In The Shadow of Giants

These huge redwoods are awe-inspiring.

The first tumble

A new year, a new camera and a new fall. Yesterday I managed my first crash of the year at Tomewin, while riding across the top of the Macpherson Range on Glengarrie Road. It's the sort of thing that happens when you attempt to climb steep graidents on rocky dirt roads covered with a slick coating of mud. Very little damage was done, although my left hip is a little stiff today, and the surroundings in the Garden of Eden provided more than enough compensation.

Evidently Martin and I hadn't had enough flooded creek crossings from the day before, as we first headed toward Urliup. Much to my surprise (especially as the lost bet cost me an inner tube), only one causeway was under. Another surprise in the early stages was just how quickly the wildflowers have taken over Urliup after the flood. It's not an area known for them, but the freakish downpour may have created just the right conditions.

A punishing climb to the summit of Tomewin followed -- the punishing nature of the climb owing as much to the muggy conditions as the gradient. It was followed by the now obligatory detour along the Garden of Eden Road, before returning to the Eastern side of the range for the ridgetop ride across the top. The muddy conditions made for difficult going, and I had several near misses before "the crash". Nevertheless, I found the motivation to continue as we watched some rain approach.
The rain held off until we descended the switchbacks of the Zig-zag road, before creating a slick surface for the final descent into Bilambil (how convenient). Martin managed to pick up a flat on the way to the bakery and a welcome food stop (that still leaves me in front 3-1 however) -- a large piece of glass was responsible, and he'll probably need to replace the tyre. The final stretch through the last 30-odd km of suburbia was uninspiring, but at least a tailwind made it pass quickly. In the end we both agreed that it was one of the hardest 100km rides we've had in a while, but every minute was worth the effort.

Morning Glory With Dew

A Grandpa Ott covered in dew.

Foam Trails, Manabezho Falls

Another beautiful waterfall on the Presque Isle River! This one is named "Manabezho Falls" and, according to signage along the trail, is the largest waterfall on the river. It was getting very late in the evening when I photographed this waterfall. As such, it was easy to take long exposures of the falls. This one ended up being 6 seconds and gave me some very nice "foam trails". I love taking long exposures of rivers and showing the movement of the water. It's one of the funnest things you can do with a camera!

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.