Extra! Extra! Read All About It

Once again, I headed out to Mitchell Lake Audubon's wetlands to do my 10K (6.2 mile) Volksmarch. At 8:30 a.m. the temperature was quite warm and humid with no breeze. Thunderstorms were predicted for early afternoon (50% chance).

Yellow jacket nest (click photo to enlarge for greater detail)

The first third of the walk is pretty boring, but once the path reaches the polders (ponds), many more birds appear.

Juvenile white-faced ibis and blue-winged teal.

Black-necked stilt

Two American avocets and a black-necked stilt.

Where I walked...this is between two ponds.

At one point, two caracaras (Mexican eagles) circled over me and I was able to capture one of these magnificent birds in flight.

Caracara, AKA Mexican eagle.

Butterflies in abundance right now

As I walked, I noticed the following sign, "Area Closed." Hmm, why would that be? Keep reading to find out what was happening.

Area closed for these folks.

I used my telephoto to take photos of the birdwatchers.

But what are they doing?

Whirring Common Whitetail Dragonfly

Flower on the right has a butterfly on it.

American white pelican in flight

American white pelicans

Aren't they amazing? They're huge.

Getting ready to fly off.

As I was walking along one of the ponds, a number of kids and adults were out pruning back shrubs, trees and vines. The goal: a better view of the birds from the road around the wetlands. They were from a local 4-H club. I thanked them for volunteering their time.

A basket of colorful work gloves for the 4-H volunteers.

The hunt for the Roseate spoonbill was a success today. At the Visitor Center I was told to look for the Roseate spoonbills hanging out with flocks of egrets; the spoonbills would be the pink ones. My photo isn't great because they were way on the other side of lake and I had to zoom in on them. But they are spoonbills!

Great egrets and Roseate spoonbills

Pelicans heading my way!

Scissor-tailed flycatcher

Two Caracaras.

American avocets and black-necked stilts.

A beautiful fluffy feather.

Plant ready to bloom at Visitor Center.

Back at the Visitor Center, I asked why there was a closed area. They told me the people are participating in "The Big Sit !" an annual, international, non-competitive birding event. The object is to tally as many bird species as can be seen or heard in a 24-hour period. Big Sits are happening all over the world this weekend. You learn something new every day.

For those of you who haven't seen the comedy, "The Big Year" with Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black, Bob and I highly recommend it. The movie is about bird watchers competing to see who can see or hear the most bird species in one year's time. And, yes, there really is a Big Year competition every year.

Next Saturday the Audubon Society at Mitchell Lake is having their Fall Festival with booths and information. Maybe I'll head over there. That afternoon, they'll be having a raptor show too. Cool.

This evening Bob and I went to our RV park's Steak Night. The park sets up big charcoal BBQs and everyone brings their own meat to grill. You pay $3.50 per person at the door for the rest of the meal: salad, salad dressing, baked potato with the fixin's, dessert, and iced tea or water. We grilled cod in tin foil which was very tasty. (I put a thin layer of mayonnaise on both sides of the fish and sprinkled ground cumin and garlic salt on it.)

We sat a table with three other couples who travel together. They are on their way home to California at the end of a 90-day trip across country, down the East Coast, and now across the southern states. Wow! 90 days to see the entire East Coast. That's a pretty quick trip.

Our forecast is for 30-60% chance of thunderstorms and heavy rain for the next five days. We just had some heavy rain roll through and it sounded great on our 5th wheel roof. We'll see if the weather allows us to walk tomorrow.

Enjoy your Sunday. Travel Bug out.

Yirdit coaties

Ma dochter's coaties. They're yirdit - fit's she bin daein? Plowterin throu dubs, nae doot. Quines is jist as fool an orra as loons. Ma mither's mither wid hae gied her a pymin, but we arna sae coorse the day.
My daughter's gymshoes/plimsolls (or at a pinch, Converse). They're filthy - what's she been doing? Doubtless walking through mud. Girls are just as dirty and messy as boys. My grandmother would have given her a spanking, but we're not so ill-disposed these days.
In giving you this little taste of Scots I have to say first of all that my grandmother would have done no such thing. My mother often told me how she and her brothers were threatened with a 'pymin' for sitting on the upturned keels of boats in summer, and getting their clothes covered in melting tar, but that the threat was never carried through.
I also realise how local my variant of Scots must be. I couldn't find 'coaties', 'yirdit' or 'pymin' in my Concise Scots Dictionary. They may be outwith its concise scope. But just to highlight two words of Scandinavian origin: the modern Swedish for 'earth' is 'jord', and 'yird' in Scots means 'earth'. But its extension into 'yirdit' for 'dirty' is perhaps local to North East Scots. And 'quine' has a modern Scandinavian equivalent in 'kvinne', 'woman'.
'Dubs' is an interesting one. I've written elsewhere about 'glaur'. But dubs is a different sort of mud. Drier, forming into clumps. The sort of mud that drops off tractor wheels and leaves a trail behind on the road. My father knows a farmer who considerately puts out a warning sign to alert drivers that they are about to encounter 'Dubs on Road'. Perhaps we're like the Inuit, and have a rich vocabulary for mud.
This post was sparked off by the questions about Scots in our current census. I only discovered after the event that there is a website to help people decide how to answer the relevant census questions. My father sent me the local community newsletter, which contained this article:
"Included in the census this time is a question about Scots dialect. To may in this 'airt', that means Doric, but Scots dialects are many and varied over the country. You are asked if you understand and speak dialect. Now many folk of a certain age group remember full well being told to 'speak properly' (ie English) at school and at work, but as home, playground and leisure, the local tongue was widespread. Forget about 'speaking proper' and answer the question!
For everyone, there is a website to help www.ayecan.com, and for those unsure about computers, there is bound to be someone who can show you, so just 'speir'. "
'Speir', meaning 'ask', has a modern Scandinavian equivalent in 'spoerre', 'to ask'. I can't import the proper slash through the 'o' of spoerre without the html doing strange things, so have to give an anglicised spelling here.
I was going to go on to give an elegant summary of Scots as a language of Germanic origin, and Gaelic as being of Celtic origin. But ah'm fooner't, (I've run out of steam), so I suggest you look at the Aye Can website, and perhaps click on the map to hear variants of Scots. Having listened to all the clips I would say they're fairly mild renditions of Scots, and don't give the full flavour of a Shetlander or an Aberdonian in full flow. But you can get an idea of how rich and varied Scots is, and perhaps why I felt it was important to tick all those boxes on the census form.

