Ponds and Poetry

Uncontrolled water in the home garden can be a disaster - water confined and channeled through a water feature can be wonderful. If you're in the mood to see wonderful water features, you're in luck - it's almost time for the annual Austin Pond Society Tour, that special weekend when some of the members invite you into their gardens, demonstrating how Nature and Technology can work together to bring water, sound, plant life and animal life into your own back yard. That's our birdbath full of bluejays in the photo - if just a simple birdbath can get this much action, imagine what a pond could do!
For .., the event spans two days and features 30 locations - including a couple that will be open on Saturday night. Mark your calendars for Saturday and Sunday, July 14th and 15th, ... Wristbands are available at the Wildflower Center, Emerald Gardens and Hill Country Water Gardens, and can also be purchased online. You can also get them the day of the tour, but buying ahead can save you a couple of bucks.
Pond Tour Information on the APS website
The Pond Society kindly linked to my posts about last year's tour. We made it to almost all of the Saturday locations - mainly in-town ponds, loaded with ideas for urban and suburban gardeners - but I didn't have the camera with me that day. On Sunday I took photos at some unusual ponds in more rural settings out to the NW of Austin. If you're interested, here are links:
Liberty Hill .. One , Liberty Hill .. Two, Liberty Hill .. Three,
Leander .. and the Night Tour
The Pond Society site also has links to photo galleries from several previous tours.
Carolyn at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago is trying to get a garden muse day going on the first of each month, much as Carol of May Dreams has encouraged us to post flower photos for Garden Blogger Bloom Day on the 15th.
There's also a 'Green Thumb Sunday', a monthly 'Festival of the Trees', and even a 'Wordless Wednesday' going around. My first reaction was that things are getting awfully organized and scheduled in the garden blogging world. I'm starting to feel like an Austin Slacker version of Huckleberry Finn, suspicious that the Widow Douglas is trying to 'sivilize' me and think I'll slope off for the river.
But the idea kind of grew on me, so what the heck - here's a poem for Garden Muse Day. When one of the Muses whispers in my ear, it's seldom Calliope guiding me to epic poetry, or Melpomene leading me to write tragedy. No - the Muse that usually shows up is Thalia, inspiring comedy. Maybe she also inspired me to plant 'Thalia' narcissus, seen in this March photo.
The following rhyme is a few years old. A lot of my garden verse has been set to music with more than a dozen of the songs comprising an in-progress musical comedy copyrighted as Roots in Austin. I've made some of the songs into videos for YouTube - they're linked at left in the sidebar. More videos are in the works, but this little snippet of doggerel doesn't seem to have a musical future - it's slight, and cute, and nerdy in a horticultural way:

CALLA
A long time ago from a silvered movie screen
Came words made immortal by a cinematic queen:
“The calla lilies are in bloom,” said Hepburn in a trance;
At seventeen I knew that I must own these lovely plants.
In Northern lands I nurtured them, rejoicing at one flower.
My rhizomes cellar-dwellers were through winter’s chilling hours.
To Texans they’re less precious - here they’ll live with no protection,
Yet still are waxy, delicate, a chlorophyll confection.
The spathe emerges from the soil; the spadix is concealed.
Soon luminous white, or pearly pink, or yellow is revealed.
Some ask for Zantedeschia, preferring Latin words, Too many calla flowers? Never! The concept is absurd.
Written by Annie at the Transplantable Rose Garden Muse Day

ASUS Transformer Tablet

Cool day, forecast is for threatening rain. Was a good day to get the new ASUS Transformer tablet packaged up for shipping to ASUS. Guess I screwed up the micro-SD card slot.

When i got the tablet, I could not figure out how to the the micro SD card into the slot. The manual shows WHERE to insert the card but not HOW to insert it. Eventually, I found out (thanks John) that there was a dummy card insert shipped in the slot. Manaul says nothing about this.

OK, now I have the "dummy card" removed, and attempting to insert the micro-SD card. I had problems inserting the card - got it stuck in the slot. At Best Buy (where i purchased the tablet) they were able to removed the card. But, the card slot is damaged.

I inserted the card wrong side up. Once again, there are no instructions in the manual! Looking at the screen, I figured that the card should be inserted with writing facing up - facing me. NO! - To install the card, turn the tablet facing the screen DOWN (so you can look at the ASUS name on the case - THEN the micro SC card is inserted facing you.

Looks just backwards for me! Everything else I have, the cards are inserted face up.

SO, while I am on the road, I gathered up the paperwork, RMA et al, packed it with the tablet and traipsed off to the local USP Store. Left it for them to package it up and sent if off to Texas.

Oh well - I could have tried to get it covered under the Best Buy warranty (I had a month to purchase the warranty), claiming the card was stuck after I had the warranty. But, that's not me -- it would have been cheating.

On the Road Again

On the way heading to Glacier National Park. As usual, I could not sleep last night. Finally got up a little after 3 am and finished my packing. Was on the road about 4:30.

Once I got past Sioux City, things get pretty sparse on I-29. Found a place for breakfast south of Sioux Falls. Past Sioux Falls, it was even more desolate.

On top of that, around Sioux Falls I encountered FOG! At one rest area, I asked a maintenance person there - any idea how far the fod goes. She said, "while T did not know about today's fog, if if develops, its usually from Sioux Falls to Watertown". Sure as hell, as I passed Watertown, the fog was lifting.

While it was foggy, the temperature was in the upper 60s. As the sky cleared, the temperature raised. Once I was past Fargo and heading West on I-94, the thermometer on the car headed to the upper 90s! Eventually it hit the 101 mark (see photo). Thankfully, there was a good breeze and it was dry (not the humidity back home).

