C&C

My friend Anne Staveley Dickinson is a photographer, mostly of people and she's really GOOD, she always seems to capture a part of a person's essence or energy and has a style that is recognizably hers. She was visiting Boulder recently and we got to hook up/catch up. She lives in Santa Fe, NM, and she took a few pictures of Craig and I. It's so unusual to see "real" images of us, most pictures of Craig and I are usually shot quickly, while out riding, with all our gear on, they only capture a small part of who and what we are. So I'm really glad Anne snapped off a few of us, showing a unique side of us, thanks so much Anne, you're amazing. If you'd like some portraits done for yourself or family, please contact Anne directly, I'm sure she'd love to work with you.

Joyness is (part II)

Angular Cloud by Betsy Walton

• Spring rain.

It Lightening and thundered last night and poured rain. It's been raining off and on since then and the clouds are low and heavy this morning, it's absolutely beautiful out there. The plants, trees, grass all seem bright green in contrast, ripe and swollen, ready for when the sun comes back, things will really POP. We rarely get this kind of weather and it's totally soothing to my soul and senses, I too feel like a small, spring plant parched and thirsty from a long winter, ready to soak it all in, new growth.

• Yoga.
  

I took a yoga class yesterday and actually REALLY liked it. It was at Corepower Yoga in North Boulder, the room was 80 degrees and you sweat your butt off, it's different than any yoga I've taken before, I didn't have any high hopes for me and it but damn, we found some common ground.

• Wellies.
  

As in Wellington rubber boots. The last thing my Mom gave to me and I completely love these boots, they're so freaking practical, work well in the winter and the spring mud season we get at the house and the way they look, I feel like I'm tromping across some pasture land in Wales or Scotland to attend to my sheep (I wish). These boots have a transportive effect to the imagination.

Joyness is...

My two friends by Jenny Mendes

• Riding solo
  

• Riding with tunes

• Riding with Friends..okay U get the picture
  

• Connecting with old friends, good to see U Anne!

• Discovering and trying new things

• Springtime

• Sunshine

• Spring Cleaning

• Emptying out the attic and getting rid of JUNK
  

• A KING Size Bed with new sheets (thanks Todd and Eva, a dream come true)

• Having our house to ourselves on the weekend

• A fox eating snow in the backyard

• Watching the Ravens make their nightly sky run at twilight
  

• Watching old episodes of Star Trek in bed with my Cweetie

• Walking around the property with said Cweetie and looking for new lines for the Pleasure Bike Park

• Seeing/hearing that the Wrens have arrived and are building their nest again in the garden

• Preparing good food

• Fresh vegetables from the Farmers Market
  

• Blended walnuts, cashews and dates, OMG, who needs sugar, simple and so good!

• Roasted Sweet Potatoes mashed up with honey every Monday night, hell yeah!

• The Desert

• Music

• Art that is created from the soul

• Joylessness is possibly having to take time off the bike to rehab my back and hips, I don't know if I can do that!!
  

Candy Mountain!

This is AWESOME!
Double click on video for full screen.

Friends...past and present.

The following words are from a blog that I read called DailyOM, it resonated with me for the most part so I wanted to share. I'm not a typical gurl, whatever that means, but I have a few gurls in my life who are like sisters to me and mean a lot to me, we connect, this includes my actual biological sister as well. Most of the time I enjoy hanging out with the boys, my own interests run in that direction and I feel more comfortable when things are kept real without pretense but I've discovered other women who like those same qualities, women who like to play hard, get dirty and say it like it is but are also kind and supportive. So here it is..for what it's worth.

"As women embrace the fullness of who they are as individuals, they may find themselves supporting other women, helping others to reach the level of inner comfort and outer freedom that they themselves have found. Among those who are less sure of themselves and their place in the world, it may be more common to criticize other women than to seek their help. But there are things that a woman can only learn from another woman, as there are things about being a man that can only be learned from other men. We all recognize that we have much to learn from each other regardless of gender, but sometimes we could use a supportive role model that gives us a more precise example of what and who we can become.

There was a time where women stood together in a bond of sisterhood, women supporting women. It is only natural that the pendulum swings out of balance for a while so that we may have the experience of what we do not want. It is up to women to bring the pendulum back into balance and bring back the sacred sisterhood we yearn for at our core.

If we envision a world where women support each other and help each other find their place in an ever-changing world, then we can become the change we want to see. Jealousy, envy, criticism, and judgment are refuges for the insecure. As we help others to become self-assured, we create a world in which all people help each other, regardless of gender. Only women can make the change in how women are seen and understood, not just by other women but by the world at large. The way we speak about each other to other women and to the men in our lives informs everyone to treat us with the respect that all women, and all people, deserve."

Strawberry Whirl

A few more pictures from the Junc that Emma took and passed a long to me. Except for the first one which was taken out on the Western Rim, the rest are from the Lunch Loop area.
So what's up with Strawberry Whirl, well it's a quick and yummy recipe for a lovely, tasty drink that I wanted to share.
Take a handful of strawberries and throw them in a blender, a dash of honey, a half cup of unsweetened vanilla almond milk ( you can use sweetened if you want) and a 1/3 cup of vanilla coconut milk keifer (this stuff is so freaking good) then whirl it all together for a simple and delisch strawberry shake. No dairy, low fat, really good for you and satisfies that sweet tooth. You can add different fruits to make different flavors, yum!

