We started last weekend with a walk on the Coquitlam Lake View Trail, which began peacefully next to a hunting club firing range and involved zigzagging through multiple mountain biking trails. Unfortunately, this didn’t last for long and we were left on the trail with no man-made sounds or other people. There were three waterfalls and some weird foam stuff. We assume the latter was caused by algae… the water looked pretty nutrient rich (i.e. brown). As noted in last week’s post, Rosie struggles to stay upright sometimes and this week she slipped on some roots and now has a bruise covering most of her bottom (that is a big bruise!)
On Sunday, we took part in several chaotic birthday quizzes for Rosie’s uncle, Stefan, and learnt that almonds are seeds, not nuts.
Ollie’s mountain biking course started last Monday. He learnt how to make his bike move at different speeds, using things called gears, and how to stop it when needed, using things called brakes. Next week is all about making your bike go round corners, using things called handlebars. Rosie doesn’t need any lessons, as you can see from this video.
We still haven’t planned much for this weekend. Ollie wants to get some practice with using gears, ahead of his next session, and Rosie wants to let her bottom recover from 5 days of sitting on it. Have a fun weekend everyone!
Roaming Rollie 
Two things: that white stuff looks interesting, could you send me some to try and Rosie’s wheels need to be trued up, they look a bit out of alignment to me.
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I am an expert wheel truer, much better than Dad, so should have that fixed in no time.
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Sorry Lance, thought you were Loolar. You don’t know my dad but he isn’t very good at truing up wheels.
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Well I can see why Rosie is not going on the Mountain Biking course she is extremely proficient already. Ollie will be able to catch up I am sure, maybe he will be teacher’s pet with all that inside knowledge from Rosie.
I hope the bruise gets better and that you find some more interesting algae to look at this week.
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We found some mould… not quite the same as algae, but still interesting.
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I think that comment about the size of bruise on Rosie’s bottom should not pass without some sort of chastisement from Rosie! Ollie should feel suitably redeemed however for rescuing Rosie’s lenscap from a potentially lonely abandonment. On the subject of bruises, I fully recommend Arnica cream if you can get hold of it! Take care, be safe x
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Hmm, not sure I can argue, my squishy bottom probably saved me breaking a bone! Rescuing my lenscap is probably the nicest thing he has ever done for me 😀
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Maybe like a beaver Rosie can construct dams and channels so that she can swim everywhere.
Ollie cheated by watching my eyebrows to copy my answers on fungi names.
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I grazed my knee swimming in the sea a few weeks ago, so that’s probably not safe either.
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Foam can be formed naturally without man’s pollution, for example when water temperatures rise in spring and decay processes accelerate, releasing organic compounds, including fatty acids which act as surfactants, floating at the surface interfering with surface tension and allowing air/ water to mix more easily in turbulent conditions….
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I’ve seen some videos of huge amounts of sea foam that supposedly comes from algae! That’s why I assumed this was algae, but sounds like it could be rotting river creatures somewhere…
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Ooh, I feel that I now know a lot more about algae and naturally occurring foam, thanks to Stefan’s superior environmental knowledge!
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