Drookit

The rain-washed view from the top deck of a number 23 bus today, ploughing through streets like rivers in the centre of Edinburgh. Torrential summer rain, rivers in spate, and tourists crowding into the newly re-opened and blessedly free Royal Museum of Scotland to combine entertainment and shelter. We are all drookit (soaked).
Below, the Royal Mile at 10.30 am. This week, at the height of the Edinburgh International Festival, it should be busy with strolling tourists.

Another hazy bus-top photo, below: the splendidly kilted concierge of the Missoni Hotel on George IV Bridge hails a taxi.

What else to do in such weather but draw the curtains in the evening and immerse in summer reading? You'll detect a common rural theme. No Scottish titles among them, but I do have a title closer to home to recommend in a future post.

The Fruit Loop

Peaches, pears, and apples - oh my! With white and gray, non-threatening clouds leading us through the Columbia River Gorge, we eventually shed the rocky gray walls and low-hanging clouds to find a stunning, sun-shiny day in Hood River County. For years, I wanted to travel the Fruit Loop Route around Hood River during the peak season. Today we finally did it.

First stop, Visitor Info Center to pick up a Fruit Loop map. Then we were on our way into Hood River Valley. First stop: photo op of dramatic Mt. Hood peeking out from behind the clouds, but keeping its top firmly planted in a cloud cap.

Mt. Hood showing off fresh snow.

The rental SUV - a Ford Escape.

Pearl's orchard was our first stop where we took a look at all the apples hanging on the trees. We found Elberta freestone peaches and bought a box of 16. Samples of different types of pears were on the cutting board and we tasted our way through those. Bartletts had the sweetest flavor. We bought peaches, Honey Crisp apples, and honey.

Pearl's store.

Apples ready for harvest.

About two miles down the road, our next stop was The Gorge White House with fields of flowers in bloom. They not only had a flower patch, but we also saw ever-bearing strawberries almost ready to pick. We were told they would have strawberries for sale until the first frost. In the house proper a local artist had his works on display. We thought he was superb. Next to the house was a farm store selling apples, pears, peaches, pear syrup, Pinot Noir Chocolate Truffle Sauce (oh yummy) and various preserves.

The Gorge White House

Beautiful signage.

Dahlia photo courtesy of my son, Mike.

Echinacea purpurea Ruby Giant

Mike amongst the dahlias.

Jan (sister) enjoying the pretty flowers.

Wow - Mike captured this beautifully.

Me dallying in the dahlias.

Mike spotted this frog trying to get out of our way and snapped a photo. Looks like a tree frog.

Massive sunflower (photo by Mike G.)

A field of sunflowers.

Hood River Valley at midday.

Guess I won't park here!

Sauces, syrups, preserves and honey.

Off we went for cider at Fox Tail Cider. I had cold, fresh apple cider, Jan had hot apple cider and Mike ordered an apple/peach hard cider. We stopped briefly in an apple harvesting museum. The most interesting find was an antique Fageol tractor. Other than that, this stop was a bust.





At the alpaca farm, cuteness ruled. Alpaca food was 25 cents for a small cup. Our popularity soared as soon as the alpacas heard the food coming out of the machines.

This was all the rage at Paris Fashion Week.

Lunch time.

This alpaca didn't want just what was in my hand, it wanted the cup too!

Sweet baby alpaca (photo by Mike G.)

Mike with an alpaca.

Love this photo!

Alpaca kids.

The alpaca kids above just finished chasing a squirrel out of their pasture. In unison, they all turned to look up at us. What were they thinking?

For Karen Pfundtner, check out the loom below and the skeins of alpaca wool.



Packer Orchards & Bakery, our next stop was a true find and a gem. If you are ever doing the Fruit Loop Tour don't miss a stop here! When you walk into their showroom, you see bins filled with cookies and on top of the bins are free samples of the cookies in the bins. My, oh my. I'll tell you what, that is the best marketing ever. People were falling all over themselves snapping up cookies. The cookie samples move those cookies right up to the cash register.

Packer Orchard & Bakery.

Convenient bags for purchase are on top
of the bins along with cookie samples.

Mike chooses pumpkin chocolate chip.

