JULY 31 - One, Two, Skip-a-Few, and Star Struck in a Belated Sense

At noon today, we finished three days of counting STUFF. All kinds of stuff, spools of thread, balls of yarn, and even worms in jars. On Thursday and Friday I get to go in to work and do all the adding up of many numbers, sitting in the back room like a female Bob Cratchitt, using all the math skills I've retained after teaching grade 4 math for many, many, years. Which means that tomorrow is my only day off this week, so I have to decide whether I'm going to spend it lazing around, houseworking, or pedalling around Surrey looking for excitement. 

I did have some excitement today, although I went from almost missing it to almost acting like a tongue tied fool.

Imagine this. You were (or in this case, I was) walking down Moncton Street this afternoon on my way to the bank, chatting with Marina, and we passed by  the filming of Once Upon A Time,

which is very exciting if you (or in this case, I) live a relatively boring life. See that big guy with the white shirt, sort of standing there leaning on a dolly? He was a security guy, and security guys don't like it when someone tries to take pictures of famous people while they are filming a scene (wet blankets, that's what they are.) I had to sneak this phone-camera shot in as I pretended to dial a number. As it was, the two gals by the bikes turned around when they heard the 'click' and I was just waiting for him to come running and try to get the film out of my phone. 

However, while passing by Granny's Cafe (usually known as The Cannery Cafe, the home of the best ever muffins and carrot cake in the Whole World), this familiar looking guy crossed my path. (What went through my mind? Well, you know how minds work - rapid bits of thought that flitter quick as a wink - one of Steve's friends maybe? I've seen him somewhere before, maybe he worked at Rod's .....) and I said, "Hi!"

He said, "Hi, how are you?", and of course I replied, "Fine, thanks, how are you?" 

Well, you know how the conversation goes. But mid-way through, I realized I WAS TALKING TO PRINCE CHARMING! OH! MY! GOD! 

I told Howard about this. I told him if I had known I would meet Prince Charming, I would have waited. I don't think he thought that was funny.

But, come on now - doesn't this make you wish you were Snow White?

During a filming last fall, I had the same kind of chat with Robert Carlyle, in his role as Mr Gold. That was very beyond cool, too. Just not as cool as conversing with Prince Charming. Sigh.

JULY 28 - Wheelbarrow Revisited, Flowers'n'Weeds, and Knees

A year makes a difference in some things. I took this photo in the spring, peeking through a fence into somebody's back yard. Seems like they needed a landscaper to put that wheelbarrow into good use then -

and now, it seems they need one even more.

Today was a very quiet, relaxing day. I did a bit of housework, a couple of loads of laundry, spent time with a couple of grandkids, finished reading The Shining, had a dozey kind of almost-nap, and went for a stroll in the evening. I did have better luck than the fellow who strolled this route before me - at least I was still wearing two shoes when I got home.

You can tell some people love their gardens, and their plants. My friendly neighbourhood landscaper, aka my son, tells me this is Lace Cap Hydrangea, and as Lizzie would say, it is 'bootifool.'

 And then there are the things that grow where the wild things are, like in front of this abandoned house. Some people are using the property for a dumping ground, but the seeds are doing a pretty good job of covering the garbage. These are fluffy cottony balls, growing amid thistles and other unwanted beauties.

At the corner of a well-kept yard, a fence keeps these at bay, but all they do is brighten up the sidewalk. Huge Shasta Daisies and Fennel. Steve said he could almost taste the licorice when he looked at this picture.

Some of you probably know I was having massive trouble with my right knee last spring and summer - an MRI showed torn cartilage on both sides, and I was hobbling around painfully with the help of a cane for a few months. The specialist recommended a 'procedure,' which seemed easy peasy lemon squeezy to him (after all, it wasn't his knee.)  I asked him if my knee would get better by itself, and he said, no it wouldn't, and it would probably get worse. The operation had a high success rate - however, there was also a chance  it would make no difference, or heaven forbid, make it worse. I decided to go with the surgery, as I wanted to be more active again, so it was scheduled for September. However, I had to postpone it because we were moving house, and I didn't even want to consider doing that whilst on crutches.

After moving to Surrey, I stopped needing the cane. I started walking/half-running up and down sky train stairs (depending on whether I was coming or going), and I started walking around Surrey, pulling my trusty buggy behind me. Then I started riding Breehy over uphills and downhills, and yes, even occasionally on the level.

No problem - until today. Tonight I have a painful swollen knee. I know I could never play Mother Brown in this routine. All I can say is, if I'm not able to walk or ride anymore, I will definitely have the 'procedure.' At least it will give me something to write about.

