Country living

No, we didn't get cows. These are the neighbor's cows, back for a visit. Again. For the 50 millionth time.
Jasmine knows they shouldn't be here, and chases them. That scares the cows, and when they're scared they have a little runny-poop problem.
Maybe it's a defense mechanism and they're hoping that the pursuer will slip on it. Maybe it makes them lighter and it's easier to flee. In any case, Jasmine was a little too close. You can't see it well in this picture, but she has it all over her right side.
So guess what I spent a lot of time doing yesterday. Thanks a lot, neighbor.

Mt Rainier Route Photos

The heavy snowfall from last week slowed a number of teams, many have not made the summit. Since we're lite on route conditions, I'll share these recent climbing route photos. Here is the Nisqually Cleaver taken on May 30th.

There are a number of climbers at Camp Muir this weekend, none have reported successful ascents. One Seattle party spent 15 hours pushing the route in from Camp Schurman, while another team summited on Liberty Ridge Thursday/Friday. The "Liberty" team took quite a bit of extra time and had to spend at least one night on top... They radioed from Camp Schurman on Saturday to report that one member had 7 digits with frostbite! We remind climbers not to underestimate how physically difficult it is to climb Liberty Ridge.
Photo by Mike Gauthier

After a Tough Day with...

...Barbara at obedience, Sierra and I needed to do some serious hangin' at the Country Club.

On the way there, we slept after slaking our thirst with copious amounts of water. Jumping and chasing after things we don't have a fondness for definitely tires us out. Madame Chauffeur, more water back here!

I curled my big bod up into a tiny ball on this little seat, while Sierra tried to
find a good place to chill.
Oh yeah... Avalon came along too. She has her own personal fan - pffffff. After a nice swim and our own cool version of a round of golf, we hung out in the lounge... er... on one of the lounges.
Ha Cha Cha! Hey, Waiter - over here! Two orders of Bully sticks with sides of water and plenty of ice cubes, please!
Hey! Where'd everybuddy go? Where's da Sis?

( From Mom: Bafana Bafana! Congrats on the great game yesterday - and the opening ceremonies were magnaminously awesome - looking forward to more "football"!!! - Slowly, slowly, we will begin catching up - apologies for our lack of commenting lately...)

Balanced Ice

This was one heck of a beautiful piece of ice, and it sure was a lot of fun (and a challenge!) to photograph. It was a challenge because it rested atop a 6 foot high pile of plate ice that at it's core was solid ice, but on the surface was not. The surface was lined with loose plate ice anywhere from 1 to 3 inches thick. I had to scramble to the top of this ice pile in order to get this photo with this perspective from my wide-angle lens. It was kind of like trying to climb an extremely steep sand dune... for each step up I slid almost a complete step back down, except this wasn't soft sand. It was cold, hard ice that with each step broke into a million pieces. Eventually, though, I made it to the top of the mound and got up close and personal with this piece of ice. The formation you see here was only about two feet across, and I was only about two feet away from it with my 17mm lens. The way the sky was reflecting within the ice was awesome, to say the least. I sure do love this time of year, it affords countless unique opportunities for photos!

Wedding Day!

Jessica and I got married today! We had a beautiful ceremony filled with friends, family and love. It really was a perfect day. We'd like to extend our thanks to all those that helped make this day perfectfor us. We appreciate and love you all!

Special thanks to Timothy Young for officiating, Staci Drouillard for the incredible cake and our friend Paul for taking beautiful photos throughout the day! And a very special thanks to Carah Thomas, Rod Dockan and Al Oikari of Cook County's Most Wanted for providing the awesome music for our ceremony. You guys were incredible and we totally loved the "Joy of My Life" song... you guys are the best! Thank You :-)

Hummingbird vine

My sister was sold this plant labeled as Hummingbird Vine.
I knew right away that it wasn't what most people call Hummingbird Vine. (That would be Cypress Vine, Ipomoea quamoclit, shown below.)