Nice shot of Craig.

Ooo, another drop, yum!

This is the coolest exit from a ride.

Elephants..

Click on image to see LARGE

Vixen By Jenny Mendes

A little spring time Bunny Lady energy coming at 'cha.
Spring is truly upon us with the manic weather but the good news is the trails are drying out down lower pretty quickly regardless of the weather, we still have plenty of snow at our house for my taste right now. I was able to do a 2 hour after work ride yesterday at Hall Ranch and every bit of trail was good to go except for one small section that is buried deeply in the trees facing north, a small snow bank still hanging on for dear life required me to dismount for a moment or two. It was good. However my body is having issues, specifically the lower right sacrum/hip/back area, it's chronically annoying and aggravated only by my riding. I've been seeing a chiropractor lately, she discovered that my right leg is not shorter than my left, it's just being thrown out of whack by my pelvis/hip, it lengthens 1/2 inch every time she adjusts me, crazy!! I'm seeing a new PT person who thinks that I've compressed my muscles/hip from falling too often on that side and I've been doing stretches and core exercises but nothing seems to be working to relax that whole area. I've still got a tight, compressed lower back/hip and when I ride it eventually winds up even more and begins to throb and begs for me to stop and stretch. I think it may also be effecting other areas of my body which is interesting in a wholistic way, Geeezzzzz. I've also been paying closer attention to my diet lately, looking for ways to tweak things, it's been interesting especially because I already eat a healthy yet restrictive diet, no gluten, diary (now I'm even cutting out goat, boo!), way less sugar (only unrefined) and I'm on a 25 day cleanse, nothing too intense just trying to do some spring cleaning, declutter the body. I've been really psyched on cooking lately too, trying new things, I've discovered two new soups that I absolutly love, one is Cauliflower and the other is Broccoli, so freaking good and easy.
I'm focused on a lot right now, maybe too much, that would be my M.O. after all. I've limited my art shows this year so I only have one more and that's in Crested Butte in August, love this show, it's a good one but of course we get to ride some of the best single track anywhere as well, bonus! I have mixed feelings about scaling back the art biz, but I need a chance to explore some different opportunities, I've been making art and attending art shows for a long time now and I'm a little burned out on the whole thing. I miss just being creative for the sake of just being creative, no other motives, I want to see what happens when I take the pressure to SALE away from the process. I'd also like to take a real holiday next year, one without work involved, it's been a long time. We'll see..
Hippity Hop!

Juncingroovin

Craig, Emma, Randy and I headed west this past weekend for a quick weekend in the Junc and Fruita. Looking up towards the Ribbon trail, this is a vastabulous area.

Saturday was spent riding and playing in the Lunch Loop area pretty much all day, this is one of my favorite places right now. Emma taking a break from the wind which was with us off and on all weekend.

Emma heading up. Lovely dry trails, sweet!

Oh yes, we were starting to find what we were looking for, those little black diamonds started popping up. The Lunch Loop area in GJ has various trails designated specifically for freeriding, technically challenging trail that has various drops of different heights and technical difficulty, steps up and downs, gaps and rock chunk to get through, I'm so jealous as well as pleased to see something that's legal and free that is this gnarly and fun.

Who you calling little! Emma's elbow pads on the left, mine on the right. Too funny!

Oh yes, lunch is free and it's super tasty! Most of the features have go-arounds, in case the pucker factor is too high for ya. Just over this hill is a drop that begins Free Lunch.

Squeeze Me! Somewhere near the end of Free Lunch. Out of order, oh well.

Craig dropping in! It was super windy at the top of Free Lunch, we had wind off and on all weekend but no bad weather really. You had to be careful on the drops with the wind, you could feel it catching you and moving you around. Not the best conditions for catching air but it was all good and we opened our wings and flew.

Me dropping in. There were a couple of bigger drops that I wanted to do but without my full face I didn't feel totally comfortable, so I will be back. The trannies on the drops were really nice.

Craig checking his balance in the wind.

Tight and chunky switchy on Pre Nup, love it! You could spend so much time just sessioning stuff out here, up and down.

Hah! I don't think so. We headed to Rabbit Valley that night to camp and then ride Western Rim on Sunday morning. Fast and fun and different than Saturday but so awesome in it's own sweet desert way. We had some rain during the night on Saturday but Sunday broke with sun and no wind, that changed as the day wore on but it didn't get in the way of lotsa riding and just being, not thinking, laughing a lot, getting dirty, dancing a little, drinking a bit, staring deeply into a fire while the dogs checked out stray calves, none were harrassed. It was deeply satisfying.

Just a short video to show that there are multiple lines on the trails at the Lunch Loop. This is somewhere along Holy Cross. I took the drop, Emma took the flow.