Suspended World

Suspended World, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Taken back when the grass was green and the rain was falling. There will be no rain here for at least 2 more months, probably 3 months. Fortunately for California, the National Weather Service is predicting El Niño for the coming winter, which means above-average rainfall!

Merry Christmas To All

...Gave a luster of midday to objects below;When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature Ozzie with no trace of fear!
The girls had dropped by to bake cookies - what a kick!
And tonight they're laid out for good Old St. Nick. Merry Christmas to all and to all a furry, furry Good Night!

Reading in Bed

I consider reading in bed in the early morning a great luxury. Usually I'm up, dressed, and getting on with my day by 5:30, but on some summer mornings I wake up, reach over to the nightstand, and get the book I put there the night before for just such a purpose. Yes, I preplan such a heady event in order to enjoy it before it happens. I think about it before going to sleep and smile in anticipation.
What is one of your favorite luxuries?

Sometimes Good Things Don't Come To Those Who Wait

(My neighborhood post office early this morning.)
Tomorrow may be Emancipation Day, but today-I proclaim April 15- Procrastination Day.

We Gots Incredible Loot!!!

We are indebted to Jazzie (click) for putting us bloggers together for a Christmas gift exchange. Well... we received a most ingenious Xmas package from Cleo, Winston and Amiee that made us so happy and bright!
Here we are investigating the contents of this huge box!
OMD! Look at these stockings! Each one has our name on it! I, Sammie, have never had a personalized stocking! And being as it's Avalon's first Christmas (cheer cheer!), she is one lucky pupper!
Ava is furry interested in this bear-bear puppy!
Mom's and Dad's heartstrings are pulled tight as they gaze upon the Hounddogs' bootiful artwork on Ozzie's stocking. They wish she was here to share! (She gets to wander on her own and we're furry jelly!)
Well... now I was never very good at ripping packages apart, but it seems that Avalon's a natural. Here she is... doin' her thing and enjoyin' Christmas in every way!
We are feelin' jes so grateful fur everything that we've been sent!
Oh my... and look at these! COOKIES! GIMME SOME!!!
What is not in these pitchurs is something else my pawrents got: a most beautiful (and Large) candle with a Cinnamon Blend smell, now filling up our home with its lovely scents. How can we ever thank you for these amazing, creative and fabulous gifts. Mom here: the dogs are still playing with your wonderful and "sound-producing" gifts that they can't get enough of!

Here is a movie of us... loving your cookies... and wishing you a furry, furry Merry Christmas! Thank you so very, very much...

On the Road Again!

We are taking a little vacation - wheeeeee! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We might get to an internets, but unsure at this point... And we'll definitely see you all in ! Happy New Year! xoxo

Return of the greenery

Leaving Bilambil, on the way to Urliup.



I ended up heading for a "Tweed Mystery Ride" today, regardless of the fact that nobody else seemed interested. Just lately I seem to be riding Urliup Road every week, although today there were a surprising number of wildflowers out. Surprising, because this isn't really the time of year for them.



After coming out near Murwillumbah, I climbed Tomewin, then followed the dirt road across the ridge back toward Bilambil. This section of the ride has some really great views. One day I'll get a picture of Mt Warning when it's not shrouded in mist.





There's something about a ridgetop dirt road through a rainforest. It has a character all of it's own, especially the solitude, where one can be alone with their thoughts, and with nature in it's most pristine form. This is good for the soul. Eventually I descended to Bilambil, then found another climb through the John Hogan Rainforest, over the ridge, and down onto the Pilgrims' Road. This was actually the first time I've done this section during the day for quite a while, and it felt almost unusual. The last few times I've ridden Hogan's Road, it's been in the darkness.

The rest of the ride was basically a cruise along the Tweed River for a bit, before climbing Terranora, and heading home with my cranks making some noises that will need to be looked at in greater detail. I think I'll just replace them only two weeks out from a tour. This seems the logical thing to do.



