Goldfields in the Backcountry

Las Trampas Backcountry, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Deep in the wilderness of Las Trampas, wildflowers abound. These goldfields were abundant at an interesting rock outcropping. Spring is definitely arriving!

JERSEY - 7 SIGHTS OF – A SECRET HEAVEN IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL

Mont Orgueil Castle - Gorey, the most iconic monument of Jersey

Jersey is an island measuring 118.2 square kilometres(44 sqmi).It lies in theEnglish Channel, about 12nautical miles(22km; 14mi) from theCotentin Peninsulain Normandy, France, and about 87 nautical miles (161km; 100mi) south of Great Britain.It is the largest of the Channel Islands.


What astonishes me more of this wonderful island is the light and the blue clear sky. These sepia photos celebrate the timeless beauty of this island, where the time seems to have stopped a long time ago and the beautiful landscapes are breathtaking.
CLICK HERE TO EXPLORE JERSEY AND THE CHANNEL ISLANDS ON OUR PARTNER SITE EDCHANNELISLANDS

Memorial in honour of the rescuer of catamaran St Malo at La Corbiere, Jersey

The rugged rocks of La Corbiere and the Lighthouse on the shores of Jersey

Peaceful harbour in Jersey

Wonderful flowers in spring, the best season to visit Jersey

Jersey es una isla mide 118,2 kilometros cuadrados (44 millas cuadradas).Se encuentra en el Canal Inglés, cerca de 12 millas náuticas (22 km; 14 millas) de la península de Cotentin, en Normandía, Francia, y cerca de 87 millas náuticas (161 km; 100 millas) al sur de Gran Bretaña. Es la más grande de las Islas del Canal.
Lo que me asombra más de esta maravillosa isla es la luz y el cielo azul claro. Estas fotos sepia celebran la belleza atemporal de la isla, donde el tiempo parece haberse detenido hace mucho tiempo y los hermosos paisajes son impresionantes.

At low tide, Jersey Coast

DISCOVER JERSEY AND THE CHANNEL ISLANDS ON OUR PARTNER SITE:

JERSEY & GUERNSEY - CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT THE CHANNEL ISLANDS

VISIT MORE AMAZING PLACES IN GREAT BRITAIN ONwww.edwhatamidoinghere.blogspot.com:


7 SIGHTS OF SALISBURY'S WONDERFUL ENGLISH GOTHIC CATHEDRAL: THE CATHEDRAL OF LIGHT

7 SIGHTS OF THE SHETLAND ISLES - THE COSIEST BUS STOP IN THE WORLD AND OTHER AMAZING SIGHTS OF THE SHETLAND ISLES
VISIT MORE AMAZING PLACES IN EUROPE ONwww.edwhatamidoinghere.blogspot.com:

7 SIGHTS OF RHODES - GREECE - A MARVELLOUS ISLAND FULL OF INSPIRATION! ...AND GUARDED BY A GIANT!
7 SIGHTS OF CINQUE TERRE / ITALY - THE ENCHANTING 5 FISHERMEN VILLAGES PART OF THE UNESCO HERITAGE IN THE ITALIAN REGION OF LIGURIA

HUNGARY - EXPLORING BUDAPEST IN A COLD WINTER NIGHT WITH ANNE J LO PHOTOGRAPHER FROM CHICAGO - 7 SIGHTS OF BUDAPEST

Insomnia

I awoke at 1.45am this morning, and gave up on any attempt to sleep at around 3.20am. Of course, becoming an insomniac is quite normal during a Queensland summer, but this hadn't been a particularly warm night by March standards. I can only assume the cause had something to do with sleeping short hours becoming habit-forming over the course of five months. Perhaps I'll make a slight change to my sleeping arrangements next time that happens in an effort to break the habit.
As it was, I decided to do some cleaning up in my apartment for a while before heading out for a ride. I'm still waiting to hear back from St Kilda cycles on the fate of my primary light, but my back-ups can do a job early in the morning until sunrise. After sunrise I was riding through Tallebudgera Valley before detouring to a short climb (2km at around 7%). I was watching the clouds lift out of the valley after last night's storm (we could use a few more like that incidentally).
The thought that came to mind was that insomnia had revealed the true beauty of cynicism. It was the cynic in me who had realised that trying to go back to sleep was a waste of time, which allowed me to expend that time and energy on other things. One of those other things was productive, and the other was very beautiful. Cynicism gets a lot of bad press for supposedly being a "negative" emotion, but in situations like this, it's benefits should never be forsaken.

