Fall Flowers

This time of year the morning glory takes over the garden. I usually just let it ramble. It's just about taken over the gate into the herb garden making it hard to go in. Have you ever noticed that most of the fall wildflowers are various shades of orange and purple with a sprinkling of red? The photo to the left is Cosmos.
Driving up in Tennessee this past weekend I saw lots of chickory along the roadside. It has the prettiest blue flower. I'll try to get a picture before we leave. We're up on the Cumberland Plateau this week. The temperatures are about twenty degrees cooler here. It's so invigorating to walk outside in the morning to fifty degree weather. Delicious!

Sedona

This is a cycling blog, but I will start this posting with my "tourist" activity. Yesterday, I spent half the day in Monument Valley. Drove the gravel road amongst the rock formations. Lots of photos of the formations.
Then on down to Sedona. I have to say the drivers in Arizona (at least those in the NE section) are reckless. I was driving at or near the speed limit. In 2 hours, I think there were only 3 or 4 cars I passed. Everyone was flying pass me. That, and they love to tailgate at 65 mph! Most of them were driving pick-ups. By the time I was to my hotel I was frustrated - and in need of a bike ride.
Stopped at the Bike and Bean. Talked with folks there and got the skinny on riding the local trails. As the temperature dropped a little, I headed out on the Bell Rock Pathway. Today's photo is my bike on the Pathway. That went well, so turned off and rode the Big Loop Trail. I was very happy with my progress riding rocks. that, and the climbing. it has been getting that I don't realize how much I climbed, until I start flying back down!

The Wolfman panel and Muley Point

Since we had been doing a lot of hiking every day up to this pointwe figured we should take a "rest day", so that's what we did today. We only did a couple of very short walks today but still saw some incredible sights! We were heading into the Cedar Mesa region of southeastern Utah which has quite a few locations of Indian ruins and rock art. Our plan for the day was to check out a couple of areas that were supposed to have some interesting petroglyphs, then work our way up towards Natural Bridges National Monument. Our first stop of the day was what is known as the "Wolfman" panel in Butler Wash not far from the community of Mexican Hat. It was less than a half-mile walk to see the panel, and it was fascinating indeed. On the side of the cliff near the bottom of the wash was a very nice series of images carved into the rock. It is always fun to sit and contemplate these images and what they may have meant to the people that carved them.



After our visit to the Wolfman panel we headed for a road known as the "Moki Dugway", which is sort of a shortcut road between Mexican Hat and Natural Bridges National Monument. As you head towards the Moki Dugway from the valley, the road is paved but as you approach the base of Cedar Mesa the road turns to gravel and gets very narrow, then it starts to climb. The Dugway is a gravel road with a series of steep inclines and 180 degree switchbacks as it ascends 1,200 feet to the top of Cedar Mesa. At the top of the dugway a 5 mile dirt road goes through BLM land to an overlook known as Muley Point. The overlook has very dramatic views south over the twisting, entrenched canyons of the San Juan River and to the desert beyond. You can even see part of Monument Valley far off in the distance. We took in the views for a while then decided to head further up the mesa. Our plan was to camp at Natural Bridges, but as we drove towards the monument it started to snow and the temperature dropped from the mid 50's to the mid 30's. We didn't want to have a miserable wet and cold camping experience so we instead headed for the town of Blanding where we stayed at the Super 8. This turned out to be a nice treat because they also had a hot tub and for the second night in a row we were able to relax in the soothing waters of a whirlpool :-)

Tired Old Carthorse

One of us got to spend more than six hours driving this thing, excavating tons of very wet clay.





The other got to to man the wheelbarrow for six hours, ferrying tons of very wet, extremely heavy clay to a skip.





Guess which job I got.





I am the first to admit that I am not a fine thoroughbred - but neither am I a cart horse, well I didn't think that I was - until today.





At the end of our six hour stint George said 'This is the last wheelbarrow load' - hurrah thought I (I was absolutely cream crackered)... then he said 'Hang on, I'll go and get the second wheelbarrow and we can move the gravel into the trench'...





When that met with a stony silence(!!) he decided that we would press on and excavate the second arm of the trench...





He's working by himself now.

