Rainbow Dragon's Lair

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

December 22:

Dancing

Fit December:

Challenges:
First Thing Water: Day 29
1-Minute Meditation (modified to five minutes): Day 29
1-Minute Plank: Day 29
1-Minute Yoga: Day 29

Push & Pull (modified to body rows in place of pull-ups):
Better Arms:
Flex Hang (modified to active hangs):
Power Grip:
1000 Calf Raises (modified to do one-legged calf raises, doing all the reps on both sides):

Skipped due to lack of time.

Daily Kicks:
Squat Hero:
Iron Core:
Glutes of Steel:
Daily Gratitude: Day 25

Also skipped due to lack of time, except for Gratitude.

Mileage:
running:
hiking: 11.2 km

Writing:
Got my short story for the week done, plus posted all of the Secret Santa gifts!
new fiction words: 2415
fiction YTD: 158,530 + ? (still have some hand-written stuff to type up)
story-a-week challenge: 49 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 49 of 54 completed*
writing days this week: 5/5

* Yikes! Only 3 weeks left in this challenge. And I still have 5 stories to write! Since the week before my birthday I will hopefully be hosting a Rainbow Day feast, getting two stories written that week is pretty much out of the question. Which means I need to write two stories this week and two next, or I won't meet this challenge! Gotta get a move on!

French:
CBC Gem

Scheduling Habits:
GOBOT:
SOOT:
GBOT:
GR:

Cumulative Habit Scores:
Gaming Rules: 72
SOOT: 60
GBOT: 61

Impressed I actually got 2 stars for SOOT and 3 for GBOT this day, considering how much work I had to get done!

Streaks:
Consecutive days of working out: 105
Consecutive days of French study: 1497

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Speaking of challenges drawing to a close, it's time for me to start making plans for new ones! I'm almost certain I won't do a story-a-week challenge again next year. It was the right challenge for me this past year. It kept me writing during weeks when I'm certain I would have done no writing at all--likely for months at a time--due to the stresses of the past year. But I'm in a very different place now than I was a year ago, and I need to be focussing on different things with my writing. I have some ideas. And also some ideas for where I want to go with my fitness journey over the next year. But I need to get outside with Shelby for a walk soon. So these thoughts can wait for a bit. All I will post now is the below information re: my upcoming birthday challenge/celebration -- because it's the one you all get to be involved in (if you so choose) and I just realized it's only 3 weeks away!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~​

The time is fast approaching when I will be able to lay claim to being another year older, another year wiser. Much of this past trip around Sol was once again extremely stressful for me. Things are calmer now. In some very important ways I am in a much better place than I was a year ago. Although stressors remain re: how best to navigate my path forward (particularly w.r.t. the high cost of both food and housing here, the scarcity of housing, and my own financial insecurity). But I remain grateful for my continued good health and for my community with all of you wonderful Bees here in the Hive. To this end, I will once again be celebrating my birthday (it's on January 13th) with my annual birthday workout. This time around the workout will be:

54 for 54​

Want to celebrate with me? Here's how you can:

• You may gift me with an exercise which I must do for 54 reps or 54 seconds on my 54th birthday.
• If you do, you get to celebrate my birthday with me by also doing 54 reps or seconds of the same exercise!
• The gift has to be a physical exercise. "54 burpees" is a good gift. "54 tequila shots" is not. (I will definitely not be drinking 54 shots on my birthday or any day!)
• Yoga poses count if they are active yoga poses. e.g.: a 54-second crow pose would be a good gift, a 54-second shavasana would not be. (I will definitely be doing a nice, long--considerably longer than 54 seconds--meditation in shavasana after I have completed my birthday workout, but neither the meditation nor the shavasana qualify for any of the 54 exercises of my workout.)
• January is winter in my corner of the Hive. So no biking or swimming!
• A 5.4 km run will hopefully be one of the exercises. (The weather could be prohibitive. But if it's safe to do a run here on January 13, I will do one.)
• The final exercise will be 54 minutes of dancing! (This is the only exercise that's timed in minutes instead of seconds. I need to do 54 different exercises on my birthday, and there are not enough hours in the day to fit them all in if I allow more than one exercise to stretch to almost an hour in length!)
• The equipment I have available for this workout is: a yoga mat, yoga blocks (foam and cork), hand weights (3 and 8 lb. dumbbells), a pull-up bar (freestanding--so no kipping! I can do hangs, assisted pull-ups, and negative pull-ups only), resistance bands, a Swiss ball, socks on a hardwood floor, and my own body. I do not have stairs. My pull-up station also has handles for tricep dips. (I can only do partial-depth dips. But these handles are also useful for leg/knee lifts and body rows.)
• Please post your gifts here in my Lair. (I will add them to this spreadsheet so we can all keep track without the need to scroll back through my log here.)

