Is this the world's oldest bike?

I saw this machine at a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition in Brisbane earlier today (although this particular picture was nicked from a random flickr account). Apparently Leonardo Da Vinci came up with this design sometime around 1493, although it was probably never built because, being 400 years ahead of it's time (like most of Da Vinci's designs), it was probably greeted with a lot of "that will never work" critiques.
There are some suggestions flying around on the Internet that this may be a hoax. Still, I have to confess that I was wondering how it would ride up Mt Nimmel when I saw it.
My ride up Mt Nimmel in the moonlight on Wednesday was the best I've had since my crash last week. I've been feeling my way back just to make sure my knee is 100%, and it seems to be close after it coped with Mt Nimmel. In the meantime, I've been turning my attetion to other things as, much to my chagrin, I can't go and ride 250km each day. Last night I went to a free concert in Brisbane from local band The Boat People. Those who remember when I used to make the occasional music post on this blog would be aware of them, those who aren't should click on the link and take a listen. They put on a great live show, these guys are the real deal.

A New Song for Wildflower Time!

You might not think of me as a Wildflower Girl - all those old-fashioned garden plants, Banana shrubs and roses and iris aren't exactly native - but if I made a list of native plants fitted into the boundaries of our garden it would be pretty long and very colorful. Don't forget that the Carolina Jessamine, Coral Honeysuckle, Texas Mountain Laurel, Redbud trees, Creeping Phlox, many of the Salvias, all the Mistflowers, Purple Coneflowers, the Gauras, Skullcaps and even the wall of Mockoranges covered in buds are all really native wildflowers that have been lassooed and corralled in my yard.
The list of cooler-climate wildflowers that I grew in my Illinois gardens was pretty long, too, and if more of the free-draining, sun-loving natives would put up with my chunky clay and shade, my Native Plant Life-list would grow again. Sometimes it just takes the right spot or luck or maybe one dead tree coming down to make the wild flowers grow - after years of failure with Blackfoot Daisies they are thriving in the parkway strip and one bluebonnet grown from seed is blooming in the triangle bed. Time to celebrate - and time to sing!
A place we've visited over and over since we moved to Texas is the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center - at first just trying to get our bearings in this strange landscape,going sometimes for information, sometimes taking visitors there and sometimes for the sales of plants, shrubs and trees. (The big sale is coming up next weekend)
When Lady Bird Johnson died in July .. I added a verse about her love of wildflowers to a post mentioning her passing. Eventually the verses turned into a song, and finally my husband helped me turn the song into a video for YouTube with many of our favorite Wildflower photos.
Our equipment is very simple - 1 acoustic piano, 1 old lady, one cheapo mic, no vocal processing equipment and a lot of nerve.

Click to play the embedded video or watch it on our YouTube station kaefka
This song is part of a musical play-in-progress called Roots in Austin.

Weekend then Home

Saturday was an errand day. Needed a day off the bike and not tourist plans. Did some shopping and started re-packing for the trip home. Met cousin Don for food and beers at Billy's Long Bar.

Spend this morning recovering and packing. Yesterday was sunny and mid 50s. Today was low 50s and cloudy. I should have ridden yesterday. Instead, I waited to ride today.

Plans were to ride "The Bosque". Knew the parking lot at Central would be packed, so drove south. Parking lots at "Tinley Beach" were full. Ended up parking just south of the Zoo. Ride down to Rio Bravo.

I noticed that the trail had recently re-surfaced. Much better condition that last I rode that way. There, the trail was closed for construction. Turned around the head back to the car. I was a little cold - should have used heavier gloves and another layer on the core. Anyway, logged in 7 miles.

Late lunch at Applebee's and spemt the rest of the afternoon packing. Took a little break to process photos of today's ride.

Kilt shopping

There's so much to decide on when buying a kilt. Which tartan - first of all which clan, and then whether ancient, modern, muted or hunting? What type of jacket - Prince Charlie, Argyll, tweed? Hose - white, black or lovat? Sporran - leather, semi-dress or dress? What type of knife - a sgian dubh or a dirk? And the basic question - what quality and weight of kilt?
We're buying a kilt for our son, now that we think he's stopped growing upwards. The first step was to visit kiltmakers to look at quality, workmanship and price. We've decided to go for a hand stitched kilt rather than a machine stitched one. I took several shots like the one below as a reference. These pleats are hand stitched, as are the waistband and belt loops.

More on the kilt saga in due course. The young man himself is away at university, so we have to find a slot in his diary for further shopping.

I know what you did last summer

Nasturtium.
I've mentioned before that we grew some edible flowers, Sakata Sweet melons, and Tigger melons last year.
Here are a few of the other things we tried for the first time.

Plum Granny.
Supposed to be an heirloom "pocket" melon. (Somewhere between the size of a golf ball and a clementine.) I read that they were grown primarily for scent. They're so bland as to be inedible. They did smell great, but weren't as strong as I'd hoped. Nothing approaching the scent level of daffodils, say. It may vary with growing conditions but I doubt I'll try them again. Some little critters definitely like to eat them -- I think it was the most munched-on thing in the garden.

Japanese eggplant.
We liked these much better than traditional eggplants. They seemed less likely to grow bitter, and were more versatile for cooking just because of their size. We'll definitely grow these again.

Triamble squash.
A winter squash. I ordered these seeds purely based on the look of the pictures, which were idealized to say the least. Still, it's an interesting looking vegetable. But hard, hard, hard to cut. It tastes good, and keeps forever, but I really should have realized that ten-pound squashes were a little much for two people.

Top view.

Profile view.
These were really picked too soon. (The stem should be dry first.)
I couldn't find a picture, but we also grew lemon cucumbers. I was under the impression that they had a lemony taste, but the name just refers to the size (and color, somewhat). They tasted good enough, but did get bitter sometimes. Plus they have tiny hairs or spines that were difficult to rub off. And they didn't keep well at all -- one day, tops. So, back to white cucumbers for me.
If last year was the year of melon experimentation, this will be the year of the squash! More on that later.

Night begins on Mt. Maude

A 60 second exposure of fast-moving clouds at dusk taken on September 2, .

A nice night for the first projectile of the year

Perhaps a strange title this evening, but it seemed like an apt description of last night's ride. Someone threw a fast food container at me and missed (well, Queenslanders aren't known for their competence). Not normally a noteworthy event on the Gold Coast, except that it was the first one for the year -- in May! It hasn't taken that long since 2001. At first there was a mild disappointment that I allowed it to distract me and failed to get some registration details, but these days I'm too cynical to expect much to come of it. In anycase, I found some hills a bit later on and that always makes me feel better.
I suppose the one good point was that it happened closer to here...

... than to here.

It wasn't long after this that the sun went down, and the wind picked up as I headed down Currumbin Valley in the darkness, in an increasingly deserted atmosphere. IBy now the incident had been completely forgotten as I enjoyed an inspiringly windy evening. Indeed, it came as something of a surprise to encounter someone asking for directions to Murwillumbah. Giving the directions was easy enough, but just what he was expecting to find open down there, I have no idea.