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| I wanted to post tonight about my amazing hike...an hour's worth of big time cardio as I walked in the foothills for two miles.
It started at 6:00ish, with my sister's dog Daisy, who is a blue Australian shepherd just a year old and a ball of energy. My sister is athletic and jogs these trails east of town...I am not, so I hike at best, and generally go slow. Daisy was a silver bullet, racing along as fast as possible, and then stopping and either running back to me or just standing in the trail ahead, her tongue out and head to one side "You coming? Why you going so slow? mom runs...run! run!" she seemed to say.
The trail I chose is moderate. That is, lots of good uphills, dispersed with lots of level and some downhills, through grasses and scrub oak. With the mountain on my left, and a western sun and town to my right, it was very nice, and Daisy kept me laughing with her antics. It was challenging enough to get "the pain taste" a couple of times, and got my heart rate right up there once or twice, but pleasant in the October evening. The sky to the east was SO blue! and the oak leaves on the trail made that soft, crisp sound as I walked through them.
At about one mile, I turned around. Daisy was dropped off, and the sun was just going down. This is where it gets interesting. There is a golf course that lies just west of the foothill trails, and I ended up WEST of the golf course...not where I wanted to be...so, finding it wide open, I went into the golf course! No one was golfing, so I just marched in. Kept on going northerly and trying to get back to the trails east of the course, which also meant climbing some mighty hills! Seriously, they GOLF on these slopes? But i kept on going, wondering how to get back to the trail.
At one point, I had to get across a little crick...oh! it smelled like spice at that place! There were aspen trees, oaks, birch, and together in their Autumn glory they had the most amazing fragrance. I was standing on big stones in the crick, with the sounds of trickling water and gentle
"end of season" crickets and the amazing scent of autumn trees. A benediction!
Then the serious business of getting to the trail was at hand. After that moment of sweetness by the water, the sky wasn't as light as it had been, and I was wondering how on earth to get out of the golf course and to the trail...and not looking forward to it, in the dark. But I knew my general direction (it's easy in this area: the mountains are ALWAYS east, so north and south follow readily and of course, town to the west) and I was parked to the north and east of this GOLF COURSE! argh!
Now I was tired, though. I'd been walking hard for 45 minutes or so, and going uphill to get to the trail was pushing it. But I kept on going. What was I gonna do? sit and wait? The hike had started out as something pleasant and interesting to do with a free evening, and now it had turned into the discipline of taking one step after another and not stopping until I got where I was going.
Actually, this is one of my favorite aspects of long walks: you get really tired and want to quit, but you simply CAN'T. The only way to be done with it, even when your feet are hurting and your thighs are in burn mode and your heart is pounding hard, is to keep putting your feet down in front of each other. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. that is the only way to finish: keep putting one foot after another on the ground, until you get where you're going. So, I say the hike began pleasant and ended in the self-discipline of finishing what I'd started, but not stopping is SO good. The pleasure of a wander in the woods gives way to the amazing sense of accomplishment that comes ONLY by getting to the end of it. Finishing is a different pleasure from beginning.
One is fresh and sweet, with a lot of attention to the beauty around and a pure enjoyment of the cool air and the blue sky, yellow leaves, whispering crickets. Sheer enjoyment simply because of being out and walking in God's good earth. The other is sweaty and loud with hard breath and pounding heart and problem solving and focus, ignoring the tinge in the left ankle to just keep on moving. It is a fierce and powerful pleasure, the pleasure of getting there.
So, I climbed the sloping green to the east border of the golf course and found it fenced. I almost cried. Looking to the north, i could see the apartment building that marks the parking lot at my trailhead...but I couldn't get to the trail, because of a 7 foot fence. Meanwhile, I was walking on plush grass that was pretty easy on the ole feet,so it could have been worse.
Then I came to a place where I could see a golf cart road going up a really steep hill, or I could turn and go up a less daunting slope in the opposite direction. I said a little prayer "Lord, help me find my way" and went up the lesser incline even though it wasn't in the direction I was aiming for. The light was quite dim, but not yet dark as I came to a rough place full of trees and the fence...would I have to climb it? seriously?...then, looking along the fence, i saw an opening! It was a little open gateway, just wide enough for a person to pass through, and I did! Now I was on the trail, level and broad, and aiming directly at the 29th Street Trailhead, and just barely light enough to see where I was putting my feet.
Sweating, breathing hard, and feeling really good, I came home and showered and was I ever beautiful to behold in the mirror. Strong, rosey, tousled and SO happy to be home!
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| It's been busy outside this place the past few weeks. Eating a vegetarian diet, no animal products including dairy or eggs (I don't say vegan because I will eat honey and wear leather, etc...it isn't for ethical reasons,) and basing my eating on whole starch foods (a variety of whole rices, oats, and potatoes) with lots of vegetables, plus many fruits and the occasional nut  and no added fats or oils, has got me so energized I'm fair busting at the seams with it! So, after a good take down inside the house, when I got done vacuuming the ceiling, I looked around outside. What needs doing? hmmm? and saw the monster rambler rose pushing up on the eaves of the house and completely overshading the front porch. One week ago, I took that baby down. Piled all of the sticky poky overgrown stems in a heap near the driveway.  note the recycle bin, for perspective. That was a heap o'brambles!
