FFARATS? Feh! Fellow Freak Finds Fun Foisting Fall Foliage Fotos Featuring Fabulous Finds From Friends!

As you may be aware, I have decided not to run an Autumn Tree Smackdown this year. I was feeling a little bad about it. However, a Fellow Foliage Freak is coming to the rescue for all of those awesome foliage pics looking for a home. Less structured than my contest but every bit as appealing (at least to me) is anniebikes' 2013 Foliage Challenge.

 

 

If you were thinking of sending me any pics, don't. Send them to Annie, so all that leafy goodness can be found in one place. It is my sincere hope that The King will simply subjugate any and all other submissions, because when it comes to Autumnal splendour, it is all about domination, right? Right.

 

 

Thanks Annie!

 

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

SARATS - Last Post

Well, JAT's maple syrup has finally been produced and is ready for shipping, hopefully today. I had placed a pre-order for his bottle, and when Jakeman's called me and I went to pick it up, I asked the lady working there why Extra Light was so hard to find.

I thought it was only a difference in processing of the sap... I was wrong. Apparently in order to make Extra Light the temperatures had to be cold enough (which hasn't happened much this Spring) and the lines (tubes down which the sap flows) had to be clean, as in free of heavier sap that may have run previously in warmer temps. In any case, Jakeman's came through for me:

When I was a kid I used to buy books for my brothers for Christmas and read them first, being super careful not to crack the paperback spine. If I could have snuck a teaspoon of JAT's syrup without cracking the cap ring thing, I probably would have. What can I say, I am morally bankrupt when it comes to gift (or prize) giving. Still, some say say the best gift is often something you want to keep for yourself...

I stuck it in the window so you could see how light in colour it is. This ain't no run of the maple maple syrup. Because I know everyone is fascinated by maple syrup and the differences between its various grades, I thought I would include this:

There are 5 different grades of maple syrup.

•Canada # 1 Extra Light maple syrup (sometimes known as AA)


•Canada # 1 Light maple syrup (A)


•Canada # 1 Medium maple syrup (B)


•Canada # 2 Amber maple syrup (C)


•Canada # 3 Dark maple syrup ( D)


The very finest of maple syrup, # 1 Extra light, is very light in colour subtle in flavour and delicate in taste and most often used to make maple syrup sugar candy as it can be concentrated and still maintain the light taste and colour. The # 1 Light is most often used in our Italian glass bottles to capture the rich gold colour while remaining translucent on the shelf. # 1 Medium is the most preferred table grade, with a distinct maple taste, great with your morning cereal, baste pork or poultry, ice cream, pancakes, fruit, yogurt, toast, waffles, tea, coffee or your favorite liquor. # 2 Amber is preferred for cooking, food flavouring and places you wish to impart lots of maple taste. # 3 Dark is restricted for use in commercial flavourings where the heavy bitter taste goes a long way.

 source: http://www.themaplestore.com/maple_syrup_facts.html

I've boxed up the prize:

Please don't interpret that photo as some sort of environmental or other type of Cisco bashing... I use Cisco gear for lots of things at my work and I therefore happened to have this great box for syrup shipping. Now all I have to do is affix 43 stamps in a fun random pattern all over the box (maybe I can make more trees!) and I'm sure it will find him. I mean, everybody knows JAT, right? 

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - I am something of a cynic, and when I look at this post critically I fear people could think I have some sort of sordid sappy monetary relationship with Jakeman's (or Cisco). Please rest assured neither of these corporate titans know what I'm up to, and I have not received (nor will I receive) one thin dime from either one of them. 

Just A Couple of Things

I went to Jakeman's for the sweet elixir to send off to JAT but they didn't have any! Should have more in a couple of weeks... at least it will be fresh!

Hey, you know what else is nice about Jakeman's? It is owned and operated by, you guessed it, the Jakemans! A pleasant thing in our monster corporation dominated world.

Now here's something that caught my eye at the grocery store a few days ago:

I wonder if "McDowell Ovens" is owned by the McDowells? I'll have to check that out sometime. What caught my eye, however, was this interesting statement on the packaging...

Shouldn't that kind of be understood? I mean they are breadcrumbs after all. I'm not sure why, but I find that statement super funny. It doesn't take much, I guess. Have super weekends everyone!

I am, as always,

R A N T W I C K

SARATS Finale!

Well, the votes are in and I've made a video to sum them up. Thanks again to everyone who entered... I hope you'll be back next year.

