Nancy is 60!

The wonderful Raskin family (with a few friends) at Nancy's high-altitude birthday party. Randy made a spectacular chocolate cake with ganche and mocha butter cream frosting -- and then carefully packed it a long way up Woody's Ridge. There was even hot coffee to go with it.

One-hundred and fifty heads are better than one

Garlic is not really as good as ten mothers (as some have claimed), but it's very, very good. This bounty was planted from Miles's last crop. Another gift.

Bamboo canoes

So this wood class at Penland spent last week making canoes from plywood (ribs), split bamboo (shell), and plastic bags and spray adhesive (skin). They are meant to be somewhat ephemeral, but when they launched them in the North Toe on Friday, they behaved just like canoes.

Yeah, plastic bags.

Here's one during the skinning process. A student commented that this canoe has the Ingles advantage.

No baby here

Dick Kennedy sent over this picture of a high chair that has been mysteriously installed on the bridge that takes 19E across the South Toe.