I have visited the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania several times in a past life, canoing Pine Creek in the early spring when canoing is possible, portaging through the Creek in the summer months when the need to paddle somewhere was strong but I had never walked along the rail trail before. There are quite a few boxes along the Pine Creek trail and I set out early on Sunday to find two of them. After walking a fairly good distance, maybe about a mile to a mile and a quarter, I reached the location of the first box, The Paw Paw. It was missing. But as I was poking around the brush along the creek hoping to locate the box, I saw a reflection in the water of a bald eagle. My breath caught in my throat as I looked skyward to see him in real but the trees in the area prevented that and till I reached a clearing, he was gone. My heart was beating fast though at the excitement of being so near to such a regal creature.
I continued downstream in search of the second box and after walking about another half mile, decided that this box would be better found in the colder months when the brush had died down a bit. So, reluctantly, I turned around and headed back upstream for the two mile walk back to my car. But wait....what was that circling around the creek again....it was my eagle!!! This time I watched him dip and glide his way up the side of the mountain, too awed to take the time to turn my camera on for fear I would lose site of him again. I may not have found my boxes, but I found oh, so much more that morning.
Monday, July 23, 2007
A Weekend in PA State Parks
I left for a much anticipated weekend in northcentral PA on Friday afternoon. The Immobile One was spending the week in Pittsburgh, focusing on the Steelers training camp and instead of sitting home alone, I had decided to return to my second favorite park in Pennsylvania. Many years ago, I spent a lot of time camping. The man I was then seeing believed in staying in the state of Pennsylvania until he had seen all there was to see, and we traveled throughout the state, camping in state parks and hiking Pennsylvania trails. Often our destinations were based on local festivals being held in towns near the parks. So I was fortunate to see a great deal of our state and to fall in love with it again and again and again. There were favorite places to visit. My all time favorite park was Poe Paddy in Milroy. A rustic little park which neighbors Poe Valley State Park, Poe Paddy is located on the Penns Creek - a wonderful place to spend the afternoon tubing, kayaking or canoing. Because it doesn't have a bath house or running water, it takes a special kind of camper to love it. However, we loved it there and would spend long weekends just enjoying the creek and hiking the Mid State Trail. We got to know the park ranger and also began to spend evenings at his home, drinking wine and talking about the irises that his wife raised. When I started letterboxing, Poe Paddy was one of the first parks that I visited to camp in again. I went there alone, on purpose, to see if the memories were true to life or if they had just become fuzzy during the years between visits. It turned out that the memories left a few things out but that the reality was even better than I thought. I love Poe Paddy and it remains my all time favorite park in our beautiful state.
My second favorite park from my previous camping days was Hills Creek in Tioga County. That was one of my destinations this weekend. The first night out, I stopped at World's End State Park in Forksville, Sullivan County. Unfortunately, I didn't have much opportunity to investigate this park because I got there at dusk and was on my way the next morning before daybreak. What I did see was stunning. The creek which flowed through this park was dry and looked like a creek of boulders. As I was driving through the park, I noticed a large number of hiking trails and overlooks which were well marked and promised myself a return visit to look at everything.
Another stop on my way to Hills Creek was in Mt. Pisgah State Park in Troy, another park I had never visited before. The views of the mountains surrounding this park were awesome and the man made lake was beautiful on this day which was unbelievably clear and cool for a day in July. Unfortunately, one of the boxes that I was looking for took me to a totally unspectacular part of this park. A second box did take me on a little loop beside a branch of the lake where I caught these little ducks in a row. This was a park that I would visit again for a box but am not particularly interested in making it a destination itself.
One last stop at a state park before my reunion with Hills Creek was to the Tioga State Forest. This was an absolutely beautiful area and the boxes located here were in such wonderful locations that I was thrilled to have taken the time to stop here. I saw a lot of breath taking views this weekend but this little isolated waterfalls was one of my favorites.