Goofin' Off

Vacations are rad.

It's fun to go places, but sometimes it's fun not to go places. And sometimes it's even more fun just goofing off at home during vacations - going out to dinner every night, riding bikes, kids running around the neighborhood, sleepovers, building new bikes, eating bike cobbler, working in the garden, sleeping in late, having cake for breakfast, blah, blah, blah.

And how come when you have to go into work every day and sit behind a desk all day in a windowless studio, it's hard to do stuff when you get home at the end of the day? You feel lazy and tired.

But when you're just goofing off during the day, you can go for a 4 hour ride and still feel good enough to go chop down some eucalyptus up on the hill afterwards and then go out to dinner with 3 wild kids and then go to the hardware store and then stay up till midnight watching dumb stuff on tv and still feel good the next day and start doing it all over again.

The only thing I'm not doing a lot of is drinking. I think that's it. Working makes me drink which makes me lazy and tired. I better start drinking so I can feel normal again.
Yesterday I did the maiden voyage on the new bike. We put some road wheels on so I could go for a longer ride.
But an hour into it, up near the steam trains, my left crank came off.
And I couldn't get it back on.
So I called Morgan and he tried to explain to me how to put it back on. But I didn't get it.
I tried to push it in like he said, but I thought he meant push it all the way in and then start winding with the tool. And it didn't work. I tried a lot. And I didn't want to break it.
He called me back to check on me. He said he'd come bring the tool and fix it for me.

While waiting, a bunch of cars stopped to ask me for directions. I must have looked like the local tourist guide in my little pink outfit. One lady in a bmw said to me "... you look like you need some help but i'm going to ask you for help instead, how do i get to blah, blah, blah ..."

So Morgan arrived, fixed the broken thing and off I went to goof off some more on our vacation.
Today's agenda: more goofing and messing around.

Wabash Line

With 2 days off the bike, I just HAD to get out and ride. About 80 deg with a breeze from the NW. Drove down to Silver City.
Zach said he might be riding the Trace this afternoon. When I did not see his vehicle, I figured he was riding later. Stopped in Malvern for drink of juice and eating a granola bar. Rode through downtown to see if the coffee shop had changed its name - not yet.
Right there downtown Malvern - there's Zach and his friend Drew. I decided to ride with them to the next cross road. Heading to the Trace, Zach took a wrong turn, looked back what we were hollering about. Splat - Zach did a sider, dumping the bike. Me, did not think to grab the camera (Damn!). At least he wasn't hurt.
Drew took this photo of Zack and me. Thanks, Drew.
Good ride back to Silver City - little slower with into the wind. The 4300 rode like a champ.

Scritch scratch

Another recent game cam pic. After looking through some of the older game camera photos, I realized that we've had the camera in almost this exact location before.
I'm not sure why it surprised me, when I first realized it... Animals like to walk on clear, open paths just as much as people do.
I suppose I vaguely imagined some sort of I'm an animal! I walk in the woods! philosphy. But no. If we built an asphalt highway through those trees, the animals would be walking on it.

Fall Cooking

The only time I really, really enjoy cooking is in the fall. I love using cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
I FINALLY made gingerbread biscotti. It's been on my project list for about two years. I think I was a little afraid of it, but it was easy. They were a little too cakey, though. Next time I'll add the dark brown sugar the recipe called for (I used light brown) and a little more brown sugar.
The ginger cookies are a tried and true staple at our house. They're like ginger snaps only chewy. Amazing with a cold glass of milk when they're warm from the oven.
Tomorrow morning I'm making prune bread. I know that sounds terrible but it's wonderfully moist and taste very 'fallish'. I'll be taking a loaf with me when I go help out another new mom of twins, no not my daughter. A family friend had a girl and boy about four months ago. Her husband is out of town for a few weeks so I'm staying with the babes while she does a Wal-Mart run.
Sunday night I stayed with our twins so Laurel could go to church. They pretty much cried and ate the whole time. Holding two at the same time is quite a feat. Let's just say I was glad when their mama got home!

