Winter Storm

We had lots of snow yesterday. The whole city shut down, in fact most of the state shut down. The governor ordered all UW schools to close and even the Madison military base closed, per military orders. We got about 16 inches in 24 hours. That is a lot of snow to deal with!

Our next door neighbor's tree split in half in the middle of the night. It missed Julie's car by about 2 inches. Julie and I started shoveling about 8:30am and finished around 12:30pm. We were so tired. My shoulder was really sore so I took an afternoon nap. :)

The neighbors contemplating how to cut the tree up

The tree after being stacked and piled

The neighborhood the day after the storm.

Today the sun was out and it was beautiful out, but soooo cold, probably 10 degrees.

A beautiful tree in the snow.

New photos on my website!

My photography website is updated with new photos! There are about 70 new photos and info about purchasing prints - framed or unframed. These make great gifts and there is still time to get them for Christmas.

The link to the gallery is:
http://amyclimer.com/photo/gallery.html

Enjoy!

Madison Area Open Art Studios

You are invited to our Art Studio for an Open House next weekend. Here are the details:
Amy Climer's photography and fiber art
Julie Koenke's mixed media art

Madison area Open Art Studios
October 17 -18, 11am to 5pm
49 Lansing St. Madison, WI 53714 map
Refreshments provided

This is a super fun event where ~130 artists open their studios up to the public. The Open Art Studio website has an interactive map, photos of each artist's work, and other details. Many of us will be doing demonstrations and/or have hands-on art opportunities. It's the debut of my photography!

Feel free to stop in, just say hello and join us for a snack. It would be great to see you!

You can see our art on our websites:
Amy - www.amyclimer.com
Julie - www.juliekoenke.com

Paddling the Wisconsin River

This past weekend Julie and I paddled the Wisconsin River from Spring Green to Muscoda. It was a wonderful, mellow weekend.

We got a late start on Saturday and didn't get to Spring Green until 2pm! I did the shuttle which meant driving our car to Muscoda and biking back to Spring Green. It was 22 miles and I was reminded that I'm out of biking shape! Next time I'm limiting the bike shuttle to 13-14 miles, otherwise we take two cars! I was so tired before we even got on the water. We finally got on at about 5:30pm. Our friends Jerry, Greta, and Lan Lan were in Spring Green for the weekend and had come to the boat launch/beach to swim. It was fun to run into them and they offered to take my bike back to Madison for me so I didn't have to leave it locked up at the boat launch. That was super nice of them.

Somehow we managed to paddle to the Lone Rock bridge by 7pm. 8 miles in 1.5 hours. That seemed fast even with the current, but it was a nice surprise to see the bridge. We camped a bit beyond it just as the sun was setting. Below is a photo of Julie paddling up to our campsite. Once in camp, Julie made some delicious chicken quesadillas for dinner and fueled us up for the next day.

sunset on Saturday night

We woke up to rain falling on Sunday morning and we waited for a lull around 8:30am to get up. Our timing was perfect. We were on the water at about 9:45am right when it started raining again. Paddling in the rain is much better than trying to pack up in the rain. With a paddling jacket and a brimmed hat you can barely tell it's raining on the water. Kayaking is a water sport after all, which means you're gonna get wet anyway!

We took a loungy break on a sandbar over the lunch hour and decided we much prefer outdoor vacations to city vacations. We were in Chicago a couple weeks ago and while that is fun, it's not rejuvinating like being outside is.

After lunch Julie learned to tow. Really it was just my excuse to get towed. hee-hee.

Julie practicing towing me

We finally mossied into Muscoda by 3pm. A great weekend!! Over the weekend we saw several bald eagles including one feeding it's babies in the nest. We also saw Sandhill Cranes, Great Blue Herons, turtles, a few minnows, and people tubing, canoes overflowing with garbage bags of gear, but mostly people just out having fun like us. On Wisconsin!

The Latest Updates

My posts have been random lately so here is a real update of what's happening in my world...

I had a wonderful year teaching Adventure Education at Fort Lewis College. My colleagues, my students, the location was all fantastic. But, Julie (my partner) wasn't able to find a job in Durango. It's a small town and the economy forced the college into a hiring freeze and the school district was laying people off. It wasn't looking too good. And, she has a great job in Madison that she was hesitant to leave. Anyway, so after a year I bid farewell to my friends in Durango and loaded the U-Haul to head back to the midwest. Hopefully, I'll have the opportunitiy to teach a summer course there in the future or help out with some half semester courses. It's a great program!

