Monday, October 08, 2007

Leisure Activities: Gardening, Film, and Card Games...

Fall time has begun its approach here at Harlaxton! There are very few deciduous trees here, but some are starting to show their fall colors! This particular vine, near the Italian Gardens in the South-West corner of the Manor properties, was displaying some particularly vibrant reds, oranges and yellows last Friday...


You might notice, from this picture, that my hands look rather dirty -- I had been gardening! The gardening staff has been working on some pretty exciting improvements to the Manor lawns - looking to start some new gardens, unearth some old ones, and create a beautiful pond/walking path through some of the forested land behind the Carriage House. They were looking for volunteers to plant about 1500 Tulip bulbs, so I volunteered to help! Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of our group with our trowels digging and planting these bulbs - but I got this one later!

They were having some difficulty getting volunteers, and a few people had to leave shortly after we began, so it ended up being me, two gardeners, and two faculty. It was a GREAT opportunity to walk around campus with a few botanical experts and finally identify the foliage we have here on campus! Tree species include: Yew, Laurel, Alder, and Holly (each species has multiple variations present here). I also learned more about the gardens, and I might start volunteering/helping them prepare that walking path during my free time here - I always loving getting outside to do stuff like that, so I hope that works out! All in all it was fabulous.

That took place last Friday (October 5 - Deidra's Birthday!!). I had big plans to get a lot accomplished this week - but they were thrown off by a general and overwhelming sense of laziness! All in all it was an incredible weekend... Saturday I spent most of the day reading newspapers, magazines, internet articles, organizing photo albums -- but none of the reading/writing/research I was supposed to get done! And then Sunday I learned at lunch that one of the other students here (she's a non-traditional education major, and her 10-year-old daughter is here with her) had watched Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Arc in the morning and were planning to watch the others after lunch. It was an opportunity I couldn't pass up! I made a compromise with myself - that I'd bring my books with me and read while watching the films, but it was no use. We enjoyed Indiana Jones 2 and 3, ordered some pizza for dinner (the first time I've done that since coming here - and it was OUTSTANDING!) and then watched The Labyrinth for dessert :) That brought us to about 9:30, so at 10:00 we met to learn/play Euchre and Mao Mao!

It was a fantastic weekend... but I need to focus and get back to work this week! I'm keeping my fingers crossed....
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