***





Jonny, this is the stinky soakaway.





xxx

Not Berry Many

Many northern bloggers posted photos of their berries weeks ago - an idea that seems to have started when Lisa of Greenbow made a comment on May Dreams Carol's post on Beautyberries. After the challenge to display our berries was taken up by Mr McGregor's Daughter photos of beautiful berries appeared on garden blogs everywhere.
In my garden the yaupon hollies and Burford hollies are still developing their green berries - they won't turn red for weeks. Birds stripped the beautiful purple berries from my Beautyberry a month ago. I'm tired of waiting to post! I found only a few berry-like subjects to photograph and for some of them the definition of berry needs to be a fuzzy one.
Above are berries on what is called a Japanese Yew here in Austin. If you live in other places that name usually refers to some cultivar of Taxus japonicus (as in the famous Green Moustache) but my young shrub belongs to Podocarpus - maybe Podocarpus macroplyllus. Another name for this plant is Buddhist Pine.

I've seen related plants at the Hartman Prehistoric Garden - their plant list calls them Cephalotaxus fortunei - Chinese plum yew and Cephalotaxus harringtonia - Japanese plum yew. On our first visit to the Hartman Dinosaur Garden I fell in love with the place and I've tried to recreate the effect with similar plants in my garden.
Even if they weren't growing at the Hartman I'd have wanted a 'Little Gem' magnolia. It's made flowers in the 3 years since we planted it, but didn't make seed cones until this summer - they sort of look like berries glued together so I'm counting it.
I found a few berries left on the liriope edging in the Secret Garden. The birds aren't giving them a chance to turn dark this year.
Can you see the St Augustine grass in the background at right? That might give you an idea of how small the leaves on this plant really are. It's called Dwarf Greek Myrtle, Myrtus communis 'Nana'. I first saw this plant growing in the garden of one of the Divas of the Dirt. Buffy's pair of myrtles were already medium size shrubs when I saw them around .. and the tiny neat leaves were attractive. After we moved to this house I added three 10-inch tall plants of these compact Greek myrtles in the back garden, thinking they might have impact at some future date.

When we met at Buffy's house for a recent Diva project I was stunned to see that her compact myrtles had reached 8-feet tall. They're planted to shield the view of her Secret Garden from the gate and do their job well. Mine are less than 18 inches high, but I'm keeping an eye on them!
Buffy had beautiful berries in her garden - produced by a shrub I've already killed once but will probably buy again. For a look at the luminous blue berries on Buffy's 'Spring Bouquet' viburnum see the October 12th post at the Divas of the Dirt Blog.

Tosspot of the week (again)

It's a new week, so I can add a new tosspot. They seem to be coming thick and fast at the moment. (warning: this post is more than a little off-topic). It may be unkind of me to pour scorn on a poor, down-trodden American financial institution which, in a time of need, in a time when they were struggling so badly they had to be bailed out by the US government to the tune of billions of dollars, they could still find the generosity to pay the entire hand-out they received to their directors (i.e. the ones who got them in the sh!t to start with) in the form of "bonuses". It was an act of extreme kindness, although some would call it an act of extreme stupidity.
While it might be unkind to pour scorn on Goldman-Sachs for this, I'm going to do it anyway. Note to financial regulators all over the world (because I know they're all poring over these words as soon as they leave my keyboard): This is why the bail out didn't work and has done nothing to prop-up financial markets. Cutting through all the "the world is going to end" rhetoric that came from financial "regulators" to justify bailing out these institutions, there was one fundamental fact that everyone ignored.
These financial institutions got into trouble as a result of their own poor decisions. In basic terms, the problems arose because these institutions borrowed too much to on-lend to borrowers who simply weren't qualified to borrow as heavily as they did. Yes, that's an oversimplification, but it cuts right to the heart of the problem -- investing in debt to make risky "investments" in order to chase a few extra dollars. And now we have the people who made the poor decisions being rewarded with money that was supposedly going to shore-up the financial system and protect the savings of investors. And yet, there are still people who wonder why financial markets didn't recover as soon as this happened.
If anybody really wants to see stability restored to the markets, the first thing that needs to happen is for regulations and safeguards to be put in place to ensure this sort of reckless profit chasing doesn't happen again -- and a good start would have been attaching a few conditions to the multi-billion dollar handouts, such as limiting the percentage of their financing that can come from debt, and ensuring that incompetent fools aren't rewarded for f*cking up. After all, an unemployed person on welfare is still expected to look for a job to get their handout, and their demands are much smaller. The tosspots are truly running the asylum this week.

