June has been a huge improvement over the non-stop raininess of May, and I've been dividing my time between the business aspects of Adirondack Safaris and the hiking and nature study aspects of the enterprise. If you follow the link to the website (which is not yet complete), you'll see that I have a blog over there named (you guessed it, what else?) Adirondack Safaris: Nature Up Close and Personal.

I definitely hope to keep both blogs going. The Adirondack Safaris blog I need to update at least every other day and it will be strictly about nature subjects in the Adirondacks and a few Adirondack Safaris promotional discussions. Adirondack High, on the other hand, will continue to be my personal blog about life in the North Country. Note: All Adirondack High readers will be able to read Adirondack Safaris, but I will not be providing a link to Adirondack High from my Adirondack Safaris business blog. Of course, readers of Adirondack Safaris searching for Adirondack blogs on the Blogger search engine will find Adirondack High, but that's okay, it won't be many. And still, Adirondack High has never been *really, really* personal. I save all that for my journal, which I never seem to have time for anymore.

Life has been good, but the major raincloud hanging over everything is that the brochures and business cards have been sitting at the printer for just over three weeks. According to my designer, the printer has been overloaded with graduation stuff. "Yeah, so what?" I say. I'm a little more mollified now because I just heard from the designer that the printer called him to say the proof will be ready for me to examine soon. In the meantime, Fourth of July weekend is just a little over a week away and it looks as though I'll need to do a decent-sized local newspaper ad. That I'll work on tomorrow.

My first birthday in the Adirondacks, and it seems I’ve been celebrating for days. I’ve been reborn here. I realize that at least some of the rejoicing means I’m still in the honeymoon phase of a new life in the North Country.

The weather of the past week was difficult. Hot and steamy with intermittent thunderstorms, and black flies by the swarms. I’d go out with Sophie in the early morning and it was hard to see because my glasses kept fogging, and viewing with binoculars—forget it. Even so, I’m thrilled by the abundance of butterflies, which has sent me running to the bookstore for a butterfly guide. Dragonflies are now appearing as well, and I love them equally. I need a butterfly net, only to capture them for a few brief moments for identification and study. Actually, I need several nets, so that my young clients can study them, too.

After weeks of searching for pink lady’s slippers, I was walking aimlessly by the garage, trying to get Sophie back in the house, when I nearly tripped on several. I couldn’t believe it—so close to the house. Since then I’ve found some nearby on my favorite trails.

My brochure for Adirondack Safaris is at the printer’s, as are my business cards. Can’t wait to distribute them. And did I say I passed the exam? I must have. So now I’m a New York State Licensed Guide. All I need is to pay for my liability insurance and I’m ready to go. I joined the Gore Mountain Region Chamber of Commerce recently as well. I’m working with the designer on my new website, but I’ve found writing the text difficult. Part of it is that I’m not sure what I want to emphasize. I think what I need to do is put in some more effort knowing what I do now, and then plan on an update a month after I’m in business when I have a better sense of what I need.

Trail exploration has been on a backburner the past week. Everything is still so incredibly wet. But Mike and I plan to tackle Goodnow Mountain on Tuesday to get our legs in shape. Then I want to climb up Vanderwacker Mountain as soon as possible—perhaps late next week.

In other news, I had a glorious day shopping in Saratoga Springs. Spent lots of time in bookstores making a number of purchases with birthday money. Dropped into my favorite Saratoga wine store (Putnam’s) and bought a couple of bottles for summer entertaining. Made two stops at Starbucks over the course of the day, and then was treated to dinner at the Wine Bar at Friends Lake Inn. Mike, Ken, and I celebrated my birthday with me. I’m so sorry Cookie couldn’t join us, but she is spending this weekend with a number of her fellow teachers on a wine tour in the Finger Lakes region. They have hired a limousine to drive them from winery to winery today. Sounds like lots of fun! Cookie made me the most elegant yet gracefully rustic candle holder from Adirondack black cherry wood. Oh, I adore it! She’s so gifted. Ken, Mike, and I talked and laughed the evening away. Yes, dear readers, I had two glasses of wine in honor of the big day. I started the evening with the smoothest Riesling (Mosel—Germany) and then finished off with the tangy Seven Deadly Zins Zinfandel (California).

I’m at Café Sarah’s where I’m blogging all of this. Once a week I like to go to a place where I can sit and blog and watch traffic go by. Yes, as of Memorial Day, North Creek now has lots of traffic. Sarah’s is busy at all hours. Summer folks are here. Let’s just hope some of them are going to want to go on an Adirondack Safari.