Corvallis walking tours

The bike races are on, and from the front desk at the museum you can see them fly by, downhill. As the day goes on, the level of racing expertise will rise, so the speed will increase. Pretty exciting, even for those not on bikes.

The bicyclists are lucky this year, at least with regards to the weather. It is glorious, with temperatures that seem perfect for outdoor exercise. Hopefully we have seen the last of the painful injuries.

Today the presence of the bicyclist is really felt, because the course is taking them up and down the hills and main streets of town. Watching them race around the corners very close together gives rise to motherly fears.

P.S. the latest word is that there have been two accidents today, in which the riders broke their collarbones. The worst accident I had biking was a cracked rib and I did not have racing as an excuse.

Busy busy at the museum this morning, partly because of the bike races. I was feeling rather philosophical this morning, ruminating that a person might as well be conscious of their own interests, because if not, our unconscious will be! And since I do believe in some form of collective unconscious I say that in the singular.

One of our visitors this morning told me something interesting about the races. He said the course is well laid out, because there are no curves on the downhill parts of the race. This makes it much safer for the contestants. How smart!

P.S. Now another guest just told me that the course yesterday was hilly and curved and there was a major pileup that involved eighty riders. Some of them had to go to the hospital and are definitely out of the race. I wonder why I am getting such mixed messages?

Somehow I got the idea that the Spring semester at WNMU was going to end this week. I had looked up the semester end online and that is what I thought I saw. Not so - it will last through most of May.

Makes me wonder if the dose of supplemental B12 I am taking every day is not quite doing its job. What I really think, though, is that websites are confusing. I have to believe not just to me. The weather continues so gorgeous that maybe I should not have put flannel sheets on my bed today, but I am not yet too warm at night. Probably in May I will be too embarrassed to use flannel sheets any longer, even if they still feel comfy.

Everyone around me keeps saying that the month of June is the unbearably warm time in Silver City. Last year was not typical, people seem to agree, so I have yet to experience a typical Silver City June. Meanwhile I will be gone in May for a while this year. In the future June might be my escape month, but this year I am not running away, I am running toward family visits.

Another ideal day, although this afternoon is a little windy. This morning a friend of mine and I decided to look for a black hawk. Evidently they are to be found along the San Vicente Creek in spite of their overall rarity.

We went downstream from town to the path that goes under the noisy Hudson Street bridge. My friend pulled up her Cornell Ornithology Lab AP and carried it as we walked along the stream. It picked up quite a few birds by their calls; we would never have known they were there.

Cassin’s kingbird, yellow warbler, white-winged dove, house finch, scarlet tanager, a nuthatch that I am not familiar with and would have loved to see, ladder-backed woodpecker, and more that I had not suspected were around were picked up by the AP in spite of the fact that bridge traffic muddied the reception somewhat. (We know this because the white-winged dove was audible almost constantly but the AP could not filter it from the background noise very often.

I did twice hear a call that might have been a hawk and when I got back home I looked up a video of the hawk which included its call. I am sure we did hear that hawk, although the recording was not from New Mexico. In my memory it sounded just the same.

We probably should have left home much earlier for a sighting, but who knows? It might be fun to return to the site during the bike races. Maybe there will be bunches of birds seeking refuge from the mad hurtling of the cyclers.

I will report if I see anyone dancing around a May Pole. The Meeting in Santa Fe used to have a May celebration (and perhaps it still does) but I think it has been decades since I have seen one. I do believe it is a wonderful tradition.

This weekend there is supposed to be a tailgate gem and mineral show in the big parking lot across from Gough Park. I will dodge the hurtling bicyclists in the big bike race to see it, if the idea appeals to my family visiting for the weekend.

Busy morning at the museum, wow! The weather is gorgeous and people are in the mood to get out and about. Today is Earth Day and when I leave here I am going to make tracks to Gough Park and catch what I can of the food and festivities. A wearable art fashion show sounds like a lot of fun. It should still be happening by the time I get there.