Falling in the Woods

Falling in the Woods, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

The recent heavy rains have filled up the creeks with water. This small waterfall is in Las Trampas Regional Park, a 5300-acre wilderness close by. It's amazing how green and lush it is up in the wooded canyons of the park...ferns and mosses coat every surface!

Bull Moose at 3:00 A.M.

Last night at 2:00 A.M. I woke to check the aurora index and next thing you know I'm spending the remainder of the night and early morning out in the woods! During the evening the aurora forecast was looking more and more favorable but not strong enough to head out before going to bed. So, I set my alarm for 2:00 hoping that maybe by then it would be worth going out. When I checked the forecast after my alarm woke me it indicated that the aurora was at "STORM" level! Once I saw that, I was on my way outside with my camera in tow. Unfortunately, it started to rain just moments after I arrived at my first location along the Lake Superior shoreline. The aurora was active, I could see it plainly in the sky between the rain clouds. The rain prevented me from getting any shots so I altered my plan and decided to head inland and see if the sky was clear away from the big lake.

On my way up Old Highway 61 in Grand Portage I drove right by a swamp and there, standing not more than 20 feet off the road, was a big bull moose! He didn't even move when I drove by, so I slowly backed up to get a better look at him. He still wasn't moving, so I turned the truck a bit until the headlights were shining right at him. He just stood there, staring at me as I stared back at him. This photo was taken through the windshield of my truck. I think it turned out pretty good considering it was a hand-held shot from behind the wheel of the truck and at ISO 6400! I took a few more pictures of him before he started to walk away. As he walked away I shot a couple of video clips of him as well. It was a great start to my late night photo outing!

NEW KING ON THE BLOCK

It didn't take young Harry long; he now has his Grandpa George wrapped round his little finger. Here they are earlier today as they walked around the little Owl Wood trying to train Billy the Hen to walk to heel - with some success thanks to the judicious use of a spinach leaf...







Here we have Harry, sitting on the throne which his Grandpa is carving for him, training Toby to follow his commands...





and finally, Grandpa being trained in how to push Harry round and round the garden.





Don't worry Jonny, he hasn't taken over your room, yet...





Big day tomorrow! We'll be thinking of you and look forward to hearing of your safe arrival.





Mum





xxx

Springtime in Currumbin Valley

It's perhaps surprising that it's been several months since I took a simple ride out to Currumbin Valley -- and perhaps even more surprising that a simple 70km jaunt should be the highlight of a weekend of riding. On the other hand, it wasn't a usual weekend. I had a visit from a family member who had just been to London and Florence, and was trying to fit my rides in between swapping travel stories. That might even have worked if I hadn't somehow managed to pick up a stomach bug on Sunday afternoon which basically took 24 hours to clear up, and effectively removed any possibility of a night time jaunt to Springbrook.

On the other hand, I suppose an "easy" weekend is a good idea occasionally. Saturday morning's ride in warm temperatures with the scent of blooming flowers in the air has whetted my appetite for other rides. Now all I need to do is shake off this current little set back, and make the effort to get out on the bike tomorrow evening.

The problem I invariably face after a lay-off of any kind is that idleness breeds idleness. Often it's just too easy to settle into a pattern of not doing very much, it becomes habit forming. While there is a deep-seated desire to get on the bike and explore new places, it's all too easy to slip into a comfort zone, a "do it later" mentality. I suffered from this a little toward the end of 2006, and I have no intention of letting it happen again.

Waltzing Matilda

Carlos and his sweetly repainted steed. He found me on the out skirts of Cali and rode with me into the city. An official Colombian bikegeek.

I think everyone in Colombia should have a framed photo of the famous Luis Herrera proudly displayed.

