This one's for you, Patty

Our living room view of Oscar making friends with a classic van one day this past winter.

Peter's vehicle of choice these days. Speaking of classic!

Disclaimer: this blog post is not about bicycles, or food, or the wonderful flowers constantly blooming all over the city of Victoria.


Funny how habits come and go. Like this blog. We used to update it regularly, then over time, the blog posts got posted less often and then ... not for over a year!! Were we lured away by Facebook? Or was it life in general? It certainly wasn't an intentional snub of the blogging world. I know there are many avid bloggers out there who, even if they don't blog every day, they blog on a somewhat regular basis. Or at least when something interesting happens. Maybe that's going to be our excuse, that nothing, or too many, interesting things happened and pulled us away often enough that the urge to blog was snuffed out. One wonders, doesn't one?

Speaking of interesting things that happen, we had one this week. Thursday morning I got up and as usual wander into the living room where my computer sleeps to log in and let it warm up while I perform some necessary morning rituals. This particular morning I could hear what sounded like someone tapping metal on metal and noted this was not one of the noises I am accustomed to hearing at 6:00 or 6:30 in the AM. To satisfy my curiosity I took a peak out the front window. Surprisingly, I saw my neighbours at their truck across the street in the process of changing their passenger side front tire. Knowing this was about the time they usually leave for work, I imagined how it would affect the rest of their day. Then, it dawned on me that given about a year ago, a person of questionable mental/emotional stability was seen vandalizing our very own Oscar, our well loved 1993 Subaru Loyale.  So, I moved my gaze over to Oscar and it occurred to me he wasn't sitting as tall and proud as usual (see photo above). However, since I was not yet in any way ready to leave the apartment and some necessary morning rituals to attend to, I did not go down and investigate. Besides, I figured if they were changing a tire, they could still be there when I was ready to go down and investigate. So I went about my routine.

Sure enough, the neighbour's truck was gone by the time I was dressed. I pledged to remember to check on Oscar when I left on my bicycle for work, and gave it no more thought.

When I did leave for work at 7:30 this is what I saw:

 

It's kinda hard to see here, but there is a distinct lean towards the curb. My heart sank. 

Upon closer inspection, this is what I saw:

Two, not one, but two (2) slashed tires. Dead flat, both of them.

Slashed tires! Really??? I parked the bike and ran upstairs to report the situation to Peter. We talked about our options and realized we didn't have to do anything that moment. Neither of us need the car for work or to get around town. Heck, I can even ride to my squash games! I already do the grocery shopping on the bike and last week, I am very proud of this one, picked up 11 shirts from the dry cleaners and rode home with them draped neatly across the handlebars and over my basket!! Only once did I have to snuffle the attempt of the top shirt to fill with air and fly away. (wish I had a picture of that)

So, here it is Friday evening and we still haven't done anything about fixing the tires - mostly because we've been busy and haven't needed to do anything. Now it's the May long weekend and we wouldn't be able to get much done in a timely fashion in any case. We have reported the vandalism to the VicPD but it's not like they can catch the perpetrator and make them pay. We just have to pay. Our neighbours lost a brand new tire.

We didn't do anything wrong. We're even parked legally. Still we have to pay. It's not even that it is a bad neighbourhood. In fact, it's a wonderful neighbourhood! Our backyard is the famous Beacon Hill Park and our front yard is 6 acres of St. Anne's Academy (lots of trees, small orchard, office building, national historic chapel, tended gardens and a parking lot). It's just the luck of the draw, really. Random acts of vandalism. No rhyme or reason. The end.

Poor Oscar :(

Late September

A study in proportion (and beautiful weather).

I remember it was a Thursday late in September, when I left the office and was quite taken aback by the warm temperature outside.  I decided on my bike ride home that I would just HAVE to take my tea and go for a ride.  Usually, I get home right after work and Peter and I share a pot of tea.  Sometimes we take the tea with us and ride to the beach.  I talk about my day at the office and he tells me some of the things he's learned throughout the day. However, this particular Thursday Peter was in Red Deer, Alberta being a responsible uncle and 'looking after' his nieces and nephews while their parents went on a wild and crazy week in New York city to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary.  It's amazing what people have time to do after they're 4 children grow up!

