Yellow Roses

Goodbye for Now, Vermont

Today we said good-bye to lovely Vermont. We were here a week less than we'd planned, so I'm hoping to come back again to explore more. The weather was so nice and the scenery was so nice that we just soaked up what little bit of time we did have here.

I was trying to decide which I liked better: the landscape or the architecture.

What do you think? I still can't pick one over the other. I love them both!

We are heading west to explore some new states with the boys. We are hoping the weather stays as great as it has been here!

All Eggs Great and Small

My blog friend Shannon over at the Not So Virtual Homestead was writing recently about a huge egg that one of her chickens surprised her with.

We got a surprise too, but it was in the opposite direction.

One of the Dominique chickens must have gotten tired of laying normal eggs, and left us this tiny one.

A normal Dominique egg is on the left for comparison.

I didn't realize until I uploaded the pictures, that the depth of field on the macro setting was so shallow that to have the little egg in sharp focus meant that the normal one was a little fuzzy. Oops.

By that time my curiosity had gotten the best of me and I'd already cracked open the lilliputian egg to see what it looked like inside. So, no do-overs.

The inside looked pretty much like a normal egg in miniature.

(My sister recently made a comment about my liberal use of 50-cent words, so I had to work in "lilliputian" just for her.)

The ice return

Laura and I decided to take the trip toour local cliffsto see what we could climb. We found that the ice has mostly recovered from the warm snap,although most of the longer routes need a little more time to be safe. The weather forcast calls for cooler temps this week and by next weekendmost linesshould be in great condition. We ended up getting a late start and only did one line, but we sure did pick a good one. The line was about 150' long and had some serious funkiness to it. The bottom was nice and phat (but took much removal for good reliable sticks).As I got towards the middle of the route the pillar got worse with very new unreliable surface ice. A nice rest made above this section made the final push to easier ground very doable. The upper section was very thin and didn't take very good screws. The last 20' of steepness was a horrorfest of hollowed out shit from the previous freeze. The final topout was an overhanging lipconsisting of sloppy mud on my right andon my left was a 300+lb block of oldice with nothing but 10" of air between it andthe wet rock.Not really sure what was holding it in place. My last piece of gearwas 15+ feet below me. It was my last long screw into a blob of ice not fit for the using.It made it toabout the 4th thread. After a serious hesitation, mental prep.and almost sharting in my goretex, I commited to the final moves of mud and deathblocks.It seemed like an eternity, but I made it to the tree and slung it with pride.Iwas happy to be standing in 3" of muck and water for my belay. I cringed as I peeped down over what I had just overcome. I swapped golves to bring life to my hands. They were wet and cold from being onthepitch for 1hr. and 15min. I'm sure Laura was freezing from her extended belay session, so I quickly put her on and got her climbing. She did very well coming up the steep section and made quick work through the easy section. The top proved to be tricky for her as well as she rolled herself onto the top, muck and all. No style points, but success was ours. We setup a rap madeour way to the ground. Wedecidedone was enough and opted to head home. Our day was not without incident though.I ended up gettingnailed by a UFO on the back while cleaning upropes. It left a nice knot on my back. Wrong place, wrong time. All in all it was a great day. Wedubbedtheline G Gully WI5- with fullpucker rating for the topout in current conditions. Here's a few photos from today!

French Experiments Continue: Belleville Handlebars and Inverse Brake Levers

Spare bicycle parts, a restless spirit, and a willing "guinea pig" can make for a dangerous combination. In her latest reincarnation, Marianne sports VO Belleville handlebars and Dia Compe inverse brake levers - a practice run to determine how a similar set-up would feel on the Royal H. mixte.



Here are the bars and levers in all of their French glory - on a Motobecane mixte with an Ideale saddle.



The Belleville handlebars are similar to the Porteur handlebars shown here. Both are a classic style of upright bars found on vintage French city bicycles. These bars are narrow, with long gripping areas that are nearly parallel to each other - placing the rider's hands in a position similar to holding a tray. The Bellevilles are 5cm narrower than the Porteurs (43cm vs 48cm) and are completely straight across the front (whereas the Porteurs have a slight forward sweep).



It is typical to see handlebars like this fitted with inverse brake levers. My assumption is that this is done to maximise the gripping area of the bars. Because the levers are installed at the ends, there are no interruptions along the handlebar's surface and the cyclist is free to move their hands pretty much along the entire bar.



The inverse brake levers you will find today are most likely either Tektro or Dia Compe. Here I have installed the latter, and you can see that their brown rubbery tips go nicely with twined handlebars. It surprised me to learn that some dislike the Dia Compes because of the brown tips and prefer the Tektro levers instead - which are all-metal. To me, the rubbery surface felt nice, but I suppose it isa matter of personal preference. If you have used either of these levers, I'd like to hear your thoughts.



Braking with inverse levers. I have found that I am able to get pretty good leverage almost no matter where I hold my hand along the bar, with the exception of the very front.



Can't brake from here, near the corners. But if I move my hands 1-2 inches back, it will work. This set-up is amazingly versatile in terms of the hand positions it allows.



The inverse levers are set back from the bars far enough so that they do not interfere with the grip. You can see in the pictures that they are nowhere near my knuckles. Truly a neat design.



If you are curious about this type of French set up, both the bars and the levers are surprisingly inexpensive. You will like them if you are a fan of narrow handlebars, and if you prefer to hold your hands to the sides rather than flared out or straight in front of you. I certainly fit that description, so both the Belleville and the Porteur handlebars feel as if they were made just for me. The super-wide Albatross bars were comfortable enough, but with the Bellevilles and the Porteurs I get that "spot on!" feeling. I also think that they are better match for French bicycles - especially for the Motobecane's aggressive handling.



