Reflections

We don't need thousands of photographs of reflections. We need thousands of moments to reflect in between each photograph.
~ Jim Austin ~

Pink- A -Phobic

Were there too many pink rooms in my Boomer childhood, too many pink sheets and towels piled high at bridal showers, with subsequent weddings themed Blush & Bashful? Could it have been an overdose of girly gift shopping in the Pink aisle of the toy store? Whatever the reason, I can put up with a small amount of this color, but I don’t love it … yet it appears uninvited all over my garden.
Nature is against me: A group of white dianthus plants may suddenly display a pink heart, as the default-color seedlings sprout and bloom, their roots too entangled to separate. All the peachy, yellow, white and dark purple verbena will die, but the neon pink plant thrives and lives through the winter, ready to resume its battle with the pale yellow Ladybanks rose. The seed packet shows vibrant purple zinnias, not the actual washed-out pink ones that appear. The skullcap tags read ‘Cherry red’ but the plant shouts pink!
Back in .., as we pulled in the driveway of our just-purchased home, the very air seemed to have a roseate cast to it. The crepe myrtles were in hot pink bloom, lightly frosted with the powdery mildew that usually accompanies the flowers. Our neighbors to the North had several large trees; the East-side neighbors grew a row of 15-footers along our mutual back fence, while the South-side neighbor had a mere half-dozen in his yard. More crepes sprinkled across the street added to the spectacle. On our quarter-acre we counted twenty-two Lagerstroemia “WayTooPink”. Our guess is that the eight largest trees were intentionally planted. The rest were 4 to 7 feet in height, apparently seedlings that had been allowed to grow against the windows, inside the boughs of flowering shrubs, and right on top of the few existing roses.
We took out many of the pink myrtles, pruned and cared for the rest, and as you can see, they're blooming again. Over time the numbers were reduced to 7 trees. Last year we released two semi-dwarf, mildew resistant crepe myrtles from the deck containers where they’d sulked for years, planting them into the yellow/blue/purple border, where they are now opening white flowers.
Once rescued and revived, the climbing rose bloomed pink.
I love it.

It's A Long Story...

Fur some of you that asked about ma's book, I'm happy to let you know about it. In fact, I was just checking it out again today, 'cause my ma wants me to stay slim and healthy and that is what this book is partly about. If you go to this link, you can find out more.

Since I got mom to start this blog fer me, some furry favorite pups of ours have fallen prey to that nasty disease, cancer. If any of you are moved to purchase this book, my mom will give half the proceeds to The National Canine Cancer Foundation.
Unfortunately, my mom won't know about royalties of any purchases made between now and around the end of October until about mid-November, but will let you know prontissimo when she receives word of the amount. Immediately, she'll fire that check off! For those of you who asked about this in my comments, Ma says a grateful thanks - it is her first book and she's a bit shy about it.
Finally, it is actually my real birthday today, and I'm just relaxing and having a lovely day with mom, who, uncharacteristically, has the day off!
Hugs to all pups xo
Sammie

Comet Falls

The 320-foot Comet Falls in Mt. Rainier National Park.

Oregon Weather in Texas

Talk about a difference a day makes! On Oct. 14, the high was 87; Oct. 15, the high was 86; today started out at 58 and it is now 60 degrees F. at 1:30 p.m. The difference? Oregon weather has stalled out over Texas. Yep, that's right folks, south Texas is gray, gloomy, rainy, and chilly. I feel right at home. LOL.

This morning, I had follow-up for my lab tests and results of my bone density test and mammogram. Lab tests showed my LDL (bad) cholesterol dropped from 141 to 115 and my cholesterol dropped from 207 to 184. Really good! All our healthy eating is paying off.

The bone density test is normal. The mammogram, however, apparently needs to be re-done on the left as there is a 1.8 cm "focal asymmetry;" right is normal. Does focal asymmetry mean they didn't focus correctly? Don't know. Guess I'll find out.

After the doctor's office visit, I met Bob for an Indian cuisine lunch which was yummy, but I would have liked mine a little spicier. After lunch, I shopped at Costco, then headed back to the 5er.

You would not have wanted to be my cats when I returned home. The African violet plant that Bob bought for me a few months ago, which was finally starting to grow well with numerous new leaves, had been chewed almost to the dirt. Three leaves remain. A heap of leaves and dirt were sitting on the counter. Grrrrrr! I'll see if I can save it. That's an awful lot of trauma for the plant. Anybody want a couple of cats? Just kidding.

Box with a Bow-ie

Sunnie the Sunshine Cat.