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Health & Fitness Plans - Some Preliminary Thoughts

Nothing set in stone yet. I feel like there's quite a trail of abandoned DAREBEE Programs & Challenges and other fitness plans in my wake these past few years. And in fairness: these were extremely stressful years for me, and my life was thrown into upheaval multiple times. Before I set anything in stone I want to take a look back at my stated plans over the past couple of years. See what worked and what didn't. And of the things that didn't work, assess whether I failed due to stress, other situational issues, or simply because it was something I didn't want badly enough. This will give me a clearer perspective on good goals for me for the upcoming year. In general though: I do want to up my fitness game this year. I particularly want to work on improving my upper body, back, and core strength. And I want to get my running speed back.

This last point involves a bit of a head game I need to be careful about. The odds are slim-to-none I will ever again run a sub-11-minute 3000 metres. I need to be okay with this. On the other hand: I do not want to be just a jogger. I want to get my running speed back up to the best it can be, within the limits of the training resources I have available to me. I live in a city with a parkrun now. It's not in an ideal location for me. I likely won't go during the winter months. (The location is over an hour's hike for me, each way. The hike home would be with cooling sweat on my body, which is not awesome during the winter. And I'm not going to run great times on snow and ice, wearing winter clothing, anyway.) But during the warmer months, it's a weekly chance to do a free 5K timed run with other people--some of whom are faster runners than I am. Which will help me to improve my speed. And the route there would be pretty easy on my bicycle.

In order to see significant gains, however, I'd need to be doing speed work year-round. At my age, I'll lose too much conditioning over the winter if all I do is steady state runs at speeds that are safe for winter conditions here. Which means I need to do some indoor cardio HIIT during the winter. Which I do not love. But can I make myself do it 2x/week in the interest of being able to be good again during the rest of the year at something I do love? This is the question. I will have to think on this some more.

There are a bunch of things I want to keep/add to my schedule to do daily (or at least 6 days/week) just as a general maintenance thing. I'm a bit hesitant though, because I have a bunch of small things on my schedule now. And I keep skipping them. A lot of that though, I think, is that they are too regimented. To do a DAREBEE Challenge I need to load the Challenge page each day, look up what exercise(s) to do, then count reps/time and time breaks. It's not fitting into mini breaks throughout my day as well as I had hoped. So I end up leaving it all until the end of the day, and then running out of time. Trying to track 15 Challenges at once is definitely too much administrivia! But the actual work I don't think is too much. I just need to make the goals easier to track.

More on this tomorrow (as it's my screens off time now).

 

[aku-chan]

I will gift you 54 Squats for your birthday!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Thank you @aku-chan !

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

December 23:

Quiet Room yoga
Fit December:

Challenges:
First Thing Water: Day 30 -
1-Minute Meditation (modified to five minutes): Day 30 -
1-Minute Plank: Day 30 -
1-Minute Yoga: Day 30 - (re-badge)

Push & Pull (modified to body rows in place of pull-ups): Day 24
Better Arms: Day 24
Flex Hang (modified to active hangs): Day 24
Power Grip: Day 24
1000 Calf Raises (modified to do one-legged calf raises, doing all the reps on both sides): Day 24

Daily Kicks:
Squat Hero:
Iron Core:
Glutes of Steel:
Daily Gratitude: Day 26

Skipped due to lack of time, except for Gratitude.

Mileage:
running:
hiking: 4.2 km

Writing:
day off
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 158,530 + ? (still have some hand-written stuff to type up)
story-a-week challenge: 49 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 49 of 54 completed*
writing days this week: 5/5

* Yikes! Only 3 weeks left in this challenge. And I still have 5 stories to write! Since the week before my birthday I will hopefully be hosting a Rainbow Day feast, getting two stories written that week is pretty much out of the question. Which means I need to write two stories this week and two next, or I won't meet this challenge! Gotta get a move on!