This summer I am guiding sea kayaking trips in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior. I work for Living Adventures out of Bayfield, WI. It's a great company and I love the people I work with. It's been a lot of fun and Lake Superior is gorgeous!! It's the largest lake in the world and almost more like an ocean without tides. The water is crystal clear and there are tons of wildlife. Nearly everyday I see bald eagles and loons. The other day we saw a bear crossing the road. I saw a baby and mama skunk one day, a baby loon sitting on the mama's back two days in a row, and two bald eagles locking talons in mid-air one day. All super cool!

Also, I am working for the Madison School District's ropes course this summer a bit leading team building and rock climbing trips. This may become a more permanant job in the fall - I hope so, just waiting to learn about some funding.

My experience at Fort Lewis has motivated me to go back to school to get my PhD. I loved teaching at FLC and I know it's somewhat rare that I had that opportunity w/o a PhD. Getting a PhD will give me more opportunities to teach at the college level. So, I am starting with two classes in Education this fall at UW Madison. I've connected with one of the faculty there who I think will be a good fit as an advisor for me. There's quite a bit of flexibility in the program and at this point I am planning to study creativity in adults, something that's fascinated me for years.

I am also prepping for the Madison area Open Art Studios in October. It'll be the third year I'm exhibiting, but this year instead of fiber art I am doing photography. It'll be my first photography show and I am very excited. I've gotten a lot of positive feedback about my photography and look forward to seeing what happens. If you are in Madison add it to your calendar - Oct. 17-18. My website has some photography, but hasn't been updated to the latest - soon enough though. There's also a lot on this blog.

I am taking my new kayak out to Cherokee Marsh now. Hopefully, I'll have some new photos for ya soon!

Summer Flowers

During my week of LeaderShape at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, NM I met a wonderful new friend and fellow photographer Dave Blandford. He's inspired me to get the camera back in my hands. (I haven't been that excited about photography lately - having a bit of a dry spell).

Yesterday and today I wandered around the neighborhood taking photos of flowers. There are some great gardeners around here, especially my next door neighbor. it was a little breezy which made it challenging since the flowers were swaying. Many were out of focus, but here are some of the highlights.

Lily 1:
1/200 at f/5.6, ISO 100, 190mm

Lily 2:

1/250 at f/5.6, ISO 100, 190mm

Coneflower:
1/1000s at f/5.6, ISO 250, 190mm

Dandelion:
1/250s at f/11, ISO 250, 190mm

Mourning Dove:
1/250 at f/6.3, ISO 100, 300mm

I'd love some feedback if you have any! What do you like? What can make them better?
Thanks y'all!
-a

Tandem Kayak Roll

I am guiding in the Apostle Islands this summer on Lake Superior. During a staff training overnight trip another guide and I successfully rolled a tandem kayak. It was a first for both of us. Here's the video...

Snowshoeing at Andrew's Lake

Today I went snowshoeing at Andrew's Lake with a few friends and four dogs. It was a gorgeous day - classic Colorado, blue-sky day! We hiked for about 4 hours and had a great time. Here are some highlights.

Crossing the bridge over Andrew's Lake

View of Engineer Mountain

My favorite of the day!

Windblown snow on the side of a ridge

Around mid-day we came upon this snowcave/igloo (which I later learned is actually called a quinzhee) and realized it was built by the Adventure Education Mountaineering class. They were out for the weekend. Inside was their sleeping bags and to the left (not pictured) was a bench they built out of snow including shelves to store their pots & pans. Quite fancy! Most of our group decided that as cool as the quinzhee was, we'll stick to the summer camping.

Quinzhee built by Adv Ed Mountaineering class

On Monday at work I told Tim that we saw his class's quinzhee. He said it was so strong that five guys were all standing on top of it jumping and it didn't fall through. Impressive!

Crystal & Mark running through the thick snow

On the way back it was mostly downhill and running through the thick untracked snow is a lot of fun. Crystal particularly loved it!

Snowshoeing in the fog

This afternoon I drove up to Coal Bank Pass and went snowshoeing for a bit. Once I got up there it was really foggy and gray - very cool looking. Here are a few of the photos I took.

The snow depth marker - 5 feet deep!

A view on the drive home

You'd think these were taken with black and white film! Even in the fog it's so gorgeous here!

I learned to knit!

In October I took a knitting class at our local shop called Yarn. We learned to make hats. My first attempt was too large and as soon as I put it on it fell to my chin, so I ripped it out and redid it (i love that about knitting). The second attempt looked all wonky so I ripped that out and finally got it on the third attempt. By then I had learned to switch colors so I made it striped. Then made a second (or fourth) one for Julie.

My knit hat on left and the one I made for Julie on the right

I wanted to learn to knit because it's portable artwork. You can take it anywhere, even backpacking!

Now I am working on a scarf and then some felted knit Christmas stockings for 2009.