My Iowa Commute

[HungLikeJesus]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

My folks had the woodpecker problem. After many years of replacing wood and cursing the little peckers, they stoped staining and painted the house. That did it.

This year I finally bought an air rifle. I shot two of the pygmy nuthatches but they just fell to the ground, got up and flew away. They've since come back and are living inside the walls.

[Cyclefrance]

Originally Posted by HLJ

The snow makes for some good exercise. Shoveling is my wife's job.

Now that's some mean job you get her to do - no sooner has she cleared it away than it's back again - what's that saying? - a woman's work is never done...?

Have I misssed something, though, whereabouts are you with all that countryside around you?

I caught that bit about the nuthatches. We regularly have blue tits and coal tits nesting - usually in the specially made boxes, but a few years back when we were converting the garage into a studio for my older son, I left a gap in the outer brickwork where the cabling for the external electrics fed to the consumer unit. We noticed around late spring that our cat was showing a lot of interest in this opening (luckily it was about five feet up the wall) - it turned out that a family of tits had made their nest inside the cavity. WE let them stay, but once they had gone I cemented up the opening.

Not so much trouble as you have though. Must remember to make a note of the bird down-side in case Mrs CF ever gets turned on to buying a timber-clad house.

We do get a lot of woodpeckers arond here - usually the green variety - they can be seen in the summer when the ants are hatching from their nests in the soil as they spend a lot of time on the lawn feasting on the eggs and newly hatched ants swarming around below the lawn's surface.

[Cyclefrance]

I'm not going to bore you with the full trip home, but there are one or two photos of passing interest I'll add here.

First, for all you soccer fans, how on earth could I go through Cobham without taking a picture of teh entrance to Chelsea FC's training ground. It;s the reason we have Chavs and Wags shopping in the local Waitrose and crusing down Cobham High Street in their 4x4's, Cayennes and Bentleys

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[Cyclefrance]

Dog wants his walk - to be continued in an hour or so....

[HungLikeJesus]

Originally Posted by Cyclefrance

... Have I misssed something, though, whereabouts are you with all that countryside around you?

We are about 30 miles west of Denver Colorado, at an altitude of 7,800 feet. Denver, which is around 5,000 feet, is quite a bit warmer and dryer than we are.

Originally Posted by Cyclefrance

... I caught that bit about the nuthatches. We regularly have blue tits...

I was going to make some connection between snow shoveling and blue tits, but I decided that would be too rude.

Originally Posted by Cyclefrance

... We do get a lot of woodpeckers arond here - usually the green variety - they can be seen in the summer when the ants are hatching from their nests in the soil as they spend a lot of time on the lawn feasting on the eggs and newly hatched ants swarming around below the lawn's surface.

We have two kinds of woodpeckers that we regularly see. The Flickers are the trouble makers, but they've mostly left us alone this year.

[Cyclefrance]

Dog (Oscar) is exhuasted - he has his 'running-barking' game he plays with a labrador called Buzz. The house is pictured below - it's on the way home


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[Cyclefrance]

So they run the length of the fence shown in the picture above - Oscar on te outside and Buzz on the inside. When they reach the end of the fence, they skid to a halt, bark at each other for a few seconds and then repeat the exercise in the opposite direction. Picture of Oscar in full flight and Buzz through the fence (resting) taken on phone camera tonight:

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[Cyclefrance]

Another landmark on the way home. This is the building that was once the offices of the Royal Society for the Blind in Leatherhead and is now converted into apartments. They are rather nice! The building also used to house one of the Society's departments called 'Seeability'. I cycled for them last year - the '100 miles around Dieppe' charity run. This year it's Leatherhead to Le Mans - you can also learn more about it here (I even qualify for my photo on their site!

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[Cyclefrance]

And lastly for a certain young Cellarite lady who seems to have a penchant for such places...

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[Cyclefrance]

In case you can't see, it says 'Leatherhead Sewage Treatment Works'!

[xoxoxoBruce]

So the Chelsea FC entrance is wide open but the sewage plant has a gate. Hmmm, strange these Brits.

[HungLikeJesus]

That's because terrorists might poison the sewage.

[Clodfobble]

Turns out I got unexpectedly called into work today, so I humbly submit this commute for general perusal.

First, we start in the neighborhood, with the local water tower. We're not on the main city water system, unfortunately. Within just a mile or so we enter the highway. The trip is almost all highway--fast, but not pretty.

[Clodfobble]

A lot of construction in this area. The highway I'm on will be a tollroad when it's finished, but is free until then.

This overpass is insanely high, the picture really doesn't do it justice.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Holy shit, that is high.