French:
CBC Gem

Scheduling Habits:
GOBOT:
SOOT:
GBOT:
GR:

Cumulative Habit Scores:
Gaming Rules: 75
SOOT: 63
GBOT: 64

Streaks:
Consecutive days of working out: 106
Consecutive days of French study: 1498

 

[Syrius]

Happy quadruple badge day!!

 

[JCU]

Congratulations X5!!!!!

 

[MadamMeow]

Congrats for all of those challenges!

 

[Anek]

Congrats!!

And I gift you 54 jumping jacks!

 

[Fremen]

Congrats

 

[Sólveig]

Congrats on your four badges!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

More Health & Fitness Plans

Most of the DAREBEE Challenges I have been working through will wind down this week. And while I'm definitely not going to keep tracking 15 Challenges at once going forward, much of the work I have been doing for them I do want to keep doing. Here's what I'm thinking thus far:

Cardinal Points: (to be done daily)
First Thing Water
Mindfulness - minimum 10 minutes
Dancing or Yoga - minimum 1 song
Gratitude

"Mindfulness" can be a seated meditation. It can be relaxing in shavasana after a workout. It can be a moving meditation. It can be nature therapy/forest bathing. It can be doing artwork.

Group of Seven: (to be done daily, minimum 60 seconds each):
hand & wrist strengthening (exercises from: Wrist Pain, Talk to the Hand, and/or Hand Tendons)
calf raises
plank - any style, static or dynamic
dolphin / turbo dog / forearm balance / transitions between these poses
hip flexor strengthening (knee & forward leg lifts, knee strikes, forward kicks, mountain climbers, high knees, etc.)
hip abductor strengthening (side leg lifts, clamshells, side kicks, prone/kneeling sideways leg swings, etc.)
glutes strengthening (glute bridges, pointer, rear leg lifts, donkey kicks, upward plank, tiger, wheel, locust, etc.)

I know I need variety to stick with doing all of this stuff. I would get bored doing the same 7 exercises every day. But I don't have time for the administrative hassle of tracking a specific sequence of exercises for each one. This plan I think gives me enough flexibility to keep things interesting. Any or all of these target areas may be covered by other workouts I do during the day. But if they're not, it's super easy and fast for me to simply set a 60-second looping timer and bang off one minute of an appropriate exercise for each.

Note: the above does not include as much back or abdominal work as I want to be doing. But as a bare minimum, "this is what I will do every day", it will suffice.

Push & Pull Challenge: Once I complete this doing body rows, I will repeat the Challenge doing negative pull-ups. Then I may try it with assisted pull-ups. I like the protocol (3 sets to failure) of this Challenge. It is simple and effective. At this point my plan is to stick with this protocol indefinitely, and simply increase the difficulty level of the exercises as I'm able. After this week I plan to do this only 6 days per week. (I may cut this back to 5 or even 4 if I find it's too much. But for now the plan is 6 days/week.)

Running:
My plan is to go for a run, or do "alternative cardio", a minimum of 5 days per week. This will include 3 tempo runs and 2 days of interval training each week. For now, my minimum distance for tempo runs will be 3K if the temperature is sub-zero and/or there is snow and/or ice on the ground, and 5K if the temperature is above freezing and my paths are clear. Alternative cardio can include dancing, yoga flows, and/or DAREBEE workouts and will be for a minimum of 20-35 minutes per day, depending on how hard I am working it. Outdoor interval training is unlikely to be safe or effective for me during the winter, so winter interval training days will need to be the dreaded indoor HIIT. An acceptable indoor HIIT workout will consist of a minimum of 3 tabatas or a DAREBEE workout with a similar amount of work.

I still need to go back through my notes of the past couple of years. See if there's anything I'm missing. (Or, conversely, if I'm still trying to bite off far more than I can chew with all of this!) But I think this will be the plan.

I've already been doing the Cardinal Points and also Push & Pull (although I need to get more consistent with the latter). The Group of Seven I am going to try to work in right away as that is a pretty simple add. The running requirements will not come into effect until after my birthday.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Thank you @Syrius @JCU @MadamMeow @Anek @Fremen @Sólveig !

 

[Haleth]

Congratulations on your badges!

 

[Lady Celerity]

Time to celebrate all of your Mission Accomplishments!

 

[Maegaranthelas]

A wonderful crafting youtuber I follow has a system of "good, better, best"
when she starts a new project she decides what the minimum requirements are for it to be a success,
what would make it even better, and what would be the icing on the cake.
This is pretty much how I view my fitness now ^^
There are the basics that I can do on all but the absolute worst of days = good
the things I am actively working on = better
and the things I can challenge myself with when I am having a good day = best.