When we finished buying our bounty of cookies, we headed back to Pearl's for more fruit: Bartlett pears and another box of peaches.

All that cookie tasting was making us hungry so we went into historic downtown Hood River and found a cafe where we had a delicious lunch. Mike had a meat loaf sandwich, I opted for a turkey Reuben with side salad, my sister had a French dip sandwich, and Mom had a half turkey deli sandwich with side salad. All of us enjoyed our meals

Today's blog will be continued in Part 2 - The Columbia River Gorge.

Helpston circular

Helpston, in Northamptonshire at the time, was the birthplace of the poet John Clare. We started our walk from the John Clare Cottage and museum. Apart from the information about the poet, this is another useful stop on the coffee-shop circuit.




We walked towards the village cross for a few yards, then turned left into the yard of The Blue Bell pub. At the back of the car park there's a stone stile leading on to a footpath which goes behind the village primary school, then across a couple of fields to reach a minor road. We turned left, and walked along the road for a few hundred yards, past another small road, until we came to a footpath leading off to the left. We followed this path east with a hedge on our right, then slightly south until we met yet another small road. Here we turned right, then after a couple of hundred yards we turned right, taking the footpath, not the bridleway. They are very close - the footpath is about three yards beyond the bridleway.




The path goes south west across a field, then south along the edge of a wood, then south-west again, before reaching the Stamford Road. Just opposite this point is The Granary - a farm shop and another one on the coffee-shop circuit. We decided we had plenty of time to indulge ourselves today!

What d'you mean - we've only walked three miles!

we left the Granary, and turned right along the Stamford Road. After about half a mile of road walking, and one crossroads we took a footpath off to the right, along a field boundary, and down towards the edge of a small wood. Shortly after the wood the path turns from southwest to north west then curves round following a field boundary then along the northern edge of some more woodland - Foster's Coppice. After a short distance we turned left (north) along a track which took us back to the Stamford Road.







We turned left along the road for a very short distance, then right along a path, which skirted Hayes Wood, then turned south east to the Stamford Road again, turning north-west just as the path meets the road. We followed the path along the edge of Simon's Wood, and decided we could afford another short break - Maureen's scones, a nearly forgotten treat over the last three weeks, were welcome.




We followed the edge of the wood, which became Oxey Wood. The path ruined slightly north east at the end of the woodland, and led to a wider track running east. We followed this for about half a mile, then turned left past College cottages. This track took us directly to the road into Helpston, very close to the railway crossing. From there it was a straightforward road walk back into the village, past the church, the John Clare monument and the market cross.

St Botolph's church

John Clare monument

Helpston Butter Cross, where markets were held

Ho ho! Just back - I took the washing in, soaked myself, then looked outside - wet stuff from heaven again! Perfect timing.




For a similar walk on 10 October click here. In reverse, with slight variations.

Race Season is Off and Running

The Psycowpath mountain bike racing season kicked off this morning with the Maskenthine XC Classic. Tired of winter, shaking off cabin fever, over 100 riders took to the trails.
The weather was windy, cool in the morning, and with hazy sunshine (but compared to last year season opener - who could complain). The trail was in good Spring riding condition. There were a couple of soft, damp spots.
The race was hosted by the Elkhorn Valley Cycling Club. One racers won a KHS singlespeed bike (compliments of Cleveland Bike & Sports of Norfolk).
As usual, yours truly was busy photographing the races. Once the nearly 400 shots are processed, they will be on my web site (or a link will be on my web site).
On the way home, I was able to do some PR work. At the West Point McD, a guy stopped to chat. He is a mountain biker but had not raced in some years. He directed me to Wilderness Park in West Point - it now has hiking trails. They could be upgraded to mountain bike trails.
In Bennington, at a convenience store, the Manager talked with me. A friend had showed him Tranquility Park - he had had no idea idea we had such trails. Gave him my card, suggesting that he check out the T.H.O.R. web site. Guess it was the Bike Masters jersey and Iowa ball cap!
A busy, enjoyable, productive day.

“Pilli Bebek” is SOLD

Kept the driver, but sold …

… the Highlander Hybrid today!
[photo taken at Chapman’s Mill in Virginia, October .]