JAT, email me with a mailing address and 500 mL of Jakeman's Canada #1 Extra Light maple syrup (the best I've ever had) will be yours!

With any luck I'll get back to writing about cycling now. I love it even more than trees, believe it or not.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

SARATS Flip Flop - Let's End This Thing

It seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean collecting "video votes" to decide the SARATS winner. The thing is, I don't have the time to get out there and do it, and I don't want this contest to drag on forever. So here's what I wanna do instead: Let the entrants decide.

I will be sending an email to every entrant asking them to visit this page and vote for any two trees other than their own in the comments. I made it two trees because I couldn't decide between my top two and figured others might be in the same boat. I kind of like this format and may well use it next year as well depending on how it goes... it seems kind of fitting to let those who bothered to enter decide the winner.

So, without further ado, here are the 2011 SARATS entries for your consideration!

Huge thanks to all who entered and additional thanks for helping me wrap this up. Once again, if you have entered one of the trees showcased above, I want you to vote for 2 OTHER trees in the comments. I will wait until Sunday Feb 26 for votes to come in, and announce the winner of 500mL of freakishly good tree juice on Monday, Feb 27.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - If you check the comments you'll see that I already got the voting started!

PPS - If you didn't enter a tree and want to vote anyway, knock yourself out. I will only use your vote in the event of a tie, but hey, you never know!

Oh Crap, I Did it Again.

As some have noted in the past, if I ever post something saying I won't be around for a while, you can count on something in the next few days. Well, it has happened again.

In this case it is because happy coincidence allowed me an opportunity to collect some SARATS video votes at Masonville Place (Mall) here in London Ontario! I'll probably just keep collecting them until I feel there is a clear winner. Here's round one:

Hastily assembling that video and posting this is all I've really got time for... be well, ride bikes, stay leafy.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Last Gasp SARATS Entry!

Hey there! Long time no write! How have you been? I sure have missed you these last 9 days... I have no good excuse. Just got busy again. Somebody else who got busy was Darin from Duluth, Minnesota. He submitted a picture for SARATS at 9:01 PM (Eastern) on December 15, bringing the total number of entries to a whopping 18! There were 12 entries in the Smackdown's first year. Now, does that translate to 150% growth or 50% growth? I've always been a little slow on growth percentages. In any case, it is awesome. Thanks again to all who entered.

Here's Darin's email:

Hi Rantwick,

I guess I've procrastinated as long as I could, so here is my entry into the smackdown.

 

These two beautiful maples are in my back yard in Duluth, Minnesota. Not only are they the perfect distance apart to hang a hammock, the squirrels and chipmunks who frequent them keep my dog, Loki, entertained and out of my hair for hours on end. 

Thanks for putting on the contest, and despite what Loki may think, I find reading your blog much more entertaining than watching squirrels and chipmunks.

Darin

http://northwoodstrekkers.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

 

Pretty damn good entry if you ask me.

 

I consider Darin an excellent new acquaintance for several reasons. First and foremost, he appears to be pretty crazy about bikes and has a number of them that I envy and/or covet quite badly. This leads to a second reason; one of said bikes gets ridden in Winter in Duluth, Minnesota.

 

 

 

 

Look at those fat tires. So cool. The last reason I'm pleased to have "met" this dude is that Duluth Minnesota and the pictures from his blog remind me very much of my birthplace and childhood home of Thunder Bay, Ontario, which I openly pine for sometimes on these pages.

 

Look at this map:

 

 

 

 

 

Hell, we're practically brothers! Darin, please don't be alarmed. I won't be showing up at your house or anything. I may, however, be sending you some syrup; only the voting will tell.

 

Speaking of the voting, it may have to wait until the new year, meaning a SARATS winner may not be declared until later in January. Sorry for the delay, but I've been kind of swamped lately.

 

I probably won't be writing again until after Christmas. I want to wish all of you a truly peaceful and loving holiday. Whatever you think the real point of Christmas is, cling to it as best you can and try to just dump all the rest.

 

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - I take issue with Darin enjoying reading my blog more than watching squirrels. Squirrels should win that one hands down. Darin, you're not my new best friend anymore, you anti-squirrel watching jerk. So there. 