And congrats on your badges!!!

 

[FlowersandPetals]

Congratulations on your 4 badges!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Thank you @Haleth @Lady Celerity @Maegaranthelas @FlowersandPetals !

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

December 24:

Cardinal Points:
First Thing Water:
10 Minutes of Mindfulness: (Quiet Room, seated meditation)
Dance / Yoga: (Quiet Room)
Gratitude:

Group of Seven:
hands & wrists: (Power Grip)
calf raises: (1000 Calf Raises)
plank: (Iron Core)
feathered peacock: (60 sec. dolphin)
hip flexors: (Squat Hero + lots in Fit December)
hip abductors: (Daily Kicks)
glutes: (Glutes of Steel + Fit December)

Fit December: Days 9-12

Challenges:
Push & Pull (modified to body rows in place of pull-ups): Day 25
Better Arms: Day 25
Flex Hang (modified to active hangs): Day 25
Power Grip: Day 25
1000 Calf Raises (modified to do one-legged calf raises, doing all the reps on both sides): Day 25

Daily Kicks: Day 20
Squat Hero: Day 28
Iron Core: Day 13
Glutes of Steel: Day 13
Daily Gratitude: Day 27

Mileage:
running:
hiking: 7.7 km

We are in a cycle of daytime thaws and nighttime re-freezes here that is expected to last for ~ a week. (Except for this weekend when it is not expected to freeze overnight on Saturday. A very good thing because it is expected to rain!) This is leading to very slushy and messy mid-day walks and icy early morning & evening walks. Poor Shelby had a wipeout on the ice last night. She got up immediately afterward and kept going (yeah, she is tough!) but she was a bit surprised by it! Likely our mileage will be down over the next week because of the conditions. But we'll do the best we can.

This day we went to the near side of our local conservation area (a.k.a.: the trail that does not wrap around a known coyote den). It was navigable. But we had to be super careful on the hill. (This hill is steep enough, the trail designers put in a wooden handrail. Which I definitely used on this day!) Still: it was nice to get in amongst the trees for a bit.

Writing:
day off
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 158,530 + ? (still have some hand-written stuff to type up)
story-a-week challenge: 49 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 49 of 54 completed*
writing days this week: 0/5

* Yikes! Only 3 weeks left in this challenge. And I still have 5 stories to write! Since the week before my birthday I will hopefully be hosting a Rainbow Day feast, getting two stories written that week is pretty much out of the question. Which means I need to write two stories this week and two next, or I won't meet this challenge! Gotta get a move on!

French:
CBC Gem

Scheduling Habits:
GOBOT:
SOOT:
GBOT:
GR:

Cumulative Habit Scores:
Gaming Rules: 78
SOOT: 66
GBOT: 67

Streaks:
Consecutive days of working out: 107
Consecutive days of French study: 1499

 

[Sólveig]

I performed 54 of my Burpees today for you, as I announced in my log!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Logging this tonight before I forget:

Shelby and I made it out for a decently long walk today, after all. Hiked north up the TVP. It was icy. But we made it okay. (Shelby did fine. I had a couple of near misses, including almost doing a banana-peel pratfall, saved only by Shelby's weight on the other side of her leash, which gave me enough leverage to pull myself back up!) We made it as far as the University. (Shelby, of course, wanted to go further. She knows that trail extends farther north, and we have not explored it all yet. But I made the executive decision that we were turning back, as the trails really are quite icy, so I did not want us to still be out on them after dark.)

On the way back we chanced the foot path that runs right along the riverside. It was a bit challenging, but navigable, and well worth the effort. We saw the usual Mallards and Herring Gulls and Canada Geese one expects along the Thames this time of year. But we also saw a Belted Kingfisher (I knew they were still around as I've heard them often recently, but with the grey skies of this time of year, today's was the first I've seen in a while), a whole flock of Common Mergansers, some Hooded Mergansers, a Bald Eagle (that swooped back and forth over the river right in front of us several times before finally choosing a branch on which to land to enjoy the lunch it had just caught), a Black-capped Chickadee, a Golden-crowned Kinglet, and a beautiful lady Northern Cardinal who sang to us for quite a while.

