Looking at February (Madrona 15-20 Feb, vet job 21-23 Feb, Stitches West 24-27 Feb, vet job 28-29 Feb) I realized there wasn’t going to be much opportunity for a hike.  I’ll do something in the Palos Verdes area, even if it’s just the Terranea hike/run, but it’s not like we’ll be able to really count on doing a day hike in the Santa Monica Mountains or the San Gabriel Mountains.

So…Sunday we did the Malibu Grotto hike.  We did this last year, and it was a lot of fun.  You hike downhill to the Grotto, scramble around on rocks, then hike back uphill.  Lots of fun plants to look at as well.  There weren’t many people at all on the trail, which was a nice change from the previous hike in Eaton Canyon.

I enjoy the scrambling in an adrenaline-pumping sort of way.  I’m not a big fan of heights — specifically of the chance of falling, really, which is a quite rational fear given that I occasionally fall off curbs — and though the potential drops are only about 20-25 feet, the landing would be on solid rock.

I do like the fact that I get an upper body workout from this bit of the hike, enough to be a little sore the next day.

We stopped at Leo Carillo beach on the way back.  I waded (COLD! but good to my tired feet) and checked out some anemones.  The tide pools are better at Abalone Cove, but the water here is so lovely and clear that anytime we can stop along here I like to do so!

Because it’s a state beach, you can’t collect rocks or shells, but it’s fun to see all the different colored rocks.  People do surf here, despite all the rocks;  we saw a couple long boarders catching the (very small) waves.

Learn more about Leo Carillo state beach here and here.

Learn more about the Grotto hike:

• http://www.hikespeak.com/trails/grotto-hike-malibu/
• http://www.localhikesbeta.com/Hikes/Grotto-Trail-1132
• https://sites.google.com/site/daykations/los-angeles-ca/malibu-grotto-hike

Extra Yarn, by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen, HarperCollins, 2012.

Extra Yarn is a charming book about a little girl, Annabelle, who finds a box of yarn one day.

It’s a very special box of yarn, however:  it’s bottomless, supplying her with enough brightly colored (looks like handpainted to me, lol) yarn to dress her, her dog, and, basically, everyone in town, touching everyone’s life.

She continues her knitting, yarn bombing her drab town with cheerful knits, until an evil Archduke hears of her (and her box of yarn).

Needless to say, all ends well, though I won’t tell the ending.

I don’t have children, so can’t comment much on whether a child will like this.  But the message of selflessness and kindness is clear.  It’s a sweet book.

I received my review copy from the publisher.

Lots of introspection this month!

Up until mid summer I feel I was doing pretty well with workouts.  I was improving running, feeling stronger, etc.

Then I started coughing.  And coughing.  I’d have bouts where I’d nearly throw up.  Bouts that stopped me running.

I was also tired all the time.  I was waking up at 3 am and not being able to fall back to sleep.  I was so frustrated.

I’m feeling better now — the asthma seems under control, and I think my tiredness was in large part due to the stress of getting CRK to the publisher in what, in hindsight, was a terribly short (self-imposed) deadline.

So here are the goals:

Hiking:  Go on a hike once or twice a month.

I have several books for hiking in Southern & Central California.  Obviously, if I’m planning a hike once or twice a month, it needs to be a day trip, so that’s going to limit just how far south or north we venture.  However, despite urban sprawl, there’s a lot of open space here, too:  the San Gabriel mountains, the Santa Monica mountains, all sorts of beaches.

This last weekend we went to Eaton Canyon, a very popular (honestly, too crowded for our tastes) hike in foothills of the San Gabriels.  I’d never been there before, so it was fun to see something new.  Rosemary & Curtis came with us.  Curtis made it to the falls, Rosemary stopped before all the stream crossings (quite wisely;  on our way back we saw a poor woman with a hideous compound fracture — luckily, the park is so close to civilization there was cell phone service, so her friend called 911).  It’s an easy hike, but the stream crossings can be a bit treacherous if you’re not good at bouncing about on rocks.

How to make this goal work?  Research & plan at the end of each month what we’ll do for the next month.  I don’t have any set goals regarding distance or duration.  I just want to be outside.

Walk/running:  I’ve started run/walking again, and am planning on starting up Couch to 5k officially next week (since I’m leaving for TNNA at 5 am tomorrow morning).

I am planning on going for a run/walk this morning with Rigel.

I’ll come up with subsequent goals at the completion of the 9 weeks.  Overarching goal?  I’d like to do a half marathon next winter.  We’ll see.  I’ve not done one of those in quite a while.  If nothing else, I’d like to do one of the XTerra trail runs, probably the 11k Pt Magu run.

Bicycling:  go on a weekly ride with Dave (probably on the weekend).  We have some nice places to bike around here.  The PV peninsula is great on a quiet Sunday morning.  I actually like riding on the Strand, by the beach,  in areas where there aren’t many pedestrians ignoring the rules that it’s a bike path, bikes only, no peds.

I should include some gym/core/stretching goals, but I need to dwell on that a bit.

#19 — Ilina!  Congrats, I think you’ll love the book.

Finally a post with a picture of something I did!

I’m taking the free BOM (block of the month) class at Craftsy.  I really, really don’t like the first block, the asterisk block, but I do like the second (which uses the same technique, sew & slash), the wonky pound sign.

Here’s my block!  I’m going to the do the quilt in black, white/ivory & greys.  I saw some lovely monochromatic quilts at our local quilt shop, Nina’s.  I purchased 2 fat quarters;  I figure as I build this, I’ll choose fabrics based on the blocks as well as what grabs me at the moment.

The original block wasn’t supposed to have a border.  I had to add one because of, shall we say, my learning curve with my machine, the presser foot  (learning precisely what marking was 1/4″ vs 3/8″), pressing seams to the darker fabric precisely so the thin strips don’t puff up (basically I need to pull the fabric flat to I can  press right against the line of stitches), and my tendency (which I’m working on) to have the fabric just a wee bit on the outside of the line, as opposed to right on the line.

Nonetheless, I’m quite pleased with it.  In fact, since I’m working on a project for my mom, I might even do a second one in her fabrics.