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| I found a beautiful California Buckeye on the ground. The early runner beats the squirrels! |
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| Mail from Germany |
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| Library books |
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| A tissue pack - this might have made the happiest because seeing it transported me back to our town in Denmark, where I often saw them on the ground. |
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| Fruit from two neighbors including a new-to-me fruit (in the upper part of the picture, the ones that look like tiny tangerines) called calamondin, which is a cousin of the kumquat |
I was so happy to have good weather for the Tour de Foothills, which starts five miles from our house. It also goes within seven blocks of our house, but we did cycle all the way to end.
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| Maybe next year an electric car company will be the sponsor, which might be nicer for the cyclists riding behind the pace car. |
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| a bit before the start |
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| route stickers, but not the kind my sister allows in the national parks |
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| D. and I rode the shortest route, 50 km, and finished quickly so there were not many people at the post-ride Tour de Brews. |
People in our neighborhood were invited to take part in a bird study. Sparrows had been studied not far away in the local outdoor lab/field station and the researchers wanted to compare it to yards not too far away.
Open traps were set with a bit of food inside in hopes of getting the birds used to going in and out. I think the squirrels might have eaten the food first.
Our yard was chosen as home base for a couple early mornings when the traps were set. Not one bird was caught in any of the yards. The students were reminded that there lessons to be learned from negative results, but I think it was disappointing.
Now we have a camera set up for a week, just in case there is something to be learned from birds visiting the yard.
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| The signs were up, |
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| the truck was at the school, |
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| and the baby and I met the friendly guy delivering the books. He said it he feels safe driving the truck despite it being obvious that he is transporting children's books. |
Twenty years ago the 110 freeway was shut down for cars and open to bicyclists and pedestrians. It happened again this year.
Here's a video from the event.
And here is an article from the LA Times that has a nice drone shot of the event.
Four of us left town at 7am and cycled to the end of the A Line (previously the L Line and before that the Gold Line).
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| It felt more crowded than it looks in this picture. |
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| Tandem pulling a band on a trailer |
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| downtown LA in the background |
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| view from a bridge |
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| slow bike race |
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| It was not too crowded on the metro to the end of the line. |
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| About ten minutes from the metro stop was a deli that something for everyone before cycling the 12 miles back home. |
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| I love going to water polo games, although it turns out I love it more when the team wins. |
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| Village Venture seemed a slightly smaller, but still busy enough and filled with people we hadn't seen in over a year. |
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| I liked that there were some hands-on activities. |
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| I saw one of our favorite trash and recycling guys, who said he is on a different route now. |
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| My very favorite booth is the golden retriever rescue group. |
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| I finished that day volunteering at the League of Women Voters booth. It used to be busy because of upcoming elections, but now the state and local elections all happen on even years. The California primary was moved from June to March, which was the biggest news we had to share. |
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| Last weekend was the Family Dance at school. (Note my favorite sign saying no smoking anywhere - no smoking inside or outside campus - that's the whole world.) |
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| The theme was Dino Disco and some people dressed up. |
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| I wore a dinosaur shirt from the peak of the disco era. |
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| There were activities, |
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| more activities, |
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| games, |
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| and dancing (although it was not disco music). |
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| including a necklace like this, which I was happy to learn that my friend won. |
