Taking advantage of a wavy day

Mariners and coastal dwellers consider nor'easters trouble. Paddlers on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan consider them a gift.

The forecast for today was NE winds 15 to 25 miles per hour and waves 4 to 6 feet building to 5 to 7. That's the kind of geeky weather detail that lights up the message boards and clogs up bandwith on Chicago paddlers' iPhones.

So yeah, we went down to the doggie beach/water trail launch site at Montrose. The waves were big, frequent and chaotic. But the water was still warm and friendly, so in addition to playing in the waves, we took the opportunity to practice swimming our boats in to shore.

We knew (or believed) a few things going into this: That boats travel more slowly upside-down than right-side-up, that you always stay upwave of your boat, that it's best to hold the end toggle and avoid putting a finger inside the loop, that anything loose would soon be gone, that breaking waves would cause the boat to lurch.

Some observations:

- Even though Alec was prepared for the boat to lurch in larger breaking waves, one wave managed to tug it out of his grip. It tumbled upright and waited for him and he was able to catch up with it.

- Sharon found it best to swim off to the side behind the boat so that she wasn't hit in the face or thrown on top of it by a breaking wave.

- Alec found that holding the paddle was easier if he kept it below the surface of the water.

Both of us were surprised by our lack of desire to come out of our boats in breaking waves. It seemed to go against everything we've worked on--the ability to stay in our boats and in control, particularly in challenging conditions.

But that's exactly why we did it, so that if it happens in the future unintentionally, we'll have some experience to fall back on.

Woof!

Burns Night

25 January, Burns Night. Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Scotland's poet Robert Burns, and we're just about to sit down to our family Burns Supper. The neeps (yellow turnip) have been mashed, the tatties (potatoes) are nearly ready, and the haggis is (shock! horror!) about to have its 5 minutes in the microwave. Even more heretical, we're having vegetarian haggis. The children are probably haggised-out. Haggis will have been on the school lunch menu this week, and my son went to the school Burns Supper for senior pupils, resplendent in the young Scottish male's 'kilt casual' look: kilt with untucked and open necked striped or floral shirt.
But I'm not showing you any of this. Instead, an example of the reach of Robert Burns into every area of Scottish life - the Robert Burns milk carton. The thatched cottage is his cottage in Alloway. The plough represents his harsh early life as the son of a tenant farmer. Enough history - I'm off for my haggis.

Black & White Photography-Getting That Grainy Look

I've learned through trial and error, lots of error, how to get that grainy look I love in black and white images.
The three top ones were taken with my digital camera. They were all greatly underexposed (too dark). When I lightened them in IPhoto you could see all the colored pixels, which doesn't look good in a color photo. Unless you're trying to do something funky, which I very well may try at a later date!
But after changing them to black and white, the pixels now give a grainy look. I'm very happy to have stumbled on this, since I love, love, love a grainy b&w photo.
The bottom three were taken with true black and white film. And now that I'm comparing the two, the bottom ones are grainier. Is that a word? Should it be 'more grainy'? I still have one roll of b&w film left which I'll soon shoot. It's just too bad that the processing will be over $20.
And now that I've gotten used to instant feedback on a digital camera, it'll be hard as the dickens to take photos and not know if the exposure is correct. For me, that used to be the fascination of a film camera. You know, it's like being pregnant and not finding out the sex of the baby until after it's born. But now I want to know immediately! And I'm talking about photos, not babies.
*What is the dickens, and not Charles? That's just one of our 'southernisms'. But who knows what it means? We also say, "He's mean as the dickens." That doesn't make much sense either.

Stills

When you return to a place you know well after an absence, things that were once mundane strike you as exotic. As with these copper whisky stills in my home village. Until I moved away from home to go to university, it was just part of the landscape for me to come round a corner and come face to face with...creatures like this. Now, on a visit to see my dad this weekend, I found myself whipping out my camera. These are the top halves of stills, and these

are the bottom halves. All sitting out in the falling snow in the coppersmith's yard, waiting to be transported to their distillery. Every distillery has a different shape of still - it's one of the factors that gives each whisky its unique taste. My home village has a very well known firm of coppersmiths, who produce handmade stills not just for whisky, but also rum, gin, tequila and bourbon.

