A Cool Photo

There was this little Catholic church close to our B & B in St. Mary's, GA where we stayed before going over to Cumberland Island.  It was surrounded by a white picket fence that had crosses attached to the top at regular intervals. 
As we were walking back from eating that night, I saw one of the crosses' shadow on the side of the church.  Since I had 3200 speed film in my camera, it came out really well even though it was very dark.  Cool, huh?

Manawa Trails

Monday and Tuesday I rode from Xtreme Wheels to the Trails Center. Weather has been great for noon bike ride.
During Tuesday's ride, I dropped down to the Lake Manawa dirt trails to check on the water level. Today's photo shows that the standing water is gone. From what I could see, the area is still muddy.
BTW - rumor has it that the Psycowpath race scheduled for Lake Manawa on September 25th, is being moved to Swanson Park.
Three 20+ mile rides this week. Yesterday's ride was my fastest ride for the year (20.4 miles at 13.91 mph). No, I am not turning into a "roady".
I like the variety of the difference of my bikes. My hardtail is still the "go-to" bike. Its the bike I ride on the Trace, snow/ice rides, and trail work. The hybrid is good for photo shoots while riding pavement (hardtail and hybrid have racks where I can carry my good D-SLR camera). My full suspension bike is still the preferred bike for dirt trail riding.

Anything you can do...

After Beechmont turned on a beautiful day yesterday, it was Springbrook's turn this evening. My legs felt like lead climbing the mountain in the fading light -- evidently darkness takes a while to actually arrive at this time of year. Nevertheless, it didn't stop the beauty of this place from making itself apparent. First of all was the mist closing in above 920 metres -- always a special delight at night. It was for moments like this that I spent $600 on a lighting system, although that can complicate things with the white, ghostly glow that appears when lighting these conditions.
Right at the top of the mountain, a colony of fire-flies had decided to nest in a tree. The flashes of the light were quite spectacular to behold for a few moments, while I pondered the descent into the mist and the aforementioned white glow. It was soon after this that I got to watch the moon rise -- twice! The first time was on Lyrebird Ridge on the western end of the escarpment. A few minutes and a 350-metre descent later, I was able to behold a repeat performance, this time from the eastern side of the escarpment. Further down the mountain, I got another view of the glow worms that make this place what it is -- even if they're less prevalent under a full moon.
Nights like this are what living is all about.

Sun dog

When I was researching heiligenschein recently, I also read about Sun dogs a.k.a. parhelia or false suns. I'd heard the term but had never seen the phenomenon, although it's apparently not rare.
OK, so if sundogs are fairly common, I should start seeing them once I started looking for them, right?
Yep.

Sun dog!

Cool.
It looked much brighter in person. There are usually two, spaced evenly on either side, about 22º away and at the same altitude as the sun. I couldn't see the twin on the other side, even when I moved to a vantage point without trees. The clouds on that side looked different. Thicker.
When I first saw it, I thought it was a rainbow, or rather cloudbow. It looked like the lower arc in this picture, with the addition of a bright white spot just to the left. We were almost home from the grocery store, but by the time I rushed in to grab the camera, the long "bow" portion of the parhelic arc had vanished, and never returned. The sun dog got brighter and dimmer as the clouds shifted.
I was a happy camper.
-----
Parhelia are formed by light passing through horizontal hexagonal plate ice crystals in the clouds. Certain types of clouds produce them more often, and they are most often seen when the sun is low. (See here.)
Another good site for atmospheric optics:
http://www.meteoros.de/indexe.htm

Back at School

This week I'm at the John  C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina to take a watercolor class with my good friend Katy.  We only have one more day.  I don't want to return to real life!  I'll write more after I get home about our experience.
This is a photo of the red barn at the school that I took on another trip.  I took a weekend course on Medicinal Herbs.  Great stuff!  
More later!

Welcome to an Interior of Theatrical Excitement...

I love old church buildings. This one is particularly special, although you wouldn't know that from the outside.



Located just a few miles from Lincoln, on a single track road which leads to nowhere,

it has a plain and simple exterior.

Step inside...



...and prepare for a surprise...




The very small interior is filled

with enormous marble

and alabaster

monuments.

They are decorated

to the nth degree, sculpted,

painted, gilded,

every surface, inside and out.



It was difficult to capture the whole of this

marble six-poster bed.

This is the view through the monument, down to the entrance

and font.

The figures are Sir Thomas St Paul and his wife, Faith.

