An Eclipse Adventure

Monday, August 21, 2017: One of my favorite days in recent history.

I remember the last time I witnessed a solar eclipse. It was 1994. I was in the 5th grade. It was an annular eclipse, where the moon turned the sun into a glowing ring. We were outside for it, and the thing I remember most was the odd quality of the light. Even then, while the thing that most of the other kids were excited about was more outside time and less class time, I was amazed by experience.

I spent all of last weekend preparing for my eclipse adventure, packing a backpack full of necessities: a sketchbook, my glue book, magazines for collage-ing, a towel to sit on, water, snacks, bug spray, mace. Mace just in case the eclipse made people act weird in the middle of the woods. You never know. I was buzzing with anticipation and energy. Come Monday morning, I was up early and out the door.

The place I chose to watch day turn into evening (I live in Ohio and we were not in the path of totality - the sun would be about 87% eclipsed) was Conkle's Hollow in the Hocking Hills region. There is a somewhat intense hike up the Rim Trail, and I thought picking a spot high above the valley on a cliff sounded just about perfect.

Across the bridge and over a cute little creek:

After going up a big set of wooden steps, you continue climbing up a fairly steep incline. It was a beautiful, hot, sunny day, and the shade of the trees was welcome.

Little patches of sunlight peeked through the leaves and it was just absolutely beautiful. I wasn't sure where along the trail I was going to stop. Not knowing exactly how dark it was going to get, I was a tiny bit nervous being all alone in such a remote place. When I pulled into the parking lot, it was a relief to see a dozen or so cars. I figured once I saw the right spot, I would know. Shortly after reaching the top of the rim, I saw this, and knew:

The trail opened up immediately at the top, and just to the right around that corner is where I set up my little area.

Isn't it cute? Everything I need, right there! Here is a panoramic view of what I was looking out at:

It was just beautiful. I could hear a couple of girls a few hundred feet or so further into the trail who were set up to take photos, which made me feel safe. Alone but not in a scary way. It was awesome. The sun was positioned between a couple of trees like this:

And I was just in love with this little tree in front of me to my left:

Once I had taken in all of the sights and got situated, I started working in my sketchbook and gluebook. The night before, I had cut out several images of the sun to use, and also brought a couple of National Geographics that had articles about the sun in them. It was about an hour until the eclipse was starting, and I could not have been happier in that moment if I tried.

Describing what it felt like, sitting there, is hard. There was an energy in the air, the ground, the trees, everywhere. You could feel it in your fingertips. It's like nature knew that something amazing was about to happen. As I was sitting there working, I felt what I can only describe as a shift. So I put on my eclipse glasses (Thank you, Dad. You are awesome.), and there was a little black arc taking a bite out of the sun. It had started.

A minute or so later, I heard the girls down the trail (I could only hear them from time to time, when one of them got loud) yell, "Oh my God, it started!" It made me smile. They were geeking out at my level. I continued working, inspired by the energy in the air, my hands not moving as fast as my brain wanted them to. 

I had brought lots of sparkly art things and plenty of glitter, inspired by one of my Instagram friends. Thank you, Lauren, if you happen to read this!

It took a while for the light to really start to change. The wind completely stopped. Slowly, everything became utterly still and quiet, and the only thing I could hear were the crickets. The trees took on this flat quality and the sky turned a beautiful shade of blue gray. Every time I put on my glasses, more and more of the sun had disappeared. A few people had joined me at my spot: a couple with two children, an older couple of men, a young couple. I was quiet for the most part, and the entire group went through long periods of silence broken up by times of exchanging our amazement. We talked about other eclipse experiences. The older couple remembered one from the 60s, the young couple wasn't alive for the 1994 eclipse. The youngest of the two children was struggling to understand what exactly was going on. The crickets sang and sang.

Now I do not have the right camera or lenses to photograph the sun at any time, let alone during an eclipse. I also didn't want to get caught up in taking photos instead of being in the moment, so I only took a few with my camera and a couple with my phone.

That was taken with my phone. It captured the color of the sky better than my actual camera, and I am still dying over the reflection of the little eclipsed sun.

This was at about the darkest point. The sun was perfectly positioned between the trees. My work area looked really cool in the light:

I had started recording everything I was noticing and feeling, and what time it was happening at. I never wanted to forget how it felt to be in that moment. It was magic.

