Where's Lauren!?!

In England its called "Where's Wally?"; in American its called "Where's Waldo?" Which ever country you live in, I feel permanently displaced at the moment.

Having gotten back from the two week Mt St Helens trip we vowed not to go anywhere else this year. Yeah right. Since I had to graciously leave my job at Ole Miss and accept a job a the University of Tennesse, I had to go to Knoxville to go through orientation. Sunday I had breakfast at the Bottletree with my lovely husband, walked my beautiful dogs on a lovely autumn day then sat in the back of a car for 7 hours as I was driven to Knoxville. Monday morning I woke up hot, very very hot, walking around in just a shirt despite the fact that it was only about 40F out. Started to get a sore throat, then a blocked nose and now here I sit, back at home, possibly with Strep Throat. Great. I feel much much better today but still am really really sick, that just gives you an idea of how bad monday night was for me!

Since we are having a bonfire party (as we do every year) thursday, November 5th, I am going to the doctors here in a minute to find out if I am still contagious, coz if I am, we are going to have to cancel the party as it is rather irresponsible to knowingly infect your friends and family. Ill let you know what I have got and if I am still contagious or not! Fingers crossed its just a chest infection!

Short interlude

Before we continue with NZ adventure photos... I have to tell you about my week here in Oregon/Washington.

Tuesday was my first ever time in a helicopter and I have to say, I didn't mind it at all. As I pointed out to the pilot, flying for the first time on a turbulent day was probably the best thing for me because it can only get better, right!?

Wrong.

Wednesday was hellacious. As the pilot was setting Rob and I down he yelled 'I cant see shit', into his microphone; never something you want to hear from your pilot on your third ever flight. It rained continually all day, but it wasn't all that bad until the winds picked up and continued to change direction so that the rain drove in sideways and felt like it was biting your inner core. About this time, I realised that the layer of trousers by my skin (my fourth layer) was soaking wet, my protective rain pants were no longer waterproof. Excellent. Around lunchtime the decision was made to pull out, so they told us that Danny and Nathan were to go first, then we were going to be picked up and then Andrew and Sol the last ones out. So we huddled down behind an outcrop, as there is very little to shelter you in the valley, and we had some tea; got to keep it civilised peeps! We waited, and we waited, but there was a little oversight in the plan, and that is that we only had very short range (500m line of sight) radio so in fact had no contact with the outside world. We waited and we waited and I swore I could hear the helicopter so we ran out into the middle of the valley but alas, no helicopter. Then a short while later we saw him coming, then we saw him banking hard and turning around a few hundred meters away from us, then he went out of sight. So at first we thought he had landed further downstream so we ran up to the top of the terrace and started quickly heading that way. But alas, no helicopter. So without communication and with very limited knowledge of helicopters, we deduced from this that conditions were too bad for him to land out there and that we had to make our own way out, so we begun considering our options; up into the mountains where it was sheltered and we could reach the road, but it would get colder with altitude and the pilot would not be able to see us should he return, or down through the valley where we were exposed but at least visible. About twenty minutes later, as the rain picked back up, the helicopter came round the corner and went straight over our heads; how could he not see us, we were wearing orange jackets. So we got onto our short range radios and attempted communication to tell him we were now behind him, so after circling a few times he saw us and managed to land just fine. When we got into the helicopter with a mixture of relief that he came back for us but trepidation about the journey back to base, he says 'tighten your seatbelts, its pretty scary out there'. Great. To be honest, it was not as scary as I had anticipated but we did do a lot of jumping up and down in height. When we set down at the helicopter pad he came over the radio with 'thank god that day is over'. From a New Zealand pilot, that's saying something! Soaked through I stripped down to my inner layer of trousers and jumped in the truck for the two hour journey back to Portland and a soy hot chai to warm me back up. My shower that night was most definitely the nicest thing to happen to me that day. We went straight to REI and I bought a pair of new rain pants!

Thursday was a glorious day with no wind, and so I came over the radio to tell James, our pilot, that it was rather nice in a helicopter when the weather was pleasant and he laughed at me. We worked hard to complete three sites thursday, more than we had done the rest of the week combined! The weather was lovely with just a small breeze. We were right up close to the crater of Mount St Helens and its growing dome. When I did the pebble count (just remind me, how much do I get paid to measure rocks!) I did note that the water in the stream all the way up there, was much warmer than the water 3 miles downstream, hmmmm.

