Zoning out with...

What do you do when you're in the mood for a major distraction?

I've been escaping with my favourite adventure blog, The Importance of Elsewhere. It's written by Kasey Koopman, who is currently hiking and posting updates from the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), which crosses US five states and runs between Mexico and Canada (!!).

I love her musings from solo hiking - there are lots of life lessons among her descriptions of trekking through snow, climbing through fallen tree trunks... and keeping an eye out for bears. Plus, the photos are out of this world. If you're curious, I recommend going back to day 1 of her current hike.

While I've never been on a long walk (or slept in a tent!), reading Kasey's daily updates somehow makes me feel a tiny bit more adventurous and capable. It also takes me out of my day-to-day, and gives me a little perspective, especially when work gets busy.

And if you're curious about how she hikes and maintains a blog... I asked her about it a couple of years ago when she started posting her blog from the Pacific Crest Trail, made famous by the book Wild.

P.S - An easy stress buster and night rituals for big days.

An end of summer pie + a third birthday

Sometime in January, I became obsessed with making a peach pie. I planned to bake one for a weekend away with friends who were visiting from Iceland. I bookmarked this recipe but time got away and I didn't want to rush it.

This Sunday, with summer coming to a close, I made my pie. It's a white peach pie and we ate it a la mode on a 35 degree day. It might become a summer tradition.

I also wanted to say that somewhere along the way, this blog turned three! So much has changed since I started writing it from my dining table in Wagga Wagga.

I now have five nieces and nephews, live in Canberra, and have gone from driving around regional New South Wales for work to flying to different capital cities. I've tried a gazillion different recipes and shared a handful of favourites here, and become even more of a podcast nerd (I listened to this while pie-making).

Thank you for joining me here. I can't wait to share more interviews, musings, podcast recommendations and recipes this year.

X

Desktop - Kate Levins, Brunchfastclub

Kate Levins is a student nutritionist who writes and develops recipes for Brunchfastclub, her seriously yummy wholefoods blog. At home, we love her beetroot and blueberry smoothies. Today, Kate shares her favourite places to shop for fresh produce in Sydney and explains how she comes up with new recipes:

An adventure blog + mini interview

I'm reading the best blog at the moment. Kasey Koopmans is hiking the Pacific Crest Trail and posting an addictive day-by-day account on her blog The Importance of Elsewhere. She started in Mexico in mid April and will hike all the way to Canada, the PCT's northernmost point.

I knew nothing about the PCT until I read Wild a few years ago, Cheryl Strayed's memoir that details her 1995 solo hike. The book divided my friends but I loved it and found it unexpectedly empowering. It also made me really curious about camping - I've never been before!

If you're reading Kasey's blog, resist the temptation to start with latest post and go back to Day 1 and read until you're up to date. I recommend this because it's a joy to follow her progress in what feels like real-time. She posts most days and is funny and candid about her experience of the trail so far. The photos are stunning too and it's amazing how much the trail and scenery can change each day.

Kasey also does a great job of conveying the simple things that make can her day, from encountering puppies to a bowl of homemade spaghetti, which sound awesome, even to non-campers like me :)

There seems to be a lot of generosity, community and trust on the trail. I love reading about the different Trail Angels Kasey's met in the first month of her trip, generous folk who live in towns along the trail and open their homes to PCT hikers. Many of them are happy to cook for their guests, and drive them back to the trail when they're ready.

This family even came up with Kasey's trail name - Double Happiness, or DubHaps as she's now known.

Over the weekend I emailed Kasey to see if I could share some of her photos here, and snuck in two short questions. Here's her reply from somewhere in California:

How are you writing and posting your blog from the trail? 

I take little notes through out the day - funny things I overhear, songs that are stuck in my head, memorable views, run-ins with fauna - and then before I go to bed I string it all together in the comfort of my sleeping bag. Whenever I have good enough service, I upload to the blog which is usually in towns.

What are you most looking forward to at your next town stop?

What am I looking forward to most?! Big breakfasts, pizza and washing my hands in hot running water.

Thank you Kasey! I hope you can check out her blog, and here's something fun, you can send trail mail or virtually shout her breakfast.

Photos by Kasey Koopmans.