Busy, Busy

Oh my, it was a busy summer and autumn! After our first successful "date" on the Kinetic Sculpture Race weekend (last blog post), Thorne and I decided to keep seeing each other. I don't think I've ever been so busy. We were going to one event or another every week or two, and I had just enough free time to put things away and post photos before the next event came up. So below are slide shows of some events from the last five months. You can follow back to my Picasa site if you really want to see more.

I also got back into haunting cemeteries, stopping at some on my drives home from the Bay Area, or where ever I happened to be. I took piles of photos, and posted them. Not all are especially artsy or significant, but there's some element of interest to me in each one. I love the different marker shapes, symbols and scripts, poems, information - all of it.

While looking up some information on a fraternal order mentioned on one gravestone, I discovered The Association of Graveyard Rabbits. It inspired me to start a blog devoted to my cemetery photos. I'd been thinking about doing that anyway, and the opportunity to become a graveyard rabbit encouraged me to do it. The Samhain season helped. Hopefully I'll keep posting something of interest every now and then. Anyway, there's a link to that blog in my side bar. Enjoy.

Loch Morgan. Please don't offer me any St. Germain for a while, please.


The Art Deco Society of California's Boating Picnic on Lafayette Reservoir. The best bunch of people I've met while crashing a party. I wish I had time to add another century to my playing.


Petaluma Rivertown Revival. Another good time at an event where I knew no one. An impromptu entry into a heat of the Art Boat Races allowed Thorne to show off his rowing prowess. I excelled at cox'ning.


Hiking on the Dollason Prairie Trail. Proving that we can have fun in the 21st Century, too.


Canoeing up Eureka and Freshwater Sloughs. Look ma, no costumes!


TSCA's Marshall Beach campout. Lots of great people I barely got to meet; we were out plating in the boat so much.


Excalibur Medieval Faire. I had fun pouring ale in the tavern, while Thorne stood out front hawking for us.


Hakone Daichakai. OMG, what happened to Thorne??

2011 Kinetic Sculpture Race

Kinetic Kraziness and a lot of fun.

There are lots of videos in the album. Beware of motion sickness with some of those taken on the water.

2011 Big Lagoon MessAbout

Camping and Sailing. What's not to like?

It's Swarming Season Again

I had a "preswarm" yesterday - the bees were bearding & masses were flying in front of the hive. I took a couple of pictures, and then waited. After 10 or 15 minutes they went back in. So I figured I'd better make a split. This hive lost its queen a couple of weeks ago (I'm not sure what happened), and I left a couple of queen cells. So I was pulling frames for the nuc, and checked on the Q cells. One queen was hatching, but was having trouble - the end of her cell was constricted, and she couldn't get through. So I pulled a bit of the cell away, and she emerged very lively, and went down into the nuc. I returned the frame with her sister's cell to the main hive.



While I was doing all that, another hive swarmed. The bees came boiling out of the hive. I wish I'd caught that on video, but was busy with the first hive. As usual, they landed in the apple tree. I did get some photos and video of them flying and alighting - pretty nifty. I set up another nuc and collected them. It was the first time I didn't suit-up, and was bare-handed (I did have my veil on). It was a bit unnerving when I shook the branch, and had a mass of bees fall on my arm, but they were mellow. I did get stung once - maybe one got between my arm and the tree?





I reported on this on FB, and a beek friend who's keeping a split of her own over here said she'd seen bearding on one of my hives the day before. -But it was a different hive. >sigh< I suppose I need to make a split of that one today. Actually, I'm going to Demaree that one. I just hope the queen doesn't decide to swarm anyway. But I have a lure hive up in the apple tree, just in case.

I love my bees, but am starting to wonder about the time I need to spend on them. Another >sigh<.

2011 Actions of the Lowe Countries

This was an Eighty Years War period weekend, full of pike and musket drills. This may have been our last time at Camp Tamorancho, in the hills above San Anselmo. The camp has become more restrictive about black powder use, and may completely ban them by next year. Even though they were not allowed to fire them, John and Tony brought their artillery to show off. Mabel and Mary Ann, the twin cannon, helped create a very nice entry into camp.


The Morgan's Company presence grew to five, as Tony and Harvey joined John, Pia and me. We gained points after a catastrophic break in the tavern tent's ridge pole. Harvey was summoned, and used his sailorly know-how to lash a splint onto the pole, thus saving the day - and night of drinking and gambling. That night we used up our good karma (and possibly the camp's good will) by winning seven of the ten raffle prizes.



This year's new fun was having Spanish spies marauding on Saturday night. The Romero brothers spiced up the night watch by sneaking around and "killing" the unwary with a cry of "Attaque!". On their watch, Tony and John successfully thwarted those Spanish dogs, but great damage had already been done. During earlier watches, the brothers killed many a guard, Colonel Gaul and Captain Siler. They also spiked the artillery and captured our flag.



The wildflowers were gorgeous, and I took a little time from my water-bearing duties to explore and take photos.

Ohanami and Chanoyu Demonstration

For our April Chanoyu demo, we "flash mobbed" the gazebo in Eureka to enjoy tea under the sakura. We had about 15 guests enjoy a chaboko-style (picnic box) Tea with us. We also got into our kimono (not in public) in record time with minimal frustration.

Ohanami 2011

The wind drove us inside this year, but we managed to have a lovely Hanami Tea and picnic in the living room.

2011 Aleutian Cackling Goose Fly-off

This year, Holly and I represented Team Vogel-Da and the Sirens. We got sprinkled on a bit, but the temperature was comfortable. There were more families with small children in attendance, and the little ones seemed to have a great time splashing in puddles.


Blurry image of the cackler flock

Although the big cackler fly-off wasn't as massive as the last two years, it was still impressive. And even a bad day birding is better than a good day working - unless your job is birding. As we strolled along the levees, we also saw northern shovelers, greater scaups, green-winged teals, buffleheads, pied-billed grebes, tundra swans, Canada geese, snow geese (?), Ross' geese, great egrets, marbled godwits, a northern harrier, song sparrows and violet-green swallows. Marsh wrens scolded from under cover.

Holly has a nifty video of some of the geese flying over.

Twelfth Night Party

Another smashing end to the Yuletide at the freshly expanded Prancing Pissmire.