I honestly never thought I would ever be that close to the crater of an active volcano. It was pretty cool!

The weather is set to be pretty bad on the mountain today and tomorrow, so we are taking our weekend early and working sunday instead. 2-4 inches rain in the next 36 hours apparently. So the rivers should look pretty different come sunday! Snow on tuesday, and temperatures around the early 40s for the rest of the week. Oh yes, that's why I get paid to measure rocks, because sometimes its not such a pleasant job!

So now its an early weekend. Unforunately we couldn't sleep in this morning because we have been getting up at 6am, so we still woke up early, but at least we dont have to rush around getting into icky fieldclothes. We plan to lounge around for two days and eat lots of food! Today we might head to some furniture stores to have a look around and tomorrow we will probably hit the cinema but that's about it really! We need a rest just to get mentally and physically prepared for the harsh conditions that are awaiting us next week!

My huge flight suit!

Flying up to our last site of the day.



This is not zoomed in, thats how close we were to the crater of Mount St Helens, which erupted May 18th 1980.

Lewitt Falls coming out of the crater.


Spirit Lake across the valley from the crater.


Check out the size of the people for scale. These are the sides of the valley. What you have to remember is that all of this was deposited in 1980 from the eruption. Some of it is ash, some of it is lahar (mud flow). That was the lowest point 30 years ago. The river has cut down through this to its current elevation and moved all of that sediment downstream. To survey the cross-section Danny had to rapel down the sides with the helicopter as his anchor at the top!

Apologies

I apologise. I had promised an exciting New Zealand Photo Update every day last week, but things got out of hand last week and there wasn't even time to blink and not think you were wasting precious time. There may be more time this week, but I very much doubt it... so please, be patient, there are hundreds more pictures to follow!

Where am I now? Portland, OR of course. Did you think my job would allow me to stay home for more than just a few days! Don't be silly!

I did get to work hard in the garden all day saturday and make some more tasty cinnamon raison English Muffins. My major gardening job was to turn over last years leaves and that took the best part of the day. I have sowed some fall greens and am getting ready to till up the rest of the vegetable patch for lots and lots of spinach!

Sunday we left the house at 6am. ugh. Just 5 miles from the turn off to Danny's parents house, where we were going to drop off the dogs, the engine thermometer pinged into the red and all these warning lights came on in the car. oh dear. Thankfully, we have had this problem before and so whilst we were nervous, we were not panicking! Because we have hardly been here, we have not had time to change the oil in our car and those things all happen basically to force you into changing the oil. We made it to the turn off but didnt want to drive the extra 15 minutes to their house; so we left the car parked at the gas station and they came to collect us. Brenda took the dogs home (sorry for getting you up before 7am sunday morning Brenda!) and Paul, Danny and I squeezed into Amanda's little truck and he sped us off to the airport with my legs up on the dash so he could change gears! I was set for a 6 hour lay-over in Vegas of all places, because the flight was sold out. But thankfully I was the first stand-by passenger so I got on to the same flight as Danny; even got to sit next to him!

What am I doing this week? Our newest project is on the N. Touttle River that drains the crater on Mount St. Helens. The Corps has some dams lower down and are concerned with siltation processes filling up the dams so we are considering erosion rates of the materials in the river floodplain. The work week has not begun according to plan. We shipped three packages overnight for saturday delivery through FedEx. We cannot work without these boxes and every day is planned to a T. Of course, only one of the boxes arrived, and of course, the less essential one. So the others have gone off up the mountain and I am sitting here at the hotel waiting for FedEx to get its act together and deliver my packages. Fun fun fun! How did FedEx manage to get so big when they are so unbelievably unreliable?!

Going to be sunny and comfortable in temperature today, but its supposed to rain for the entire rest of the trip, great way to take your first ever helicopter ride that you are totally worried about!

