Radio Ga-Ga?

This morning George and I visited my Aged Aunt.





Last week we bought her a very nice new radio, showed her how to work it, wrote out the instructions in case she forgot.





At first she was pleased with it.





However, today when we visited to do her shopping, make sure she is eating alright, keep her company, etc. she issued a request.





She would like a new radio. This one must be the kind which says 'Good morning' when she switches it on and then proceed to read the news and the weather report for the day...





George very gently explained that this wouldn't be possible, and that the news is generally read out every hour if she wanted to listen to it.





She didn't really take it on board, because as we left she asked us again to get her a radio which would say hello and....









So, my lovely World of Blog friends, if anyone knows of such a radio there is a ninety year old woman who will be happy if you could pass on the details.





P.S. Before you ask, no, I am not ninety!

Colinton Church

There has been a church hereabouts since 1095 (see the date on the gate). The present church is a modern (1908) rebuilding and extension of the 1771 church. Whatever the dates, it's a lovely solid parish church in the hilly suburb of Colinton.

Studded Tires

This winter is looking to be another long one. Before Christmas I was thinking of buying a pair of studded tires for my hardtail. The trails around here in Council Bluffs are generally plowed. When the are plowed, we get several (many) icy spots.
In additional, last winter I learned how to ride singletrack in the snow. I would like to do more of that, to lengthen my riding season.
What I can see the Nokian Extreme 294 Studded Mountain Bike Tires - 26" looks to be a good tire. I like the tread and stud pattern. Wondering if anyone can comment of the tire, other recommendations?

Construction Update - Silver City

Yesterday (Sunday afternoon) I headed down to Silver City to check out the construction on the Wabash Trace. Also, planned to ride - perhaps as far a Malvern and back.
The first thing I noticed was that the approaches to the street (L-55) and the connectors to the side walk are completed. The "Trail Closed" signs at the street are gone.
I heard that there was a barricade across the Trace about a mile up from Silver City. Time to head North. Out of Silver City, the shoulder was not yet leveled. Up at Dobney Road, there is a gap in the pavement (for the cross road). See top photo.
From Dobney almost to the end of the pavement the shouldering has been done. The was no barricade across the Trace at that point.
The pavement extends about 1.1 miles north from downtown Silver City. If you are riding South from Mineola, The second photo is what you will see at the transition from crushed limestone to concrete.

I rode back down to town and headed South towards Malvern. Shouldering is being done South of town. The pavement extended until the bridge at the edge of town (0.2 - 0,3 mile). There, I was surprised to see a big barricade across the trail. Signage was for North-bound traffic. Perhaps they forgot to remove that one?
Anyway, there is an opening along the side to walk the bike past the barricade. From there, I continued my ride to Malvern.
Had a good ride. Was a strong wind from the South - head wind - on the way. Was looking forward to the tail wind on the way back!
Stopped to take some photos along the way. Several taken of the Silver Creek Bridge. Some of them may find their way on my facebook page and perhaps on the web site.
After an uneventful ride back to Silver City, I saw a notice stapled to the barricade just before Silver City. The notice includes a map with a detour for the Trace and estimate of the construction duration.
Someone took some time and effort to create the notice. It would have been nice to have such for the web site. Time to recommend such for the construction in Malvern.
Last time I heard, the construction crew is on a different job this week - returning to the Wabash Trace on the 13th. Do nit know if the barricades will go back up at that time until shouldering is completed.

Poor dear

My husband phoned on his way home from work. "There are two Great Pyrenees in our driveway!"
Not Jasmine and a new friend, as he'd first thought, but a neighbor's dogs. They wagged their tails, but retreated across the ditch when we approached.
We were puzzled, until we spotted the dead deer lying in the water. We figured he'd been hit by a car on the highway, then wandered over onto our property to die. There was a cut near one knee, but otherwise no obvious injuries.
I thought we should try to keep the antlers. As it turned out, we didn't begin the boiling-the-excess-meat-off process (that the internet recommended) until two days later. In hindsight, I probably should have guessed that the process would best be suited to the outdoors at that point.
Oh, the stink. I am not completely sure that I'll ever get that stench out of my nose. It was revolting. Fetid. Malodorous.
I am unable to find a word that means, "my brain clings to that hideously repulsive odor like flypaper, and brings it back fresh (ugh) to memory every time I even think about a deer".

