Uffintgon circular - Greatford, Barholm, Casewick Park

With Marta. Same walk as one on july 25 . Flat terrain. Overcast day, but dry - good underfoot - paths clear. About 10 miles - .25 ish switch-off after Greatford pub.


The same walk as I did on July 25 . This time we found our way to Greatford Church, but we still couldn't locate 'Meg's Well'. The photos show very grey skies.

Near Uffington church stand three redwoods.

Marta saw two hares when she looked through the huge gates of Uffington Manor on the main road.We turn right before the houses after West Hall Farm.

We believe this is the site of the mill mound marked on the OS map.

Our path takes us over farmland, always clearly marked and following track or field edge. We come out behind Cobbs Nook Farm, and join the Macmillan Way, along a wooded bridleway. We join the road turning left and then right to where we cross the East Coast Mainline at a level crossing. A short half mile takes us to our left turn into Shillingsthorpe Park.

The cows and calves are gathered round the food here.

We cross the river West Glen, and make our way to along the farm road to the woodland, before turning right over fields. These are no problem this time, as they have been harvested and waymarking is good. We follow the path behind the very private Greatford Hall into the village. A local resident of 25 year's standing tells us how to access the church - there's a small white gate near the bridge over the small river.

In the church is a memorial to Francis Willis, who is reputed to have cured George III of his madness in 1789. Dr Willis owned Greatford Hall, and ran an asylum there. The church also boasts a Roman coffin, and many interesting plaques and dedications.

As we come from the church towards the road we pass the entrance to Greatford Hall. It was destroyed by fire in 1922, but rebuilt.

The inn sign for the local pub, where we had an excellent baguette lunch, with friendly service.
A large stone cross near Bridge cottages
The crown commemorates the coronation of George VI. There is more info and more photos (not mine) here.

We cross the fields south towards Barholm. On the way we spot an ambitious mobile phone mast trying to look like a tree. We cross a bridge over Greatford Cut, which joins the West Glen River to the Welland and forms a flood defence system for Greatford.

Barholm Church. Click on the link for further information.

From Barholm we take the road past the Five Horseshoes pub and the Old Hall. We turn left and make our way over several fields to the railway again. No level crossing here, but a warning about trains travelling at 100 mph. The track is straight and the view is good. On the other side we walk over two or three fields before reaching Casewick Park, with its lovely buildings, high hedges and fine gates.



I need to identify this tree.

A look back at Casewick Hall as we leave the park, and take the road leading to Uffington.

Apart from the hares, we saw a few swallows swooping after the insects, and a lot of small speckled wood (?) butterflies.

Antelope Canyon

WOW... Antelope Canyon is... in a word... SPECTACULAR!!!!! Definitely some of the most fascinating light I have ever seen. I spent 4.5 hours in the canyon. My mind is officially blown :-)

Above: The entrance to the canyon. Only about two feet wide at its beginning, the canyon is a bit of a squeeze to climb down into it!


Once you are down in the canyon, it does open up and travel through it is a bit easier than at the beginning. There are several areas, though, where it is only wide enough for one person to walk through at a time.

Above: A shot of Lionel, one of the Navajo guides that brings tour groups through the canyon.

Every place you look in the canyon is a treat for the eyes. The shapes and lines in the canyon walls provide for unlimited photo opportunities. The reflected light coming from above makes for some of the most amazing light that a photographer will ever see.

Ice Piles at Whitecaps Bay

Even with last week's warm temperatures, we still have some really awesome piles of ice built up along the Grand Portage shoreline. This photo was taken the evening of February 26th. Incredibly calm conditions that evening made for a surreal experience of exploring and photographing these ice piles. The intense blue color of the ice was breathtaking. Temperatures are forecast to be a little cooler for the next week, so this ice should hang around for a while yet!

