BRRP: A Bit of Work; a Bit of R&R

We — or rather, mostly Mui — did chores today, but we did manage to carve time out for some well-earned R&R. Now, before you chastise me for not helping Mui, you should know that I not only did my own share of work around the Phaeton, but I also offered to help Mui. His response: “These aren’t chores; I’m having fun.” Far be it from me to get in the way of his idea of fun! Methinks that in the absence of the maintenance work that comes with a stix & bricks home, he’s enjoying the maintenance that comes with owning a home on wheels.

We were up early and Mui was raring to go. At check-in yesterday, he’d gotten permission to bucket wash the coach and do a hose rinse-off. He was anxious to get started, but at 6:00a, it was still too dark to do anything. Finally, at 7:12a, he was out the door with his little red bucket in hand, and a promise to keep it quiet so as not to disturb the neighbors.

Since he didn’t want me underfoot, I took care of the breakfast dishes and a few chores inside before heading out for a walk around the campground. It was just getting on towards 8:00a, and there were only a few other souls out and about. The only sounds were those of the birds chirping in the trees. The sunlight was streaming through the canopy in a golden shower that just begged to be photographed … click, click went my little Canon G-12.

Finishing one lap around the campground, I headed towards the camp store. Before I could get far, however, a rusty piece of equipment near the entrance to the maintenance facility caught my eye. With the morning sun bathing the scene in a golden hue, I couldn’t resist … click, click went my trusty G-12. Later, I asked one of the park volunteers if he knew what the equipment was. “I don’t really know, but I think it might be an old mower of some kind; it just appeared there one day,” was the answer. If you know what it is, please chime in with a comment.

The perfect lawn ornament for a maintenance facility!

I may not have gotten an answer to my question, but I didn’t leave the camp store empty handed either. The colorful flowers at the entrance stopped me for a while … and yes, you guessed it … click, click went the G-12 once again.

Continuing down towards the Bull Run-Occoquan trail, I was charmed by the little red bridge that marks the trailhead — a little worn perhaps from all the feet that have tread upon it, and needing perhaps a fresh coat of paint; but eye catching nonetheless. The entire trail is 17 miles (27 km) in length; a bit more than we’d want to bite off, but maybe we’ll hike a short portion of it next time we find ourselves at Bull Run Regional Park (BRRP). In the meantime … click, click went the G-12 one more time.

This scene begged for selective-color processing; so I obliged.

By the time I returned to the coach, Mui was nearly done with washing the Phaeton. The Gel-Gloss RV wash and wax had done a great job of removing the streaks of dirt, but now we had another problem — spots from the campground’s hard water. No problem; his goal this time was to get rid of the grime so that he could do a dry wash using the highly-touted The Solution. The sections he tested the product on are looking shiny-clean, so we’ll have a brand-spanking-new looking Phaeton after he finishes the rest of the coach. But that will have to wait until the tall ladder he ordered online gets delivered.

Next up for Mui was a project he’d been thinking of for a while — installing mesh screens over the furnace vents. Easy-peasy as the commercial says. The screens went up in minutes and Mui put a check mark next to another one of his to-do items. We don’t think this was the entry point for the mice, but if it was — lo siento, you little buggers. Nope; not really sorry about plugging the holes, but it seemed like the thing to say :-) ….

Check off one more project from the list.

Although it was now late morning, the temperature was still surprisingly comfortable. There was little humidity, so the usual summer stickiness was non-existent. A perfect opportunity to try out a handy little addition to our motorhome accoutrement — a canopy! More specifically, a Coleman 10x10 instant screened canopy. Mui had picked it up for a bargain price on one of those occasions when he had to kill time at Walmart. Although we had tested the quick set-up claim, we’d not had occasion to use it before. We can vouch that it does indeed go up in a jiffy — under 3 minutes as the brochure says. (I’ll try to remember to take a video of the process next time we put it up.) I like that it provides a fairly bug-free environment, but more so, I like the UV protection it offers for those times when we won’t have a tree canopy to filter the sun’s rays.

A nifty spot to enjoy our outside time at a campsite.

Of course, with the canopy set up, an al fresco lunch was a no brainer. The campsite picnic table was still wet from the overnight rains, otherwise, we would have placed the canopy over it. No problem; our portable picnic table came to the rescue.

When not in use, the table and its attached benches collapse into a box.

Mui took care of one more project after lunch, but I’m going to write about that tomorrow since the last part of documenting it won’t happen until we return the coach to storage. Besides, it will give me something to write about tomorrow. We have to vacate the site by 11:00a and won’t have time to do much more than chill before we return to the rat race.

Although we snuck inside for a couple of hours when the mid-afternoon heat got to be a bit much, we spent most of the rest of our day relaxing inside the canopy shelter. Thanks to our Millenicom aircard, we took turns checking email and browsing the web. I drafted a few blog posts for our Arctic adventure; now I just need to process photos so I can get the uploads completed. Reading was the other activity that kept us occupied thru the afternoon hours.