And now it was time to return to Hills Creek - would it still have the same impact that it had on me 15 years ago? My first indication was as I was driving through the little town of Wellsboro. Part of the charm of Hills Creek for me was this quaint little town which was so laid back, depending on the sportmen who occupied their mountains for a livelihood. It is a hunter, camper, hiker, and fisherman's paradise and the town was geared for those visitors. The lady who sits next to me at work and I reminisced all week about Wellsboro. Her in laws had lived there and named the street that they lived on Hanky Panky Street. It was that kind of town. Well, it turned out that WAS is the key word. Wellsboro has grown up. It is still quaint and possesses a large amount of homes painted in the Victorian style and still has a main street with bunches of little unique shops but there was a different feel to it. It felt too modern for my memories. Unfortunately, Hills Creek also seemed different than what I remembered. As I pulled into the park, I didn't get the little rush in my stomach that I used to get. Things looked different. I can't put my finger on just what it was but it was different. I got to my campsite - one th
at we had used many, many times in the past and settled in for the night. This isn't a park with the campsites in the woods which blocks you from seeing anyone else, the campsites are actually in rolling fields and the park was a hubbub of activity. In a truly ironic turn of events, I received an email Sunday from JJ of the 4Rhines who saw my stamp in the logbook of the boxes in this park and told me that she took a break from everyday life and for the first time, camped alone in Hills Creek that same night. She was in site C65 and I was in site C73. As I mentioned, these were open fields so I am sure that we must have seen each other but since we have never met in person and wouldn't have recognized each other, we still are acquaintances through email only. Once again, though, I was up and out of the park before daybreak, on my way to other boxes and a couple more state parks. The picture here is of the lake as I was crossing the dam on my way out of Hills Creek.
First visit on my state park list for Sunday was Leonard Harrison State Park also outside of Wellsboro. The views of the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania from this park are stupendous as this photo from the location of the box I found there illustrates. The trails through the woods to get to the box were not very pretty but when you get to this view, all that is forgotten.
From Leonard Harrison, I had one more state park stop, in Shikellamy State Park in Sunbury. It was not my first stop at this park since I had picked True Indigo up here a few weeks ago when we visited the Finger Lakes so I knew what to expect from the views here. There are two parts to this park, one is down along the river, I have not explored any of that area. Both times I have been to the overlooks high above the lake formed from the Susquehanna River and enjoyed the views of all of the activity below, different from the Grand Canyon vista which is all natural. Different kinds of beauty in different parks.
Last month as we were planning our trip to the Finger Lakes Gathering, True Indigo and I lamented the difficulty in the planning. There were no maps available online to assist us in coordinating our hikes for the weekend. There was actually very little information about any of the parks that we hiked in and once we got to the parks, again, there were few maps available. Here in Pennsylvania, we are fortunate to have so many beautiful parks with a wonderful online resource to information about them at www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/. Here we can download maps, get details of park conditions, book campsites and obtain history about each of the parks in our state. Hopefully, others appreciate this courtesy as much as I do and use it often. Nothing beats our state park system!
My second favorite park from my previous camping days was Hills Creek in Tioga County. That was one of my destinations this weekend. The first night out, I stopped at World's End State Park in Forksville, Sullivan County. Unfortunately, I didn't have much opportunity to investigate this park because I got there at dusk and was on my way the next morning before daybreak. What I did see was stunning. The creek which flowed through this park was dry and looked like a creek of boulders. As I was driving through the park, I noticed a large number of hiking trails and overlooks which were well marked and promised myself a return visit to look at everything.
Another stop on my way to Hills Creek was in Mt. Pisgah State Park in Troy, another park I had never visited before. The views of the mountains surrounding this park were awesome and the man made lake was beautiful on this day which was unbelievably clear and cool for a day in July. Unfortunately, one of the boxes that I was looking for took me to a totally unspectacular part of this park. A second box did take me on a little loop beside a branch of the lake where I caught these little ducks in a row. This was a park that I would visit again for a box but am not particularly interested in making it a destination itself.
One last stop at a state park before my reunion with Hills Creek was to the Tioga State Forest. This was an absolutely beautiful area and the boxes located here were in such wonderful locations that I was thrilled to have taken the time to stop here. I saw a lot of breath taking views this weekend but this little isolated waterfalls was one of my favorites.
