Beachy keen

After one of our professors decided to cancel class at the last minute, myself, Jillian (the other American), and Dag of Ethiopia, decided to get off campus and explore. So we hopped on the first bus off campus and ended up at the beach, on December 1. Oh yeah!

The tide was out so we were able to walk out quite far.

 

 It was a lovely day at the beach, despite it being December.
We collected sea shells by the sea shore.

 

Jillian, me and Dag.

  

And, yes, for those of you who forgot that Ireland is a lovely tropical location, they've got palm trees here. Who'da thunk it?!

It really was one of the best days I've had here on the Emerald Isle in my nearly four months here.

My Irish Thanksgiving

My friend Jillian (she's in my program and the only other American in our class) and I wanted to cook up a Thanksgiving feast. We cooked up our vegan feast at Seomra Spraoi, a social center on the north side of the city, where a few of our classmates joined us and nearly 30 enjoyed the fruits of our labor. Sadly because I was busy in the kitchen I managed only a couple of photos.

We made homemade cranberry sauce, a vat of mashed potatoes, tasty mushroom gravy, lentil veggie loaf- or as we called it Thanksgiving loaf, and stuffing. To top it off we baked up mini pumpkin pies from fresh pumpkin! It was a lovely and made being away from friends and family back in the states a little bit better.

I did get to visit the family via Skype (thank god for technology) and chatted with the houseful of my family, which was pretty cool.

Hope your holiday was full of thanks, love, family and friends, oh, and plenty of good food!

Vroman's Nose and ice cream

All summer long I kept talking about how pretty the Vroman's Nose is. So finally, Steph made me take her for a hike. 

Jammin'

This weekend we decided to get serious about canning. Our pickling cucumber plants were kind of out of control. So I picked them clean and got about two-pounds of cukes. It was decided, we were going to make pickles! 

Our tiny farm a few months later

It's been a while since we've shown you how our plot at the Cobleskill Community Garden is doing. Well, everything has taken off like crazy! Well, except for our lettuce, that rascally groundhog who lives under the shed thinks our lettuce is quite a tasty treat. Saturday Jon and I went and picked up M for some quality time with Cool Jon and Miss Kate at the garden. It was so fun.

Wintergreen Park

We spent the day at Wintergreen Park, just outside Sharon Springs, with some friends. Let me just say that this place is awesome.

The beginning

We both grew up helping our grandma's plant and pick vegetables in the garden. And, ever since we've been together we've taken to container gardening. As it turns out landlords don't appreciate their groomed lawns ripped up and planted with the promise of a bountiful harvest.

Snowy fun: fort-gloos and friends

Steph, Jon and Kate in the fort-gloo.

After being inside for what seems like forever, we were having a serious case of cabin fever - and the only way to cure that was - more cowbell! I kid. We felt that the nearly three-feet of snow was begging to be played in, so we grabbed some makeshift sleds, called our dear friend Steph, and decided to hit the killer hill on the farm.