JULY 27 - Uncoffee Morning, Tynehead Park, and Uphill All The Way

What you see below is the great amount of coffee my loving husband left for me this morning, and I wasn't very impressed when I stumbled out of bed and slithered downstairs for my morning coffee and toast - which turned into Cranberry Juice and toast, and let me tell you, that did NOT do the trick.

So I went back to bed, and slept for a couple of hours, then just stayed in bed for another hour or so, just because I could. I did finally get up though, and was ready to drag Breehy out the door before 10AM.

It was a grey cloudy day, and only 15 degrees when I left. To tell the truth, I really didn't want to leave at all, but I had promised an adventure and I was going to have one even if it killed me. My muscles remembered Wednesday's trip to the Alex Fraser Bridge, and started to ache as soon as I started to pedal, but I stayed true and soldiered on. My biggest incentive was waiting on King George Boulevard, where I was going to treat myself to a BIG COFFEE and a small breakfast at A&W, but of course that didn't work out, not when I got there and realized it was a Dairy Queen location, and not an A&W. Rats. I didn't know if Dairy Queen served breakfast, but I doubted it - even so, I rode around the parking lot,  couldn't find anywhere to lock up Breehy (we are not taking any more chances) and headed on my way again. There had to be a coffee somewhere with my name on it.

My plan was to go down 96th Avenue and brave the big big hill to Tynehead Park. (You can do it, yes you can.) I had done most of this ride last week, a lot of trees, a lot of hills, a lot of residential areas - a bit boring, I suppose. However, it turned quite pleasant as the minutes ticked by, and I had to take off my sweater after a bit.

The outer edge of Green Timbers Park was full of potential treats - Blackberry bushes. I can't wait for the fruit to ripen, and then I'm going Berry Picking! Going to get me a Pail! Blackberries are like giant black raspberries, but they have a different taste, and make great jam, desserts and pies. Yum. And the best thing about them? THEY ARE FREE!

I passed this fence last time, and it still amazes me. Why anyone would entwine old artificial Christmas tree branches in a wire fence is beyond me. (That's not really what it is, but it sure looks like it.) With so many choices for bordering your plot - hedges, cedar privacy fences, picket fences - why oh why would someone do this?

There aren't many eating establishments in this mostly residential area, but every now and then a corner store would appear. I passed by Subway (don't like their breakfast stuff, plus it was on the other side of the road), a Macs Convenience (don't know about their coffee), and a few corner stores. I was getting pretty thirsty and a bit hungry by now - and for some reason starting thinking about lunch when I attended Memorial University in St John's, Newfoundland, when I was oh-so-young. One of our main meals, lunch was 'a coke, a smoke, and a bag of chips' and of course, supper would be that famous student meal, fries, dressing and gravy - with fried chicken added if one were flush that particular evening.

My present diet is a bit better than that of days gone by, but I still got excited when I saw the Golden Arches - and had a muffin with a much awaited Coffee. Without the smoke, a much (?) healthier lunch than years ago.

And then we came upon trouble. This was about where we stopped and wimped out last week. I was pretty certain Tynehead Park was at the valley below, and pretty sure we could make it downhill. We would worry about uphill later. And in case you are wondering - we walked down the hill, although Breehy was like an excited dog pulling at her leash, we walked down the hill.

Unfortunately, the sidewalk once again ended just after the view in this picture, but there was a grass path by the road, with masses of wildflowers and clover at the side, so we had a very aromatic stroll. When this path petered out, we just snuck onto the bike path, even though we were headed in the wrong direction, but it was only for a few feet, and we came to the entrance to Tynehead Park.

Even though we were urged to enjoy the park I found out that Breehy and her kind are not welcome to use the many trails that go past all the fun stuff. We could have done the 5+ km trail around the far edge, but that was it.

We decided to walk to the Serpentine River - at least I would see a river before I started home again. At least, one would think I would. First we found the Tynehead Hatchery, where baby salmon are released into the river.

A little walk away, we find an open gate with a sign OPEN - WELCOME, VISITORS so we went down the little hill, thinking the river must be close by. However, we were met by a not-very-welcoming person, who informed us that we had to leave as he was leaving immediately and was going to lock the gate. I said, do I have time to take one picture - and he said I had one minute. So I took that minute, and got this -
a cool use for dead CDs - if you happen to have a river in your yard to hang them over.

Then of course I had to high-tail it out of there before he ran over us with his massive truck. Not a very friendly species of Park Ranger in this park.

