Williamsburg Houses

What I really love about houses is that they are beautiful in the same way people are. Their beauty is in their uniqueness.

You can never go home again, but the truth is you can never leave home, so it's all right. ~Maya AngelouHome is a place not only of strong affections, but of entire unreserve; it is life's undress rehearsal, its backroom, its dressing room. ~Harriet Beecher Stowe

This quote shares the same sentiments that I felt while looking at these homes:

Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. It is the place of confidence. It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts. It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness and without any dread of ridicule. ~Frederick W. Robertson Home is not where you live, but where they understand you. Christian Morganstern



My favorite house of all yesterday was this next one. As soon as I saw it, I said...it's a Lemoney Snickett kind of a house. And because we've been married awhile, and more importantly because we read the entire A Series of Unfortunate Events series as a family...Nathan knew exactly what I meant.

Living the life in Virginia!

1 year

October 1st will be 1 year since we moved in this house
and my garden will be 1 year old.
The first thing I did, even before taking pictures of the place,
was to move these stones to form a path on the side of the house.
A pile of red bricks has become the border.


This is what it looks like now.
I still have a large spot to fill in the lower left corner,
and maybe a little spot on the right.

I have moved the elephant ear to the other side of the house.
It stands out more here and it seems a lot happier too.
It had no problems being moved.

Exploring by Bike: Alternative to Touring

While I both travel and cycle a great deal, I have come to the conclusion that bicycle touring is not for me. This is not to say that I have anything against bicycle touring at all; it sounds like fun for those who enjoy it, and I love reading others' accounts of it. But it does not appeal to me personally for the same reason I've never liked touring in general: I am not satisfied passing through places. For instance, the idea of touring Ireland - that is, trying to see as much of the island as possible by going from town to town - would leave me feeling disoriented and empty. I enjoy getting to know a place, connecting to it in some way. And I don't feel that I can do that via sight seeing and moving on.






The way I see bicycle touring, is that it is first and foremost about traveling by bike. But what if we want to delve deeper rather than go further? Exploring by bicycle could be a rewarding alternative.






My idea of exploring involves choosing a location of significance, and committing to staying there for whatever length of time is sufficient in order to feel settled. For me that means a minimum of a week. The key is then to have something to do there other than sightseeing in of itself. A work-related project. An artistic, literary or research pursuit. Relatives or friends to visit. Something that anchors me to the place and provides an occupation.






Long ago I've noticed that when we approach a trip as a vacation, we expect the place we are visiting to entertain us. But that approach cannot possibly reveal what this place is truly like. For that we need to actually experience it in a real-life setting, as a temporary resident with a purpose rather than as a tourist. We will still get to see all the sights while there, but everything we see will attain a far greater sense of context and personal meaning.





We will also be much more likely to notice nuances that might have otherwise evaded us.







So where does the bicycle come into all of this? Well, to me the bicycle makes an ideal tool for exploring, in that it allows me to set my own pace and to vary that pace spontaneously. I can go as fast or as slow as I like. I can cover long distances or I can ride around in circles. I can carry all that I need with me for the day, transitioning easily between cycling for the sake of cycling, exploring, and transportation. On my first day on the Antrim coast my travel radius was tiny, but I rode quite a bit. Another day I might find myself 50 miles from my home base.





On my bike, I can feel the landscape open up and reveal itself to me as it never does with any other mode of transportation. I can also ride to the grocery store - or to the pub, or to the library, or to a meeting, or to a friend's house.







The bike allows me to feel at home, comfortable, and entirely independent in the place I am exploring and I couldn't ask for more. Maybe I will tour some day. But for now I prefer to stay put and go deep. The bicycle is as perfect of a companion for this kind of travel as it is for touring. The possibilities are endless.

Beef?! It’s not just for dinner anymore! Lycra clothing in the mountains.

If you were alive back in the '80s and I appreciate many who read this blog weren't you have no attachment to Lycra. Generally made fun of these days and passed off as being so dated..along with the mullet hair cut, Dachstein wool products andVaurnet sunglasses.