As the sunlight started increasing, all of the people wandered away and I found myself alone again. The chirping of birds began. The air started to warm. All in all I spent three hours in that amazing little spot. The entire experience was more than I ever expected and I'm smiling right now thinking about how it felt.

Eventually, I packed up all of my things and had to decide where to go. The rim trail is about a two mile loop and it was in the high 80s with few clouds that day. There is also a gorge trail that looks like something out of Lord of the Rings with a waterfall at the end and is shaded and very cool, so I decided to say good bye to my three hour heaven, hike down, and head to the gorge.

I definitely plan on going back here and hiking the entire rim trail in the fall. Looking out onto the valley while the trees are changing seems like it would be pretty badass.

Here are some favorite shots from the gorge trail:

The last photo is when I turned around and started walking back. I didn't make it to the waterfall, because I could hear a group of guys screaming and yelling (because of the echo in the gorge I could hear their obnoxiousness from pretty far away) and fake opera singing about walking with God. I wasn't really looking to walk with God at that moment; I just wanted a quiet walk in nature, so that was my cue to head back.

I felt this weird sadness that I was all over. If I could do that day over again, I would a hundred times. Inspiration has been fickle for me lately, but on that day, it was thunderous. There is another solar eclipse in 2024, and I am absolutely going to be someplace in the path of totality, lost in the woods, making art. 

Summer Bucket List

Well, as of yesterday evening, with an incredible amount of help from my mom, my flowers are in the ground. Now it really feels like summer is almost here.

My flowers went from the Garden Center...

To the back of my mom's car...

To their forever (well... until it gets cold) home, outside of my little apartment :)

Time passes very weirdly in the summer. After Memorial Day weekend, even though it isn't technically summer, it absolutely feels like it. It's June. It's hot. Life seems to slow down, as the sun shines during the day and doesn't set until late into the evening. There's just something about those summer months that feel different and more carefree.

But, despite the seemingly slow and leisurely passing of the days, September always arrives in the blink of an eye. We wonder "Where did summer go??" and cannot believe it as the leaves start to change. I had this feeling last summer in particular, where it felt like the season completely slipped away. It rained almost every single day in June, which kind of set the stage for that feeling. While my flowers looked amazeballs, time spent outside was practically zero.

SO, in order to avoid that this summer, I am making a vow to live more slowly, enjoy the moments and the sunshine and the outside. And I am making a summer bucket list. Maybe you can make one too, or use this one!

Summer 2016 Bucket List:

1) Swim in a waterfall.
2) Have a picnic lunch in the park.
3) Hike someplace new.
4) See fireworks.
5) Relax at the pool at least once every week.
6) Go to a new festival (most likely the Food Truck Fest because YES).
7) Take a walk at night, find somewhere nice to sit, and look at the stars.
8) Take a spontaneous overnight trip somewhere.
9) Sit outside and paint rocks for my garden.
10) Find a four leaf clover.
11) Find a four leaf clover and give it to someone who could use some good luck.
12) Make a new terrarium.
13) Ride in some kind of boat somewhere, anywhere.
14) Take a photo of a hummingbird.
15) Touch a butterfly.
16) Go to an outdoor concert.
17) Watch the sun rise in a beautiful place.
18) Play in the rain.
19) Climb a tree or ten.
20) Swing on a swingset.

I could go on and on and on... But just thinking of those things right now makes me smile. This is the best part of summer. The pre-summer. The time when it is all still stretched out in front of us, full of possibilities, full of days that we can fill with memories :)

Tuesday Adventures: Escaping Drama and Haters.

We all need at least one thing to help us unwind, decompress, escape, de-stress... whatever you want to call it. Art, music, writing, singing, running, cleaning. It can be anything.

I have quite a few of these things. One is of course taking walks and exploring and wandering.

There's this quote that you probably have seen circulating the internet in different variations, but it says something like, "If you have haters, GOOD. It means you have stood up for someone at one point in your life." Remember that quote. And all of its variations. It's so important.

Why do people feel the need to be so mean sometimes? Why can't people just let things be? Why in the world would you go out of your way to say something hurtful to another human being, just for the sake of making yourself feel better? (I can only assume this is why someone would do something like this.) It doesn't matter if they are a friend or a complete stranger.

