I know, I've been very quiet...
Sufficiently busy after the roadtrip last month that I really haven't caught up on things.
Work has been... interesting... this week (for certain values of interesting), which hasn't helped. And life, well, life is just busy. Last weekend, for example, we hiked up Signal Peak on Saturday morning. Signal Peak is 8920' high (though the trailhead starts around 7200' so only 1700' of climb - but in 2.5 miles, that's a fairly significant incline). Lovely walk, some great views to be had, and lots of horned lizards on the trail (amazingly well camouflaged against the soil). We then discovered that some friends here were planning to do the walk on Sunday morning... so we did it again. This time we got to go up the fire observation tower at the top (which set off my vertigo... open metal stairs and metal lattice walkway...), from which point the over-treetop views are breathtaking. Well worth doing.
I've also been back at the gym again, cranking out the calories on the elliptical (my record currently is 560 calories expended in 30 minutes; yesterday I managed a mere 510, but I think because I didn't increase the resistance, or it would have been more). The Silver City pool is now open, so we need to go try that out (when it isnt full of kids) and we also seem to have acquired a pair of tennis rackets. And then there's birding to be done - I'm still chalking up lifetimes firsts most weeks. And there are some gorgeous little birds to be had around here, such as this fellow, seen at the foot of the Signal Peak trail:
Given how much these small warblers flit back and forth, amongst twigs and trees, I am exceptionally pleased with that picture - as always click through a couple of times for full effect.
And as if all this weren't enough, I've slunk shamefacedly back to Liberty Hall to join the Midsommer Madness - basically a novel-planning exercise. And it's been marvelous; I may be behind on posting but I find that the novel I've chosen to work on is frequently at the forefront of my mind, so at any odd moment of the day I am enhancing some plot element, or pondering character, or something related to it... yesterday I was coming up with an idea for the setting of the grand climax, and it's an absolute peach. More on that later.
But I'll try and get better at blogging. And, oh yeah, I've changed my userpic again. I may settle on one soon...
Work has been... interesting... this week (for certain values of interesting), which hasn't helped. And life, well, life is just busy. Last weekend, for example, we hiked up Signal Peak on Saturday morning. Signal Peak is 8920' high (though the trailhead starts around 7200' so only 1700' of climb - but in 2.5 miles, that's a fairly significant incline). Lovely walk, some great views to be had, and lots of horned lizards on the trail (amazingly well camouflaged against the soil). We then discovered that some friends here were planning to do the walk on Sunday morning... so we did it again. This time we got to go up the fire observation tower at the top (which set off my vertigo... open metal stairs and metal lattice walkway...), from which point the over-treetop views are breathtaking. Well worth doing.
I've also been back at the gym again, cranking out the calories on the elliptical (my record currently is 560 calories expended in 30 minutes; yesterday I managed a mere 510, but I think because I didn't increase the resistance, or it would have been more). The Silver City pool is now open, so we need to go try that out (when it isnt full of kids) and we also seem to have acquired a pair of tennis rackets. And then there's birding to be done - I'm still chalking up lifetimes firsts most weeks. And there are some gorgeous little birds to be had around here, such as this fellow, seen at the foot of the Signal Peak trail:
Given how much these small warblers flit back and forth, amongst twigs and trees, I am exceptionally pleased with that picture - as always click through a couple of times for full effect.
And as if all this weren't enough, I've slunk shamefacedly back to Liberty Hall to join the Midsommer Madness - basically a novel-planning exercise. And it's been marvelous; I may be behind on posting but I find that the novel I've chosen to work on is frequently at the forefront of my mind, so at any odd moment of the day I am enhancing some plot element, or pondering character, or something related to it... yesterday I was coming up with an idea for the setting of the grand climax, and it's an absolute peach. More on that later.
But I'll try and get better at blogging. And, oh yeah, I've changed my userpic again. I may settle on one soon...