Mantra

Here's a good saying to follow for those of us trying to be less wasteful and more resourceful. I think it's an old Yankee saying, but don't let that stop us Southerners from using it! It says, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." Good advice in any century, I think.
Americans, on the whole, are a wasteful, consuming bunch. It's time to turn things around, one person at a time, and become more responsible and less, much less wasteful. Let's think before we buy something new and buy mostly what we really need and not to satisfy our wants. Let's lose the "gimme-gimme" attitude and start asking what we can give back to our family, community, and world. I'm ready. How about you?

Passion Playing

Since my passionvine does not look like the photos of Passiflora 'Incense' from other sites like Tom Spencer's, it was apparently mismarked when I bought it a few years ago. I've been scrolling through a bunch of sites and think it may be either 'Amethyst' or 'Lavender Lady'... apparently they look quite similar, but 'Amethyst' can set fruit if pollinated by another passionflower.

Did you know there's an entire Passiflora Forum at GardenWeb? That forum sent me off to other sites. The sites don't agree with one another, of course, and only some of the photos look like each other. Before I started forum-hopping I'd taken closeups to see if any readers knew the name, while playing with the camera to see how it photographed the blues and purples.


I may have gone a little overboard with this! All photos were taken in afternoon so they're a bit washed out. All were cropped and reformatted for size, but that's all - no brightening, contrast, color balance, or sharpening. I took the photo above while the flower was still attached to the vine.

Then I popped off the flower and poked the stem into the passionvine to show the bud, leaf and flower.

Hmmm, let's see how it looks over here in the shade with the Buddleja lindleyana...

To me the color of the petals looks purple, with guard filaments that look blue. Let's put it in sun next to a true blue flower - the Blue Butterfly Pea. That blue makes the passionflower tendrils look deep violet, I think.


Okay, let's go back in the shade - will it still look blue next to Salvia guaranitica?

Now for dark purple contrast - the 'Black Prince' buddleya davidia. Oh, dear, the flower has been handled and dropped so many times by now!

A final portrait in the shade with light blue Plumbago auriculata. I love the way these flowers look together... maybe some plumbago needs to grow near the passionvine.

Total immersion in purple passion works for me! I hope you enjoyed it too. Maybe I should just call this one 'Probably Lavender Lady'. Pam from Digging commented that she just bought an 'Incense' - I'll bet hers will match the label.

Five-Spot

The interesting flowers of baby five-spot, Nemophilia maculata.

Fall Blues

Fall Blues, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Not all fall colors are orange, yellow, and red.
:)

Three Derbyshire walks

Carsington Water - 8.5 miles - Sunday 13 October

RAF Quadrant Tower from the 1940s

The weather was pretty wet all morning, but we decided to risk a soaking. At least the track is clear and well marked.

Much of the way is slightly sheltered by trees, but they didn't keep us anything like dry.

Hansel and Gretel house near the dam

The sky lightened slightly at about 2:30 pm, and we dried out before having a large tea and scone in the Mainsail restaurant in the visitor centre.

A good walk, at a brisk pace, with no navigational skills required - just as well, since my map was old enough to predate the reservoir!

Hartington to Milldale and back - 9.5 miles - Monday 14 October

This is part of a walk I did last summer, in much drier conditions.

Once again the way is clear all along, and well signed, though we had to cross from Derbyshire to Staffordshire and back - footbridges over the Dove.



The first section crosses fields from the path between the pottery shop and the toilets in Hartington, then heads through Morson Wood into Beresford Dale, with its caves and grassy hillsides.





Next is Wolfscote Dale, which narrows a little. We emerge at the road to Alstonfield, half a mile from Milldale village, and the joy of finding Polly's Cottage open, serving hot coffees. There are public toilets, and a shelter, as well as the Information Barn near Viator's Bridge.



We waited for the worst of the downpour to be over, before retracing our steps to Hartington.















The tea shop in the Post Office was our next stop!

Dovedale to Milldale and back - 6 miles - Tuesday 15 October

At last some blue sky!

Chaffinch at Lovers' Leap

The arch near Reynard's Cave

Lion's Head Rock

Ilam Rock

Polly's Cottage, Milldale

Robin on mossy wall

Lovers' Leap

Stepping Stones

Looking upstream

Even though we have to return home today, we make the most of this by walking from Dovedale car park, and heading north to Milldale. It's just three miles, and passes the stepping stones below Thorpe Cloud, lovers' Leap, Reynard's Cave, Tissington Spires, Lion's Head Rock, Ilam Rock and Dove Holes. Another coffee stop at Milldale, and we buy sandwiches for later.

This time we sit and watch the ducks by the river. There's a robin perching on a mossy wall by a holiday cottage.

On the way we've seen a heron, dippers, a chaffinch, crows and squirrels.

We eat our lunch at the stepping stones, decide that today is not a Thorpe Cloud day, and make our way back to the car park.

Duckie update

"Well," Hubby said, looking out the window at ducks chasing each other across the yard, "Duckie is definitely a girl."
Oh no, not already.
"Yep. And they're using her topknot to hang on. I think she's missing a few feathers."
Just in the past day or so I'd noticed that Duckie wasn't clinging to Bluebill (Mom duck) any longer. In fact Bluebill made another nest and is sitting on eggs again. So is the female Muscovy, but I think she's already been off the nest too long. She seems to think, especially in the first few days, that it's ok to sit on the nest half the day and then walk about the other half.

In other news, I have a new camera! But in the rush to take pictures before the light faded last night, I didn't adjust any settings, and most of the pictures turned out blurry. (Really, the light had already faded.)
Please let me know if this picture looks too dark on your computer screen. It looks fine on my laptop, but pictures seem darker on our other computer and I'm not sure which one is "normal".

A Superior View

Well, the fall colors are taking their dear sweet time showing up this year. That doesn't mean, however, that you shouldn't get out and enjoy nature! There are still beautiful views to be enjoyed even without the colors of autumn. The view shown here is along the Middle Falls Trail in Grand Portage State Park. The trail crosses over a ridge and this is one of two magnificent views that are available from the top of the ridge. This view overlooks Lake Superior and the Susie Islands and is always beautiful no matter what time of year it is. Over the past year, CCM (Conservation Corps Minnesota) crews have been hard at work making improvements to the trail. Stairs have been constructed on the steepest portions of the trail and benches have been constructed in strategic locations where visitors can rest and appreciate the spectacular views of the Minnesota north woods. Although the fall colors are slow to appear this year, the leaves are changing and before long this view will be even more magnificent as the greens change to yellows and oranges!