Happy cows

If you make it to the end of the rather blurry shot of this label in Mellis's cheese shop you'll see why the cows are happy. Actually the implication that these Isle of Mull cows are uniquely happy made me smile, because feeding cows with the spent grain from whisky distilleries is commonplace in Scotland. My father was a grain merchant, and I grew up with phone calls from farmers wanting this grain, or 'draff', for their cows, or my father trying to sell excess loads of draff to farmers, or giving haulage firms directions to remote farms deep in the hills in the days before satnav.
That apart, a visit to Mellis's shops in Victoria Street, just off the Royal Mile, or in Morningside or Stockbridge, is a treat. The shops are more like caves - cold, dampish caverns stacked with great wheels and pillars of artisan-made cheese.


The happy cows also made me smile as I remembered my student vacation job as a tour guide at Glenfiddich distillery. It was a disappointment if someone didn't come up with a 'happy cows' remark when hearing about how the spent barley was disposed of. The fact that there was no alcohol in the barley was beside the point.

What Does Your Life Lack?

On the list below, I need more creating, long walks, and love; always more love. Can't get too much love. What about you?

Williamsburg Watercolor

I took this photo at the Powhatan Plantation outside Williamsburg where we usually stay. As ya'll probably already know, I'm a sucker for fog and impressionistic images.
Here I tried re-creating it in watercolors. I haven't viewed them side by side, but as I'm looking at them, I didn't capture the right colors of purple that was in the photograph.
I also felt that I had to make the road more distinct or the whole thing would have been a dark blob. I'm still happy with the outcome. After all, I wasn't striving for photographic realism. It makes for a good excuse, anyway.

Catching the surf after the storm

The two days after the storm passed offered nice waves. The winds veered north and blew pretty steadily overnight, creating nice 4- to 6-foot waves. We enjoyed some good surfing at the beach and rough water paddling where the waves reflected off the end of the pier.

Our friend Keith Wikle has an excellent explanation of when to catch post-storm waves on the Michigan side of the Lake Michigan and why. Check out his post, "How to predict good surfing weather on the Great Lakes," here.

Grit Needed

Is there beauty in this? Some people can find art even in ice, but I'm having a difficult time joining their ranks. When I opened the blinds yesterday and saw the bowed Loquat, it was like a fast punch to the midsection, and I felt myself spiraling down to a very bad place. Maybe living through decades of midwestern ice storms meant that this sight set off a kind of post-traumatic thing, or something like that. Whatever the reason, all I could feel was despair. To paraphrase Private Benjamin - this was not the Austin I'd signed up for. But today, looking at the blog posts by Pam/Digging and MSS/Zanthan has helped. They're not hiding inside, they're taking photos and even putting videos on YouTube, so I went outside, too. And soon I felt a spark of the scientific curiosity lurking in all gardeners. What will defrost and live? What will immediately rot? Will the oleander ever stand upright again? It will be especially interesting to see whether the native plants can take such a prolonged period of imprisonment in frozen rain.

Henry Mitchell said it well, "It is not nice to garden anywhere...There is no place, no garden, where these terrible things do not drive gardeners mad."

But he also said, "What is needed around here is more grit in gardeners."

My Austin friends have that grit - maybe I can summon up enough to go pour hot water in the bird bath and set out some sunflower seeds.

A Hail of A Spring Storm

The garden looked pretty good when the Kitchen Garden post went up on Wednesday morning, but by that evening it was a pitiful sight! Around 6 PM Wednesday a major hailstorm hit parts of Austin and our neighborhood was on the hit list. If you read the comments on the last post you know that some hailstones were 2 and 1/2 inches in diameter. Hail dented my car, destroyed the patio umbrella, did some damage to the house and covered our streets and yards in shredded small branches and leaves. So no catastrophe, just a lot of stuff that needs addressing. An interesting thing happens when you are a blogger - sometimes you can avoid panic in an unpleasant situation by going into reporter mode and picking up the camera. That's why we have video taken during the storm and photos afterward. We made this YouTube so you can share the excitement. (If you can't see a video image to click below, try going right to our YouTube station Kaefka

Pam/Digging gave me some African aloe last year and one pot had put up a bloom stalk. The flower was chopped off and just look at the impact craters on the plant!

The magnolia has lost about 1/4 of its leaves...and some of them now have windows in them.
The tree itself is probably okay but will look raggedy for awhile.
The ground under the loquat is covered in leaves and knocked-down fruit, but the tree itself just bent and blew.

Both Philo and I have friends who were driving home from work when the storm grew strong - several of them had windshields shattered as they drove, which must have been terrifying.
I'm sure we'll all be cleaning and repairing for awhile. Hmmm....the Zilker Garden Festival takes place this weekend in Central Austin - maybe we'd better go there and pick up a few replacement tomato plants.

That Clif Bar Thing

The pizza and wine were good. And it was fun to be around and socialize with so many local cyclists.

But...
Personally, I like to be entertained. And most of these guys seemed like they wanted to be somewhere else (like asleep). I wonder if they got paid to appear?
The lava lamp was a big hit.

Fast Freddie (Predictor - Lotto) was there and he's silly. He always seems to have a big smile on his face. Even when I see him riding locally, he's always smiling and waving hi. And he didn't disappoint. He had some good stories.
Freddie gave me a pat on the back one year after I was pulled from the Albany crit. He was hanging around watching our race. Since then I've always liked him

Let's see if I can remember who was there besides Freddie...
Ed Beamon, directeur sportif of Navigators, Gavin Chilcott, directeur sportif of BMC, David Something from BMC, sprinter guy from BMC, Mike Sayers (BMC) Glen (Allan) Chadwick, (Navigators) Ben Day & Hilton Clark (both Navigators), Ken Hanson (BMC), David Vitoria (BMC) and emcees Dylan Seguin and Dave Towle.
Phew!
Mark McCormack was supposed to be there, but alas he sat stuck on a tarmac somewhere waiting for a plane to take off. He would have been interesting to listen to.
It was cool.