Distance Mountains

Looking toward Schoolhouse Mesa in the Jemez Mountains.

Mercado de San Miguel: A gourmet paradise in Madrid

This gourmet market located beside Plaza Mayor is fairly new, recently renovated and re-opened in May replacing the old traditional marketplace. That is why I haven’t heard or seen anything about this foodie nirvana when I last visited the Spanish capital in 2006.




The idea is like the La Boqueria Mercado in Barcelona. I was here as well a few years back and pretty much enjoyed the experience which was spent taking fotos of fruits, vegetables, gourmet food, fish and meat. The explosion of bright colours in this marketplace was breathtaking. There is a difference though between the two. The La Boqueria Mercado is more a combination of a wet and farmer’s market + culinary cafés whereas the Mercado de San Miguel is more focused on becoming the new fastfood-culinary-cultural-café of Madrid. Tapas everywhere. I haven’t really seen much of fresh fish and raw meat on sale here except for the ready-to-eat ones.




And I would not be surprised if the Spaniards patterned the concept of market + dining-in from Ostermalm’s Salluhal in Stockholm that dates back to 1818. I actually had lunch here early this month when I was in the city visiting. I will soon blog about it. Ah, I just love, love, love gourmet places like these.




The Mercado de San Miguel is a MUST VISIT and a MUST EAT HERE when in Madrid. Truly pushing gastronomic heights to the next level!




In my next entry I will blog about our walking lunch inside the Mercado de San Miguel. I really pampered myself with all the foods that I want to eat. I am such a shameful glutton =)




Check out more YUMMY fotos below:




After seeing these heavenly gastronomic delights I am sure I have made you hungry. Ah, sorry ladies and gentlemen, there is more torment to come =)

Rose of Sharon

A Special Concert at Peace River!

I have had an exceptionally busy week this past week. Actually the past two weeks have been unusually hectic for us. So I have tons of things to blog about, but I've been so busy that I haven't had the time to blog about them. Hopefully I will get caught up over the next several days or during my next few days off.



This was one of my favorite did but didn't blog about it things: a concert given to the park performed by pickleball friends. Not just any pickleball friends though. Super talented and musically gifted friends. I met Todd Hallawell and Garth Matthews both this year.



I heard about Todd long before I knew him though because Austin is a huge fan of Todd's musical talent and has shared numerous YouTube videos of him with me. He is an incredible musician. What I did not know was that his wife is also.



We were so impressed with Garth's playing also. They played beautifully together! Such a treat to hear all three of them play together and judging by the crowd's response, we were not the only ones that felt honored to hear them play.





Just a few short clips of them to give you some idea of their talent.

Royal H + Lovely Bicycle: Un Petit Projet

First an idea. Then a frame. Now finally a bike!



For those unfamiliar with this project, I have been collaborating with Bryan Hollingsworth of Royal H. Cycles to create a classic French randonneuring bicycle for a customer who was as curious as we were about how these mythical creatures handle.



It's become popular to call all sorts of bicycles "rando bikes." Framebuilders and manufacturers will sometimes use this term to mean "a fast bike with fenders and racks that's meant for long distance." However, we mean something very specific: the classic low-trail geometry design with wide 650B tires, in the tradition of the early French constructeurs - as described and enthusiastically recommended by Jan Heine in the Bicycle Quarterly (see my earlier post about BQ here). We found Jan's descriptions of these machines intriguing: They promised the comfort and convenience of a fully equipped, wide-tired touring bike with the speed and responsiveness of a racing bike. Could it really be?



Jan Heine and a couple of my personal contacts in France were immensely helpful with the process of figuring out the geometry. Jan also advised on the choice of tubing and a number of other details. We specifically wanted to consult with him on these matters, because the whole point was to try the sort of bike he recommended.While our bicycle is not a constructeur (the racks and other parts were purchased, and not custom-made for seamless integration), it is a fine handbuilt frame, fully equipped with fenders, front and rear racks, and internally wired lighting. I would also like to acknowledge that we had some help from Harris Cyclery with the finishing touches of the build.



Naturally the frame is lugged, and for me the aesthetics of the bicycle are strongly defined by the lugwork in the headtube and the fork crown. I was happy to see that these lugs remained a strong focal point even once the frame became "cluttered" with components and accessories. Notice also the tiny lug where the wire for the lighting enters the downtube. There is a matching one on the left chainstay, but I don't have a good shot of it just now.



I am not going to go into details of the frame construction and internal lighting right now, so that will have to be a separate post. Some of the components are pretty interesting - such as the Nitto lugged stem and the Grand Bois Maes handlebars - and I may write about them separately as well.



Will also write about combiningShimanodrivetrains withCampagnolo shifters, which we have done to two bicycles so far.



