Red Roses and a White Picket Fence

I've always loved red roses on a white picket fence, and now I have one thanks to Cindy S.   I don't think it'll bloom all summer, but I sure am loving it right now.  

Nature's Fall Bounty

This is what my kitchen floor in front of the pantry looked like when I got home from Tennessee. There are three bushels of apples, a large bucket of potatoes dug from my parents' garden, pears picked off their neighbor's tree, and three pumpkins sitting on the porch that aren't in this photo.
I've made some headway on the apples by making applesauce and apple pie mix. We've also eaten lots of them. I still have one and a fourth bushels left.
I've given some potatoes away and kept the rest. Last night for our fish dinner, I made home fries in the oven with olive oil and seasoning salt. We'll be eating lots of potatoes around here for awhile.
With the pears I've made Pear Crisp. They're deteriorating rapidly and need to be put up asap.I hope to can some as Garrett loves Jello with pears. I want to have some if he decides to come home in five months.
One pumpkin has been cut up and baked in the oven and is now in our extra refrigerator awaiting processing. I'll puree and can it where it'll be used for pies, muffins, and bread.
Gayle said he's bringing in some White Half Runners this next week. Yikes! I told him to bring them on as I only have thirteen quarts to last till next June. For those of you who don't know, White Half Runners are the best kind of green bean. They're the only kind we ate growing up. People in the mountains especially like them. The grower down here in South Georgia ships all he grows up to Tennessee. So on top of all the pears, apples, and pumpkins, I'll have green beans too!
I think we'll take a 'Harvest Break' from homeschooling. There's no way I can put up all this food and keep to my regular schedule. Plus, Darcie needs to learn how to do all this canning and food storage. It's another form of education. Another benefit of teaching at home-the children get to live a real life instead of being stuck in a schoolroom with their peers while learning about life from a book. I believe in both books and real life. And when real life asserts itself with this much natural bounty, I'm going to pay attention and see that my students do too!

Pit Profile 2/14/

If you are heading to higher elevations, be aware that the top of the slope heading up to Panorama Point was icy on Saturday under a light layer of new snow that has now increased to a depth of about 6".

The current forecast is predicting almost a foot of snow at Paradise this weekend.

Waffles will be happening throughout the day on Monday February 20 in the Old Station at Paradise. Fuel your adventures. Again please bring your own cup/mug and a topping or fixings to donate.

Going Big, Getting it Done

This past week has been a very busy time on the Mountain. Climbers have been coming out in droves, summiting via many, many routes, and skiing some very big and beautiful lines down the upper and lower mountain. Even though there have been some cloudy days in the lowlands, the weather on the upper mountain has been spectacular, with sunny skies light wind, and a little new snow just to keep things fresh. Last weekend saw a few hundred skiers come out to get spring turns on the snowfield, and with close to 200 inches of snow still on the ground at Paradise it can be assumed there will be many more great days of skiing this spring, and yes even this summer.

If you were one of the people who made it up to climb, ski, hike or just hang out above the clouds for a day or two you may have noticed some busy rangers running around doing all sorts of tasks, one of which was helping scientists put stakes in the glaciers by which they measure the melt rate of the winters snow, that then helps them determine overall mass balance of the glaciers. The past 14 months of cold and wet weather have had a pretty big impact on the mountain. This is the first ever year where glaciologists have found a positive mass balance in Rainier's glaciers, even though it was just barely on the positive side of things. We'll be waiting to see what kind of weather this summer will bring and how it will effect the large amounts of snow we currently have on the mountain.
Check out the new route updates and photos for the DC, Gib ledges, Liberty Ridge, Camp Muir and the Muir Snowfield.

Solstice sunrise

A lurid, gale-driven sunrise for the shortest day. I hurried into warm anorak and hat to go out and take some pictures, and stepped out into spring-like temperatures. Weird. The tall building in the centre, which looks as if it could be a castle, is just an ordinary block of tenement flats.

This is Calton Hill from the opposite side to the photo here.

Sunset, with con trail

Sunrise: 7.37 a.m.
Sunset: 4.15 p.m.

20,000

This post commemorates my 20,000th km cycled this year. Actually, I recorded the milestone on Friday when running an errand to pick up some components for the bike, but I decided I wanted to celebrate the milestone with a more interesting ride. It was with this in mind that yesterday I set off toward the south, through Hogan's Rainforest, Murwillumbah, Burringbar and so on, onto Mullumbimby. After this it was the climb past the Crystal Castle, it was into the magical forests...



... the wildflowers



... and the sweeping mountain views...





The other notable feature of Northern NSW is the number of rivers and creeks that are encountered along the way.



Even the ocean on the final stretch was looking particularly enticing.



This is actually quite a gruelling ride, there were over 3,000 metres of climbing, most of it coming between Mullumbimby and Nimbin. It was made harder by the fact that the wind blew from the south early, before switching around to the north in the afternoon (i.e. a headwind both ways) . After 258km or so, that can be quite draining, and I ended up pedalling the last few km at 22km/h. That said, it won't stop me riding this evening. Actually, I seem to be having quite a few rides with less than favourable wind conditions at the moment. I'll just have to consider it training for New Zealand.

A Cuppa Anytime

"There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea." The philosopher Heroux
He got that right! I have a cup with breakfast; usually English or Irish Breakfast or Yorkshire Gold. In the wintertime, I'll have another cup around 10:30 using the same teabag. And then at 4:00 in the afternoon, I'll have a cup of decaf Earl Grey. I always add one teaspoon of sugar and a big glug of real cream. And if I'm having trouble sleeping, I'll brew a cup of Sleepy Time or Chamomile. I don't usually have four cups a day; most likely two, and I drink more hot tea in the winter than in the summertime. When the weather's hot, I'll skip the mid-morning cup and have a glass of sweet, iced tea for lunch.
If something traumatic has happened in the English novels I read and love, tea loaded down with sugar is always given for 'restorative effect'. But if I have more than a scant teaspoon, I'll get a headache. Didn't used to be that way. Just one of the charms of growing older.
My number one, absolute favorite is Yorkshire Gold. What's your favorite tea and when do you drink it?

Our Weekend Job...

(As if we didn't do enough last week to help Mom, she decided to put us to work over the weekend. Maybe that's why, again, we couldn't get her to come and visit as many of you as we would have liked.)

Ma, get me a crayon! These need to have names on them!

Our tongues came in handy for this job heheh!