And now it was time to return to Hills Creek - would it still have the same impact that it had on me 15 years ago? My first indication was as I was driving through the little town of Wellsboro. Part of the charm of Hills Creek for me was this quaint little town which was so laid back, depending on the sportmen who occupied their mountains for a livelihood. It is a hunter, camper, hiker, and fisherman's paradise and the town was geared for those visitors. The lady who sits next to me at work and I reminisced all week about Wellsboro. Her in laws had lived there and named the street that they lived on Hanky Panky Street. It was that kind of town. Well, it turned out that WAS is the key word. Wellsboro has grown up. It is still quaint and possesses a large amount of homes painted in the Victorian style and still has a main street with bunches of little unique shops but there was a different feel to it. It felt too modern for my memories. Unfortunately, Hills Creek also seemed different than what I remembered. As I pulled into the park, I didn't get the little rush in my stomach that I used to get. Things looked different. I can't put my finger on just what it was but it was different. I got to my campsite - one th
at we had used many, many times in the past and settled in for the night. This isn't a park with the campsites in the woods which blocks you from seeing anyone else, the campsites are actually in rolling fields and the park was a hubbub of activity. In a truly ironic turn of events, I received an email Sunday from JJ of the 4Rhines who saw my stamp in the logbook of the boxes in this park and told me that she took a break from everyday life and for the first time, camped alone in Hills Creek that same night. She was in site C65 and I was in site C73. As I mentioned, these were open fields so I am sure that we must have seen each other but since we have never met in person and wouldn't have recognized each other, we still are acquaintances through email only. Once again, though, I was up and out of the park before daybreak, on my way to other boxes and a couple more state parks. The picture here is of the lake as I was crossing the dam on my way out of Hills Creek.First visit on my state park list for Sunday was Leonard Harrison State Park also outside of Wellsboro. The views of the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania from this park are stupendous as this photo from the location of the box I found there illustrates. The trails through the woods to get to the box were not very pretty but when you get to this view, all that is forgotten.
From Leonard Harrison, I had one more state park stop, in Shikellamy State Park in Sunbury. It was not my first stop at this park since I had picked True Indigo up here a few weeks ago when we visited the Finger Lakes so I knew what to expect from the views here. There are two parts to this park, one is down along the river, I have not explored any of that area. Both times I have been to the overlooks high above the lake formed from the Susquehanna River and enjoyed the views of all of the activity below, different from the Grand Canyon vista which is all natural. Different kinds of beauty in different parks.
Last month as we were planning our trip to the Finger Lakes Gathering, True Indigo and I lamented the difficulty in the planning. There were no maps available online to assist us in coordinating our hikes for the weekend. There was actually very little information about any of the parks that we hiked in and once we got to the parks, again, there were few maps available. Here in Pennsylvania, we are fortunate to have so many beautiful parks with a wonderful online resource to information about them at www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/. Here we can download maps, get details of park conditions, book campsites and obtain history about each of the parks in our state. Hopefully, others appreciate this courtesy as much as I do and use it often. Nothing beats our state park system!
The Views Expressed Here......
..are strictly my own. I am really becoming disillusioned with the way our little game is beginning to change shape. As most people who know me are already aware, I am totally, 100% against all of the new publicity that is appearing about letterboxing. I am against the Girl Scout badge which promotes our hobby without really enforcing good habits. I am against the Scout leaders who "teach" the children the rules of letterboxing without having any experience themselves. I am against the Family Fun article and the local newspaper articles. I am against the Chevy ad promoting boxing.
I have just returned from a weekend boxing in Northcentral PA. The scenery is beautiful there and that alone provided a much needed mental health weekend, marred only by the frustration that I felt while searching for boxes in that area. For some reason, letterboxing seems to have caught on and I found four or five boxes by apparent new boxers. My frustration lies in the boxes themselves, in the finders of those boxes and in the placement of them. All of them had store bought stamps. Now, I am not particularly a stamp snob but I would like to see the stamp have SOMETHING to do with the box, the location, or the clues. One stamp in a neat little cemetery with clues called "The Deadman" promised an interesting find. My reward - a store bought stamp of a worm crawling out of an apple. Another one in Mt. Pisgah State Park and called the Toy Box, told the story of a young sister and brother playing in the woods prior to it becoming a park. The park was beautiful, the walk was not in one of the nicer sections of the park, and the stamp was......the exact same pine tree stamp that I have four or five other copies of. A stamp dealing with a toy box or something along those lines would have made it so worth the mediocre walk.
And then there are the finders. For some reason, so many of these boxes had a bunch of finders. But these finders don't have stamps. And they just list all of the names of the people who were along for the hunt. Scout troops perhaps? I think that in one of the boxes that I found at Hills Creek, there were about eight finders but only one finder actually stamped in. Where are they coming from? Did these people read an article in another publication and just decide to see what it was like? Did they hear about it from the kid whose scout troop mentioned it?
