Smallness

I'm going to ride my bike at lunch today.
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There are 3 chocolate cupcakes sitting in the kitchen. I'm thinking of taking 2. One for now and one for after lunch, after I ride, for that "right after you ride and you can eat just about anything to get your blood sugar back up" window. What's that called again?
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Last week my friend called me to inform me that while his son was at our house, he and my son had found naked pictures on the internet. Thankfully he's a good friend and found the whole scenario hilarious.
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I have achy legs. Maybe it was all the bending down to clean the bathroom floor. I wish I could say it was from all the long hours on the bike.
My legs are up on my desk.
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Last night for valentines day dinner we went to the "manshack" and had steamed crawdads. Is that how you spell crawdads?
Manshack is a group of Morgan's guy friends who hang out every Wednesday night in a shack behind one of the guys' house. They drink beer, grill meat, eat with their fingers off the grill, pee in the bushes and talk shit. And it's only guys.
For valentines day, the women folk and children were allowed to come. Lulu took these pictures.

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Tonight we're going to see that night with "da" pros thing by Clif Bar and I still don't have anyone to watch the kids. One of us might have to sacrifice and stay home.
Why do I procrastinate like this?
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Grandma is taking the kids for a few days this weekend. That's so luxurious. A few days of nice long rides and nice long dinners and maybe gardening or maybe watching the tour of C.
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On the last day in Toronto I stood in the CN Tower on the glass floor. It was very uncomfortable.

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Toothpaste is globbed onto a big spot on my red leather couch. I don't know how to get it off. It seems to have stained.
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Pineapples are a pain in the ass. They usually sit on top of our fridge until they get all mushy because I hate their process. Same with mangos and kiwis. I like convenient fruit. Fruit for which all I have to do is, instruct from my chair, to make sure they wash the item before they eat it.
I don't want to get up and then cut the top off and the bottom off and the skin off and then slice it up in little pieces and then it's all gone in 30 seconds with stickiness all over the little hands and floor and table.
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Apples are perfect fruits. Grab, wash and then eat for 5 minutes, throw core in compost. Done.

Making Dishcloths

I found this thermal baby blanket at Goodwill.  It's all-cotton in a pastel plaid.  It was coming apart on one end, so I didn't feel too guilty cutting it apart to make dishcloths.
I've been wanting to knit some dishcloths, but when I saw this I realized I could make them much quicker by cutting the blanket apart and hemming the edges.  I'll get to knitting some soon; maybe when these wear out.  In the meantime, these will happily suffice!

Testing....testing....

Will Glacier Gloves finally win us over from pogies?

Gloves vs. pogies. Like so many similar debates (paper vs. plastic, cloth vs. disposable), it probably comes down to personal preference.

The other day, we tested gloves and pogies on a 15-mile paddle. Water temperature: 36 degrees. Air temperature: 40 degrees. Winds: 5 to 10 knots.

We gave gloves their best shot, using Glacier Glove's neoprene Premium Paddling Gloves. We've tried a lot of other gloves, and we've found most to be too thick and inflexible to allow us to use our fingers for much of anything. By contrast, we were impressed by the amount of dexterity we had with these gloves. We were able to put on our spray skirts, take photos, raft up and hold each other's decklines, and even push the tiny toggle on the camera that switches between still shots and movies.

Alec's hands stayed comfortable and warm, even when they didn't stay dry. Sharon's didn't stay as warm; for her, there's no substitute for pogies, which allow the fingers to warm each other. (The obvious downside to pogies, however, is that they leave you with no hand protection during a rescue--a serious problem--or even while taking photos or eating lunch.)

These were, by far, the best gloves we have tried. They are flexible and fit well. (We're also fans of Glacier Glove's neoprene 3/4 dome hat and full dome hood. The latter keeps your neck warm in addition to your head--a definite advantage in seriously cold weather!)

Can a low-frequency horn be heard further than a high-frequency whistle?