Thomas was a Member of Parliament for Grimsby

and twice Sherriff of Lincolnshire.

He died in 1582.



The canopy of the bed is richly decorated,

the small figures are their eight children,

only four of whom survived infancy.



The base of the tomb bears family crests

and an inscription..

Here lies Thomas St. Poll, knight, who died on the

29th August A.D. 1582,

in the twenty-fourth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth,

and rests in Christ.

Reader, you see what I am,

you know what I have been.

Consider what you yourself must be.







There are two more monuments.

The larger one depicts Sir George St Paul, who died in 1613 and his wife, Frances.

He was the richest and most influential of the St Paul's.

This vast structure is about twelve feet high

made of alabaster and marble.



It is full of Jacobean symbolism - I have tweaked the intensity

of colour so that you can see just how elaborate

it really is.



Sadly, the lower part of the monument

bears the effigy of their

only child,

a daughter.

Mattathia St Paul, who died before

she was two.

She was buried in the church

'and since then her mother

has never been free from mourning

and weeping for a single day'.

Mattathia St Paul

Sir George was a staunch Puritan, who even worried about

whether it was right to kneel on a cushion

during his long prayer sessions.

It seems it was fine to spend a vast amount on a memorial, though.

He left a legacy to 30 'poor old men' from the area.

They received cash and a free gown annually.

His marriage was unexciting but happy.

He was survived by his wife, Frances.

She went on to lead an interesting life...



...she was a wealthy widow.

After much wooing she was persuaded to marry

the rather unsavoury Robert Rich, Earl of Warwick, depicted

in this monument (which is considered, by some, to be the finest of the three).

Robert Rich was very wealthy, but had little else to recommend him.

His first wife was a beauty who had been forced,

by her guardians, to marry him.

He ill-treated her

and in retaliation she sought consolation with another man

who fathered at least five of her twelve children!

Robert Rich divorced her in 1605

and began looking for a suitably wealthy replacement.

He decided he wanted Frances, so he set about winning her;

eventually she married him in 1616.

Lady Frances proved herself to be a very able business woman and rapidly

increased her personal fortune.

This enraged the Earl,

as he lost money in poorly advised ventures.

He died in Lincolnshire in 1619, and was buried in Essex.

Frances remained in the tiny

hamlet in Lincolnshire

'doing good works',

until she died in 1634.

Perhaps surprisingly, she chose to be buried with her second husband, the Earl, in Essex.

Presumably he had something good about him.

There is so much more to tell, but I have gone on too long already.

I'll save those stories for another time.

Given that these Elizabethan and Jacobean monuments

are of national importance

it is quite astounding to think that the church is open at all times,

other than when repairs or maintenance are being carried out.

I love Lincolnshire.

Not Berry Many

Many northern bloggers posted photos of their berries weeks ago - an idea that seems to have started when Lisa of Greenbow made a comment on May Dreams Carol's post on Beautyberries. After the challenge to display our berries was taken up by Mr McGregor's Daughter photos of beautiful berries appeared on garden blogs everywhere.
In my garden the yaupon hollies and Burford hollies are still developing their green berries - they won't turn red for weeks. Birds stripped the beautiful purple berries from my Beautyberry a month ago. I'm tired of waiting to post! I found only a few berry-like subjects to photograph and for some of them the definition of berry needs to be a fuzzy one.
Above are berries on what is called a Japanese Yew here in Austin. If you live in other places that name usually refers to some cultivar of Taxus japonicus (as in the famous Green Moustache) but my young shrub belongs to Podocarpus - maybe Podocarpus macroplyllus. Another name for this plant is Buddhist Pine.

I've seen related plants at the Hartman Prehistoric Garden - their plant list calls them Cephalotaxus fortunei - Chinese plum yew and Cephalotaxus harringtonia - Japanese plum yew. On our first visit to the Hartman Dinosaur Garden I fell in love with the place and I've tried to recreate the effect with similar plants in my garden.
Even if they weren't growing at the Hartman I'd have wanted a 'Little Gem' magnolia. It's made flowers in the 3 years since we planted it, but didn't make seed cones until this summer - they sort of look like berries glued together so I'm counting it.
I found a few berries left on the liriope edging in the Secret Garden. The birds aren't giving them a chance to turn dark this year.
Can you see the St Augustine grass in the background at right? That might give you an idea of how small the leaves on this plant really are. It's called Dwarf Greek Myrtle, Myrtus communis 'Nana'. I first saw this plant growing in the garden of one of the Divas of the Dirt. Buffy's pair of myrtles were already medium size shrubs when I saw them around .. and the tiny neat leaves were attractive. After we moved to this house I added three 10-inch tall plants of these compact Greek myrtles in the back garden, thinking they might have impact at some future date.

