Red Bandana Photo Phollies...

Me: Get over here, squirt. It's time to pose. Mom's got food. (Avalon: But I'm busy eating this new thing around my neck...)

By now, I'm sure you all know that The Porties are hosting "Bandana Day" on Thursday. Mom was incredibly late in sending our attempts at "wearing-red" photos to wilcoxhall@ymail.com. If you'd like to join in the merriment, hurry! Have your hoomans take a photo of you wearing red - it doesn't have to be a bandana, but you only have today and tomorrow to email those pics! I had a tough time making my sis try to get it together - she ruined my photoshoot totally. I am a mess - so not my usual perky look!

When she sat, I was looking away.
When I was focused on a mis-tossed cheerio, she had this weird look on her face. What's a good, big sister like me to do? She needs obedience, that's fur shore!
(Another note from Ma: sorry we haven't visited much lately - it's been a little chaotic around here, but we'll be back more regularly in a few weeks.)

Two Steps to...

Work on of one of the shrub beds revealed this beautiful and mysterious set of steps.



They are constructed of huge and very heavy Yorkstone slabs - they go nowhere, as far as we can tell.

They lead into the shrubbery then stop.

Huge, old shrubs and trees surround them and block the pathway.

Could they lead to another dimension?

They certainly don't lead through to the other side...

Are they leading up, or are they going down?

Are they hiding something?

Somewhere in the garden there is an old capped well - could this be it?

I doubt we shall ever know, but it is interesting to ponder.
Elsewhere in the garden the tulips are starting to come through - I planted these a few years ago and I still love their crazy colour scheme.

Amongst all my more sedate colour choices of pale pinks and lemons these tulips make an exuberant splash of colour which always makes me smile.It looks as though someone has splashed red paint all over yellow tulips.

Great Grandma and the Twins

My mama came down for a few days to see her new great granddaughters. I wish we lived closer so we could visit more often. We're five and a half hours apart. I am thankful that it's drivable in half a day, but one hour would be so much better; so would ten minutes! That's how close I live to Laurel, the twins' mother and my oldest daughter.
I think Laurel and her whole family will be going to the mountains sometime this fall for a vacation. They'll be going by my parents' house so Daddy can see them, too. He would have come down with Mama this time, but his shoulders hurt too much if he sits for that long.
I hope to get away for a few days myself this fall and have my annual get-away. I love my family but need time alone to plan, regroup, give myself some pep talks, read Scripture, and pray. It does a body good!

Rolling Stone and Gasoline

Moss doesn't grow fat on a rolling stone, and vines don't grow on a rolling automobile.
Such is not the case with my truck, though. I've been favoring the bicycle so much lately that viny vegetation from a nearby hedge started growing up my aerial.

The last time I bought gasoline for the truck was back in April. Since then I have driven 266 miles, using 14.6 gallons of gasoline.
At this rate, I am filling up my truck about four to five times a year, spending perhaps $120 - $150 a year.

Saint Andrew's Day sunrise

A frosty mist clears from the Royal Mile skyline as the sun rises on Saint Andrew's Day. To the left of the picture is the crown tower of St Giles Cathedral. In front of it a plume of smoke rises - someone in the New Town has sensibly got a fire going already.

Bike Hauler Home

The new bicycle hauler is FINALLY home. Its been a real pain (buying a car, not the performance of the car).
Last time I blogged about this, the dealership (Classic Chevrolet Cadillac) was trying to find another car. They refunded my deposit, apologized (the money should not have been deposited), and assured me they would find me a vehicle to my liking.
Last Monday, they advised me they found a silver Impala with the options I wanted. They inspected my old Impala for trade-in value.
Tuesday evening I received e-mail from the sales gal. I needed to come in to finalize the purchase - Wednesday. Had to be that afternoon (because she did not come into work until 2pm).
More frustration. I came in, she went through the $$$. It did not match my internet generated invoice (but at least it was in my favor). The big problem was that the trade-in was not listed. The Manager was not in because of a family emergency. Took them over 30 minutes to 1) start reworking the trade-in estimate and 2) call the manage and find out where the estimate was.
I had a min and max value in mind. They came almost in the middle of the range from keep the old car vs trade it in. Sales gal was pushing to get the deal signed. I was getting more frustrated. Left to cool down, clear my head. Back Thursday to sign paperwork.
From there, over to the bank. They told me it would take 3-4 hours to prepare the loan paperwork. Further, the bank officers I was working with was not in that day. Told them I would be back Friday morning when they opened.
Friday morning signed loan paperwork and delivered the check to the dealership. My sales gal was not in that day. I told another salesman that I had been also working with that I would be in shortly after 9am Saturday to take delivery.
Saturday at breakfast my phone rang (but I did not hear it). At the dealership I was advised that the car was not in yet. The truck is supposed to bring it in SOMETIME Saturday in time for me to pick it up.
I was pulling into the driveway at home when the phone rang - my car was in. Back into town. Finally took delivery of my new Impala about 11am.