A mess

Things didn't go quite as planned on the 600km ride at the weekend. First of all, my train from Fortitude Valley to the start at Westlake (both suburbs of Brisbane) didn't show. This meant that a) I had to ride 25km to the start; and b) I got there 20 minutes late. Still, I arrived confident that I could make up the time -- after all, I've been through enough crap to get there. I set off from Westlake, and just pootled around the outer suburbs of Brisbane, focusing mainly on finding my way through the convoluted route than trying to make up serious time. It was at this point that I started to enjoy things again, all the crap that went on last week finally disappeared under the joy of just riding largely unfettered.

25km or so in, I passed one of the riders doing the 300k -- he told me he was basically abandoning there and then, and that he didn't feel as though he'd make it. I couldn't really think of any consoling words -- how do you lift the spirits of someone who's quit after 25km (and who you've already caught after a 20 minute delay)? I rode on, through Ipswich, and out to Laidley and the first checkpoint. Here I caught one of the earlier starters, Dave, who had been delayed acting as a witness in a car crash. We set off together after that, over the climb of the Great Dividing Range via Ma Ma Creek. This was probably the most scenic part of the ride.



I managed to stay with Dave until Clifton, but I had a dilemma. He was setting off quickly to try to catch the other riders (of whom there were now just two). I hung back to eat some serious food -- this was probably my fatal mistake. I had enough muesli bars to hang on until Pittsworth, but just didn't do it. Darkness fell on the way to Pittsworth, and the wind and rain intensified. I was struggling, but I hung on through this section. On making it to Pittsworth I realised that I wasn't losing any ground on the other riders, but again, arrived at the checkpoint just as they were leaving. The 20 minute delay at the start still haunted me! Again, I opted for more food, and again I was riding alone.
Pushing into the wind and probably the first decent downpour this area has seen for several months, I began to get disheartened. There was no reason for this, as I wasn't really losing any time, but the distance just seemed daunting. At one stage I literally ran off the road through tiredness, but managed to recover enough to avoid a nasty crash. I made it to Oakey and decided I'd had enough after 280km. I abandoned and got a ride out to Dalby, the 600k was effectively over. This was another mistake, as I had, in fact, negotiated the hardest part of the ride to get here. Had I just continued -- even if I'd had a break for 10 minutes to get my thoughts together, I have no doubt I could have made it to Dalby.
As it was I got back on the bike at Goombungee the next day and rode the final 170-odd km to "finish". For most of this I felt surprisingly good, apart from a little fatigue in Toowoomba (which didn't last long). That disappeared on the descent of the Toowoomba range where I passed four trucks. I shared the ride home with Lisa, who had traveled up from Inverell for this event, and was still a chance to finish. Clearly, she knew what she was doing better than me, having already done 300k and 400k events (I was jumping in without ever completing either of those). We passed the time with some idle chatter, and I learned that when I hit a flat spot, I just need to persevere and ride through it. Had I done this the previous night, I could have completed the thing. I suppose lessons are never too late for learning.
We had one interesting moment where the route slip... er.. gave us the slip. We ended up taking a stretch on the Ipswich Motorway. The signs didn't seem to list "bicycles" among the prohibited items on that road, so we may have even been doing this legally! Even so, I think the dangers of riding on these roads is grossly overstated. I didn't actually take any pictures on the second days' ride. There were probably one or two opportunities, but I just didn't really think of it.
As for what I'll do differently next time, I'll definitely be doing the full series next year. I've done enough 200km rides to sink a battleship, but the 300 and 400 would have been useful preparation, as well as being decent achievements in and of themselves. I will also (hopefully) eradicate the late start and the pre-ride mechanical problems that basically destroyed my final preparation this year. Overall, considering the preparation and how naive I was about this, I probably did reasonably well to finish with 458km. Physically I know I'm up to this, it's just the mental barriers that need to be knocked down.
Incidentally, Saturday's 280km was the fifth time I've been at or above 280 without managing to break 300km. This is becoming a habit, and one that I want to eliminate as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Maybe an extended ride taking in Byron Bay, Ballina and back through Mullumbimby in the near future might be the tonic.

