birthday ride

Last year I started a tradition of riding my age.  This year, I got a lot of grief from concerned family.....mostly Mom (love you Ma!) about doing the ride.  I guess I am sort of forced to tell you the reason, now...  I'm pregnant.  Maybe that last sentence should have had an exclamation point at the end!!!!?  Last week I had just turned 18 weeks when time for the ride came up.  I couldn't resist since the conditions were perfect, and I've been feeling great!  I'll tell you more about the pregnancy which has been a slow leaking bit of news to friends over the last 2-3 weeks...and my reservations for making it public on the many forms of social media this time around.  There really is a lot there that I'd like to share about this journey, but I'm not quite ready to write a novel, right now!!!!  I just wanted to tell you about a tradition that I'm happy I could keep this year!!!

I split up my ride over three days.  I was hoping to do it all at once, like last year, but basically I felt like dog poo for two and a half months leading up to it - so bike training was not in the plan leading up to the big day.  Survival and trying to force myself to like food, and keeping from vomiting, was!  I sort of have to laugh about this, since, well, now that I'm through it, I CAN LAUGH about it!!!!!  Simple as that.

I had a few friends agree to accompany me this year on my rides.

Kathy and I rode the first 20 miles between Lolo and Florence and back on the clear and mostly dry bike path that follows Highway 93.  Kathy!!!!  Thank you for being sooooo open to anything - even riding a road bike.  She was stunned when I picked her up with road bikes in/on my car.....I just figured we could go faster and I was really taking a chance that the Bitterroot had gotten no recent snow, like Missoula.  I was so lucky in my assumptions.

The next day I planned a ride with Sharon and since we had our girls she even offered to haul them both in the trailer behind her bike (ahem, her husband Greg's snowbike!).  It was great not to have the extra 35 pounds, which is Astrid, to haul.  She hauled 70 pounds of little girl on the Missoula Trail System.  We scrounged around to find 10 miles between her house & Reserve Street and over to the University area.  Thanks, Sharon!!!!!  And a big thank you to Jessie and Astrid who hung in there and entertained themselves pretty well in the trailer while we rode!!  Their screaming and yelling and singing provided some mild entertainment for us, too!

The last morning (Saturday the 17th), I took a solo ride from my house.  I biked 10 total miles (I needed only 8 more, but I wanted to do 2 extra "provisional" miles in case I was wrong about the miles between Lolo and Florence.  My bike computer was set to the incorrect wheel size on Thursday).  It was a beautiful day and the sun even helped me to get this nice shadow shot.....ok, I know these photos aren't great - but the phone camera is a heck of a lot lighter than my DSLR!

On my birthday, (the 18th) I got to lie in bed with Astrid while Jeff brought me coffee and fed Skagit!  Life is so good!!!  Can't wait for next year's ride!!!

news

This past weekend I got into my new studio for a few hours of getting acquainted with the equipment!!  Yes, NEW STUDIO!  I share it with talented colleagues Youa Vang and Maureen Roy!

There will be more information on my studio soon (after Christmas), but right now I'm in the process of a HUGE project for Christmas.  My Great-Grandfather Eugene had a camera that shot Stereo Film.  I don't know exactly which model he had but it might have looked something like this:

(I found this image online)

Dad inherited a bunch of the slides that Grampy Gene took in the 50s and 60s.  I have been meaning to do this project for years and finally decided that this is the year!  Soooo, this past weekend I took some easy and interesting subjects into my studio for fun.  Here is the Kodaslide 3D stereo slide viewer, the 3D slides, and one of the two storage boxes he had for the hundreds of slides in the collection.


I will post some photos on my personal FB site and more here after the holidays.

One other thing I brought in to photograph was my pregnancy cast, from my pregnancy with Astrid.  I might get rid of it at some point but I wanted to be able to honor it in come way....therefore I photographed it.  I plan on getting some photos of it outside in the Springtime, as well.

my belly      &     the setup

hello. goodbye.

These last few weeks we've had lots of hellos and goodbyes.

Hello Annibell

Hello Jen

Etching memories and sealing them with a dip in the frigid waters of the Stillwater.  Jen (right) just got back from a year in New Zealand.


Goodbye (for now) Monica, Ruby (and Matt).  I have a feeling you'll be back.

Hello cool morning mountain bike rides with my four legged gal.

Goodbye... water that finally receded this month on the Clark Fork, near our house.

I'm standing where there was water one month ago.

