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December 19, 2008
Dateline Davos
I was in Davos last weekend, and there was a lot going on. First the cultural piece: according to knowledgeable sources, this house is the family home of the confectioner who opened a resturant in St. Petersburg (Russia) where Tchaikovsky allegedly contracted cholera and subsequently died. Some speculate that this was actually a suicide, but in any case, the family Leiner had nothing (much) to do with his death.
On to sporting news. The FIS World Cup X-C race was held in Davos on December 13 & 14. We watched the 15k classic race on Saturday (we were busy on Sunday - missed that bit). We really had a much better time than expected - it was pretty execiting (well, as exciting as a cross country ski race can get). We were stading in the main viewing area, and they had a really cool jumbotron set up (upper left in the picture) and quite a bit of vidio coverate. The winner was some Swedish guy - Swen Ericson or Eric Swenson or something like that. I saw some people from the US ski team walking around, but didn't get a chance to talk with them. (the whole even was really low-key and easy to talk to competators). Apparently there was a guy from Vermont there (Andy Newell, Shaftsbury, VT) but we didn't bump into him.
I ran across a strange guy with the (southern) Swedish flag as as well as the Swiss flag - not sure what his deal was or is. OK, this is a picture of Tim with his two flags. Note that he's a reasonable distance in front of me. I though a little distance would be good - then it wouldn't appear so obvious we were together.
As usual, I had a great time, but I did miss my best traveling companion. Going out to a nice meal with Tim in a romantic resort in the Swiss alps just doesn't cut it...(no offense Tim, but there's some things you're not that good at :-).
Posted by pgutwin at 3:27 PM | Comments (0)
December 9, 2008
Gloria in Excelsis Deo
Posted by pgutwin at 8:57 PM | Comments (0)
December 3, 2008
Harvest Time
We've finally begun: the trees are coming down. This means we'll see the light, have a driveway to the front door and have a real front yard.
Mom and Dad talked about this for years. I understand what the challenge was (and is) - it's tough to know what to cut, what to do with the wood, and a host of other issues.
We have quite a bit of help. Charlie Proutt from Distinctive Landscaping has been our guide, with some input from my brother John. Aside from drawing up an excellent plan for our property, Charlie stuck with us as we made some emotional decisions.
We also had help from Scott Moreau from Greenleaf Forestry. Scott helped figure out if the wood had any commercial value, and how to make arrangements to sell the wood.
And finally our faithful Arborist, Greg Renalo and team are cutting the red pine, leaving the comparatively delicate maples behind.
Posted by pgutwin at 7:52 AM | Comments (0)