Loon with baby in morning fog

As you are already well aware (thanks to previous posts on this blog), I've been monitoring and photographing a Loon family for the past few weeks. On Friday, July 1st I discovered a Loon nest completely by accident on a local lake here in Grand Portage. I was with my friend Roger and we were looking for turtles sunning on logs, which is a frequent sight on the same lake. No turtles on that day, but while walking a small part of the shoreline we soon spotted a Loon nest out in the tall grass across a narrow channel of water in a protected corner of the lake. Right then and there we made plans to come back the next day and watch the nest all day in hopes that the chicks would hatch while we were there.



We returned at 9:00 AM the next morning and saw the adult was still sitting on the eggs. This was the beginning of what would end up being almost a two-week stretch of daily checks of the nest. After a week of visiting the nest and still not seeing any babies, I was starting to get a little worried about the eggs and whether or not they would hatch, since most Loon babies are born before mid-July. Finally, when I visited the nest on the morning of July 14th, I noticed right away that one of the babies had been born and was hiding behind the adult on the nest. I watched the nest for part of that day and eventually got some shots of the baby in front of the adult on the nest.


When I returned the next day the other baby had been born and the Loon family was already off the nest and out in the middle of the lake. This was when things got really interesting! Since the 14th I haven't quite been making daily trips to the lake, but almost. Watching the adults interact with their chicks out on the lake has been the most interesting wildlife experience I think I've ever had. It is amazing the care that is given to the chicks by the adults. Most of the time during their first week of life the chicks ride on the backs of the parents. This is done mostly for protection from predators, but also because the chicks get tired easily and need to rest. Now that the chicks are already almost two weeks old they are diving on their own (although their dives only last for a few seconds), they are learning to preen themselves, and soon they will be catching their own food, which consists mostly of minnows (small fish).


These photos were captured this morning just after sunrise, which so far has been the day with the most incredible conditions for photographing the birds during all my days of visiting the lake. We have been having daytime temperatures of almost 90 degrees with very high humidity, but the night of the 18th and early morning of the 19th the temp dropped into the upper 50's which meant that in the morning there was a lot of fog on the lake. The conditions for picture taking were phenomenal to say the least. I hope you enjoy these images from this morning!

Middle Falls Moonlight

WOW... it sure was cool watching the half moon over Middle Falls of the Pigeon River last night as the last of the daylight faded from the sky. Walking back to the car in the dark was fun, too. When you've got moonlight and a headlamp to guide your way, being in the woods at night is a magical experience.

Fall in Las Trampas

Fall in Las Trampas, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

The poison oak is getting some amazing color right now. Although fall doesn't officially start until Monday, the plants can tell that the seasons are changing.

The midnight century

The other thing that happened on Friday evening (or perhaps Saturday morning) was the midnight century at Ipswich. Actually, I almost didn't make it -- I was worried that Friday evening's downpour would flood out the train from Nerang, but that didn't happen, so I was on my way. I would have liked an hour or two to sleep before the ride, but time constraints put paid to that as well.

The ride itself got underway at a pretty frantic pace -- largely due to the high proportion of 30-40km riders who wanted to ride a century at that same pace. A couple of minor climbs in the Grantham/Laidley/Forest Hill areas put paid to that situation. Actually, I came into my own a little in that stretch. I'd been struggling with the pace early and even thought about dropping back before Rosewood, but once we hit the hills I started to feel better. By the first checkpoint at Forest Hill I'd somehow become ensconced in the really fast group, probably not ideal considering I was doing this thing on a Hybrid.

It was an interesting exercise in trying to hold the pace, but the group was surprisingly patient anytime someone felt the need to slow for a couple of minutes or so, and it was an absolutely beautiful night to be out. I really need to do more rides at that time of night, and build up some conditioning for riding at that time. 2-4am seems to be the hardest, as it's right at the bottom of the sleep cycle. That said, we just wound our way through localities like Coominya and Lowood, eventually on to Fernvale for the second checkpoint.

By now the sun was coming up, and my legs were really complaining. After the feed here, I basically abandoned my plans to stay with the really fast group and just set off at my own pace. With the sun now rising, I started looking for pictures to take from the ride, just a souvenir of the experience.