(We picked up Cold Recall from the Fram Museum in Oslo. It’s an excellent, quick read that tells the story of the race to the South Pole in Amundsen’s own words. The pictures are all from the slides he used during the lecture circuit that followed his return after achieving the Pole.)

Dinner, of course, was al fresco. By the time we were done with our lasagna and Caesar salad meal, the light was failing and it was time to move inside. Looks like some kind of a camp light may have to be added to our shopping list.

Enough with the pictures; the food’s getting cold!

Aaah! this is the life! Simple. Satisfying.

Damage Near Silver Creek Bridge

On Monday, I took the day off the bike. Was a bit windy, anyway. By Tuesday (yesterday) I was needing a ride. Forecast was for sunny, temp in the upper 70s, and a wind out of the NNW. With the wind, i decided to ride the Trace from Silver City to Malvern.
Was a nice, easy ride South to Malvern. Met a few other riders out on the trail. Caught a nice photo of harvesting though the trees on the Trace.
Knew it would be work on the way back up to Silver City into the wind. Took it easy. Stopped at the shelter just North of the Silver Creek bridge. Wanted to redord the damage done to the shelter. It looks like a vehicle backed (or drove) hitting the supports. (see photo) There were also vehicle tracks beside the shelter.
Ended up with a nice ride at 9.5 mph (about average for me right now on the Trace).

Cadell Road

The first ever imperial century I rode was in December 1999. It involved a circuit through the Tweed Valley in northern NSW -- some of which was on dirt roads. There was a certain point on the dirt that generally represented the half-way point of the ride, where Brays Creek road met Cadell road near Byrill Creek, just outside Mebbin National Park. In truth, Mebbin National Park (not one of Australia's larger or better known ones) was only declared a matter of months before I started riding here. Yet I was always curious about the dirt road that wound it's way through the heart of it.
After Sunday I need to wonder no more. I knew of the southern link on the Murwillumbah-Kyogle road (despite the "No Through Road" signs), just at the foot of the Nightcap Range. It was from here that I approached it. Initially there is some punishing climbing through some farmlands, up to the view at the top of this post. The road here winds up and down through the forest as it enters the national park, before a couple of screaming descents on the dirt -- one of which I had a bee find it's way into the inside of my sunglasses just as I hit 50km/h.
All in all the ride was an extremely rewarding experience, even if it was a little shorter than I expected. Maybe I'll bring a tent and camp there one night, just to give myself some time to explore the surrounding farm roads.
Of course, the thing about this region is the beauty of the ride to the start...


... and on the way back from the discovery. Total ride distance: 183km.


The flowers in the last shot were blooming everywhere on Urliup Road, where I took my usual temporary refuge from the heat on my way home.
Incidentally, the camelbak made it's debut on this ride. Overall I was quite happy with it, but I need to remember to buy some drinks other than water occasionally -- the taste of water gets a bit old after the first seven litres!

Needy Numinbah

There are some days when one senses that one isn't at their best. That was a perfect description of yesterday for me. I suspect the problem might relate to the illness I had earlier in the week, but the instant I set off for yesterday's ride I could sense a problem. I opted for a ride through the Numinbah Valley circuit, figuring that 130km would be a solid ride without being overly taxing. Granted, it's hilly, but if I'm going to have any chance in the Alpine Classic in January, I'll have to get used to that.

My traditional habit of making relatively slow starts to rides can sometimes disguise problems. I set off over the first 50km or so, just focussing on riding myself into the ride, getting my rhythm and enjoying the scenery. Numinbah Valley has plenty to keep me occupied in that respect, and for a while I even forgot about any problems I might have been having. The ride comprises as series of short, sharp climbs and descents followed by a long gradual climb to 420 metres at Numinbah Gap. This part of the ride is genuinely beautiful, and has a real old-style character about it that so many other places lack.


It was after the descent into the Tweed Valley and the ride around to Murwillumbah that the problems started. I headed toward Tumbulgum on the Pilgrim's Road, and really struggled. This part of the ride should have been simple, but I didn't seem to have the strength to sustain any kind of rhythm at all. Ironically, I picked up a little in the hilly section through the John Hogan rainforest, but then I really struggled over Bilambil (the last meaningful climb of the day). In the end it was only my experience of surviving 300km+ rides that got me home at all.
To be honest I'm not entirely sure what the problem was. It wasn't a particularly difficult day for riding. It wasn't particularly hot or windy, and while there was a small amount of bushfire smoke around early, it was pretty well shielded from the Numinbah and Tweed Valleys (i.e. it was gone quite early). I'm guessing it's a lingering effect of the minor illness I had earlier in the week. Consequently, I'm making today into a "rest day", and instead looking to an early 50km before work tomorrow for salvation. The last couple of weeks seem to have been one continual disruption since the Mt Jerusalem ride, and it's getting a little frustrating.