I suspect that what she bought was actually Campsis radicans, a.k.a. Trumpet Vine, Trumpet Creeper, or (my favorite) Cow Itch.
Looking around the internet, some people do apparently call the first plant Hummingbird Vine. But it's certainly not the preferred name. Not here, anyway.
I was all ready to blame Walmart or Lowe's for the mistake, and tell her to demand a refund. But it turns out she bought the plant from the Birmingham Botanical Garden's plant sale. (Whoops.)
Trumpet Vine is native here, but many people consider it invasive in the garden.
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Cypress vine photo by Janice Waltzer via Flickr.

Late Summer Pest: Foliar Nematodes

As disturbing as it may sound, there are microscopic roundworms called nematodes all around our natural environment. They live in the soil, on roots, in leaves and in many other unexpected places. The ones that I always think about as unbelievable and icky are the nematodes that can be found in bottles of unpasteurized pepper vinegar. They are benign to you and me, but just the idea that they could be there makes me cringe. (Are y'all now going to reconsider before you sprinkle your collards with pepper vinegar this fall? I'm still going to use it.....it's like thinking about sharks when you are swimming in the ocean. You just can't think about it.)

My favorite nematodes (as we've established, I am a geek) are the Foliar Nematodes. Each nematode swims into a stomate in a film of surface water and feeds on the leaves within a leaf cell. Once they have eaten all of the carbohydrates from within an area, they swim out of the stomate and into another area of the leaf (They can't chew through the tough leaf veins).
I found nematodes last week on Hostas while I was scouting a nursery. Here is what the damage looks like:The darker areas are show where the nematodes have already been. The lighter yellow-green areas are where they are now.
Hostas are monocots, so the leaf veins run parallel to each other. This explains the pattern of damage that they cause on Hostas.
On dicots the damage is different, as seen on this Viburnum leaf. The injury has more of a stained glass effect because of the netted vein pattern. To diagnose foliar nematodes, you simply cut out a tiny square from an area that is discolored (not brown) and put it in a glass dish with some water. I use a watch glass.
When you look through a dissecting scope, you will see clear nematodes swimming out of the leaf edges and into the water.So what's the big deal about nematodes? Well, foliar nematodes cause leaf damage, stunting and impact the overall health and vigor of the plant. And they are hard to treat.
If you have a nursery or greenhouse, throw away badly infested plants. Spray the rest of the crop with Pylon at the high rate (2 applications, one week apart).
If you are a homeowner, do not buy plants with this type of damage. These nematodes have the ability to live for several years in a state called anhydrobiosis where they dry down completely and go dormant. As soon as moisture returns and conditions are right, they revive themselves and infest plants. You could put an infested leaf in an envelope, file it on a shelf and rehydrate the nematodes years later! Not exactly fair, yet very interesting.

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?

Skywatch - Cairngorms spring

A shot from a couple of weeks back, on our way down through the Central Highlands after spending Easter on Speyside. This is the north-eastern edge of the Cairngorms range of mountains, here with the last of the spring snow. As well as one of Scotland's main ski areas, the Cairngorms also have remnants of the primeval Caledonian Forest, rare birds, plants and animals, and five of Scotland's six highest mountains.
I bet the ski area people were wishing those clouds would give them just a bit more snow. The season has been patchy.
See more skies at the Skywatch Friday site.

Proof

This one is for those readers in the southern states who are currently experiencing a strange phenomenon called "winter". Here in Queensland it's still autumn, and the above picture is the proof in case anybody doubted it. This morning's ride was a chance to blow away some cobwebs through Tallebudgera and Currumbin Valleys. I ended up with about 98km or so, and it was extremely pleasant. The odd thing is that while the autumn leaves are providing displays of colour, so are the "summer" wildflowers that usually bloom in around February or so.



