Farmer's Market Adventure!

I am fairly sure by now all the people who read this know how much love I have the Farmer's Market. I am fairly infectious with my enthusiasm, and have managed to convince a small handful of people to go and see what I am talking about. Of course for some it didn't take so well, but then for others they have found the same love of the event as I have. Again, these events aren't for everyone. I am not really sure what kind of person really would be perfectly suited and identifiable as a Farmer's Market enthusiast. I want to say it is someone who loves the feeling of community and connection...but I may be excluding or generalizing.

One of my favourite pleasures (not even guilty either) is to show up before the market opens and watch as the tents set up and the food and crafts are pulled out. You can hear the people yelling and talking and bustling, and the traffic is slowly waking up, the birds can still be heard, the sun is rising! (not today though, no sun for me!)
I can sit there for an hour and just take it in, I become so relaxed and peaceful.

Of course early mornings aren't easy to negotiate. Especially the kind of mornings I have been practicing. However, I had convinced a friend that the market was a wonder to behold and he wanted to come and he came! He met me just in time for the place to open up and start business. Here is Rob before he normally wakes up in the morning! Look at that champ!

And for posterity sake I figured I should add a picture to show I didn't pick some random off the street to pretend to be my friend. Both of us have the "it's early morning and we need hats and sunglasses for this! My hat is a helmet, really would have accentuated the already large head I possess!

No Oyama this time

In my defence I was going to bike to Oyama, but then I emerged from the back road, got onto the highway, biked a couple kilometres and saw no hope of getting a bike lane back and the cars were not kind to me on the highway, so I turned back...I chickened out and I am sorry, but I don't think roadkill looks good on me. Next time I will hit bottomwood lake road and attempt Oyama that way. I also kept track of km's again and I got 31km in this time (my backside thinks it may have been forty possibly fifty, but the odometer doesn't agree!



I did get a picture of myself though *smile* well my shadow, and of course some more noxious scenery shots. But I won't bore you with scenery!













And the cherry on my day is my sadistic love of washing my cat...too bad she wasn't into it!

It's all about the km's

Finally I brought my thinking cap with me, it fit snugly under my helmet! I turned on my odometer and watched the kilometres rise as I biked to Winfield and back this morning. Turns out I am biking a total of 26kms roundtrip...which for me and my physical condition I think is pretty stupendous.
I would like to note that while I have shaved fifteen minutes off my ride, the reduction in time does not reduce the numbness in my backside by the time I make it home...so an hour and forty five minutes is the limit my backside can take for one sitting and that is to the point of losing ALL feeling!
Sorry about the picture, I haven't brought the camera with me because there are SO MANY pictures I could take and that would screw up my challenge. I promise though when I head for Oyama I will bring the camera and see what visual treasures I can procure!

The Smell of Spring

There is one particular smell that I associate with Spring, it's lilacs. All my life I have been surrounded by lilacs, they grow like weeds here in the Okanagan and any neighbourhood has at least one or two lilac trees if not thirty. I have two trees outside of my home, and their branches hang right over my kitchen window. Lately the days have been warm and sunny with a faint breeze allowing the smell of the lilacs to be released and blow into my kitchen and subsequently my home. I had to take pictures and if I may so they turned out well...if you have a scratch and sniff screen go ahead give it a rub, they smell GREAT!

To Winfield and back!!

I began my journey at 6:30am. Mostly because I was taking the back road to Winfield which does not have a bike path so I wanted to ensure my safty as much as possible. The morning was gorgeous, full bodied sun, dew lifting and sprinklers nourishing the fields.

Okay, I started from my home and this section of road is close to where I live but not that close. Something I learned when I took this picture is to check the temperature before starting to bike. Primarily because I had to crest a hill to get to this point and it was only 1 degree out, my lungs burst and hurt from the cold air, something for which I will pay for, for the whole ride and the rest of the day I am sure! In any event the beginning looks promising!

I knew I should have taken the picture of where the bike lane ends because right behind it was a speed sign for minimum of 60km...both I found particularly funny since going up the hill I was doing 11km an hour and was dreading the reality of missing that precious bike lane...it basically meant there was no turning back, I was commited! (or should have been committed?)In any event I made it to Lake Country and I wish I could have gotten a better picture of the road included because what you don't see is the wonderous and glorious sight that gave my heart wings...downhill all the way baby!!!

I am now at my halfway point. It is clear to me that I can bike to Winfield and I am not sure how clear it is to me that I could make it back. However I am taking the highway back with a beautiful WIDE bikelane and NO POTHOLES!

I am back in Kelowna and the journey doesn't seem nearly as hard as I thought it may have been...although I am realizing at this point that it is getting close to eight in the morning which means getting to Winfield knocked the stuffing out of me!

When I walk home from the campus, this is the sight at the back of the campus that greets me daily. It is that space that only bikers and pedestrains seem to know about. I find this funny since it is only a step away from the campus and yet I am always asked about the back road into Glenmore...really just go look for yourself. Although I apologize in July and August for how barren and dead it looks, all the water dries and up and everything gets crispy...and if you are actually in it, it is terribly stinky! However right now it is beautiful and full of life and promise...the promise that I am home soon!

And finally I am home, gasping and grasping and mildly moaning. My knees are in protest right now, but the rest of my body is GREAT! I know I can do this AGAIN!

Hey Todd, give me a shout. I know we were talking about making this jaunt together. I suspect you are in better shape than me and will go much FASTER. I am going to go a couple more times for Winfield and then I am going to take a stab at Oyama...anytime you want to do the ride with me give me a shout!

And finally I want to thank Kelly, because without her generousity I would not have bogged you down with all of these pictures. I am now the proud owner of a digital camera and I hope from it will come many more mundane chronicles of my mundane adventures!