A SuperMutant, Boeshield T-9, and a Tree

I have sad news. Mutant Winter is no more. When I got around to trying to clean her up for this winter season, I found that the disc brakes had deteriorated into rusty clumps of unfixable goo. I didn't want to buy new ones. Other things were also pretty bad, so I stole the studded tires, the second best tub in town, pedals and a few other components and slapped 'em on an old SuperCycle mountain bike. SuperCycle is a house brand for Canadian Tire bikes. At the lowest end they are about the same as NEXT or any of the other cheaper department store bikes. The Gary Fisher Bitter that Mutant Winter was based on was nice, but while I wait for the time and resources required for my next sweet winter bike build, I figure this will suffice. One nice thing is that by combining parts from Mutant Winter and this SuperCycle, I have created a SuperMutant!

SuperMutant, sans Tub

I guess it doesn't really look like a mutant at all yet. I'll get there, I promise.

The Deore derailleur from MW wouldn't work on this frame since it required a derailleur hanger, so I bought a new, cheap ($15) Shimano "Tourney" from Village Cycle in my neighbourhood. Looking at it, I knew its screws and other silver bits would begin to rust immediately in the salty road conditions here. That's where the Boeshield comes in.

Boeshield T-9 is really great stuff. I originally bought it to treat the insides of my steel Trek touring frame. I also sprayed it on a heavy chain that I use to lock up bikes on my porch. That chain has been sitting outside in the snow and and mist (although not direct rain) for about 15 months and it still looks pretty good...

 

I only treated it with Boeshield that one time over a year ago, so I'm pretty impressed. A steel chain left outdoors would normally get rusty pretty quick, I think. Anyway, I hosed down that derailleur and many other parts of the bike with Boeshield and I bet it'll help considerably. When I get around to building a new winter bike, I will use Boeshield from the get-go on everything (especially spokes, nipples and rim eyelets: I've had nipples break due to salty brutality) and every few months in the hopes of keeping it nice despite the salty crud it will face.

If you are thinking of commenting about how I should give the bike a rinse after riding in salty slush, I know, I know. I also know myself and that I'm too lazy or hurried or both most of the time to do what I should and Boeshield or something like it may be my only hope.

Where was I? Ah, yes, a tree! There is another SARATS entry. It is a Steve A find from a blog post he read. It is, however, being entered by the owner, Durango, who shot it in Fort Worth, Texas with Steve's encouragement.

Love that dome shape, man. Thanks for the tree and good luck in my contest! 



Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

The End of SARATS?

It is entirely possible that the two entries I show you today are the last I will receive before the deadline of December 15. Whether I get any more entries or not, I would like to say that I am more than pleased with the response, especially considering that I've been less active on the blog this year. Thanks very much to everyone who has entered so far!

This one was from Bob in California, who responded to the post about PaddyAnne's #13 entry with this email:

Yo Ranty,

I don't have a story as grand as PaddyAnne's, just trying to show some love from the West Coast (of the U.S.) and break your 13.

I'm in San Juan Capistrano, California. The tree in front of our house is a bit stubborn and only a few leaves have turned, but luckily one cul-de-sac over is this beauty. Unfortunately all I have is a phone camera at the moment, so the quality ain't so great. And yes, you can see that pretty much everything besides this tree is still Granny Smith green. And yeah it was 77 degrees here today. Sorry haha.

Have a great one,

Bob

 

 

 

 

Bob, I'll happily get reports of perfect weather from anybody, any time, because I'm sick enough to enjoy "bad" weather most of the time anyway. Thanks for the tree pic! Because I'll be displaying them to voters on a laptop, pictures of lower quality will display pretty much as well as super high res ones, so no worries.

 

Next came a more mysterious entry from what my gmail calls ".w..brwn." . No worries .w..brwn., I've got your real email address as well but wouldn't post it here. If you win, you'll get email for sure. If you see this, leave a comment to tell me where your tree is located (country, city, state).

 

Here's .w..brwn.'s brief message:

 

Hello Rantwick,

Thought I might send an entry for the SARAT competition that you are running.

This particular tree is located in park that I pass though frequently. It was in fine colour this year, however recent change in weather and winter temperatures alas is now taking its toll.

Ah, such is the nature of Autumn glory... the fleeting quality of a tree's fall foliage is part of it's beauty for me; thanks for your entry!

Trees! Woo Woo! R A N T W I C K

SARATS Entry #14

Steve A, and then two more others, quickly responded to my desire to have more SARATS entries than an odious 13. I'll be posting the other entries shortly.

Steve resides in Texas, which makes a foliage competition a little more daunting than it would be for, say, someone like me in London Ontario, or most people even a little further north.