When we met at Buffy's house for a recent Diva project I was stunned to see that her compact myrtles had reached 8-feet tall. They're planted to shield the view of her Secret Garden from the gate and do their job well. Mine are less than 18 inches high, but I'm keeping an eye on them!
Buffy had beautiful berries in her garden - produced by a shrub I've already killed once but will probably buy again. For a look at the luminous blue berries on Buffy's 'Spring Bouquet' viburnum see the October 12th post at the Divas of the Dirt Blog.

Pigeon River Paradise

This image is of the Pigeon River in northeast Minnesota, just downstream from Grand Portage State Park (which is where I work for my "day" job). The Pigeon, like many rivers, is a river of many moods. The majority of the river is characterized by very rugged terrain, with the water tumbling over boulders and through narrow gorges in rapids of varying intensity. Some areas, like the one pictured here, are very serene. The area shown in this image is only about a mile upstream from the mouth of the river.
The Pigeon originates on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and after its mostly violent but sometimes peaceful journey through the rugged valleys of northern Minnesota it empties very quietly and with little fanfare into Lake Superior. As mentioned earlier, this particular spot along the river is just downstream from the state park where I work. It is one of my favorite places along the river and I often stop here after work to see what the conditions are like. On the evening I made this image, I had already gone home for the day but as sunset approached I was very intrigued by the clouds that were lingering in the sky. I immediately thought of this place on the river and how calm the water usually is... little did I know what an incredible sight I would find when I arrived!
This is without a doubt the coolest cloud I have ever seen over this part of the river. This image was made only moments after the sun went down behind me. The point of view in this image is actually looking east/northeast, but as often happens immediately after sunset the clouds took on quite a glow. My outing to the river resulted in an experience (and an image) that I will never forget! Shot with my Canon EF 17-40mm lens, shutter speed was 1/50, aperture f8, ISO 200. Since the sky was a bit brighter than the reflection on the water, I did also use my Singh-Ray 3-stop graduated ND filter in the creation of this image.

Illston circular - Kings Norton, Little Stretton, Burton Overy, Carlton Curlieu

Led by me, with Gordon, Barry and Maureen, Cloudy at start, then v hot. Dry underfoot. Eight and three quarter miles.


Mostly the same as two recent walks done on Thursday 18 July, and Thursday 11 July, but this time anticlockwise, and with a short extra loop.

We take the right hand path after the small field in Illston, hugging the hedge, then through the wheat and behind Illston Grange, over the pasture, with a small stand of trees on our right and the house on our left. When we leave the field at the crossroads, we turn right and walk a short distance along the road before taking the byway to Kings Norton.



The views of the church from this path are magnificent, and Gaulby Church is visible as well. The byway goes in a straight line to the road, and then uphill to the church and the village.



At the road junction we ignore the road to the right and carry straight on. The footpath goes to the left past a farm, and through the farmyard. We follow the way marks over a couple of fields and across a bridge through the hedge to a road, where we turn left, and just after the junction to Little Stretton, we pick up the path at a farm gate, near some large agricultural buildings.



There are a fair number of butterflies on the wing, and around the thistles.

Hmm - just closed its wings!

Over a few more fields, and the odd stile, and we arrive at Little Stretton. As last Thursday, the church porch is a pleasantly cool place to sit for a while.



We follow the path, past the old Manor House and the pond, along the avenue of trees to the road. We turn right and find our path just after the junction towards Stoughton. We turn left and walk along the edge of a field of wheat. At the far end a quick read of the map sets us on the right route and we follow the path past The Cottage, across the road and over pastures towards Burton Overy. The pub appears to be closed today.



I offer two alternative routes - one of about 2 miles, one of 3. Barry says decisively, "Oh, I think the longer one!" Suits the rest of us, so we walk uphill from the village on the Carlton Curlieu road. When the road turns to the left we continue through a farmyard and fields directly to Carlton Curlieu - we can see the church on the hill ahead.



This village has a tempting bench so we take another rest - Maureen and I almost have a nap. But we must onwards. From the Illston Road theres a bridleway to the left, which swings right between two hedges as far as Carlton Curlieu Manor.

Gordon strides ahead

Here's Maureen, with Barry as lanterne rouge.

