A crown! and counting breaths

Need to write this before I forget! Last Thursday I had an appointment to get an old crown removed.  Decay was evident below the metal of the crown in the xrays.  I was quite anxious. But it was NO BIG DEAL.  Note to self, don't bother getting anxious about this kind of stuff.  Afterwards I went over to Raley's and bought myself a nice bouquet.

On the weekend we went to a  party given by a colleague.  His wife is a very interesting person.  To bad we don't live closer, as I would love to have her for a friend.  She told me she has started walking and she counts her steps, to turn her walk into a walking meditation.  She walks between 5,000 and 6,000 steps a day.  I was flabbergasted that she could concentrate enough to count up to 6,000. 

I decided to try this on my bike ride.  I quickly decided that counting my pedals was a non starter, but I did decide I could count my breaths. For beginning, I decided to just count my breaths on the ride up the hill, not the whole trip.  I start at the gate at the bottom of the hill.  I bellow breath, otherwise known as back breathing.  First time up I counted 560 breaths.  Second time 590, but I was ticked about something and kept getting distracted.  Third time (today) I counted 550 breaths.  Ted also counted his breaths today and this is the really interesting part- he counted 415 breaths.  So even though my time up the hill is faster, and Ted is 6ft 5 compared to my 5 ft 4, and about 80 pounds heavier, he had over 100 fewer breaths.  I don't know enough physiology to totally get this.

Catch up post

It seems like so long since I wrote in this blog and that so much has happened that catching up is impossible, but I see that my last post was Nov 3 and this is only the 28th, so it hasn't even been a month. Wow.

At the end of October we went curling at the local skating rink. We had a lot of fun. Not something to do on ar regular basis I'm afraid, my knee hasn't been the same since.

Squinting at the skip

We also have been doing a ton of fieldwork, went to to three different Frances performances in Sacramento, and had a computer fail. And the chain on my bike fail.
Slowly putting things back in order now.

Gulf Fritillary and Warm Weather

I was enchanted to see this Gulf Fritillary on my zinnias when I got back from Wisconsin!  I'd never seen one before, but I recognized it right away as being in Common Butterflies of California by Bob Stewart.  I think one of my neighbors has a passion flower vine.  We had a nice week of warm (80F) weather for the week after we got back.  It was just like summer!

Oct trip to Wisconsin

Arch 0, Ambulence 1

We arrived Wednesday in time for dinner, since Mom and Dad ordered Chinese in Minoqua and we picked it up on our way through. Early Thursday we were awakened by Dad on the phone to 911. Mother couldn't catch her breath. Mom was hospitalized until Sunday afternoon, when she was finally able to bust out. Needless to say I spent a lot of time at the hospital, including Saturday night in a nice comfy hospital bed they brought in for me.

Plenty of seasonal chores

Ted did most of the raking by himself the first day while I was at the hospital, but I was able to contribute on a couple of the other days. Eric arrived Saturday evening, stopping off at the hospital on his way through while I was there. Ted brought me dinner and he and I ate with Grandma.

Liz and Grand-dad enjoy the view

The lake was beautiful as always, and I really enjoyed getting up each morning and seeing what it was up to. 

The tamaracks and poplars were at peak color.

Ted and I got a couple of walks in on the local nature trails even with all the hospital time.

Eric finds the walleyes.

And I am happy to say that Eric got in some fishing too.  Unfortunately Grand-dad had a return of the amiodarone lung poisoning while Grandma was hospitalized, finally going to the emergency room at 3.30 in the morning on Wednesday (the day we left).  Ted and I stopped in at the hospital on our way back to Minneapolis. Grand-dad was released Thursday or Friday.
The parents, with Eric's help, moved back to P.E. on Oct 30.  Eric will stay till Nov 4, and Sue and Al plan to come for the weekend.

Whitecrowns Arrive! And Trip to SoCal

Whitecrowns arrive Oct 7 2011, a week later than last year.
We've been down to SoCal for the big wedding!
Drove down w F on Friday. She flew back up on Sunday evening and we drove home on Monday.
The wedding was very fun and we sincerely wish the bride and groom happy.

Stephanie and Thomas

Pyramid Lake from visitor center

Halloween fun in the US Forest Service display

Stopped at the Pyramid Lake visitor center on the way home. They have a very nice visitor center. Found out this morning when I stepped on the scale that I managed to gain five pounds in 3 days! According to the scale in the visitor center it could have been mostly water, but maybe I just ate too many candy corns and sat around way too much!  Time to get back on the bike.

My water weight

The times they are a changing...

...and I don't like it.  We've past the autumnal equinox now, and the days are getting shorter.  Where are my little white crown sparrow buddies? The orb spinners seem to have already disappeared.

At this time of year I wonder how summer can disappear so quickly. Last weekend I made a big batch of quince sauce and I plan to make the last batch today.  The quince harvest this year is lighter than last year. But my green beans are still producing! Variety Improved Tendergreen- these have been the best green beans yet.

Reflections

Sept 7 2011

Sept 7 2011

Sept 7 2011

July 8 2011

July 8 2011

It has been such a lovely summer.  We've been biking in the morning all summer, and there have only been these two mornings when the wind didn't blow and the lake was like glass.

