while you are reading this

learning:
how to plant bearded iris

a picture of an iris i can doodle in my notes

choosing:

sunday parkways

berries for yoga jam

intending:

river procurement

designing: a new portfolio. a new flow. shifting boundaries

while you are reading this

My feet are pedaling through the backroads of outer southeast Portland

The sun is shining (perhaps behind a few clouds, keeping the temperatures down, near, oh I  don't know... 65?)

I am on my way to...

Camping, dancing, hammocking, harmonica-ing, drinking brews, hula hooping, brewing tea, chomping on trail mix (with  copious chocolate chips and dried fruit, naturally)







Namaste!

Get Dirty

That's what time it is indeed... mountain biking tomorrow, plus some berry picking, river swimming, yoga-ing, horseshoe tossin, bbq grillin. Then repeat it all the next day! and the next, and the next...

I'm teaching yoga in the park this weekend, join me!

Blue Steel

Pedalpalooza 2010... The one ride I managed to attend exceeded any expectations! Next year I will make a concerted effort to attend as many as possible. Making friends and riding across town with a bike gang is just so cool. The pace is slow and leisurely, tunes are pumping out of the car battery powered stereo, what more can you ask for? Okay, a tutu perhaps,  but that is another ride in itself!





















 Video footage is awaiting editing and compiling... coming soon.
 Click on any of the images for more play by play commentary!


Upon deciding to name my bike Blue Steel, a google search eventually led me to this gem (random):

Ramona Falls

Watch for the Bike City PDX cameo!

Update: I am over the moon with this video, and song. Research has provided the following additional information:

Ramona Falls is named after founder Brent Knopf's childhood hiking trail near Mt. Hood. Now at the top of my summer adventures to-do list! Check out their website, so cute!

Backlog of Fun

I am overdue a flurry of blog posts, I have pictures queued up for miles!
Enjoy these amazing pictures from BikePortland.org featuring a killer bike ride up one of Portland's resident dormant volcanoes, and I will process my pictures sometime this week.

(that's me in the pink skirt and yellow pannier!)

We followed the big bright arrows

All the way to the top!

I made new friends (oh I how I love fellow bike nerds!)
Made it all the way to the top, without stopping! Many red faces greeted me with sweaty smiles.
Played my new ukulele.
Flopped around in several handstands.
Shared so many yummy foods in our celebratory potluck... a latecomer even brought shortcake with homemade strawberry-rhubarb sauce!!
We whizzed full speed down the mountain with the twinkling city lights in the distance.
Came down to earth, had a beer and glided home, back to bed for another day of bike mania fun.

When summer hits in Portland, b*tches go crazy!

Photos © BikePortland.org

Tutus on Parade

Pedalpalooza (2+ weeks of bikey fun including the WNBR) has begun.

Tonight, is a ride that speaks dearly to my heart. 

Tutu Food Cart Ride

Whyyyyy do I not own a tutu?! Has the 20-something (how many more years do I get to say that??) Alice lost touch with the 4 year old Alice? She would not overlook such an integral part of a lady's wardrobe.

 Adorable food carts, bikes, silly people... what else do you need in a Portland afternoon??

Perhaps skates?

images: tutu * food cart

burgers and knitting

First, there were these...

Rather than stocking up on strawberries or turnips, I filled my new bike basket with hostas!

Two varieties, much like the ones pictured above. The one on the left, more of a jade color, is called serenity, and has flower buds already! I bought it from a hilarious woman that runs the Think Unique garden stand at my local Hollywood Farmer's Market. Interesting post by fellow Portlander about the history of the Hollywood neighborhood in Portland.

Our apple tree is a sprawling, ancient tree that shades most of the yard. The backside has been hacked back for years it appears, allowing sunlight to find the raised garden beds. The small bed under the tree is empty, and now my new baby hostas and one shasta daisy have a new home. Though we are renting, we are planning another 12 months in the house, so I cannot resist my green thumb, and creating herb gardens, stone paths in our green utopia.

Then it was time for adventures outside of town, to take advantage of the first sunny day in weeks! Unfortunately our designated state park was closed (odd) so we found a nearby disc golf course (overrun by families, strollers and strange wandering people, unaware of discs hurtling at high speeds near their heads).

Naturally, I became bored/frustrated within 5 holes, and went to find my fellow slacker friend who had set up with a blanket and book in the sun while the boys competed for victory. My trusty hammock in tow, I found a shady spot (skin cancer is prevalent in my family) and worked on my latest knitting love.

This will be the second head scarf I am working on, the first is en route, perhaps delivered to my baby sister for her 25th bday! I love the pattern, easy to memorize, small project, quick results. Always a stunner!

Post-fun in the sun required some grilling outdoors, and Travis concocted a buffalo burger stuffed with herbed chevre, garlic and onions! Whoo-ee. The garlic scapes from the market (yes I did pick up a few edibles! cookies... ) grilled up perfectly.

Aaaaaand, Sunday was rainy lazy. I biked up to see Trav at his new gig at a neighborhood brewery, very delicious treats there. The bike ride was through some of my favorite neighborhoods as well as some new ones. I have some pictures of lovely amazing gardens from a walk earlier in the day that will come around here soon.

How was your weekend? There are such crazy different weather patterns all over the country right now, making such different experiences for everyone!

images: hostas, disc golf, head scarf, burger, garlic scape.

Paintball Guns on Bikes

Yes, this really is the topic du jour. Of MY day at least!

First of all let me express my gratitude for this lovely lovely morning today.

A bit like this image from  Westlind's flickr.

However. Last night was more like this:

From Bike Day La

As I rolled down the hills to work in my nice and dry rain coat, loving every moment of this dry morning, I contemplated the pitfalls of urban biking in the rain.

Last night as I approached a well lit intersection I stopped to be certain that the oncoming cars in the other direction were planning to come to complete stops and yield right of way. It is actually quite difficult to predict driver's reactions to bikes, but they usually fall into 2 categories: Too nice or Too mean.

The Too Nice crowd yields always, even to the point of mucking up the flow of traffic. I ride as a vehicle. I follow the rules of the road. When you reach an intersection before me, I yield. I know not all cyclists behave according to the rules, so the Too Nice crowd has adopted a patient, and defensive method. But the Too Mean people need to get a prescription to some of that medical mary jane and chill out. They treat cyclists like pests, and yielding obviously is a waste of their time.

I don't know which category the negligent driver who I encountered when I began to proceed (cautiously) through the intersection falls into, but as they drove through the intersection, ignoring the lowly biker with lights, helmet neon green raincoat, I was forced to emergency brake and stop in the middle of the intersection. I try to assume the driver didn't see me, it was quite rainy and very dark. But the woman across the street on her cell phone sitting on a porch was able to see me, and started yelling. (I didn't.) "OH MY GAWD! ARE YOU OK?" I glumly replied: "Yea... It happens."

I declined to yell obscenities because I knew the driver who hadn't even seen me wouldn't be able to hear me, all cozy in her heater-radio-gas guzzling bubble. But I did wish I had a paintball gun.

Ohhh now we are getting to the point.

DMV issued paintball guns. Maybe ones with less force (don't want to shatter any windows). Just enough to leave a big fat splat of paint on a reckless driver's car when left reeling after an incident.

Maybe a pink one for the ladies.

And blue for the mens.