What To Do, What To Do?

I tasted my first kumquat last month at the B&B in St. Mary's, GA.  It's going to be an acquired taste for me, although it wasn't an unpleasant experience. 
The hostess/owner had picked them off a tree in her backyard.  I asked her how you eat them not knowing whether to peel or not.  The skin looks like an orange peel.
She said you just pop them in your mouth and start chewing.  I tentatively did so and found them not unpleasant.  It's just strange to eat a citrus rind.
Yesterday at Laurel's house, she had a bowl full of them.  She had gotten them at a local grocery store, so I went and bought three packs.
Now, the question is...what am I going to make with them?  I was thinking maybe marmalade?  I love orange marmalade and don't see why you can't make marmalade from kumquats.  
Laurel and I are meeting in about an hour to pick strawberries.  I wonder if you can mix kumquats and strawberries?  Any ideas out there?
P.S.  The bottle behind the bowl is one I got when we were staying in England for a week.  It's called 'Washing Up Liquid' and is used for washing dishes.  I keep it on my laundry room sink and use it for any clothes that need handwashing.  I love how the British call things by different names!

An Outside Tour of Baileywick Cottage

The herb garden in summer

The front porch

The dining room window with master bath window above. The window boxes will soon be filled with pansies.

Side porch which is our main entrance. I love the louvered vent above!

Around back is the balcony off the master bedroom. Kitchen window below looks out over the gardens.

Below the kitchen window is the shade garden with a hydrangea, ferns, and ivy. Beau is looking at me through the railing going down from the back porch.

And that's a short tour of the outside of our house. As I was walking around taking photos, I saw all the work that needs to be done. Leaves to be raked, empty flower pots to fill, and just stuff that needs to be thrown away. Here in Georgia that's what January and February are for; preparing for spring. Things are already starting to bloom and push out of the ground. I also need to prune the roses before Valentine's Day. Much to do!

Snow Big Deal

It's a Snow Day in Austin - just these few inches of large fluffy flakes have sent the town into a tizzy and sent me to the photo archives... snow makes me nostalgic and it triggers my record-keeping instincts.
This is what we called snow in Illinois! I liked shoveling smaller snowfalls, but it was tough clearing 20" from our drive and walk in January 1999
Then we moved to our first house in Texas where this February 25, .. sifting was also called snow
We might have missed the few inches that fell in the middle of the night on February 14, .. but a 2AM phone call took us out on the roads...slushy snow, steep hills and road surfaces built for warm weather combined to give us an exciting ride
In December .. a thin layer covered the drive, grass and car - enough to make Sleetman a hit on Twitter!
Look fast and you might think you're looking at snow... look close and you'll see it was the destructive March 25, .. hail - resulting in billions over $160 Million dollars in damage (and a new roof for Annie & Philo).
Can the 16th largest city in the US can handle today's snowfall without too many problems? I sure hope so - want to enjoy these decorative February flakes without guilt

Here are 14 seconds of the fountain in the snow - listen for the birds!

Great Grey Owl in the Meadow

Yesterday there was a Great Grey Owl hanging out in the meadow at Grand Portage National Monument for most of the day. I had been gone out of town for most of the day photographing other things and when I got home there were messages from Jessica waiting for me throughout the village. Luckily the first place I stopped was the post office where our local postmaster conveyed the message from Jessica about the owl. So, I headed over to where the bird had been seen and there he was, sitting on the ground out in the meadow. At first I thought he must have been hurt, because I was told that he had been sitting there all day long. Eventually, though, he did fly away and seemed to be perfectly fine. Seeing this owl was the highlight of my day for sure!

Restoring the balance

Does anybody in South East Queensland want to know the real reason it has started raining again, after five complete months without it? Some have claimed that it's just that the wet season has started, others have held that a tropical cyclone from Western Australia decided to cross the country instead of just going out to see like they normally do, and consequently gave everyone a good soaking. Other theories have ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, but how many of you would like to know the REAL reason?

I can reveal that the real reason for the return of the rain is down to me, and only me. Those who have been reading this blog for a while will remember that I had a nasty crash when descending a wet mountain road in July (I can't be bothered to dig up the link, you can search the archives if you want to read about it). Of course, that was the last time it rained here, even if I did get a drenching on the other side of the country in September. So what did I do to make it rain again? I crashed again, of course.

It was while climbing Springbrook, the highest peak in the Gold Coast Hinterland that it happened. I committed the cardinal sin of trying to change gear while pushing up a 15% gradient (instead of just getting into the gear before I hit the hill), causing the chain to slip off, and for some reason, at that moment, I couldn't manage to unclip from the pedals. Of course, the gradient caused the bike to stop and topple over quite quickly, leaving me on the ground. Fortunately this time I wasn't hurt (although I did spill a bit of blood), and was able to get up and slaughter the remainder of the mountain.

It has barely stopped raining since. In fact, some local flood warnings were issued earlier this week. The farmers can send their cheques to me.

Aurora Surprise!

I had gotten home from work yesterday evening and was pretty tired so after an early dinner I laid down for a nap. I woke at 9:00 PM and decided to check spaceweather.com to see if there were any CME's (Coronal Mass Ejections from the sun) recorded during the day. To my surprise, there was a fresh Aurora picture and news of a CME that hit our atmosphere earlier that evening! I then checked the Auroral oval and the kp index which indicated STORM level, so within a few minutes my photography gear was loaded in the truck and off I went to do some shooting.


I spent the next 6 hours making images of the Northern Lights. I went to several different locations and recorded several hundred images throughout the night, including some sequences that I combined into a timelapse video. The most intense and colorful lights occurred between 2:00 and 3:00 AM, with pillars of light dancing sideways across the sky, dominated ultimately by some deep red hues. It was a fascinating night of picture-taking and Aurora-watching!

Bad News for Insects...

This alien-looking structure is actually the digestive organ of a carnivorous plant. How nice.

Cycling Project - Clachtoll to Scourie

Clachtoll Bay with tropical blue and green shades in the sea, before starting on the switchback 49 miles North to Scourie.


The background to all this cycling stuff is here at the start of this mini series.