Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Randomania

Here's a few random pictures from my place.  Click them.  I think that'll make them bigger.  Or not.  We'll see, I guess.  They are all from my crappy phone camera.

This picture is the Olympic mountains taken from the end of my driveway on the road I live.  I can't see the mountains once I get off the road and onto my property as there are many trees - similar to the ones in the picture.




This is a magnolia tree that's just starting to bloom.  It is smack in the middle of my back yard right outside the "breakfast nook" window array.  I didn't know what kind of tree this was.  I had to send a picture to my maternal parental unit.  She knew right away.




This is a close(r) up shot of the blooms.  With the warm days we've been having this thing should (figuratively) explode soon.


Monday, April 14, 2014

Ridin'

I'm sorry I haven't been posting much lately, life's been full of sort of mundane chores and not so notable outside activities.  I did get a nice ride in on Saturday, though.

I gathered up the Long Haul Trucker and headed up to a few miles east of Sequim, WA.  There's a nice parking area near the Native American art place.  I jumped on the Olympic Discovery Trail and headed west toward Port Angeles.

It was a beautiful morning.  There was almost no wind and the trail, though not completely to myself, had few other users.  I was not out to set any speed records.  Instead I was doing another medium distance ride getting ready for the longer stuff to come.

Once I arrived in Port Angeles, I had a gourmet meal at Subway.  I bought a few extra cookies for the ride back.  The trail is very close to the Strait of Juan de Fuca near Port Angeles and the air felt chilly.  It was nice to have the long-sleeved wool jersey along for that portion.  Once a bit inland, the temperatures were in the upper 50's.  Perfect riding weather.

Yesterday was spent doing domestic chores.  The lawn needed mowing.  The clothes weren't going to wash themselves.  And, I made a batch of granola.

This next week I'm heading back to the Midwest for three days.  I've family stuff at the parental unit's domicile.  I'll be making my way there via a flight to Minneapolis followed by a sojourn in a rental car.

The weather is starting to turn from the rainy season to the glorious summer here.  Bike camping and regular camping - including backpacking - will start very soon.