Just a brief Happy New Year, and no drinking* whilst having had too much to drink!  I need all the readers I can get and can’t afford to lose any of you.

 Here’s to a great 2008!

*Ooops!  Meant to say, no DRIVING whilst having had too much to drink!  And I was sober when I posted this too   .

This has nothing to do with the ‘normal’ wildlife I talk about, but it’s definitely fun and ‘wild life’!

If you’re going to be in Portland, Oregon in the near future (February 14-18, to be exact), you could try checking in with these folks:

“BEN HURT II Chariot Wars be a post-apocalyptic battle for life and limb.
YAR! It be a true test of might and stoopidity. Can you ride a little girl’s bike and get hit the most hardest by a padded mace? Or would you rather cheat, (cheating is allowed) and use chicken-**** bombs made from real chicken-**** like the chicken-**** you are?! Or maybe just show up in your underwear and win anyway because you are badass? Hey, it happened last year…

There will be a multitude of chariot tests, from speed to steed, gladiator to flatulator, chugger to bugger, flailing to wailing, and dying. Yes dying, and after that,  drinking. Okay, fine, during too.

Either way, prepare yourselves for this year’s minibikewinter, February 14th-18th. Events include: stencil & craft night, lightbar, badass challenge, gravity bike race, freakbike race, chariot speed races, chariot fashion show, chariot chugging, chariot deth match, alleykitten, partaaaying, rollo, derby, whiplash, jousting, cupcake challenge, tour de bomb, and much, much more!

Be you a soul with questions? Answers? Insults? Wanna place to stay? Email us beotch! ”
gabrielamadeus+mbw@gmail.com

 Unfortunately for me, I’m going to be in Portland the weekend before this event, and can’t swing the time off.  I will be there in spirit, though!

I’ve put some suet out for the birds.  So far I’ve lured in a Chestnut-backed Chickadee and about 6 American Crows.

 The crows are doing an excellent job of chunking off large sections, and I suspect that when I next go to sleep that they will come and finish off the job.  I do have a suet basket, which I think I will need to use if the crows do indeed make off with the rest of the suet.

Here’s the only photo I managed to get of the Chestnut-backed Chickadee. 

Doesn’t quite get the true essence of the chickadee, so I’ll have to try again!

Just for the record–it’s actually Christmas Day here, and yes, it’s snowing!

Happy Holidays…

My friend Bob from BikeForums sent me this lovely Christmas card,  from 1907:

All of you have a peaceful and joyous Christmas!

Yesterday I decided that as a change of pace I would go for a walk, and not a ride.  I haven’t done that in what seems to be ages, except when we were out mushroom hunting.  But the mushroom hunting has a different feel for some reason, possibly because it is a long way from home.

My walk took me in a four mile loop around my neighbourhood.  One thing that struck me was the amount of moss or lichen on the trees!  Our trees are full of patches of lichens.  I can’t believe it’s due to our pure air, so I am going to have to dig a bit deeper into the whys and wherefores.

I managed to get mobbed by crows yesterday.  That’s not something that occurs when I’m on a bike.  I suppose it’s because a pedestrian is a much slower moving target. 

The walk was good.

There was crunchy stuff on the Interurban Trail this morning, although I failed to notice it in the dark.  When I rode over to Big Soos Creek later in the morning, I finally realised that the odd noise I’d heard from the wheels was ICE crunching underneath!

I don’t know how I managed to get home without taking a spill, but I was happy that I had not had any mishaps.  So the weather prognosticators got it partially wrong today–the weather was supposed to be clear and cold.  It was cold, all right, but not clear.  As I headed to the southern end of Big Soos Creek I noticed all manner of white particles moving through the air.  There were big chunky white particles (hail), there were small chunky white particles (freezing rain), and there were big fluffy white particles (snow).  You name it, we had it in the form of frozen water out there on the trail.  Did I mention that there was ice on the trail, too?

When I got to the southern end of the trail I was relieved to see that there was no ‘crime scene’ tape.  I still don’t know what was going on with the King County crew and the Kent police officers, but there was no sign that anything violent had happened at the park.

So, I made my way back home without incident (although I did notice that there were more dog walkers than normal and almost tangled with a couple of dogs which not were not on a proper lead), and decided to do some more work on my bicycles.

I’d started changing one tyre last week, and gave up on it as a bad job.  It’s a 24″ wheel, and it’s quite a tight fit.  I finally got it on this morning, but got myself blackened with grease in doing so.

A while back I’d gotten some very nice pre-packaged degreasing wipes from a company called Zogics.  The wipes are non-toxic, made from a low-linting non-woven fabric, and have a cleaning solution made from oils extracted from citrus rind.  They apparently also have lanolin and aloe vera, so using them does not dry out your skin.  They work wonderfully well (and I have one in each saddlebag for a ‘just in case’), but one thing I love is the smell. 

So as I was sitting cleaning off my greasy hands I reached for one of these wipes (called CitraWipes™ by the way), and no sooner had I opened it then my mind was off thinking about the hot days of summer in San Jose where I grew up.  We used to have a lemon tree which smelled just like the wipes when the evenings were long and hot.  I loved that smell…it was the heat of the day releasing the volatile oils into the air.

Now, I’m not saying that my wipes were responsible for this, but within seconds of starting to clean my hands…the sun came out and the skies turned blue!  Hurrah!!

