All posts filed under: United States

Pines

The Penland Diaries: Arriving and settling in

Published by Anita

The Penland School of Crafts has been on my “wish” list for a few years now. In 2013, when I was visiting friends in Virginia, I did a 2 month ceramics course down at Manassas. Around that time, I happened to chance upon the school and the workshops it offers and instantly put it down as something I’d like to try and do someday. Workshops are on a wide variety of mediums—glass, metal, wood, drawing, painting, clay – check out the current workshops and also future ones here. A peek at some of the workshops During the last year I’ve been able to explore both jewelry making and ceramics to a greater extent with access to more resources than I had earlier. Some of the artistes I’ve been able to learn from are Edith Schneider (jewelry), Elaine Pinkernell, Linda Mau and Jamie Meador—all three being fantastic handbuilders. And then towards the beginning of the year, I was browsing and came across a link asking those interested to apply for the summer sessions that would be …

The day I jumped out of a plane

Published by Anita

So one thing that didn’t figure on my wishlist was jumping out of a plane. Many, many thousand feet off the ground. Diving into the deep ocean is quite an adventure, and I’ve done it several times now, but if someone asked me if I wanted to jump out of a plane (till two weeks ago) I would probably say what most sane people say: “Are you crazy?!” But this was something the better half wanted to do. And of course, the supportive spouse that I am, I decided he couldn’t possibly do this alone. Let me make one thing clear though. There’s no way I was going to jump out of a plane on my own. Thankfully, they don’t allow that either. Until you log a respectable number of jumps. And yes, yes – there was a parachute involved and a very nice instructor called Ricco, who kept up the conversation and made sure I was relaxed and ready, as our little plane took off the runway. So this is what it felt like. …

Bicycling Diaries, Part 1: Washington & Old Dominion Trail in Virginia

Published by Anita

So what do you do with miles of railroads from the yesteryears, which are no longer operational? Abandon them? Thankfully, someone had better sense. Today, in the US there are quite a few of these railroads, converted into running and cycling trails. These provide a great place for those who want to indulge in these sporty activities without the hindrance of vehicular traffic. While visiting Virginia, the trail we cycled on is the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad (W&OD), now looked after by the Friends of WNOD.  This particular railroad ferried passengers between towns, from 1859 to 1968. With the increase in the number of vehicles and the improved road networks, the demand for passenger trains came down and finally they closed it down. It is a 45 mile asphalt trail for walking, running and other activities (motorized vehicles are not allowed) and there is a parallel 30.5 mile gravel path for horseback riding and hiking. So there are portions where the two trails intersect.  On weekends, these kind of dedicated trails (W&OD is one of them) …