Sporting Clay Shoot Fundraiser

I talked Ted into doing this fundraiser for the land trust with me.  Not that it took too much convincing.
We had to rent our shotguns.  Luckily Ted warned me to rent a 20 gauge. He wanted to rent a 20 gauge too, but they only had four of them and I got the last one. 
I had some worries the night before (what have I gotten us in to), but the whole thing was conducted in a very safe manner, and I felt very comfortable about the shoot. Ted and I both ended up getting the same score.  It was very fun, but note to self, don't even think about doing this if you can't get a 20 gauge shotgun.  We shot 50 rounds, and I did have a sore shoulder for a day or two (as did Ted).

Crooked Lakes Trail hike to Penner Lake

Snow level is obvious from the moss.

Island Lake

Penner Lake

We took this hike on August 18.  Left home at 8.45 am.
The weather was perfect and the flowers, thanks to our very late spring, were about peak.  We picked up F and D in Sacramento, but poor F turned out to have some awful respiratory bug, and so did not feel up to hiking.  We left them sitting beside Feeley Lake and proceeded post haste to our destination which was Penner Lake. To get back sooner, we truncated our planned loop hike into an out and back.  We left them the map but if we had been smart we would have taken a photo of it for reference, because we got confused at several points and it would have been helpful to have the map.  Now why didn't we think of that before we were halfway along the trail??
The hike only has about 500 feet of elevation gain over the 3 mile plus distance from trailhead to Penner Lake, so the hike was quite easy.  The trail is remarkably pretty, with one lake after another popping into view.  We ate lunch on a large smooth granite outcrop overlooking the edge of Island Lake, where we were entertained by the antics of an osprey.
The water at Penner Lake was just perfect for a quick dip: pretty cool but not frigid.
Dinner at Gatsby's in Sac. $60 for 3 burger plates and 3 milkshakes (includes tax and tip).  A bit (!!!) on the pricey side but good. Home at 10 pm.

Trout Lake 2011

Had a wonderful family reunion at Trout Lake this year.  The plane rides were delayed in both directions !ugh! 1 one hour delay going and 3 hours coming back.  Met Barb at MSP and shared a rental car w her for the 5 hour drive to the lake.  We had terrific thunderstorms for the first night and most of the first day, but the weather was quite nice after that.  We got in the usual mongo bike rides and the wonderful ice cream rewards at Mad Dog Jake's.

The nieghbors have a pontoon plane which was fun to see land and takeoff.  Takeoff is on one ski.

As usual we slept on the porch, which allowed us to carefully monitor the sunrise every day.  This picture was taken at 5:19AM and my brother was already up fishing!

Plum Sauce

The neighbor's plum tree overhangs the fence and has a bumper crop of beautiful fruit this year. And since we don't have any apricots or peaches this year, we have been busy making and freezing plum sauce.  Using about a cup of sugar per 6 cups plum puree.  Also made a great nonfat plum frozen yogurt. Yum! 2 cups nonfat yogurt, 3/4 C unsweetened plum puree, 1 C sugar.  Processed and resulted into 4 C frozen yogurt.

Update Feb 6 2012
My neighbor cut down her plum tree!!!!!!!!!!! So we went out and bought a bare root Santa Rosa from Lowe's and planted it today back where the cherries came out.

Robins and Lettuce

Except for a week long heat wave when we got back from the beach this has been the most delightful summer.  The robins have been hanging around and singing!  I don't remember that from other years.  It is really nice to hear them.  And they are still nesting.  I spotted this nest a while back and took this picture this morning.

This year I grew Jericho lettuce.  It has been fabulous!!!  Ten plants have provided lettuce for weeks now.  I have some seedlings still in cups and somehow they are still hanging on. I plan to plant them and see if they can still make it.
And finally are getting our first ripe tomatoes off of the Juliet grape tomato.  I think the tomatoes are getting a little too much afternoon shade, so they have been really slow this year.

Love the beach

I love the beach.  I miss the beach.  Haven't quite recovered yet from my week there. Here it is hot (over 100) there it was cool, mid 60's. The weather was fantastic, the best we've had in years.  It was sunny every day.
In spite of biking, boogie boarding, and long walks on the beach I still managed to gain 2.5 pounds.  There was just so much chocolate! My weakness! Next year I'm not even going to take chocolate.  I had ingredients along to make cookies, but with all the other snacks available I didn't end up making any. 

Finally summer

As far as I'm concerned this was really the first bike ride of summer! On June 14.  What a long extended spring we had, of cool and rainy weather.  The first day could have been the 13th I guess, but we were gone that day.  Since the 14th we have definitely been in a summer weather pattern.  In fact it has been so warm that we have switched to biking in the morning.
I planted zucchini seeds Saturday, and bean seeds today.  This is really, really late, we will see if anything comes of it.  Transplanted hollyhocks, yesterday, today, and maybe tomorrow.  This is reallly late too, I hope they can get established in spite of the hot weather.

It's raining!

