Green Christmas

“Just got home from Illinois, lock the front door, oh boy… doo, doo, doo, lookin’ out my back door.” By John Fogarty of Credence Clearwater Revival

A few days after making the previous post, Philo and I left Austin and made a nine-day journey to celebrate Christmas. In Illinois we spent three nights at my youngest sister’s house. My mom was there, too, and we enjoyed the novelty of waking up in a home where children live. My sister and her husband host a wonderful, large Christmas dinner every year, inviting their combined families, with guests from age 6 to 96. Even doing the dishes was a pleasure, with my sisters and niece singing together as they washed and dried the china.

When the workweek began, we moved to an extended stay motel, continuing to visit with friends and family for a few more days. [That’s the motel parking lot at top – it had an interesting assortment of northern evergreens like pines, arborvitae and yew that we seldom see here.]
It's a long way from Austin to Chicago, so four of the nine days were spent in the car - eleven or twelve hours on each day, totalling more than 2600 miles. On the way up we passed through north Texas, Oklahoma & Missouri, entering Illinois at St Louis. On the way back we traveled the length of Illinois, cut off a little part of Missouri, then drove through pouring rain across Arkansas to Texarkana where we turned toward Central Texas.
We’ve made this trip in other years, watching the car thermometer drop 5 º every few hours, sticking well below the freezing mark in the metro Chicago area. That didn’t happen this year! Austin was cooler than usual, and Illinois was warmer, so that our TX son reported a mere 8 degrees benefit to staying in Austin. I had no gloves in the car, intending to buy a pair along the way, but never needed them, and didn’t miss the forgotten boots.
In north Texas, we were stunned by the green fields on the side of IH35. We’ve never seen anything but browned plants there, whether we drove that stretch in winter’s cold, or summer’s heat. Maybe it's winter rye grass?
When we got home, we looked out our back door, and saw no tambourines or elephants, but the Camellia japonica ‘Pius X’ opening its first flowers. Although many people think that attempting to grow camellias in Austin isn't sensible, this plant hasn't been that demanding - just needing a little extra water, some organic, ironized seaweed, and a steady supply of coffee grounds.

The pecans were leafless, but the roses are green. There were a few paperwhite narcissus in bloom, looking pretty ratty from the rain that blessed Austin while we were gone.

One iris had boldly extended a bud stalk – whether it will open first or freeze first is in question. This is a newer iris, one I haven't seen in bloom yet.

We returned late on Saturday, and I’ve been trying to catch up with all the garden blog posts made since December 22nd. It seems that plum blossoms are opening in New Jersey, there’s very little frozen ground in the upper Midwest, and that LostRoses has cornered the entire snow supply this winter – isn't the weather normal anywhere?
Whether you’re too warm, too cold, too wet or too dry, Happy .. to all of you!

Aw, Nuts

Late on Monday afternoon I noticed that the passionvine that had been budded for Blooming Day had opened. I went back inside for about 20 minutes, then brought the camera out. As I turned the corner to walk toward the Passionflowers, something felt odd - where had those pecans on the fence come from? They hadn't been there 20 minutes ago!


I looked up to see a bend in one of the largest boughs - this year's rain has produced an unprecedented crop of nuts and the weight was apparently too much for the tree's structure. An enormous amount of branches and leaves were resting on the fence, tangled up in nearby shrubs, and in crepemyrtles and some young Arizona Ash trees on the other side of the fence. I called Philo out to look at what happened, and we tried to decide what to do. This job might well be too big for us to handle, but we also knew it was best to get the weight off the other trees and shrubs as quickly as possible.

We got out the loppers and pole pruner, thinking that if we cut away some of it, we could at least see what we'd be dealing with. As you all know, once a pruning job is started, with one small cut following another, it's almost impossible to stop. Pretty soon we had the ladder out, along with ropes, the chain saw, brown yard bags and twine for tying up brush.


Philo did the heaviest lifting and sawing, while I held onto ropes and hauled the boughs out to the center of the yard. He somehow hauled that enormous branch up over the top of the fence and away.

An hour later the shrubs were freed, battered but mostly intact, the crepe myrtles looked okay, and the flexible Arizona Ash tree was already straightening out. The fence is old and beat up already, so a few more nicks in the top are barely noticible.

