Posts tagged #Colorado

In The Rearview Mirror 2020 pt. 1

Snowshoeing in Montana

Flashback Friday

Memories

First-quarter of 2020

    2020 turned out to be one of the best and worst years in history for us. Right before getting on the plane to go to Sweden (to celebrate my dads 70th birthday) Winslow got a phone call and a job offer. We did two trips before Covid19 took its grip of our world. Sweden, and a week or so after I came back from there we went to Colorado to meet up with a bunch of friends. By March Covid19 in NYC was a fact and we started our weekly walk to Central Park. By mid March things started to shut down and I said bye to my lab for a couple of months.

January

    We celebrated Christmas and New Years in Bozeman again. Just like many other NYE celebrations we cheered early and went to bed. The next day we got up at 6am and ventured out in the snow. W and his dad put on back-country skis and I came with them for part of it on my snow shoes. I Couldn’t have started the new year in any better way, I was in heaven. We did another outing around Bozeman before getting back to the big city. Once back in NYC we got some crazy warm weather. We took advantage of it and went to our favorite local bar for a beer. W and I and my brother and his partner surprised my dad in Sweden for his birthday. But before that we had some time to explore my old stomping grounds. We arrived at Operakällarn and boy was my dad surprised. After that followed some cold but beautiful days in Stockholm. We walked around everywhere, as we tend to do now when we visit. Winslow flew back to NYC earlier than me and I had some more time with my dad. I walked by the old fruit/candy store where we always used to go when I was in high school. And many trips to the beautiful Hedvig Eleonora church, where I got baptized, mom and dad got married, and moms funeral was held and where her memorial is. I blinked and then that trip and January was all over.

February

    Spring started to appear already early February. Maybe mother earth knew we needed something bright and light in our lives? We went up to Poughkeepsie and Millbrook to check out the area where we would move if W accepted the job offer. our first trip to Canoe Hill, and the Wassaic Art Project. We even went to the local diner in Millbrook. Back in the city we did our monthly trip to chinatown and the obligatory seafood dinner at home. We went to mermaid in for oysters, and also went to one of our favorite dive bar in the East Village, the Library. Then we flew to Denver, went to the grocery store and bought 6 dozen oysters before we drove to Estes Park where we had rented an AirBnB. We got a beautiful hike in at Rocky Mountain National Park, and before we knew it the trip and February was over.

March

    March 2020, a month that felt like a year, and therefore there are a few more photos to share. We greeted spring in Central Park, and continued to greet it the whole month during our weekly walks. If there was one thing to be excited about it was the blooming of flowers and trees. We knew things were getting bad, we heard silent rumors about a potential shutdown, and on March 16th I went to the lab to shut it down, for the foreseeable future. The rest of the city followed in the coming weeks. It was a spring that came and then got cancelled. I don’t think any of us could have imagined what the next months could possibly bring, and boy were we in for a surprise.

The spring that came and then got cancelled - New York City

IMG_6615-March 14, 2020.jpg

The Spring that Sprung

This winter and early spring has been so fun. We have explored so many new and old restaurants and bars in the city but also got to go to Montuckey, Sweden and Colorado. And now we are about to go into “stay at home” mode, a modification of “shelter in place”. You can still go for a walk, go to get groceries etc, and we have more or less been in that stage for a couple of days already. I am not sure about going to the laundry mat so I am grateful that we have a washer at home!

We are already one month early with spring this year and yesterday it was 73F outside. Spring has been breaking through for a few weeks here in NYC and I have tried to follow it in Riverside Park, around Columbia University and in Central Park. I even saw a bunch of snowdrops already in February. It feels a little sad now that we have the “stay at home” order. I am not sure if we will be going on any long walks anytime soon.

But last weekend, we did venture out to Central Park. We watched spring slowly making its way through the park. A Wood duck and a turtle were sunbathing along the Loch trail. And by the reservoir you could clearly see the Cherry trees blooming.

At this point the cherry trees have been out for three weeks. You can definitely tell that spring is about a month early here in NYC. Before heading back home we took a stroll through the conservatory garden, and the Magnolias were partially blooming there. You can check out one of my posts from last spring as a comparison.

W works from home two days a week on a regular basis, so he has an office space set up in our back room/tv room/guest room. After we all got the work from home instruction on Saturday I ordered a desk, computer chair and office lamp to set up my own little nook in the living room. It’s hard to get into working from home, especially when you are a lab manager. There are of course things you can still do, albeit limited, so we will see how things evolve during these 6-8 coming weeks (or more?). How are you preparing for the coming weeks?

In The Rearview Mirror 2019 pt. 2

Flashback Friday

Memories

Second Quarter of 2019, and it dawned on me how different my life looks now, compared to when I still lived in Alaska. Life back then, in Alaska, was all about snow, skiing, camping, fieldwork and the deep deep boreal forest. 40 below in the wintertime, smoke from wildfires mixed with mosquitos from hell in the summertime. Quite the contrast from big city life in New York City and Manhattan. If you are interested in seeing the contrast between life in Alaska, transitioning into life in Wisconsin before continuing with the rearview mirror of 2019 you can check out these posts below!

April

April came with Cherry blossoms in Central Park, and I went down there the day before we flew to Denver, Colorado. I reflected over the fact that spring is so different in different parts of the US, April in Alaska is very different compared to Wisconsin and New York. In Denver, we saw some good friends and their kitty cat. Denver has a lot of nice graffiti almost everywhere, so I might do a separate blog post highlighting that at a later stage. We, of course, went to a few breweries, bars and managed to get a hike in before it was time to get back to NYC. In NYC I had a day or so before a friend from Stockholm arrived. We did a couple of touristy things, Chinatown, the Highline and Columbia University. At the end of April Spring was definitely full-on. I got a couple of walks in Central Park, W and I went to East Broadway mall in Chinatown again for some seafood so we could cook a nice dinner. Also, at the end of April, I finally got a job!!

May

    May in NYC definitely mean summertime. I explored the area around my new workplace, which is about 40 minutes north of the city. We went to a Yankees baseball game in the Bronx one evening, our first real baseball game together, since the last one (in Minneapolis) turned into a non-baseball baseball game. We also did a short trip up to the Catskills, and I made more no-knead bread. Basically the best and easiest bread you can make. Garvey just keeps getting larger and larger, and even now in 2020 he is still growing. I saw some wildlife in Morningside park one afternoon, a raccoon. They are usually nocturnal so don’t really know what was up with that fella. We hosted a taco evening at our apartment, a good excuse to clean the whole place! W’s brother and girlfriend came to visit us too for about a week, and we had some picnics in the park, of course, managed to squeeze in a Broadway show and some bar excursions in East village. W and I went to see the goats in Riverside park and then May turned into June.

June

   We again went down to the East Village, but this time we walked a fair bit beforehand. We followed Riverside Park and then took the train south. Another evening we bought some food at an Italian deli and went to Central Park. We also went to one of our favorite bars, Mess Hall. More explorations in the city, especially now that we got a second income. Another picnic in the park and I also went down to Battery Park for the last beer with a friend before she moved to San Fran! I spotted a deer outside the window of my lab and W and I had an after-work beer one evening.