Seems like we've been having more or less the same weather all year! It's actually pouring today.  I haven't managed to get the rest of my transplants in.  The Drosophila suzukii has made a mess of my cherries again, although we did get some good fruit off the Royal Anne.  I cut off the tops of all the cherries and stripped the fruit off them.  We cut down our old Stella.  It was in decline anyway, but still that brought a tear to my eye.  That had been such a wonderful tree and produced the best fruit until the suzukii came along.  Now it is starting to attach my strawberries, black berries and raspberries.  It has been such a cool and rainy spring I have bumper crops of them.

Here is a view from our bike ride yesterday.  It sprinkled the whole time.  Also a picture of the Oakland skyline.  Usually we are working on the other side of the bay, but got a chance to work in the east bay and see things from the other side.

Wendall T. Robie Trail - Memorial Day Weekend Hike

We went with Pam and Jesse to see Pam's neice (Mercyhurst) in the women's crew races at Lake Natomas on Sunday morning. Our plan was to hike afterwards. Admittance to watch the race was $15 per head, so Ted and I skipped that and walked across the bridge to the other side of the river.
I had found the Wendall T. Robie trail by looking about on the internet, and it seemed like a good possibility as it was close to Sacramento. As last year, Frances decided at the last possible moment that she would like to join us for the hike, so we had to backtrack to pick her up. Then we stopped at the freeway-close Raley's in Loomis to buy her lunch provisions, since her larder was bare of hike food.
Once we left the freeway we were on a windy 2 lane road, and then on a windy one lane paved road (no stripe but room for two cars to pass) and then on a windy one lane dirt road ( I was glad we didn't meet any cars.) I hadn't printed directions to the trailhead so we were relying on memory (never wise). We stopped by a gate to reconnoiter and luckily Pam noticed a trail sign, which was not obvious at all. It started to pour just then, so we ate our lunches sitting in the car and waiting for the rain to stop.
Were putting on our boots when two jeeps and a pickup came down the road. That was the only other folks we saw the entire day (nobody else was on the trail, this in the middle of Memorial Day weekend!).
The trail was very pretty; the white fairy lanterns were out in force, as was the Heuchera and the ticks!  The trail is mostly level, and there are a few places where you can catch a glimpse of the river far below.

Checking for ticks at the trailhead at the end of the hike. Note trail start on right side of road.

We started up the trail at 1.50 pm, and so finally turned around about 4.30. We never made it to Canyon Creek. Looking at the topo map, it was probably still miles away. The trip back on the trail was uneventful except there were a lot more ticks, since it had warmed up and the sun was out. Doug joined us for dinner (Sushi Hook) and dessert (Cheesecake Factory). Curiously, Pam ran into her niece at Cheesecake Factory. Got home about 10.45 pm

My Mothers Day Trip

Since one of our contracts was cancelled due to federal budget cuts, our spring work schedule suddenly became less busy, and I decided to go to Wisconsin to help Mom and Dad move into their summer digs.  Ted was amenable to making the trip.  Eric got to PE several days before us and helped the parents move up to the lake.  We had planned to fly out on Thursday May 5th and return Thursday May 12, but our flight was cancelled due to a mechanical problem.  After getting up at 4.15AM and spending most of the day in the airport this translated into a truly miserable time, but we were able to get the same flight the next day and move our return back a day, so we ended up leaving on the 6th and returning on the 13th.  Luckily on the flight out and back we somehow lucked into an exit row, so Ted was not miserable the way he otherwise would have been.

The weather had been very cool in April this year, and everything was further behind than it had been in May 2010.  Photo on the drive along Hwy 29. The first night we were there we went out to look at stars.  Good thing too, because the sky was cloudy every other night.  Ted had his bike, and biked every day (even saw a bear one day).  I did not rent a bike.

Eric had gotten a lot of the chores done already, but there was still plenty that we could do.  We turned over most of the garden, dug up the compost from the compost heaps and added that to the garden, planted his tomatoes and set up the wall of waters, raked the walkways Eric hadn’t gotten to, and set up the bird bath, among other things.
We had one great lightening storm during the night on Tuesday.  We took a neat walk in the Van Vliet Hemlocks with Eric, and came across all sorts of interesting things.  We identified a common plant which none of us was familiar with, leatherwood (Dirca palustris).  The first full day was really calm and I took a paddle in the canoe around Miller island while Ted was on his bike ride.
Also spent a lot of time helping granddad to get his computer network up and running. 
We played hearts with Eric and Granddad.  Couldn’t get Mom to play.  Also taught Eric and Granddad how to play pinochle.  Hockey playoffs were underway, so I couldn’t always get them to play cards with me.
Although the weather was mostly gray, it really didn’t rain much, and we were able to be outside a lot. In fact, today (Friday) was the least nice day, mostly because the temperature had dropped 10 degrees from the previous days.  On our drive back to Msp things had obviously greened up compared to the week before.  The trilliums were in full bloom in the woods along hwy 29, and we saw many nice woods where the forest floor was carpeted with trilliums.  The trilliums at Loon Lookout hadn’t started blooming yet.  I’m writing this in the MSP airport, and hope that we get home on time. (We did.)