Time out

It's been one of those days. At work the boss is away, the clients are moaning for this that and the other. I stay back an extra half hour to finish a set of accounts for a client (who couldn't make up his mind about his deadline), before setting off way too late and trying to make up time, riding really fast down the coast to the latest Bicycle Gold Coast meeting (these things rarely start at the stated time, but I know if I'm late, this will be the one, and in anycase, there's pride at stake). And it had been like this for nine hours straight.

However, alongside the beachfront at Miami, for just one moment, the sky is lit up just so, by a powerful sunset on the opposite horizon (sadly, obsured by suburbia). It's that moment, where the ride reveals itself in all it's beauty. It's that moment, suddenly, everything else seems inconsequential. The evening ski is as soothing as the voice of Sarah Blasko. This is the moment where I take time out.

Happy Families & Awaiting New Arrivals

This is for my sons, Tim and Jonny, both of whom have lamented my lack of posts.



Sorry, boys. Time is in short supply at the moment. One reason being that I have been busy making things for the church craft sale next month, at South Thoresby, and I still have a way to go. However, now that I know you really do still read my blog I will try to fit in a few posts to keep you in touch with life back home. Love, Mum xx



Thank you to everyone for your lovely comments on previous posts, my apologies if I haven't answered your comment yet.

Whenever I take Toby out for a walk we call in to visit old Arnold, give him a few treats and a bit of attention.
The other day we had a stalker - Bennie.


Can you see her?

It seems that Bennie and Arnold are well acquainted for she strolled up to him, through his legs and then sat down and had a wash. Arnold bent his head to her and blew softly through his nose; Bennie calmly carried on washing, looking for all the world as though she belongs there.
Moments before, Arnold and Toby had been 'nose to nose' having a little exchange of old gentlemanly conversation - restrained, dignified, amiable.

I had a chat with the wonderful John. He is keeping busy, despite having had a fall earlier in the week. Luckily he doesn't seem to have done anything more than bruise himself. Thank goodness.

I was admiring the Chinese Lanterns in his garden, their glorious orange and pumpkin colours are such a delightful sight on an autumnal day.



I was privileged enough to be shown his greenhouse.

I was struck with tomato envy!

They are big and very prolific, great heavy clusters draped all around.

Despite his modesty, his vegetable garden was making a good show too.

Runner beans, carrots, beetroot, outdoor tomatoes, etc, etc.

John always has something to chat about, some helpful advice, or an interesting story.

Ninety-five years old and going strong.

A truly wonderful man.

Toby and I bade John farewell, left Bennie with Arnold, and continued our walk to the fishponds. Some of you may remember that there were two families of geese raised together on the fish pond, earlier this year, here they are - all grown up.

Toby sauntered over, acting for all the world as though he couldn't see them, he got pretty close and then whoosh, up they flew, over my head and back onto the pond.
All their care and caution seems to have paid dividends.Now I am wondering, will they stay or will they go?

A bit further on I passed another family, I think they could be related to Triffids...



They were about eight feet tall and pretty large, I'm so pleased I took this quick photograph of them because they have been cut down now.



I know I have shown you this family before, but they seem to be the most relaxed and contented group.They won't be outdoors enjoying sunshine on their backs for much longer,so I made the most of the opportunity to photograph them again.

On the homeward stretch we were met by Bennie sauntering along the road, her tail up in greeting.I am going to have to run through the road safety code with that little cat.
I had hoped to be able to bring you news of some new additions to our family, they were due in September, but they haven't arrived, as yet.
We are expecting another little group of rescue hens. Poor little things will arrive 'ready plucked' and bewildered, but before too long they will feather up and then we'll gradually introduce them to the woodland and freedom to roam during the day.
Exciting times.

Ripening 'Oregon Spring' Tomatoes

After weeks of waiting, these tomatoes are finally beginning to ripen. In this photo, they are suspended above a bed of Thai basil.
How are your tomatoes doing?

Wanna go potty?

I was going to say "only in Queensland", but this one was in New South Wales.

Notice the restaurant advertised at the bottom? I'm not sure I want to eat there anytime soon. There are so many things to say about that sign it's not funny.
As far as the rest of today's ride goes, let's see. Coastal vistas:

Mountains:

And the bubbling Tweed River for a big section.

