Cycling reunion

Today Ed and I meet for our first post TdC ride !!! 

The day started out not very promising rainy and blustery but by mid day as we headed out it was sunny and warm getting up to 18 degrees. We knew the wind was going to get gusty up to 50km/h from the west so we rode out that way ending up in Tottenham for our usual TdC snack stop, then it was a fast ride east with the wind at our backs all the way to the Marsh , at times on the gravel road we were doing 45km/h just coasting !!!!. The last few km home were a challenging with hard cross winds going south and the few km we had to do westbound were right into it , but we made it home to some nice cool beers that Evelyn had purchased for us !!!

Ed trim and fit getting ready for his 3rd consecutive TdC ride , which will be a record as no one has done 3 in a row .

Check out that belly !!!, this was only my 2nd ride this month , I'm getting fat not fit !!!

And what would a TdC reunion be without a Tim Horton stop for some refuelling !!

Flying down the 5th Line , this section is gravel and we were just coasting at 45km/h with the wind at our backs !!!

Look of worry as my front wheel slips off onto the gravel just as I snap the picture .

We had a great ride, we took it easy as we both had ridden yesterday,  we totalled 87 km in 4.28 hours of riding time . This doubled my average ride for this year, when Ed said he was up for a 100 km ride I almost died as yesterdays 43 km almost did me in , it was my first ride back on Betsy so I was zooming along enjoying the fast ride until eventually I had to turn back and headed home into the wind, by the time I got home my legs were toast !! But I was careful today and survived just fine .

Interestingly this was only my 5th ride of the year for 256 km, last year by now I had been out 18 times for a total of 881 km , amazing how working towards a goal can motivate so much !!!, maybe I should sign up for Paris-Istambul !!! 

Heaven in the sun !!!

A little bit of heaven !!!

Usually I like to just write about one topic per post, but today will be a bit of a potpourri as I've not written in a while. 

I'll begin with Cuba, I just got back from a much needed vacation on it's lovely beaches together with Evelyn our daughter and grandson. Surprisingly, family vacations are very much a happening thing as there where many of them at our resort, it's nice to see this trend!

I liked Cuba, didn't get to see much of it as we were only there for a week, wanted to go to Havana but it was a 12 hour excursion so we passed on it, wanted to see Fidel too, but no luck there either !. 

I found the people friendly and helpful, as far as getting a real feel for the country it's not possible in such a short time, but oppose to Mexico where police with machine-guns hanging from there shoulders are common sight, here I only saw an occasional policeman and they just carried a small barely visible side arm , one gets a much more secure feeling in Cuba. 

The discussion of Democracy versus Communism I will leave for another post, it is one of my favourite subjects to delve into!. 

One of the highlights of the trip was a hike we took in the Varahicacos Ecological Reserve, we were lucky as the hotel was just a half hour walk away so one morning before it got to hot Evelyn and I headed out , once there, fee paid, map in hand we went in and found ourselves plunged into a natural wonderland full of cactus, exotic plants, salamanders, caves, termite mounds, bee hives and even skeletal remains it was a most amazing hike 

All kind of cactus plants and trees.

If I read the pamphlet correctly , foto on the left is a Curujeyes, it roots onto other plants and rocks. 

Termite mounds abounded, some on the ground some high up in trees.

Lots of caves, some quite challenging to get into.

Lots of bees, with hives in the rock or like this exposed on the walls, had to walk by very slowly !!!

This little guy was very friendly and would come right up to us  to  investigate.

2,000 year old aboriginal remains, discovered in 1985. 

The porous rook filters out the seawater creating freshwater lagoons 

300 year old Cactus tree, being slowly strangled by the roots of a Fiscus.

Another excursion was to the Dolphin Park to swim with the dolphins , ordinarily I don't like the idea of captive animals being exploited especially dolphins, but there's a bit of an inconsistency in believes here as I have spent half a decade working with captive animals that are extremely exploited , some day I will have to come to terms with that.

These dolphins at least were in a very large semi natural environment, en a natural estuary surrounded by mangrove trees and interacting with other sea creatures that could come into their pools. 

We had a great time swimming with them !!

We never made it to Havana but we did get a slight flavour of urban Cuba by visiting Veradero , even went for a buggy ride !!. 

I will definitely be going back to Cuba one day. 

  

Yesterday I spotted the first barn swallow of the season , she must have followed me back from Cuba !!!, it marvels me how these delicate little birds can make such a exhausting migratory journey every year, navigating their way over thousands of kilometres of a hostile over populated continent back to their birth place,  my barn.