Photo update

During the weekend in the middle of my UK fieldtrip, I was fortunate enough that my folks decided to drive up and meet me. These pictures are from the day we visited Alnwick Gardens; It was fun but if you are ever in the vicinity, do not pay the 10GBP to go as my mum's garden is free and far more beautiful.

We were feeding this rather plump bird bread, but it got especially excited when we gave it some berries!

Are the colours not incredible!?

Photo update

Edinburgh from Calton Hill.

A roof top garden!

Part-way home, sort of!

Where have I been, I hear you cry! Middle of bloody nowhere is the answer, for the most part at least! There are still parts of the civilised world where the hotels have no internet, you have to sleep in a single bed (first time since 2001) and its freezing cold in August.

I flew to Edinburgh, Scotland, Saturday August 15th, arriving the following morning. I was unable to check in to my hotel until the afternoon, but they did fortunately store my luggage. I changed into some clean clothes and wandered around Edinburgh for several hours, walking briskly and with purpose, so as not to appear as a tourist. The best part of my day was spent in the Botanical Gardens, which should be missed by none! Great great gardens.

I undertook some semblance of work for the next week, although since I didnt get to chose the sites, I didnt actually do that much work; the sites were mostly inappropriate. I spent the weekend with my parents strolling along the beach, taking afternoon tea and cake and hiking through the rolling hills of Northern England. The best thing about the entire trip was meeting Mrs Goudie and spending a peaceful afternoon alone with her talking the talk and looking at pictures of her family when it was young. We then spent a lovely evening at a wonderful fish restaurant called The Ship on the Shore, where David was so very kind as to buy us all dinner. Wonderful wonderful evening, probably helped by the fact that Dave and I polished of a bottle of delicious Rioja between the two of us, oh and the Clams appetiser, Haddock over stir-fry veggies and apple and rhubarb crumble with custard that I consumed, not to mention the amazing company! The only good meal that I ate in the U.K. was an out-standing one!

I left Edinburgh Thursday August 27th, departing my hotel room at 830am and arriving at a Sheraton in downtown Sacremento, California, twenty two hours later, exhausted yet unable to sleep more than a few hours. Thankfully the field chief was rather lenient on me as I was incapable of anything resembling work friday and he didnt even seem to mind that much that I woke him up at 530am in the morning. I mean, come on, I had laid there waiting to get him up for about 2 hours already!

This trip would be inconceivable should I not have been meeting my love, but here we are together in California, and they call this work! My trips are usually excruciatingly painful on the body, even a young one like mine! The hours tend to be over the 12 mark and I constantly long for my love; but here we are, together, sitting on a boat for 8 hours a day armed with nothing more than paper, pencil and a GPS, then strolling down to Paesanoes for a revitalising Sangria in the early evening. So usually I would be complaining like a trooper in my third week away from home, but Im sitting back (in my life jacket, of course) and enjoying the hot Californian sun on my face.

I do miss my boys, but I hear they are behaving themselves so much that even I would be proud of them! So to you my lovelies, Ill be home Saturday and I promise you a walk Monday morning!

An unexpected day!

I got up and went for a jog nice and early before work this morning. Very refreshing!

The weather had said light rain all day but it is beautifully sunny. We drove almost two hours to a site in West Sussex that looked at least chest deep! So we drove on back and went to a site on the Blackwater River that was also too deep for me to do my work. Instead I helped Tom and we got finished in just a couple of hours. Since there are no more sites left, today has become the last day of field work! Awesome! So instead of having to work hard in the rain for two more days, it seems I just had to take some notes down for someone for an afternoon!

Back to the rents ranch tomorrow then for another relaxing weekend of nothingness until I go back to office work. Im rather excited about seeing my babies monday evening!

We are going to eat at the same pub we ate at last night where I had possibly the best crab cakes Ive ever had in my life! and possibly a good old English dessert is in store!

The nasty things that grow alongside rivers...

Stinging netttles
Stinging netttles
Stinging netttles

Stinging netttles, poison ivy, mosquitos. What is it with rivers and things that irritate your skin and make you itch?

Im off to visit Lisa Ponty down on the south coast in Titchfield. Awesome!

