Yellow Daisy

Sorry for the unexplained abrupt halt. I was busy preparing for and then attending the Yellow Daisy craft show.
We had a good show - the weather was warm, but thankfully not in the 100s and not too humid. And I got to meet Dr. Flowers in person!

I should have gone out in the evening and taken pictures of Stone Mountain, but my feet were always too tired by the end of the day. I did make it to the A-loop stage area one afternoon to watch the cloggers for a few minutes.

Girls of the flying feet.

Hillbilly themed dance.

New Mileage Record

While I may have not blogged recently, I have been riding my bikes. Last night was the Xtreme Wheels Full Moon Ride.
Andrew, Blaine, Brandon, and I took off from the shop, heading to Lake Manawa. We had a little head wind on the way (the wind was biting with the temperature being near freezing). Great ride in the woods. Made a full lap at Manawa and headed back to the shop.
The 16.8 mile ride took me over the top on my record annual mileage. My log now shows 2167.85 miles. Still a couple weeks for riding. Will I end up with over 2200 miles?

Good Advice!

Bad News for Insects...

This alien-looking structure is actually the digestive organ of a carnivorous plant. How nice.

How can you not love "hell"?

I decided on Sunday to take a group of friends up to Hell's Hole in Mt Jerusalem National Park. Oddly, I hadn't been there for nine months, despite promising myself I was going to make some wet season visits last summer. Still, there was a small amount of moisture around on Sunday morning in the form of drizzle. It didn't quite make up for it, but it certainly made for an interesting day. I started off by riding out in the dark, something that's become a rather enjoyable habit on the last two weekends, before beholding a beautiful sunrise high on Tomewin in the Macpherson ranges.

This was followed by a ride through the seemingly obligatory mist that collects in the narrow valley at the foot of Mt Warning whenever I ride to Hell's Hole. Just why this should be so I have no idea, but the drop in temperature was at least enough to justify the decision to bring the warm jacket, even if it didn't get a huge amount of use through the day. Still, the mist shrouded mountains, when visible, were a treat, especially on the long climb to the National Park where Mt Warning becomes visible in all it's glory.

The final climb on Middle Ridge road is mind buggeringly steep, steep enough to slow the cars of everyone else down to the same speed as my bike, but yet it didn't seem to be as steep as I remember it, and I negotiated it without too many problems. We set off on the usual downward walk to the creek, before picking our way through the creekside "track" and finally clambering over the rocks to the hole. Today the rock hopping was rather "interesting", with the moisture making things very slippery at times, but the waterfalls and rockpools make all the effort worthwhile.




Mt Jerusalem National Park also has some of the smallest leeches in the world. They can be a problem because you don't always realise you've been bitten. I subsequently discovered another three leech bites after the event that I didn't even feel when they happened. Oh well, that's part of life. I managed to replenish any lost nutrients at the Uki Cafe after the event, and after the seemingly obligatory flat tyre that happens every time I take my MTB out.
Still, it wasn't an insurmountable obstacle, and I was able to enjoy the ride home over Urliup and Bilambil as was once normal. I've been relatively quiet recently with a calf injury that wouldn't go away, and time spent watching the World Cup (Spain will beat The Netherlands 1-0 in the final BTW), but this was a day that was well and truly worth the effort.

Petals and Parody

Spring has been eluding so many of you, but it's already arrived in my Austin garden. White Mockorange and purple Iris filled the last post – here’s another purple flower for April Garden Bloggers Bloom Day –
In March .., a Clematis labeled “Comtesse de Bouchaud” came with two vines in one container. Both vines lived - one is the white clematis at the base of the Lady Banks Rose. The other one is this reddish-purple clematis near the back door. Neither of them look one bit like the lilac-pink “Comtesse de Bouchaud”! Now on to some coral colors -

In spring .. I planted my motley collection of Christmas amaryllis in the ground. Some lived, and three amaryllis flowers are opening in this partially shaded raised bed. A previous owner planted the unnamed, day-glow rose.

Two tall, once-blooming roses were already here, too. The roses are pretty, but the foliage is usually a mess. I occasionally feed and water them, pull off the worst leaves a couple of times a year and otherwise ignore them.
Another legacy! This big pink climbing rose also blooms once a year, with huge fragrant flowers that lean down to make me notice them whenever I go out the gate. They have an old-fashioned, real rose smell.

This spring a few of the dropped seeds from last year's plant of Nemophila menziesii AKA Baby Blue Eyes sprouted, and four of them bloomed. The flowers are small, barely visible from 3-feet away. Maybe one day I’ll have them established like the colony growing at Zanthan Gardens, or in the wooded areas of Zilker Park.

Mazus reptans, a low, spring-blooming groundcover plant, grows next to the Baby Blue Eyes.
Another reseeder is Salvia ‘Coral Nymph’, which hitched a ride from the last house, and has established itself in several beds. My Cape Cod weeder makes swift work of unwanted seedlings, but I leave a lot of them in place.

More coral from Stachys coccinea, Texas Betony – nicknamed ‘Stinky Sage’ by some Hill Country residents. It looks nothing like its fuzzy gray Stachys cousin Lambs Ears.
I didn’t take any photos of plants like the pansies, violas and various containers of ‘Telstar’ dianthus, since they’ve been blooming most of the winter. Summer heat will kill the pansies, and the dianthus will stop blooming and rest before starting another bloom cycle.
Posting this photo may not be too different from buying a bakery cake, sliding it onto a pan and passing it off as homemade. I just planted this golden yellow rose on Thursday! It's reputed to be heat resistant, disease resistant, scented, and was personally chosen by Julia Child herself before she died, perhaps because the flower color is close to her beloved butter.

Yellow roses have always been our special flower. When I graduated from high school, Philo gave me a dozen yellow roses. They appeared at our wedding, at anniversaries and the David Austin rose ‘Graham Thomas’ flourished in our Illinois garden. I hope ‘Julia Child’ will thrive to become 'our' yellow rose at this house.
And for the last flower - here is the tiny blossom that most of you yearn to see, wanting them even more than roses!

That concludes the PETALS portion of this post – now on to the PARODY.
As station KAEFKA, we're working on an original song for our YouTube collection right now, [the ones we've already made are in the side links] but we paused to have some fun with an old tune. Nick played the ancient folk song “Greensleeves” on resonator, I wrote some new words, and Philo added photos.
Have any of you seen articles and shows about the 'new green'? I respect people who aspire to green living - many of them have been plugging along for decades. Their valid concepts were ridiculed & ignored at first, before becoming mainstream with time. But lately, green living seems to have been co-opted by the wealthy and the fashionistas. The home-fashion press is splashed with pages of green renovations for mansions rather than normal homes. When I read that the cost of redoing a 1000 square-foot attic rec room to make it 'green', was three times the price of my house, I could weep or gnash my teeth, or I could make it into a musical joke.

You can use this link to our YouTube site - GREENED HOUSE VIDEO .

Or, if the YouTube screen shows up below you can click on the screen.

GREENED HOUSE

Heading Home

Well, it was a GREAT reunion. Good to see all the guys and wives, welcome to the first timers. Lots of wet eyes with the "good-byes".
I would not resist making at least one more ride on the Santos trail system. After checking in a hotel in Ocala, lunch, and a nap - I was ready to go. Explored some more trails. Really likes Twister.
Now - I will see how I feel and what the weather looks like -- perhaps a morning ride before heading back on the road.