Summer OR wrap up?

Rafal has done a nice job covering most of the alpine climber'sinterests. (look at the link below) It is summer after all, not much new for the alpine. But what is new is pretty exciting. Look for indepth field tests and written reviews on almost everything Rafal has mentioned ASAP.The idea is to get the word out before the first big freeze of fall. The Salewa Pro Gaiter and the third generation Batura (they call it #2 but thatis incorrect) will be up first It should be a good comparison. Gen. three La Sportiva against the new kid on the block for technicalMtn boots,Salewa.



The new Lynx crampon from Petzl looks even better in person than on paper. Those I already know I want! Big raves from the last year's prototypes I am told. Just too many options to ignore in the new design that no one had yet put in a single package, until now. And a reasonable retail of $240. Not the $300+ I was first quoted, thank goodness! Petzl has upped the game again by all accounts.



My list of winners is La Sportiva'snewest Batura, Petzl of course ( new 'pons and the Nomic and Ergo are BACK!) as always and the new blushing bride, Salewa's alpine boots are hopeful.







Rafal, thanks for a well written, detailedupdate.



http://rafalandronowski.wordpress.com//08/07/or-summer-market--report/

No Mojitos at Winkel van Sinkel

Blondine and I had lunch at Winkel van Sinkel yesterday Saturday. Blondine had the salmon bagel while I had some omelette. They were OK--4 stars out of 5.

The meet up is not just for our usual girly lunch update but to also further excite ourselves (now that sounds like this sentence needs some censoring, lol) for our up and coming CUBA TRIP which will happen in 2 weeks’ time. Yep, 2 more weeks!!! Flights have been booked 2 months ago. Hotels have been booked last week as well. Right now I am checking out the rental car.

Winkel van Sinkel, quite busy during lunch.

A quick trip to the WC (toilet). This is the basement of the restaurant that used to be a warehouse exiting to the wharf. In the old times, businessmen trade their wares by coming to Utrecht on boats and loading the wares on the below the street level wharfs.

Nevertheless we are bursting with desolate anticipation. WE CANNOT WAIT TO GO TO EXOTIC CUBA!

You know, Blondine and I have promised ourselves that we will go to Cuba before the country changes. Cuba right now is time warped. In the 50’s. We all know that Fidel Castro won’t live forever, so who knows, before we know it, Cuba might look like Miami? Oh dear, please no. So NOW is the TIME TO GO.

Now, we chose to meet up for lunch at Winkel van Sinkel because we’d love to have some Cuban introduction: MOJITOS. Trivia: Did you know that Mojitos originally came from Cuba?

The Winkel van Sinkel restaurant on Utrecht’s Oudegracht is famous for its salsa dancing and Caribbean cocktails. However, since the restaurant was packed with diners for lunch, they had nobody to concoct the cocktails for us. The waiter probably thought--Silly girls ordering Mojitos at this early hour. Haha.

Let’s just say that Sauvignon Blanc saved the day.

The facade of Winkel van Sinkel at night. Foto from http://themeet140.com/

Tonight, we might check out the free market and Queen’s Night celebrations (Koninginenacht) in Utrecht Centrum.

Visit Period: April

Aloe

Opening, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

This is just one of many aloes that can be seen in the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. They are such cool plants!

The most striking one I've seen, however, is the spiral aloe. Its leaves grow in a perfect geometric spiral in multiple rows. Truly a spectacular plant to behold.

Yuccas on Southern Blvd.

Went I went to the post office the other day I saw this wonderful, big, clump of yuccas blooming on the landscaped area between Southern Blvd. and the houses in the area. There were three yuccas. Two had white blossoms but they were different shapes. One was more round while the other was longer in shape. The other yucca had the round blossoms with the hint of purple in the outer petals of the flower. This picture is of the round white flowers with a slight view of Southern Blvd. and a car.

You again!

Yesterday morning Jasmine sounded her "Snake! It's a snake!" bark again. This time at least she had the sense to be angry with the non-biting end of the gray rat snake. His mouth was otherwise occupied anyway.



Wayne from Niches asked in previous comments if rat snakes ate eggs. Yes they do.



The blue one he's swallowing is a Mallard egg, which is a bit larger and heavier than a chicken egg.



Pretty amazing.



Tell-tale lump:



While his business end was busy, I sneaked a peek at his belly.



And got a closer look at his scales. I hadn't noticed the slight ridges the other day.



Not too hard to get into the duck pen.



Obviously I need to start removing the duck eggs first thing in the morning. We feed them to the dog so it's not a big loss, I just don't want the snake getting into the habit. If he keeps it up I'm afraid he's going to find the chicken coop.

Of course I'm not really sure if this is the same individual from earlier in the week - not sure how territorial they are. (I tried Googling it but kept coming up with herpetophile Fred from Fragments from Floyd instead.)

We saw another large gray rat snake close to the creek last night. They must be doing well this year.

Adventures with Shellac: Olive Handlebar Tape

Okay: So say, hypothetically, you acquire a Mixte. It is a beautiful pale marine-blue. And it comes with drop handlebars. And after reading an article by Sheldon Brown, you decide to give the drop bars a try rather than immediately replace them. Now, keeping this entirely hypothetical scenario in mind, what kind of tape would you get for said dropbars, if the awful rubbery stuff they are covered with will not do?

It is surprisingly tricky to complement pale marine-blue. I think that black deadens the colour, but brown tape can have a look of medical bandages to it that I don't like.

[image from rivbike.com]

Inspired by the above picture from Rivendell, I thought that olive tape would look perfect. It is a neutral colour that seems to tie together the blue frame with the brown saddle and accessories. And it has a classic touring look to it, evoking images of the countryside.

Olive handlebar tape is pretty much impossible to find. But colour-theory tells us, that applying amber shellac to standard green tape would be akin to mixing brown into green, producing an olive drab colour. Let's hope it works out that way!

Dreadful rubberized wraps after surgical removal. Ewww!

Naked handlebar. Mmmm!

Handlebar wrapped in green Tressostar Cloth Tape. This is a standard green, looks very Christmasy. Definitely not the colour we hoped to end up with, but we have faith in colour theory. I should mention, that of course it was the Co-Habitant who did all the work, since I am still in Europe. He tells me that wrapping handlebar tape is not the easiest thing to do. So this project is definitely one step up from cork grip installation.

And now, voila: The green tape covered with amber shellac. This is what it looks like before the shellac sinks into the cloth and dries. I posted the above pic on bikeforums in response to someone's question about shellacking green tape, and the nice people there promptly told me that my tape looks like sh!1 : )

Here is the colour after it soaks in a bit. It becomes a true olive drab, exactly what I wanted. Hurray for colour theory! (Oh and that enormous reflector will soon be gone.)

Of course, this is all entirely hypothetical. Mixte? What Mixte!

Wind-blown snow

I was mesmerized by this scene when I came across it. The patterns in the snow created by the wind made for a nice foreground and begged for a vertical composition. The morning light and clouds were the icing on the cake!