Biking, birds, and happiness.

This entry is a bit late.

I blame Mina.

I blame her for introducing me to the 17-mile biking trail down a certain mountain.

It took us about 7 hours to do, mostly due to us dismounting and wandering off to ooh and aah at the environment, just about every 5 minutes. This means that at the end of it all (what with me not having biked for something like a year), both her and I were –beat-!

Monday was perpetual agony in muscles that I didn’t know I had. The blog post, which was usually written on Monday morning, didn’t get written. Surprisingly, the handle-burns on the insides of the palms disappeared within the day. Odd.

Of course, the trail was bloody great. It wound down the mountain, along a raging mountain stream-turn-river. There were beavers alongside the river. I think I saw one.

These are some of the formations that they've built.


A beaver pool right under the biking bridge.



Also seen were the clubmoss ferns.



Yellow violets.



Dutchman’s breeches.


Some sort of trillium.


And views to die for!


Now that Elrin’s finally ordered a bike for himself, hopefully we’ll be getting out there more often!

On that news, I’m finally getting back to driving. After six months of home-boundness, it’s bound to be interesting, and not a little hazardous!


Home front.

The tulips are still blooming, and the veggies are growing larger by the day.


The common birds in the back yard these days are limited to titmice, cardinals, house finches, bluejays, and mourning doves. Woodpeckers are also sighted daily, albeit in a distance.

Otherwise, it’s been mostly sunny with a 10% chance of nuthatches.


An occasional mystery cat dropped by to stare at the birds. (This one’s #3, I believe).


With everything coming into bloom, the scenes from the bedroom windows could only be described as ‘something else’.



In other news, we’ve been keeping busy, wedding invitations have come in (they are currently being modified), and Elrin’s got a new computer chair, which he is unfairly excited about. (But some of us get to take ceramics class at the local art museum, so HA. Hooray for tax refunds!)

Time is really flying by. When I first moved out here, I’d have never thought that being a “simple” stay at home artist could be so involving. Moving out of college and into a household was challenging, in that initially, I was restless about getting things done, and accomplishing something, and.. I’m not sure how to put it. Being “successful”?

It’s funny, that I feel more fulfilled right now than I’ve ever felt during the 6 years of college. Computer addiction's dissolved into nothing. (Got the vide ogame "The Witcher" some week ago, and have yet to even start on it!) Hiking, biking, cooking, gardening, cleaning, painting, reading, writing… Doing all that, and having a loving significant other as well as friends to do those things with.

I would’ve never thought that I’d say these words, even as recently as a year ago.

But, here goes.

I am happy.