Another astonishing thing happened today. I came up to a group of cyclists on the side of the road fixing a flat tyre. Evidently they didn't need any assistance, but they seemed to think of me as some kind of super athlete for taking a ride of close to 100km down the two valleys. I didn't bother to tell them I was just warming up for tomorrow, or that I'm thinking of making that 400k in July into a 600k. Why is it considered so unusual to undertake anything that might just require a little bit of endurance? As it is, I'll just keep racking up the kilometres and enjoying the scenery as I go.

Kitten Therapy

I've always had a cat in my life.  Many hours have been spent cuddling them and crying into their fur when life wasn't as good as I'd like for it to be.  
Darcie loves them as much as I do.  We currently have three four-week-old kittens.  I'm letting her keep Spot, the white one with large orange spots. That'll make eight cats we have.  I'm going to give away the other two kittens and two other adult cats, then we'll only have four!  Two are orange tabbys, one is solid white, and Spot is a mixture.
I've even let mama and babies stay in the house since they've been born.  When my children came along, the cat went outside.  Now that I only have two children living at home, I'm ready to have an inside cat again.  
I love seeing a cat curled up on the couch or in front of the fireplace.  So homey and cozy!

John Simac, Lee Tegner and Camp Schurman

Ed Hrivnak is a pilot and a writer (New Yorker and Operation Homecoming) and last September he took a special trip to Mount Rainier for two friends. Normally, this sort of activity wouldn't be too big of a deal (Ed flew many of the maneuvers behind the photos in my book), but his two friends have a special connection to Rainier and this trip could be their last chance to get up close and personal with "The Mountain." Here is an edited version of that flight and those men.
“I can not begin to express what an honor it was to fly John Simac and Lee Tegner around the mountain in September, 2007. As a climber and rescuer, the stories I heard from them during the flight were truly amazing. John talked about his first Rainier climb in 1932 and the body recovery of Delmar Fadden in 1936; Lee talked about being strapped into the open door of a plane while making cargo drops to the Camp Schurman hut in the early 1960's. Both reminisced about camping on the summit for a week, playing football and eating watermelon while teaching young Explorer Scouts the skills of mountaineering.
John had mentioned a flight to see the mountain six months ago realizing that at age 93, he may never see “the hut” and Mount Rainier up close again. After months of scheduling conflicts, we finally had a day that worked for all three of us.
The weather that day was absolutely perfect. There was a light wind and clear skies which made for stable air on the NE side of the mountain. This would be great for viewing Camp Schurman and the Emmons Glacier. You see, John and Lee both volunteered to build the Camp Schurman hut. Both spent many years on Mount Rainier's slopes. Both volunteered with Mountain Rescue for over 50 years. Both had given so much and I wanted to honor that.
We took four laps around the north and east face of Mount Rainier, Little Tahoma, and in particular Camp Schurman. No one was around that day; it was just us, the mountain, and the hut. After all I'd heard, I decided to pull a maneuver that would give them a clear view. I took the plane to 11 K and then dropped the flaps, pulled the engine to idle, and gently rolled in for closer inspection. We quietly glided over the glacier with the hut to our right. Then John spoke with a tear in his eye, "Seeing that hut again brought back a flood of memories that I can't sort out at once." Lee, with a smile, said, "we had a hell of a time on this mountain."
As the plane descended over the Winthrop Glacier, we watched large open crevasses pass beneath us. I looked over at Lee and John and noted that they were both lost in memories that I could only imagine. I wonder if there is anyone alive today who has volunteered more time on the upper mountain of Rainier as John and Lee. It was a privilege to pilot them for what might be a final view of a place so special. For me, I hope someone will do the same when I am 93." -Ed Hrivnak

More Charlotte Mason Wisdom

My beautiful daughter with her second son, Landing
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“This duty of devout meditation seems to me the most important part of the preparation of the mother or other teacher who would instruct children in the things of the Divine life.”
Charlotte M. Mason.