For those still reading, yes, that means I did not end up going to O'Reillys as planned. I'm currently at a bit of a strange, almost fearful, place with that ride. The issue seems to be that last time I did it, I basically blew it apart. I got up there a full ten minutes faster than I ever have before. I know that I'm buckley's chance of repeating that performance (at least while the weather's warm), and that seems to be deterring me from riding up there again. With Mt Jerusalem next weekend, and Victoria after that, it will be at least a month before I can put that to bed. I'm just not sure how to go about it. I guess I'll work it out. Right now, I'll just have to enjoy the rides I have!

Fineshade - Blatherwycke - Fineshade

5.5 miles. WithSue, Kate, Norma, Jill,Maureen, Steph, Terry, Barrie, Barry, Phil, Gordon.A much cooler day, we almost saw the sun, and had shadows for a few minutes. Most of the photos were taken on Saturday.





From Top Lodge car park, we walked back down the road towards the A43, turning left just after the bridge to take the path across a cultivated field, downhill then up towards the woodland.





Down through the woods, then follow the path across grassland, then through a stile and between fences to another stile above Fineshade Abbey stables and the house with a lake.





There's a fine statue of a magnificent stag, and a (live) flock of Jacob's sheep.

We took the path downhill, and just before the bridge we turned left and uphill through a field with woodland on the left.

After another field or two you come to a gap in the hedge and the path leads across a cultivated field diagonally to the right.

From here there are views of Blatherwycke Lake

The only photo taken on Monday - note greyer sky.

The path continues downhill and over a stile to a minor road junction. Follow the road round into Blatherwycke village, and across the Bridge, past the entrance to a private road. Just as the road makes a right hand turn to the right, there is a footpath sign to the left. Follow this track which passes behind the church. On the hill, just after a second private track goes left you can see the statue of Apollo Belvedere.

Ripe for a caption competition?

The path continues past the lake, which you can glimpse through trees. Before long, you come to a gap in the hedge where you have a choice of two directions. On this walk we took the left-hand alternative, downhill to a footbridge over the Willow Brook.

Looking back to the gap in the hedge (where's the sky gone?)

Footbridge over the Willow Brook

The path goes through some strips of maize plants - left as shelter for the pheasants -

- and then across grassland to a gate in the hedge, where we turned right towards Blatherwyck. After a couple of hundred yards there is a bridleway sign, between agricultural buildings

shortly before the restored watermill house.

From here there is a wide track leading up towards the woods.

You follow this until it enters the wood, turning slightly left and leading down towards a field gate. From the gate you can see the top of Fineshade Abbey buildings.





It is possible to cross the field without losing any height, arriving at the stile above the stables, from where you follow the narrow path between fences, cross a field, and walk back uphill through a section of woodland, before crossing the cultivated field where we began this walk.

Memorial Day

Here are a few photos of my son, Garrett, who is serving in Iraq. These were taken in March when he came home for a two week leave. He surprised his nephew, my oldest grandchild Caed, with a visit to his first grade classroom. It was a very emotional reunion. The teacher asked Garrett to lead the class in the singing of our national anthem. Here he is fresh off the plane getting a hug from his dad. And stealing a kiss from his youngest nephew, Wilder. And him acting up with his grandma. We're so proud of you, Garrett. Hurry home!

Home at Last

Late last night (or should I say "early this morning"), I got home. 1040 miles, 16 hours from Albuquerque to Treynor. Was a long drive but as I aimed the car toward Iowa, I just wanted to get home.
Friday, I was planning to ride the ski slope dirt trail. Alas, the day was overcast and drizzling rain. Had breakfast with my cousin and met with a real estate agent friend of his. From there, It was off to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
From there, it was down time and start packing the car.
In the evening, I visited a fraternity brother and his wife who live in the Albuquerque area. We had a nice visit. We sat on the patio. Pleasant temperature, no bugs, good conversation.
Yesterday, I had breakfast and was on the road at 7:30am MDT. My plan was to overnight in Ft. Morgan, CO. When I got there, I decided to push on. Eventually, after a stop at the local grocery store, I got home about 1am.
Today's photos are of me with my cousin Don, and me with my fraternity brother Craig. Oh, yeh, If you are interested, 3776 miles, 21 days, 20 nights on the road. Rode my Fuel EX7 in Durango, CO, Dolores, CO, Sedona, AZ (2 visits), Scottsdale, AZ and Albuquerque, NM.

