Wednesday, November 28, 2012

CX Season Opener

Lots of fun & pain! Raced the women's C's. (I'll jump into the B's soon, but for yesterday the C's were right.) Technique felt great and I felt like barfing the first 2 laps. In retrospect, I should have kept it on the barf mode for the next 2 laps - b/c it was on the 3rd lap that I let up and was passed by 2 in my category. So I settled for 3rd. I even managed to pass a few women in the B's, which was a good incentive.
We brought the kids and let them run around with their bikes. They played with some of the other little kids who were hanging around and I could see everywhere they went from the little hill I was on - where I'd parked myself during Morgan's race. Once Morgan was done, we switched and he took over "lookout duty" while I raced. Each time I came around the course I could see Sam & Lu up in the trees behind the feed zone. Tree climbing occupied them for a good 2 hours, which gave us some time to hang out after my race and watch Barry Wicks race with the A's. Dang that guy is fast.
Some pIcs.
Morgan's race went well. He managed 5th in the men's B's in a field of 30 or so.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Housing options


Which would you choose? The haunted cottage, or the tents beside the burn?

The tent option comes with wake-up call from the sun at a very early hour:

And running water:


Photos taken by my daughter on her Duke of Edinburgh Award Silver practice expedition in the Southern Cairngorms.
Edited to say that we're off on holiday for a bit. France here we come, via the Ryanair 'bus' to Bordeaux. I'll look forward to catching up with blogs when we're back.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Rose Crème Brûlée


Rose Crème Brûlée, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

After seeing a recipe for rose-flavored crème brûlée on Dessert First's blog, I decided to try the recipe with my French friend.
It ended up turning out wonderful. The vanilla cream was marked by the floral, spicy flavor of roses. Delicious.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Fleet Weeks and Fun Matches Do Not Match

If my assistant could figure out how to create a bubble for me, I'd have a long story to tell today. I'm very upset with her because it's been almost a whole week since I've gotten to post, and besides that, she's barely commented on your fine blogs. Things have gotta change around here and pretty darned quick. So here's some of the scoop and it's not all good.
First of all, there have been no pictures of anything I did this week, and I did quite a bit. Then... when I'm NOT permitted to go along with my peeps (the indignity of it!), they take hundreds of photos. How do you like them apples? So yesterday, my dad was invited to take mom on a yacht thingy with some of his work cronies in order to sail around the SF Bay to see...
THESE. I've seen a couple of pix like these on a couple of blogs and they do look cool, but I would have like to have gone, so I could have made up my own mind about whether they were good or not.
I mean, I guess it's pretty good when you can travel at 500 miles an hour about 3-4 feet away from another jet without a major catastrophe.
Speaking of which, there were so many boats out on the bay, that apparently dad and mom's boat almost crashed into that sailing craft up toward the bow there. See?
Here's another near miss.
I have to hide my eyes from this one.
Nice day over the Bay Bridge... at least it looks like it. But the Blue Angels themselves got cancelled. I don't think anyone minded too much. They'd been around here practicing all week. I promise you cause I know this: they are ve-ry LOUD.PART IIThe Fun Match
If a peep wakes you up early and mentions "fun match" you can bet that it's not. It's work and I have to think and remember so much.
I'm doing a figure-eight here around two people that they call "posts."
"Watching." I promise you... if I had a dime for each and every time mom has said, "watching," I'd be filthy kibble and stuffy-rich.
THIS TIME, finally, the judge really likes me lots and doesn't have a word of criticism. That's good, cause the next fun match is a real trial next month. Well we'll see.
Good girl. (And a dime for that one too.) Mercy, I'm tired.
These guys were watching us pack up as they were getting ready to leave too. WOOF!
Gonna get me some well-deserved rest. Catch ya on the flip side. I've missed y'all lots this week.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Eagle Mountain Hike


Above: The trail starts off in a rather enchanting evergreen forest.
Last week we hiked up Eagle Mountain, the highest point in Minnesota. Despite having lived in Cook County my entire life, I had never done the hike before. It was something I really wanted to do, considering other recent "firsts" for me in the local area (hiking Devil Track River, visiting Thompson Falls on the Cascade River). The trail to Eagle Mountain is 7 miles round-trip and for the most part is a very rugged, rocky trail. We did the round-trip hike in just over 5 hours, including several stops along the way to take photos, and about a half-hour snack break at the summit.

Before too long, you cross the line and from this point on the hike is within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.


Even though this is not known as a fall color hike, we did see a lot of nice color in the underbrush along the trail.


A few boardwalks that cross some bogs and marshes along the way give the trail some nice variety in the scenery.


Lots of color along this portion of the trail! Photo by Jessica Barr


Clouds over Whale Lake - Photo by Jessica Barr


Photographing the clouds over Whale Lake - Photo by Jessica Barr


Photographing the view from the summit - Photo by Jessica Barr


Although not the highest point on Eagle Mountain, this location offered the best "overlook" view.