I find it quite gratifying that Steve had trees on the brain over the last couple of months, evidence of which can be found in this post on his blog, DFW Point-to-Point.

In the end, Steve went with this indoor specimen found in the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah:

From Steve's email: Make sure you tell the voters that the Mormons will send missionaries to convert them if they don't vote for my entry! 

You have been duly notified. How do you feel about people who come around to your house or stop you on the street to talk religion? I like 'em. I admire their conviction and thoroughly enjoy talking with them. I'm afraid they often find me rather stubborn in my "many many answers" or "whatever floats your ark" religious approaches, but every chat I've had has been polite and kind and generally nice. I haven't been converted from my kind of half-assed brand of Catholicism yet... but who knows, maybe the next missionary I meet will blow my mind wide open! I don't think it very likely, but never say never, man.

For now I think I'll stick to worshipping at the Church of the Mighty (Extra Light Canada No. 1) Maple, and I would be most pleased if you would join me.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Record-Breaking Smackdown Entry!

My Autumn Tree Smackdown has officially hit new heights! Last year's contest garnered 12 entries including my own. Today's entry from PaddyAnne (last year's top legitimate vote getter) of Pedal Talk brings this year's tally to 13! Considering the fact that I've been less active on the blog lately, I think that's awesome.

I'm hoping somebody else (aka Steve A or Keri) will enter something so that odious number of entries won't bug me. Superstitions are silly in my opinion. I break mirrors for fun, our black cat crosses my path almost daily, I walk under ladders, and so on. I'm not so much superstitious as kind of OCD, which means that nagging little number will bug me like a valve stem without a cap if only because others (silly others) may not like it.

I hope PaddyAnne isn't superstitious because I just called her silly... here's her email message:

Hello Mr. Rantwick. I have just woken up from a long sleep, but I think still in time to submit my entry into this years Autumn Tree contest.

While last year I sent in a photo of the golden "Empress", this year I am submitting a photo of "Princeling".

Princeling is 7 years old. I bought him for $5.00 at the farmers market when he was just a twig about 9 inches high, with one side shoot. I planted him in a spot up at our cottage, and last year, at 6 years old, transplanted him into a new spot where he would not be so crowded. He survived the process, thank goodness. To keep him company this summer I planted my vegetable garden around him, so you can see some of my leeks and lettuce. And some weeds. Princeling is magnificent all year round, and all though small in stature, give him a few years and he'll be a real knockout. Perhaps I'm entering him a bit pre-maturely, but this year I was hankering to enter a red tree, since last years' was a golden colour. It was sort of a foggy day in October when this photo was taken.

Cheers

PaddyAnne 

Thanks PaddyAnne! It does my heart good to know that people have begun growing trees solely (hee hee!) for my contest.

Be good, everybody, and I'll see you soon. Figuratively, of course. I mean, I won't actually see you... although wouldn't that be cool (for me, at least)? Like, some sort of futuristic "reader viewer" where if you landed here I could watch you! Quick flashes of the image seekers. Longer views of the reading nose-pickers and belly-scratchers and comment typers. I would only want such technology if only I could use it. I sure as hell don't want all you people to be able to see me and my 12 inch Pikachu chest tattoo as I engage in my always shirtless blog reading and web snuffling. But I digress. Come back soon, and thanks for reading.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Snow Will Come. I Am Totally Unprepared.

It is a minor miracle that we have not yet seen any snow here in London Ontario. Yet, despite the fact that I am excited to once again ride in winter, I am woefully unprepared. Mutant Winter has seized cables/brakes plus two broken spokes in the rear wheel. Whether they let go due to corrosion or pothole or both I am uncertain, but the wheel looks quite truable (new word there, I think). I have been procrastinating since I put the bike away in that deplorable condition last Spring.

Speaking of procrastinating, the space I would like to use to work on the bike looks like this:

I can hardly believe that I am considered a grown-up. I mean, who lets this kind of thing just sit there, month after month? I do, it would seem. I'm hoping to clean up that room well enough to use it tonight. Wish me luck.

On the brighter side, I've received another SARATS entry, this one coming from JAT in Seattle. JAT makes this observation in his email:

It's amazing to me how geographically disparate your entries are, since (having grown up in soggy Doug Fir land but having gone to school "back east") I think of colorful trees as being the province (no pun intended) of the "northeast" not sure how Canadians relate to USofAians perceptions of northliness, obviously for you Northeast would probably start at Torngat Mountains Nat Pk...).