First day of work

545am: wake up
550am: grapefruit juice down the hatch
615am: driven to the train station
645am: board commuter train to London Kings Cross
720am: disembark train at London Kings Cross and walk to underground
725am: Victoria line to Warren Street
730am: Northern line to Waterloo Station
740am: walk to train station and wait to see what platform to go to. Platform 8.
815am: Leave Waterloo Train station on Portsmouth Harbour train.
850am: Disembark at Farnborough and get met by Tom, my contact at Kings College.
Drive to field site on the Rother in Sussex and Minijet all day in a field full of Bulls.
5pm: Leave fieldsite (and bulls) and drive to B&B in Farnham. Lovely place.
515pm: Shower.
545pm: Drive to Angela Gurnells house to meet the Kings College contacts and go out for a curry.
915pm: Get back to room exhausted but pleasantly full.

All day: Miss my wonderful husband.

The other side of the pond

So Im in England. Again! Isnt it great!

I arrived very early thursday morning, having not slept a wink on the plane. Dave was not only kind enough to pick me up from the airport but to then make me a cooked English breakfast when we got home! I couldnt help thinking how jealous my handsome husband would be that I was eating good bacon without him! Dave let me take a nap but woke me up after an hour; when I begged for longer, he let me sleep another 30 minutes. We picked mum up after work and went out for Chinese.

Friday I had to actually do some work! It was alright though; after a week of rain, I got lucky to stay warm and dry all day. Especially lucky since I didnt bring a rain jacket!

The weather is definitely not as I expected. I brought summer dresses and shorts and just threw in a pair of jeans last minute, and boy am I glad I did! It rained most of the day saturday and was pretty chilly (that is at least coming from someone who has been used to 100F weather!). We tried to go to Cambridge but there was tons of traffic and tourists for the strawberry festival so we just headed down to Epping to meet my sister, where upon we got stuck in a traffic jam on the M11. Great. Lunch was nice though. Mum and I ordered sandwiches and then this huge plate of at least 6 different cured meats and 5 thick slices of bread got placed infront of Jade, the smallest one at the table! I found myself again thinking of how jealous Danny would be of all the meat Jade was consuming! Why do I always think of Danny when there is food around!

Ive enjoyed two days of having nothing to get up for! I wake up around 7am and lay there until around 930am. Unheard of at home! Ive now spent the day doing nothing, and I see why people do it. Its rather relaxing. Although its not 3pm and I also see why I dont do this more than about once a year! I got up around 930am, had some juice. We rode to the train station to buy my ticket for tomorrow morning where the little guy in the booth told me I was a Lulu and he just couldnt believe my stupidity for not realising that I could buy a ticket straight to Farnborough rather than having to buy one from here to Kings Cross then one from Waterloo to Farnborough. Different companies own the trains, how was I supposed to know! Then I went for a jog out in the blustery but sunny weather. Its really frustrating being unfit when you are not used to it. I walked a lot, again, something Im not used to doing when out for a jog. Took a shower, ate some homemade jam on bread and sat outside reading my book and listening to the incredible strong winds and singing birds around me. I think the rest of the afternoon brings a Skype converstation with my beloved and a roast dinner made by my mummy. Yeay!

Off to work nice and early tomorrow morning. Got to catch the 645am with my mum to arrive in Farnborough around 9am ish. Ah well, guess they sent me here so I spose I should do some work!

Getting ready

Sometimes you are rushing around frantically before a trip, trying to get ready. Its even worse when going on a fieldtrip, particularly when you are in charge, because you dont just have to remember your clothes but you have to remember field clothes and waders and anything that you feel you need with you in the field. But sometimes, and this is one of those times, there really is nothing to think about. Im not in charge of the fieldtrip, so I just have to make sure I get on a couple of planes and meet Dave at the other end thursday morning. I also finished a major project at work last week so havent really had anything to do. Oh, and my boss away so there is no one asking me for things. I squared everyone away on other fieldtrips and equipment from now until September and Ive got my few things together. So there I was at 1400 hours today, staring at my empty computer screen wondering what on earth to do with myself. So I decided that was silly and I came home to pack, which I am especially grateful for because now I dont have to rush around doing it tonight.

