Opportunities, Golden and Otherwise

by Greg

In the broad sense, the mountain biking season is over. It's chilly and it gets dark early. It can be moist. Snow and ice can clog the trail.

But in reality, it's still been great riding. Our sleeves may get longer and our rides shorter, but we're still out there, riding through cloudy days and golden evenings. Riding and getting caught by rain showers or melting snow, then getting caught by the pernicious local mud that's both slippery to ride through and stickily clings to bikes and shoes like octopus cement.







While most riders seem to have turned their thoughts to other winter activities, our thoughts remain open to the opportunities of great trails, good light, and fine weather (with a chance of mud). We're still out there riding the empty trails, drinking in the scenery, and spinning out the happy miles. Miles that satisfy something inside us in a way that being inside just doesn't.



















Or course, after riding we're happy to go home and eat something. Like one of Trina's nut tarts. Chunky, chewy and delicious isn't just for trails.

Buttoning Up

Words by Greg
Photos by Greg and Trina

We've had our first frosts of the season. Late flowers are freezing and wise plants have already made seeds. We've been pulling out the last of the vegetables and storing them away. While some, too far gone, are left to decay and rot, to feed insects and worms and millipedes, to return to the dirt. We'll take the vines down and cover the soil with mulch as we button up the garden for winter.

The kitchen door is closed now. Inside we keep warm with food we've grown, food from local farms, food from far away. Out the window there is snow on the high fringes of the valley. Soon it will creep downward, and the garden will be waiting, hidden beneath the frozen blanket.





















Carrots with character.


Doing the hula?

In The Air

Words by Greg
Photos by Greg and NASA



There's change in the air. Days are getting shorter and cooler. Snow walloped the other side of the state. Our internal clocks have begun to prepare us for winter hibernation. But so far in our neighborhood, it's been nothing but beautiful, colorful, warm and inviting.

We've accepted the invitation and have been out partaking in the rocky local trails, riding with friends who not only sense the change in the air, but get right up there and fly through it. Dirt and dogs. Rocks and socks. Warm honey light. And no better time to enjoy it.

Satellite photo from last week:


This week:(We're in one of those nice, dry, brown areas on the west side...)












For some reason it helps Trina if she holds her head on whenever her brother Derrell rides stunts.