Looking North

Edinburgh is built on a series of ridges which gradually descend to sea level at the Firth of Forth. The suburb of Craiglockhart sits high on one of these ridges, and from here you can catch glimpses of the hills beyond the River Forth. These snowy slopes are the Ochil Hills, and beyond them, out of sight but always in my mind when I look northwards, are the true Highlands.
The two curious shapes just between the skyline of the city and the hills are the two Forth bridges. The light coloured chimney-like structure is one of the towers of the Forth Road Bridge. To its left is the rust-red humped back of the Forth Rail Bridge - the never-ending painting of which is a Scottish metaphor for the myth of Sisyphus.

Stupid cows

Stupid cows.

Stupid cows.

Stupid cows!
Ack! The neighbor's stupid cows are back! The game camera was full of pictures of cows.
Actually the cows aren't stupid. They're pretty smart -- they know their owner doesn't maintain his fences. I'm just saying "stupid" because I don't want to cuss on the blog.
I was gone all day, so the cows had plenty of time to do some real damage. Then they came back again overnight, and were in the garden before it was even light outside. (Nocturnal cows!)
I considered myself lucky not to have to wash the dog this time, though.

“Phaeton” Goes into Storage … “Phaeton Journeys” Goes on Hiatus …“” Goes on Vacation

If you have been wondering why we’ve fallen off the sightseeing and exploring bandwagon these past months, the time has come to reveal the reason. While we might have been physically inactive, I can’t say the same for our brains — busy cogitating; or our fingers — busy surfing the web. All in preparation for our 3½-month vacation from life on the road.

When I dropped some hints about our vacation plans, some of you guessed Iceland, which is indeed part of our plans. But far from all of it. In fact, we started out with Greenland [the picture above being our inspiration], then added Iceland, Turkey, and finally, a couple of cruises to return us to the US.

Our travels mapped out!

For those interested, the full story of how our vacation mushroomed from 2 weeks to 14 weeks is here.

Tomorrow, the Phaeton goes into storage — along with the toad. And with that, the Phaeton Journeys goes on hiatus. But I hope to continue blogging — or at least posting teasers — on the Two to Travel blog. Sign up to follow us there … or just click the “Our Travel Adventures and Voyages” tab at the top of this blog when the mood strikes. I’ll probably Google+ the posts as well, so there will be no lack of means for those interested in following us around on our travels.

See you when we get back in December!

Visitation Totals for Mount Rainier Park

The last graph got me wondering, what was the general visitation totals for Mount Rainier during the same period, 1991 to 2005. As you can see, there has been a decline overall. I gathered these stats from here.

Tennessee Neighbors

This fair lady is the neighbor of my parents in Tennessee. Last time I visited, she gave me a huge cabbage from her garden. When I got home, I sliced, blanched, and froze it. I'll make cabbage stew this winter.
I've taken photos of her barn in all seasons. I want to do a watercolor of it soon.
When I was a small girl, I'd visit her parents with my grandma. Two smells I associate with their house and yard; tobacco (one of both of them dipped) and boxwoods. They had these huge ones on either side of their walkway you'd have to pass through to get to their front door. Today when I smell a boxwood, it makes me swoon. I guess that's one of the reasons I love Williamsburg so much. There are hundreds of boxwoods there. I'm going to order two English boxwoods for containers. They are the ones that have the wonderful smell. I'm not so sure they'll flourish down here with our humidity, but I won't know unless I try.

Nene Way 9 - Wansford - Ferry Meadows

10 miles. With Marta. Sunny, warm, delightful weather.

From Wansford we took the road opposite the church which leads towards the A1. Just before the road the path turns right and goes downhill towards the river underneath two huge bridges before making its way up towards the A47, past a lorry park, then turning right behind the petrol station along a path through fields. For a while we walked parallel to the road, then following the curve of the river turned south-east. We joined a wider track (a dismantled railway) but followed it a bit too far into some stables. Quick question and we were set right - we'd missed the signs on a kissing gate next to a field gate! The path led us into the village of Sutton - (Sutton Only as the signposts from the road tell us), past playing fields, houses and the church with its open bell tower. Then we turned briefly west, and south across more fields towards Wansford Station, the headquarters of the Nene Valley Railway.





A quick coffee stop and nose around, and we were ready for off.



The station and railway have been used in lots of documentaries and other filmsand there are plenty of events.









The Nene Way runs alongside the railway for half a mile or so, then moves further south towards the river, crossing fields full of Roman remains, which are not visible as anything other than humps and bumps.

Water Newton

Roman remains?

The path follows the river but turns sharply left to negotiate a meander just before Mill Hill - a noticeably higher piece of ground. We crossed a footbridge, where we saw this orderly family of swans.







After the bridge we followed the higher ground round to the road down to Castor Old Mill. There's a water mill and remains of a windmill.


There is a ford and a footbridge over the mill arm of the river (Back Dike). The Nene Way crosses the bridge and turns left following Back Dike, crossing another footbridge and then walking with the main Nene on the right. A clear path leads us under a railway bridge (Nene Valley Railway) and into Ferry Meadows. The Cycle hire and Canoe centre is across Gunwade Lake.







We continued past Ferry Bridge and along Ferry Walk Path to finish at Green Cafe near the Ferry Meadows Visitor Centre.





Wildlife - herons, grebes, geese, green woodpeckers (we heard more than we saw). Fish - no idea what sort.

My First Open A Obedience Trial at Del Valle

Hi Pals! Last March, I passed my 3rd and final leg of Novice A, earning my CD. Mom and Barbara had a little chat and Ma told Barbara somethin' like this: "I feel so good about Del Vallethat our new goal is to be ready for Open A by Del Valle ." Barbara was wary. We pushed on. I knew I could try to be ready!

So we worked and worked and worked. I had problems with the broad jump. I hated the dumbell for a long time. And finally, I wouldn't even "Come" for the Drop on Recall. OMD! But Ma entered me in Open A at Del Valle . It's a five day show, from Thursday to Monday. I was due to "do ma thang" on Friday (indoors) and Saturday (ourdoors). My teach, Barbara, even worked the video in two parts. Here they are.

And Part II...

After these tests, I had to go back in the ring with other doggehs to do "Sits and Downs," where I have to Sit for 3 Minutes while Ma is out of the ring away from my sight, then Down for five minutes with Mom out of sight. Even if I've done good on my exercises, I can just as easily get an NQ if I get up from a down, or ... the reverse. I stayed on both and Mom was patting me hard and finally giving me treats when I got back to my area!!! Then imagine all our surprises when...

Holy Moly... I won Open A! So after a while of partying and such, we went home and slept soundly... believe you me, it's just exhausting to answer to Ma's commands!

The next day was "Specialty Day" when it was all Golden Retrievers - woo hoo! And guesses to who was there? No pix, but my boyfriend, Jackson, was there! Also, Avalon met up with her brothers, Ronan and Thistle. Above is Avalon with Ronan!

Even though I was entered in Open A again, I failed to "DROP" on the recall and NQ'd... bummer. Jes' didn't hear Ma right heheh! But I was due to be in a "Rescue" parade after my class. Here I am trotting out with so many other NorCal golden retriever rescues!

And here I am with Momma! Man, was I tired!
And so was my sis! We was exhausted!