I've cleaned the garage, done loads of laundry, BBQ'd up a storm, steam cleaned the floors, pulled out the deck furniture, started my taxes (got bored part way through) & raked the lawn....this turned out to be a 2 person job....below is a pile of pine cones from 1/4 of our front lawn.....
I guess our 50+ year old pine trees decided it was time to drop ALL their cones at once! That and it's been a dry year in Calgary....
I have been doing some 'training' too. The weekend involved heading to the mountains to cycle Elbow Valley--one of the roads closed during the winter--makes for some great early spring cycling. This one is on highway 66 west of Bragg Creek (closed until May 15th)...how often do you get to ride in the mountains on a paved hilly 2 lane road with NO CARS??
The view from the back of my helmet on one of the climbs, still pockets of snow on the sides but the road was clear all the way up & over the pass! It's a fast decent!
I had such a good time on the weekend that I headed out solo today to do some hill repeats. Blue skies, 23 degrees, no cars, just me, the road, and nature! Seriously, I didn't see anyone out there until my way back to the car!
One more shot of the view....ahhh....love those mountains!!!
Up next: Round 2: Summer racing prep-training. I'm feeling refreshed (except for the sore back from raking!), motivated and eager to get back at it! Bring on round 2!Lisa
2 comments:
Amazing, you live in a beautiful place!
As for the pine cones, pine trees "mast" - they produce a lot of cones one year and then very few in the intervening years. This is one method the tree has devised to lower the number of herbivores consuming its seeds. If there are no pine cones for herbivores to eat in most years, then the herbivore population can't grow. Masting - very cool!!
Wow! So jealous of the beautiful mountains and car-free roads. They don't exist here in Philly :) Enjoy your mini-break and do some steam cleaning for me. ha!
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