On a recent trip to West Marine, we came across this funny-looking low-frequency marine horn. We thought its sound might travel further than the sound of our ordinary marine whistle. So we tested them in the harbor--Alec with the horn, Sharon with the whistle--moving incrementally away from each other.

There are a couple of problems with this experiment, of course. We didn't control for different lung capacity, different hearing ability, or the minimal effect of the light wind in the harbor. Nonetheless, we were able to hear the sound of the marine whistle a little bit further than the marine horn.

The horn is also much larger than the whistle--too large to stow in a PFD pocket. After today, it may not see much more of Lake Michigan.

Driving my bike

"Mastering Mountain Bike Skills" talks about becoming one with your bike. Now I have not "mastered" mountain bike skills, but I can feel that I am beginning to "driving" my bike rather than being a passenger.
Let me say it this way -- I was feeling that a ride was my bike and the trail, me taking a ride. Now I am feeling more that it is me and the trail - the bike is just a conveyance. I hope this makes sense!
I feel that riding/driving is becoming easier - in that not taking so much concentration - more intuitive. Now I navigate the trail without looking at each and every root, stone, turn. I look up the trail and drive the bike.
As I am getting better at riding the trails, maybe I can concentrate learning how to negotiate logs, rocks, bridges, etc.
OK, enough philosophy.
The photo is on Fast Track - my favorite trail at Manawa. I like the way the vines hang over the trail -- looks what I would imagine as Fodor's Middle Earth forest.
Made a 23+ mile ride Wednesday. With being off the bike so much the last 2 weeks, I was starting to hurt at about 18 miles. Slowed down the pace and finished the ride as a recovery ride.
Thursday I was debating Taco Ride or TNR. Once I heard that Rusty wanted to ride at Swanson before he moves, I decided to do the THR and take some photos for the T.H.O.R. web site. Legs were a little sore/tired so only ride about 4 miles.
Friday Evening Xtreme Wheel ride - short ride as it was getting dark while finishing 1 lap.
Beautiful weather today. Had a great ride at Manawa. This ride caused me to talk about driving my bike.

Envirionmental adverstising

On a wall at Edinburgh University - a charity event, environmentally advertised. Who says students these days only think about themselves?

Big Bend Day 4 - the final hikes

Expected to be pretty warm today - temps in the 100's so we decide to do the Pine Canyon Trail - 4 miles roundtrip since it is mostly in the Canyon in the woods and hopefully cooler. We stop and do 2 quick hikes on the way - the Dug Out Wells and Chihuahan Dessert each only a half mile.

In the early 1900's a settler dug into the Spring and added a Windmill to enhance flow, it still is working today.







A prickly pear cactus which I think of as the Mickey Mouse Cactus because . . . well you can see!Pine Canyon Trail

The trail begins in the open dessert grasslands.

Then passes thru a heavily wooded section.

It ends at the base of a 200 foot cliff that becomesa waterfall after heavy rains (it hasn't rained here since October)

Time to relax and enjoy the shade!

Meanwhile, we keep on Trek'n

More Later,

Melissa and Gary

Mantra

Here's a good saying to follow for those of us trying to be less wasteful and more resourceful. I think it's an old Yankee saying, but don't let that stop us Southerners from using it! It says, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." Good advice in any century, I think.
Americans, on the whole, are a wasteful, consuming bunch. It's time to turn things around, one person at a time, and become more responsible and less, much less wasteful. Let's think before we buy something new and buy mostly what we really need and not to satisfy our wants. Let's lose the "gimme-gimme" attitude and start asking what we can give back to our family, community, and world. I'm ready. How about you?

Passion Playing

Since my passionvine does not look like the photos of Passiflora 'Incense' from other sites like Tom Spencer's, it was apparently mismarked when I bought it a few years ago. I've been scrolling through a bunch of sites and think it may be either 'Amethyst' or 'Lavender Lady'... apparently they look quite similar, but 'Amethyst' can set fruit if pollinated by another passionflower.

