Rutland Round 2 - Uppingham to Seaton

With Marta - 10 miles in warm dry weather, though the path near Eyebrook reservoir was muddy. Lunch at Lyddington.



We set off from Uppingham, walking along the Stockerston Road out of the town and taking this footpath to the right. It starts from a sort of lay-by on a bend in the road.

The sign's a bit hidden, but the map and instructions are clear here.

For the first time in quite a while we saw lots of tortoiseshell butterflies on the thistle flowers.



The path is clearly marked as it goes through the fields and along the ridge, past a building marked on the map as a meteorological station, and along to Kings Hill Lodge farm, where it turns left to join the Stockerston Road again.

Views towards Wardley Wood

At the road we turned left and after a hundred yards or so, opposite some houses, we turned right along a bridleway towards Stoke Dry Wood. This goes up to the entrance to the wood, and continues just outside, so that we kept the wood edge on our right.

View of Eyebrook from corner of Stoke Wood

The path continues round the wood, with the occasional waymarker. A footpath crossed our route and led into the wood - ignore this one. The track turns left, then in while right keeping to the high ground, eventually coming out by Manor Farm at the top of the hill in Stoke Dry. Here we turned right and walked downhill to the church.

St Andrews church,Stoke Dry with the window to the priest's room over the porch

Steps up to the parvise or priest's room -rumours about conspirators of the gunpowder plot using the room seem to be without foundation, and the story that a local witch was imprisoned and starved in here are also unconfirmed.

Martyrdom of St Edmund. The painting shows men wearing feather headdresses shooting bows and arrows, and has been taken to support the theory that the Vikings discovered North America two centuries before Columbus.

For more discussion of this see this article.

After the church we walked down the hill and took the footpath to the left just before the entrance to the woodland around Eyebrook reservoir. The path hugs the fence, and was pretty muddy on this occasion.

Snack break by the water

After the entrance gate to the Eyebrook area the path heads diagonally up hill through a field. There are great views of the water to the west from the gate in the opposite corner, and Stoke Dry can be seen in the distance to the north west.

Looking back towards Eye Brook Reservoir

Stoke Dry church behind us

The reservoir again

The route now takes us down to the A6003. We managed to miss a slight turn to the left at the top of this section, but our mistake soon became obvious. At the road we turned right - the verge is fairly wide, and the road walk is only for a couple of hundred yards.



The path turns left at the tarmac road to a gas pressure control station on the other side of the road. A stile took us on to the path - mud again just here, and cows who did little more than lazily raise their heads and watch us.



We followed the yellow-painted post waymarkers over stiles and fields. There's a footbride into another field, which we crossed diagonally. After whiles and stiles we headed fro the farm buildings, and followed the waymarks to reach the road and turned left into Lyddington. Lovely lunch in the Old White Hart's garden before setting off on the final couple of miles.

Art in Lyddington

We crossed the village green and followed the track to a stile. The path goes along the left-hand hedge and leads to a gateway on the left. In this field are the traces of the fishponds which were once used by the bishop's palace (the Bede House).

The medieval fishponds of Lyddington

One of mine

The path goes through the gateway and into a narrow field. We walked along this and over another stile. Then we turned right and followed the path straight up the hill. We continued to the end of field, then turned right and almost immediately left, walking with a ditch on the left and continuing until we reached the farm track by Grange farm. This leads up the hill and into Seaton, with glimpses of the Welland Valley viaduct to the right.

Northward Bound

Tuesday, April 19th - - After four lovely days of visiting friends in northeast Louisiana, I headed north on Sunday morning (April 17th). My goal was to get back to Indiana without traveling on Interstate Highways at all and to avoid four-lane highways as much as possible. That I have done thus far but I'm only halfway there!



I stopped at the Civil War Interpretive Center in Corinth yesterday (a post is forthcoming on that visit). Last night I stayed at this beautiful State Park in Mississippi – the Natchez Trace Parkway runs through it – and got on the Parkway this morning.





My campsite alongside the lake at Tishomingo State Park in northeast Mississippi.



The sun had been hidden by heavy clouds all day but showed itself for a few minutes late in the evening.







I just love the “green” all around. Delightful. And easy on the eyes.

"Strength in Unity"

Not exactly sure who this guy is.

His mates say his name is Jimmy. But there seemed to be someuncertainty.

They reckon he is about 20. Again, not sure.

They say he remembers to bring his guitar to the crag but forgets his harness and shoes. It all sounds pretty vague.

Style:Jimmyscreams socialistchic and solidarity inlast seasons "Enterprise Bargain Agreement" T-Shirt in black with yellow ".Your Pay - Your Call" print by the always hip Aussie label, Australian Workers Union.

Did you get a good look at me Jimmy? Spooky huh?



The movethat started it all.Nine routes fan out from thisbeginning.