Through my sunglasses.

In any case, I was on my own for this tea ride.  I rode towards Ogden Point and came across the sight above - one of the last cruise ships of the season, the Victoria Clipper ferry heading off towards Seattle, a pretty decent sized said boat motoring back to the Inner Harbour (no wind to speak of), and a small motor boat out fishing.  The size of those cruise ships never cease to amaze me.  I did my best with the point-and-shoot Canon to catch all 4 in the same frame ... without over-exposing the shot.  I am finally learning how to use some of the features on our 10 year old camera but as I don't have filters to play with, I tried using my sunglasses as a filter for the bright sunshine because I wanted to try and capture the sun dog to the left of the sun .... can you see it?  I even rested the camera on the cement wall in an attempt to avoid blurring the shot.  The sunglasses mess it up a bit.  But I hope you can see it, now that I've pointed it out to you.  And really, you had to be there to get the full awesomeness.

City bike and the full moon rising.

Between the sun, the light, the tea and having my camera on hand, I was pretty happy.  Very quickly the light changed a little bit more and I used my lovely city bike as a prop to catch the moon rise in the background.  I played around a bit more trying to capture the light and some of the interesting spots at the water's edge.

Mural on the side of the seawall.

As the light faded, it got quite cool fairly quickly.  That was my sign to pedal on back home.  Still smiling.

Ah, September

Well, it seems I mispoke.  Summer is not over.  It may be winding down, but it is definitely not over.  Thankfully.

Tickets and a backstage pass.

Last weekend we had the great pleasure of spending time with our friends James and Eve from Vashon Island.  They'd come to spend the weekend visiting Victoria before the k.d. lang concert on Sunday evening.  James is a part of k.d.'s crew, and the Sunday concert begins a month of touring for k.d. lang and the Siss Boom Bang gang.

James and Eve had their road bikes with them and Peter joined them on Friday for a nice ride out through Saanich to Sidney and back.  Friday evening was spent sharing salad rolls, some wine tasting and stories and a slide show of their recent bicycle tour of New Zealand, as well as a different trip spent in France.  Nothing like some awesome photos and good stories to get the travel bug active again!  Not that it ever is very far from the surface in this home.

View from the Laurel Point Inn.

Saturday was a lazy day for me.  I'd had a hectic week with 3 days on-the-job training, meeting new people through work, and walking the picket lines for a day (Wednesday - a first for me).  I even got to fly to/from Vancouver Friday via Harbour Air!  Peter met me at the terminal and had a good laugh that it was now my turn to be getting on/off planes, and him greeting me at the terminal at the end of the day.  In any case, Saturday was my down time; time to catch up.  James and Eve, on the other hand, checked into their hotel (great view), changed into their cycling clothes, fueled up with a good cuppa joe and rode off towards Sooke for a ride.  We met them later for some great tapas and live entertainment at The Superior.

Sunday morning was a lazy one for us.  Midday was spent wandering around downtown Victoria, checking out the Eat Here Now: Victoria Harvest Fest, and popping in and out of stores we don't normally venture into.  More stimulating conversation and some of the best coffee around.  It's at Habit on Pandora.  Then more stimulating conversation, some noodles at a Thai restaurant, then off to see k.d. lang at the Royal Theatre that evening.  The show was fantastic - what a character that k.d. is;  and that voice!  Boy, I wish I could sing like that.  Actually, I wish I could sing. Period.

August in a nutshell - Part 6

Back to work - Peter seemed amused by Judith riding her mountain bike with a long dress and fancy sandals!

Another lovely evening picnic at Willows Beach.

Aug 20 - it's the weekend! Is there any better way to start the weekend than a stop at Fol Epi for a latte and pain au chocolate?

