Category: Life

Saturday.  

We enjoyed a lovely night on the hook.  We cooked up some grilled red peppers, chicken poblano sausages and rice.  

We’re spoiled now…used our phone as a wireless hotspot and then streamed shows off of amazon prime on TV down below until we both fell asleep.   Not exactly roughing it. 🙂

This morning I paddled for quite a while then went ashore to scrub 6 months of gunk from the bottom of the kayak.   I also checked on some geocaches I’d hidden nearby.  All good. 

Pretty sights:   

 

Tonight Kurt will join us for another night in the cove.  An almost full moon should light things up. 

Friday. 

We hightailed it out of town after work. The sunset from the back deck:

  

Wall-to-wall. 

This part of New York is quite scenic, striped with miles of meandering stone walls.  I like to think they were stacked by hand in the 1800s, bordering pastures and property lines.  Slow work, I’m sure, but enduring.   

 I’m headed home.  TGIF!! 

 

Interstate caching. 

My meetings wrapped up atound 6 o’clock.  I had about an hour and a half til sunset.   So…. I set out for the woods before coming back to my hotel for an evening of email and work.   I’m close to the border of Connecticut and New York where I’m staying, so I managed to find geocaches in both states tonight.  

This is a placid pond I came across along one of the trails.   

 

On the road. 

Where?  

But no matter where I go, I can still look up.   This is tonight’s crescent moon with Venus closeby.   

Bed time. 

I got a bit of a late start, but I finally tended to my fenceline flowerbed.   Plumbago, liriope, red salvia, autumn sage, gaillardia, may night salvia, tickseed, geranium, flowering sage,  and a couple white annuals. 

I’m looking forward to some color!  

Tree house. 

Today was a beautiful sunny Sunday.  I spent the day gardening.  On my way out back this morning, I noticed a bird fly out of our mimosa tree.  On second look he really did fly out of the tree.  Must be a woodpecker? 


 

Home on La Grange. 

Since day 1 of the MS-150 was called off, we had a leisurely morning in Houston.  Day 2 will start in La Grange at the courthouse, and our riders’ team arranged a place for them to overnight at a beautiful ranch outside of town.  

We spent the afternoon exploring the historic downtown. 

La Grange is the county seat of Fayette County.   Texas has some of the grandest old county courthouses.   The one in La Grange is a good example.  

 

After lunch at Orsak’s Cafe and bluebell ice cream at Latte on the Square we headed to the ranch to drop off riders and bikes.   What an amazing spread.  

 

I spied a purple martin house by the pond.   

 

Yeah, I’m a sherpa. 

Three of my girlfriends have ridden in the MS-150 for nearly each of the last 15 years.   It’s a 2-day Houston-to-Austin cycling event and fundraiser to help find a cure for multiple sclerosis.  And when they do ride, I go with them as their sherpa.  My duties consist of helping schlep things as needed, keeping the wine flowing Friday night, delivering them to the starting line Saturday morning, and making sure their vehicle gets back to Austin.   It’s a tough job, but somebody’s gotta do it. 

This is the first time I snagged one of the bandanas for myself.  🙂  Please consider donating to help fund a cure. 

This year’s ride is impacted by the recent rains.   Notifications went out this afternoon that Day 1’s ride was cancelled, but we’re in Houston tonight and will do what it takes to get our riders on their way.  

Another foodie post. 

I can’t help it.  Perfectly grilled leg of lamb.  Roasted butternut  squash risotto.  Steamed broccoli.   A lovely cab.   Monte did all the work.   And it was delicious.   

Good for what ails you. 

I brought a head cold back with me from Seattle.   For dinner tonight Monte suggested chicken soup, and it was just the ticket!   We already had 1 1/2 quarts of homemade chicken broth in the fridge.  And a grilled chicken breast leftover from last night.  I just had to add a cup each of chopped onion, celery & carrots; a sprinkle of salt & pepper.   At the end I threw in a few ounces of pasta.  And voila!

Delicious!  I feel better already.  

  

Heavenly views.

Yesterday I returned home from several weeks in Seattle.   I had my nose glued to the window, as usual.  It is so easy to take for granted that we have the luxury of being able to view our planet from the vantage point of the angels.

A front was moving in from the east, bringing a late dump of snow in the Cascades.  This is a shot of it moving in over Southcenter, looking east.

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The cloud deck must have been about 15000 ft.  Mount Rainier was buried in clouds. Can you find it?  This shot is looking east, flying south.  If you look closely in the bottom left of the frame,  you can see another jet flying below us.IMG_7948

Then we turned east, flying below Mount Rainier.   Little Tahoma peak stuck its head out, right of the summit.IMG_7955The mighty Columbia River brings life to eastern Washington.  Irrigation circles dot the landscape near Paterson.IMG_7962Cotton ball clouds somewhere over Texas.IMG_7973

Back on the ground.  Glad to be home.

Embracing the No.

I’m gonna give it a whirl – saying “no,” I mean.  Not to everything.   Just to a few well chosen requests made of me.   See how it goes.   If I turn out to be really good at it, there may be no stopping me!  🙂

No reason for this shot across Hood Canal as the sun heads for the horizon other than that it is calm and serene.   That’s what I’m going for.

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See the forest.

Another shot from yesterday’s walk through the woods.   I found myself literally surrounded by trees as far as my eye could see — much like I feel with my todo lists from work and home.   It was a reminder to try to keep the big picture in perspective, and not get hung up on the little things.

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