Shovel Pruning the Vignettes

This post, "Shovel Pruning the Vignettes", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

The Garden Bloggers arrive in Austin in a few days and we who live here will no longer be photos on a page but living, breathing human beings with gardens that are actual, not virtual. You've seen Pam/Digging's photos and the garden she designed and built from below the ground up, yet Pam has confessed to some pre-Fling jitters! MSStevens just posted about her mixed up, exuberant, wild at heart meadow garden , complete with poetry she wrote as a 17-year old prodigy. The also jittery MSS says she wrote this post to set expectations for visitors to her garden and the laid-back, artistic neighborhood around her. Dawn's garden blog is just fine but her real garden is on hold. She must wait for long-planned construction to be completed before she begins to turn her dreams into reality. While she waits, she takes us on tour around the Austin area and shows us places we might otherwise miss.
I don't have much to be nervous about - only a few bloggers are intending to trek northwest to my bits-and-pieces garden, full of passalongs and plants I grow just to see what will happen. There's a hint of Lady Bird Johnson in the front yard and a lot of plants beloved by Mrs. Whaley in the back yard. And one rather cranky, gettin' older lady trying to keep the plants in control.
Last fall I planted ranunculus bulbs after reading a post about them by the wonderful Julie of the Human Flower Project. I gave them a good spot in the long fence border.

This spring the ranunculus opened their delightfully rolled flowers. What fun to see a chrome yellow followed by an orange - the flowers were more vivid than I'd prefer, but they seemed to blend with the lighter yellows, purples and silvers already blooming in this border.
Then number three opened deep fuchsia pink and I couldn't stand it. For nearly thirty years I've made one garden after another with layers of small trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals and bulbs to form vignettes - small pleasing scenes with the center focused and the edges blurred.

On my series of small small suburban lots I used these vignettes to draw the eye to a defined area of horticultural interest, away from neighboring house roofs, TV antennae, garage walls, basketball hoops and backboards, pool slides, sports banners, trash containers, compost heaps, oversize vehicles, boats under blue tarps, power and electric lines and dead trees.

You'll find every color of the rainbow somewhere in my yard and in a large sweeping meadow I'd love them all swirled together, but vignettes are small. Certain areas have limited palettes - this secluded corner is mainly corals and lavenders -

The hummingbird bed is predominantly red and the pink border near the gate is the spot for pinks, magentas, whites and burgundies. Those ranunculus bloomed in a bed of yellows, blues & silvers along the fence.
A few days ago Pam/Digging told us one of her bluebonnets bloomed pink instead of blue and she wavered between moving it and letting it bloom. Most of her commenters told her to let it be. I said to move it. I follow my own advice.
I used the garden fork to lift the deep pink ranunculus with a nice chunk of soil, relocating it to the bulb bed near the anemones. Two days later the flower doesn't seem to have noticed that it's on the opposite side of the yard. Julie says these bulbs usually bloom once without returning, but if it does decide to act like a perennial, it will be in the right place.
This way I can enjoy both the deep pink ranunculus and the more coherent long border without being annoyed each time I looked at that 'riot of color'.
More shovel pruning was needed in the front yard. When we worked on the Pink Entrance Garden, last spring, I planted a bareroot rose labeled 'Therese Bugnet' toward the middle of the bed, a good spot for this pink shrub rose. When the rose bloomed dark red I was surprised but decided to keep it since the flower was lovely, nice for cutting and the color looked okay with the pinks and burgundies.

But in the last few months our 'Not-Therese' Rose started making long, wandlike canes... not only was it not pink... it was also not a shrub! When the Divas of the Dirt came here a few weeks ago, DivaMattie volunteered to adopt the unmasked red climber and took it home.

The Pink Garden still needed a Pink Shrub Rose. Instead of taking a chance on another bareroot rose, I bought a shrub rose in a container that was already blooming pink ... it's supposed to be the Texas-tough 'Belinda's Dream' and this time the girl looks like her photos.