Confirmation

128km with over 1,500 metres of climbing last night was the confirmation, I just love night riding. There's just something undeniably special about being the only one around, the only one for miles late at night as the moonlight dimly casts it's spell over the surrounding mountains, forests or whatever is there.
Unfortunately, we're conditioned from an early age to perceive daylight as the time we're "supposed" to do everything, and night as the time we should all be in bed. This feeling can provide a problem when undertaking a long night ride -- particularly in the early stages. If, however, it can be overcome, the rewards are absolutely priceless.
I also saw more wildlife than usual on last night's ride, including two owls, a possum, a bat, and a koala in the canefields surrounding Murwillumbah (perhaps the last place in the world I would have expected to see one). Passing through Urliup (pictured above) for the second time in 40 hours, but this time in darkness as opposed to bright sunshine provided an entirely different perspective on a new ride.
The whole experience was a reminder that I really need to take advantage of the balmy summer nights over the next few months.

Families and Dogs and the World Wide Moment

Hi Again! We have had a week of visiting with Mama's mother and sister, who came all the way from NYC! We had a ton of fun with them and will explain the above photo in a bit. Suffice it to say, that the only way you can drive from San Francisco to the county we live in is to go through the tunnel pictured below. Maybe you can see that the archway above the openings are painted with rainbows!
Well, we had a wonderful time with the visiting duo, as well as Mama's and Dad's little family out here in the wild west. We acted as touring agents, showing them Miller Creek park, McInnis Park, where Sammie and Shanti gave an obedience demonstration and finally, showed them some football fields where Mom's granddaughter, Hannah was cheering. We pointed at some terrific restaurants... but dang! The managements wouldn't let us in! Can you imagine? We took them up to the top of Mount Tamalpais, driving through tule fog and rain. Mom vowed that we'd see some holes in the fog/clouds/rain and get views. It actually happened. The visit was magical and we miss the NYC duo very much. The day after they left, we went to see our pals in the park - McInnis again. Here are some of us all smiling!
And below, we're waiting for somebuddy to throw a stick at Miller Creek!
Sue and Mom and me, Sammie at the McInnis Park Rangers' Carnival for Doggehs. Shanti and I demonstrated our obedience routines. There were lots of puppers there and a bunch of cool things to do, like swim, run through an agility course, and hear tips from our local Humane Society Director, Trish King.
There are two blogging doggehs you may know in the above picture! Can you find them??? (In next post, will tell you who they are!)
I sure love my parents' grandpeep, Cam, a LOT!!! (Thank you Kristin - Sierra's Mom - for providing this lovely photo!)
Here's a collage of the Hu-Family with us, BEGGING to be set free!!! There wasn't a soul up there, even though the wind was blowing the clouds away, allowing us to see how high up we were!
YAY!!!
I know the Hu-Family must have missed us at this place in the top picture. Life just couldn't be the same without us, eh?!!! In the bottom picture, you can see that the clouds are going away!
Robert Brault said, "In a houseful of toddlers and pets, you can start out having a bad day, but you keep getting detoured."
So here's another photo of that amazing rainbow we saw as the clouds parted and the sun shone through - it really was totally magical. And speaking of magical... many of you know about the Second Annual World Wide Moment, coming up at exactly 11:00 pm (23:00) GMT on Sunday, November 14, . We will all be turning towards the skies together for one silent moment, wishing and sending any and every fur, feathered, fuzzy creature (with us on Earth or across the Rainbow Bridge) whatever is in our hearts that will help them feel the love and support they need right now. Please visit Fergi and Jake for a ton more information on this AMAZING MOMENT. And please do spread the news or make a post about this event. Thank you!

The Scottish countryside

Red deer stalking. Stags, 1 July to 20 October. Hinds, 21 October to 15 February.
Oh yes, and grouse shooting: 12 August to 10 December. The hills are alive...