POW! And We're Off!

Yes, foliage fans, it has begun. Recumbent Conspiracy Theorist sent the first SARATS submission yesterday!

From his email:

Hello Rantwick fellow foliage freak. The leaves have peaked decently here in north central Ohio but like you noted today on your blog today I also am not seeing the vibrant color I remember from last year on my dearest old man maple. I went out this weekend on my bike to photograph my favorite specimen for the smackdown and ended up riding around for nearly two hours taking pictures on a beautiful afternoon. As I've gotten older fall has become my favorite season and as you know there is no better way than to enjoy it than on a bicycle.

My submission is a huge maple about a 1/2 mile from my house I pass often when my chosen route takes me in a westerly direction. Like I said not as stunning as I remember from last year but a tree-juice winning contender none the less.

 

Agreed, RCT, and thanks for getting us started! For more pictures from RCT's tree tour, hit his blog at http://kd8jhj.blogspot.com/2011/10/sharpest-tool-in-shed.html .

 
Got Yer Sap Started?

R A N T W I C K

5 Injured Ottawa Cyclists - Driver in Court 2 Years Later Pleads Not Guilty

I've noticed that some people are landing on my blog looking for information on the court case involving the man who ran down 5 cyclists over 2 years ago. I made some comments back then and because of those some new visitors have been turning up as they search for info.

Here is a link to the most recent articles in the Ottawa Citizen:

Ottawa Citizen - October 12, 2011 and something very similar from the CBC.

plus

Ottawa Citizen - October 12, 2011 #2

The articles include some information on how bad some of the injuries were, which was very bad in at least one case. None of the cyclists died as many at the time had assumed. I wish those 5 cyclists well as they recount and doubtless relive the ordeal and earnestly hope that justice will be served.



R A N T W I C K

PS - The articles from the Ottawa Citizen are coming out so fast and furious that updates here may become a problem. For the latest I recommend hitting their Home Page and searching "Sommit", the driver's first name or using this link which does the same thing. I'm getting better results with that than "cyclist" and similar search terms.

Stranded Without SARATS Selection

I'm at work right now, eating lunch and wishing I hadn't run out of the house without any cams or picture files to add to this post. Some of you may be encouraged to know that the dry weather has created a less than impressive King this Autumn. I mean, he looks good, but the pic doesn't have "winner" written all over it either.

I hope some of you have seen some good trees to enter, or even not so good ones... you never know how my judges will vote! For those of you who have not found an individual tree to showcase, maybe you could get away with cropping a picture of a bunch of trees to isolate a good one. I'm getting a little nervous that I won't get enough entries this year.

Yer Pal, R A N T W I C K