Alas, I did not have a camera with me. Between the temperature (it did not quite make it above freezing today) and the ice (the last thing I need is to wipe out carrying a camera and mess up the small one and/or do even more damage to the big one!) and the grey skies (I figured my chances of getting good photographs today were small) I had decided to leave both cameras at home. And the lighting conditions would not have given me glamorous shots with either camera. But it would have been nice to at least get the record shot of some of today's observations.

If trail conditions permit, we may try the same trail again tomorrow, with a camera this time. We're unlikely to be treated to such a show from an eagle two days in a row. But the mergansers will likely still be around. It would be nice to get some decent shots of them. Also: the very dense school of fish is still hanging out in the same spot. I want to get a photo of them so I can get an ID.

 

[Daptomycin]

That sounds like an amazing hike!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

That sounds like an amazing hike!

It was! I'm so glad we chanced it, in spite of the ice.
I am seriously considering investing in crampons though! (I wonder if anyone makes them for dogs.)

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

(I wonder if anyone makes them for dogs.)

Update: they do. But I think shoes with crampons would still be less traction for Shelby than her bare feet. And I know she would not keep on the style of shoes these are designed to go over. Anyhow, she has only had the one issue thus far, which was sheet ice on top of cement. She is doing fine thus far on icy trails. (I, on the other hand, could definitely use the help!)

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

I performed 54 of my Burpees today for you, as I announced in my log!

Thank you @Sólveig !

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

December 25:

Cardinal Points:
First Thing Water:
10 Minutes of Mindfulness: (lots of focused attention in nature this day)
Dance / Yoga: (Quiet Room)
Gratitude:

Group of Seven:
hands & wrists: (Power Grip)
calf raises: (1000 Calf Raises)
plank: (60 seconds forearm plank)
feathered peacock: (60 sec. pincha practice)
hip flexors: (Daily Kicks)
hip abductors: (Iron Core)
glutes: (Glutes of Steel + Iron Core)

I practice feathered peacock in front of a wall, because I need to push off the ground pretty hard to be able to get up, and I know my back would not be happy about an accidental flip over into forearm wheel. My shoulders likely would not like that either. These days I am able to get up easily with my hands clasped together, but not at all with my forearms parallel and palms flat on the ground. Even once I was already up, I struggled to move my arms into the traditional parallel position. Hands clasped has always been an easier position for me for me to get into. And I don't find it any less stable than parallel forearms. (If anything, I find the v shape more stable.) At this point I question whether I even want to try going for a parallel forearms pose.

I did ask in my YTT. Because feathered peacock (Sanskrit: pincha mayurasana, a.k.a.: forearm balance) is always taught with parallel forearms. Yet beginners pretty much always find it easier with forearms in a v shape and hands clasped. Students who struggle to keep their forearms parallel are taught to either place a yoga block between their hands, to prevent their hands from moving together, and/or to wrap a strap around their upper arms to prevent their elbows from splaying outward. But no one has been able to explain to me why a body which inherently prefers the hands clasped position should be forced to do it differently.

My YTT instructors were very big on the whole "OMG! Your shoulders must be in external rotation to keep this pose safe!" claim. But why? We practice supported headstand with our hands clasped together. A forearm balance with hands clasped is simply a supported headstand with the head lifted off the floor. Which should be an easy transition since in supported headstand the majority of one's weight should be born on the forearms, not the head in any case. (Many yogis practice forearm balance looking down at the floor, which requires a backbend to maintain the balance. But I don't see why this is necessary either. Yogis tend to be very back-bendy, so that aesthetic has developed in a lot of poses where it's not necessary and where a straighter back would allow for more core control and engagement.)

@Damer you are knowledgeable re: muscle activation. Do you have any thoughts on why one arm (and consequently shoulder) position should be preferred over the other?

The two arm variations I speak of are illustrated here: Supported Headstand and here: Forearm Balance.

Fit December:

Challenges:
Push & Pull (modified to body rows in place of pull-ups): Day 26
Better Arms: Day 26
Flex Hang (modified to active hangs): Day 26
Power Grip: Day 26
1000 Calf Raises (modified to do one-legged calf raises, doing all the reps on both sides): Day 26

Daily Kicks: Day 21
Squat Hero: Day 29
Iron Core: Day 14
Glutes of Steel: Day 14
Daily Gratitude: Day 28

Mileage:
running:
hiking: 12.5 km

11.2 km on our main hike. Plus a mini hike around the block before bed.

