First Things First

I'm a dog named Dixie. I have small feet which pitter patter on the linoleum floor, you can hear my toenails in the middle of the night. My tag says I belong to the Johnsons, but they don't own me they just feed me, they just bought me one day.

No one owns me, I'm Dixie the tiny dog. And in the middle of the day I sit in the sun and I hear young children call me a weiner dog, perhaps that's what I am. The Germanic term is dachshund and I like that.

I'm thin and I'm proud and no one can make fun of me. I can slip through the bars of prison if I were ever incarcerated, but I don't know what I would do wrong. My body yields no evel inclination, I'm a pure weiner dog.

My name is Dixie and I go dancing cross the floor in the evening of the Johnsons when everyone is sleeping. Sometimes I look for a morsel of food but they're so clean they're almost anal retentive in their cleanliness habits and there's nothing for me.

But I don't despair.
Because I know tomorrow my Gaines Burgers will be there, and they will unwrap the plastic from them and then feed me this succulent dish and I will eat.

And I've watched the German Shepherds with their long necks, their graceful necks, dipping into the toilet to drink whenever they want to have a drink of cool water in that well. But I must plead, I must beg, I must whine for Mr Johnson to put put my bowl or one of the Johnson boys to refill it after I drink it because I'm Dixie the dog and I like water.

And in the middle of the night you can see me dancing a small Fred Astaire tap dance, with my little toe nails.

They go click click against the linoleum, and I run down the hall and I slide. And the back of me goes in front of me... slowly.

I'm long and I'm thin, I'm Dixie the tiny dog and I like it.
Peter Himmelman

Rainy Day Mushroom

Rainy Mushroom, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

This mushroom popped up over night as the result of rain. It's been raining all day today, and and times quite heavily. We needed this rain so bad - many Californians are happy it's finally here!

Jubilee - and those dogs

No royal motif is left unexploited in the wave of Jubilee merchandise that is upon us. The Queen's corgis feature in surprising manifestations. Above, a Jubilee corgi cracker.

The limited edition Jubilee Marmite is now on sale - as the poster says, it's a love-it-or-hate-it thing. I love it, and will be buying my supply very soon before it sells out. Not too sure how long I can keep it tho - might not be a good souvenir to pass on to the grandchildren.



This blurry shot of the Jubilee crackers in Marks & Spencer was the result of a case of 'security-itis', that phenomenon well known to bloggers. I was happily framing the shot, and already planning the next one I would take (a winning composition of my 6ft plus son standing under a Jubilee crown pinata - apologies to Spanish speakers, I can't find the right accent to go over the 'n'), when a store manager materialised and stopped me in my tracks. Quite what the security aspect was I can't think. If I wanted to manufacture my own counterfeit corgi crackers all I had to do was buy a box and take them apart. I would have thought M&S would be glad of the publicity - export orders streaming in from across blogland for corgi crackers.



You'll see more Jubilee gems at Writing from Scotland, as well as a tale of being in a Royal presence. Christine has also featured the Ma'amite - it's irresistible!

Ships stern

Yesterday I decided I was sick of the relentless heat of the coast, and so decided to head for the mountains of Lamington National Park. I figured that walking the Ships Stern track (19km + another 5km of detours) in the middle of a 102km ride would keep me occupied, and more importantly, at altitude for most of the day. I wasn't disappointed.

Things were muggy on the ride up the range, the usual threat of rain not eventuating that seems to be endemic to this time of year. Once I reached the plateau at Lower Beechmont, things improved, however, and it was a pleasant ride across the top through Beechmont and on to Binna Burra. The final climb of Mt Roberts is always a challenge, but I managed it without working too hard, maybe a sign that my resting heart-rate of 43 last year was no fluke.

The walk itself started with a trek through the mist at one of the higher parts of the track, before descending slightly, into a more open type of forest. One of the perils of Lamington at this time of year is leeches, there were hundreds of them around. A couple of runners had been through earlier, and evidently had stirred them up. Still, only one of the leeches actually managed to bite me, so I think I did pretty well.


The rocks near Upper Ballanjui falls were wet and thus extremely slippery. In fact, that was a description that could be applied to much of the track. Something else that surprised me was the friendliness (or should that be fearlessness) of a blue cray. That creature wasn't backing away at all. The lunch stop was Kooloobanoo Point at the top of the Ships Stern Range, with its extensive views north over Egg Rock. Apparently descendents of the original aboriginal inhabitants still live in the valley below around Egg Rock.


The second half of the walk involved a final waltz through the Hidden valley at the bottom, passing the Lower Ballanjui Falls, before climbing back to the trail head Binna Burra and riding home. I was warned about the number of leeches in the valley by a group coming the other way, but in truth I only saw two, and neither of them managed to bite me. While I was walking through the rainforest valley, it actually started raining quite heavily, but virtually all of the rain was blocked by the canopy of palms above. It's quite an eerie feeling to be under such a canopy, able to hear the rain, but not feel it. It's something I could consider if ever I need to find shelter in a hurry up there in the future.

After returning to Binna Burra, I was left with a fairly simple ride home. It was an absolutely gorgeous afternoon on the Beechmont range. The temperature was beautiful, and the wind had a slight but exquisite chill on it, the like of which would never be felt in the coastal lowlands at this time of year. I eventually made it home around 6.30pm exhausted, but extremely satisfied after a memorable day.
If you click here you should see a slide show of the 32 pictures I eventually uploaded from what was a truly awesome day.

