Mt Rainier Storm & Flood Damage Photos - Carbon/Ipsut

The NW corner of the park usually has its own share of flood related damage each year. And though it's not unusual for there to be Carbon River inspired washouts, this rainstorm brought substantially more destruction to the area. For example, here is the idyllic Ipsut Creek Cabin. It suffered heavily during the flood. Is it me, or does this place remind you of Yoda's house on Dagoba?

This creek diversion gives literal meaning to the name, Ipsut Creek Cabin. If Yoda did live here, he'd have to use quite a bit of "the force" to fix things.

As for the Carbon River Road, more than two miles of it washed away in at least four separate spots. In some places, the river flowed down the middle of the road (like here). For climbers, this could spell delay in early season attempts of Liberty Ridge.

AND another washout closer to Ipsut Creek Campground.

As for the Wonderland and other park trails, here's a brief run down on the storm damage. Keep in mind, the full extent may not be known till next spring, as these assessments were made from the air. For now, backpackers should probably expect things (bridges) to open up later than normal next summer. There are at least 10 bridges out around the Wonderland Trail. New trail needs to constructed in four other places. That includes a half mile reroute between Lake James and Cataract Creek and another 750 foot section in Stevens Canyon. NPS Photos

Western Historic Trail Paving

This week concrete is being poured on the trail from the Trails Center to S. 24th St. When I rode by yesterday afternoon, the paving work was along the baseball fields West of the Maintenance Building. Paving is progressing West to East.

Tourists in Our Own Town

Last Saturday our daughter Lily and her dear husband returned home after a visit with their Austin relatives - but most of that special time is not the stuff of blog posts. We were glad to be together and also glad Austin displayed spectacular blue skies. It's been a long, cold, wet winter in the Pacific Northwest.
When guests come from out-of state, it gives us a chance to act like tourists in our own town - that's the part I want to share with you.
A favorite place to take visitors is a funky mini-golf course on Barton Springs Road, south of the river. Nearly 60-years old, Peter Pan golf was created by the Dismukes family. It's not a tournament-type course, but can present interesting challenges to the players, especially at night.
You might not think of a bike store as a tourist attraction, but when the shop is called Mellow Johnny's and it belongs to Lance Armstrong, it's a must-go-there destination, especially for a guy who bikes in triathlons and a gal who will be part of the Livestrong Challenge this summer. Within the bike store we found a coffee shop named Juan Pelota cafe in ironic tribute to Lance's battle with cancer. It was very cool to see bikes Lance rode in races on display in the shop.

Even when we have no company to impress we occasionally head down to South Congress for Home Slice Pizza. What a fabulous crust on those pies - and such perfect toppings. And it's right across the street from Tesoros Trading Company. Lily & I bought identical oval black clay bowls. Here's mine with some beautifully decorated, blown-out eggs that our daughter made as a gift and hand-carried on the plane.After we went to Tesoros, I realized that exactly one year earlier during Austin Spring Fling, Garden Bloggers from all over the country ambled together down South Congress in search of souvenirs. Shout out to Kathy Purdy & her friend Cynthia!
When the Garden Bloggers met in Austin last year another place everyone wanted to go was the Natural Gardener. We love to take people there! Not only is it a wonderful nursery but it's a great place to stroll around and think and dream - with a butterfly garden, vegetable demonstration gardens and water features. Philo and I usually make a stop at the dig-it-yourself Soil Yard whenever we drive down. This time we had four people wielding shovels, so filling the back of the car with bags of John Dromgoole's Rose Magic and Revitalizer Compost was a very speedy process, giving us more time to wander the nursery lanes.
I couldn't resist snapping a stack of turtles in Lady Bird Lake. The name used to be Town Lake, but after Lady Bird Johnson died, the downtown section of the Colorado River was renamed in her honor. We walked the part of the very popular hike and bike trail that passes the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue, the Long Center for the Performing Arts (just a few days after we'd been there for the Leonard Cohen concert), and the off-leash dog park. When we strolled the paved hike and bike trail it wasn't much of a workout, but it was a little hotter and dustier when we climbed up the trails at Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve . This preserve is not manicured and you have to watch where you put your feet. Wildflowers grow along the trails, At some points there are views of Loop 360 to the West and a pond surprises you when it appears in this arid setting. It had been a few years since we'd been to Wild Basin with a different set of visitors. That hike turned out to be quite an ordeal because the temperatures were over 100°F...guess it took us awhile to get over the experience! It was funny to realize that because I can now identify more of the trees and plants in the woods, walking there was somehow more enjoyable than in the past.
Six of us went to the Flat Creek Estate Winery for a wine tasting - a fun new thing for some of us and a chance for the experienced to show off their sophistication. The drive out to the beautiful Tuscan-style buildings and grounds near Marble Falls was long enough to be interesting without being tedious.
We enjoyed the different wines, bringing home a few bottles. (If you go to the winery on the weekends the Bistro will be open. Because we were there mid-week, instead of snacking on Mediterranean fare after the tasting, we ended up at a roadside Sonic in the nearby town of Lago Vista.)
Our daughter admired the label on the Bucking Horse Red which featured an image of "Cage Johnson Spurs 'Em Up Aboard Cyclone" by famed Texas Artist Bob Wade.
The tasting had proved to us that the inside of the bottle was as fine as the outside - this red was perfect with delicious pies from Reale's Pizza. For our group there is no such thing as too much pizza.