These past couple of weeks have been filled with more bullshit than I care for, for complete lack of a better term. I don't do bullshit. None of us should do bullshit, but it's sad that a lot of people seem to make it their life. People on the internet hate on people they've never met for no reason (which I knew I would encounter when I first started putting my art out there... but still). People hate on you for trying something different. People hate on you for being different.

This past Tuesday I was insanely busy, but I had to escape. I had to escape the bullshit and hate and life-in-general-crap. We all have moments like that, right? So it was a short Tuesday Adventures, but I organized my day around making sure it happened. Because you have to organize your days around things that help your being.

So I visited Franklin Park Conservatory with the intention of just walking around and smelling the flowers and feeling the sun for a while. Because it was sunny. So. Weird.

Sometimes you just have to walk around and smell the flowers and feel the sun.

It was the most beautiful day. It really made me wonder how people can be so awful, when we all live in such an amazing place.

It was really one of the first nice days in a long time it seemed. The birds and bees and butterflies all seemed to be super active and ecstatic. I felt the same way :)

The ground was covered with little spots of sunshine, where the light was shining through the trees. It seemed oddly metaphorical, but I am far too tired to try to find words for that now.

When I got in my car, I felt like a different person. Find your happy places. Visit them often. Take a walk. Even if it's just around your block. Blast some music and sing along. Grab a notebook and write down the things you are thankful for. Or the things that make you happy. Visit an animal shelter or pet store where you can hold and interact with the animals. Lay in the grass and look up at the clouds. Don't hate. It doesn't cost anything to be kind. :)

Tuesday Adventures: Inniswood Metro Gardens. After A Monsoon.

Sooo once again, broken record, this past Tuesday called for rain. I checked the weather a bit before I planned on leaving for Inniswood Metro Gardens  right outside of Columbus, and saw a giant line of thunderstorms headed for central Ohio. Naturally. At first I was annoyed. This thing was going to hit for sure. Then I got an idea.

After a 20 minute drive under ominous skies, I was there. Knowing my time was limited, I jumped out of the car and began snapping away, never venturing too far from the parking lot.

I watched in a little bit of awe, as the sky started to darken, as families arrived at the park and ventured in with their kids. Do these people not check the weather? Or look at the sky? Because it looked like this:

Aaaaaand anyone with a smart phone with a weather app would have seen a radar that looked similar to this:

Yet in they went, with their children in tow. And fairly quickly, out they came. Running, like they were in Pamplona. Children screaming. Because it had started to do this:

Come on, people. Check the weather before embarking on any outdoor adventure. As I sat cozily in my car blasting music while the wind shook us around a bit, my idea was happening. Everyone was leaving. The storm was moving through quick. It was torrential, but I knew it wouldn't last. There was a man in a red car in the spot two down from me, patiently waiting as well. He knew too. When it was over, the we would have the place to ourselves. It would be quiet and glistening with raindrops, with that after-a-huge-storm calm and magic in the air.

After 30 minutes or so, the rain started to let up.

We got out of our cars, looked around, and gave each other huge smiles, exchanged a few words, and went on our ways.

And it was worth the wait. It was like stepping into another world, where everything was energetic yet peaceful. And every surface glittered with leftover raindrops.

Like little fairy worlds. It was so quiet.

My feet were soaked within minutes, so splashing through the puddles was the next natural decision. Totally never gets old. Have you tried it lately? If not, you're not living. Go do it. You  have to.

This little hole in the bushes reminded me of Alice In Wonderland a bit. Everywhere you turned, it was just gorgeous. And quiet. Have I mentioned the quiet? I love that so many people bring their kids to these places, to show them an appreciation for the outside world. But sometimes it's hard to get all Zen when all you hear are little people shrieking and screaming. It was so refreshing to only hear the sounds of nature, soaking it all in.

Of course I had to walk through the woods. Thankfully the majority of the trail was on a boardwalk because there was like a biblical amount of water rushing around.

This beautiful guy flew RIGHT in front of me. I was so startled, because he (she??) was HUGE. I've never seen an owl in the wild. He just sat up there and watched me as I stood frozen in awe, watching him.

The creek may be a bit high for this time of the year....

A pretty rock garden full of succulents and water features. Very peaceful.

It was very hard to leave this Secret Garden. Feeling like I was the only one there, feeling the sun start to come out again as I wandered along, making the raindrops covering everything glitter even more. 'Twas a great Tuesday Adventure.