Bogieblog

Heels and Wheels

Today a few of us LOH gals met at our local HD and took a nice ride, ending up at Monadnock H-D (in Swanzee) for their first Heels & Wheels event. I wasn't planning on putting my bike in as a contestant, but it ended up being in anyway. There were a total of 10 bikes and wait for it, wait for it, well, it didn't come in first. In fact, I'm probably the only one that voted for it. It was a lousy day for showing the color as it was overcast. It was still pretty bright, but in those conditions it just looks a root beer color, not the fiery red with gold/green/orange/blue sparkles in the paint. Heck, who am I kidding, there was no way I was winning with Michelle's bike there. Hers is a beautiful purple and black with a mural painted on the fairing depicting some of the cross-country trips she has ridden. We had a great time anyway.

My bike is far right - Michelle's is the purple/black one  in the middle

 

Other bikes in the contest. I figured if Michelle didn't win, the white bike would. It also changes colors with light pinks and turquoise undertones. Plus she had some customer pinstripes too.

Darlene had her trike there too (and that is her at the table).

Here is Michelle with her trophy

And the 4 of us mugging around

h, and I met a Facebook friend. I don't remember why I accepted her friend invite, but she and i have been "friends" for a couple of years. This is the first time we have met. She rides the Spyder trike - she is sitting behind, second from the right

Great day for a ride and the event gave us a destination that had some great scenery to ride thru to get there.

Bloom Time

Got home from work the other day and all the phlox were in bloom - order of pics: Phlox along driveway (new part put in last year); phlox along front of the house; phlox in a planter (in front of primrose in next pictures)

So wer the red English primrose (only took pics of one) and an azalea just behind the primrose.

Mowed my neighbor's place Thursday night, and finished up the tank of gas mowing part of mine. Finished my mowing last night and noticed the Rhodi is throwing a few blooms. Hope I get a nice bloom this year - I am so spoiled by its mostly spectacular shows!

Tuesday the crab apple was nearly at full bloom

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of peak bloom. Between my working hours and house sparrows attacking the blooms, I didn't even get a chance to see it. I don't know why the birds were attacking the blooms, but I watched a flock doing so the evening the pictures were taken. It seems unlikely that there were that many bugs and the birds continued to worry at petals that had fallen on the ground, so maybe it was a nectar/pollen thing for them (which I don't see in any book). One thing that kind of amuses me is the crab apple is done blooming and the lilacs just started blooming a couple of days ago.

A couple of weekends ago I did a thorough cleaning of the basement pellet stove, covered up the exhaust and put it to bed until next fall. However, the P43 has seen intermittent use - and has run several times since Friday night, so it probably won't be cleaned until some time in June. I am almost determined not to open another bag of pellets and haven't opened any for 3 weeks. I scooped out almost a bag of pellets from the basement stove hopper for the P43 to burn. It will be a race to the finish of burning since I have nearly gone thru that.

I have mowed my yard twice, and the neighbor's once. Not that the neighbor's yard couldn't use a second mowing, just I've been doing my during the week and his during the weekend. It has been rainy all this weekend, so it will have to be let go until we get some dryness. Unfortunately, I know I will be at work until 6-7 pm all this week (getting there at 5 am), so next weekend will have to do.

Remember my mentioning a bumper crop of maple helicopters last fall? Here is a sampling of the seedlings that have cropped up in the back yard (before mowing)

While mowing, I noticed that one iris planted last year has a bud on it. Surprising since they usually take a couple of years after transplant, but a pleasant surprise

Wish us luck on passing our AS9100D audit.

Do What You Want Day

Happy Mother's Day to Cop Car!

Here is a bouquet of flowers just for you

Hope you get to do what you find fun and/ entertaining, eat whatever you desire and have an all around great day!

IFRD 2018

Today was International Female Ride Day. One of our LOH members led her first group ride ever. We had great weather  for a change and she developed an awesome route for the ride (bonus - no storm damage debris in the roads from the severe weather last night). We had about 20 ladies attend; some from our HOG Chhapter, some from 2 other chapters, and then still others that just joined the ride for something to do. Our dealer advertised on the FB page and we had flyers and signs at the dealership to promote the event.

The dealer's Marketing Manager took everyone's picture individually and she posted on their FB page, so I lifted some of the pictures from there.

This is from the pre-ride instructions. Where Nancy, the leader of the ride and the gal who I am looking at, went over basic rules, ride formation and generally what we could expect while following the route.

The group picture (I'm not convinced everyone is in the picture)

Nancy at the lead of the line as we were getting ready to leave the dealership

And the group as we were starting off. I am directly behind the gal on the purple bike - about 1/2 way down the pack.

Great weather, everyone stayed safe, and we all had a good time. Nothing more can be desired!

Lots of Flowers to Start 2018

Lots of early blooming bulbs - pictures taken 5/3/18

Funny that the english Primrose was actually the first thing blooming. This picture was taken on 4/28/18, I just forgot to download the picture from my phone

 

We suddenly had leaves on some of the trees on Thursday. First pic is of a lilac and the second is one of the new maples I planted last fall (Autumn Blaze)