Shovel Pruning the Vignettes

This post, "Shovel Pruning the Vignettes", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

The Garden Bloggers arrive in Austin in a few days and we who live here will no longer be photos on a page but living, breathing human beings with gardens that are actual, not virtual. You've seen Pam/Digging's photos and the garden she designed and built from below the ground up, yet Pam has confessed to some pre-Fling jitters! MSStevens just posted about her mixed up, exuberant, wild at heart meadow garden , complete with poetry she wrote as a 17-year old prodigy. The also jittery MSS says she wrote this post to set expectations for visitors to her garden and the laid-back, artistic neighborhood around her. Dawn's garden blog is just fine but her real garden is on hold. She must wait for long-planned construction to be completed before she begins to turn her dreams into reality. While she waits, she takes us on tour around the Austin area and shows us places we might otherwise miss.
I don't have much to be nervous about - only a few bloggers are intending to trek northwest to my bits-and-pieces garden, full of passalongs and plants I grow just to see what will happen. There's a hint of Lady Bird Johnson in the front yard and a lot of plants beloved by Mrs. Whaley in the back yard. And one rather cranky, gettin' older lady trying to keep the plants in control.
Last fall I planted ranunculus bulbs after reading a post about them by the wonderful Julie of the Human Flower Project. I gave them a good spot in the long fence border.

This spring the ranunculus opened their delightfully rolled flowers. What fun to see a chrome yellow followed by an orange - the flowers were more vivid than I'd prefer, but they seemed to blend with the lighter yellows, purples and silvers already blooming in this border.
Then number three opened deep fuchsia pink and I couldn't stand it. For nearly thirty years I've made one garden after another with layers of small trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals and bulbs to form vignettes - small pleasing scenes with the center focused and the edges blurred.

On my series of small small suburban lots I used these vignettes to draw the eye to a defined area of horticultural interest, away from neighboring house roofs, TV antennae, garage walls, basketball hoops and backboards, pool slides, sports banners, trash containers, compost heaps, oversize vehicles, boats under blue tarps, power and electric lines and dead trees.

You'll find every color of the rainbow somewhere in my yard and in a large sweeping meadow I'd love them all swirled together, but vignettes are small. Certain areas have limited palettes - this secluded corner is mainly corals and lavenders -

The hummingbird bed is predominantly red and the pink border near the gate is the spot for pinks, magentas, whites and burgundies. Those ranunculus bloomed in a bed of yellows, blues & silvers along the fence.
A few days ago Pam/Digging told us one of her bluebonnets bloomed pink instead of blue and she wavered between moving it and letting it bloom. Most of her commenters told her to let it be. I said to move it. I follow my own advice.
I used the garden fork to lift the deep pink ranunculus with a nice chunk of soil, relocating it to the bulb bed near the anemones. Two days later the flower doesn't seem to have noticed that it's on the opposite side of the yard. Julie says these bulbs usually bloom once without returning, but if it does decide to act like a perennial, it will be in the right place.
This way I can enjoy both the deep pink ranunculus and the more coherent long border without being annoyed each time I looked at that 'riot of color'.
More shovel pruning was needed in the front yard. When we worked on the Pink Entrance Garden, last spring, I planted a bareroot rose labeled 'Therese Bugnet' toward the middle of the bed, a good spot for this pink shrub rose. When the rose bloomed dark red I was surprised but decided to keep it since the flower was lovely, nice for cutting and the color looked okay with the pinks and burgundies.

But in the last few months our 'Not-Therese' Rose started making long, wandlike canes... not only was it not pink... it was also not a shrub! When the Divas of the Dirt came here a few weeks ago, DivaMattie volunteered to adopt the unmasked red climber and took it home.

The Pink Garden still needed a Pink Shrub Rose. Instead of taking a chance on another bareroot rose, I bought a shrub rose in a container that was already blooming pink ... it's supposed to be the Texas-tough 'Belinda's Dream' and this time the girl looks like her photos.

The styles of M.S.Stevens' garden, Pam's garden, Dawn's garden and my garden are as different as the style of our garden blogs and our styles of writing. I think these differences are something to celebrate - if you'd like to read more on the topic of rejoicing in the differences among bloggers , please see Kate's thoughful ode to individuality, "A Gentle Plea for Chaos" at her KateSmudges blog.

This post, "Shovel Pruning the Vignettes", was written for my blogspot blog called The Transplantable Rose by Annie in Austin.