Perhaps surprisingly, I actually caught a couple of riders from the really fast group, who had also decided to ease off the pace a bit after 125km. We actually ended up riding together just for the sake of it. We basically regrouped in Marburg just to check the route, and one or two other things. Between here and Rosewood was the most beautiful part of the entire ride, the climb of the Marburg Range. The views here are surprisingly good -- surprising because the summit is still less than 200 metres above sea level.





After passing through Rosewood (again), it was now just a route-finding challenge. The one downside of this ride was spending the final 10km winding through the suburbs of Ipswich to get the distance, personally I would have preferred to have spent that 10km winding through somewhere else. On the other hand, this last 10km was hilly enough to put the ride over 1,000 metres of climbing, so perhaps it's not worth complaining.

The three of us found our way back to Queens Park, where there was already a barbecue on for the finishers. I was actually a little surprised that the kiosk next door wasn't open -- I would have thought they might have done some trade on a Sunday morning at that time, but then, it was Ipswich. The finish actually seemed a little low-key, but that's probably a good thing, and to be expected with people who have been up cycling all night. All in all, however, it was a thoroughly enjoyable ride, and I'll certainly be back for it in 2006.

Hopefully it's on the Saturday night this time -- I still harbour an idea of riding to the start of the ride, just for the challenge. Turning it into a 300km ride would be very, very interesting.

Unreal city

Edinburgh on a night of haar* - an unreal city. On my walk home from work I kept thinking of T S Eliot's 'The Waste Land':

'Unreal city,

Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,

A crowd flowed under London Bridge...'

Below, St Giles Cathedral on the spine of the Royal Mile.





The tower on the right is part of New College, the University of Edinburgh's Divinity department. Behind it, the lights of a student hall of residence.





Waverley Station, complete with camera-shake (sorry!).





Princes Street gardens and the looming shape of the Scott Monument.





* haar - sea fog

Leics Round 11 - Launde to Hallaton via Belton in Rutland and Allexton

With Marta. Fine, cloudy, pleasant. Dry underfoot. A couple of dry ploughed fields - hard work. Rolling. 663 ft of climbing. just over 8 miles.


We walk briefly along the Withcote Road from Launde Abbey, before taking the signposted footpath off to the right, behind the chapel and the gardens. It leads uphill, through fields with sheep, to the corner of Launde Park Wood. Here the path should cut downhill diagonally across a field, but the way is impassable, so we stick to the field edges.

Some rapeseed or similar is still blooming here - at least it brightens the grey day

When we reach the far corner we find a gate whose fastening is impossible to open, and have to climb over it. Grid ref - SK 809045 (I think).

The path continues east, crossing the river Chater, and turning into a wider track, and heads south to a ridge with a fine view.

We are overtaken by a horse-rider up here. The map shows a trig point just off to our right (west), but we can't find it. Instead we take an early break and admire the view over to Eyebrook reservoir in the distance.

We follow the hedge for a while then the path goes towards the bottom left corner of the field. We keep the hedge on our left until we reach the road near Brickle Farm. A lot of free range hens are in a field nearby. The road takes us into Belton.



We walk through the village and down to the A47, which we cross to reach the Allexton Road. We cross the bridge over the Eye Brook, and follow the Main Street, past the church, which is now redundant and looked after by the Churches Conservation Trust.











It's open and worth looking inside.



We carry on along the No Through Road, to the footpath past Manor Farm. This leads behind Allexton Hall, which lies to our right. we can't easily follow the line of the path here, and again walk up beside a hedge until we meet the waymarker. The fields here have been ploughed, and are very dry. It's almost like walking on concrete chunks.

Not my favourite walking surface.

Then it's alongside a small wood, and turn left to go past Alexton Lodge. Here we turn right once more and along a field edge. We're at the edge of the ridge here, and there's a memorial seat looking southwest towards Fearn Farm. Beautifully placed.

We walk down then up to Fearn Farm with its Zollgrenze sign - Leics-Rutland border??

We turn left to pass the farm, and then right on to the footpath

- it's marked clearly from here to the dismantled railway - we cross by the overgown bridge and then follow the good clear path through the fields. We come out at the junction of Allexton Road and East Norton Road and walk into Hallaton past the Fox pub and duck pond.