Dogwood Sunset

After spending a long afternoon hiking in the deep woods of northern Minnesota, I went down to the Lake Superior shoreline on Grand Portage Bay to photograph the sunset. After a quick look around, I found this piece of Red-Osier Dogwood laying in the shallow water. I don't know how it got there (wind, or perhaps someone threw it out there), but it made for an interesting foreground for this image. This image was captured with my Canon 17-40mm lens, shutter speed 2 seconds, aperture f16, ISO 100. I also used my Singh-Ray 3-stop reverse graduated ND filter.

Pawty, Pawty!!!

Here was the invitation I passed around to everypup pal I know at McInnis Park. (Note from Mama: notice that the invite reads: "No pressies please..."). That's enough Ma.
(My pup pals have been asking for my blog address, so that is why it is on the invite!) The first thing Ma did was to put out all the party stuff, of course. Doggies were already there! We had non-toxic tiny containers of bubbles for all pups to take home after the fun. The humans had more fun with that activity. Then the guests began to show up. We passed everydog a hat - this pup wore her hat so stylishly that it never fell off, even when in serious playmode.
Chasing my new kong that I really like, if only other pups like Tully would stop herding me!Love the bubbles! Provided great entertainment for some pups. Below, you can see how well Bear and Lucy (dachschund) get along! Lucy, 7 mos. old has absolutely no fear!
OKAY! It was time to get this party really started! Everypup and body sang a song and then... we all got food! I never had food like this before - it was scrumptious! I had the first bite and then it was a free-for-all.
We passed everypup's mom, dad or younger peeps some portions of yoghund and some pupcake and you can see how dogs stopped playing for a while and came to investigate the good scents!
The word got out quickly and dogs were eager for seconds - even thirds and maybe more! We had plenty.
This is Miki with my pup-pal, Tucker.
And here's a collage of the general feeling of the pawty. Humans seemed to have had as fun a time as we did - there were a lot of humorous things going on - doggies smiled and humans laughed too.
For an hour, us doggies played, ate and slurped up goodies and there was never even a scuffle.
Awwww - very cute! The older peep is going to start a dog blog!
I'm very tired, but had a pawsomely good time. It couldn't have been a happier event and the guests were very polite... well... a little disobedient regarding one thing:_________________________________________________________Remember that one phrase in my invitation? Many of you pups disregarded that, to add rosiness to my-already-reddish coat. But I want to graciously say huge thanks for the amazing pressies that came from you. If you are reading this and I've omitted anypup or made any boo-boos, please let me know and I'll correct. Mom and Dad also got me a Brick, about which I'll have to consult Dexter.
I have one more image before I try to practice my howling (see http://whosaysdogsdontblog.blogspot.com/ ). Khyra made a super suggestion in her comment yesterday, so before Mom lit the candle for my pupcake, we lit another one - for Laska: this one's for you when you come home. We hope to hear the good news imminently.
Pee Ess: I want to say huge thanks to Sierra Rose's mom for taking most of these pawsome photos - I wouldn't have had many pictures without Kristin!

Dirt

"A poor drainage area is usually defined as an area where water will sit in puddles for several hours after a heavy rainfall."

When this picture was taken, it had not rained in 4 days.
As you might guess from the lovely cover crop of weeds and standing water, this is our garden spot.
Everywhere we went, my husband ogled piles of dirt. "Look at that dirt! That's good dirt. Where do you think they got that dirt?"
I feared he'd have a wreck and I'd be left tearfully explaining to police officers that dirt envy did him in.
When piles of really good dirt suddenly appeared at a neighbor's, it was the last straw. We screeched to a halt. An investigation was conducted. We obtained a telephone number.
And voila!

I'll never use the phrase dirt cheap again. Dirt is actually much more expensive than you'd think.

Stay tuned for part II, The Quest for Compost...

The ducks, who were very interested in the whole process.
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Opening quote from Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.

Spring Fever and...

I think I'm in love.

This is Jackson, and I met him way back in September at the Squaw Valley Art Bark Fest. Some of you may remember that I went there for a fun dock diving event and then went on a spectacular hike up to a mountain lake. But one of the highlights of my weekend at Tahoe was meeting Jackson. Here's a picture of him and us at Squaw. I've never forgotten him heheh!

Isn't he handsome? I was lucky enough to have a playdate with him a couple of days ago on...yes - you guessed it! Yet another hike, where we found out how much we had in common, sigh....

Since I've blabbed so much about all the amazing lands and trails we have to hike on, I'll keep that to a minimum. We chose the Dawn Falls Trail in an area called Baltimore Canyon. Janis Joplin used to live practically on the old trailhead. Our goal was to see Dawn Falls, swim a lot in the overflowing creek and hike up far enough to check out the views and just chill.
A pretty waterfall, but not like Cataract or Carson Falls, because, well... I was with Jackson, of course and who pays attention to such things when you're hiking with a hunk!
We took a dip in this gorgeous little pool. Jackson quite possibly enjoys swimming more than I do! Well, he's a champion dock diver, so I guess he better love the water! What a stud!
"Hey Sam, what's your nose doing down there? Come and swim!"
Just LOVE watching him glide through the water!
Here's a collage of some of the activities we shared.
Some redwoods along the trail...
And look what an enormously high rock Jackson dared to jump up to!
Another collage of other pastimes we indulged in along the path and then a little movie of some swimming in that little blue pool.
You certainly are handsome - smack!
A dip halfway up the trail off the first fire road we crossed. That was delicious!
Ahhhh - the views! Only I'm not talking about what's behind me. Look at that big smile on Jackson's face! Now that's what I'M talking about! Thanks for sharing an unforgettable day with me, Jackson! Hope you come back for another outing soon!