It appears that these finders who are not really letterboxers have also not learned the art of re-hiding either. The same box that had eight finders without stamps was also left laying in the open. The original hide wasn't a really good spot but the re-hide was horrendous. I could immediately see it from the trail, laying behind a downed tree. It wasn't against the tree, it was actually laying in back of a raised section of the tree so that it was noticeable from the front side. And covered with nothing on the back side.
Another box found in Hills Creek had a much better hiding spot. In fact, there is little chance that it will be noticed by muggles even though it is right along the trail. It is high above, I had to stand on my tippie toes to reach it. Hey, True Indigo, take your ladder along for that one. But the main drawback to this one, in addition to the store bought stamp which was only somewhat related to the clues, was that it was housed in a Wet Ones container which reeked of lemon when I took it down. I am not sure how attracted woodlands animals might be to lemon but this one may not last either.
OK, I think I am finished venting. And after this weekend, I stick to my guns about disliking all the new publicity about letterboxing. I really truly do not think that emphasizing the need to rehide well, to place thoughtful boxes in beautiful areas are enough. People get so excited with the idea of sticking a box in the woods, that they do just that - stick a box in the woods. And then lose interest. And then those boxes become trash in the woods. I have recently recruited my sister and my niece into letterboxing and they have accompanied me and seen examples of good boxes and bad boxes and because I was along for their first few trips to teach them, I am happy to hear them now evaluate boxes the same way when they have gone out on their own. And I have also pleaded with them to wait until they have a good number of finds to place their own boxes. So maybe those people who think that they have to shout about this game from the rooftops should also encourage their students to find before they place.
I have just returned from a weekend boxing in Northcentral PA. The scenery is beautiful there and that alone provided a much needed mental health weekend, marred only by the frustration that I felt while searching for boxes in that area. For some reason, letterboxing seems to have caught on and I found four or five boxes by apparent new boxers. My frustration lies in the boxes themselves, in the finders of those boxes and in the placement of them. All of them had store bought stamps. Now, I am not particularly a stamp snob but I would like to see the stamp have SOMETHING to do with the box, the location, or the clues. One stamp in a neat little cemetery with clues called "The Deadman" promised an interesting find. My reward - a store bought stamp of a worm crawling out of an apple. Another one in Mt. Pisgah State Park and called the Toy Box, told the story of a young sister and brother playing in the woods prior to it becoming a park. The park was beautiful, the walk was not in one of the nicer sections of the park, and the stamp was......the exact same pine tree stamp that I have four or five other copies of. A stamp dealing with a toy box or something along those lines would have made it so worth the mediocre walk.
And then there are the finders. For some reason, so many of these boxes had a bunch of finders. But these finders don't have stamps. And they just list all of the names of the people who were along for the hunt. Scout troops perhaps? I think that in one of the boxes that I found at Hills Creek, there were about eight finders but only one finder actually stamped in. Where are they coming from? Did these people read an article in another publication and just decide to see what it was like? Did they hear about it from the kid whose scout troop mentioned it?
It appears that these finders who are not really letterboxers have also not learned the art of re-hiding either. The same box that had eight finders without stamps was also left laying in the open. The original hide wasn't a really good spot but the re-hide was horrendous. I could immediately see it from the trail, laying behind a downed tree. It wasn't against the tree, it was actually laying in back of a raised section of the tree so that it was noticeable from the front side. And covered with nothing on the back side.
Another box found in Hills Creek had a much better hiding spot. In fact, there is little chance that it will be noticed by muggles even though it is right along the trail. It is high above, I had to stand on my tippie toes to reach it. Hey, True Indigo, take your ladder along for that one. But the main drawback to this one, in addition to the store bought stamp which was only somewhat related to the clues, was that it was housed in a Wet Ones container which reeked of lemon when I took it down. I am not sure how attracted woodlands animals might be to lemon but this one may not last either.