Mother Nature completely changed the landscape here.  See that sandbar across the river?  That's brand new.  AND we used to be able to walk another 200 feet (on land) North to the river to a rocky beach.  She's powerful stuff!  I do love the way she's rearranged this section of river, but this neighborhood could have done without the water in their basements.  It is nice to change things up.

Massive, I'm talking MASSIVE wood pile.  Lines upon lines of these debris piles were strewn throughout the cottonwoods as far as I could see.

Remind me not to go back to this area until FALL.  I think Skagit and I lost a pint of blood while we were there.

Hello...eating late dinners on the porch.

...hanging with Dad on the dock.

Hello... weather for spending time with friends outside.

...and catching fish at the lake.

She reeled this one in all by herself.  She's an old hand.

 and noticing the small stuff.

...and for this.

Hello pumpkin plants taking OFF!..and stealing Mr. Cucumber's light.  Next year I will know to separate you two and give you each a little more growing room.

A whole new discovery.  Each time Astrid looks under the leaves of the pumpkin plant she says it is a "Fairy House".

Goodbye..."perfect" sunflowers in Astrid's garden... Hello sunflowers...with a story.  Deer hit the garden hard two nights ago.  Hail pummeled it two weeks ago.

Here are some of our holey, half eaten sunflowers we think are absolutely perfect.  We are enjoying the garden more than I ever imagined possible this Summer.  Beyond my wildest dreams.  I will always have a garden.

Hello... hot afternoons... riding to our local swimming hole to cool off.

I have no idea why I took this photo.  The photo of the day would have been Skagit FLYING through the air fetching her ball.  I threw the ball from her Chuck-it 50+ times.

Hello... warm mud puddles after a massive afternoon thunder and lightning storm.

 

silly goose

hey bear, stay away bear

Since my 4-month cross country roadtrip west 14 years ago that eventually landed me in Missoula, I've grown accustomed to hiking in bear country.  Grizzly country.  I'm comfortable with it.  My mother is not so comfortable with it....especially when she hears of the occasional run ins with bears on the national news...the ones that make these kinds of headlines.

Holli and I took a bear safety course just prior to heading onto our virgin backcountry trip in Glacier National Park years ago.  Since then I carry bear spray, and holler out a familiar greeting on the blind turns in the trail.  "Hey Bear".  It is one of those common things we share as lovers of wild places out west. 

Last week while up at the camp on Big Sky Lake, Astrid and I set out on a familiar trail near Seeley.  I hadn't been up there since Mom, Jeff and I backpacked in at Morrell Lake 7 years ago...long before (little) Astrid existed.

On our way through the gate at Big Sky Lake that morning this sign was posted:

We got to the trailhead at about 10am.  I decided that I would take the stroller in (check it out, Art!) in case Astrid got tired.  Every time I go out into bear country with Astrid (which, up until now, has been fairly limited to our backpacking trips) I do feel a bit more exposed, no matter how secure I feel with bearspray at arms length, and senses at high alert.  It's worth the trade to feel exposed... to be exposed to this:

The only challenge besides one downed tree in the trail were the many roots we had to bumble over.  Every time we got close to a section with lots of roots I would yell out "Cattle Guard"! so she could prepare for the jostling that would ensue.

Hiking with Astrid is worth the extra effort (almost every time).  I see things I might not have seen, and hear things I might not have been alerted to without her with me.  There were tons of Swainson's Thrush high up in these trees (thanks for the identification, Monica!  You were right on.)...and a wildflower yet to identify.

And there was a perspective that I didn't get before on the ritualistic phrase "Hey, Bear".  For the first twenty minutes of our hike she was looking around for the bear she thought I was talking to.  "But, Mama, I don't see a bear".  I finally agreed that we should say "Hey, Bear. Stay away bear!"  And that's what we did.

I love being dwarfed by these lanky pines and tamaracks.

Take a deep breath.  Can you smell the pines heating up?

Does anyone know the name of this flower?  It looks so familiar....

Nothing better than watching my dog's behind as she darts this way and that sniffing her way up a trail.

The perfect combination of mist and light.

lunch at the falls.

My 3 year old "window" to the world.