Of mud men and moss maids

I recently read on the Ellis Hollow blog about Craig's plans to build a Mudman.
He was inspired by photos of this sculpture called The Giant's Head at The Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall, England.

Then when I was searching for online information on Moss Maidens for my post last week, this photo popped up on Google images:

Two living garden sculptures in one week! Synchronicity started playing in my head. I had to learn more.
Clicking through, I found the Waterfall Cottage site, where I read that Australian sculptor Belinda Villani had created Lily (above), inspired by another sculpture at Heligan.
Here's the original Mud Maiden at Heligan:

The Heligan sculptures were crafted by Sue Hill and her brother Pete, who also have works at The Eden Project in Cornwall.

This one is called Eve. On this page that includes several photos of its construction, it's called the Apples sculpture, though.
The photo below resembles Eve, and was also created by Sue and Pete Hill. It was part of the "Garden of Dreams" in the .. Chelsea Flower show, and is called The Dreaming Girl.

One source says that after the show, the figure was bought by Olivia Harrison for her own garden. (Click the link for another view and more info on the plants.)
Then there's this.
It's at Bute Park in Cardiff, Wales, and been called a troll, a warthog, and a mudbeast. I can't find any information on the maker, but it seems a bit too rough-hewn to be by the Hills.

Still cute, though. Apparently it had to be fenced in, to prevent people from climbing on it.
Check here for a series of photos showing the creation of a garden scupture called Terra M Firma. The last the artist mentioned, it's not growing moss as well as she'd hoped.
I've been inspired by these living sculptures!
My idea though, is to find rocks with moss already growing on them, and then arrange them artfully to resemble, say, a turtle. Or a snail. Have to start small.
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additional links:
Heligan Gardens website.
The Eden Project website.
Search flickr for "Heligan head" to see how that sculpture changes over time and season.
Other views of the Mud Maiden at Heligan are here and here.
Another view of the Mudbeast.
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Photo credits:
The Giant's Head at Heligan by Ollie O'Brien.
Lily at Waterfall Cottage by Jeanne Villani.
Mud maid at Heligan by Liz Jones.
Eve at The Eden Project by Patricia Hamilton.
Dreaming Girl by Caroline, aka Elfleda.
Mudbeast at Bute Park by Mart, aka Late Night Movie.

Real Scottish men...

...obviously have wide reading tastes.

Photo courtesy of my son, from a Glasgow branch of Tesco.

They're everywhere

You can take for granted driving along behind a giant sporran. The mind does boggle a bit however if you think about it for a minute...
And are you incentivised by this offer?

For readers wondering what use this disembodied sporran has, edited to add links to examples of sporrans 'in action', here and a festive and kitsch version here. Who says the Scots don't have a sense of humour?

Doing it Again!

I've decided that I'm going to do the 100 push-up challenge again.  It's surprising how quickly muscle tone is lost.   When  you begin the challenge you take a test to see how many consecutive pushups you can do.  The first time I could only do eleven.  This morning I did 35.  So I get to start this second round at week 3.  
Come join me and increase your upper body strength.  Do the hundred!

Putting a face to a name

One of the things rarely (if ever) mentioned about cycle touring, is trying to visualise a route in the planning phase. I'm not talking about picking out hills with a topographic map, or scouting the amenities in various towns along the way (as much fun as this can be). I'm referring to the more basic things, such as the terrain and scenery.
Last weekend two of the roads I used were no more than lines on a map. I had a 'vision' of what I'd be riding through, of course. It was based on other things I'd seen in the vicinity, yet when I actually arrived, I was astonished by just how different things really were. I knew of course that there would be a Clarence River gorge, but I had just imagined it looking completely different to the way it appeared on my arrival.
The thing is, now if I look at a map of that area (as I may do again when planning future long weekends), I actually have a clear picture in my mind, based on the experience of having ridden that road. The picture now seems to much clearer than the 'vision' I had before. This was especially true with many of the places I rode in New Zealand last year. Already I'm poring over various maps before my Scotland tour later in the year (even if I'm highly unlikely to stick to any route plan that I make now). I've even seen a few altitude profiles, but the excitement comes from wondering what I'm actually going to see when I get there, and just how things will pan out when I put a 'face' to those place names.

• In other news, it seems I have to update my blogroll again. I thought it was a bit of a gee-up when someone turned up with the same blog name that I'm using, but apparently it's for real. More importantly, Zen Rao has a great writing style, so go over and check it out.
  
• In other news, someone else has a blog. This guy doesn't write much, but I can't escape the fact that back in 1990, he was my hero.