All the way from Sioux City, Iowa to Fargo, ND and to Bismarck, ND - I was surprised of the few services along the interstate. Most interchanges were "no services". Twice, I crossed the "Continental Divide" (at that's what signs said). The second time I caught the altitude - 1490 feet! Had no idea the divide was in the area.

Did a little shopping in Bismarck. Had 2 pints of Fat Tire and a pizza in the lounge at the hotel.

Gretton - Deene - Bulwick - Gretton

Just over 10 miles. With Barry, Eddie, Gordon, Maureen. Weather dull, but fine. We did the route from last week in reverse. No garmin track - I hadn't charged it up.

From the village hall, take Southfield Rd and the unsurfaced Fullen Lane track to the gate then down the hill to the four stiles, diagonally uphill to the right to the broken stile above Kirby Hall. Down through the gate next to the shop and entrance to the Hall, then along the road, over the cattle grid, past the car park and up to the entrance gate on Kirby Lane. Cross the road - go through the deer-proof gate, and follow the path downhill until another path crosses at right angles. Turn left along this path and follow the signs a fair way above the brook. There is another deer-proof gate. Go through this and cross a narrow band of trees - the path is visible across the field, no need to go too close to the wood called the Rookery.

The path leads to the corner of an outbuilding of Home Farm.

Join the farm road and walk through the gate, past some metal sheep pens, and out on to the village street. Follow this as far as the old school - now part house, part village hall.









Over a stile and up across the field towards the 'tea-pot' (Aladdin's Lamp?) monument. (I'm told the man to whom this monument is dedicated loved his cups of tea!) After this you cross a couple of fields with stiles, and come to a boggy section with a small building near by. The path leads through trees and over three footbridges to the A43.





Cross the A43 and a very short walk to the right (towards Corby) brings you to the somewhat hidden footpath sign.

Looking back to where the Willow Brook goes under the A43.

The path follows the edge of the field, by the woods, and then over a stile to some pasture with trees. Don't be tempted (as we were last Thursday), by the gate and bridge.

The path continues through the field, where there are a lot of bumps, which are probably the remains of a settlement deserted by the eighteenth century. [DMV = Deserted Medieval Villages. The DMV we passed on the way into Bulwick was called Henwick and is one of the 75 DMV' s in Northampton. Pronounced Henick it is a farm/landwhere hens were kept. Bulwick, (yes you guessed it correctly) was where bulls were kept. Info from Peter Hill, via Barry - many thanks!]

The path emerges into Bulwick over a stile between some houses and the Queens Head pub.

We took a break at the church - the village shop which sells food and coffee is almost opposite.





From the church we turned downhill past the old school, past the Mill House, and turned left into Red Lodge Road. We followed this across the bridge over the A43, and then turned right along a bridleway. This climbs gradually, then turns left. At a hedge it runs right again, climbing a little more. Laxton church spire comes into view ahead. The path runs left and crosses a couple of fields to meet the road from Deene to Spanhoe. Cross the road and continue bearing very slightly to the right. After crossing two fields you arrive at the lake at Harringworth Lodge. We saw plenty of birdlife today, including two or three herons.

From here the path follows a track alongside woods, past a field of cows. The track turns right, but the path continues along the grass. Just after the end of the woods you turn right to join a track by what appears to be a disused railway cutting.

This turns right, and you go through a gate and across a large field. The path passes through two gates in the corner of the next field, and then across two arable fields, through gates. Finally you cut across the corner of another field, near some agricultural buidlings, before turning right along a track which leads to Gretton's Kirby Road. Turn left here and continue to the village hall.





(in reverse)

I vant to be left alone

Both the Muscovy (above) and the Runner duck had to be chased off their nests. They weren't happy being forced to abandon their eggs, rotten and stinking though they were.
That poor Muscovy. She keeps trying to nest and having no luck. I think the only thing she did wrong this time was to pick the period with the record number of consecutive 100°+ days. She's not much of a weather forecaster I guess.
-----
Friday Ark.

High Wire Act

[More 'Incense' passionflowers opened on Monday afternoon. Check the previous post - Aw, Nuts - to see why the photos didn't get up until now.]

The strands of the passion vine [planted at the far right of the bed], and of the Dolichos lablab/Hyacinth vine [planted at the far left of the border] had both outgrown the fence by August, so Philo helped me tie some twine for them to grow on. The twine reaches from a board about 5-feet high at the fence across to branches at the nine-foot level on a nearby magenta crepe myrtle.


Unless you look closely, you might think a hyacinth bean is producing passionflowers - the vines and foliage have become intertwined, but only the passionflower is blooming. I hope the bean catches up so that these two rather odd flowers will be open at the same time, resembling gaudily dressed performers twirling from the high wire at Circus~Circus.

Joodie

A few months ago I took Joodie into the vet for a check-up. She'd been in to see the vet the month before, for a regular check up and was fine. But the week prior to the 2nd visit, she'd stopped eating and was throwing up every so often. She seemed a little lethargic as well. I figured it was her eating habits again (she would eat anything and everything she found in the yard. she even used to eat diapers when the kids were younger.), and didn't think too much of it. But when she started looking thinner and less spunky, I decided to take her in.
The vet checked her temp and told me she didn't seem ill, that all her vitals seemed fine but that they'd keep her and do some blood tests to see what was up. I gave Joodie a big rub and a hug and she happily trotted down the hallway with the vet - and I left for work.
About and hour after I dropped her off, I got a phone call from the vet. She started to say that she was sorry - but had trouble and began crying! She proceded to tell me that when they went to sedate her for the tests, Joodie had gone into cardiac arrest and died!! Apparently Joodie had a huge tumor in her chest and it had gotten so big, that she couldn't eat anything, hence the weight loss.
So sad. My little chocolate doggy.