I topped and tailed 2 lbs of green beans, blanched them and put them up in the freezer. I skinned, pitted and sliced an entire box of peaches, which was so slimy that it was fun! And then I began thinking, is this normal? Is it really normal for a person to put so much food up!? So please tell me, do normal people do this kind of thing? I also just realised that I have to grate the zucchini for the freezer too. Righto. Best get on that!

My faithful boys are lying at my feet, unawares that tomorrow morning will be their last walk in two weeks. This knowledge makes me sad as I know how much they love to go walking and exploring. agh. Nothing to be done about it.

Since I have just been dropping milestones randomly into my posts lately (some of which probably go unnoticed!)... some of you may have known that I was working on a blanket for my mother for about the past 3 years. Well, yes, I finally finished it in time for her birthday this year! I was actually really sad to give it up. Really sad. It is a master piece! Now I get to make something for myself :)

The last day!

Well its finally here, the last day of fieldwork! Considering the weather over the past two weeks and all that has gone wrong, this fieldtrip has passed remarkably quickly for me! I feel really good about how much we have achieved too. I have to confess that I was particularly worried last monday morning when I realised just how flooded all of the creeks were after three straight days of rain, and then when it continued to rain, and they continued to rise! But it worked out for the most part and we got a lot of sites crossed off the list!

The last day of fieldwork! I have chosen a small stream for us today, in the hopes that we finish early, as we have to pack up the truck so that it can be left for another month or so and we have to ship a bunch of stuff home. Then its off to Henry Weinharts to meet our boss for dinner. My flight out in the morning is just after 10am and I get in to Memphis around 6pm, I think!

I am so excited to see my dogs, the little cuties! And Im particularly excited to see how much my vegetable garden has grown, or rather how much of it has been destroyed by slugs, rotters. And of course to see what else is blooming around the rest of the garden. Before we left some lilies in the back were getting their flower heads so I hope I have not missed them, I may sulk if I have!

I will leave you with a picture of Harry the Hairless Newt who I found strolling through the woods along the creek bank wednesday!

Fun packed weekend in Portland

We begun our saturday by walking to the Portland farmers market and oh my gosh, it was awesome. I think that my passion for food borders on obsessive from time to time.

Nettles for dinner?

These are fern tops.

So we kept ourselves in check and just bought some spinach and asparagus to have with our left over Thai, some Spring lamb, fingerling potatoes and kale to cook one night.

Then we went across the river to an awesome yarn store in Sellwood.  I have to say, I was rather intimidated by the fact that there were two men working behind the counter, and yes they were particularly effeminate and the most efficient knitters I have ever seen!  They helped me chose the right yarn for the job and I was able to chose an Oregon raised Lopi (although Im not really sure what a Lopi is!).  When I eventually finish the things Im making for other people, Im going to make myself a bolster cushion for the couch.

Then we drove south towards Bagby Hot Springs. Or at least, that was our intended destination. We stopped in a random town for lunch and drove on, and on, and on alongside the (particularly noisy) Clakamas River. 

 

Eventually we hit snow, a surprise as it was 60F!  I was my usual wussy self and said that we couldnt make it through the snow. At that point, a family of four in a small rental car came up and proceeded to try and get through the snow.  Luckily we had a tow rope to help them get out when they got stuck!  So we turned around, deflated at having not made it to the hot springs. Then we decided to try some random forest service roads to try and circum-navigate the snow, but that just wasted our time. Then on the way back, we happened to notice a road we hadnt seen before, and low and behold it was the right road! We made the short hike in (1.5 miles) across Bagby Creek and then had to wait for a 'canoe'.  It was only a 40 minute wait until we got to disrobe and enjoy the 'healing properties' of the hot springs.  It was so hot, we had to add four buckets of cold creek water to the 'canoe'.

Sunday we got up late and lined up outside Voodoo Doughnuts for our breakfast - possibly the only time in our lives we have or ever will line up for doughnuts! They were tasty, but we definitely had a sugar overload.  We drove down to the Woodburn Company Stores where we spent a small fortune!  Danny was happy as we finally bought real luggage and I may just have found something to wear to Lisa's wedding!

Back to work tomorrow. Oh no, it starts again. Only 4 more days!