Umm, where am I again?

This 'ere's the wattle,
Emblem uv our land.
You can stick it ina bottle,
You can 'old it in yer 'and.
(Thanks, Pythons!)


Silver wattle and gum trees against a blue blue sky.

I took these pictures at Vasona Lake Park, Los Gatos, California, USA. Ahem.

South Bay Spring

Nearly a week ago, after getting my first ever flat on any of my bikes (and getting it fixed), I went for my oft-proposed ride up the Los Gatos Creek trail. I had been itching to ride up the creek for weeks and finally the planets were in the right places, etc etc and I could ride!

My goodness it was lovely!

I shall let you judge for yourselves. Click on any of the pics to go to the Flickr sizes page. :-)




(Redbuds - natives)


(the creek from a bridge - all green and growing!)


(A rather small egret in said creek)


(Another small egret further up the creek)


(common fiddleneck - native)


Something lives in this hole, a Californian Ground Squirrel I think but it dashed away before I could get a shot of it. It was being stalked by a presumably feral calico cat.


(Statice - weed)


(Canadians walking on water)


(Percolation ponds looking northish)


(Percolation ponds looking southish/Los Gatos-ish)


(Weedy but very very native - I love Californian poppies!)




(Lupinus succulentus - native)








(Male ?swamp? Baccharis - native)


(Female ?swamp? Baccharis - native)


(Some of the prettiest weeds you'll ever see but boy are they pests. I doubt if there is one native species in that shot.)




(Just below the Vasona Lake weir)


(lake outlet)

I am really enjoying this spring - it is quite exuberant :-)

Things I've learned

Number Two.

Trains are seemingly never-ending here. Each train must be about a mile or more long. Make sure you avoid level crossings when trains are nearby cos you will have to wait and wait and wait.

We drove up to this loco (plus a mate) outside Denver on the way to Colorado Springs

and past so many of these container thingos Nathan couldn't keep count

and eventually we found the other end of the train over a minute later (and we were in a 65 mph zone)

Five locos presumably all slaved together, three at one end, two at the other.

The BNSF line runs literally straight through Fort Collins. It goes down the middle of a street in Old Town. It runs through the university. The train has to do 15mph. It takes a VERY long time to get through the old town area and blasts its horn a very great deal. It is pretty obvious when it is about.

This is why last night when I heard the train hooting its horn frantically I rode like the clappers to get across the railway line before the train reached it. I had left the LYS knitty group a bit later than I meant to and it was full on dark, so I'm belting along in the dark with my lights on (but really they are not meant for lighting the street up, more to warn car/truck drivers of my presence. And other cyclists who don't have lights, but that is another story). I heard tooting of a train. Ack. Ride fast! Faster! Must beat the train!

I beat the train by three intersections. Then I kept pace with it despite riding away and then alongside it three roads across. It was fun!