My roommate’s family has a cottage on Cayuga Lake, one of the finger lakes here in upstate New York. Mitch and I spent July 4th there with Emily, her family, and her boyfriend, Tim. We had an awesome time and I can’t wait to go back! Wine tasting, kayaking, tubing, boating, eating, drinking, more eating . . . hard life, I know. Here are a couple pictures that I took at sunset. You’ll notice that the second picture is simply an isolated shot of the tree at the right of the first picture. The colors of the sky were stunning. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you already know that I am infatuated with water and sunsets. Mother Nature may be fickle, but she never ceases to amaze. Today I was back at work on the Sam Patch, a replica of an 1800s packet boat, on the Erie Canal. I did a lot of posting about the boats and my summer gig back when I was doing the 365 Photos project that started this blog. Click on the tags – you’ll see! It was a rather gorgeous day on the canal, too. Another picture of water . . .
I grew up with the Erie Canal practically in my backyard, but it wasn’t until college that I really began to appreciate the natural beauty of upstate New York and everything our waterways have to offer.
It has been brutally hot and humid here for the last few days, so eating anything even moderately warm has been out of the question. I adore summer salads and that’s been my answer to the dinner question for the past several days. Today I made a tuna and white bean salad. It’s very quick, very easy, and more than adaptable. Once I added broccoli and basil because I had some in the fridge. I’ll give you general measurements that I use, but please don’t worry about following them. They’re just a guideline.
You’ll need . . .
4oz green beans
1 can tuna packed in water, drained and flaked
1 can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1 red pepper, diced
3 tbsp. olive oil
1 c. parsley leaves
2 green onions
Juice of two lemons
Kosher salt
Black pepper
In a pot of boiling salted water, cook green beans until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Add next 7 ingredients. Season with salt and pepper, and toss to combine.
Two weeks since my last post – yikes, sorry about that!
In the last two weeks I’ve finished the school year with a wonderful group of students and said goodbyes to my colleagues and friends from the past three years. I left my school with my desk empty, my arms full of boxes, and my heart a jumble of emotions.
Now that my exams are graded, sealed, and stored, I’ve been spending most of my time figuring out everything I need to do because leaving for Malaysia on August 20. The ever-growing to-do list includes the following:
Figure out bank account
Figure out cell phone
Get rid of old clothes
Store winter clothes
Buy new summer work clothes
Get rid of “stuff”
Sell car
Pack things to save here
Move out of apartment
Store furniture
Visit relatives
Make money at summer job
Pack things to go to Malaysia
Go over teaching resources for my new school
Learn new curriculum
Try not to panic
Etc.
Confession: I like to make lists and systematically go through them and check off tasks. I do not like waiting until the last minute. There’s a lot of waiting until the last minute going on here, and it’s driving me up a wall. I can’t get rid of my cell phone until I sell my car, and I can’t sell my car until I leave my apartment, which I can’t do until I pack all my things into boxes that either go to Goodwill or into my car to move to storage (at my parents’ house and Mitch’s mum’s house), which I can’t do until the beginning of August because there’s so much more to do between now and then!
Try not to panic. Check.
Photos, travels, musings, and ideas on education by someone trying to make the world a better and more peaceful place
You’ll notice that the second picture is simply an isolated shot of the tree at the right of the first picture. The colors of the sky were stunning. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you already know that I am infatuated with water and sunsets. Mother Nature may be fickle, but she never ceases to amaze. Today I was back at work on the Sam Patch, a replica of an 1800s packet boat, on the Erie Canal. I did a lot of posting about the boats and my summer gig back when I was doing the 365 Photos project that started this blog. Click on the tags – you’ll see! It was a rather gorgeous day on the canal, too. Another picture of water . . .
By Rebecca Michelle 