Dam it all...

Sunday's plan was to set off in search of Hell Hole Falls, believed to be somewhere in the south-western vicinity of Uki. The rain from the previous day and early in the morning here was expected to fill the falls with plenty of water and scare the tourists away, and it seemed like the perfect time to do it. A flat tyre inside the first 10km dampened my enthusiasm a bit, but that was soon patched and I was on my way again.


I climbed over tomewin, attacking the early steep pinch, to take a more scenic route into the Tweed Valley. This is one of my favourite passes, particularly the stretch across the top before the steep descent into the valley below. The rain returned in the Tweed Valley, the temperature dropping to 11 degrees C, yet beyond Uki, where the ride really started, the skies started to clear, leaving only remnants of cloud hovering around Mt Warning. It was time to move on to the next phase.


There is another world to explore in the area around the locality of Doon Doon. Today I would take a slightly different route, to Clarrie Hall Dam, then Commissioners Creek Road, then Rockface road, hopefully finding the falls at the end. It didn't quite happen that way. First of all, the turn off from Commissioners Creek Road had a different name for the first 100 metres or so, meaning that I followed that road for longer than I should have, finally backtracking, finding my way to Rockface road, and commencing the climb on the rutted dirt road.

The road continued to climb, the turn off to the right that was supposed to lead straight to the falls was fenced off as "private property", almost certainly illegally. I'm sure there's a "tosspot of the week" post there, but I have another nomination in mind for that right now. As it was, I continued to climb, realising that I probably wouldn't reach the falls, but might find the summit of the climb anyway. The climb continued, levelling out in places, but generally continuing to gain height, while offering no views.

At the northern face of the mountain there was an intersection, and a heap of wildflowers. The "road" turning off to the East went straight into the valley below, but I decided to press on with the climb, wanting to finish it off. It crested at around 460 metres above sea level before starting a gentle descent. The gentle decent would have been nice to continue, but it wasn't to be. I soon found the end of the "road" and the start of a "trail", where the final destination became obvious.

The final descent to the wall at the northern end of Clarrie Hall Dam was too steep to even consider riding in the muddy conditions. Even walking was treacherous enough. At one point I used the brakes to lock up the wheels of the bike completely, and it still slid down at walking pace. Eventually it was negotiated, and I was left with a simple ride home. I grabbed more food back in Uki, before taking the "conventional" route via Murwillumbah, Urliup and Bilambil. A few squalls of rain along the way made the return interesting, but I was able to negotiate it comfortably enough.
The only option left for finding these falls is now via the old Mt Jerusalem, with a detour from another map that I have seen. This ride was rewarding in and of itself for other reasons, but I still intend to find those falls one way or another.

No Fear of Heights

Over at Garden Rant, Michele lamented the lack of tall herbaceous perennials like Dahlias and oriental lilies in today’s gardens, saying here
that no one wants to stake, so that all we see are “well-behaved mounds of veronica, geranium, sedum and coreopsis”.
Near the 6-foot tall back fence, wire cages support those white hibiscus flowers that were celebrated in my first blog entry. Their flowers can reach 11 inches in diameter. The hibiscus is seen here with blue-flowering Salvia guaranitica, upright without help, and the 5’6” Annie, who is known to lean on anything handy.
More tall perennials include self-standing Salvia ‘Black and Blue’, Salvia elegans (the fragrant Pineapple Sage), tall yellow, night-blooming daylily ‘Citrina’ and Texas Star Hibiscus. Staked flowers include oriental lilies and two dahlias, while Philo’s tomato patch bristles with tall wooden stakes, filling the area between the long mixed border on the north fence and the center back hummingbird bed.

The Noonday Pause for Prayer

"Trailing clouds of glory do we come from God." William Wordsworth
I'm reading Seven Sacred Pauses, Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day by Macrina Wiederkehr. The above quote was in the section The Hour of Illumination, meaning the noon hour.
During the lenten season, I've been praying the hours beginning at 6 AM and ending at 9 PM. If I'm up at midnight and 3 AM, and I sometimes am, I'll pray then, too. I set the alarm on my phone to go off at the appointed hours so I won't forget to pray.
This one thing has made a big difference in my life. When I come to Sunday worship, I have no problem like I usually do of paying attention. Usually I'm constantly having to bring myself back to the sermon. My mind wanders... I'll go over what I'm cooking for Sunday dinner, I think about the coming week, I'll think about our children that live far away, and on and on and on...
But since I've been praying the hours for these few weeks, the 'wandering mind' problem is much less of a problem. I'm more attuned to God's spirit. I can feel my heart is softer. I'm nicer to my family. I'm learning to be more present. This personal prayer is good practice for corporate prayer.
It's a practice that I've come to love and won't be giving up once Lent is over.