We were impressed with the pile of debris, and set to reducing it, bundling up branches cut to the regulation 4 feet, with smaller stuff clipped so it would fit in bags. There were a few pieces that could be firewood, but pecans grow with many, many dense shorter branches. By 8 o'clock we were tired and hungry, and it was getting too dark to work safely. We thought we'd done pretty well for two people who get senior discounts at the movies - this was all that was left to be done the next the morning.

We're still wondering whether we'll ever get any edible nuts from these trees - whatever pecans were not eaten by squirrels each fall have been either hollow or wormy. Unfortunately the branch broke before the nuts were mature - the husks were still green and tight. And we've still got to saw that broken part smooth.

Aw, nuts.

Jurassic Way 4 - Braunston to Winwick

With Marta. 11 miles. Very hot. It felt like hard work. Dry underfoot apart from under the M1.




We started from the Admiral Nelson, crossing the canal to the towpath, and following it as far as Braunston Bottom Lock.

Here we crossed the bridge and made our way uphill - there are a couple of footpaths, and more by luck than judgment we ended up, as we should, going through Jetty Field Pocket Park, past the allotments and into the village, at a road junction. Just by the Wheatsheaf Inn, take Ashby Road to the right, follow it until it bends to the right. At this point the old road is now a track leading straight ahead - towards Ashby St Ledgers.

Looking back towards Braunston

The track narrows to a path, and climbs up to a minor road. Here we turned right and walked a short distance before turning left, in the same direction as previously. The path goes downhill to the A361, which we crossed, then followed the main street of Ashby St Ledgers through the village, until it bent left just before the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Leodegarius.

As well as some very attractive thatched cottages, the village has a Manor House, which was worked on by Lutyens, in the first third of the twentieth century.







Its gatehouse was a meeting place for the Gunpowder Plot conspirators, including Robert Catesby.

Timber-framed gatehouse - Catesby rode 80 miles from London to bring news that the Gunpowder Plot had been discovered 5th November 1605. He was caught up with, refused to surrender and was shot dead three days later.

The Jurassic Way continues straight ahead from the bend in the road, by the church.

We were in need of a break and a snack, but first we crossed several open fields before finding a suitable shady tree. After this we headed across more fields slightly downhill towards the M1 and the mainline railway of Watford Gap.

There's a bridge under the railway, but you have to cross the A5 - fortunately it is not too busy.


The path took us over the canal and up the towpath past the flight of locks and marina. A lovely oasis, spoiled by the noise of M1 traffic.



We crossed a field making for the tunnel under the M1. It smelled and felt rather as though cows had sheltered there - the wettest place for miles.




We followed the footpath into Watford, where we turned left along the main road, uphill as far as Church Street. Another left turn took us to a junction where we turned left, then right just past a barn, where wagtails alighted on the roof and swallows were flying around.

The path goes across some parkland, and makes towards Henley's railway bridge, which the then owner of Watford Court built so that the railway would be at a distance from his house. Watford Court was built in Elizabethan times, and demolished in the 1970s.

Henley's railway bridge

The path is generally well marked, but we did need to consult the map a couple of times - for reassurance at least. Most of the time it's a case of following the paths. There are a few places where a way mark would come in handy, for example when the path (clearly restored through a field of crops goes diagonally across a field, then zig-zags round field boundaries. This is marked on the map as near Flavell's Lodge, though we couldn't identify any building.

You come to a cross paths (crossroads for paths) where you take the right hand path past Silsworth Lodge - this can be identified. The path goes round the buildings, turning north briefly before going east towards West Haddon, and entering the village near the primary school. The path goes along a short street named The Green.

Turn right, go to the mini-roundabout, and turn left up High Street. Take the next left, Crown Lane, or walk through the churchyard. At the top of Crown Lane the path for Winwick leaves.

We bought lunch in the local shop, though there are a couple of pubs as well. Faced with the choice of sitting on a bench in the sun, or grass in the shade, the shade won, easily.




The final section was pretty straightforward, following the signed path north through fields and under the West Haddon bypass (A428).

