If I had a week to kill

I once met a German while on vacation on a Caribbean Island, we got to talking about what sights I had seen in the USA and I said America is a big place and that I only had 2 weeks of vacation. He laughed since of course he had about 5 weeks of time off.

Now I get 3 weeks of vacation and like to save some of it for around Christmas and you need to take a day off here and there, so the 3 weeks gets used up pretty quickly. Next year I get an additional week of vacation.

So what would I do with a spare week?

Summer Courses at Oxford or Cambridge in the UK.
Now you can say you've attended "choose your favorite". We visited both cities and I preferred Cambridge. Definitely did not like the B and B we stayed in at Cambridge, but really liked the city. Missed seeing a few of the smaller University Museums and the Botanic Gardens. Both Universities have 1 week courses, they open for enrollment in January and book quickly. Caution, depending on the course and the University your select, your room may not be in an older college.

• Cambridge Summer School Programs
• The Oxford Experience
• The Oxford Summer University for Adults

Working with a Trail Crew, building or maintaining hiking trails.
In the Northeast there are several groups which have volunteer opportunities ranging from a day to a week or two.

• Appalachian Mountain Club
• Appalachian Trail Conservatory 
• New York New Jersey Trail Conference

 The Mid-Atlantic Trail Crew is doing a special project in 2014 in Bear Mountain State Park constructing a new trail and according to them "Work will include splitting and shaping stone, transporting it with rigging equipment...", sounds like fun.

Trans Atlantic Cruise
Most Cruise Lines leave from Miami, Royal Caribbean leaves from Boston, only Cunard leaves from New York. Spend some time catching up on your reading, do some self reflection and maybe teach yourself a new skill.

• Royal Caribbean Boston to Cork Ireland, then 6 more ports ending in Copenhagen Denmark. 
• Cunard, NYC - Southampton in 7 days

 Outdoors Leadership Training
You know for all those Expeditions I lead.

• Outward Bound
• NOLS National Outdoor Leadership School
• Appalachian Mountain Club

 Less stressful is this hut to hut 4 day hike Botanizing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

• AMC Alpine Wildflower Guided Hike

Adult Summer Music Camp
Almost sounds like fun, but I think I would tire of any genre in a week, plus I am limited on selection since I don't like folk, bluegrass or country, can't play a classical instrument and can't see going to a rock camp since I could just find some people to jam with on my own. If I was so inclined.

• Django in June, Gypsy Jazz in Amherst Ma.
• Tritone Jazz Summer Camp, in vibrant Rochester, NY.

Making housework fun with an air compressor

Another nice weekend, though I did work most of Saturday.

Took our first bike ride Saturday and I lost my Fitbit (activity monitor) so I went back and walked the paths we rode and found lots of other stuff, but not my Fitbit. Back home we tried syncing to the Fitbit and it connected, so the smart one downloaded an app to her iPhone and we searched for the glorified pedometer near the truck and in the house and we finally found it clipped to the spokes of her bike in the basement. The fit bit had been clipped in my pants pocket for our ride and must have been transferred when I unloaded the bike at home.

Sunday, we cleaned the windows and screens on the first floor. We washed the screens in the tub and dried them using the air compressor. It worked a treat. I inherited the air compressor when the farm shut down and I generally just use it to fill tires. This positive experience has got me thinking I should look for other household chores that could be made more fun using an air compressor. Drying dishes, dusting bookshelves and ceiling fans immediately spring to mind.
After we had Mimosas along with mini grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch.

Now to this week's flowers;

Periwinkles, as suggested by Beverley Nichols(dead author)

Lewesia in bud

Grape Hyacinth

Grecian Windflowers "Anemone blanda", West Foundation Garden

Glory of the Snow "Chionodoxa luciliae", past its prime, also have blue which looked worse, Front Garden

Variegated Brunnera, Front Garden

Sweet Woodruff, Border Garden, smells great when there are a lot of blooms.

Sweet Woodruff is used to flavor May wine, a German beverage using Rhine wine or other white dry wine.

More Spring... and some beers

Yard Updates:
Planted Spinach seed Saturday, the dog lay out in the sun for a bit, it was nice but very breezy so there was still a chill in the air, she had a longer spell at the front door till she got overheated.
Sunday was the nicer of the 2 days allocated to us cogs, though I did do some work some on both days. The dog got to lay outside twice Sunday while I did some more yard work, picking up leaves, some minor pruning and I planted some paper-whites I had forced during the winter.

Siberian Squill, scilla siberica in the Lilac Garden

Activity Update:
Had the tracker since March 20 and received the first weekly email update from my Fitbit One for March 24 - 30
Daily Averages
3400 steps, 11 floors, 6 hours sleep, awoken 5 times a night, 6 minutes to fall asleep. Still have some extra winter/holiday poundage lingering so I may have to up the activity.

Beers in the Fridge:
Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbeer
A smoked beer from Bamberg, Germany. I tried the Marzen and liked it. The sales person suggested it was really smokey, but I didn't think it to be too smokey. Reminded me of burnt leather and maybe Mescal, it was slightly sweet and not at all hoppy. The smoke essence is created at the tail end of the barley malting process when beech wood is used to dry the sprouted grain. After I tried the Marzen, I picked up the Urbok and Weizen varieties. Would be a good addition when making chile.
Couldn't wait and I had the Urbock along with a bauernwurst(pork and beef) and some pickles for Sunday lunch. I couldn't tell much of a difference between the Urbock and the Marzen, even so I preferred the Marzen. I've read that some people think you need to get used to these beers... poppycock I say.

 The brewery is in Bamburg, Germany they have a website here and a tavern in the center of town. Bamberg is a 2 hour train ride north of Munich.

Samuel Smith Chocolate Stout

photo from Sam Smith website

It is like a Belgium Fruit beer, I don't think it is brewed with chocolate, but I think the chocolate is added after brewing is done. It tastes very chocolatey and would be great to use when making a variation of a Chocolate Guinness Stout cake. While drinking it I thought that a scoop of vanilla ice cream would have gone great in the mug (Editor's Note: yes he drinks booze out of a mug). I think I may like Young's Double Chocolate Stout better, but this has true chocolate taste. Sounds like a side by side comparison is called for.