The Mt Jerusalem century is always a great one. The cruise down the Tweed Coast, once you get south of Cabarita is pleasant, the scenery across through North Arm and up to Mt Jerusalem is stunning, and after the beautiful lunch in Uki, the trip back to Murwillumbah alongside the Tweed River is always pleasant. The rainforest in Urliup was stunning once again, and today I managed to finish pretty strongly through suburbia (it's always good to get that one over with).
About the only thing I need to be concerned about, is this propensity of mine to always pick the flat sections to ride against the wind, and the hills when I have the tailwind. I think I need to fix that.

Rain

Today we got the first rain of the season, and it was enough to make everything wet and clean the air. Here's some moss that greened-up quite quickly once the rain started.

Morning Glory

A picture of a morning glory I took last year.

The Great Climb

The mighty Sron Ulladale, Isle of HarrisIt’s great to be able to talk about this now…Nearly three years ago, the BBC attempted to run the ambitious live ‘Great Climb’ live broadcast on Cairngorm, with myself and a team of climbers from all over the world. We planned, rigged and trained for the big day. And then it rained. The washout was a huge disappointment, partially avenged by my ascent of my project on Hell’s Lum cliff a few days later which became the film ‘To Hell and Back’.Ever since, Triple Echo Productions who were behind the Great Climb project have been planning to make another attempt at a big live climbing event for the BBC. This year, the necessary components have aligned and we have a plan:

On 28th August, myself and Tim Emmett are planning to attempt a hard new route on Sron Ulladale, the biggest overhanging piece of rock in the UK (700 feet high, overhanging it’s base by 150 feet or so). As you might imagine, the prospect of this brings feelings of massive excitement, together with a fair dose of intimidation, pressure and anticipation. The correct ingredients for a fine adventure.



Harris landscapeI’d love to tell you exactly which part of the mighty Sron we will try to climb, but last week on our recce, close inspection of the cliff was out of the question due to the golden eagles, nesting on the main part of the face once again. If the eagles hatch chicks (best of luck to them!) we won’t be able to look closely at the lines until August. So until then, it’s training and waiting. Naturally, our plan is to climb the hardest possible route that imagination and finger strength allows.



Colin Wells standing at the foot of Sron Ulladale. The rock in shot above him is roughly the first fifth of the cliff height (!).However, we have something else up our sleeves for the meantime. We’ll be doing another challenge to feature in the 6 hour live broadcast. We’ll try a triple five challenge of five new climbs on five hebridean islands in five days. Last week Donald took us around many a far flung corner of the Western Isles, showing us many a gobsmacking unclimbed cliff, geo or stack. After serial protracted deliberations in Hotel Hebrides we shortlisted the many amazing cliffs into five objectives, which we will travel between by boat, sleeping below deck, in camps or under boulders.



I’ll have a lot more to say about this as more plans emerge in the coming weeks. Right now I have to go back to training for it. More on the BBC site here.

Black & White Photography-Getting That Grainy Look

I've learned through trial and error, lots of error, how to get that grainy look I love in black and white images.
The three top ones were taken with my digital camera. They were all greatly underexposed (too dark). When I lightened them in IPhoto you could see all the colored pixels, which doesn't look good in a color photo. Unless you're trying to do something funky, which I very well may try at a later date!
But after changing them to black and white, the pixels now give a grainy look. I'm very happy to have stumbled on this, since I love, love, love a grainy b&w photo.
The bottom three were taken with true black and white film. And now that I'm comparing the two, the bottom ones are grainier. Is that a word? Should it be 'more grainy'? I still have one roll of b&w film left which I'll soon shoot. It's just too bad that the processing will be over $20.
And now that I've gotten used to instant feedback on a digital camera, it'll be hard as the dickens to take photos and not know if the exposure is correct. For me, that used to be the fascination of a film camera. You know, it's like being pregnant and not finding out the sex of the baby until after it's born. But now I want to know immediately! And I'm talking about photos, not babies.
*What is the dickens, and not Charles? That's just one of our 'southernisms'. But who knows what it means? We also say, "He's mean as the dickens." That doesn't make much sense either.

Sunset Tide Pool, Bandon Beach

Last week we were out in Oregon and Washington to visit Jessica's family. While the focus of the trip was to spend time with family, we did make it out here and there to see the sights and get in a little bit of photography time. These shots were on Bandon Beach in Oregon, one of my favorite areas along the entire coast. Bandon is a rather well-known beach and a favorite of photographers because of the large variety of "sea stacks" that are all along the beach. At sunset the place is a photographer's paradise, especially on evenings where the tide is low and receding. Many of the sea stacks were high and dry, others had pools of water around them. Several were covered with star fish along the bottom edges of the rocks. We had a glorious sunset during our evening at Bandon. It was one of the highlights of the trip for sure!

