to walk away and leave all my junk on the ship, but I expect that's not really feasible. Anyway, here are the apes.....

Corsica

Another beautiful day ashore in the Med - glorious sun, light breezes and French food. I think I settled for the more traditional Croque Monsieur, and a pretty pedestrian one at that, but it was still pleasant. Met in my cabin later for the remains of the fresh buffalo mozarella bought in Naples and for the entire wheel of raw milk camembert that has been fragrancing my refrigerator for the past 4 days. I nearly passed out from the fumes unwrapping it, but happily, it didn't taste anything like it smelled, and was devoured in short order. I moved along from there almost directly to curry night (hosted by the Indian crew in honor of Independence Day) where I was scolded for not eating more. Needless to say, all I could accomplish after this orgy of eating was a three hour nap on the heaving seas.
Oh, here's a picture from Corsica....

Naples

I may not have gotten to eat at my favorite pizza place in the world today (as it is, alas, Sunday), but I made up for it by having 4 of my favorite coffees, and still a really nice meal of shrimp and mushroom pasta (and when I say shrimp, I mean shrimp in the singular, still complete with his little jacket and head and appendages - actually, large prawn would be more accurate). It was a huge plate and I was convinced I wouldn't even try to finish it, and indeed, halfway through I was sort of piling it all in a corner to make it look like I'd eaten more (and to make room for the de-braining of the shrimp), but somehow my fork kept diving into the pasta until it was all gone. It was something about the way the mushrooms had taken on the consistency of delicately coddled eggs. I don't think I"ll be hungry for hours to come, but when I am, I have some fresh buffalo mozarella waiting for me....

Eating my way through Europe

I really wanted to buy one of these for my cabin, but I didn't think I could finish it before I got home (and I thought it might be a little pungent), so I contented myself with some nice "lait cru" cheese today in Cannes, a couple of all butter pastries, and a backpack full of chorizo and other assorted sausages yesterday in Barcelona. The weather's perked up a bit and I have to wear sunscreen to go ashore again, but it hasn't been desperately hot yet. One week left and then it's back to the glorious Northwest.

Stonehenge

I don't think these pictures really need much introduction - we did a speed run in a taxi from Southampton to Stonehenge, threw ourselves around the perimeter with the thousands of other people who were similarly engaged, and still managed a 15 minute side trip to see the outside of Salisbury Cathedral (imagine having enough time in a port to actually see the insides of buildings...), and still made it home in time for passenger drills. Today was Spain, and I'll try to post a picture of lunch later.

Palma

I'd like to post some pictures from Palma, because the scenery was fairly camera worthy, but while I got my camera ashore, it came without its memory card and so was utterly useless to me. Suffice it to say that the pictures would have been spectacular. For all that, I only had 45 minutes in Palma, so pretty much all I saw was the ocean (of course) and the Cathedral (lovely). Now we're sailing again, and I'm debating whether I need to go up for scones and tea in a few minutes. The other alternative is a nap, or perhaps a run, but running would mean washing my hair again, and its already protesting yesterdays acquaintance with the ship water, so perhaps the run will wait for another day.