I will pause and confess here, that this is the last change I will be making to Marianne...because she no longer belongs to me. Yes, I did sell her after all - to a lovely local woman whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making this morning. Riding the Motobecane with the French handlebars and inverse levers yesterday, I finally felt that this bicycle was "perfect" and experienced a calm sense of satisfaction - not dissimilar to how I feel when a painting is finally "finished" or when a photograph looks just right. And after that, it finally felt appropriate to let her go. I hope the new owner enjoys her as much as I hope to enjoy my Royal H. mixte - which I will most definitely fit with a similar handlebar set-up.



Oh - and if anybody wants someNitto Albatross bars (the alloy version) or VO Milan bars, drop me a line. Thankfully, I have no more "spare" bicycles to put them on.

People Watching at the Tigers Game

While cropping pictures from the game today, I realized that I enjoyed some of the shots of the people as much as the shots of the action going on there. So I thought I'd share a few of my favorites.



Still sleeping on the couch? Oh yeah...but she's coming around!



The key is to keep them guessing. If we start to be consistent, then they get bored.



Yes, I do need to update my Facebook status right now!



You caught that one?



I loved seeing the fans decked out in their sports gear, both young and old.





My all time favorite moment of the day was when the ground crew dropped their equipment to dance to YMCA! So funny!





Living the life in sunny Florida!

Looking for Metro/Subway Art during a rainy Sunday in Stockholm

Stockholm is a captivating and elegant city when its graced with beautiful sunny weather, but like Amsterdam, it sucks big time when it’s raining.

My original plan for the day was quite simple, just three things that I wanted to do before I fly out early evening back to Amsterdam:

1) Climb up the Kaknästornet (Kaknas tower) to catch magnificent views of Stockholm, which will be facing the medieval island city of Gamla Stan.
2) Check out all the different types of art in the city’s metro (Tunnelbana) and train station.
3) Later in the afternoon I am meeting an old colleague in Gamla Stan, so another opportunity to try Swedish food for late lunch.

Advertisement in the subway of a leading Swedish telecommunications company. Switching heads =)

The first two things on my agenda didn’t really materialise, or well, just partly, all because of the weather. It poured. Very hard. Damn the rain.

Secondly, Stockholm didn’t really have a guide book about the art they have in their subways. The biggest showcase they have in the centre is Kungsträdgården metro station that is supposed to look like an archealogical excavation but it was closed for renovation. There was a long queue at the T-Centralen tickets and information and that instantly sent me off to the doors.

Not wanting to wait to get info, I decided to just wing it. I jumped on a line that brought me out of the busy city to the suburbs. We came out of the subway, the scenery changed, the pace became slower and it is quieter. You can say that I spent a few hours searching for subway art as well as joyriding. This is definitely NOT the Sunday in Stockholm that I expected it to be. However, it is pouring cats and dogs and cows outside so I guess for the moment the subway is then the best place to be?

This is what I am looking for: Stockholm Metro Art. My fotos below does not even come close! I will have to visit them on my next Stockholm trip.

The upside of joyriding is that I was able to see the suburbs, a bit of life outside Stockholm, a glimpse of daily normal life in Sweden. And while sitting in the metro, I was overcome by a déjà vu encounter, it was a compelling and strange familiarity that brought me back to my first few years in the Netherlands which I largely spent on buses, trams and trains. It felt really weird but nice.

Also, another mistake I made was I assumed big time that the locals, and in this case, the metro drivers would know about the subway art. Helaas, nope. I had a long chat with a metro driver who advised me to go back to T-Centralen.

Armed with that advise, I went back to town and decided to just continue shopping until it’s time to see my old colleague in Stortorget, Gamla Stan.

Me in the bathroom and my morning breakfast. I piled some bacon. I only eat pork when its (1) dried cured sausage and must be hard (2) bacon and must be crispy. Other than that pass off please.

Hotorget station that graced in Madonna’s music video Ray of Light.

Stockholm Central Station.

Orange and Green Lines.

Mosaic tile art.

Snowshoe hike with Wolves

I went for a snowshoe hike with a couple of friends today and at one point during our hike I was looking further up the trail when, several hundred feet in front of us, I saw two Wolves run across the trail. All I had with me was my little Canon G11, so not a very good zoom but nonetheless I got the camera ready just in case we saw them again. I kept my eyes on the trail where I had seen them cross, and after only a few seconds one of them walked back out onto the trail and looked at us, then ran back into the woods. Just after that, the second one came out and gave us a look as well. Both of these photos were taken during their second pass across the trail. Due to the distance and not having a good zoom, I had to crop waaaaaay in on the photos in order to see the Wolves decently, so the image quality here isn't the greatest but it's still a nice account of our experience!

Plant Life at White Sands

I was amazed at the variety of plants and vegetation that survive in the dunes of White Sands National Monument. The dunes are constantly on the move, engulfing everything in their path and then slowly uncovering them again. Certain plants have adapted to the environment and manage to survive a little longer – as the sand covers them they grow taller, but when the dune moves on and leaves them exposed they can no longer support their tall growth and then they crumble and die. These are but a few of the plants I saw...



















There was seldom an expanse of the dunes (close to the road) where there were no human footprints. I walked as far as my legs would take me before the knee began hurting and then turned back. There were other footprints in the sand besides those of us humans - - these prints descended the high dune to the ground about 30 feet below and at a very steep angle! Was it a kit fox? They have adapted to the environment by being very small, no more than 5 pounds. They seldom show themselves during the daylight hours.





All photos were taken on Friday, January 6th, ...