Mayfield Park was once the private home of the Mayfield family with the gardens developed over a long time by Mary Mayfield Gutsch and her husband Milton Gutsch. Some of the plants have been here since the 1920's with peacocks and peahens added in 1935. Philo & I first saw this park in September 1999, soon after we moved to Austin. Mayfield proved to me that beautiful flowers could grow in this climate. Maybe MSS of Zanthan Gardens can tell us whether these lovely red flowers are St Joseph Lilies or something else in the amaryllis family. Not too far from Mayfield is a favorite place to buy plants, Shoal Creek nursery - we stopped there to walk around and look at the pottery. I couldn't make a decision on the pots, but found another Loropetalum and some Purple Nicotiana. Lily & BJ and Philo & I are all gardeners so if we lived closer to each other, visiting nurseries together would be a normal thing to do on weekends. We cherish these chances to act normal and just hang out!
Hanging out in Austin also means enjoying Tex-Mex restaurants. Our son suggested Serranos, which is especially fun on 2-for-1 Enchilada night when the chips & queso are hot and the margaritas refreshing. Taco Cabana is more casual, which can be handy when you're out touring.
The Elisabet Ney museum is an old museum- so it's probably okay to use an old photo. I forgot to take a new picture when we visited this museum, the studio of early Austin's fascinating woman sculptor. Click to enlarge the photo so you can see another visitor we took to the Ney Museum...the paper person called Flat Stanley.
We all had one final outing the day before our guests flew home - a short ride out to Blanco for a tour of the Real Ale Brewery. This was too much fun - beer we like (and can buy locally) and an amazingly detailed tour and explanation of how beer is made. When we lived in Illinois, Philo and our older sons did some home brewing and the process is interesting to all of us. I'm fond of the Rio Blanco Pale Ale and Philo, who looks for high IBU numbers, prefers the Full Moon Pale Rye Ale. He also likes the Real Heavy, which is available seasonally but on draught, not in bottles. The Brewmaster AKA "Tyrant" was a wonderful tour guide, witty and ironic, languidly imparting quite specific information.
The vagaries of Texas law allows the brewery to give tours and samples of the various brews but unlike wineries, breweries can't sell any of the product to their visitors so we couldn't bring home a sampler 6-pack. This inequity has recently been a subject of much discussion in the beer-brewing and beer-loving community.
The backdoor clematis bloomed too late for our visitors and too late for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - but it opened just in time to be the end photo of this PLEASE COME VISIT AUSTIN post. Hope to see you soon!

Come Into my Parlour

Since I already have the parlour pretty much the way I want it, I like to do small things to make me happy; such as tie a burlap string around a stack of books. I'm easy!
This tea arrangement makes me happy, too. The books I tied up are under the teacart.



I bought two of these needlepoint pheasant pillows on e-bay.