Night in the Tropics

My tropical garden at night during the month of October.

The Company of Good Books

"What one wanted when exhausted by the noise and impact of physical bodies was not no people but disembodied people; all those denizens of beloved books who could be taken to one's heart and put away again, in silence, and with no hurt feelings." The Scent of Water by Elizabeth Goudge

I immediately knew what she meant when I read the paragraph above. Sometimes when I'm weary of life's clatter and noise, I retreat with a favorite author who feels very comfortable without requiring anything of me. I don't usually long for the comfort of favorite book characters as I do favorite authors. Some writers just give me a good feeling and take me to places I long for.

Some favorite authors that I reach for over and over again are Elizabeth Goudge, D.E. Stevenson, Pat Conroy, Jane Austen, Rosamunde Pilcher, Miss Read, Patrick Taylor, George MacDonald, and Anthony Trollope.

The places I usually like to retreat to are the British Isles, Italy, or the American South. I feel most comfortable in these places because they take me to a place like home where I'm most nurtured and soothed. Is it a coincidence that my ancestors are from these places? I don't think so!

What about you? Do you have favorite authors you turn to for comfort? If so, who are they? Or is it book characters you most often like to meet?

Xtreme Century Photos

My photos of Xtreme Century are posted on win-photo.photoreflect.com
Some of my photos at the Malvern stop did not turn out -- settings got changed on the camera. One of the things I do not like about the new (Canon Rebel T1i) camera - easy to change setting just with handling.
Anyway - hope you enjoy them.

Sackings imminent

Would you believe it's taken me almost three weeks to get around to writing this post? Despite (or perhaps because of) a rather disappointing way to start a 180km ride. It was three weeks ago that I discovered the Tweed Shire Council have now decided to seal all but 1km of one of my favourite dirt roads -- Urliup. I probably should have known it was coming eventually, but they seem to have forgotten what happenedlast time they pissed me off.

As it was, I now had 140km left to try to find another dirt road to fill the role that Urliup used to fill (which is basically a quick and effective way to escape "civilisation" and all it's dubious "benefits"). A few suggestions came to mind. Reserve Creek Road? Nah, not enough rainforest. Settlement Road, Chillingham? Nah, it's a dead-end with only one way in and out (very nice though). Richard's Deviation? Nah, too short. The same goes for Chilcotts Road.

I ended up climbing over the Burringbar Range on Cudgera Creek Road -- and very nice it was, too. If it was only a little closer and more convenient. It also reminded me of another option that I'll keep to myself for now. I finished the day with a final ride over Mt Jerusalem National Park (note: the real Mt Jerusalem is a fair way to the South, but since it's now legally inaccessible... ). That's another option, which also offers several other places to explore in the area.

Someone at Main Arm once told me there supposed to be caves in the area with aboriginal rock paintings inside. I've not seen or heard any evidence of that in the since, but as it's an area few tourists know about (Much less visit), and as I now have a new MTB to play with (more on that later), I might spend some of my summer doing just that, there.

Stubborn Irish People From Chicago

This post, "Stubborn Irish People From Chicago", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.
As some of you may have guessed, we were away from Austin for a few weeks and I'm having trouble returning to everyday life. It will take a long time to get reordered and catch up with all your posts, but that's not the reason why my Christmas tree is still up and the outside lights are still lit... the reason is that my maternal ancestors were a bunch of stubborn Chicago Irish people who always kept their trees up until Epiphany, the 6th of January. And at this time of year, I'm proud to be one of them.

My brothers and sisters and I were raised in this tradition, calling the day "Little Christmas", a time for visiting with aunts, uncles and cousins. Sometimes we stayed at one location - other times finger food was served at one house and desserts at another, with mixed drinks for the adults and 'Kiddie cocktails' for the youngsters - would anyone dare serve them today? Most houses had a piano or one of the electric organs that were so popular in the fifties and sixties - a couple of the aunts could play and everyone could sing. The party may have been stressful for the hosts and hostesses but we kids thought it was all wonderful.

Although I'm far away from my family and many of those people are no longer around to celebrate Little Christmas, the lights will shine here for a few more nights, to puzzle the neighbors and add a little sparkle to the January darkness.

There were a couple of hard freezes while we were gone and we came back to a garden that had changed greatly from the one we left - MSS from Zanthan Gardens referred to her rosebuds as 'freeze-dried'... I like that phrase enough to swipe it to describe the iris buds as they look now. A .. birthday gift from my mother and sisters was a miniature rose bush... I divided it into 3 plants last spring and one of them was still blooming yesterday near the shelter of a brick wall.

