Wildflowers

 

I went on an insanely gorgeous wildflower hike on Coyote Ridge down toward Morgan Hill this morning with some people from work. This area is normally closed to the public (due to lots of threatened and endangered species) unless you get in one these once-a-year guided trips.

 

The ever-ubiquitous California Poppy.

 

This area adjoins the Kirby Canyon landfill, making an interesting juxtaposition between the exuberant springtime flower explosion and man-made mess.

 

A checkerspot butterfly next to a piece of green serpentine. The soil from this serpentine supports all sorts of unusual plants and critters.

Took 175 pictures before the camera battery ran out on me -- there are quite a number of good ones that you may be subjected to at some later date...

New Bike High Lapse in Judgment

Sure, that clear spot over Sunnyvale will follow me around....
I got very wet yesterday.

On the bright side, today
a) it didn't rain after 8:30 am
b) I was smart enough to revise my original plan of going up Hamilton (there was snow up there)

Fuv

Never underestimate your kids. Here are just a few things topics that bring this to mind this morning:

1. Imagination
Fuv

Fuv is a small monster born in a cactus flower in Arizona. He somehow found and attached himself to Nimue a couple of years ago and now lives in the nook under her bed. He protects her from all the scary monsters that inhabit the dark spaces of the night after bedtime. Quite a handy fella, really.


2. General coveting and nagging about getting new stuff

Nimue writes to Fuv when she wants things -- apparently he communicates with Santa, the Easter Bunny, parents, and anyone else whose arm might be twisted into acquiring coveted objects for her. She has said that she knows Fuv isn't real, but hopes the letter writing might be effective anyway.

In this case, she wants the bike because she had to wait patiently in the bike shop while I picked up my new bike yesterday. Chad very helpfully distracted her by looking at all the different bikes, helmets, catalogs, parts, etc. that were there to be seen.

Please note that Nimue's bike is NOT too small for her; I had to explain that new bikes are only acquired when the old bike is either outgrown or so many components are wearing out due to the sheer number of miles ridden that it actually costs less to just get a new bike than to replace everything.

Shiny new bike is sitting in the garage today because it's Chad's turn to get a weekend ride in. It's supposed to rain tomorrow and Monday, Tuesday I have to help in Nimue's classroom, Wed and Thur are full of work things, Friday is an early dismissal day, Saturday will be full of an organized ride that Nim and I are doing on the tandem. New bike says "Waaaah"!


(still need to get it a decent bag and water bottle cages, but Chad was quite nice last night and found and installed some temporary items)

Note the new bike's resemblance to Chad's...the Specialized Ruby/Roubaix is quite a delightful bike for the long distance hilly riding that I favor :)


3. Adventure prowess
Nimue (with her cousin's "Flat Stanley") at the Black Mountain Backpack Camp We rode mountain bikes in a few miles and camped up on the peak a couple of weeks ago; Nim rode her own bike in up the singletrack.
The following day, she and I rode the tandem all the way up Page Mill, which really does count as one of the "real" hills around here, with 2000+ feet of elevation gain and an extended section with a grade of about 8.5%. That was one of those weird days when the stars all aligned and she did the whole thing without complaining (the almost constant candy bribes helped...)
Next weekend brings the Cinderella Classic century ride, which she and I will do on the tandem; I'm hoping it doesn't rain.


4. Artwork (as always with Nim)
Bat skeleton she made for a school project with her friend Rowan

Anteater drawing made just for fun (Don't ask me why anteaters; I have no idea....)

and of course, Fuv

Parade of Visitors

In addition to mountain biking, last weekend was filled with visitors:
1) Frosty was back in town, and we were able to catch up to him for a day and an evening up in SF, including a museum, dinner, and jazz club. Check off a good visit and cultural enrichment :)
2) Linda came down to see us and Frosty. Check off good company in the house and good Grandma fun for Nimue :)
3) It was our turn to take the 2nd grade class rats home for the weekend. Check off smelly vermin....they are actually pretty cute, and quite smart, though not very obedient :)

Good thing the camera's shock- and waterproof

It's wildflower season at Henry Coe State Park, so we've headed over there to mountain bike for the last couple of weekends. It's pleasantly warm without being blisteringly hot like it can be in the summer. The hills are green, the flowers are out, and the creeks are full. There is also an abundance of mud, most of which is now plastered all over the bikes.

The first time we headed down, Chad rode with his buddy Randy and the guys, leaving Nimue and me to explore the mostly flat trail along Hunting Hollow. At first I felt a brief twinge of annoyance at being stuck with a low-key ride, but the trail Nimue and I were on soon proved to be a wet fun-filled adventure of creek crossings, which was quite a delight. I got a lot of creek riding practice myself, and it was particularly entertaining watching Nim, who is often pretty cautious, learn to bash through the water with great abandon.





