Monday, May 12, 2014

Let's Go to the Woods! - Lime Kiln Trail

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To celebrate Sparklepants' birthday last week, we went to the woods - more specifically, Lime Kiln Trail, an easy and gorgeous hike about an hour's drive from Seattle. I used to go hiking and backpacking a ton when I was younger and really miss it sometimes, so it was great to get back to it.

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  It was also a relaxing afternoon vacation away from the messy hell of glue dots, muslin, swatches, and ribbon that has been exploding in slow motion all over our house for the last few weeks. Sparklepants presented her ballgown a few weeks ago, and I'm presenting mine on Tuesday afternoon, so there's been lots of late nights and yelling at inanimate objects in our house as of late. As I walked onto the trailhead, I could immediately feel my blood pressure drop.

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Lately it's felt both decadent and life-affirming to give in to the pull of outside: walking through the woods on a cool spring afternoon; poking kelp with my sneakers on the beach near our house while the sun sets through a cloud-blown sky. It's nice to have a reminder of a world both simpler and infinitely more complex than the one inside the walls of school and home: the natural world has this rich internal life that is so easy to forget when the only natural things you interact with are carpet beetles and the pot of dead plants on your back porch. (Speaking of carpet beetles: it's the season! Be vigilant, friends!)

In the next few weeks, I'm looking forward to being done with my presentation, starting some new fun knitting projects, and gearing up for my ballgown in June.

And there might be some more woods in there, too.

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