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RAGBRAI Day 4: A little inspiration on the road

Prior to this week, whenever I told people I was biking across Iowa, the common response I'd get was this: "I'd never be able to do that."
People look at the sheer mileage (442 miles this week) and immediately believe it to be an insurmountable distance for them. They either don't think they're in shape for it or they don't think they have the motivation to submit themselves to a week's worth of biking.
Make no mistake: This is no picnic. We're more than 250 miles into the trip so far and signs of fatigue are evident in both myself and everyone else. We're all sun burnt and sore from biking and I can't imagine anyone is looking forward to the 82-mile ride tomorrow (the longest day of the week) from Charles City to Waterloo.
However, if there's anything I've learned from RAGBRAI this week, it's this: Anyone is capable of making it across Iowa if they really want to.
Want proof? Take a look at the photo on the right. I saw the guy in the photo while biking into Swaledale (first town after Clear Lake) today. To be clear, that's not Photoshop; he really is riding a recumbant bike with no legs. He apparently lost them in Iraq and has to pedal with his hands.
I didn't get a chance to talk with him (it's tough finding people again on the road, it's a never-ending wave of bikes), but a friend of his assured me that he's not a daily rider. He is in fact doing the entire bike ride. This also isn't his first RAGBRAI. His friend said he's completed "several" of them over the years.
I've seen some inspiring riders on the road this week. A 10-year-old boy trying to keep up with his dad, a just-married couple using RAGBRAI as their honeymoon, a 75-year-old man participating in his 20th RAGBRAI.
But there's something incredible about a person doing something like this with no legs. Rather than complaining about the knee pains I have while biking, I should be thankful that I have knees that can feel pain.

"Troubled Times"

First of all, we wants to thank you for your kind comments about the photography on the last post. (Huge woofs!) And we want to bigtime thank Sam (http://howsamseesit.blogspot.com/) for an absolutely wonderful pressie. We guessed what the painting in the corner of Sam's "Troubled Times" montage was and received an 8x10 picture of his very self in that blog post. So go and check that post out if you haven't already, pups!
Here is the pressie!
Oooh Mama! What is this? Know it smells like Golden!
It IS Golden, but what is this all about? Looks a bit dangerous and naughty, Ma....
Ahhhh.... who cares about that... I like this dude - look, Ma! He signed it!
Sam - wait til you see where I'm gonna hang your picture!
Hugs xoxoxoxoxox,
Sammie

Williamsburg Watercolor

I took this photo at the Powhatan Plantation outside Williamsburg where we usually stay. As ya'll probably already know, I'm a sucker for fog and impressionistic images.
Here I tried re-creating it in watercolors. I haven't viewed them side by side, but as I'm looking at them, I didn't capture the right colors of purple that was in the photograph.
I also felt that I had to make the road more distinct or the whole thing would have been a dark blob. I'm still happy with the outcome. After all, I wasn't striving for photographic realism. It makes for a good excuse, anyway.

Ireland Reading Challenge Coming Along Well

I'm doing well on the Ireland Reading Challenge so far. For January I read A Monk Swimming by Malachy McCourt; for February In The Company of Others by Jan Karon; in March it was The Luck of the Irish by Niall Williams and Christine Breen; and now I'm reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
I'm very much enjoying the challenge. Ireland is a place I hope to visit in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, I'm reading about it and watching travel videos from our library, and of course dreaming in green.

Not Zanthan's Mystery Weed

Check out the Mystery Weed photos and comments at Zanthan Gardens, [linked at left]… she’s received an identification on her mysterious, tradescantia-family plant via Valerie at Larvalbug, [linked at left], but my plants are not quite the same. Both small, jointed, green, ground covers have larger leaves than Zanthan's ¾ inch Callisia repens exhibits.

Here are the two green-leaved ones that grow here, with a ruler for scale. I think the smaller-leaved plant at the left side might be the Tradescantia fluminensis suggested by Julie from the Human Flower Project, [linked at left], since the leaves are in the 1 ½ to 2-inch range. This plant was already growing here when we came, possibly rooted from sections that fell from a hanging basket.

The mysterious tradescantia-looking plant on the right side of the ruler has even larger leaves, between 3 to 4 inches. The leaves don’t have the succulent feel of some houseplants called Wandering Jew, or like the Purple setcreasea at left, which also grows in my garden – the leaves of the larger green plant are almost papery.

The green mystery plant was growing as a groundcover in the garden of one of the Divas. I rooted some several years ago, and they grew in a hanging basket on the covered porch. The coco liner was disintegrating when we moved here, so I sort of flipped the whole thing out into my new woodland area, the Divas of the Dirt project for October .., just leaving it on top of the soil. The little colony quickly rooted and has been very happy in this shady area - seeing them at this time of year makes me happy, too.

The flowers are appropriately scaled somewhat larger than the possible T. fluminensis. They’re such darling little flowers, but my point-and-shoot can’t show this. [It also can’t take photos of bees on flowers – many failed attempts have proven this!] Whatever the name, this plant has lived through heat, drought and some freezes, with minimal watering and attention. The flowers are even useful when I make an arrangement on a needle frog, adding greenery and some delicate misty white to whatever else I can find in bloom in my garden.

Festive, Moray style

We were in two minds about the tastefulness of these Christmas tree decorations in Johnstons of Elgin cafe. On the one hand the mill produces tweeds worn by gamekeepers and lairds, so pheasant tail feathers adorning a Christmas tree seem quite in keeping. On the other hand, they struck us as somewhat removed from the peace and goodwill message. Perhaps we're growing soft down in the pampered south.

More comforting, in that familiar hasn't-changed-a-bit-since-I-was-a-child way, was the window display in Walker's of Aberlour. I was glad to see that this vast enterprise, purveyor of shortbread to airport shops all over the world, still has its retro window display of Christmas cake, mince pies, shortbread and Ecclefechan tarts. And against a holly-patterned cloth that reminded me of the Christmas wrapping paper of the 1970s.