OK, I think I am finished venting. And after this weekend, I stick to my guns about disliking all the new publicity about letterboxing. I really truly do not think that emphasizing the need to rehide well, to place thoughtful boxes in beautiful areas are enough. People get so excited with the idea of sticking a box in the woods, that they do just that - stick a box in the woods. And then lose interest. And then those boxes become trash in the woods. I have recently recruited my sister and my niece into letterboxing and they have accompanied me and seen examples of good boxes and bad boxes and because I was along for their first few trips to teach them, I am happy to hear them now evaluate boxes the same way when they have gone out on their own. And I have also pleaded with them to wait until they have a good number of finds to place their own boxes. So maybe those people who think that they have to shout about this game from the rooftops should also encourage their students to find before they place.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Family Times
We had the pleasure of taking the Milkmonster to the local community days celebration and fireworks last weekend and although he quickly got bored with the fireworks, he did enjoy the glowsticks which his PopPop got for him. I am not sure that this was their intended use but it was Milkmonster's favorite way to carry them around the following day. My little boy is turning into a big boy with silly boy ideas!
Saturday, my sister, the newly addicted letterboxer Sepia Slipper, and her daughter, the newest obsessed letterboxer now called Fish Kisses, joined me in a walk along the Ireton Rail Trail. It is amazing to me to see how excited these two could get over every little detail. They discovered the wonders of hitchhikers when we found two of them in the boxes we sought. They had found one in a box which they found previously and had brought it along but they really had no idea what to do with them. As I explained the complexities of all of the stamping required to correctly handle a hitchhiker, they began to realize that this game we play does have some rules in spite of the "no rules" attitude that we have seemed to adopt.The first time that I ever boxed with RGBisMe and True Indigo, we had develope
d a little game called "One of Us". When we found a box "One of Us" would go retrieve it and when it was time to put it back "One of Us" would replace it. RGBisMe was renamed "One of Us" that day as he did most of the retrieving and replacing and it became a joke among the three of us. We seemed to develop a pattern yesterday with the three of us each playing a part. I was the clue interpreter, Sepia Slipper was the entertainer, and Fish Kisses became "One of Us". We really need to take her along with us all the time since she doesn't get poison at this time and walks fearlessly through poison patches. Sepia Slipper and I are both highly allergic to the darned plant and watched enviously as Fish Kisses grabbed boxes without a care in the world!
I can't wait to see what type of boxes Sepia Slipper and Fish Kisses begin to design. When we got back home after our walk, we had a lively discussion with the Immobile One about when they should begin to plant their own boxes. I told them that they needed to find 100 boxes first - which is a high number to be sure but not really a daunting task with all of the boxes which are beginning to appear in south central and south eastern PA. I have no doubt though that anything that either of them put out will be works of art since both my sister and niece are artists and very, very creative people.
Friday, July 06, 2007
So It Isn't My Imagination
As I have been out walking this past spring, I thought that the amount of poison ivy that I was seeing seemed to have increased from previous years. But then again, I also thought it might be just that I am now so much more aware of it since I am so allergic to it. I have gotten really good at dressing appropriately in long pants and scrubbing with Technu when I get back to my car after a walk and so far this year I have been fortunate that I have not yet gotten the nasty rash. Bill had told me that he saw a news article that global warming has increased the amount and the intensity of poison plants and I felt that I was truly witnessing it. Our local paper published the following article yesterday as even more proof that we are definitely in the midst of a poison ivy boom.
A rash of poison ivy
The wild plant, which often grows on the edges of fields, and most vegetation are thriving because of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, scientists say.
7/5/2007
A rash of poison ivy
The wild plant, which often grows on the edges of fields, and most vegetation are thriving because of increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, scientists say.
By Jason Brudereck
Reading Eagle
Berks County, PA - Poison ivy seems to be hardier and may be more potent than ever in Berks County and other areas in the East.
“In the last several years, there are more vines and they’re more vibrant,” said Dan Hewko, manager of the 665-acre Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center in Cumru Township.
This year at Reading Hospital, the emergency department is treating more cases of poison ivy-related contact dermatitis, or rashes, than in other recent years, said Dr. Charles F. Barbera, chairman of emergency medicine.
Exact figures weren’t available.
Barbera said he doesn’t know why the number of cases has increased.
But a scientist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture thinks he knows why.
A higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may have improved the health and potency of the plant, said Dr. Lewis H. Ziska, a plant physiologist in Beltsville, Md.
Ziska conducted a study that grew the ivy under two different conditions.
One set of plants was exposed to air that contained 300 parts per million of carbon dioxide, which is roughly the equivalent of the amount in the atmosphere 50 years ago.
Another set of plants was exposed to air that contained 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide, which is the level found in the atmosphere today.
