I drove to Durham, North Carolina yesterday to meet up with co-workers who are here for their team meetup. As soon as I arrived, I picked up a text message that the group was leaving in 15 minutes to go to the Duke gardens — did I want to join?
I dropped my bag in my room, grabbed my camera, and met them in the lobby to ride over together.
The gardens were stunning.
I didn’t get much work done yesterday, but I sure enjoyed these flowers, and the time I got to spend with my colleagues.
Finally! We can play in the garden! Well, I guess we did some back-breaking labor a couple weekends ago, digging forsythia stumps out back, but that wasn’t playing. That was work.
This weekend, though, I refilled our dead brown flower boxes with fresh new greens, and we put plants into the ground instead of taking them out.
Last week, during the snowmageddon that buried my family under a foot of snow, I was in Phoenix, Arizona, co-working with my team who I usually only interact with online: team Phoenix.
Phoenix in Phoenix.
We named ourselves after the mythical creature that rises from the ashes — not after the city — but somehow we ended up in the city of Phoenix anyway for our team meetup. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I could not get over the cacti. They were adorable. Cartoonish. I kept expecting them to jump up and run skitter away.
I’m terrible about photographing people, so here are my favorite non-people scenes from Phoenix².
Here’s what I think is a prickly pear, which tasted delicious in the prickly pear margarita.
Team Phoenix had one meetup before we changed to a different team structure. Now a portion of us are team Hedwig, like Harry Potter’s owl. Maybe next time we’ll meet up in London?
We travelled to my home town of Tybee Island after Christmas, and there’s something about smelling the salt air and being near the ocean there that makes me feel unburdened. Weightless. The sky was overcast the whole time we were there, which makes the images feel heavy. I, however, still felt light. Here are some of my photographs from our trip for this week’s Daily Post Weight(less) photo challenge.
Next weekend it will be cold. Temperatures will turn water to ice. Maybe we’ll hike the Cascades again. Maybe next weekend we’ll find diamonds instead of emeralds.
I had no idea my home state had wine this good. I’m representing WordPress.com at the Wine Tourism Conference in Leesburg, Virginia this week — talking to winery owners and wine trail guides about the work they do, and learning about the passion and pride that go into wine making — and I’m learning all about my region while I’m here.
Wine makers and promoters have come from as far as Portugal, Nova Scotia, and California for the conference’s first visit to the east coast of the US, and it’s here in Virginia. Where I live.
I’m taking notes for when my husband and I need a weekend getaway.
Butterfly Mind 