One of the best things about blogging is joining the community of other bloggers, finding people with shared quirks and interests, and following along as other people unfold their narrative, whatever it is. Today I though I’d introduce a handful of blogs I follow pretty religiously, especially blogs whose connection to cycling is less obvious than, say, the good folks at Ecovelo, Cycleicious, or Bikes and The City. Click through and enjoy.
Homegrown Evolution
Erik Knutzen and Kelly Coyne write Homegrown Evolution, an LA-based blog that explores a fast-growing new movement: urbanites are becoming gardeners and farmers. Kelly and Erik are the authors of The Urban Homestead. Here’s a quick link to their bike-focused entries.
Gurldoggie
A Seattle-based blog, Gurldoggie is like a baker of perfect little blog-entry treats about an artist, musician, or writer, always just the right length, posted almost daily. I can’t say enough good things about Gurldoggie’s rhythm of little tidbits. Daily inspiration on multiple levels.
Fat of The Land
Our friend Langdon is always out foraging, and has made quite a name for himself since the publication of his book Fat of The Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager. He’s opened my eyes to the bounty around me as I cycle the city and the countryside, and now I regularly stop to fill my panniers with urban-foraged fruit, berries, even mushrooms. His posts generally feature delicious recipes, and often seem to begin with a jealousy inducing phrase like “I’m just back from several days of backpacking,” or “When I was recently camping for a week…”
Northwest Cheapsleeps
For northwesterners in search of an inexpensive getaway, this is the place to start. Lauren hand-picks destinations in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia that are friendly, clean, cozy and under $100 a night. Her blog provides fresh ideas on a regular basis, while the Cheapsleeps Finder collects the bargains in a handy database.
The Tangled Nest
And finally, you know that my wife is the real writer and blogger in the family, right? In addition to writing book after book after book, she blogs at The Tangled Nest (and I post there from time to time as well), about “the urban-earthen home,” the twining of home, garden, food, craft, and co-existence with the wild, natural world.
Also regularly perused: ZeFrank, Kottke, Strobist, Notcot, White African, Koelle Art, Humanosphere, Poppy Gall, and Afrigadget.
Have you got other non-bike blog suggestions?
I was very tempted to go to Maker Faire Africa this year, but the business I had in Nairobi fell through, and I opted to spend this weekend preparing for Burning Man instead. (Tough choice!) They’ve just posted a “meet the makers” short video. Looks chilly in Nairobi this week!
Maker Faire is a great event and I am pleased the momentum has carried through from the first Maker Faire Africa, held in Ghana last year (and mentioned on Bikejuju here).
As you can see, though, despite the vibrancy of the grassroots bicycle and bicycle design sectors in Africa, they are under-represented at Maker Faire Africa, especially when you compare it to the US Maker Faires, where there is always lots of bikey fun. From a distance it seems there are even fewer bicycle projects in Nairobi than last year in Accra. I have a little dream that we could use the Maker Faire Africa gathering in 2011 or 2012 as a place to bring together the African grassroots bicycle sector. What do you think?
There’s big news in our house: the careful selection and late afternoon arrival of two much-anticipated gerbils as a back-to-school indulgence for my daughter Claire, who starts sixth grade on Monday. Precilla and Blossom are busily exploring the cardboard tubes and big yellow wheel of their new habitat, and as I write this Claire is supposedly asleep in the bed across the room from them, though it would not surprise me a bit if she were secretly peeking at them one more time.
Normally this rodent invasion would not be bike blog news, except for the coincidence that I ran across another rodent item today that is bike-related, one that unlocked a rush of childhood memories from some quarter of my brain sealed off at about age five and rarely accessed since.
If the image above clangs a bell in your memory as loudly as it does in mine, then you know I’m talking about the pig family, setting off in their orange convertible on a trip to the beach, in Richard Scarry’s 1975 classic Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. And it’s only a few pages into the book that the family encounters Officer Flossy on her classy red bike, chasing after all manner of traffic scofflaws.
While I absolutely love the idea of foxy Officer Flossy on her bicycle, tooting her whistle as she chases down the dangerous driving dingo, it may surprise you to learn that Flossy is not the subject of today’s post. No, today’s post is about rodents, remember? And the memorable rodent in Cars and Trucks and Things that Go is this little lady:
Mistress Mouse, up on the truck engine, is a tow truck driver who can “fix almost anything.” And she drives a super cute little pink tow truck (see it on the cover image, above?), which finally brings us to the visual punchline of today’s post, this amazing little eight second Vimeo glimpse of a girl whose loving father turned her trike into Mistress Mouse’s Tow Truck. It’s almost as cute as our new gerbils! (We want to see more of the Mistress Mouse Trike!)
Mistress Mouse from jeff hamada on Vimeo.
Officer Flossy is still chasing Dingo Dog, though! Can you spot him? Do you think she’ll ever catch him to give him that ticket? Faster, Flossy, faster!
All illustrations © Richard Scarry. Video found via booooooom.com
