at large

outside my apartment 3/6/2011

More Climbing, work, photography, and anticipation of an outdoors free from solid moisture. The weather is warming, but we're far from out of the storm completely. Just Sunday I awoke to a blustery horizontal snow blow (not quite a squall, not delicately falling flakes). After a great Saturday of climbing and well, perhaps, earned loot in prizes I was not too worried about the state of the outdoors. I spent the day relaxing, baking bread, and working on photos.  The sudden blast of snow after many of us had the tales of an early spring and hopes for an extended beginning to this year's green climbing season on our lips was a rude slap on the wrist from good ol' reality of Boone winters. Bipolar, Moody, Unpredictable, and sometimes bitter. 

New River Gorge (not my photo)

Soon comes spring, the beginning of an amazing climbing season I hope, very well, very well. A trip to far away and exotic climbing places such as the New River Gorge in West Virginia,  the Red River Gorge near Lexington, KY, or even down the road to the Linville Gorge is duly in order. I would love to get some shots out there, let alone climb the walls. I missed out on a great trip over Fall Break this past year and, now that I have some vacation time, will not be tendering the same unfortunate absence for some of the trips coming up amongst my friends in the not too distant futuredoms. 

My Sunflower Pumpkin Seed Wheat Bread with your choice

of butter, cranberry Wensleydale or aged white cheddar. So 

very good for sandwiches or warm yummy honey toast too! 

In the meantime between work and climbing, I am baking bread. I have really been enjoying my bread making experiments. From whitewheat, to sunflower pumpkin seed whitewheat, to Cranberry Pumpkin Bread, to some sort of French style baguette. I am currently in the process of drawing out a delicious recipe of whitewheat that incorporates sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, amaranth, and buttermilk. The first loaf was good, but a bit dense and I think the Amaranth needed a bit more soaking. My revisions to the recipe should be yet another step closer to the delicious concoction I know is hiding just beyond the tip of my nose.

The wild card, Amaranth, I chose because of its deliciously healthy healthums. Not a particularly delicious grain, it does add a little something something to the bread. I think, for hearty wheatwhite v3, I will soak in a pot the buttermilk mix of goodness the Amaranth for a medium sized bot longer, around 10-13 minutes I believe. Softening them up may help digestion of the little guys and also may impart more of their flavor, if there is any within them, into the bread. We'll surely see.  

Melise climbing on the Cereal Butress at 

Rumbling Bald in Asheville, NC Winter '11

Many of these activities have been shared between myself and another, my girlfriend, Melise. We have been dating for about a month now, its been great. She's fun, laughs a lot, loves the outdoors, camping, and climbing. She likes to and is a good cook, we bake together. She is independent and intelligent. We share a lot in common and I look forward to spending more time with her. At the moment, she is out of touch on a service learning project leading a trip of volunteers working at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Indiana... middle of nowhere Indiana. It's an ASB (Alternative Spring Break) thing, students go on volunteer community service trips rather than heading out to Panama, Mexico, Spain, Florida, or just Wilmington. It's raining all over the southeast's rocks, so scrapping the service for climbing wouldn't have done much anyway, its going to be a wet spring break for a lot of people.