My apologies for having not posted in a while. I’ve discovered that I can only truly focus on two, maybe three, things at any given time. Working, gardening and bicycling have eaten up my limited attention span.
Today’s post will be a grab bag of subjects. Let’s get to them.
• Bicycling: back in July I was feeling pretty confident about my bicycling endurance, so I registered for the Bikes and Brews Ride that will happen on Sept 23. I signed up for the 50k (roughly 30 miles) ride. I felt that if I didn’t commit I would find excuses to once again not do an organized ride. All hat no cattle as it were. Now that the big day is almost here I’m starting to have second thoughts. Still, I am determined to give it my best effort.
• Books: one of the downsides of owning an e-reader is that I spend WAY more time internet surfing on it than I do actually reading books. There have been several studies done that show surfing on the internet changes the physical nature of our brains. So, I have had to make a determined effort to actually pick up a book and read it. I am almost done with “The Day of Battle” by Rick Atkinson. I hope to review both that and his “An Army at Dawn” books soon.
Once I finish “An Army at Dawn” I am going to shift gears and start reading Craig Johnson’s new western mystery novel “Western Star”. I’m a little burnt out on WW2 books.
• Travel: I haven’t done much traveling so far this year. I did make a short trip to San Diego back in June. I will follow up soon with some recommendations for non-beach destinations should you find yourself in Saint Diego’s town. I will also post a review of some of the tasty brews I enjoyed while I was there.
• I realized, belatedly, that I haven’t really written about my garden this summer. My plan was to do regular updates throughout the growing season. That obviously didn’t happen, so here is a late summer update. You might remember when I cleaned up this corner section back in March:
Here is the same section in early September:
When I designed my garden, I broke the long border in the backyard into smaller sections. Each section has a specific blooming season. One section blooms in spring, another peaks in June and the corner section in this picture hits its stride in late summer and early autumn. I did my border this way so each section blooms with maximum impact, as opposed to scattering plants with different bloom times around and thus diffusing their impact. I viewed my garden like a 4th of July fireworks show, with the autumn part of the border providing the Grand Finale.
Ornamental grasses and Russian Sage provide the backbone of this section, with false sunflower and Blue Globe thistle providing the late summer fireworks. Blue and pink asters are just starting to bloom, and will contrast with the Autumn Joy sedum that will soon be turning a deep red for the final act.
• Beer. I am a big fan of Oktoberfest lagers, not so much a fan of pumpkin brews. This is the season for both. My goal over the next few weeks is to do reviews of both styles with more of an emphasis on the Oktoberfest beers. My aim is to focus on several Colorado brews; that is if I can get my hands on them. So far I have picked up Odell Brewery’s Oktoberfest and Blue Moon’s Harvest Pumpkin Wheat (yeah I know, many of you don’t consider Blue Moon to be a craft brewery. I like Blue Moon, so bite me).
I have a line on Great Divide’s Hoss Rye Ale. I am on the lookout for Bristol Brewery’s Red Baron, Boulder Beer’s Dragonhosen, Avery’s Rumpkin, Fort Collin’s Brewery Oktoberfest and Breckenridge Brewery’s Autumn Ale. If anybody has seen or knows of a place that sells these beers please let me know. Thanks.
In the meantime, until I can get more local brews, I have picked up the Samuel Adams Beers of Fall pack and will be doing a review of them shortly. I also found Ballast Point’s Deadringer that I will also be reviewing.
It’s good to be back, and I will make every effort (and fewer excuses) to write on a more consistent basis. In the meantime, your suggestions and comments are always welcome.