The plants grown at today’s carbon dioxide levels were as much as 75 percent larger and had about the same increase in the amount of rash-causing oil they produced, Ziska said.
For plants to thrive, they need carbon dioxide, light, water and nutrients, he said.
“If you change any one of the four, plants are affected, but it doesn’t affect all plants the same way,” he said. “We’re trying to find wheat and rice and good plants that can adapt to this additional carbon in the atmosphere.
“That’s the good side of the coin. The bad side of the coin is things like poison ivy and ragweed and all sorts of things you don’t want to have around do well under those conditions.
An earlier study Ziska helped produce showed ragweed, which torment many of those who suffer from allergies, produces 131 percent more pollen than it did during pre-industrial times.
In 2006, the National Arbor Day Foundation updated its plant hardiness map for the first time in 15 years.
New data moved part of Berks into a warmer zone and the nonprofit organization attributed that change to global warming.
Some people who spend a lot of time in the woods have noticed all plants, not just poison ivy, are thriving.
“I live out in the country and poison ivy is all over the place, but a lot of plants are abundant this year,” said Karl Gardner, a member of the Berks Community Hiking Club who lives in Rockland Township.
But Gardner said the amount of poison ivy doesn’t seem unusual.
And the supposed increase of poison ivy isn’t to the point that it’s scaring off hikers.
“If you know when you’re looking at poison ivy, it wouldn’t keep you from going into the woods,” Hewko said.
He also pointed out that many plants, not just those that are poisonous, are doing better with the higher concentrations of carbon dioxide.
Dr. Susan Munch, a biologist and botanist at Albright College, also noted that all plants would improve with higher levels of carbon dioxide.
She added that another reason poison ivy may appear to be thriving is because development increases the amount of area that skirts the edges of woodlands.
Poison ivy grows well along those edges where there is plenty of light, she said.
“It does better there than in the depths of the forest,” she said. “And I certainly haven’t seen any decrease in the amount of poison ivy.”
•Contact reporter Jason Brudereck at 610-371-5044 or jbrudereck@readingeagle.com.
Monday, July 02, 2007
It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Super Milkmonster
Introducing Sepia Slipper
I had the real, true pleasure of boxing last Saturday with a brand new lett
erboxer. She had not learned about letterboxing through Family Fun magazine. She had not learned about letterboxing through an interview in a newspaper. She HAD learned about letterboxing the way I think most people should hear about it - through word of mouth. This new letterboxer, who chose the name Sepia Slipper, happens to be my little sister, Karen. Although most of the boxes which I had chosen to search for that day were not exactly typical of the type and quality of boxes that I am used to looking for, Karen enjoyed each and every one of them and celebrated each find with such joy that it even gave me a lot of pleasure to add these boxes to my collection. As you can see from the picture, she shares my habit of early rising, we started at dawn and only quit after we had encountered more poison than I felt comfortable walking in without a bath in Technu. However, Karen had had enough to quickly become obsessed and she managed to drag her boyfriend, who has a lot of difficulty moving around, out with her on Sunday and then she convinced my niece to spend her day off boxing with her on Monday.
My biggest joy though was having the opportunity to spend so much time with my sister - something that we haven't done in many years and also having someone who knows me and loves me who doesn't think I am nuts because I love this past time so much.
erboxer. She had not learned about letterboxing through Family Fun magazine. She had not learned about letterboxing through an interview in a newspaper. She HAD learned about letterboxing the way I think most people should hear about it - through word of mouth. This new letterboxer, who chose the name Sepia Slipper, happens to be my little sister, Karen. Although most of the boxes which I had chosen to search for that day were not exactly typical of the type and quality of boxes that I am used to looking for, Karen enjoyed each and every one of them and celebrated each find with such joy that it even gave me a lot of pleasure to add these boxes to my collection. As you can see from the picture, she shares my habit of early rising, we started at dawn and only quit after we had encountered more poison than I felt comfortable walking in without a bath in Technu. However, Karen had had enough to quickly become obsessed and she managed to drag her boyfriend, who has a lot of difficulty moving around, out with her on Sunday and then she convinced my niece to spend her day off boxing with her on Monday.My biggest joy though was having the opportunity to spend so much time with my sister - something that we haven't done in many years and also having someone who knows me and loves me who doesn't think I am nuts because I love this past time so much.
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