Sewing Camp This Week

I spent most of June getting organized and decluttered. July is going to be for digging in and getting things done. I've arranged the weeks as follows:
July 9-Sewing Camp
July 16-Photography Camp
July 23-Art Camp
July 30-Sewing Camp II
I usually go to the John C. Campbell Folk School to attend a week-long camp, but it just didn't work out this summer. So I thought, "But there's no reason why I can't make my own camps and learn about things I'm interested in." So that's exactly what I'm doing and am pretty excited about it.
I thought about being in 'class' all day, but with my other household duties, that's not possible. So I'm giving over 1 1/2 hours in the morning and the same in the afternoon for a total of 3 hours a day for camp. I should be able to get lots done in that time. I'll report back at the end of the week and let you know.
This morning I was able to get the panties almost finished and should be able to do that this afternoon.
This is the list of things I hope to accomplish during the two sewing camps this month.
1. Make girls' crossover dresses and panties
2. Make 3-4 pillows for the couch
3. Finish all repairs in basket
4. Make girls' white linen birthday dresses
5. Make blue ticking flowers and attach to a brown canvas purse
So that's my plan for this week's Sewing Camp.

Lots of Ground Water

The Missouri River is SLOWLY receding. But, with all of the rain we received the last couple weeks, the rain has no place to go. Pumps have been running around the clock to transfer ground water into the river.

Lake Manawa is over its banks. This photo was taken on Aug 25th. The lake level was even higher Sunday (Aug 28th).

Lake Manawa Bike Trail is flooded in places. This photo was taken just East from the Nature Trail parking lot. There is another flooded section between the Nature Trail and the road to river boat landing.

Veterans Memorial Trail is flooded in the low spot East of S. 24th St.
Water has been partially crossing Western Historic Trail near the Trails Center. With so many trails STILL closed from the flooding, there are a lot of bicycles out on the roads and streets. Please watch you for us cyclists.

Chelveston - Yelden - Shelton - Chelveston

Led by Barry. With Gordon and me. About 8.25 miles. Garmin playing silly games at our snack stop! Warm, sunny, but some mud underfoot.

We set off from Chelvestonat about 10 am. There is a memorial to the USAF 305th Bombardment Group (heavy) who operated out of the airfield during World War II, with the loss of many personnel.

The memorial was erected in 2006

The upright is the pole from which the wind-sock flew on one of the hangars

Our route took us past the Star and Garter pub, then on to a footpath which divided into a footpath and bridleway soon after a gate. We took the left hand path - the bridleway, which was a bit clearer though still covered in tall grass at this time of year.

We followed this path uphill, through another gate, eventually arriving at the old runway - on our left was a mobile phone mast, on our right an agricultural building of some sort, with various trucks. The public footpaths through the airfield were reopened only in 2006, after local action.

A useful, if not beautiful, landmark

We turned right along the old runway/road, and when we were almost on a level with the mast we turned off to the left, and then right through a strip of woodland. We emerged at the other end of this and turned left along a quiet minor road, which took us into Yelden, via Church Lane.

Yelden church

Well, you would . . .

I realised that we'd been here before, on Feb 27 ,only when the motte and bailey came into view

"the finest archaeological monument in Bedfordshire"

We turned left past this site, then left again to join the Three Shires Waybridleway, which we followed as it wended its sometimes muddy way, as far as Shelton.

We stopped here to have a look around the small church, which dates from the twelfth century. Snack break too.

St Mary's Church in the well-kept village of Shelton

We took the footpath opposite the church, which took us more or less north west right back to the old airfield runway again. We turned left and walked for a good half-mile, past the agroindustrial unit to pick up the path we used at the start of the walk. We retraced our steps to Chelveston village.

Also at Shiloh

Seen soaring above Shiloh, a beautiful Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus).
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Submitted to the Friday Ark.

In this post, I tempt fate

Let's see, in the last two weeks I have:
1. Missed a flight to a randonee that I was particularly looking forward to after one of the most disgracefully incompetent airport delays ever seen.
2. Broken a crank immediately after said delay, effectively meaning that I would have had to abandon the ride in question after 30km anyway.
3. Had my new crank severely delayed in it's arrival, meaning that my primary bike was unavailable and I ultimately pulled out of a local 200k randonee that I had wanted to do.
4. Picked up a stupid illness a couple of days ago, which, coupled with the heat would have meant that riding the planned alternative 200km yesterday (on my indestructable MTB) would have been a silly idea.
5. Had an old knee injury flare up this morning for the first time since 2004, effectively ruining the things I would have planned on doing had I not had the other issues.
Did anybody notice the pattern? Around 60% of the things that have "gone wrong" on the above list have been totally redundant, because I wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway. Is fate stupid or something? Can't it see when it's wasting it's effort? If fate were intelligent, it would pace itself so that it might stay the course. Oh yeah, and all this happened at the time of year that probably has the worst weather conditions for riding anyway.
Sometimes I think fate is so intrinsically stupid that it would suffer a black eye from being punched in the mouth.
Pictures in this post from Saturday's Currumbin Valley ride.