A Little Fall Color for Thanksgiving

This post has few words - just photos of the Oakleaf Hydrangea looking good in its first autumn in Texas soil
and another look at the 'Marilyn's Choice' Abutilon...a plant that grew large but bloomed little since spring. The buds began to form on the abutilon almost as soon as the first leaves fell from the pecan tree, which may be a sign that its spot is too shady.
Whatever the trigger, this Abutilon is now covered in flowers
just in time for freeze warnings on Friday.
This is the abutilon's first year in my garden- can Marilyn keep blooming after a freeze?)
The fig tree made a small, late crop following the 12" rain in September. These 3 figs are almost ripe. Shall I pick them now or take a chance on a freeze?
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you from Philo & Annie

Ride on the Trace

A little behind in my blogging. Friday, I needed to get out to ride.
Had my free Veteran's Day breakfast at Hy-Vee. Then it was lunch with the fraternity alumni chapter. There's when the frustration started. Suffice it to say that some of the guys are still living in the 40s with their political thinking. Not to mention the Rush "ditto-head" in the group.
I needed out and take a ride to clear my head. Figured the weather would per good for a ride on The Trace. I was having problems - way slow. Realized the the trail is a bit soft. Rough pedaling. Only rode from Silver Sity to Silver Creek and back.
It was also a bit late when i had started, so the sun was getting low in the sky. Happy to get in my ride, short as it was.

Company

It's not often these days I have company on my rides. It seems my climbing tendencies tend to drive more people away than they attract. It was a chance meeting with another rider in Tallebudgera Valley which made things a little different this morning (and resulted in me taking just one picture today). However, the biggest surprise was when this old guy decided to join me on the climb of Ducats Road. It's sometimes surprising just how quickly a climb like that can be done when you have two riders trying to show off their climbing prowess, while trying to maintain a conversation between breaths.
Actually, I wasn't totally upset that the climb shortened conversation here. Just before this climb, he was telling me about a 91km/h crash he'd had on the 22% descent of Trees Road (which was what we would descent after Ducats Road). It didn't stop me clocking 76.6km/h on the descent, but I'm not sure I'd want to do it much faster (I hit 84km/h on that once). Still, sometimes it's good to share tales about places you've been, or share frustrations about Queensland drivers, or the fact that so few cyclists around here ever venture away from the flat coastal regions.
Maybe I should ride socially more often.

Daylily garden

I knew, in a theoretical kind of way, that there were a lot of varieties of Daylilies. It didn't really prevent my non-stop gaping at a Daylily garden, though.

One of our wildflower group couples gave us a tour of their garden this week.

Their main focus is Daylilies -- they have hundreds of them.

I doubt I'll ever be as dedicated a gardener.

But I'm lucky to have friends who are.

All the types were labeled, but non-dedicated non-gardener that I am, I didn't take down any names.

If you're dying to know about any particular one, I can probably find out.
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Daylilies are Hemerocallis sp. The name in Greek is a combination of Hemera (day) and Kallos (beautiful).
I wrote about words using Kallos before, when talking about Beautyberry. Every time I come across it in a botanical name, I still crack up, remembering that comment about a track team and their cry of "Callipygious!"

Jerusalem 200

Yesterday I needed a big ride, and I also felt like revisiting Mt Jerusalem. The only thing for it was to turn the old Mt Jerusalem ride into a 200km ride. There had been gale warnings on the weather forecast, but one thing I've noticed about "extreme" weather forecasts in this part of the world is that they consistently overstate the situation. So it proved yesterday, I set off with three hours sleep thanks to some drunken neighbours, and just decided to focus on discipline and riding myself into it during the early part of the ride.

After clearing the southern end of suburbia, I headed out through Urliup, skirted around Murwillumbah, where a hoon convention was on according to some signage, and headed for Reserve Creek Road. There are a couple of shortish climbs here, and I noted the return of the greenery after the dry spell during June/July/August. While the gale warnings had overstated things, the wind that did appear was quite invigorating, the ride took on a feeling of something I 'needed'.

The next object was the climb over Cudgera creek road -- around 190 metres on a dirt road with a heap of switchbacks, before a sharp descent into Burringbar. My cornering on the descent was poor, but not enough to present any major problems. Soon I resumed the journey south as far as Billinudgel (where the three-year roadwork "project" has finally been completed), before heading west over the hill toward Main Arm, where I would turn north for the days main event.


The climb of Mt Jerusalem is always a challenge with gradients exceeding 10% on dirt roads. It also leads to the highest point on this ride (274m). There was a little mud around as a shower had passed over a few minutes earlier, but the southern approach has a unique feel all of it's own with the combination of forest and the old hippie cottages. There are also little surprises in the forest if one keeps their eyes open. There are plenty of opportunities to see them, as it's a climb that really requires settling in and grinding for a while.


Descending Jerusalem is the exact opposite of the climb in more ways than one. While the climb is a grinding affair, the descent is a fast, furious, white-knuckle affair. Fortunately I had warmed up descending Cudgera Creek Road earlier. I was also fortunate that the kombi-driving idiot who didn't know which side of the road he was supposed to be on didn't show up until I'd completed the descent and returned to a flat, sealed road along the bottom. It didn't take long after this to reach Uki, and food and water.

After Uki it was just a matter of catching the tailwind home, and finding enough detours to accumulate the 200km I needed. I detoured along the hilly Bakers Road in skirting the hoon convention in Murwillumbah once before, before heading across to Tumbulgum, then doubling back to return home through the John Hogan rainforest, before mopping up the last 30km of suburbia. All in all an extremely memorable day, and something I need to more often. Just how I'll find time to do that along with all the other places I "need" to ride is another matter.