I've posted this photo before but haven't shown it hanging on the wall. It's one of my favorites taken in Stratford-on-Avon. I made it into a black and white photo and then hand-colored it using transparent oil paints. Pretty cool, huh? Excuse the reflections of the curtains in the glass.
A bevy of family portraits on an end table. I threw in the turquoise frame to shake things up a little.
I have matches in this box which hangs to the left of the fireplace. There's a story that goes with this box.
I think I was college age and our family was at this bluegrass/craft festival up in the Smoky Mountains. I saw this box and really liked it. Daddy, being the sweetie he is, said, "I'll buy it for you." I only ever remember him buying two things for me; this box and a Sarah Coventry bracelet that I still wear forty years later. And he's taken my brother and me to the country store for many ice cream cones.
I remember one time he was taking us fishing, and we stopped at this same store for lunch supplies. As a special treat for dessert, he got little cups of pudding but failed to buy any spoons. Of course we didn't discover this until it was time to eat. We didn't know what we were going to do short of sticking our fingers into the pudding, but Daddy being ever resourceful, looked around and saw some reeds on the river bank. Walking over to them, he cut a long one. As he walked back to us he cut it into three pieces, each piece about the length of a straw, and handed one to me and then one to my younger brother.
We looked at each other and then over at Daddy who had stuck his reed into the pudding and was drinking it like a milkshake. We thought he was a genius for being so innovative. He was and is a genius still. He's one of the smartest men I know. And one of the kindest. I love my daddy!

In the Spotlight: Roanoke Island Festival Park

20 April

There’s no doubt that we enjoyed an eclectic set of activities today.  We started out with quiet, manicured gardens (post here); delved a bit into the early history of the island (post here); and finally got a lighthouse ‘fix’ and had a great al fresco lunch with a view (post here).

To round out our day, we intended to visit the Aquarium.  That plan changed when we turned into the parking lot and found ourselves confronted with five busses — with school names prominently displayed on the windshields.  Shifting gears, we went to the Roanoke Island Festival Park instead.  As the brochure touted, we “traveled back to 1585 and were home in time for dinner.”

The park is designed to celebrate the first English Settlement in the New World.  It has costumed interpreters and opportunities to participate in interactive demonstrations that give visitors a sense of what life was like back in the late 16th century.

It is a family attraction; no doubt about that.  There were plenty of families with kids, and even a school group or two, but we found that the layout of the 25-acre park lent itself quite well to spreading out the crowds.  Of course, it helped that we were there during the off season.  The $8/adult admission is good for two consecutive days; $1 discount coupon (which I had printed out just in case) is available from the website.

We started our visit at the Elizabeth II, a reproduction ship built to represent one of the seven vessels that brought the colonists to Roanoke Island in 1587.  In fact, the repro is named after one of those ships.

Elizabeth II — this 69-foot (21 m) ship is the centerpiece of the Festival Park.

We had the ship to ourselves to explore and wandered above- and below-decks at our leisure.  In the cramped quarters aboard, that was a good thing.  It got a bit crowded towards the end when a group of school kids showed up for the demo-shooting of the gun.  By then, we were ready to move on.  So, after watching the demo, we left the ship for the kids to enjoy.

Tour of the ship (clockwise from top left): gentlemen’s sleeping quarters; cooking area below-decks; rope for lines and riggings; the bowsprit; Mui aboard the ship; meal set up in the captain’s cabin (not sure I care for the main course); captain’s quarters; capstan (used to raise the anchor).

The sailor that is going to assist with the gun demo is ready for action.

Next, we headed over to the area representing the English Settlement.  Here, we had an opportunity to interact with costumed interpreters portraying colonists going about daily life.

We watched the blacksmith make a nail, and the carpenter make a table leg and a tool handle using equipment that would have been typical for the period.  We also had a chance to peek into canvas tents that would have been occupied by the soldiers that were charged with the safety of the colonists.

Mui steps back in time to a 16th century settlement site.

This costumed interpreter acted as our guide, demonstrating the role various tradesmen played in the colony: blacksmith (top left); carpenter making a tool handle (top right); carpenter turning out a table leg (bottom left); soldier in his armor (bottom right).