The bicycle as shown here is not entirely complete: It's getting a handlebar bag in a few days, as well as bottle cages, a bell and a computer installed. I will be thoroughly test riding it over the course of the next month before it is sent off to the customer, and writing up my impressions in an article for Bicycle Quarterly. The BQ article will be different from, and more detailed than the posts here, so reading it will most definitely be worth it for those interested in the topic.



Yesterday I took the randonneur on its first ride: 40 miles consisting of the hilly countryside, a crowded bicycle path, and urban areas with heavy traffic. Some might say I should not be riding this type of bicycle without a handlebar bag at all, but I think it's important to get a sense of how it handles without any weight on it - even if the design is optimised for a front load, it seems worthwhile to compare the handling both with and without. The size of the frame is more or less right for me. If it were mine I would make the seat tube 1cm shorter, but probably would not change much else. I am particularly pleased that even on such a relatively small frame there is absolutely no toe overlap - in fact there is over an inch between the tip of my toe and the fender.



Because countless people have told me that low trail bicycles are a "love it or hate it" sort of thing, I expected to have an extreme reaction to the randonneur's handling. However, that did not happen. It rides like a bike, basically. A nice bike. Different from other bikes I've ridden, but not as radically differently as I expected from some of the dramatic descriptions I've read and heard. The most distinct qualities I've noticed so far are the the way it turns (different), accelerates (excellent) and climbs hills (oh my...). But I need some time to make sense of it all and put it into words, so please stay tuned.

In collaborating on the randonneur, my main agenda was to satisfy what had become a burning curiosity about this particular type of bike while also helping create a custom bicycle from scratch in keeping with my aesthetic vision - all of which was in line with what the customer wanted. We have no expectations about whether ultimately we will like or dislike the handling, since that is the whole point of the experiment. I will have the randonneur until September and am thankful for the chance to gain a firsthand understanding of these bicycles over the course of my temporary guardianship.

Where Have You Been...

Since the end of the summer, I've received a number of concerned inquiries about "Velouria," my vintage Raleigh DL-1 Tourist (and for those who have only begun reading this blog recently, I am named after this bicycle, not the other way around). Though admittedly I have not featured her for some time,I assure you that Velouria is alive and well. She resides in our photo studio just South of Boston, performing the under-documented but crucial role of "studio bike." And here are the pictures to prove it.



For those unfamiliar with Velouria's history, she is somewhat of a "frankenbike," albeit a darling one. I acquired the 1973 Raleigh DL-1 in the summer of and over time proceeded to subject her to a number of modifications. These have included: an aftermarket chaincase and dress guards, cream tires, a Brooks B18 saddle, a custom rear rack, and an updated rear wheel with a coaster brake hubto supplement the pitiful braking power of the rod brakes.



Why do I feel the need to mess with a vintage bicycle in this manner? To tell the truth, part of it is simply the compulsion to experiment, to customise, to turn objects that belong to me into "creatures." I am not saying it's a good habit necessarily; but it's how I like to do things.



There was also a practical reason for all the modifications: I loved the ride quality of the DL-1 so much, that I was highly motivated to make it as functional as possible.



But ultimately, my love for this bicycle is also what made me move it to the photo studio after I (literally) found the vintage Gazelle in the end of last summer. At the risk of sounding cruel to the Gazelle, I am willing to run it into the ground. It is a great bike, it handles wonderfully, it is admirably designed, but my feeling toward is appreciation - not "love." The vintage Raleigh, on the other hand, feels almost like a pet. I just can't bring myself to ride its already battered and rusty frame on the salted roads in the winter, or even to leave it for hours in the rain in the summer. "Let the Gazelle take the abuse and spare the Raleigh," says my heart. And so Velouria became "studio bike" - ridden occasionally, but not too much.



And if you've noticed that these pictures are a little different from my typical bike photos, that is because they were taken inside the studio itself. We will soon be doing a couple of photo shoots for a local framebuilder, so we're practicing. When it comes to product photography in a studio setting, every object requires a different approach to lighting - and I would say that bicycles are fairly complicated as far as these things go. They are enormous, they have both matte and reflective parts, and they cast a variety of unusual shadows. Oh, and don't get me started on the kickstand thing; we are still working that one out!



Of course, the trouble with this type of product photography is that it brings every single detail of the object into sharp focus - not exactly the most flattering approach when it comes to vintage bikes!



But after all, "Velouria" is not just any vintage bike. She is mine. The scraped paint, the rust, the solidified crust, the dented fenders and even the bent rodbrake levers are, oddly, all part of what makes me cherish her. She may no longer be the most frequently featured bicycle here, but she epitomises the theme of this blog perhaps more than any other bike I own.