Three things: Ozzie! Thanks! Tracking!

Mom here: first our apologies for not visiting - again - it's been silly bizzy around here, although today (yay!) it's pretty mellow! Second, we wanted to show you a couple of photos of the super-rapidly-getting-better-OZZIE!!! She's playing and dancing energetically once more and will get her outer stitches removed at the beginning of next week. We are stunned by her amazing recovery and thank all of you so much for sending such powerfully wonderful well wishes - they helped hugely! Thirdly, this post is also about something I tried with Sam a couple of years ago - tracking. We just introduced Avalon (and Sierra Rose) to it yesterday and all doggies loved it! We actually traveled with Sierra Rose and her mom, meeting our good friend and experienced tracking person, Elizabeth Waldspurter, who set the courses for the dogs and instructed us. I want to thank her immensely for helping us get such a great start! I also want to thank Sierra's mom for taking the pictures of Sammie and Avalon trying out this super canine/human "sport"! (There are photos of Sierra as well, but we'll let Sierra post her version!) Okay... our turn!

Isn't she lookin' great???

You look like a zillion "treats" Oz! That's our Sis!!!*** So... tracking! To make a long story short, we dogs (as we surely know well) have better scentacles (our word) than hoomans have. In fact, the area of our doggie brains devoted to analyzing the things we smell is 40 times bigger than what a person has - how about that? We know a completely different world than humans, and for this reason, it is furry cool to do tracking. Yesterday, Mom set us loose to do something she had little control over! In our friend, Elizabeth's words, "You can't really correct for tracking. They know what they are doing." Love it! So the object of the game is to sniff our way down the course that Elizabeth makes and get the glove... or... foodables on the glove!
We were urged to watch our teacher as she "set" the course for us. We started small - on a plot of grass in front of a house. Some wind came up and the grass was damp. It's supposedly good to set up a track somewhere that is fresh - as in no humans or animals crossed it to mess up our snooters. Sometimes it will look like we're not following the path correctly, but wind can make us veer up to 3 or even 6 feet off supposedly. (Anyone out there who might be able to correct us on any of this info, let us know...)
In Avalon's words: Finally Mom said, "Avalon, Track!"
And off I went. I sniffed here...
I sniffed there...
And I backtracked and sniffed thereabouts!
Until I saw the prize, but still kept my sniffer to the ground...
And oooooooh... what sweetness to reach the prize! What fun that was!!! I hoped I could do it again and again! Back to you, Sammie.
Okay... so it was my turn. I wasn't spose to look at the camera, but I'm a flashy beast hound. Okay... I'll get serious!
Here I am in earnest... watching Elizabeth set my course. We are now in a less "contaminated" meadow!
Elizabeth returns from dropping the "dime" hot dog foodables along the track. She has stomped on the grass, while dropping a hot dog every few feet, and has placed the glove at the end of the trail. I'm supposed to follow HER scent along the course, leading to her glove, see? (the hot dogs help...). She indicated to Mom that I can go!
And we're off! How I love this activity! And there really is no correcting. Mom's read that she could "help" me a bit more - you can read here - or here for further info, but basically, she has to trust my snooter - hah! Isn't that pawesome?
Meanwhile, Avalon really, really, really wanted to do it again and again without a break and made her wishes loudly known throughout the neighborhood. We will be doing this again soon and we are definitely excited! Huge woofs to Elizabeth - thank you so much! Here are a couple of movies of us tracking!