Over this past week, I've decided I want to grow veggies my own self, but the garden areas are severely overgrown. Four o'clocks and fennel are the bane of my existence. You can hack 'em down, but you can't make them stay away. Well, I was ready to do battle with standard hoe, shovel, trimmers, gloves and good ole elbow grease (and back grease, shoulder grease, etc) when someone suggested Lasagna Gardening to cut back on weeds and unwanted plants while enriching the soil at the same time, with much less extreme effort. Mind you, I did put in some of that effort on Saturday, getting lots of four o'clocks out, before layering this section...But today I ran to Lowe's and bought two big chunks of peat moss and this is what I did.  put down newspaper then peat moss.
 I put mums in there, and newspapers on top, this time tearing the paper into strips. I later changed my mind about the marigolds because...they are sort of insect resistant and I don't know what that means for earthworm attraction, so I pulled the mums out from the paper and put in comfrey leaves instead.
 and another layer of peat moss
 wetting everything down
 And for good measure, I snipped some elm saplings that were in the corner, and laid those over the top of everything. This is how the bed on the south side of my house, near the back door, looks. We'll see how it winters over, and what it may look like in the spring. The lasagna webpage and my own Wormhaven Gardening Book assure me that worms love this stuff and I should see lots of them when I'm ready to plant next year.
In the back, I'm going to place black plastic and weight it down. Let the heat and the winter decompose the unwanted plants back there, and have a second garden plot :) | | |
| Well, she did it! She got born, our little Nadia. At 3:39 am on Oct 4, 2009 sweet little angel baby pie boo-boo baby angel.  she the sweetest baby angel darlin!
Love her to pieces! she slept the whole time we were there, including through a diaper change! and she makes sweet little whimpers and whispers in her sleep. Her dad said "She needs to eat" and her mom said "I wish you had the equipment to nurse her, then! You're so worried about it" LOL yay! | | |
| Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. James 4:7 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him for He cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 1 Peter 5:6-9 These two verses are about resisting the devil. James promises us that he will flee from us when we resist him, and Peter exhorts us to be watchful and sober because the devil wants to devour us. Both of these apostles exhort us to RESIST him. But both of these exhortations to do spiritual battle come with a command: submit to God, humble yourself under His mighty hand. I think this is telling me that there is no "resist" toward the devil, without "submit" toward God. I am currently fighting a battle in my thought life, and working hard to bring every thought captive under Christ (1 Cor 10:4-6) and these passages, especially the 1 Peter section, are training me to humble myself under His mighty hand, and to cast all my cares upon Him (including the worry that I will FOREVER be fighting this fleshly pattern that He is working out of me). so, this is my technique, when unwanted thoughts come at me. first, I catch myself "daydreaming" and stop. Then I look to the author and finisher of my faith, Jesus Christ. (Heb 12:2a) He is beautiful and true, pure, holy, righteous and filled with light, and I adore Him. Out loud, I tell Him "You are my beautiful Master. You are true, My Jesus, and holy. Your righteousness shines as a light in the darkness, and you are pure." Adoration. Looking to Him. Loving Him. Then I thank God for loving me, and out loud submit myself to Him. "I take up my cross, Lord and give You mastery of my life. I do not want to be my own master, but submit my will to Yours. I humble myself under Your mighty hand, and thank You for all the provision in my life. Thank You." And then, I resist the devil. "The spiritual powers in this world that are against me, have no authority in my life. I stand in the name of Jesus, for His name is a strong tower and a refuge, and Satan cannot touch me here. In Jesus name, I resist!" That is what I do, and not too long ago, when some really obnoxious thoughts were filling my head as I fell asleep, I stopped, and talked to my Father and went through these steps...and fell asleep thinking through all the wonderful events and people that had filled my day and blessed me. Always, it is good to meditate on the Lord. Always it is good to think about Him. Always, He keeps me in perfect pease, as my mind is stayed upon Him. He is good. amen. | | |
| Okay, I have now cooked aloo gobi twice,and love it. I think it's my new favorite food! Aloo means "potato" and gobi means "cauliflower" and it is a curry dish. YUM! I've also made saag aloo, which is a spinach potato curry and so scrumptious over rice. Just got done making a samosa filling, which will go in whole wheat tortillas VERY nicely, and avoid the deep fat frying. But other than not knowing my fennel from my cumin (I mean, I do know them from each other, but what recipes are they used in, and in what proportions?) and not yet having any mango powder or cardamom pods in my pantry, I do know the basics of two Indian dishes. this is yummy food. I want to learn how to get it really spicey! I had a pav bhaji that came from the store in a foil packet to reheat. SO good,and so hot my lips burned. but YUMMY. good stuff, maynard | | |
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