Eco Camping

Hi folks! My "Small Measures with Ashley" post is up today on Design Sponge. This week I look into tips and gear for eco camping. Sadly, I find I don't camp out as much as I used to. Perhaps it's on account of living in the mountains already, in a wooded forest. Or maybe it's because our location makes it a bit difficult to head off at a moments notice for an overnight excursion, on account of the need to feed the cats and dogs and lock the chickens up safely for the night (the Ladies aren't going to bed until around 9 p.m. these days!).

In any event, we need to figure out a way to make it happen. I adore camping and this area is positively loaded with exquisite camping destinations (and I'm sure Fly and Dexter would have no complaints over a camping adventure, especially if there were a creek, river, or lake nearby where they could cool their fur in, poor, hot pups!).

This week has been a bit of a doozy, so please pardon my absence. Aside from working at the Cake Shop, I was prepping for some oral surgery I underwent yesterday. Suffice to say, it was one of the worst experiences of my life to date (I think, after all of my dental debacles lately, that I've totally got labor pain in the bag!) and one which I hope to never repeat (the periodontist and her assistant were fantastic, it's the experience itself that was wretched). But, it's over! It's done! And now I can move forward, safe in the knowledge that I stared ungodly pain the face and came out the other side just fine (the fact that Cher was signing "And I know that I'll get through this, 'cuz I know that I am strong" from "Believe" in the overhead speakers through one of the worst parts of the procedure was all the proof I needed that everything was going to end up just fine).

I intend to spend the next few days doing a whole bunch of nothing-resting, cooling my face with ice packs, eating my hubs delicious meals, and attempting to stretch out the last bit of Julia Child's "My Life In France" so that I can vicariously stroll down the Seine in Paris, watch the fishmongers and sniff the bouillabaisse in Marseille, down some stiff beer in Bonn, gaze at the fiords in Oslo, and watch the leaves fall in Cambridge. Bon Appetit!

Have a marvelous weekend, everyone!

*Image from here.