In a few minutes I'm off to Planet Fitness to work out with weights. Walking is not enough...I'd like to develop additional muscle to burn fat more efficiently. I'm waiting for my lunch to digest a bit more before I go.

The new birdseed I purchased at Wild Birds Unlimited is doing the trick at keeping away the squirrels, just like the sales lady said it would. Since I have bought this different seed, the squirrels have not come near the feeder, but the doves and cardinals are loving it. Good purchase.

Tonight on TV I'll be watching Survivor and CSI. Survivor has been excellent so far this season.

Feels like I'm going to have to turn on the heat, it's rather chilly in here. Indoor thermometer says 64 degrees.

Happy Hump Day. Travel Bug out.

That ol' black magic

Some bike troubles over the last few days have led to be dragging out The Black Magic for another weekend. This basically meant a return to the Garden of Eden yesterday, high on the macpherson range at Tomewin. It was another warm and humid day on the coast, but the mountain air was cool and fresh after I'd threaded a way through Urliup, and climbed the 6km ascent from the south. I decided to put something into the climb this time, before detouring along the escarpment at Garden of Eden road and taking in the sweeping views south.

This time the Garden of Eden lived up to it's name literally. I had the option of the forbidden fruit in the form of a single mandarin growing on a tree. This time I resisted the temptation (largely because the ones Martin and I found in Cudgen Nature Reserve some months ago tasted so awful) and returned to the main road, before taking the eastern side of the escarpment on the rough Glengarrie Road. Here the Garden of Eden continues to live up to it's name, and was the perfect place for picture number 1,000 from this camera.

Here I had an interesting conversation with another mountain biker who suddenly turned up. It seems there is another track linking the other side of Tomewin with Currumbin along the top of the range. That's one to explore on my return from New Zealand in December. For this point I settled on a return home from Bilambil at the bottom of the descent. This is a great ride, albeit a little short after getting out of suburbia. I'm looking for a way to combine it with the ridge-top track from Tomewin to Currumbin. That could take some work, but rest assured, I will figure it out.

Berry Creek Falls

Berry Creek Falls, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

This is Berry Creek Falls, a 70-foot waterfall in Big Basin Redwoods State Park. The falls are surrounded by huge, majestic redwoods. An amazing place.

Borders views

Heading uphill towards the top of Trahenna Law near Broughton in the Borders - the region along the border with England. The heather has now turned brown, and the bracken is also turning.

The view south from Trahenna Law.

Graduation

Our son graduated from the University of Glasgow last week as Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in Mechanical Engineering with Aeronautics. We spent a happy day celebrating, and the sun shone on a city notorious for its damp climate.

The university's main building is a lovely setting for the traditional standing-about-happily-on lawns that is the best bit of graduation day. Although the university is 550 years old, the main building is relatively recent - around 1870.





Below, the Bute Hall, where the ceremony took place. Our seats were in the gallery, and were reached by a winding stone staircase in a turret. A bit of a challenge for those of us in heels.



Below, in bow tie, our young man lines up to be capped. As well as being capped, the graduands have their hoods put on at this point, which is why there is some nervous rearranging of this complicated bit of cloth and silk in the shot below. They were briefed before the ceremony on exactly how to hold the hood and present it to the bedellus. It was all done very swiftly, in a sort of academic ballet - if you want to see it in motion, have a look at any of the videos at this link.





The new graduate with very proud parents.



And with some classmates.



Kilts were much in evidence: both because of Engineering still being a male-dominated subject, and because students are proud to wear the kilt for graduation. Our son's friend in the shot below, and again later, wasn't wearing a gown because he wasn't graduating that day. However since he came along to see his friends graduate he put his kilt on for the occasion.



Some motherly rearrangement.



Our son chatting to the PhD student (in shorts) who had assisted with his final year project, and a new PhD graduate.



A good view of the gown and hood. The gowns are made from heavy cloth, to the extent that our son's shoulders were aching by the end of the afternoon. Virtually all the gowns and hoods will have been hired from an academic robe maker and are returned after the ceremony.



Below, a good view of the kilt outfit, taken at the end of the afternoon when the gown had been returned. Just below the hem of the kilt on our son's right leg you might be able to glimpse the deerhorn handle of the sgian dubh, the traditional single-bladed knife worn with the kilt.



And to finish, a gaze into the future.

