Ice Cycle 2012

That time of year again....

Last year it was -40°C (with the wind chill). The year before a balmy -33°C... This year...? Melting... I was wearing shorts and sweating my ass off...

Ah well... Not going to complain too much about that!

Here's a few pics of the event:


That's Amanda smiling in the lower right. Behind her is Don from the city's Infrastructure Services department - who build our roads and plan our bike routes.


Amanda took this picture of me and the kids (on the right, in red)


Heading by the Bessborough Hotel




There was apparently 180 riders this year (strangely same as last year - when it was -40°C!?)


Bryn and crew.

Whooops!

First Snow

We had our first snow last Sunday. It wasn't all that cold - hovering around 0°C - which meant teh wet snow was quickly packed down into ice by cars on teh road and feet on the pathways. It was a bit of a scramble to the the Schwalbe Ice Spikers back on the Yuba.

Amanda got a few pictures of us as we loaded up and rolled off to Irish dance class...


It's not so much the snow and cold and ice that I dislike about winter, it's all the extra junk to deal with when we get to a destination. Where in the summer when we get somewhere we have to carry three helmets and a couple pairs of cycling gloves and sunglasses - we now have to deal with three helmets, three helmet liners, three pairs of mittens and sunglasses, two parkas, two pairs of snow pants, two fleece jackets, my jackets, three pairs of winter boots, scarves and other sundry items... ugh...


And while the snow and ice does slow me down a bit... the time spent gearing up for every trip outside adds far more to the travel time.


Ah well... it's fun once we get going...

Carfree Chicken Cruises the Countryside

New Critters on Bikes over at the Art Blog:

Carfree Chicken Cruises the Countryside

October Kidical Mass

Talked to Bryn last week... decided we should get a ride going on this month since the weathers so nice...

We had a busy day Sunday. Amanda took the kids out to her parent and tot yoga class at Hot Yoga on 20th. Got back just in time for a quick lunch and then we were off!


Heading out to the ride - Finnegan in dance pants because we wouldn't have time to go home and change after the ride and get to dance class on time...


Bikes at Massey Park


Getting ready to roll.


On the Road.











Young O. following in teh footsteps of his older brothers...


I Bryn texting!?





Couldn't have asked for a nicer October afternoon... Wonder if we'll have one in November?

FLAT!!

Earlier this week I have a flat on the Yuba on the way home from one of Finnegan's dance classes...
'
ran over a tack - probably on the way there - as it was pretty flat when we came out of the studio...


Ugh... getting dark and cold... I can't complain too much - at least it wasn't snowing or raining!? And we made it TO class without having to repair it... And we weren't hauling a weeks worth of groceries!?


I can't remember the last time I've had a flat on teh yuba... (or if I've even had any at all!?) Which is pretty surprising considering the loads I haul on that beastie!!

Autumn

It's finally autumn and definitely feeling like it.


Just about every day we are off to one activity or another (almost all of them at supper time this year...).


So many leaves.

For so many years we had wormy things that decimated the leaves of trees - the leaves falling the last couple years have been overwhelming!


On the way home from violin we spotted a snake crossing the path in Victoria park.


I thin this is the third such snake we've seen this year. Usually they disappear into tall grass and are gone.


But the grass in Victoria park is cut very short and the kids were able to follow it for some distance.


Teh poor thing was probably terrified at first - but after a bit must have figured out that we weren't going to eat it and it sat still for some time allowing the kids to have a really good look.


The things we see when we ride our bicycles...