Here is a photo of my companions in 2004:

Mom and Jeff - September 2004

magical, AND highly experimental, garden project 2011

It's Friday, and we have three or four layers of messes yet to clean up (from the fun we've had over the last week - get togethers, dinners, pool runs, etc)... We are thick in the Summertime flux...pack, unpack, repack (camping, backpacking, spending time at the lake)....and when we are here (in Missoula), we're usually not here (in the house, near a computer, that is).  We are up a mountain... we are at the pool... we are at a play date... we are in the backyard... in our garden!  I love the way that last phrase just rolls off my tongue.  In our garden.

I've had gardens before, but nothing like what the start of this promises to be for us.  During my first couple of Summers in Missoula I had a plot at a community garden near the university, but it was too far from my apartment and the weeding became overwhelming due to infrequent visits and my busy early twenties social calendar.  Jeff and I also attempted a garden a few years ago, but it was half hearted, and not the right timing either.

Our garden project didn't come without lots of hard work.  Starting with the sod cutting we did just before Easter...

In the beginning this garden was quite a bone of contention between my husband and me, I'll admit it.  He just tends to be more realistic about the amount of time and energy it will take to actually get something done.  I usually jump in with both feet, learning the details of what I've signed up for, along the way, and rolling with it.  My method works for me, but I'm happy that Jeff is the yin to my yang, and there is always that balance when we work together on something.  Yeah, that's what it is, balance, not disharmony, right? he he he!

Astrid had so much fun collecting earth worms in April and early May.

Our giant sushi rolls.  We were able to give most of the sod away.



 We found that we could work with Astrid as long as one of us was  keeping her busy lugging tiny bits of sod, fiddling with the garden tools, digging for worms and other bugs, and taking frequent breaks.  We worked best during nap time every afternoon of almost every weekend in May.

All tired out and fast asleep during an Eko Compost run.

It's hard to find good help these days.



Astrid got some gardening tools from the "Easter Bunny" (aka. Grandma).  These were great worm collecting tools.



We decided on what we wanted for boxes and our talented friend Wilson (with some help from Jeff) constructed these beauties.

Beautiful cedar garden boxes.



Astrid painted while I worked on securing the weed mat and leveling the garden boxes.



We added the arbor from our wedding day, and of course, the garden soil.

Next, we went shopping for seeds and some starts.  What a fun rainy day, putting back every other plant she arbitrarily grabbed off the shelves during her "spree" style shopping.

Just planted.

It has become a ritual in our home many mornings a week that Astrid and I wander out to the garden sometimes still groggy in our pjs to see what might have grown overnight.  I am a child, and everyday with this garden seems like a new and unexpected gift.  For the first time I realize, in my own skin, the pride you can have in a garden. 

I entirely understand the unsolicited tours Dad would give family and friends to his garden down back.  It was quite possible that you couldn't come to Mom and Dad's farm without a ritualistic walk down the hill to the garden.

I remember vividly Dad's expansive garden in our back yard when I was a child...   One year Grammy Madgie (Dad's Mom) gave us kids some sunflowers to grow, and it was like magic to me that the flowers dwarfed me by the end of the Summer. 

Mom and Dad also had perennial gardens in the side yard that were a real conversation piece at any sort of Summer gathering.

Three days after planting - radish sprouts!







"Radish sprouts are kinda spicy, Mama!"

Astrid checking out the first sprouts in her garden box.

Our garden and pots this afternoon:


Another tomato almost ripe.  Astrid, who doesn't normally like tomatoes, plucked one off this plant a couple weeks ago and devoured it in one bite.

Carrots, raddishes, parsley, basil, peppers, zucchini, squash, etc.

Corn, cucumbers, pumpkins, snap peas, pole beans.

 

The corn was knee high by the 4th of July. So, that's good, right?

Snap peas.  Today I noticed that there are mini pods all over.  Can't wait to see how big they are tomorrow morning.

Pole beans.

And, last but not least, Astrid's garden:  She got the pink flamingoes from Grandma and Grandpa for her birthday last month, and our next door neighbor (Gini) gave her a third one, because three is even more fun than two!  I'm thinking that these sunflowers need an even sunnier spot next season.

The flamingos and the deer fabric/fencing help to keep away the deer in the evenings.  Jeff and I have seen them linger by sniffing the air with desire.

There is more to do, and this is an ongoing project.  Staining the arbor, covering the weed mat, fencing around the entire garden, and more, but right now, we are certainly enjoying every minute of our highly experimental project.

Here are some pictures of my Gardening Angel.  Oh, how I wish he and Mom were here to consult over a cup of tea.  Mom will be here in October!  Maybe she can help me ready it for winter.