Yes, I love the way the trees that come in are from all over the place. The Internet has this "everywhere" element to it that makes one feel connected to people and places never seen in person. I really like it. Here's some more of JATS email:

Attached please find my entry to the SARATS extravaganza.  I took this photo with my almost smart phone on my way to retrieve my car and offspring from crew practice (my car doesn't row, but my kid decided he wants to, so I dropped him off (in the car) at morning Jazz Band practice before school, then drove to the boathouse, parked and rode in to work.  Anyway on my way to the I-90 Mt Baker Bike Pedestrian Tunnel (known as the echo tunnel during the Trail-a-bike days hence known as the mugging tunnel) the light was just right.  We generally don't get great trees for fall - not enough deciduous / too much sort of warm green followed by too much kinda cooler rain but (until today) it's been a dry (ish) Autumn.

The light was indeed just right. Thanks JAT, it is a beauty! He even included a link to a map to show the area he was talking about. I followed the link, took a screenshot and then made my best guess about which tree it was based on the background in his entry...

I'm thinking JAT will set me straight if I was wrong with a comment. Have a great week everybody!

Yer Pal, R A N T W I C K

Biodiversity

Biodiversity, most thinking people will concede, is important. Whether it is important to my SARATS might be debatable, but it is a good enough argument for me to include the following from John Romeo Alpha of One Speed: Go! 

JRA lives in Phoenix Arizona. I figure if people who live in the desert want to find a way to enter my Autumn Tree Smackdown, "Fall Colour" needs to be a flexible term. Thanks for the pic, JRA!

I also received a more foliage driven entry from Johnny of Johnny Trash Bike:

Nice work, Johnny. I dig the old stone building in the background. Johnny didn't tell me what City the tree was from... perhaps he'll let us know in the comments.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

More SARATS Entries!

Hey all! The SARATS entries keep on comin', and I couldn't be more pleased. Steve A of DFW, point-to-point posted about a divine discovery inside a Tabernacle of all places... although he hasn't committed to making it his entry. That dude is determined and canny, I tells ya.

On top of that, I've received two new confirmed entries. First, here's most of Annie's email introducing her pic:

I took this photo last evening as I was hurrying to get home from a very cool and bone chilling ride. I could tell that we were going to get either some rain or snow overnight. The sun had already set, but the overcast sky bathed this beauty in stark contrast with the evergreens in front of the grand Sisters of Mercy building here in Burlington, Vermont. The other deciduous trees on that lawn were already in stick-mode, as you can see on the right side of the photo, which made this one all the more special. I fear the leaves will all be gone this weekend along Lake Champlain.

By the way, I'm entering the contest just because it's fun and not for the prize of maple syrup. I enjoy observing the awesome changes in our landscape. If truth be told, my husband consumes a gallon of syrup a month - he eats pancakes every morning. No kidding. And I thought my chocolate habit was expensive...

Foliage season here was very late and spotty, but also dragged on the SARATS viewing longer for all of us autumnal leaf connoisseurs. Here are more of my foliage posts:

http://anniebikes.blogspot.com/2011/10/intervale-trail.html

http://anniebikes.blogspot.com/2011/10/bike-date-and-using-map-my-ride.html

http://anniebikes.blogspot.com/2011/10/last-blast-of-foliage-and-contest.html

http://anniebikes.blogspot.com/2011/10/blazing-autumn-colors.html

Thank you for considering my photo in your contest.

Annie

 

 

 

No Annie, thank you. You are obviously a foliage freak, and for that I am grateful. If you win the prize, don't you dare let your husband just slurp up my super syrup. Jakeman's Extra Light ain't no garden variety pure maple syrup. It is the best of the best in my opinion, subtle and super light and utterly perfect.

 

Next comes an entry from a more Southern locale, submitted by Norm:

 

Hello,

Here's an entry from down south in Huntsville, Alabama. It's taken awhile for the trees to turn and most just went from green to brown. This one caught my eye and is located at the Marshall Spaceflight Center. I enjoy reading your Blog.

Thanks,

Norm

 

Hey Norm, I dig that tree. Thanks for submitting it! Did you notice that Norm, like Kenny, enjoys reading my blog? Praise is always welcome, you know. It makes me happy. More praise please. Way more. I deserve every scrap of it, considering my unbelievable effort and commitment to writing random cycling crap and posting pictures of trees! I mean, who else is filling that void for you right now? Nobody, that's who. Me baby. It's all me.