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?

Root Beer River

I just love the color of tannin-rich rivers! Tannins are commonly cited as being the cause of root beer colored water. The Presque Isle River in Michigan's Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park has some of the most delicious-looking root beer colored water that I've ever seen! This photo shows one of the first ledges of many that make up Manido Falls. This was an incredible waterfall to photograph using my 100-400mm lens and I easily could have spent the whole day photographing just in this one area. Alas, I had to hit the road for home after a few hours of shooting in the early morning light.

Morning Glory

A picture of a morning glory I took last year.

Spongy black fungus

What the heck is that thing?

I don't know, but it sure looks weird.

Back home at the computer, it's Tom Volk to the rescue again.
This is a specialized type of Sooty mold, Scorias spongiosa, that appears only on Beech trees.
Here's another page about it.
I first learned about sooty mold when I took the Master Gardener course. Certain plant-sucking insects excrete honeydew, a delightful name for what really amounts to sugary poop. The sooty mold lives off of it, and that's the black stuff you see on leaves (and other things).
I hadn't realized they came in such specialized varieties, though.

Windy morning

I'm not entirely sure where this came from. There have been some southerly winds blowing quite strongly here, but they don't often stay that way for long. It actually looked like dying down on Thursday, but it seems to have come back with renewed vigour in recent days. I'm certainly not complaining, anything that keeps the temperature down is a good thing as far as I'm concerned, and the wind seems to be doing that effectively, but it can make cycling interesting.
So it was this morning as I set off for a quick 68km or so in the hinterland early. Initially against it, and seemingly taking forever, but it's always surprising to discover the sheer scale of the difference it can make to one's average speed, which can seem very ordinary going against the wind, but can often rebound powerfully in the latter stages. In a way, this in itself can make a ride into an interesting chase, seeing a goal on the horizon, and gradually pulling it back, almost a sense of "I'm coming to get you".
We also should not leave out the attitude that one has to take on a long stretch against the wind, and the chance to show off the boring side of one's personality. It's that grim kind of chase that can often be so liberating, and yet the boring side of the personality gradually gives way to the arrogance that stems from closing in on a destination, gradually overcoming the wind, the turning of the tide, and suddenly realising that the wind can do no more to stop you.
Oh yeah, I took some photos from this morning's ride too. Enjoy.

Progress and Pressies...

Hi...
I feel so blessed.
I wanted my mom to make a quickie post to say humongous thanks again for all the well-wishing from so many doggies and other furry creatures (as well as your parents, too, of course). It means so much to me and I’m going to make an attempt at directing Mom to visit some of your blogs today to see what you’ve all been up to. Then I’ll dictate some commentary to Ma.

Doorbell does not ring, but Mom finds this and beautiful flowers on the mat. Thank you Honey!



I love this card too! What a happy Boston Terrier!



I had a pretty good night, but my stitches bothered me a little. Still, I actually ate two little jars of turkey baby food off of Ma’s index finger and kept it down. This is really good news. I’ve had lots of water and meds too and have also kept these down.
Golden Honey stopped by last evening, but never rang the doorbell. Imagine my surprise when we found the above on the mat. How gorgeous! Thank you so, so much Honey – I love tulips – especially “golden” ones and they are cheering me up! How sweet. And my pals at Pet Express sent a doggie carrot cookie home with Mom yesterday. I’ll love digging into that in a couple of weeks! Thank you, kind ladies at P.E. so much! I’ll keep you updated, but for now, I’m finally getting to visit some of your blogs.

Huge Hugs and So Many Thanks xo

Sammie