Finding their groove

A dog team finds its rhythm after blasting out of the starting gate at the first-ever Gichigami Express Sled Dog Race in Grand Portage, MN on January 6, .


This is my favorite shot from this morning. I gotplenty of cool shots of the dogs lunging forward at the starting line, but this one I think tells more of a story. The starting line is chaos; with dogs barking, mushers and handlers scrambling to keep things in order, and spectators everywhere. A couple hundred yards down the trail the chaos of the starting line is nowhere to be found. All you hear is the rhythm of the dogs breathing and the sound of the sled as it glides by on the surface of the snow. It is a wonderful thing to witness!

Grade A+ Day and Ride

The weather forecast today was for sunshine, 10 mph winds from the South, temperature in the lower 70s. Sound like a great day for a bicycle ride. The weather is suppoed to go south later in the week. If I was gonna log some miles, today was the day.
Wanting to log some miles means riding the road bike. Aired the tires and loaded the bike on the car. Grabbed a light jacket, not sure how it would be out in town. Drove to the Wabash Trace trailhead.
Temperature at the trailhead was 68. Loaded up supplies on the bike. Left the jacket, hoping I would not need it. By the time I started down the trail next to Mosquito Creek, I knew I had dressed properly.
Had a good ride (even into the wind - such as it was) to Indian Creek Bridge. Stopped for a quick dring of water and headed up Indian Creek Trail with the wind. I could have pushed the speed, but was just having a relaxing ride. Still maxed out at about 18mph.

On over to the Western Historic Trails Center. Dewey saw me dismounting the bike. When I entered the building, Dewey told me that someone I had ridden with in Wisconsin had been by last Friday. Figured it was Bill (from MN), my first ride at the Festival of the Trails. The photo on the right is of Bill.
Hope you are reading my blog, Bill. I am planning to attend this year's Festival of the Trails. Looking forward to seeing you again at Festival. Thanks for the inaugural ride. Hope you had a good ride while you were in the area (Dewey said you were on your bike when you visited the Trails Center).
From the Trails Center, rode up the Iowa Riverfront Trail to the "Bob Bridge". Decided to ride up the the center of the bridge. Construction on the Omaha side of the river, North of the bridge is getting near completion. New residence building and addition to the Gallup campus.
Lots of dirt being moved in the Iowa side of the river at the Bob Bridge. All of that construction is for the new Council Bluffs Riverfront Park. Even with the economy, CB is continuing develop and construct parks and trails. A progressive city.
Back down the Iowa Riverfront Trail to the Trails Center. Stopped long enough to fill my water bottle. Then, over to Xtreme Wheels. Relatively short visit there. Consumed my bottle of G2 and a granola bar.
On South into the wind down Harry Langdon and South Avenue back to the Wabash Trace Trailhead Park. Just short of 25 miles, and 2 hours and 15 minutes of riding time. Just an awesome day and ride.

Recycling (3) - the solution

And the winner is Gennasus, who guessed correctly that the red mystery object in this post was a telephone box. When the iconic red design was taken out of service, many people bought them as curiosity pieces, or just out of love for a bit of British life that was no more. Well done, Gennasus - but of course Moray is noted for the intelligence of its inhabitants!
I actually took the shot above a few months ago, but didn't post it at the time because I felt that it wasn't complete. When I went past the other week and saw the campanula in full flower it seemed to come together as a story. Sometimes I fret mildly about my backlog of photos that I'm not using, and how to keep up with posting photos - a discussion Mountain Mamma at Many Rivers to Cross has been having. But then I realise that there's absolutely no need to fret.

Soap stuff

The soaps I make now are all made from the same recipe. The oils I use are olive, palm, coconut, avocado, castor, and stearic. Only the scents, colors, and additives change from bar to bar.
But lately I've been playing.

Red palm soap
It's made from red palm oil (virgin palm oil), which makes it turn this cool yellowy-orangy color. Other oils are coconut, olive, rice bran, shea butter, castor, and stearic. It's scented with a mixture of Ylang Ylang, Patchouli, and Ginger essential oils, and I got cutesy and stamped it with a Red Palm (dipped in mica).

Hemp soap
The oils for this one are olive, palm coconut, hemp, shea butter, castor, and stearic. The scent is a mixture of Vetiver and Ylang Ylang essential oils, and the color comes from French green clay.

Island soap
The oils are olive, palm, coconut, macadamia, shea butter, cocoa butter, castor, and stearic. I used red Moroccan clay and scented with a mixture of Rose Geranium, Ylang Ylang, Lavender, and Patchouli essential oils.

Sunflower Shea soap
I think my new stamp is kind of defective. It's supposed to be a sunflower but the middle portion is sunk very low and doesn't come out on the soap. Bummer. I decided the outline of a sunflower was better than nothing at all, then towards the end I worried that anyone who'd seen The Ring would be afraid to buy it. Argh! The soap smells great, though - Clary Sage and Rose Geranium essential oils. I used Rose clay, and the oils are olive, plam, coconut, sunflower, shea butter, castor, and stearic.
These are all experiments. I've been playing with this idea for a while - to make soaps using pricier scents and ingredients. I'll have to sell them for more $$ so we'll see if people are willing to pay more.

I heart my infrared thermometer, it's one of my favorite soapmaking tools. But guess how many times I've headed off to town with that in my pocket instead of my cell phone.

A New, Old Color

This is a corner in the children's bathroom.  For twenty years it's been white.  I bought a pretty, sweet Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic shower curtain with pink roses and green leaves and thought the walls would look good painted green.
I painted almost the whole room and lived with it for a few weeks.  It never did grow on me.  
We were having company last weekend and I didn't want them having to use that bathroom like it was, so I painted it back white.  I think beadboard looks best white anyway.  Now I have to decide on a color for the baseboards and back of the door.  I've tried green, yellow, and pink.
I thought I'd like the pink to match the shower curtain, but the color I picked out looked like Pepto Bismol once it was on the wall.  Yuck!  I'm going to have it toned down and made a little more peachy.  I'll take pictures.

Narcissus Space Oddity

That's what the card in the florist's window said, so I suppose that's what it is.

Southern California Skies

A Kentia palm invokes thoughts of the tropics.

More great weather and new routes

Nice new route on Ben Nevis, climbed with Helen last week. Once again I was feeling a bit jaded after cleaning new boulder problems the day before, so it was nice to give the legs a workout instead. My ankle seemed to handle the strenuous bridging ok. However, there were some positions it just didn’t like, so I ended up using the old knees a fair bit!

Holy Work

Like Snow

Suppose we did our work
Like the snow, quietly, quietly,
Leaving nothing out.Wendell Berry