Pileated Woodpecker

One of our joys is watching our birds. We have approximately 15 bird feeders that require almost daily filling.  At times during the spring and early summer their chirping is so loud that you can believe you are in an aviary.  We sit on either our back or front porch almost every day and watch them. 

It is always a thrill when a Pileated Woodpecker comes to our feeders.  These large birds have a wide territory.  They were the model for Woody the Woodpecker, as is obvious when you see one.

A nice shot of a Pileated and a Western Tanager at the bird feeders.  So beautiful and majestic!

New life in our yard: Update

This morning, lying in bed, we could see the parent Junco sitting in its nest.  It was looking right at us, just as we were looking at it.  We thought it was saying to it's partner:  "Look, dear, aren't they cute?"

Well, we are actually.

We are watching them with pleasure.  One flies out to get food, returns,  and feeds it to the other adult who feeds it to the babies.  Amazing.

See him/her?

Other new life in our yard.  They have been here for three days.  So cute!

More life beginning in our hanging baskets: Joy and mourning

We have discovered another bird's nest in one of our hanging baskets.  This one is right outside our bedroom window.

(see one of our hummers flying to its feeder?)

Vicky carefully got a photo:

We, like everyone else, are reeling from current events.  Haim Ginott, the wonderful and wise Clinical Psychologist, had a few guidelines for living effectively.  One of those guidelines seems so simple, but is deceptively difficult to achieve at times.

That guideline is:   Allow yourself to have two feelings.  You don't need to be happy OR sad.  You can be both happy AND sad. 

Yesterday we posted a joyful dance video.  We continue to find ourselves getting better at dancing, because of practice.  We also did a powerful 30 mile bike ride.  Today we are going to learn some new dance steps and play ping pong, which we are also getting better at because of practice.

We are determined to find joy in our lives and in the world this week.  We are no less in mourning for doing this.  Two feelings.  We can't allow ourselves to be overcome by the misery and allow it to change us.  Instead of being incapacitated by the suffering, we have to take effective action which, for us, means contributing financially to the Presidential candidate who we believe stands the best chance of making a difference.   And it means holding onto joy.

Our joys this week included our granddaughter finishing sewing her first dress, something that required many hours of learning from Vicky who patiently taught her all of the steps.  Emily and Sean celebrating their 10th anniversary.  Our grandson Adam winning his Little League bracket by throwing a strike-out to the last batter in a see-saw game.

And we danced, and cycled, and laughed--laughed even when I was changing the flat tire in the middle of our bike ride. 

And watched with pleasure and awe at the new life being produced outside our bedroom windows.

And mourned. 

Thank you....You're beautiful

Click here:

Thank you.....You're beautiful.

Training for this year's STP (Seattle to Portland bike ride)

This will be our fifth Seattle to Portland bike ride together, and all also with Jules.  Although not in any way the most difficult of bike rides available, for us it is a challenge.  Two days to ride 210 miles puts a lot of strain on our old bodies.  Just being in the saddle for that many hours can be quite uncomfortable if one isn't ready for it.

And our idea is not just to crawl into Portland on our last breaths, but to be able to enjoy the experience.

We are providing our training ideas here in case you are planning on doing the STP and might be interested in how different people get ready for it.  There are many ways of doing this---do what fits you and your life.  This fits us and our lives. 

Our goal each year is to ride about 1300 miles in the four months prior to the ride.   We have found that this amount of riding gets us prepared.  We can't ride over the winter because we are in the desert, so each year have to in some ways start over, although we find we get up to speed pretty quickly.

This year has been a bit of a challenge because the weather in March, when we returned home to Whidbey Island, was quite wet.  So we set up our trainers on the back porch and "rode" on them for a couple of weeks.  It's a little boring, but still gave us a good start.

So our first ride wasn't until March 18.  A week later we took 10 days off to go to Georgia to visit Emily, Sean, Soren and Sebastian, which means that we essentially started riding around the beginning of April. As of yesterday have completed our 50th ride of the season, at a bit over 1000 miles.

Over the few years we have been cycling we have settled upon how to get into shape and have fun in a way that fits our mid- (Vicky) to late- (me) sixty-year-old bodies that have a bit more than the usual amount of arthritis in them.

Our approach first of all is that what we do has to be fun.  We aren't training for a race, but for health and to be able to see the world at 12-14 miles per hour.  We aren't trying to beat our previous times to Portland or anything like that.  We want to arrive there feeling a sense of accomplishment and feeling good.   So, we don't take killer training rides.

The second piece of our cycling is to find variety in where we ride.  We do this in several ways.  We have many different routes close to our home:  a 12, 13, 19, 22, 30, and 50 (which we no longer do) and a 100 (which we no longer do).  These routes constitute 75% of our riding.   We also participate in some organized bike rides in Seattle, Wenatchee, Kent, La Conner, Orting, and Richland.   We do several miles on the flat Burke-Gilman trail in Seattle.  Finally, last year we started taking "bike trips" on the ferry to the San Juan Islands, staying in inexpensive motels and riding during the day.

The third part of our philosophy of training is to do more frequent, but shorter, rides.  We used to think that if one wanted to get ready for two 100-mile days then we should be doing 100 mile rides.  What we found, though, was that doing that was in some ways counterproductive because we were spending too much time recovering from those long rides.  This season, for example, like last season, we will only do one 100 mile ride in preparation, with all other rides being significantly shorter.

Our first organized ride:  The Tulip Pedal in LaConnor:

 

Next was the Daffodil Classic in Orting, WA.

Our next organized ride was in the Kent, WA area:  The Bike N Brews.  Here we are with Jules and our friend John.  

Our next ride is a favorite:  The Inland Empire in Richland, WA.  The highlight of this ride is Weber Canyon and Horse Heaven Hills at the top of the canyon:

Jules and our friend Dale did this ride too.

Our final organized ride was the Apple Century in Wenatchee, WA.

 
 with Jules:



 
 We have taken one trip to the San Juan Islands this season (and will take another in two weeks).  We went to Lopez Island, taking the ferry with our bikes.  That's a great way to do it because then you don't have to wait in ferry lines because of your car:


   
 

The weather wasn't great, but it wasn't raining.   The islands are used to cyclists, so it feels safe.  Plus, in the off season, especially on weekdays, there isn't much traffic.


 We always stop at Panera or Subway when we do long rides on the Burke-Gilman:

But, of course, most of our riding is on our beautiful, and hilly, Whidbey Island.  Where else can you ride and see two mountain ranges, Mt. Ranier, and two straits?  Along with beautiful tide areas and small farms?