Jess checking out the survey marker designating the highest point on the mountain at 2,298.1 feet.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Blue Hour Beauty at Hollow Rock




Even though last night yielded about a 0% chance of a nice colorful sunset, I still wanted to head out after work and see what the ice was like at Hollow Rock. We have had really good ice production on the lake over the last several days, and Hollow Rock did not disappoint in terms of ice. The west side of the rock was littered with plate ice and here on the east side was this nice little "ice cove". The ice cove really made for a nice composition with the peninsula of ice pointing right at Hollow Rock. The reflection of Hollow Rock in the water was an extra bonus. So, not much color but still an amazing scene! Today the weather is the opposite of the serene calm that you see here. Last night the wind kicked up and it has been violently windy this morning. I heard that the wind gusts were maxing out at just over 60 MPH in Grand Marais! Hopefully some ice will hang on and survive the wind. I would not be too happy if all the ice blew away :-(

Nauga Ranch Singletrack

Over the last couple days, I have been giving some thought to a singletrack and skills area on my property. I have about 5 acres to play with.

The top of the property is mostly flat, with some scrubby trees. Good areato build a skills area - see the mowed area. I have landscaping timbers, railroad ties, and old concrete to work with.
Since the riding mower was fixed last winter, I can use it to haul stuff around the property and mow a track.

Now, once I ride/hike down to the bottom of the property, I will find out what the vertical is. I know it is a pretty good hill.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Brrrrr


HUNTING ISLAND STATE PARK — SOUTH CAROLINA
TEMPS: LO 45F / HI 50F (7C / 10C)

I’m not sure when the rain stopped. It might have been late last night; or maybe it was in the wee hours of this morning. Either way, I went to bed to the sound of raindrops on the roof and woke up to total silence. Nary a drop fell throughout the day, but it sure was cold. In fact, we reached the day’s high just after midnight (or so the weather websites report) and the temps fell from there. The sunshine promised for this afternoon was a no show, so we had an overcast and dreary day to contend with. So be it!

Mui had it in his mind that he was going to figure out how to set up the tripod satellite today — I think he was inspired by the neighbors across the road from us. So that’s what we worked on this morning. There were no tears shed, but it was a close call. Once he found the instruction booklet that came with the dish, the set up turned out to be a breeze. I read the instructions; he followed. And in a jiffy we had the satellite locked on to a strong signal through a small (make that very small) opening in the tree canopy.

Success!

Our application for DNS (Distant Network Service) is still going through the channels, so now that we’re out of the DC area, we don’t get the local channels on the satellite anymore. No problem; thus far we’ve been able to get those channels with the antenna. Mui’s a happy camper!

We then puttered around the house for a while, hoping against hope that the temps would rise just a bit. Around noon, we gave up on waiting, bundled up, and went for a walk. It was a cold 45F (7C); felt colder with the windchill. But we pressed on.

as the tide ebbs, The beach scene near the campground becomes eerie. It is starkly beautiful despite the destruction caused by the sea and the wind.

Our goal was to find the beach access to the Lighthouse Trail. And we did — sort of. Last night’s high tide had left a great deal of the treeline area under water, so we had to walk along the beach instead. We did connect to the trail eventually — just a few hundred yards from the lighthouse!

We had to walk along the beach area (black arrows) since the lighthouse trail
was mostly inaccessible (red x).

Despite the fact that we were just two hours away from low tide, the exceptionally high water along the beach threw up a couple of challenges.

I don't know if this is what Sherry (of In the Direction of Our Dreams) described as
the "River Jordan" in her blog, but we have to find a way to cross it if we want to
keep going. And no, wading is not an option; it's just too cold for that.

First Mui …

… and then I cross over using some toppled trees as a makeshift bridge.
Trust me, the water is deeper and flowing faster than it looks in these pictures.

Shortly after we forded the “River Jordan,” we found the trail that we’d been looking for. It turns out, we were close to the end of the trail. We did follow it for a bit, but we detoured out to the beach again to sit on some tree trunks and eat our lunch before continuing to the lighthouse.

the Lighthouse Nature Trail is quite beautiful.

The good news — THE LIGHTHOUSE IS OPEN! But with the weather so icky, we didn’t climb it today. The forecast for tomorrow calls for plenty of sunshine and blue skies, so we’re going to return to check out the views on the way back from another hike or two we have planned. We did take the time to wander through the small outbuildings on the grounds, but I’ll keep those photos for a future post on the lighthouse.

Glimpse of the lighthouse from the beach.

Tenaciously hanging on in the face of adversity.

The “River Jordan” was still running fast and deep when we made our way to the cross-over point. Our makeshift bridge came to the rescue again. The return walk to the campground was at a faster pace, with few stops for photos — not because we were anxious to get home, but because we were trying to keep warm as the damp weather increased the chill factor. The promise of a cup of steaming hot cocoa was the ‘carrot’ that kept us going.

Leonardo da Vinci said, “In time and with water, everything changes.”
How apropos!

Remember the photo I posted yesterday of a crab burrow? I wanted to give you a better idea of how small the sand-pellets really are …

Mui’s finger puts the size of these sand-pellets in perspective.

I leave with you this image of Mother Nature’s art.

Simple, fluid, flowing — beautiful sand art.

If the weather cooperates tomorrow as promised, we’ll be out and about. If not — well, I’ll think about that tomorrow …