The Farmers Market has multiple times the vendors and products for sale than it did a couple of weeks ago, including more produce. I bought a bundle of giant asparagus, a big bunch of radishes, and tamales this morning. There was also lettuce and spinach for sale, sprouts, and tomato plants that were already over twelve inches high. If I were not leaving town, those plants would have tempted me irresistibly. People sell soup, sauces, honey and jellies. Eggs, too.

There is another use for the fabulous Oregon holly here - as a ground cover. I do not know if that was the intent for the College Street front yard I have been admiring or whether the plant just took over, but it looks good. It is not low to the ground, of course. It reaches at least two or three feet high in spots.

Tonight there is a screening of My Teacher, the Octopus at the Silco Theater - if I understand correctly. These days I often do not. I will show up at the advertised time, and if I am mistaken I will go back home again, none the worse off for a little walk downtown.

The concert association also has an offering at the University tonight - a performance by a brass quintet comprised of women. This might be enjoyable, but I can only handle sitting down and being a good girl in a concert situation once in a blue moon these days. I would rather see something naturalistically scientific. If I get bored or otherwise indisposed I can walk out without offending the performers.

P.S. Just stopped by the conference room in the Public Library and saw photos you Karan Zarrabi, all of which are attractive. Some of them are thought-provoking. Or magnificent. Or curiosity-arousing. A very intriguing collection.

Silver City has so many events I evidently cannot keep them straight, so I am firing myself from that job unless I have the written poster or notification right in front of me. The event at the Silco is Tapestry of Talent on April 15th. You have to order those tickets online (how snobby!) The one on the 22nd (Tapestry of Fashion?) is going to be at Gough Park, I am told a part of Earth Day.

I have seen two Oregon grape holly plants that are more magnificent than any I saw in Oregon. Of course I was not looking too hard when I lived there. I had one once that did not do too much of anything. It was in deep shade in Santa Fe. Maybe I failed to water it enough.

One of them is visible from the Broadway bridge near the Visitor Center. Look down on the North side and you can see a large plant with monster bright yellow inflorescences growing along the San Vicente Creek below. I had not even been aware that the plant was Spring-blooming! It looks about twelve feet high.

Joke is on me again. I took another look at the flyer for April 22 and it says Tapestry of Fashion. So maybe the show at the Silco Theater needs a stage, not big walls. It does not really matter; wearable art is still art and I am looking forward to it either way.

In a way living in Silver City is always living in a wearable art show. The other day I met a woman wearing an amazing embroidered jacket that t she spent six weeks working on decades ago. It still looks fresh and new.

I am finally getting busy so I might not be getting around to writing as often. True confession: it is also that sometimes I succumb to the temptation to play Spelling Bee first. This is likely to be the kiss of death to my writing anything.

Silver City had an usually bitter winter this year. Due to a gas leak my heater has been turned off, and last night the temperature went down to 20 degrees! Strangely enough, it felt about the same as usual - maybe because I used the oven for baking.

Today is another matter. It feels colder! The weather here is warming up, though, at least for the next few days. Silver City has events scheduled for the month of April, including a fiber art show. I guess because it is a tapestry show it will be located in the Silco Theater. Plenty of wall space!

I guess people around here are not particularly interested in April Fool’s Day. I did not celebrate it, and I saw no one else trying to celebrate it, either. In fact, no one even mentioned it. There was a history conference here this weekend, so the Museum was very busy with involvement and overflow from that.

Albuquerque was fun. I am seeing many new murals there, and a resident just told me the mayor has a youth project in which young people are putting up mosaics at the convention center and near the entrances to old town. I will try to see them the next time I am in town.

The flight back on Thursday beat the winds that were supposed to spring up later in the day; it was fine. It was wonderful, in fact. For the second time, I was the only passenger. It makes you feel like a jet-setter.