Putting a face to a name

One of the things rarely (if ever) mentioned about cycle touring, is trying to visualise a route in the planning phase. I'm not talking about picking out hills with a topographic map, or scouting the amenities in various towns along the way (as much fun as this can be). I'm referring to the more basic things, such as the terrain and scenery.
Last weekend two of the roads I used were no more than lines on a map. I had a 'vision' of what I'd be riding through, of course. It was based on other things I'd seen in the vicinity, yet when I actually arrived, I was astonished by just how different things really were. I knew of course that there would be a Clarence River gorge, but I had just imagined it looking completely different to the way it appeared on my arrival.
The thing is, now if I look at a map of that area (as I may do again when planning future long weekends), I actually have a clear picture in my mind, based on the experience of having ridden that road. The picture now seems to much clearer than the 'vision' I had before. This was especially true with many of the places I rode in New Zealand last year. Already I'm poring over various maps before my Scotland tour later in the year (even if I'm highly unlikely to stick to any route plan that I make now). I've even seen a few altitude profiles, but the excitement comes from wondering what I'm actually going to see when I get there, and just how things will pan out when I put a 'face' to those place names.

• In other news, it seems I have to update my blogroll again. I thought it was a bit of a gee-up when someone turned up with the same blog name that I'm using, but apparently it's for real. More importantly, Zen Rao has a great writing style, so go over and check it out.
  
• In other news, someone else has a blog. This guy doesn't write much, but I can't escape the fact that back in 1990, he was my hero.

12 kuvaa/photos - my walk to work

Two Finnish bloggers, Krisu and Mari, have started a year-long project of posting photos taken in the same spot each month. I was thinking along the same lines, of tracking the progress of the seasons through my morning walk to work, so I'm slipping in a month late with October's post. Photos from September and October are already up at 12 kuvaa/photos, with the idea that the photos accumulate within each successive post to give a lovely time series effect.
The photo above is taken on the Water of Leith walkway, which runs from the port of Leith through the heart of Edinburgh and up to the hills. Much of it is on former suburban railway routes, now converted to bike and foot traffic. I took this shot at 7.50 a.m. on 1 October.
I may be bending the rules a bit by posting more than one photo in this first post, but there are points on my walk where I always notice what's changing, day by day, and so I've decided to include them too. In future I'll do an overspill post for these other shots.
Here I feel a hundred miles away from the city. The traffic is only a very distant hum, with birdsong and bikes to the fore.

Here's part of the grandiose wall where the walkway passes by Warriston cemetery.

When the tree-lined section of the path ends, the skyline of Edinburgh appears. Arthur's Seat and Calton Hill in the shot below, and then Edinburgh Castle in the first shot above.

Over the course of the year I hope to see an improvement in my photo quality. I have a photo course coming up as a birthday present, when I'll be initiated into the mysteries such as how not to have a white-out sky.

Another Gilia Tricolor

A bird's eye flower that opened just after a rainstorm.

Inside for winter

The older blocks of flats in Edinburgh have a basement floor reached by a stone staircase from the street. Estate agents call them 'garden flats', because they most often have a back door which opens straight out onto a garden, sometimes a private garden, and it sounds better than 'basement'. Strolling along a street peeking into these basement areas and the interior of the flat is a great diversion - I'm sure I'm not the only Edinburgher who enjoys this. Here's one I came across where the owner is well prepared for winter weather - the garden gnomes have been tempted indoors, but are still keeping watch on their property.

Listening Sessions

Thursday afternoon/evening I attended the last county-wide trail planning "Listening Session". The session was sponsored by Pottawattamie County Conservation and the County-wide Trail Planning Committee in partnership with the National Park Service's Trails and Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA).
The county is starting an effort to build a county-wise master plan for recreational trails. The session started with a slide presentation briefly outlining the benefits of trails and the goals of the meeting.
There were about 25-30 participant in the session (last of the series) I attended. Each of the 6 tables had a large map of Pottawattamie County, Out task was to draw lines on the map showing where we would like to see trails. Pink markers were used to designate "hard surface" (gravel, asphalt, concrete, etc). Green designated dirt (equestrian and/or mountain bike) trails.
Maps from the 4 sessions will be overlayed, to see the most desirable locations for trails. From there the trails group can start developing the county-winde trails master plan.
We were cautioned that this was a long term process. (But its a start!
Above photo is of the trails our table lined out.