One of my friends there built this ultimate cat tree. The trunk is partially hollow and the branches reach to the skylight. Yes I did encourage him to produce them commercially; last I heard he was still thinking about it.
Fairmount Park has several hidden pools and waterfalls. You can even swim in this one in summer if you’re prepared to risk the sewage contamination occurring somewhere upstream. Goddamn humans!!!
Around Christmas 2002, Philadelphia had the fifth largest snowfall in history. Nearly two feet of snow fell in 24 hours, shutting down the roads (city) for three days, and transforming Fairmount Park into a winter wonderland.
In some places the river froze the entire way across.
My friends Emily and Bodie (the shorter one :) It’s amazing the way dogs seem to run happily through the snow for ages, in bare paws! God knows how they do it.
Jasmijn with some of the very cool stone steps that appear here and there on the trails.
This wall of ice was about a foot thick and was created by dripping water that froze over several days.
Keeping warm :) The cold was very dangerous :)
Some people just do not know when to quit. This mountain biker hadn’t even fitted his snow-chains yet – they were for worse conditions, apparently.
Jasmijn said she likes me but I have my doubts … She’s an expert skier, and for my first time skiing she took me to the very top of Camelback – at about 800 m the tallest mountain in the Poconnos – and made me ski all the way down – AT NIGHT!!! Unexpectedly perhaps, I not only survived, but rapidly became addicted. On my second visit I even took a black (“expert/dangerous”) slope at night, and survived yet again! It’s very interesting the effect that immediate fear of major bodily injury at high speed has on lesser concerns like -15 C temperatures and the lack of proper clothes. It’s very cold on the lifts up, made worse by the night breeze, which tears your vision so you can hardly see the beautiful twinkling lights of the ski village far below. Once on top you discover that you’re not allowed to take the lifts back down and there’s no other way off the mountain. It’s best not to spend time thinking and looking down the slope, it’s just SKI or DIE :) You don’t even feel the cold and it’s awesomely good fun!
When Jasmijn visited me in February 2003, we had such a big snowfall that we had to dig our way out to the road.
Although so as not to exclude her, I tried to get Jasmijn to do most of the digging :)
I gently encouraged her to dig faster.
This was the dug-out footpath. Fortunately a neighbour had a snow-digging machine for this.
First, you had to find your car.
No. I strategically parked right on a main road that would get snow-plowed, and also under a tree. Hence it only took me 45 mins to dig it out and clear a path to the road.
Of course, the next trick is actually finding the road :) Not to mention not getting hopelessly snow-bogged.
Tragically, the snowstorm closed the airport for about 10 days, so Jasmijn was forced to stay with me for two weeks rather than 4 days. Too bad about work, not much you can do when the airport is closed ... except, of course, PRAY FOR MORE SNOW! :)
Returning from the mountains just as the snowstorm hit, we found that we had nothing much in the cupboards, so went foraging for food. The roads were impassable so we had to walk. First, we discovered that the 24/7 that never closes had closed, to give their employees a chance at somehow getting home. This shot was then taken on the way to the supermarket, which we were about to discover had closed early just before we arrived.
Tragically, when we returned we home were forced to make soup of my faithful friend Harry the Halloween Pumpkin, who’d kept me company since the previous Halloween. But we had nothing else to eat. It was a very sad moment. Jasmijn thought the soup was “fibrous,” I thought it was delicious :) The secret is having low standards :)
