At Sixes & Sevens...

The Rider

A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast enough
his loneliness couldn't catch up to him,
the best reason I ever heard 
for trying to be a champion.
What I wonder tonight
pedaling hard down King William Street
is if it translates to bicycles.
A victory! To leave your loneliness
panting behind you on some street corner
while you float free into a cloud of sudden azaleas,
pink petals that have never felt loneliness,
no matter how slowly they fell.

"The Rider" by Naomi Shihab Nye, from Fuel. © BOA Editions, 1998. 

Caretaking

HPIM2723
Originally uploaded by EphusBailey

I'm truly enjoying my new garden and there are still times when I feel as though I'm caretaking someone else's garden.  At some point I'm sure the plants will begin to feel more like my own. It is all, I suppose, just part of settling into a new house. 

Three Hats Down, Six Booties to Go!

Anna's Angel Hat
Originally uploaded by EphusBailey

As I mentioned in a previous post, my co-workers are having babies at an alarming rate for a knitter trying vainly to keep up! 

I've (mostly) finished three little hats, and am getting ready to start up on 3 pairs of little matching booties. Two of the three little hats (the ones for the baby girls) still need little knitted flowers. I'm going to knit those last, after I finish the booties and make sure I have enough matching yarn. 

I'm running a little behind schedule, so forgive me if my posting life consists of nothing more that updates on brightly colored baby attire!! 

New

Iris
Originally uploaded by EphusBailey

Part of the fun of owning a new house has been watching the garden come into bloom. Aside from a few stalks of rhubarb and my struggling vegetables, I've planted nothing this year while I await the surprises of someone else's horticultural choices. 

Like these beautiful iris, that have come up by the bird bath.. or these lovely clematis that bloom outside my bedroom window..or the lovely orchid-like flowers at the bottom... 

Pink and Useless

Pink and Useless
Originally uploaded by EphusBailey

With my work for the weekend complete, I can now turn my attention to my two knitting projects. The first is a scarf I'm knitting from two luscious pink yarns by Art Yarns. The dark, heavy pink is a three ply silk with beads named Beaded Rhapsody. It contains silk, glitter mohair and a strand of pre-strung beads. The lighter weight yarn is a silk mohair blend. 

The combination of heavy and light weight yarns yields a beautiful open weave scarf. 

The other project are a series of hats and booties for my colleagues at work who are having babies at a surprising rate. The yarn color is called "Crayon" and the yarn is produced by an outfit named Pagewood Farm. The yarn is spun and hand dyed from the fleece of the Blue Faced Leicester.

Both of these beautiful yarns were purchased at The Rose & Ram Knit Shop in Independence, Oregon. 

Complete

Bailey in the Garden
Originally uploaded by EphusBailey

Bailey the Dog and I have reached the end of our weekend, and while I can't speak for the dog, I have entered that blissful state of completeness that comes with having crossed everything off a "to do" list. 

Summer seems to have finally arrived in the Pacific NW, with a tentative sunshine and temperatures warm enough to support short wearing, at least for a few hours in the hot part of the day. Evenings, I am still donning long pants and long sleeves. It is a welcome change from the chilly grey days we have been enduring. 

Yesterday, I completed a 71.8 mile (115.5 km, for readers elsewhere) ride through the Willamette Valley known as the Strawberry Century. I've done this ride 3 times in previous years, opting each time for the 53 mile (85.2 km) route. This year, I decided to be bold and shoot for something longer, and I'm very glad I did. The day started out at a chilly 43F (6C) and warmed to a, well, warm 69F (20.5C) by 3:00 in the afternoon when I pulled into the parking lot. The route turned out to be stunningly beautiful, as spring in the Valley can be, and was made all the more spectacular by an eventually clear, bright sunny day. 

I was a bit tired at the end, a condition brought on, no doubt, by the rather large quantity of simple sugars I ate during the ride, and the generous helping of strawberry shortcake and ice cream the organizers fed us at the finish line. I'm still learning what sort of food I need to eat to fuel a ride of that distance, but after Saturday, I'm fairly certain the cookies just won't cut it. I overheard some report that a guy with a fancy GPS/heart rate monitor unit reported that he had burned 6300 calories on the 100 mile (160 km) route. I doubt I burned that much, and do need to still watch what I put into my mouth, if I'm going to maintain a weight I can pedal around. 

Put a check mark by the item listed as "get some exercise this weekend." 

I woke up this morning with an ambitious list of gardening tasks to complete. The picture below is of my now weed-free courtyard. 

The little spaces between each of the flagstones used to be packed with moss, little flowers and weeds. I spent about 4 hours today carefully digging and scraping and sweeping in order to make the area clean and tidy. 

Another check on the to do list. 

The other tasks weren't nearly as photogenic and included fertilizing, watering, weeding, mowing and shoveling. The result is a tidy yard with considerably fewer weeds than were there when I started out this morning. 

After all this effort, Bailey and I have had several well-earned hours to sit back and enjoy our sunny afternoon and evening. He got a much needed bath, an activity he does not enjoy in the moment, but seems to like after it is all over and he gets a treat. 

Our work is complete! 

Steep

On Saturday past, a skiing buddy and I went for a hike in Santiam Pass. Hiking is not something I naturally do. When I'm outside, I either have skis strapped to my feet, or a bike attached to my butt, and the motion of hiking with a pack on my back felt truly foreign. 

My friend Bianca is in generally amazing shape. She works out assiduously during the week, and on the weekends she attacks trails with enthusiastic gusto. I greatly enjoy her company. I should have known, however, when she emailed on Thursday proposing a "workout hike" on Saturday that I might suffer just a bit. 

The hike she chose was called Mayflower Ridge, and is located just below the Detroit Dam in the Santiam Pass area. She likes it because it is fairly close to Salem, and on clear days has a lovely view. I knew I was in trouble when she showed up with hiking poles. I never use hiking poles, primarily because I've never hiked the kind of steep terrain Bianca favors. 

We had a great time, and I didn't lag too terribly far behind. We laughed and talked, and I felt fine until Sunday. I was a little sore, and probably shouldn't have then completed a 55 mile bike ride. By Monday, I was hobbling around, and today (Tuesday) wasn't a whole lot better. I seriously contemplated calling in sick because I was too sore to get out of bed. 

Bianca summed up our hike in her email to me: 

"Our hike was 2900+ feet climb in only two miles (one way).  That's steep."

Steep, indeed. 

 

Seen While Biking

No John - Not 100 Years in Iraq
Originally uploaded by EphusBailey

I did a 55 mile bike ride today, in preparation for a much longer ride I've signed up for in early fall. I made sure my route would take me by the sign, because I had seen a new one last Thursday on my way home from knitting. 

A Pretty Yellow One

HPIM2683.JPG
Originally uploaded by EphusBailey

Yesterday, I rode my bike north to the community of Buena Vista to visit a butterfly garden, Wings of Wonder. The total round trip mileage was 42.4, and the garden was a wonderful biking destination on a chilly, grey Oregon day. When I arrived, I had the green house to myself. It was about 80 degree and humid inside, and I had the opportunity to warm up and take plenty of pictures before hopping on  my bike for the wet and chilly return trip. More pictures are located on my Flickr site. 

Nascent

Nascent
Originally uploaded by EphusBailey

These tiny little plants are the result of several hours of work on this fine Sunday. I've planted cucumbers, butternut squash, delicata squash, yellow crooknecked squash, tomatoes, basil, thyme and rosemary. May it all grow tall, strong and bountiful!