2022 Rides - Week Ten

Mondays, amirite?

I don't even remember what happened last monday... but I didn't ride anywhere... 

Tuesday I rolled down to the library and then to the Circle Drive Bridge and loop back on the east side of the river. 

Saw lots of Mallards

Trees. Snow. 

Found some chickadees!

So I dug out some of the seeds I'm now carrying in my pockets in case of any such encounters

These ones were not so interested (starving?). 

I wend out a couple more times for very short rides, just to get places. It was fucking cold and/or I was in a rush to get places so I didn't take any pictures. 

Thursday and Friday it was so cold we woke up to windchills dipping down in to the -30s and -40s!? 

Saturday it got up to +6°C!? Because... Saskatchewan...

I had to go pick up Keiran from my sisters, where they were dog-sitting, and haul them back across the city to dance class Saturday morning. 

Because we were SO EARLY Keiran decided they needed to climb on the giant pile of snow in the parking lot. Many parking lots have a giant pile of snow in one corner. 

After dropping them off I went for a ride to Montgomery again. 

Lots of birds to be seen and heard - including loads of chickadees... but none could be enticed to take seeds from my hand.... 

This trip I rode up and down a few alleys - to see if I could see more birds in the backyard trees. Lots of high fences and dense evergreens meant I could still HEAR a lot... but not always see any birds. 

Deep snow on the pathway heading back to dance studio - that had been cleared, but then blown over. Luckily most of it was navigable! 

For scale = some place they'd cleared snow straight through drifts that were taller than my bike! 

Just as we got home I spotted a RAven being chased out of the neighbourhood by a gang of magpies. 

After lunch I took Keiran back to my sisters and then went fro a ride around the bridges. 

By this point it was well above freezing and the snow was getting soft and mushing is places. There were lots of people out on the trails. 

I even spotted some Canada Geese. It's been a weird winter.  Since as long as I can remember, there have been Canada Geese that overwintered here along the river - often rather large flocks of them. So it was surprising to me that I hadn't see ANY... ALL WINTER (so far!) this year! So I was pretty excited when I finally spotted this pair. I doubt they're migrants returning from a sunny vacation in Mexico... they've just been hiding...SOMEWHERE around here!? 

I almost didn't see these at all, I'd stopped to get a better look at a nearby duck I'd spotted from the bridge (It looked like it had a reddish head - but turned out to be a trick of the light or something, as it was just Common Goldeneye). These were completely hidden from view from the bridge, and even where I was standing on the trail they weren't super clear, because they just kind of blended in with the surrounding shades of grey... 

Rock Doves out enjoying the sun. 

By mid afternoon there was getting to be a LOT Of large puddles covering lower sections of the pathways. 

Dirt trails in the trees weren't too bad. This section reminded me of some of the paintings of the Group of Seven wih the blue/purple shadows on the otherwise pure white snow.

More chickadees. 

More water. 

SO MUCH MORE WATTER... was not looking forward to this all freezing again! 

Sunday I only went out for a short ride to pick up Keiran from my sisters. everything had frozen again and the trails were pretty treacherous! This section of pathway near out house was pure ice. Some was bumpy and kicked wheels in random directions. Other parts totally smooth and offering zero traction. It was on one of the latter parts that I totally wiped out! Bike just went out from under me. I bailed and landed on my feet, clear of the bike, but then slipped on the ice and and a tumble. 

2022 Rides - Week Nine

One of these weeks I'll get out riding more... probably when it isn't always snowing or so fucking cold!? Usually I don't mind the winter so much... But this year, I am just so tired of it all. 

Monday I only did a quick trip downtown to get Keiran to an appointment after school. Didn't take any pictures... 

Tuesday afternoon I rode downtown to drop off and pick up books and then go for an extended ride up to the Circle Drive Bridge and... that was all I planned... decided I'd see where I went from there. It just started to snow when I left. 

(Oh, good, MORE snow... I was worried we were going to run out!?)

Lots of snow! 

Snowshoe Hare spotted at the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan site. Looked like it was waiting for the show to start. Might have a bit of a wait! 

I spotted a few Common Goldeneyes on the river. As I watched more and more of them came bobbing up from under the water! 

There were at least thirty of them in the end - which was the largest grouping of them I've seen all winter! 

Wednesday Morning I had to haul Keiran downtown to a Physiotherapy appointment BEFORE school (as they'd injured themselves at Pom practice... again...) and then haul them over to their school ideally before their first class began.... It was such a rush, I didn't end up taking any pictures along the way. 

I walked downtown to mail off a parcel for a friend and pick up some jackets Amanda had taken in to get repaired. 

Oh, good. More snow coming... I saw this and warned Amanda there could be a lot of snow and maybe she should bring her laptop home.... 

It DID end up snowing a fair bit over night so Amanda decided to work from home. 