In case anyone is interested, the CitraWipes™ are produced by a company called Zogics.  The wipes are my main interest, but there’s other cleaning products as well.  Here in the US at least many bicycle shops carry the pre-packed wipes, but they can also be ordered online at www.Zogics.com . 

 A little bit of sunshine goes a long way here in the grey Pacific Northwest.

I had a lovely ride today out along Big Soos Creek.  Much to my surprise, the trail was not flooded, even though it had been raining steadily for almost two days.  Not much of interest on the way out, but as I got to the far end, I noticed a contingent of King County vehicles parked just off the trail, and then as I rounded the corner to get to the end of the trail, I noticed three, yes three, police vehicles parked in the lot.  Hmmm.  I’ve seen single police vehicles parked there before, but never three.  It also turned out that none of the vehicles was occupied.  Where were the officers?  It seems that they were busy doing something with the people who had arrived in the fleet of King County vehicles.  I did not want to express too much interest in the proceedings, so I will have to keep an eye on the news to see what all the activity was about.

 Onto more upbeat topics!  On my way back I realised that I had just passed some excellent examples of molehills.  Intrigued by Hairy’s post on the happenings in his shed, I stopped to take a photo of a freshly made molehill.

This looks nothing like the intriguing soil balls in Hairy’s shed. He must have an excessively tidy mole!
I also noticed today that we have seasonal decorations for the Big Soos Creek sign. There is a group, the Friends of Big Soos Creek, who have made it their mission to keep the northern end of the park looking neat and inviting.

Lastly, this recently has been my attire when riding at Big Soos Creek:

My alter ego on BikeForums is ‘East Hill’, and there are quite a few members out my way who ride on the Big Soos Creek Trail. I figure one of these days some of the other members will spot me and say hello! The shirt is a special production by another member of BF, who runs a company called Velotees,  http://www.velotees.com .  It even has my name on the back, so I’m hoping it will encourage people to ask about one of my other favourite websites.  Perhaps I should ask Xeract to come up with something for Wildlife UK, eh?  By the way, I have on lots of clothing underneath both the t-shirt and the pants, because it was cold out!  I should mention that the law here requires me to wear a helmet whilst cycling, and I have a mirror attached to my helmet.  The mirror is most helpful when riding on public streets and I feel almost naked without it…

Just in case anyone is wondering about BikeForums…it’s http://www.bikeforums.net

The weather has been frightful here the last few days–rainy and windy.  Although I’ve gone out riding, it has not necessarily been pleasant!  Too much wind to enjoy myself greatly, as the bicycle path has been littered with great tree limbs blown down by the wind.  I really do not fancy getting smashed by falling trees, and although I can do some nice ‘bunnyhopping’ over debris, that is a task better suited for the mountain bike, rather than the road bikes I normally use on the bicycle path.

So, when it’s been raining hard, I’ve done some dreaming about cycling in England.  When my father was a lad, he used to get out and roam the countryside on his pedal bicycle.  Unfortunately, I neglected to ask him before his death if he remembered what bicycle he had, so that will remain a mystery.  I do have a ‘Cyclist’s Guide to Wales’ that he used, so he certainly travelled to Wales, and of course, he would have visited many places in Lancashire, Cheshire, and the Lake District.

So, one of these days, following in my father’s footsteps, I would like to cycle through the UK.  A little bit of searching led me to a wonderful resource site, http://www.thecyclepeople.com , which has lists of cycle shops, cycling holidays, and everything else that a dedicated lover of cycling could need or desire! Need to start off with the basics?  You can compare and review bicycles, find out who locally is a stockist, purchase clothing and accessories, and more.  There’s a version just for the US as well, at http://us.thecyclepeople.com/ .

You can also look at cycling holidays, and that is where I spent a considerable amount of time.  I had a difficult time staying on target here, as there are so many delightful sounding holiday tours all over the world, but I reminded myself that I was going to northern England, and probably Scotland, and focused myself on those areas.  There’s lists of cycle friendly accommodations, as well as local bicycle clubs.  I was especially pleased about the list of local clubs, as this can be a good place to get the real scoop on local conditions of roads, and perhaps join like-minded people on a pleasant ride for a day.  With luck, I might be able to find a cyclist to act as a birding or wildlife guide too!

Back to my dreaming, I scrutinised the lists of holidays offered.  I was pleased to see that there is a cycle shop right at Manchester Airport (my preferred entry point), so I possibly would not even have to bring any of my bicycles, but could hire one instead.  Even though I have numerous relatives in Lancashire, I would not want to have to burden them with the responsibility of taking me hither and yon, and getting about on a bicycle would be a wonderful way to recreate the way my ancestors used to experience life (albeit with considerably more traffic), not to mention being considerably less dear than hiring a car and paying for petrol!  Did I mention that my husband is terrified over the idea of driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road?

Back to my dreams…

Today it’s raining.  Yesterday it was raining.  Tomorrow it’s supposed to keep raining.  I think we are going to be in for some more nasty flooding.  It’s also very windy. 

A barge, the Shauna K, was being towed by the tug Alyssa Ann, operated by Olympic Tug and Barge, when strong winds broke one of its tow lines and blew it into the breakwall of Elliott Bay Marina, grounding it upon the rocks. The Shauna K was transporting 904 metric tons of a heavy bunker fuel.  Fortunately, the Shauna K was a double-hulled barge, and there have been no indications that there were any leaks.