All the jokes are there. Made a few myself.







But if you doing almost any sporting activity, and want to compete, be it bike racing, swimming, running or ski racing Lycra is a part of your life or should be.





Lycra used to good effect throughout in a Triathlon race of any distance



I think with the right design,used in the proper context there is a place for Lycra in the mountains. One that no other fabric I have used to date can replace.







Lycra on a Winter alpine summit



I have a lot of Lycra in my gear room between running, swimming, the bike and of course climbing.



All the wild colored tights of the '80s are gone. But if I were still doing hard rock climbing I might go looking for something similar. Call it "old school".









I've never been very impressed of what others thought of my choices in clothing. I have always worn what I wanted when I wanted. That hasn't changed much since Kindergarten much to my mother's consternation.



So when Iheard Lycra comments (none of them flattering) over thelast 30 years I've just chuckled and thought..."they have no clue". Lycra, isn't a right or a privilege. It is simply a smart choice much of the time. When it comes to using well designed Lycra or any technical clothing in the outdoors, most don't much of the time. I use Lycra because it is the most effective material for my own use at times. Simple as that.



Yesterday I spent the day out on skimo gear. Part of mygear choices(andthere wasn't much gear involved) was a CAMP skimo race suit.



http://www.camp-usa.com/products/apparel/contest-ski-mountaineering-race-suit-1519.asp











Without a doubt being in the CAMPskimo suit made one of my better efforts in the mtns also one, if not THE most comfortable days in the mountains.



More to come in the next blog and acomplete review of this suit and why I think anyone into "speed touring"should at least in part be using someLycra. Till then, tell the next guy or gal that disses your Lycra to piss off. Or better yet just drop them in the ski track and the down hill!

If you can't drop them now...you might be surprised the difference some Lycra couldmake in your own performance.

Goldfields on Figueroa

Goldfields on Figueroa, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Here are some goldfields up on the slopes of Figueroa Mountain in Santa Barbara County. The mountain is spectacular, with beautiful displays of wildflowers.

Cycling Lessons From Miss Brodie

Don't know whether others have seen the classic film, The Prime of Jean Brodie, based on the novel by Muriel Spark. It ends badly, and the main character - a deluded school mistress in 1930s Scottland - is not somebody one would strive to emulate. But I do admire her beautiful cycling skills! In fact, the opening scene of the film - where Miss Brody is shown gracefully cycling to the school where she teaches on a loop-frame bicycle with a basket - has no doubt influenced my own choice of bicycle and my notion of what "riding a bicycle" should be like. So here are some stills from the sequence that inspired me.

Miss Brodie mounts her bicycle with ease using the proper Sheldon Brown method. Her long, narrow skirt does not seem to impede the mounting maneuver one bit.

Notice how straight her leg is on the pedal as she cycles: completely extended. She would definitely not be able to reach the ground with her toe in traffic.

Ah, here she indicates that she is about to stop. Look at all that stuff on her bike! Rolls of paper in the basket, and what looks like a wooden trunk strapped to the rear rack. You can hardly tell due to the bad quality of these images, but it looks like her bicycle has all blackout parts on it. Does anybody know what year they began doing that?

To get off the bicycle, she takes her right foot off the pedal and swings the leg over the frame while the bicycle is still in motion.

Then she coasts for a bit in this standing position - with the left foot on the left pedal and the right foot supposedly in the air next to it? - until she hops off and the bicycle comes to a stop. Impressive! - and no way can I pull that off.

In the film, one of Miss Brodie's catch-phrases was that she was "a woman in her prime" - even though she was distinctly old-maidish by 1930s standards. My theory is that her cycling is what kept her feeling young and beautiful.

Enjoying the Local Beauty

I am still healing, but we are getting out and seeing some of the local beauty while here. We don't have to go very far for the beauty because we are on one of the water view sites.









The rest of the places are within minutes of the park.