Writing:
day off
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 158,530 + ? (still have some hand-written stuff to type up)
story-a-week challenge: 49 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 49 of 54 completed*
writing days this week: 0/5

* Yikes! Only 3 weeks left in this challenge. And I still have 5 stories to write! Since the week before my birthday I will hopefully be hosting a Rainbow Day feast, getting two stories written that week is pretty much out of the question. Which means I need to write two stories this week and two next, or I won't meet this challenge! Gotta get a move on!

French:
CBC Gem

Scheduling Habits:
GOBOT:
SOOT:
GBOT:
GR:

Cumulative Habit Scores:
Gaming Rules: 81
SOOT: 69
GBOT: 70

Streaks:
Consecutive days of working out: 108
Consecutive days of French study: 1500

 

[NancyTree]

Belated congrats on your badges!

I would love to run 5.4 km with you I can't promise though that I'll be able to do it on the 13th, because it's a work Monday.
So I'll put 54 jumping lunges on your list.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Belated congrats on your badges!

I would love to run 5.4 km with you I can't promise though that I'll be able to do it on the 13th, because it's a work Monday.
So I'll put 54 jumping lunges on your list.

Thank you @NancyTree !
I've put you down for both. (The run might need to happen on a different day for me too, depending on the weather!)

 

[FlowersandPetals]

Hi I just wanted to say I'm impressed with your knowledge of animal species! I can name a few birds (cardinals, geese, seagull) but after that it's all birds
When I homeschooled my kids we learned about animals but I can't remember. (They can today and they're in their 20s) I feel like I'm reading something out of a forest ranger's journal when you bring up your hikes

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

@FlowersandPetals I was fortunate in that I got started with birding while I lived close to Rondeau Provincial Park, an internationally recognized birding hostspot. One day back in my early days of birding, (when I could name maybe 20 species, but probably only recognize half of them if they were males in breeding plumage) I saw a bird which had never been reported in Canada before. When I learned that I was the first person to report a sighting of this bird in Canada, I thought it was pretty cool. But the excitement it generated in the Canadian birding community was wild and totally unexpected to me!

Because I use my real headshot as my profile picture on my iNaturalist account (where I had reported the sighting), all of the serious birders who bird in the Rondeau area learned what I looked like, recognized me on the trails, and wanted to talk to me. Before that Kiskadee sighting I was just another stranger out on the trails with a camera. But that bird made me famous in the local birding community for a while. A couple of very experienced birders started inviting me to join them on birding events and allowed me to ask them a tonne of questions. So I learned a lot!

If you are interested in improving your skills at animal (and also plant and fungus) IDs, I highly recommend iNaturalist. You can upload photographs to the site of any wildlife you observe in its natural habitat, and the site will help you to ID it--initially using pattern recognition software, but later your photographs will be reviewed by humans in the iNat community who will agree or disagree with your initial ID. Some of the folks IDing images on iNat are very knowledgeable in their respective subject fields, and you can learn a lot from them. (Once you have built up some species ID knowledge, you can practice your skills by helping to review other people's photos too!)

For birds specifically, you can also use eBird (although, if you don't already know what you're looking at, iNaturalist is a better resource, I think).
and for butterflies and moths, https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/identify will get you an ID of your photo from an expert.

If you use any of these apps, you are contributing to citizen science and helping to inform research and policy in preserving biodiversity. So it's a win-win!

 

[FlowersandPetals]

Thank you! I'm basically the casual type with this I'll check it out!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

After posting my notes on yesterday's hike early so I wouldn't forget anything, I did forget something! At the same spot where we saw the mergansers and the eagle we also saw a Common Raccoon. They're not super rare in these parts by any means. But this one was very cute, curled up on a tree branch overhead, having a midday nap.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Did not make it all the way to the university today since we got started too late. We had done our neighbourhood 3K walk in the morning, with the hope of getting out for a longer walk in the afternoon. And we did do a longer walk. But only 7.3 km. (And even that put us walking home after dark.) Most of the ice had melted from the TVP, and tomorrow's rain is now not forecast to arrive until the evening. So I am hoping we can do a good hike tomorrow.

We did make it far enough today to see the fish. Unfortunately, I was already losing my light by then. Also: I had neglected to charge the batteries for the big camera. They are old and don't hold charge well anymore, and the cold doesn't help there. So I only got a few shots. Not great ones. I don't know if this will be good enough to get me an ID. But it gives you a sense of just how thick the fish are in this one area.



Anyone know fish?