Did you know there's an entire Passiflora Forum at GardenWeb? That forum sent me off to other sites. The sites don't agree with one another, of course, and only some of the photos look like each other. Before I started forum-hopping I'd taken closeups to see if any readers knew the name, while playing with the camera to see how it photographed the blues and purples.


I may have gone a little overboard with this! All photos were taken in afternoon so they're a bit washed out. All were cropped and reformatted for size, but that's all - no brightening, contrast, color balance, or sharpening. I took the photo above while the flower was still attached to the vine.

Then I popped off the flower and poked the stem into the passionvine to show the bud, leaf and flower.

Hmmm, let's see how it looks over here in the shade with the Buddleja lindleyana...

To me the color of the petals looks purple, with guard filaments that look blue. Let's put it in sun next to a true blue flower - the Blue Butterfly Pea. That blue makes the passionflower tendrils look deep violet, I think.


Okay, let's go back in the shade - will it still look blue next to Salvia guaranitica?

Now for dark purple contrast - the 'Black Prince' buddleya davidia. Oh, dear, the flower has been handled and dropped so many times by now!

A final portrait in the shade with light blue Plumbago auriculata. I love the way these flowers look together... maybe some plumbago needs to grow near the passionvine.

Total immersion in purple passion works for me! I hope you enjoyed it too. Maybe I should just call this one 'Probably Lavender Lady'. Pam from Digging commented that she just bought an 'Incense' - I'll bet hers will match the label.

Five-Spot

The interesting flowers of baby five-spot, Nemophilia maculata.

Fall Blues

Fall Blues, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Not all fall colors are orange, yellow, and red.
:)

Three Derbyshire walks

Carsington Water - 8.5 miles - Sunday 13 October

RAF Quadrant Tower from the 1940s

The weather was pretty wet all morning, but we decided to risk a soaking. At least the track is clear and well marked.

Much of the way is slightly sheltered by trees, but they didn't keep us anything like dry.

Hansel and Gretel house near the dam

The sky lightened slightly at about 2:30 pm, and we dried out before having a large tea and scone in the Mainsail restaurant in the visitor centre.

A good walk, at a brisk pace, with no navigational skills required - just as well, since my map was old enough to predate the reservoir!

Hartington to Milldale and back - 9.5 miles - Monday 14 October

This is part of a walk I did last summer, in much drier conditions.

Once again the way is clear all along, and well signed, though we had to cross from Derbyshire to Staffordshire and back - footbridges over the Dove.



The first section crosses fields from the path between the pottery shop and the toilets in Hartington, then heads through Morson Wood into Beresford Dale, with its caves and grassy hillsides.





Next is Wolfscote Dale, which narrows a little. We emerge at the road to Alstonfield, half a mile from Milldale village, and the joy of finding Polly's Cottage open, serving hot coffees. There are public toilets, and a shelter, as well as the Information Barn near Viator's Bridge.



We waited for the worst of the downpour to be over, before retracing our steps to Hartington.















The tea shop in the Post Office was our next stop!

Dovedale to Milldale and back - 6 miles - Tuesday 15 October

At last some blue sky!

Chaffinch at Lovers' Leap

The arch near Reynard's Cave

Lion's Head Rock

Ilam Rock

Polly's Cottage, Milldale

Robin on mossy wall

Lovers' Leap

Stepping Stones

Looking upstream

Even though we have to return home today, we make the most of this by walking from Dovedale car park, and heading north to Milldale. It's just three miles, and passes the stepping stones below Thorpe Cloud, lovers' Leap, Reynard's Cave, Tissington Spires, Lion's Head Rock, Ilam Rock and Dove Holes. Another coffee stop at Milldale, and we buy sandwiches for later.

This time we sit and watch the ducks by the river. There's a robin perching on a mossy wall by a holiday cottage.

On the way we've seen a heron, dippers, a chaffinch, crows and squirrels.

We eat our lunch at the stepping stones, decide that today is not a Thorpe Cloud day, and make our way back to the car park.