I decided to do the Perimeter Trail - the only one where I could ride, so headed along - and we came to the road. Trail petered out, and once again construction had the sidewalk and obviously part of the trail torn away. A fellow biker near the entrance had told me about a paved Power Tower path that would take me all the way back my stompin' grounds, thus avoiding the noisy highways, so I crossed the road and Voila! there one was!

It didn't take me long to realize though, that this path was actually taking me in the wrong direction. Oh oh. Turn around and head back to the road. Next was a bridge - finally I would see the Serpentine River!

Oh. This would be more of a brook. Or a creek. Not a river.

And just past the ... river ... the Power Tower path started up again. However. I do believe there was a lot more hill than the road I took to get to the park. It was non-stop, as you can see -

I watched, huffing and puffing and hunching over a low fence, as a biker wended her way up the biggest, longest hill in the history of bike riding, wondering how far she'd get before she'd have to walk too. Imagine my surprise when she biked all the way up -

'Wow, I'm impressed,' I panted.

'I think my bike is built more for riding up hill than yours,' she replied - and then she zoomed across the road and whizzed up the hill beyond. She's probably in Alberta by now.

Remember, all these shots are either going uphill - or looking backwards at uphills I've already gone up, even though they may look like downhills, they are not. I never had the pleasure of going down any of these hills.

And just to remind me that Park Rangers aren't the only mammals to watch out for in parks -

I was kind of glad I wasn't East Indian, because if I were I would probably be eaten by a coyote, as the East Indian words of caution are all rubbed and worn out.

I believe these art installations are at one of the entrances to Green Timbers Park on the other side of 96 Avenue. Once again, Surrey surpassed Richmond regarding art.

CONTINUUM: FROM SEED TO SHELTER

When I crossed the next road, just a few meters away, I was surprised (and joyful) to see Surrey Memorial hospital up ahead. Home was but a bit on the level, an uphill, a downhill, another uphill, and then a nice long downhill away.

That wasn't a very long bike ride either - 17.6 kilometers. I figured I didn't have enough punishment to warrant a day off, so after a late lunch ( scrambled eggs with cheese and a Kaiser bun), I headed out on foot with my faithful, much neglected buggy, for a trip to the bank and store. Another 5.6 kilometers.

So, let's see. This plus that equals ...  23.6 kilometers ... and that equals ... 14 miles.

JULY 26 - RERUN WARNING - The Bike Ride

Here is a link to way back when Breehy was brand new, about the first time I took her for a ride. This explains why she is still relatively brand new now.

A lot of you have already read this from a previous blog, but I think some of you may not have had the (pleasure?) opportunity to do so. And this is an easy way to fill the space in for July 26, which was just another boring day of work, housework, and a bowl of cereal for dinner. At 9:10pm.

So get comfy - there's a lot of words here, no pictures - and click The Bike Ride .

JULY 25 - Uphill, Downhill, and Views from the Alex Fraser Bridge

One Day Off sandwiched between two Day Ons, so after staying in bed until after 8 o'clock, making Raisin a la Smoke Alarm Toast and pouring two cups of coffee (which I never did drink), I decided to take Breehy for a ride. One good thing about not deciding on a route is that you will never get sidetracked, so we left to go up 134th Street to see what we could see. Decided to turn up 96 Avenue, as I was getting a bit thirsty and had, as usual, forgotten the water, so it was a little detour to the same market as last time, to get another cheap bottle of water. Left Breehy by the door, and sped to the back cooler to grab water - lineup to pay - and out the door - where there was no Breehy.

'MY BIKE IS GONE!'

No, somebody had moved it because he said it was in the way. I had made sure it wasn't in the way, however since he owned the market, I guess it was his call. I don't like him, so I won't buy any more of his water. 

On to 120th Street, aka Scott Road, the dividing line between Delta and Surrey. I decided to travel down as far as Nordel (which is 88th Avenue - I hope you're keeping this all straight as you may want to follow my route someday), and check out the establishments on the way.

Lots of Indian restaurants, Jimmy's Cafe (which I am definitely going to check out some day - all day breakie for 3.99), and this Mediterranean place with a cool painting on its wall -

 - and tons of not really interesting stuff like insurance agencies, garages, etc. When I reached Nordel, I first decided to keep going on down Scott Road, but then changed my mind - maybe today would be the day I reached the noble Alex Fraser Bridge!

Had to drive in here and photograph the new pharmacy - whenever I see this sign, I think An Idiot Pharmacy, so I will be unlikely to get my prescription filled here.

 Pedalling on. Breehy hadn't had a lot of pushes yet, although the leg muscles were a bit tired. Nordel is all downhill anyway, so hopefully the brakes still worked.