Does she look unimpressed...? I think she's unimpressed... 

She has new Work From Home Attire...

By mid morning it was REALLY coming down. 

And it just kept coming... 

Later in the day I actually tried to go out for a ride... 

Once I got to the trail along the river it wasn't so bad... where they had cleared it... 

I only got as far as the Traffic Bridge and turned back - there was so much that hadn't been cleared and everything was SO WHITE I couldn't even make out differences in the ground ahead and hit a few snow drifts that I didn't know where there until i hit them because everything read FLAT WHITE.

I didn't go out the rest of the week. 

Actually that's not true. I just didn't RIDE anywhere.  I walked a bit over the weekend... but not very far. 

Maybe next week... 

2022 Rides - Week Eight

 Again this week started with a dip in to the deep cold.

Monday was a Stat Holiday here in Saskatchewan - Family Day - so I just stayed home and played games wtih my family. 

Tuesday... well... 

I did a quick library run and walked to meet Keiran who was coming home late from a practice at school.. 

Wednesday was more of the same... but I had an appointment, so I went out to that and then did a loop up to the Circle Drive Bridge and then did a few errands along 8th street and Broadway... 

Heading downtown to the appointment... at least it was pretty. 

Lone Common Goldeneye out on the water - lots of fog hanging low over the water. 

So much fog coming off the water. 

SO MUCH FOG.

The brown on the ice in the foreground is sand and gravel flung off of the tires of motor vehicles crossing the bridge. (the picture was taken from the bike/pedestrian bridge slung underneath the freeway part of the bridge) 

fog at midday = ColdAF

Cold

The thing that made the trip out in the cold all worth it was on my way home I got to an intersection and there was a MASSIVE flock of Bohemian Waxwings - that I was finally able to see up close!

They filled trees on all four corners of the intersection and were constantly flitting back and forth betweeen them! 

It was CrAxY how many of them there were. 

And it felt like I was right in the middle of all of them!? 

Kind of amazing I didn't get pooped on! 

Thursday I was out again... still cold, but not quite as cold... 

I spotted TWO coyotes in a field north of Innovation Place (north of the university). That's downtown Saskatoon in the background. 

Further along, I spotted this Chickadee up close and was trying to take pictures of it and it kept flying at me - it seemed like it might have been trying to land on the camera!? I know they DO sometimes land on hands - and will take seeds from them (I've seen lots of pictures of this, but never seen it in person - let alone had one land on MY had) so I stuck out my hand... 

AND IT LANDED ON IT!?

Its kind of ridiculous how THRILLED I was by this... but there it is. 

I felt a little bad about NOT having seeds in my had, as that was clearly what it was looking for!? I will have to start carrying a small packed of seeds in my pocket for just such an occasion!? 

If THAT weren't enough... as I was getting to the end of the ride, in a spot I don't really often see birds... I spotted a bird! It was on a branch at the top of a bush! I slowed a bit to have a look.  

Initially thought it was a sparrow but then noted it was RATHER REDDISH on the head! It took a moment, but I realized I was looking at a House Finch! (actually, I initially thought it was a Purple Finch, but smarter people than me kindly pointed out my error), So I stopped and quickly got off a few snaps before it chirped out a singsongy little tune and flew off!

It was the perfect ending to a rather lovely ride...

Friday was my birthday... and it was a big one... the big five-oh.. at one point I'd had this daft notion that I might go out and ride a half-century to celebrate my first half-century... But in the end I was feeling lazy and just stayed home, for the most part, and played games... 

The only riding I did was to run out with Amanda and pick up some food for supper. 

On Saturday, Amanda was doing a weekend-long, online yoga workshop, so I took Keiran to tap dance class.

Part way there we heard, and the spotted a Raven gronking away atop a power pole. 

After dropping Keiran off I took a ride over to Montgomery - an older neighbourhood nearby. It was build after world war two for returning veterans. It's quite different from most neighbourhoods in the city - especially from that era. 

Lots of tree-lined streets (that isn't all that different) 

with NO SIDEWALKS to speak of! (That IS different!) 

The streets are all named after Canadian battles, commanders or equipment - Caen city in France which was one of the Canadians D-Day objectives... but didn't get captured until some time after! Currie was the commander of the Canadian Corps at the end of the Great War - the first Canadian commander (the previous commanders of the Canadian Corps had been British) 

Ortona - another city captured by Canadians in WW2 - this one in Italy. Lancaster is named after a bomber that was manufactured in great numbers in factories in Canada during WW2.

There are a LOT of big trees in the neighbourhood. Which one would think would mean lots of birds. 

I did HEAR a lot of birds - but it seemed they were all in peoples back yards - probably where they keep feeders. 

I did spot a rather large flock of Bohemian Waxwings here, again. 

Not easy to spot, but there was a whole like of evergreen trees that were just filled with them! 

Thats it for this week.