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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.