Tuesday July 5 2011

I have to say, the weather has been absolutely fabulous!  Seriously.  After dinner, we went for a ride on our mountain bikes, with no real plan for a route.  We ended up out at the breakwater, so locked up the bikes and walked out to the point. 

We weren't the only ones out there it was so nice.  Here is a picture of the Blackball Ferry on it's way to Port Angeles.  Nice ship.

After we got home, Peter decided to do some maintenance on the road bikes as we have been talking about riding them one of these days.  We'd been having so much fun on the tandem, it seems the road bikes got left behind.  Nice to have the light, some space and a warm breeze to do this at 9 at night!

Saturday July 2 2011

We woke up today to a wonderful surprise - it was only Saturday and I don't have to go back to work until Monday!! So we got on our trusty steed and rode out to the Saanich Fair Grounds to see the Peninsula Country Fair. We followed the Galloping Goose/Lockside trail most of the way, then rode up some brutal hills and across some new, loose gravel (construction).

We got there a little late (it closes at 1 pm) but we had a wonderful fresh lunch - small cucumbers, yellow tomatoes, sweet pepper and sweet salmon jerky. Nice.



After a quick tour of the country fair, we got back on our bike and took a different route back. This time we followed West Saanich Rd and Interurban back into the city.

At the corner of W Saanich and Prospect Lake Road, I used the excuse of being completely out of energy to stop. As luck would have it, we were right across the street from Tia's Heritage Cafe. After some refreshments, Peter crossed the street and got some fresh picked strawberries. They were selling them right outside the Cafe!

From there it was a quick ride back to the Goose and home. As I have said before - life is good. A sunny, warm day, my sweetie and I on a bicycle, and good food. It doesn't get much better than that!

Saturday

We had another rather stunning day here in Victoria. After the obligatory Saturday morning Lavazza cappuccinos. :)
We put together a grocery shopping list, put on our bicycle helmets and pedaled our tandem to our favourite green grocer - The Root Cellar. It was the first time we'd ridden the tandem to grocery shop and had to be fairly careful not to purchase too many things just in case they wouldn't fit in the 2 saddle bags we carry. I think we did pretty well, balancing the weight evenly between the 2 bags.

On the way home we decided to drop by the Moss Street Market to see if we could find some fish, pea sprouts and local eggs. Well, this became a little adventure on its own! Downtown was busy, busy with cars, pedestrians and lots and lots of bicycles! We are still a little new navigating the city on a bicycle, so we managed to find a rather roundabout route to the Market. By the time we got there, no one had any eggs left, and there was no fish. But we did get fresh pea sprouts. Yay!

After some lunch at home, we got out the mountain bikes and thought we'd check out the festivities at the waterfront as this weekend is Jump Ship - dirt jumps on a barge in the harbour at Ship's Point. There were literally tons of people there! Standing, sitting, riding, watching, sunning, music blaring, crowd cheering, more people sitting, sleeping, dancing, eating, wandering, etc., etc. And a lot of bicycles, of all kinds. We stood off to the edge for a while to soak it all up. Wow.

Too bad I don't have a panoramic photo-taking-iPhone cuz you don't really get full impact of all the people at this event. As we rode around the harbour to the left in the above photo, we discovered there was also a Bike Polo Event taking place on Superior Street. It really is quite amazing what these riders can do on bikes, holding on with one hand (for steering, braking), the other hand is for the 'polo stick.' This photo doesn't adequately capture the skills these players have. There are 3 people per team, a net at each end, which is sometimes guarded by a 'goalie' when someone slips back to cover it, but they are by no means stuck there. There is a distinct culture to the whole thing.

From there, we rode on to explore more of the harbour and a quick visit to the Fish Store (no one seems to sell fish from the dock, although you can get live crab). It was amazingly quiet in comparison to the bike culture on the waterfront. Finally!

From there we stopped at Thrifty's Food to fill up the pannier, and back home. We had 2 lovely rides today and used 3 of the 5 bicycles we own. All good. Wonder what tomorrow will bring?