catching up again

[winterbadger]

Gaming update (yes, Chris and Mel, it's a game that relates to some of your past travels! a little :-)

I had little sleep last night, but I do have the comfortable feeling of an empty laundry basket and a full sock drawer! (Not for me the fate of the Prince Regent...)

So, the tick scare was almost certainly the result of last weekend's burst of activity. Last Saturday I was due to have gr_c17 and soccer_fox over for another edition of Movie Night, so I needed to do some cleaning and some shopping! I got all the current dishes washed and dried and put away, dusted and vacuumed the parts of the flat that hadn't gotten done earlier in the week, and gotten food and charcoal from Trader Joe's. Charcoal because I had decided that it was such a nice day I should grill out. So we had a pre-meal of goat chesse, biscuits, and cherries, then for the mains we had kebobs (though probably not what British friends would think of when I say that--just skewer-roasted steak tips and mushrooms, green peppers, onions, and squash). I did the meat all at once first (so as to make sure it got done and the veggies didn't get overcooked); the veggies ended up not being really roasted, more sort of warmed and smoke-flavoured, but that's all right. Better raw veg and cooked meat than the other way around. Neta whipped up some mint-flavoured whipped cream to go with the chocolate cake (kind of an choclate angelfood cake) they had brought, and their bags of goodies also had strawberry-shortcake flavoured ice cream, so much gustatory debauchery ensued. Then we watched The Chronicles of Riddick.

But I had wanted to get out to PWR/N again, so in the early afternoon, after getting filthy doing all the cleaning and before bothering to take a shower, I grabbed Rupert, stuck him on the car, and we went out to have a ride. We went down one of the (mostly) unpaved side roads, a round trip of about six and a half miles. It was the closest to offroad biking I've done so far, as a lot of the "road" was sand, small gravel watercourse, and (in one alarming downhill ride) very, very large gravel (OK, maybe you'd called that small rocks). It was *very* unstable, and given that I tend to wobble back and forth like a sailor on shore leave anyway, it was (far too) exciting--descending a fairly steep grade, always feeling about to tip over, and knowing that any attempt to brake would be greeted by a severe increase in the difficulty of staying upright. Strangely, I found that going uphill on a loose surface was (or at least seemed at the time) to be less demanding than going up a similar harder surface. Not sure why that would be, or even if it really was. But it was a good time in general. Took a few pictures, but not many, and saw a few birds but not, I think, any new ones.

Sunday I wanted to go out again since it was very nice and ended up going to Greenbelt Park, an NPS site (to my surprise) closer-by even than PWR. I did the Dogwood and Azalea trails, and I look forward to going back and doing the perimeter trail and riding its circuit road with Rupert. I saw several deer (some from quite close) and quite a few birds, including a pair of barn owls! They were very imposing, with their hissy screech, their great dish-shaped eyes, and they massive wingspan.

There are 3 National Scenic Trails, 4 National Lakeshores, 4 National Parkways, 10 National Seashores, 15 National Rivers and Wild & Scenic Riverways, 18 National Recreation Areas, 24 National Battlefields, 28 National Memorials, 58 National Parks, 74 National Monuments, 120 National Historic Parks and Sites, which comprise 391 National Park System Units. Now, I'm not likely to ever make it to all of them, but it might be fun to keep track. :-)

For the moment, though, I'm working on a book I got recently, 60 Hikes in 60 Miles of Washington, DC. I'm inaugurating a new tag for it, as I seek to complete (by which I mean at least sample) all 60.

Oh, and to complete the wildlife count, our neighbourhood foxes were, erm, amorously engaged nearby last night. The sounds of fox sex wafting through the windows, ah,...

Comments

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

Oh, and to complete the wildlife count, our neighbourhood foxes were, erm, amorously engaged nearby last night. The sounds of fox sex wafting through the windows, ah,...

Female foxes are only able to have sex 2-4 days per year, generally between January-March (in very warm climates December). Foxes wouldn't have sex this time of the year as the pups would be growing up too late in the year.

Even though this article is about foxes here, the same applies to the US, though the timing may be off by a month or so (or not):

http://www.derbyfoxes.org/mating.htm

What you heard was just horseplay. I hear it every night and it's loud, but distinctly different from mating sounds.

P.S.

[peaceful-fox.livejournal.com]

I am going to die as that eccentric old lady who is obsessed with foxes.

Oh wait? What's that about being there NOW?


:::rolls eyes::::