Survival

Someone at Audax Australia made a decision to schedule a 200km ride in this region in mid-November. I wasn't about to argue as I needed an excuse to ride the kilometres, but when those northerly winds are blasting in and consistently increasing the temperature, it becomes clear from an early stage that this ride is going to be about survival. I hadn't done this particular circuit before, but apparently it was based on areas that the late Frank Papp used to love riding around the Tweed Valley. Although I hadn't done this particular route, most of it was familiar to me.
Incredibly, there were about 60 riders turned up for this particular event, although the majority of them did the 110km option. We set off over Hogans Road after the usual messing about with Bilambil. I hadn't passed through this particular area for several months, and it was good to be reacquainted with that particular rainforest again. It reminded me that I need to do another night ride here among the glow worms soon.

There were some minor navigational issues presented after climbing up Terranora (also for the first time in ages), but these were taken care of fairly quickly. Unfortunately, those detours were a necessary evil, due to the three-year "job creation" roadwork project near Sextons Hill. After this it was a fairly easy coast to the first checkpoint at Casurina Beach, then a nice rise over Clothiers Creek to Murwillumbah. The heat was starting to take it's toll now, but at this stage I still had plenty in reserve and was happy to soldier on.

It was after Murwillumbah that the heat combined with my (still) relative lack of condition became an issue. One of the hills immediately after Murwillumbah in the obscure Wardrop Valley forced me to slow down quite a bit, and I didn't really recover that vigour for most of the remainder of the ride. Still, this section, too, is quite scenic, so I didn't mind taking my time. I crossed the Burringbar Range and the unknown 15% bump on the road to Pottsville for the next checkpoint. I actually thought about bailing because of the heat here, as it was making it difficult to keep food down. In the end I decided to press on because I would have had to ride home against that northerly either way.

The next stage was back to Murwillumbah, this time via Stokers Siding and Uki. Strangely, I started to recover slightly on this stretch, probably just a function of lowering my expectations, and things started to feel OK again. That was until the last 5km into Murwillumbah, where the northerly wind forced me down to 18km/h. From my observations, nobody else seemed to be going any faster, so I just sucked it up, knowing that there was a big climb ahead to take out most of the remaining wind.

I thought the final climb over Tomewin would be one of the slowest I've ever done there. It actually turned out not to be the case. It was late in the afternoon by now, so there was some cooling shade over the road. I hung on grimly over the 11% section in the middle of the climb, and reached the summit with less difficulty than I had anticipated. At the top of the pass, the temperature was now dropping. Relief.
I descended the mountain, and rode through the last 10 or so through Currumbin Valley to finish the ride as I was running out of daylight. Better yet, I could now keep food down, something I made the most of when I finally returned home. Sometimes the reasons we do things are rather obscure, but in this case, I'm glad to have put this one to bed. The route for this ride was indeed very scenic, and I'll almost certainly return next time. I just hope that next time sees some rain or some cooler temperatures.

The Ice Monster of Lake Superior

This piece of ice was sitting atop a partially submerged rock about 100 feet away from where the "Lake Superior Ice Ornaments" photo that I posted yesterday was taken. To me it resembles some sort of odd creature or monster, sort of a cross between a walrus and a centipede (if you can imagine such a creature!). To my eye the ice hanging down along the sides conjures images of a centipede's legs, and on the part of the ice closest to the bottom of the frame, the two pieces of ice hanging down resemble walrus tusks.

A Visit to Plantescapes Nursery with MSS

While MSS was touring a castle in Wales, I was happy to babysit a few of her potted plants back in Austin. Most of the plants did okay - one thyme plant didn't live.
I was also happy to bring the plants back to her - because we'd get to visit and continue our September tradition of hitting a few fun South Austin places. MSS declared we must eat dessert first, so we went to Buenos Aires Cafe for soup, empanadas and Quatro Leches. (yes Quatro!! Tres was not enough!) We stopped at the oft-mentioned Great Outdoors Nursery where we bought a few pots and seeds and also visited a nursery new to me -

Plantescapes Nursery is in a house on South First - and it feels a little like visiting the home of a plant obsessed friend, who welcomes you at the door,
and then lets you wander around looking at the cool garden decor both stunning
and whimsical
MSS and I moved through areas with cactus and succulents

and onto other plants. I'd been thinking about buying another Pineapple Guava for the secret garden. My friend Diane first introduced me to this evergreen shrub - hers bears fruit in mild years. At Plantescapes I found a nice group of Pineapple Guava to choose from and then in another area I found a starter plant of Spicy Jatropha/ Jatropha integerrima 'Compacta' and decided to try that, too. There were also unusual ginger-type plants as well as natives. Inside the house you'll find rooms with unusual and eclectic decorations and furniture. I'm glad MSS introduced me to this smaller local nursery and maybe you'd like it, too. For the dog lovers in town an added attraction will be the chance to make the acquaintance of Scrappy.