Nimue's pretty good at cheerfully pushing her bike uphill when she needs to. Note the gorgeous setting with the violently green grass that pushes its way out of the ground this time of year.



The obligatory tongue-sticking-out shot. She's enjoying a peanut butter, nutella, and dried cherry sandwich on homemade sourdough.



I discovered the hard way that filming one's kid from behind with a handheld camera while riding through a even a minor creek is not always the best idea.



Watching me topple over into the creek and then burst out laughing seemed to let Nimue relax a bit more with her riding, as after I fell she began to wipe out in the mud too.



Many, many, many more crossings. Good thing it was warm-ish.




The extra dry clothes in the car that she had packed weren't enough; Nimue cracked open the bag of emergency clothes that haven't seen the light of day since the 1980's.



In the end, we decided that the guys all missed out on the real fun.

This last weekend, Linda was in town and willing to watch Nimue, so I got to do a "real" ride with Chad and the guys. A couple hours of riding, a few thousand feet of climbing, some bushwhacking through the tall grass. Yes, I'm slow going downhill (too much self-preservation instinct to ever be a really good mountain biker), but I did manage to hold my own for the most part going uphill. It's gorgeous -- and this time I didn't fall!

Is that my Mom or a middle-schooler?

This last week, Nimue acheived a new milestone: she got to leave school on her bike all by herself for the very first time. Having ridden literally thousands of miles with her over the last couple of years, I've known for a while that she now has the judgment and skill to ride that particular familiar route. She knows her way around, has good control of the bike, is polite to other sidewalk users, and appears to have the proper amount of paranoia about cars making mistakes at intersections. So, when it seemed that I would be stuck at home waiting for the person who was coming to diagnose our annoyingly slow DSL line right when school got out, we decided to let her ride home on her own.

Imagine big wide happy Nimue eyes: "You mean you are going to let me ride home ALL BY MYSELF?" Needless to say, she liked this idea. She was a little nervous that morning, but still thought she should do it (and of course got lots of encouragment from me, Chad, and Linda, who happened to be visiting).

It turned out that the DSL guy finished just about exactly when I would have left to pick Nimue up, but I wanted to let her have the satisfaction of the small step towards independence. Mom disease reared its ugly head though, leading me to think maybe I should check on her, so I rode toward the school to meet her halfway. After a couple of minutes, a very cheerful, fast Nim on a red bike came charging down the sidewalk, stopped at the light, gave the driver who was thinking about turning right across the crosswalk a look to see that she could go, and came toward me to chatter about how great it was. What a good kid! She greeted me saying something like: It was so fun, why are you here? I rode toward Mary and saw you and thought "Is that my Mom or a middle schooler?" Chatter chatter chatter all the way home. "No really, from a block away, you could be a middle-schooler!" I'll take that as a compliment, I guess :)

Valentine's Day Witche's Brew

INGREDIENTS
1 non-permanent red marker
3 squirts toothpaste
5 cups water
20 squirts soap


DIRECTIONS
Color part of your hand with the marker. Fill the sink with 3 cups of water. Use a couple squirts of soap to clean off the red mark on your hand until the water is bubble gum pink,bubbly and/or foamy. Mix in 2 squirts of toothpaste,1/2 a cup of water,and a few squirts of soap. Stir in remaining toothpaste. Show someone your brew and yell "Happy Halloween!"

Nimue sings gibberish to the 2009 Portland Megaband

Silly kid again -- must record for posterity...

Be patient after you click the play arrow, as it takes a couple of seconds for it to get started.

Ski Week

Here in our part of California, the schools have a delightful habit of giving kids the whole week containing Presidents' Day off for "Ski Week", so of course we had to take advantage of it by heading up to the hills. Here are just a few photos for you to enjoy:

Happy Nimue in Downieville -- she got to play with Grandma Linda while Chad and I got to ski in the backcountry up by Yuba Pass.


We hit what I think of as the "Freaky Warm Week of February", when it seems like April. Needless to say, this can lead to some odd snow conditions -- those snail-shaped snowballs started from Chad's turn, growing as they rolled down the hill. (Not pictured is the Anna-sized snowball that apparently chased me down the hill before falling apart. I didn't see it, but wondered why Chad was laughing so hard behind me....)


Nimue the intrepid skier at the top of the hill at Donner Ski Ranch. We treated her to a couple more days of lessons at Sugarbowl before skiing with her all day on Saturday, and she's really found her edges. She's competent on steep blue trails, and particularly likes the halfpipe. (What have I spawned???)


After a week in the house alone, the cat has turned into a meow monster and drooled all over me. All human parties have various minor bruises and tired legs, but are otherwise sound and happy.