A school group showed up just as the interpreter finished demonstrating a bowling-like game that would have been popular back in the day.  So, as the English Settlement became overrun with kids, we headed to the American Indian Village.  This area was disappointing as there were no interpreters and we had to rely on limited signage to advance our understanding of life in an Algonquian village.  From what I have read, during the ‘in’ season, the interactive demonstrations here are most interesting.  Too bad we didn’t get to see them.

The American Indian Settlement (clockwise from top left): illustration of a 1585 Indian Village drawn by John White; Longhouses could be 36-72 feet (11-22 m) long; rattles made with turtle carapaces; the Leader’s House was typically the major structure in the village; a pole-and-slat frame called a hurdle was one of the means for cooking fish.

One of the most interesting things we saw in this area was a replica Dance Circle.  Dance was interpreted as part of religious rituals, celebrations, and victories.  Dances usually took place in the settlement, but sometimes the posts were placed in fields between towns so that people from surrounding villages could also participate.

Dance Circles were an important part of life for the American Indians.

Before leaving the Festival Park, we attended a showing of The Legend of Two-Path, a docudrama that recounts the story of the meeting of two very different cultures — the Native Americans of Roanoke Island and the English.  The story is told from the perspective of the natives, but it is based on facts as recorded by the English (the only written information available).  It explores the challenges encountered in the Algonquian characters of Manteo, Wanchese, and Skyco (Two Path).  I’d say that this movie alone was worth the price of admission.

An interesting docudrama; worth the price of admission to the Festival Park.

On that note, we brought our day on Roanoke Island to a close, but didn’t quite complete our sightseeing for the day.  On our way to Hatteras Camp, we stopped to visit the last of the four lighthouses of the OBX.  I wrote about the Bodie Lighthouse in a previous post, so I won’t revisit it here.

By the way, if you’d like to see full-size versions of the pictures used in the collages for this post, go to my online gallery and click the link for the Roanoke Island Festival Park.

OMG, I Spotted a Spotted Moray Eel

Gotta look close... He wanted to bite something

The Imp & The Magna Carta in Lincoln

Click to enlarge!

The magnificent castle at Lincoln was built in 1068, it was one of the first to be built by the Normans after the defeat of Harold in 1066. It is set high on a hill very near to the Cathedral, which I told you about, here.




According to the Domesday book 166 Saxon homes were cleared to make way for the castle. It dominated the skyline until the Cathedral was built. An original copy of the Magna Cartais displayed in the castle prison.









I use a car park which is situated right next to the castle walls, facing the cathedral. Yesterday when I visited, the clouds were low and heavy rain was forecast.

The famous Lincoln Imp is to be found in the cathedral.



Davina and I were on a mission to buy a christening gown for baby Francesca - and Davina knew just the shop, an added bonus was the fact that there was a sale on.

We looked at every gown and eventually made our selection.



Onward, down Steep Hill ... and the siren call of the Chocolate Shop was too strong to resist ... especially as it was Davina's birthday.

Out of the chocolate shop, turn right and this is what you see....

..the white building is a wonderfully higgledy-piggledy, crowded bookshop - always a great excuse to stop and catch one's breath on the return journey up the hill - our walk continues to the left of the book shop and

down this aptly named hill, the gallery to the left is a superb arts and crafts centre.

This is the approach to the reallysteep part of the hill...it has a gradient of one in seven - and the return journey is a test of stamina and fitness.

I don't mind climbing back up - but I find walking down very frightening when it is wet - I have this irrational fear that I may slip...

Once in the main part of Lincoln we did some more shopping, had a coffee, etc. and thenbegan the trek back up Steep Hill. This is the view from near the bottom, you can see one of the cathedral towers in the distance.

Luckily the hill is packed with interesting little shops, so anyone who is finding it hard going always has an interesting shop window to examine while they catch their breath.

The Jew's House ison Steep Hill. It is one of the earliest (still existing) town houses in England and dates from the mid-twelfth century.

This is the part which leads up to the REALLY steep section, time to pace ourselves and not talk too much!