Cali

Just Cuz

Saurez

A rather fertile land- Coffee, Bananas, Papaya, Mangos, Bamboo and all sorts of other things.

mmm

How can you not?

As if I need an excuse for an afternoon cup

I like my bearings the opposite of my peanut butter. I prefer the smooth over the crunchy

Old bridges still have their uses. This exact location kept me out of view from new bridge.

Nearly sold out seating.

You gotta love a campfire shared with a great group of Aussies and Brits.

A crowded campsite. Though it was nice to have the company for coffee.

Bike Ride, Beer, and Buds

The day started as a normal Sunday morning - coffee at Panera Bread with John & Dennis. Dennis said he rode The Trace yesterday - I thought it would have been soft from the rain. With the wind forecast for this afternoon, I suggested we ride The trace Silver City to the West Nishna Bridge. Unfortunately, John has to work and Dennis was not sure he had the legs for that ride.
After coffee, I had to stop at the grocery store for my salad. Rested a little and then prepared for a ride on The Trace. Looking forward to checking out my new cycling computer.
Wind was picking up as I unloaded the bike in Silver City. Just as I was about to head down the trail, Chris and Joe (friends of Zack's) arrived in Silver City, headed to Malvern. Visited a little with them as we started down the trail. They were soon riding too fast for me.
It seemed that I was riding into the wind or at least a cross wind (wind from the SW-WSW). Was looking forward to a tail wind on the way back. Saw them again at the Silver Creek Bridge. Took a couple photos there. The upper photo was taken on Silver Creek Bridge (pushed with Photomatix Light).
Their destination was "Excuses" in Malvern for beer and sloppy joes. When I got to Malvern, I rode on through town and climbed the hill to Marh Road. Wanted to get in my 20 mile ride today.

Back in Malvern stopped at the bar. I did not have my cable lock with me. Chris said that recently a bike was stolen on the street, so he locked my bike with his and Joe's. Grabbed some grub and a couple beers. Saw they had 312 beer - had heard of it. Was offered a taste - its NASTY stuff. Settle for a Boulevard.
Decided to get a photo of the three of us at the bar. Things got a little crazy there, with the photo. (Lower photo - By the way, what was the bartender studying?) After a couple beers and sandwiches, it was time for me to head back up the trail.
As I headed North, it felt like I was again riding into the wind or a cross wind. The wind and the slightly soft trail surface, really gave my legs a work-out. Made my 20 miles, but was exhausted when I got home.

Put to Bed

We returned to the storage lot this morning to move the Phaeton to its permanent spot.  It was only 8:00a when we got on the road.  The early hour meant little to no traffic, and we made it to our destination in record time.  It sure is nice to have a shorter drive to get to the motor home.

Pristine snow scenes and dry pavement make for a pleasant drive.

The Phaeton lives in a gated community.
(there's a second locked gate at the fenced in lot beyond this one.)

Mui had already checked out the map of available locations and settled on #87.  Before we could put the Phaeton to bed, however, we had to deal with a tiny problem.  When we parked the coach yesterday, the tires were still hot from our recent drive.  The snow around the tires had melted, creating snow-chocks that needed to be dealt with before we could go anywhere.  Having anticipated this, we were prepared.

I’m assigned to tackling the front …

… While Mui digs out the rear tires.

A little kitty-litter will do wonders … 

… to give the tires traction.

Yes, Mui … I’m working as fast as I can.

Lying down on the job, are we?

Fifteen minutes later, the coach was out of its overnight spot …

… leaving a mess behind!

It didn’t take us long to get the Phaeton re-situated.  I walked over to #87, Mui followed behind in the coach.  (Don’t get used to that, Mui; I am going to learn how to drive the motor home and then we’ll see where that leaves you!)  Taking advantage of the wide road just to the left of our spot, maneuvering in was a piece of cake.  Pulling out to go camping is going to be even easier!

# 87 awaits the Phaeton.

The wide road just ahead is why Mui picked this spot.

Wish we didn’t have to lock up and leave.

Weather permitting, we hope to take the coach out for a couple of day trips in the coming weeks.  We also have a few service appointments ahead of us as we prepare for what I consider to be our first real motor home vacation in April.  Until then …