I have no update on Wisdom, I've scoured the internet and nothing, in these cases one has to stick to the old adage " no news is good news !! " 

As I suspected neither BBC or CNN responded to my query to them. But as I was browsing for info I came upon BirdWatchingDaily.com and they had and article about Wisdom:

http://cs.birdwatchingdaily.com/BRDCS/blogs/field_of_view/archive/2011/03/21/wisdom-the-albatross-survives.aspx

This article led me to some great pictures of Wisdom and her chic taken by Connie Toops , they can be found here:

http://www.agpix.com/photographer/portfolio/A0081780_32_caption.html

"Paris to Istanbul" it conjures up images of history, mystery and intrigue, great adventures , dazzling scenery, delicious cuisine and a possible spectacular breathtaking bike tour !!!, 4,000 km in 50 days riding throw Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Turkey, Andy you have tweaked my interest with your intent to ride it in 2013, I wonder if I can get another leave of absence ????

WISDOM

Today I would like to talk to you about Wisdom

I scanned the internet for a definition and after much reading I realized that it is not a simple thing to define, many interpretations exist depending on philosophy, religion, political view or simply on ones preference of a meaning of the word. 

So I dug up my old tattered and very dusty Webster dictionary and looked it up. 

“ Wisdom, The quality of being wise; the faculty to discern right and truth and to judge or act accordingly; sound judgment; sagacity; discretion; common sense; extensive knowledge. ”

The reading I have done on the subject so far is amazingly interesting and it has once again awaken my interest in philosophy, an interest that was strong in my youth but slowly faded away with the passage of the years. I would like to share with you what I have learned in my little bit of reading, but it is a lot of complex ramblings of long dead philosophers ( Socrates, Confucius, Buddha, etc...)  and I will most certainly loose most of you way before the end of it, if I have not done so already. But it is a worthy topic and I will one day come back to it !!

My two cents on the subject is that we live in a world lacking wisdom, we do no strive for it, we do not recognize it when in it’s presence, we do not chose it’s path when presented with the opportunity and therefore a vast number of the human specie can more attune themselves to its antonyms unfortunately. 

But, I have to start over as I have digressed and become long-winded as my friends often accuse me of being, so here we go :

Today I would like to talk about “Wisdom” 

 "Wisdom is a 60+ year old female Laysan Albatross" 

She first came to my attention about a month ago as I was browsing the BBC news online. She made the news because this year she was spotted raising a chick and they were amazed that she was doing so at her age. They knew her age as she was first banded way back in 1956 ( before I was born !!! ) while incubating an egg ( not necessarily her first one !! ) . It was an interesting article and made me feel good to know that some albatrosses manage to live long lives despite all that we do to prevent that from happening. If you want to read the story it can be found here ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9419000/9419812.stm ) 

The next time I came across “Wisdom”  was again on the BBC site after the Japan earthquake, the story was about how the tsunami waves created by the earthquake had traveled all the way to the wildlife sanctuary on the Midway atoll north-west of Hawaii where “Wisdom” was nesting and devastated the sanctuary killing thousand of nesting albatrosses and petrels , the only bright spot in the story was that fortunately Wisdom and her chic had survived. You can read more on this very sad story here: ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/12756033 ) 

A few days later while browsing the CNN news site I once again came upon “Wisdom” , this time the news was bleak , it was much the same story as the BBC one about the devastation to the wildlife sanctuary and the lose of so many birds, but this article said that that the biologists had not seen any sign of “Wisdom” or her chic after the waves hit. If you want to read the story it can be found here: ( http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/18/tsunami.birds.deaths/index.html?iref=allsearch ) 

The comforting feeling I had from the knowledge that “Wisdom” had survived the disaster was now gone and with it a need to know more, which story was right ??? 

So I wrote to both BBC and CNN and pointed out the conflicting stories and asked who was right ? , this was just a couple of days ago and I have not received an answer from neither and I really don’t expect one. This natural disaster is immense, the earthquake and tsunami brought untold misery and suffering to Japan , add to that the nuclear plant calamity and a story about an albatross can seem very insignificant to many. 

My interest in the discrepant stories is twofold,

1. I really want to know what happened to Wisdom and her chic. 
2. If you are a news organization and you bother to report on something, would you not want that information to be accurate ?? ( would the readers not want it to be accurate ??? ). And if you got it wrong ( which easily can happen as we are only human ) would you not want to correct it ???.

As I finish writing all of this I decided to go to the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge site ( http://www.fws.gov/midway/tsunami.html ) , where there are some heart wrenching pictures and an update published stating that “Wisdom” and her chic have been found, HURRAH !!!!!!

