Fall Seeding and Guitar Dabbling

How did it become November already?  I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving, a real one this time, after two years missing it.  This time last year I was in Tanzania doing field work, so I probably ate a plate of rice or ugali (a sort of mash made from corn), steamed unknown green vegetables, and a curry-like concoction.  I maybe ate fried chicken too, or fish.  The chicken would have been killed that day probably, by one of the grounds crew at the Conservation Centre.  While that was tasty, I'm glad to be looking forward to wild rice stuffing and turkey and all the fixin's.

Between the job searching and other related job acquisition activities, I play skyrim of course, but in a more useful sense I have taken on two main projects: turning part of my dad's backyard into a savanna/woodland garden, and playing guitar.

As for the savanna/woodland, I spent some days in September and October planning and implementing a fall seeding.  I have seeded part of my mom's yard before, the result of which seen below:

                                 

This was in August of this year, hence the shorts.

For the planting this time, as my mom's friend who owns a sod cutter is an hour away, I decided to explore other options.  I called over to Home Depot, who has a diesel or gas-powered sod cutter for rent, but the logistics proved to be too difficult to take on that option.  So I rented a manual sod cutter from Leitner's, and in my usual bull-headed way when I start on something, I proceeded to de-sod the yard.  Turned out that was pretty hard, but kind of fun once I got into it.  I realized quickly that the sod I was rolling up as I went was going to probably be two thirds of the work, because surprise surprise, there was a lot of it.  It ended up being a yard and a half of sod, which is a truckload for a 350 filled over the brim.  I rented a U-haul truck for that part, which was a learning experience too.  The whole process was pretty involved, but I "got 'er done" and now the yard looks like this.

I seeded it with a seed mix from Prairie Moon nursery called "PDQ" which stands for "Pretty Darn Quick", a cutesy way of referring to the time until the grasses and flowers become established and "look nice", I guess in a somewhat subjective way.  I scattered some woodland seeds next to the garage and along the fence, because those areas are the shadiest.  I will probably end up adding in more plants in the spring, but overall I'm really proud of the result so far.  

As for the guitar playing, I have found some useful videos online for both classical- and acoustic-style playing.  I started about a month ago with the classical guitar we have at our house, which is older than me:

It hadn't been used in many years, so after my first hour or so of playing a string snapped.  I took it over to a neat guitar store in downtown St. Paul called Capitol Guitars and had the whole thing re-strung.  Now it's working great and I've learned to play song whole and some parts of songs such as "Mr. Tamborine Man" and "Free Falling", as well as some classical forays, mostly a sort of Spanish Romanza style.  Here's a recording of my rough rendition of "Classical Study No. 1" written by a guy online who does teaching videos called RealViewGuitar.  

Wow, trying to embed an mp3 file was a trial in itself!  Hopefully it plays for everyone.  This will help me log my progress.

Well, that's the update for now.  I will try not to let it go so long next time!

Last days in Norway

After a wonderful last two months in Norway, where I did my defense and passed with an A, or as my co-supervisor said "with flags flying", I have arrived back in Minnesota only to go immediately to my other favorite place, Holland, Michigan.  Before leaving I stayed with my Norwegian fourth-cousin, who has been instrumental in my decision to go to Norway and has supported me along the way.  We went a few places together around her town and had dinner with her parents, who have also been my family's gracious hosts on all of our trips to Norway.

                               

Here we are at a nice beach near her home with her cute dog, there in time for the sunset.

                               

I'll miss the high season for heather, but I got to see some blooming before I left.

                                

Delicious Norwegian dinner of roast pork with currant jam, vegetables and potatoes, covered in one of the most delicious gravies I've ever tasted.

                              

After dinner we had coffee and currant jam (it was in season so it was homemade) covered in a vanilla sauce.  Yum!

                              

From the plane I got one last glimpse of the dramatic Norwegian landscape.

I traded this sunset in Norway for this one:

Which is not a bad trade.  Especially when it comes with my endlessly entertaining family.  I'm glad to be back.

This Odyssey

I started and stopped blog posts several times over the course of this semester, never feeling right about what I was typing.  It was a pretty difficult winter/spring for me this year, with a part time job, my thesis, a class I had to take, and trying to stay social even though I was not feeling like it.  I was putting a lot of thought into what I wanted, whether it was to stay in Norway or go back to the U.S., and didn't decide until yesterday that I will go back to Minnesota.  Norway has been great for me in so many ways, like my time in Japan, where I grew a coccoon around me and burst out in the end transformed into one of those things...you know, the insect with the wings.  A flutterby?  Yeah, that sounds right.  I've now become a new level of me.  On my 30th birthday card from two of my dear friends here, they wrote "Congratulations! You have reached the third level!"  And that is really what it feels like.

I finished my thesis on May 31, and just had my defense yesterday.  I presented my findings in a short presentation, and my two supervisors and the external examiner followed that with questions to clarify the subject matter.  They were within the B to A range before the defense, and after deliberation while I was out of the room, they decided to give me an A!  They built up the suspense really well before they told me, too, just like a reality show.  And then suddenly he says "And we're giving you an A!"  I wouldn't have been surprised if confetti had fallen and an orchestra started into the final movement of Ode to Joy.  C'mon Norway, you're rich, you could have sprung for it.

I am currently working on a newspaper or online article, and a journal article to be published on my thesis.  There were some interesting findings, and I hope exposing them will change something on the ground in the area of Tanzania I stayed in.  I met some great people and learned so much, and had to deal with so much I had never had to before, like eating in the villages, motorcycling through the muddiest roads I've ever seen, and jogging with a crowd of people to get back onto a moving bus to name a few.  I had to face my inner princess, who doesn't like discomfort of any kind but still wants to pay the least.  This is why I titled this post with the word "odyssey", because even though it wasn't as crazy as Odysseus' journey, it certainly felt like one.

I went to Dublin last week with some cheap tickets and had a great time, and met lots of interesting and cool people.  It was a bit touristy, and I should have done a bit more research on how to find places to dance in a ceili, an Irish dance party.  I couldn't find anywhere to do it, but I heard that they have it more often outside Dublin, if at all, an in Dublin they just have Riverdance-like shows.  But I got to visit the Guinness factory, take a couple of day trips and go to museums, and just walk around the city.  My photos are on facebook but I will put a few here.

In the medieval quarter, this is Dublinia, a museum going from the viking era to modern Dublin's history.

Diving ducks that were hard to capture in a photo above water in St. Stephen's park

Signs everywhere were in both English and Irish languages.

Some friendly locals.

The best Irish coffee I've ever tasted.

If Captain America approves, it's good enough for me.  Actually I didn't go in, but loved the sign.

Typical pub with traditional music I visited my last night.

I'm looking forward to cleaning out my stuff and moving to my Norwegian cousins' place for a bit, and celebrate with them having finished my degree.  Until later!