 Oh, this was nice. A little path fenced off from the busy street. Sort of peaceful, even though the rumble of trucks was still noisy.

 But like all good things, it too came to an end. Which of course, meant a bloody backtrack. I hate backtracks, especially when they are uphill.

 So it was back on the sidewalk again - until alas, the sidewalk disappeared. You may not be familiar with Nordel road, but it's always full of speeding transport trucks as well as other traffic, all trying to get the hell out of Surrey. I didn't feel safe 'sharing' the road, so decided to backtrack once again and turn at the previous crossroad. Little did I know at this point, that if I had crossed Nordel and kept going down the other side of the road, I would have shortened my morning jaunt considerably. But that's me, isn't it now - if two roads converge, I will choose the wrong one.

 Brooke Road was a downhill kind of road, so I was hoping that it would lead to a bike path for the bridge. Since the only person I saw to ask regarding said path responded with 'I don't speak English,' I kept going, and eventually came to River Road, farther down from the massive construction that stopped my progress last week. However, there was a nice big truck going around spraying water on the road, so even though the sun was blasting, I was still getting rained on every time a truck sped by.

The Traffic Lady I stopped to talk to advised me to cross over and go down the other side of the Road, as that would lead me to the bike path. So once again, a backtrack to a crosswalk, and on we rolled. Blackberry bushes didn't stop us ...

... mud didn't stop us ...

... because we could see our target in the distance ...

 ... however, this stopped us. They were tearing up the bloody sidewalk. Traffic on River Road was down to two very narrow lanes, and Breehy and I decided we didn't feel lucky enough to chance wheeling down the wrong side of the road, so it was .... I wish I hadn't given up swearing ...

... another backtrack, this time to a road we had passed quite a while before. This road was an uphill road, which more than made up for the downhill road we had previously taken. Still looking for that elusive bike path (I had other more colourful names for it by now) we headed up and around and over - found another path .. dare we?

 
 We dared.

Came out on yet another street - kept going - and ended up on a pedestrian/bike overpass about 500 metres from the end of the sidewalk several pictures back. But see, on the other side of the road? A sidewalk. However, this overpass didn't meet up with that particular sidewalk - instead it meandered through a brand new yet unfinished huge townhouse complex, with roads like mazes and no obvious way out - until I was lucky enough to see a gal rush from her door. She showed me a secret gate, and rushed through it - I think she was 'late for a very important date on the other side of the looking glass' - and I followed her, turned downhill, and once again came to Nordel.

 So, I know some of you are thinking, 'Is she going home? You know she's going home now. If she has any sense, she'll go home.'

Ha. Down the road we went - downhill was so very nice, we didn't even think about the uphill that awaited us on the way back, and finally - we were rewarded. The bike path to the bridge!

 
This path also leads to Burns Bog , which I do want to explore some day, but not today. Today was the Bridge day.

 And there we were, getting really close. Finally.

I had no trouble keeping within the speed limit, especially since it was my turn to push Breehy.

You see these big huge cables, where they are attached to the big white thingies? They are kept in place with two hose clamps, very similar to the ones I've seen in jars in the garage. We got a bit nervous at this point, but wouldn't give up.

Aha! The apex, acme , apogee, crest , crown- the top. I had already decided not to cross the entire bridge, for two reasons. One, it would mean yet another long uphill on the way back over, and two, there is a very stinky sewage plant on the other side, and Breehy has no windows to roll up.

Here is the mighty Fraser River, with a tugboat pulling a barge of sawdust.

 New Westminster

 Surrey - taken with a zoom lens - see what I mean by uphill?

 Way up in the distance, you can see the slight curve of the orange Patulla Bridge. Surrey on one side, and Burnaby on the other.

 Here's the other start of North Delta.

I didn't take any pictures on the way home. It was a gruelling many miled uphill walk dragging a pooped out Breehy, stopping in the shade of any tall wall or fence that offered any shade and sprawling against anything that was sprawlable on the way. I found some comfort on a cement barrier that was next to a tall fence, and shimmied my ass up to sit on it, whilst letting my shoes fall to the sidewalk and hauling off my helmet and letting the breeze from the trucks spin my hair around. One road up from Scott Road, and it was finally downhill once more. Sweet sweet downill, almost all the way home.

So, home to Google maps and distance trackers. Seems we had travelled over 18 miles. That doesn't include the backtracks.

All I can think of was the conversation between my brain and my body after I got home:
Brain: Yeah, I knew you could do it!
Body: What the f...k were you thinking.