Pictures can also be found at:   ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwspacific/collections/72157626288933504/ ) 

So as you can see, my friends are right, I am long-winded !!! , but at least now you know  that albatrosses live long lives, but that there lives are at the mercy of mother nature as much as at the mercy of the human race, lets hope that they can overcome both and continue to grace this earth with there magnificent presence. 

The last ride of the winter

With the March thaws cycling was once again possible , most of the snow has melted , Geese and Robins can be spotted everywhere , and my horses come back from their paddocks covered in mud, all signs to hit the road again !!!!. 
I have managed to get out a few times but nowhere as much as last year and I don't think it's because of any drastic climate issues , no , this year there is just not that huge motivational factor of getting ready to cross the country by bicycle . Instead I have been looking at doing a week long trip in Newfoundland , a mix of cycling, hiking and sightseeing . It is my first choice as I really regret not spending a bit more time there last year , I have looked at europe also but maybe next year. And now that my friend Ed has signed up for yet another crossing of the country ( his third in a row !!!! ) I probably will meet up with him in Tobermory and ride a couple of days with him just to get a taste of touring again. 
But neither trip needs an immense base of training so I can afford to be wimpy for now !! and pick my spots , last Sunday after a couple of missed opportunities I threw caution to the wind and headed out for a invigorating 44 km ride over the hills of King City in +5 degrees , last year I would have considered it a warm day but this year it was chilly ! 

Here I am post ride warming up in my kitchen with a hot cup of coffee that Evelyn made me when she saw me come in , not frozen but definitely chilled !!!

But I should not complain , because as I wright this from in front of the comfy warm fireplace I am watching the snow come down and blanket the farm in white , dam !!!


Today is the pups birthday they are three year old !!!! , I still call them pups as Jack Russell's don't mature till they are about five , now having said that I must also say that oppose to humans where the female of the species matures way before the male , in Jack Russell's it is exactly the opposite !!!!,  Brinx is more tempered , better behaved and less of a risk taker , Montana is an explosive suicide waiting to happen !

The day they arrived home , so cute and manageable then !

Mother Nature plays with us !

Slowly but surely spring is creeping near, this week brought the first Canada Geese in the skies above with their most welcome and enchanted honks, at the same time, today together with warmer weather came a late season snow storm carpeting us once again in white, the gloom of winter lingering . 

Mother nature plays with us, bringing hope for the much desired arrival of spring blossoms, green pastures and dry roads ! but demanding patience and respect of her might, and so we wait knowing that soon, very soon she will release us from her wintery hold so that once again we may play in the sunshine. 

Closure

Today my broken legged horse left, making the long trip down to Kentucky were she will start her new career as a broodmare. With that comes closure to the hardest six months of my working life, not because she was a difficult patient, on the contrary she was one of the best lay-up horse I have ever worked with, but her condition required a lot of extra attention over an extended period of time, this extra workload she brought to the farm was just a little more then what I could handle by myself, that together with being drawn and quartered by the weaning in December which left me with a nagging injury to my ribs and the return of my allergies made for a very long challenging six months. 

Now hopefully thing can return to a more manageable state and I can start enjoying work again. Spring is just around the corner, green grass and warmth and biking!!! My ribs will finally get a rest as my Cuban vacation is back on, sitting in the sun drinking piña coladas should help heal them. And I can forget the last six months ! .

Oliver if well and growing quickly , I have him for one more week and then together with his Mom we will be off to Kentucky , in the meantime here is another picture :

Oliver, Montana and Brinx

Mary Anne , nice hearing from you !!!

Finally a Foal !!!

Monique and Evelyn helping Poebe dry Oliver a few minutes after he was born.

Finally after what seemed like an never ending wait Poebe had her baby , 1.30 AM on the 21st , exactly twelve months from the day she was bred ( a looooooong gestation !!!!!!! ) 

But the wait was worth it as now Oliver has joined the herd .

Oliver attempting to get up for the first time as Mom watches over him

I spent almost the whole night up with Mom and baby grabbing an hour of sleep finally at 5 in the morning , then it was back to work . By the end of the day I was zonked !!!!! and by 7.30 fast asleep in my bed !!!, oh it was soooooo nice to be able to sleep the whole night again !!!

Today I'm feeling much better ( rested ! ) , even managed to go to a spin class this evening !!! .

Here are some pictures of Oliver's adventures from today: 

Brinx checking up on Oliver 

Brinx and Montana waking Oliver up from his nap

A day old and already running outdoors with his Mom

Brinx playing with Oliver