The Sasanqua camellia 'Shishi Gashira' seems untroubled by the colder weather - with just a few more buds not yet opened.

Inside the house the barely budded Thanksgiving cactus from the previous Blooms Day post had opened in the hoped for peachy-apricot color, which I like very much in the breakfast room.

Peachy-apricot must be the in color this January - back in November I decided to bring the Mother-of Thousands inside rather than let it freeze - my reward was a few delicate flowers in that shade... but they didn't appear on the usual 3-foot stalk. The plant was already taller than usual when I brought it in and it kept elongating all of December. Now the flowers hang almost at eye level, 58 inches above the surface of the potting soil.

Happy New Year to all of you who have made the world of garden blogging such a warm and interesting place!
This post, "Stubborn Irish People From Chicago", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

Thought Life

Kathleen Norris, in her book Acedia and Me, quotes the Benedictine Mary Margaret Funk in her book Thoughts Matter: "We are not our thoughts. Thoughts come and thoughts go. Unaccompanied thoughts pass quickly. Thoughts that are thought about become desires. Desires that are thought about become passions."
Norris goes on to say, "While good thoughts have the potential to become virtues, bad thoughts are likely to become "bad passions or habits of action."
That got me thinking about the Bible verse that says, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." I think this means that the thought has reached the desire or passion point. We become our thoughts if we allow them to go that far.
I can easily sink into depression if I allow my thoughts to go on unchecked. The best cure I've found for controllable depression is to think of things I'm grateful for, smile at myself in the mirror, and go do the next thing.
I also know that sometimes I think too much. Instead, I should just go on my merry way and LIVE. Too much thinking, for me, is self-absorption. It makes me morose and unproductive.
On the other hand, if I go day after day serving my family with no refilling of the 'living waters' of Scripture, I become angry and want to get away from everyone.
So if I'm going to be consistently happy, grateful, and content, I have to make a conscious effort to keep the balance between working and serving others and refilling my soul with Scripture and quiet. It's hard but necessary.

At the Beach!

Today, Dad took me to Limantour Beach, which I love to visit, but the waves kinda scared me. We were going to check out anything we could find for Pedro, but see what we found instead. Unfortunately, it was high tide, so there wasn't much. We'll go searching again soon. It was an amazingly gorgeolicious day. I'm watching the surf here and above, I'm exhausted after chasing the tennis balls. Then, I saw the crab and was kinda startled - cause it moved! Dad really tired me out by throwing me the ball so many times and I just had to lie down and take it all in. I had a great, great day, only it ended up with a spa treatment, cause I've gotten so dirty from the sand and mud from the last week and have to go to a fun match tomorrow - obedience, you know - yuck! Have a great Sunday everypup!xo Sammie

Rock in the suburbs

cover photography: Lee Cujesclick on the photo to enlarge.."Spoonman" 28.Six moves into the eight move sequence of the crux traverse, up with the right then out with the left to the horn and clip R.Then followsa tough slog to the final heart breaker, a long lunge offthe left with high feet.Trying to convert the drive from the high feet into liftafter all that hard work is the clincher.

Palo Duro Canyon SP - Take 2

It felt great to stretch out the legs in the room in Larned, KS. Was on the road towards Amarillo by 8am (late for my normal schedules). Lots of 2-lane driving Thursday and a construction delay (KS 23 south of Dodge City). Checked into the Quality Inn West, Amarillo. Very spacious (king mini suite?) room. Left the hybrid bike in the room, changed into cycling kit, and headed to Palo Duro Canyon State Park.

The weather had turned cloudy. The temperature dropped into the upper 60s (from upper 70s). Was much more comfortable for riding. I was not happy with the flat light (for photos).

The goal was to ride the Lighthouse Trail. The trail starts out as a flowing singletrack. Soon, another leg of the trail joins, and its now a very wide trail. The easy, flowing trail quickly changes to the rough up/down/rocky trail. I had to walk a lot of the trail. At 0.4 mile, it was obvious that this trail is over my riding abilities.

The photo with this posting was near the point I turned around. In the photo is Lighthouse Peak, Capitol Peak, and my Fuel EX7.

Back at the trailhead, I loaded up the bike. Made a short walk to shoot some of the cactus flowers. In February, this was as far I could go into the Park (road closed for hunting). On this trip, I drove to the end of the road and returned an the alternate park road. Stopped to take a couple photos.

Time for some food. The hotel desk clerk suggested Hoffbrau Steakhouse. the restaurant was just across the interstate. I pigged out of great food. Stuffed, I found my way back to the room, watched TV, checked e-mail and facebook, and then crashed.