The path arrives at a surfaced track near Glebe Farm. Follow this and turn right on the gated road which leads all the way to Winwick. We turned right at the crossroads in the tiny village and walked uphill past the Hall to the seat by the pond where we'd left the car.





Thanks to Northants CC leaflet - available only online as a PDF, alas.

Elaine does things which would have shocked her mother

Part II of Hijacked at Florence Airport

George and I were delighted to finally arrived at Gatwick, albeit 4 hours late..

so it was 2am by the time we arrived at Kings Cross Main Line Station;the place was deserted, dark, and locked. Metal gates barred our way, we wouldn't be going anywhere quickly.





We were treated to barely disguised sniggers and told there was nothing availablewhen we tried to book into a nearby hotel for a couple of hours...I am a bit slow on the uptake, but it dawned upon me that they thought we wanted the room for just a couple of hours of fun. At first I was cross - but then I had to laugh.





We laughed all the way back to the station entrance where we found a couple of other people waiting for the station to open its doors; westill had the best part of 3 hours to wait!





Grateful to have a patch of concrete to sit on and hoping that the patrolling police wouldn't move us on, we settled down. Suddenly the place filled up with lots of noisy people wearing strange black clothing, white makeup, weird hair-do's, lots of uncomfortable looking piercings ... Goths!

Borrowed image

They looked weird, they looked dangerous and my anxiety levels were high as they plonked themselves down on the ground with us but they turned out to be extremely friendly young people and we had a fantastic time chatting with them.





They had been to a Goth concert and were all beautifully turned out in full regalia.





Yet again I had been guilty of judging a book by its cover.

borrowed image

I was tired and all I wanted to do was sleep - but my head was teeming with the things that had happened in the last 12 hours - what amounted to a hijack at the airport, the debacle at the hotel, sitting out on the streets of London through the night - or sleeping rough as I prefer to think of it!





Finally the gates clanked open and we hobbled in to begin the four hour journey home.





Home Sweet Home.





I suppose I have led a very sheltered life, but I quite enjoyed that night - retrospectively.





It makes me think that I have lived a little!!

My Way of Seeing the World

Yesterday I mentioned reading the book Traveling Light by Deborah DeWit Marchant and that our photographs are very similar. Here's what she says about what motivates her photography, "I sought the familiar in confined spaces: the sky reflected in a window or the shadow of a tree on a sun-painted wall. I tried to connect with some sort of common
human experience. It wasn't the fantastic or the awesome that we shared, it was the simple daily things. The sights on my everyday paths were a deeper source of beauty than any extraordinary place. Soon, everywhere I looked some proof of humanity's moment in eternity captured me. A doorway, a cluttered shed, a rundown porch."
I've always been enamored with trying to capture small pieces of daily life. These are the cumulative pieces of our existence. I'm also reading The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. She says there are two different ways people look at life; one if seeing the big picture, and the other is noticing the small details. I'm definitely in the later group, so I guess that's why I take photos of bits and pieces. Above are a few examples of what I mean.

Firecracker

Firecracker, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Starting off the New Year with a bang...firecracker penstemon!

The other side of the lake

Most of our Lake Michigan paddling takes place on the western shore of this Great Lake. It's lovely to be on the eastern shore, which tends to have steeper beaches and therefore more breaking waves during the summer. (We get our fair share of those in the fall.)
Approaching the lighthouse from the side it was designed to be seen from.
Today we paddled from Stony Creek up to the Little Sable Lighthouse. The shore is lined with summer cottages ranging from the sweet to the ostentatious. We battled a headwind all the way up, so we stopped for lunch on what appeared to be public land. It turned out to be private but not yet built upon, and the Florida resident who owns it motored over in his ATV to make sure we were OK. (It was pretty wavy.)
Yes, we're fine. In fact, we like the waves. Would you please dispose of the garbage we collected from the water?
He kindly took away the garbage we had collected from the water. (We think there's so much of it because of the July 4 weekend. What a way to celebrate your indepenence!)
We returned just in time to catch headwinds all the way back, too. Here's what we collected on the way back.
We went fishing for trash and came back with quite a haul!
Most of it is chip bags and candy wrappers. If fewer foods were sold in single-serving packages and people ate more whole foods and fewer convenience foods, perhaps there would be considerably less garbage in the water.