Anyhow... I am charging all of the batteries tonight, and will go back tomorrow and try to get clearer shots in the daytime.

 

[MadamMeow]

I would like to gift you 54 Knee-To-Elbows.

x54

 

[Syrius]

Is Extended Standing Hand to Big Toe a good present? I want to gift you some yoga. I was also thinking about some sumo squats.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

I would like to gift you 54 Knee-To-Elbows.

Thank you @MadamMeow !

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Is Extended Standing Hand to Big Toe a good present? I want to gift you some yoga. I was also thinking about some sumo squats.

Yes! I love balance poses! Squats of all kinds are good too!

 

[Syrius]

Yes! I love balance poses! Squats of all kinds are good too!

Awesome! Put me down for both!!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Thank you @Syrius !

 

[Mamatigerj]

Belated cheers for your badges!
I really like your new fitness system.
I am thinking about your birthday gift.

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Thank you @Mamatigerj

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

December 26:

Cardinal Points:
First Thing Water:
10 Minutes of Mindfulness:
Dance / Yoga: (dancing)
Gratitude:

Group of Seven:
hands & wrists: (Power Grip)
calf raises: (1000 Calf Raises)
plank: (Iron Core)
feathered peacock: (60 sec. dolphin practice)
hip flexors: (60 sec. supine leg lifts)
hip abductors: (Daily Kicks)
glutes: (Glutes of Steel, Secret Santa)

Fit December:

Challenges:
Push & Pull (modified to body rows in place of pull-ups): Day 27*
Better Arms: **
Flex Hang (modified to active hangs): Day 27
Power Grip: Day 27
1000 Calf Raises (modified to do one-legged calf raises, doing all the reps on both sides): Day 27

* modified protocol as I did push-ups as part of a Secret Santa workout, instead of in straight sets. Did more total push-ups than I would have achieved using a strict Push & Pull protocol, however. So I'm counting it.

** will double up on Better Arms tomorrow. (Am planning to do a Secret Santa workout that will cover the punching.)

Daily Kicks: Day 22
Squat Hero: Day 30 - ***
Iron Core: Day 15
Glutes of Steel: Day 15
Daily Gratitude: Day 29

*** I had to modify Day 28 (I need to use an assist to get back up from a full pistol squat. I considered doing these in a doorway. But even with the assist the volume would be pretty high for me, and the work would take more time than I had. So I settled for half depth pistols) and Day 29 (I watched @Damer 's how-to video on ninja jumps multiple times. I still cannot do them. This is an exercise I would like to keep training towards. Because it would be badass to be able to do them. But for the sake of finishing the Challenge this year, I did the movement one leg at a time.) Day 30 was a nice and celebratory way to end the Challenge.

Mileage:
running:
hiking: 11.9 km

Other Stuff:
Some bridges, bounces, and deadlifts.

Writing:
day off****
new fiction words: 0
fiction YTD: 158,530 + ? (still have some hand-written stuff to type up)
story-a-week challenge: 49 of 52 completed
54 stories in my 54th year challenge: 49 of 54 completed
writing days this week: 0/5

**** Yeah. And may well be Friday as well. I make no apologies. I need to make use of the nice weather while I have it!

French:
CBC Gem

Scheduling Habits:
GOBOT:
SOOT: (-1)
GBOT: (-1)
GR: (-1)

Cumulative Habit Scores:
Gaming Rules: 80
SOOT: 68
GBOT: 69

Lost points on all three scores this day. But only one point on each. So not too bad. (Sometimes one just has to say, "You know, this time of year used to be absolutely miserable for me due to an obligation to participate in a nasty event. And now it's not. Now I get to spend this time doing relaxing, peaceful things that make me happy. So relaxing, peaceful things that make me happy are what I'm going to do!" So yes: I soloed a couple of games of Wingspan, even though I knew that doing so would cause me to miss both SOOT and GBOT. I have no regrets.)

Streaks:
Consecutive days of working out: 109
Consecutive days of French study: 1501

 

[Mamatigerj]

Congratulations on achieving Hero status on your Squats @Laura Rainbow Dragon!

 

[Laura Rainbow Dragon]

Thank you @Mamatigerj !

 

[Anek]

Congrats!!

 

[JCU]

Congrats!

 

[Syrius]

Congrats on Squat Hero!!!

 

[Haleth]

Congratulations on Squat Hero!

 

[Maegaranthelas]

Heroic Squatting!