Ha! caught this one just before it closed its wings!

Across the road the path takes us below the Manor, beside the hedge, then uphill and through a large wheat field. We reach Illston before too long - quite pleased to get away from the heat.

Bikes & Beer

Today was a day filled with Bike & Beer (with some singletrack thrown in). It was rough getting out of bed this morning. Had some breakfast at the hotel. The coffee did not seem to help.

Off to the festival, bringing the Fuel EX7. The first function was the Ladies Ride with MTB Hall of Famer - Jacquie Phelan. After the ladies headed out, the guys (me included) hit the trails.

I rode up to behind the chalet. Found number 4 singletrack trail. The area is full of Nordic ski trails. Many of the ski trails also had sing;e/double track trails down them.

From Trail 4, I turned right onto Trail 7. Rode this loop trail back to the intersection with Trail 4. Back on Trail 4 to the chalet. Was a good 2.7 mile ride. Most of the trail I was able to ride without problem - Blue trails. Had to walk sections where heavy rooted and specially rooty climbs.

Next, we met the Ladies Ride at another parking lot. That's where the Dirt Cat started (ending back to GnomeFest City Hall). After the group departed, I went back to the hotel. Picked up "good" beer for the Beer Pot Luck. (I selected Totally Naked by Glarus Brewing - figure the Penske truck)the name was at least appropriate for the function) Then some food at Texas Roadhouse.

Was thinking of maybe riding again in the afternoon - but we were hit with a shower so put the bike in the room and headed to Awards and Chili Cook-Off. The storms were brewing in the West, so moved things into the chalet (thanks to Marathon County for letting us use the chalet).

We got a couple of deluges just before and during the awards. Was a bit noisy in the chalet, but I suffered through. shot photos, ate some chili, drank some beer, and hoped to be a winner in the raffle. Winning a raffle prize was a bust.

Back to the main meeting area with the evening's bonfire. Chatted and took a few photos. Drunk O’Clock (dark) – The Dwarfcycle Figure Eight Death Races was on the schedule. This old body had just had enough, to headed back to the hotel. Downloaded photos and wrote this blog posting.

Watch for photos posted on my race/event photo site - Win-Photo.photoreflect.com

Madeleine L'Engle

I just finished reading The Summer of the Great-Grandmother by Madeleine L-Engle. It is a poignant true story of the last summer spent with her mother before her death.
She looks back on her childhood and growing up years as an only child of parents who were very cosmopolitan and well-travelled. She laments the fact that she can no longer communicate with her mother as she once did while having morning-long talks over coffee at the kitchen table.
She has to come to terms with the fact that after her mother's death, she's now the 'matriarch' of the family clan; a role she doesn't want but has to accept.
Here's a quote from the book about one thing that formed who she became as an adult. "School was mostly something to be endured; I don't think I learned nearly as much from my formal education as from the books I read instead of doing homework, the daydreams which took me on exciting adventures in which I was intrepid and fearless and graceful, the stories Mother told me, and the stories I wrote. It was in my solitudes that I had a hand in the making of the present Madeleine."
I agree with her, because that is also my experience. I've learned so much more out of school than in. Only in solitude can I work out solutions to problems, think in peace, and be creative.
If you've never read any of her books, I highly recommend them. She's probably best known for A Wrinkle in Time. I prefer her non-fiction. She was also a writer of spiritual books. In the above mentioned book, she was struggling with who God is and traditional religion, but later on she became much stronger in her faith.
*The lady in the photo isn't Madeleine L'Engle, she's an ancestor of mine, Lydia Walker.

Raspberry Pi

Over the last couple years, I have been looking at some electronics projects. Have the micropic kit. One of the problems is that the development kit needs running on Windows XP - my new laptop runs Windows 7. Another issue is the programming - in assembler.

This fall I started looking at the Raspberry Pi single board computer. The credit card sized board runs Linux as operating system. I have been playing with lunux for several years - so should be able to get things running quickly.

Raspberry Pi can run programs in python. That's great, since the programs can be ported from Linux to windows to OSX.

Found a US supplier for Raspberry Pi. Before purchasing the device, I picked up the user's guide and spent some time reading. I would be interested in developing a interface to trigger my cameras. Looks like it will do the trick.

Downloaded the operating system.

Ordered my Raspberry Pi with case, AC adapter, SD card, and connecting cables. Looking forward to receiving the device.

Pine Moon

Our natural satellite hangs near the branches of a pine.