Seriously though, I want to thank everybody who bothers to read this stuff. I get a great deal of pleasure from just writing my nonsense, but the fact that others bother to come here and read it is just awesome. 

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Stress Leaving You Green? No Worries, SARATS Accepts All Comers

Another SARATS entry has arrived and this one is green! It comes from Kenny of Kenny's Blog of Greatness and his email explains:

Mr. Rantwick,

I had the pleasure of riding my bike around Washington DC (USA) last Friday, and hoped to get a good picture of a tree for your smackdown. It's been a strange summer here in this part of America, with extremes of hot, dry, and wet stretches. Adding in an earthquake and hurricane put many trees on notice. It was such an extreme summer that weatherman Bob Ryan said that when trees go through such stresses in one season, sometimes they just drop their leaves without letting them change color!

I don't know how true this is, but the trees I saw mostly had just dead leaves or were half bare already. So I took this great picture of one of the Japanese Cherry trees that surround the "tidal basin" area near the Jefferson Memorial (Thomas Jefferson, as you may recall, drafted the Declaration of Independence, had a slave as a mistress, and discovered penicillin (that last part may or may not be true)). Many of these trees are about a hundred years old and have seen a lot of action, as millions of tourists converge upon this area to bask in the glory of the cherry blossoms for a couple weeks each spring.

Yes, the leaves are still green, but the trunk and branches are so gnarled and twisted, I hope you'll accept this as an alternative entry for your SARATS competition.

I enjoy reading your blog.

Thank you and have a great day,

Kenny

 

 

 

See that? Kenny called me Mr. and said he enjoys reading my blog! In addition I had an outstanding Autumn ride last night after work, video with soothing music to follow tomorrow. Overall, these things are making me feel pretty damn good today and I wish you the same until next time.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Trees. Oh How they Rock.

I am pleased to report that I have received two more SARATS entries! First, Cor from Life in 360 sent one with the following comment in his email:

I never thought I would enter a tree but I couldn't help but snap this one.  Ottawa River Parkway on a dark but bright stormy afternoon. 

Then Carolyn of Carolyn's Flight of Fancy sent me this one. From her email:

Well, as it's getting cold and the weather is changing (I swear that Winter is on it's way as it tried snowing the other day), I'll submit the photo of the tree by Nechako River on the Heritage Trail in Prince George [British Columbia].  I love biking that trail, it's my favourite in the area.  Lots of people use it daily. The trail follows both the Nechako and Fraser Rivers.  It's one of those awesome things about Prince George.

Things are shaping up nicely, don't you think?

R A N T W I C K

SARATS Entry #4

Cafiend of Citizen Rider has sent me his SARATS entry. His email:

Imagine this one with all its leaves and better lighting. I never seem to catch it at its best when I have the camera and time to stop.

Cafiend, my man, of course I can relate. Missing the King at his best started this whole contest thing! Thanks very much for your entry... I can see how that tree could be a killer. I also think it has been a pretty tough year for catching a tree at its best for many of us. Into the contest it goes!

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

SARATS = Autumn Action and Adventure!

Trevor of PurpleTraveller from the UK sent me his SARATS entry several days ago. Here's what he had to say in his email:

Ever since I read about SARATS I have been out on the bikes searching for a tree that has a good enough display of colour for your competition.

Over this past week we have had a lot of very windy days which have managed to strip a lot of our trees of their Autumn colours.........however just before the winds started I managed to capture an image of this beauty on my second day of searching.

It was seen in the private gounds of a country estate here in Dorset and I had to climb over a wall in order to get a reasonable shot of it....

 

 

I am convinced that not wanting to boast of his exploits, Trevor left out a great deal concerning his wall-climbing commando style SARATS raid... but I'm here to fill in the blanks.

 

 

I'll bet you didn't know that Trevor was a giant, but pictures never lie!

The Best Maple Syrup You Will Ever Taste is on the line. Pull a Trevor if you have to, but get me those trees, dammit.

R A N T W I C K

2011's King of Autumn

Well, here he is for this year. This constitutes my official not-allowed-to-win-the-prize SARATS entry:

Speaking of pictures that aren't allowed to win, Ryan from St. Catharines Ontario sent me a link to this outstanding photo. Try as I might, I couldn't get blogger to use the flickr link properly and display it here on my blog.

Since it features many trees instead of one obvious star power tree, it will not be entered in the smackdown, but man, do I ever like it.

I have received another entry, but I'm gonna save it for Monday.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K