So I dug up all the hosta that I was so happy with. The tricky thing about getting the landscaping projects done is time. I am trying to not spend too much time away from the kids because we are so busy and out of normal routine. I am doing the gardening when they are asleep. That means digging in the light and planting and watering in the dark.
This is what it looked like just finished. I clumped the hosta and interspersed it with lavender. I think it is really starting to look good and it smells great and Yay!
This is two days later and nothing looks obviously dead.
I am always a little nervous that I am going to kill everything that looks lively in the pots, but everything has been in the pots too long, so I am determined to get them into the ground this week.
Behold the blueberry patch. We have already had some lovely blueberries from it and Kiernan (particularly Kiernan) is very excited to have them.
For girls day out this week we went to Korean Spa World. I wasn't allowed to take pictures from the inside because of the mass nakedness but I did get a shot in the restaurant.
I am going to put some pictures from Google in here so you can get some idea of what it was like.
This place is amazing!
I have always wished that I lived in a time of Roman baths. When I went to Japan I planned to do the Onsen on my next trip but then my fear of flying took over and I never went back (yet?). When I read books about Linus Torvalds one of the main things I come away with is a desire for a Finnish Sauna.
There is so much American body image consciousness in me, something I call modesty but is in fact just old fashioned shame of nudity. At the same time I really admire people who can just get naked and not care. When its exhibitionism I find it just as off putting as when it is prudishness prudishness. I once had a nudist roommate and she made me nuts with all her strutting vanity. It is not nudity for itself.
I am after comfort with self.
I knew that this place had a mandatory nudity policy and to be honest this was one of its more compelling factors in its selection. It seemed like a place where I would be forced to just get over myself.
Ha.
For more money than seemed prudent at the time we took the bull by the horns and defied what Kathryn called "Our perfectly reasonable 30 year mandate on not seeing each other naked".
The funny thing is the nudity turned out to be incidental.
It was no big deal. There were tons of people (genders are separated for the naked parts) ranging from about 4 to easily past 80. There was a whole grocers display of body types. No one cared.
I read on yelp that this place was peopled by Koreans and Russians ... they were certainly in attendance but so was everyone else.
Our experience went like this. We checked in at the front desk ans were issued smart keys on wrist/ankle lanyards. They keys were attached to our credit card so that later we could get snacks without leaving the spa area proper. We were given a locker each int the entry way for our shoes and another locker of corresponding number in the changing room. After the check in it was off to the main locker rooms and the pools.
This is the bade pool. It is slightly cooler than a hot tub and has stations with jets of various strengths and heights. Along the walls are hot tubs of incrementally increasing heat and then a VERY cold tub at the end. There were two saunas and tons of showers along the other two walls. Some of the showers were typical gym showers with little to no partition and some were seated (on small plastic stools) showers. Maybe more traditionally Asian shower types?
After soaking for nearly an hour, and almost blacking out twice from the heat, I became a giant flop. Kathryn had a massage appointment so we went back into the locker room and put on our orange prison uniform looking outfits and marched into the communal area.
A giant space approximately the size of a gymnasium was lined with doors leading to saunas of incrementally increasing heat (and a very cold room with ice on the walls). At the front of the room were two large stone igloo looking things. These were both saunas with incredibly elaborate stone inlay. They were called the Amethyst room and the Clay room.
This is the inside of the Amethyst room. It was about 153 degrees and stunningly comfortable. It was beautiful and strange and relaxing.
Each of the saunas in addition to having a different temperature had a different theme. There were rooms like the salt room and the oak charcoal room that had pieces salt crystal or chard oak lining the ceiling an even the walls.
My vary favorite was the red clay ball room.
It was sort of like a ball pit or a bean bag char only hot. I could have stayed in there for ages.
We took a break for food after Kathryn's massage and then lay down on the floor mats to limp to move until we regained our strength and did the whole thing again backwards.
There was only one child that we saw, but he was hilarious. He had the foresight to bring an ice cream into the sauna with him.
hahaha
His mother did not approve but i thought he showed real talent for the whole hedonistic ethic of a spa day.
I am so glad we didn't chicken out of this one. I will go again for sure.
If you get a chance to try it do so.
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