The styles of M.S.Stevens' garden, Pam's garden, Dawn's garden and my garden are as different as the style of our garden blogs and our styles of writing. I think these differences are something to celebrate - if you'd like to read more on the topic of rejoicing in the differences among bloggers , please see Kate's thoughful ode to individuality, "A Gentle Plea for Chaos" at her KateSmudges blog.

This post, "Shovel Pruning the Vignettes", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

The Panimal

Berni found this awesome howler monkey skull in jungle near Gamboa.

"Hey Panama Canal, your construction ain't got nothing on this tamale"

Portobelo

The true sport of the world

The price was right on these 500 year old accommodations

This river was over waist deep, muddy and rushing on our way back the next day.

Stand over might be a bit high but its pretty close for top tube leg extension

Bridges

This week has been on of the warmest so far this year. Wednesday (into the 60s) I headed out from the Wabash Trace Trailhead, going to the riverfront. Everything went well until I got to the Highway 92 bridge. The trail was blocked. Seems they are setting girders for the second 2 lanes.
My plan was to ride 20-25+ miles. Time for plan "B". I turned around back the Indian Creek trail to Manawa Trail then rode started riding around Lake Manawa. I even went to the South part of the park - had not been there. Great riding since the wind was with me on the West (open) side of the lake. Wind was not a problem on the East side of the lake with all of the houses and buildings.
Still not enough miles, to another loop around the lake. On the way back to the trailhead, the wind was kicking up. Planned to ride over the Xtreme Wheels to finish, but the wind got just too bad.
Thought that my legs would the tired and sore after the 50 miles in 3 weeks, but wanted to ride some anyway Thursday. It turned out that the weather was better that day - same temperature but almost no wind. Warm-up ride from Western Heritage Trail Center to N 24th. On the way back, saw Dennis driving to the trail center. Tried to catch him along the trail but to no avail. He stopped at the N16th Hy-Vee - chatted with him and we rode together to Big Lake. The road along the lake is closed - building a bridge there.
From Big Lake, it was down to the new trail bridge across the Missouri. They are making progress on the bridge. Not sure about the 4-way intersection at the East (Iowa) end of the bridge. Ending at the Trail Center was enough for Dennis. I still wanted to go toward 25+ miles. Rode over to Indian Creek - from Highway 92 to S 16th Ave. Over 26 miles today.
Time to take a break from the riding. Have a case of "saddle sores" from the aggressive riding this week. That was OK, since the weather was forecast for rain and nasty weather starting this morning. WRONG -- sunny and 50 most of the day.

Loire Valley: Domaine des Hauts de Loire

The kings of France ditched Paris for the Loire Valley during the Renaissance, leaving the region littered with glorious châteaux. And who could blame them? This lush valley is a regal backdrop for elaborate castles, its fertile vineyards and farmlands supplying royal feasts. Local pears and goat cheese, Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé still end up on restaurant tables in Tours.


Tuck yourself in at Domaine des Hauts de Loire, a fairy tale of a hotel whose antiques-filled rooms overlook 178 acres of forest.




Domaine des Hauts de Loire is one of the best classic French châteaux hotels in a region known for the extravagance of its châteaux, an ivy-covered manor house just outside the village of Onzain, just two hours from Paris. Some of the castles in this region date to the middle ages - this one, though, is relatively recent, having been built as a hunting lodge in 1860. The atmosphere, then, is more luxurious than feudal, more picturesque than protective.



The hotel is surrounded by 180 acres of parkland, complete with tennis courts, pool, wooded paths for exploring, and a pond where swans float by as though posing for postcard photos. Hot air balloon rides and helicopter tours of the château-studded Loire valley can be arranged.



The château rooms are elegant, restrained, with a tasteful sprinkling of antiques and large modern bathrooms — rooms in the carriage house, by contrast, are bigger and more contemporary, if ever so slightly less charming. The restaurant, under the direction of chef Rémy Giraud, serves traditional French country cuisine with a modest international influence (wasabi replacing horseradish, for example), and features a large collection of the region's wines.