Some Adventuring

I may not be a huge fan of living in California, but gotta say, I am planning on abusing the gorgeous privilege of living here until mid-November. My goal for the rest of this season is to go someplace new at least twice a month (preferably more though). This last weekend I hikes the Loch Levens trail in the Lake Tahoe basin, and two weeks ago did some exploring around the American River from the Auburn Recreation Area.
Pretty fantastic stuff right there. (Also a neat announcement at the bottom of the post!)

And awesome announcement time: a paper I co-authored is getting publishing this month in Herpetological Review, woot!!

Sweet-as New Zealand!

That's right, I've returned from an absolutely wonderful trip to the land down under down under. It was fantastic. At some point I'd like to write it up into words of a respectable nature, but I'm gearing up to spend almost three weeks on the road as I wind my way down the west coast to my next job near Sacramento, California.
Now, I took over 1,000 photos, so they won't all be here. I've chosen my favorite to edit, all of which will be shown on my tumblr: Saunterling. I am also considering making prints available of my favorite ones, so feel free to lobby for the one you like most.
On a related note my shop will continue to be on vacation while I mosey south. I'm arriving a week early so in that time I should be able to make space to get my stuff together and re-open it. I have tons of new ideas for linoleum prints, shirts (!!), the ever-present patch, and possibly some new exciting dye-stuffs as I am going to see if there's a chance I could grow my own indigo at this farm!
*There's quite a few photos coming up*

Auckland Domain, Auckland. This was the walk I realized how out of shape my poor little feet were.

Orewa, The Hibiscus Coast. There are lots of little towns around Auckland that are easy to get to for a day trip by bus.

Bees <3

Still Orewa. There was a lovely, long, very long, walk around an estuary that ventured into farm land.

River walk in Hamilton. This part of Hamilton was really beautiful, but there's not much else to do there.

Beautiful hydrangeas everywhere

Hobbiton! A must-do on the North Island.

It's a two-ish hour tour and you learn about the history of the farm and all of the really small details Peter Jackson insisted on.

Geothermal activity in Rotorua. There were free foot soaking areas. Truth: it did small like sulfur everywhere.

Jenny the kea. She went after my camera shortly after this was taken. I also got to see live kiwis and some chicks at this facility! (Unfortunately photographs are not allowed, but trust me, they are super cute)

On the ferry.

Seal pups playing in the tide pools outside Kaikoura, south island.

Kaiteriteri beach, one of the world's top beaches.

Cape Foulwind. A fantastic little walk that let to great views. I have some panoramics on my phone I'll upload at another time.

Mirror pool. There were supposed to be spectacular views of Mt. Cook but it was too cloudy this day.

One of the lakes near Wanaka. These reflected beautifully.

EDORAS. I mean South, south island. Merino sheep country, between Queenstown and Lake Tekapo.

Peter's Pool near Franz Josef glacier.

Mt. John just outside of Lake Tekapo. You could see for miles

Until next time, Sabrina

Kinda there and kinda back again

     What a long week it has been (and in the best way may I add)! My mom came out for a few days and we went adventuring. I'm glad we have similar travel tastes- no exploring Seattle but finding good coffee shops in smaller towns and seeing nature whether it be the phosphorescence at Indianola dock or halfway up the side of Mt. Rainier. And it was great to also be able to share this with Robyn and Ariel; the other two-thirds of the Day Road Girls (Band( Lady Farmer Gang)). You can actually find Robyn's blog here.
     Everything was absolutely stunning, so I won't spoil it with text ;)

     I loved Mt. Rainier so much. Eventually I'd love to hike the entirety of the Wonderland Trail that goes around it but it is a 93 mile/ roughly 10 day hike so it won't happen for awhile.
     In other news I have a few ideas for larger pieces but those may take awhile. I'm also slipping back into poor sketchbooking habits so there hasn't been as much art happening lately which isn't all that great. Goal through September: SKETCHBOOK MORE. EVERYDAY. My mom also brought my sewing machine so I'll be able to start my quilt (and here begins the do I dye it myself or buy really pretty fabric debate) and sew a few items of clothing I've wanted to do for awhile.
     And now that I've finished work I'm all awake and stuff. For motivation I'm going to do my best to upload photos of my sketchbook pages as I finish them, every day or every other day as needed. Should be good.
     Peace out chickadees, S

January Adventure

**Oh frabjous day! Got this all figured out. This should have been published last week**     

Went to the zoo in January to take photos for a contest they were hosting. Didn't win any thing, but I enjoyed these anyways.

Winter Adventures

     The new year is supposed to start off cold so I've been trying to enjoy this unseasonably warm weather as much as I can before the numbers of layers needed makes walking near impossible. Today that meant pulling on heavy boots and heading into the woods to look for turkey tale and Usnia scouting (of which I found none, unfortunately). Surprisingly, my parent's old dog-- although forever a puppy-- followed me out.

 

Red Squirrel paw prints. There's only one section where I've ever seen them in the woods; everywhere else there are only Grey Squirrels

Ash trees bowed by an ice storm years ago

A stand of noble White Pines



   Finally got a self-portrait with him, he doesn't get many chances to go out past the fields, even though he has the freedom too. In the end it started to rain and I was almost dragged back to the house. He kept turning around to make sure I was still following him.

The path goes around and over the drumlin, and has a loop that runs across the top through stands of white and red pines, as well as Norway spruce and the odd hemlock trees and a few large larches.

Deer paths are the best for spontaneous adventures here.

Even found some yellow slime moulds!

 

      It's been going slow, but the beacons are coming along. I hope to finish the third tomorrow, and the fourth by the weekend at least. I'm also working on opening an Etsy shop to sell photo and art prints, as well as some other exciting things (an orange-rose lip balm proved to be a huge hit over the holidays, not to toot my own horn but it's the best I've ever used!). However, the decision will come down to finances and stuff, and the final choice will come out in the next few days with any luck!
     Finally, here's a slice of summer from my internship. I hope everyone had a wonderful Solstice/Yule/Christmas if you celebrate and has been staying warm and illness free!