For those curious, the Pilli Bebek in the title is a reference to the hybrid’s electric battery.  It means battery-powered baby in Turkish :-)

It wasn’t an easy decision to sell the Highlander.  Unfortunately, we can’t tow it four-down and storing it for the foreseeable future didn’t make sense, either.  So, off she went to a new home!  Too bad, we really liked driving this vehicle.

One more thing that was on our prep-for-fulltiming list is now taken care of.  Moving on …

And by the way, this means that as a one-car family, I’ll be working from home fulltime, borrowing the toad from Mui should my presence be required in the office on occasion.  That’s a good thing!

Ash cloud poetry

It depends on your standards whether you consider this poetry, but you've got to admire this wine shop in Edinburgh's Broughton Street for compressing the flight ban, the troublesome Eyjafjallajokull volcano and a marketing push on whisky into a cheeky four lines.

Outex waterproof cover expands kayaking photography

Alec tests the new Outex system

Up until now, most of the photos we took on the water in dynamic conditions were shot with small waterproof cameras like the Nikon coolpix aw110. It's a very good camera, but it simply doesn'tprovide the features and photo quality of the the DSLRs we use on land (and, occasionally, on the water in calmer conditions). Early this summer we learned about a new product that allows us to use our DSLR on the water without worrying about it or the lenses getting damp.

The Outex system is modular, making additions or replacements easy.

The Outex systemis comprised of a soft latex camera cover, optical glass lens, and a viewfinder or LCD screen lens. The camera cover is sized to fit specific cameras and a range of lenses. You then choose an Outex optical lens that fits the diameter of your lens and screws into the filter threads. The latex cover fits over this and is sandwiched by a washer and threaded ring that fit over the optical lens.

Putting on the washer that seals the cover around the lens.

At the back of the camera, you can choose a simple viewfinder lens or the larger lens that allows you to see the viewfinder and LCD screen. We choose the later to enable us to shoot video as well as review photos on the spot. Either way, this cover slips onto your existing eyepiece and seals in the same manner as the front cover.

The LCD cover allows a good view of camera functions.

The final step of assembly is to install a strap to hold onto the camera. Outex offers a neck strap and a wrist strap. We choose the wrist strap because it's impractical to paddle with a full-size DSLR hanging over your PFD.

Fully assemble, with an 18-200 mm. zoom lens.

That's it! The brilliance of this system is that it isn't bulky, heavy or expensive like a traditional hard housing. You can operate camera controls easily through the flexible latex (though you can't see them, so you will have to do so by memory). So how does it work?

The first we took.

We have to admit that even though Outex rates this system to 30 feet, we were nervous at first. In fact, it has performed flawlessly. Here is what we have learned using this system so far:

• Auto focus works most of the time with the cover on (though it sometimes has a hard time in lower light without the auto focus light).


• Because of the depth of the lens ring, there is some vignetting when using wide angle lenses.


• On our Nikon D90, the big LCD lens on the back of the camera can make it difficult to operate all of the controls on the back of the camera.


• The wrist strap system is very comfortable and secure. We wish the strap was a bit longer; 12 more inches would make a normal forward stroke easier with the camera at the ready in your lap. Practice capsizing with this system if you are going to be using it on the water. Rolling worked fine for us, but your camera and lens may get knocked against your boat.


• Depending on your comfort and balance, this system is great in rough water. But unlike point and shoot cameras, a DSLR requires both hands and is heavy, and if you use a zoom lens or telephoto lens it can throw off your balance (due to a loss of depth perception). For these reasons, it won't completely replace our small, one-hand-operation waterproof cameras.


• The whole system is modular. This means that if you puncture a cover or change cameras, all you have to buy is a new latex cover. The Outex website has a very friendlyshopping system that will help you to choose the right parts for the camera and lens your have.


• How much does it cost? Depending on the options you choose, the basic setup for a Nikon D-90 runs about $330.

A waterproof cover expands the angles you can shoot from.

Overall we are very happy with what the Outex system does for us. It does take some practice, but it allows you to bring the image quality and shooting options of a DSLR on to the water.