Jimmy put down the guitar long enough to switch on and send Spoonman.



Then back to guitar for songs of workers struggles and sendage celebrations.





It never hurts to have a stab at something hard at the end of the day.











The Big Chili

Meet the sponsors.The "Big Chili", Steve Foster, came out from the UK.Matt Adams came up from Sydney.And I took the day off work.



Photo: Lee CujesTeam ChiliWe talked shoes. We climbed. Matt crushed. I ate carbs for lunch for the first time in yonks.

What a perfect day!





Matt knocked off Screaming Insanity in no time at all.























How much do I want these little beauties? I got a special preview today. I love them. I want them.

So much rubber, so much style.

The new Matador lace, by Red Chili of course.

I can't wait to test drive them.

Click the photo to enlarge the image.





In the mean time I've got these sharp new Caronas.



What to wear, what to wear?







Thanks guys, I love them. jj

I think that I shall never see...

This morning I had some errands to run in Columbia City. Afterwards, it being such a nice day, I didn't feel like going home - so I went to visit Grandma Jones as well as Grandma and Grandpa Dunfee. Elizabeth Helms Jones is my 4th great grandmother. She died in 1883 and is buried in the Masonic Section of Greenhill Cemetery in Columbia City. Not far from her grave is that of her daughter and son-in-law, Catherine and William H. Dunfee, my 3rd great grandparents. Catherine died in 1903 and William in 1888.

I love going to cemeteries, especially when no one else is around. They are among the most peaceful places on earth. Greenhill is a large cemetery and is usually busy with visitors. But today I was lucky, there wasn't another living soul around.

The graves of Catherine and William lie in the shadows of two large conifer trees. The trees are dying, but they are still magnificent. This first picture was taken in October .. and shows the convoluted branches of the larger tree. As you can see it was very much alive, still green. The rest of these pictures were taken today between 2 and 3 p.m. The larger tree no longer has any green needles left. The smaller, taller, straighter tree still has quite a bit of green showing. Please, click on the images to view a larger version. . .





And yes, I know this picture is weird, but I like it! Even if it does make me look bigger than I am. LOL.
Of course, I can't end this without including the poem "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer.
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
From Toucan Radio I learned that Joyce Kilmer was born in 1886, and lived most of his short life in New Jersey. He was killed in 1918 in France, in the second battle of the Marne. Before he enlisted in the army, he was on staff at the New York Times, and as a Catholic convert, wrote religious inspired poetry. He wrote Trees in 1913.

Allen County Public Library Grand Opening

This afternoon I attended the ceremonies for the grand opening of the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne. It's impressive, to say the least. I spoke very briefly with Curt Witcher, the director of the Genealogy Center, and of course he was quite excited. He said there were a few minor things that still needed to be completed but they were about 99% ready for the opening. Below are some pictures I took this afternoon.

Some lucky folks got a sneak peak at the library last Sunday. You can read about that in an article in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel; they also have some pictures.




The opening ceremony. A few people were on hand.
These scanners allow you to create a digital image of the microfilm, two of them can also scan microfiche. The image can be edited on site. If you load the film wrong and the image is backwards you don't have to reload, the scanner can be set to reverse the image. It can also rotate the image and switch it from a positive to a negative or vice versa. Way cool. Even more cool, you can print the images or write the images to a CD or save them to your thumbdrive (or any USB drive). The email feature is not yet working. I could see using that if you only had a few images. I forgot to ask if they sell the CDs. At this time there is no cost for scanning or printing but, according to the staff member that was giving the demonstration, that may change in the future.



This was taken shortly after the opening ceremony. It is the largest of the patron work areas. It is in the same room with all of the family history books, a small portion of which can be seen on the far wall. The chairs are very comfortable. Two copy machines are available in this room.



This is a huge space. It is where all of the City Directories and oversized books are located. The shelving units move with the push of a button. If someone is in the row the unit won't move. Of course everyone had to see if they worked properly. There are three aisles of shelving units. Each unit is quite wide, probably 20 feet or so.




One of the computer areas. This was about 15 minutes after the opening.


The east entrance from the south side. A city street used to be where the stairs and the ramp are now. The entire area in front of the library has been turned into a plaza. The entrance and the side to the left of it are new. That's where the cafe and bookstore are located. The inside of the building was completely gutted and remodeled. If you've been there before you won't recognize it as the same building, nothing is where it was.




The east entrance from the north side.

Aaargh. I got a little frustrated adding these pictures. They kept disappearing on me! Aside from that, it was a GREAT day!!

How I measure insulated down jackets?

I've looked at a lot of down jackets here at Cold Thistle. Synthetics I generally use the weight of the insulation, 60g per square meter as an example or 100g per square meter.



Down jackets I want to know a couple of things.



Construction? Fully box baffled or sewn through. There can be a lot of different combos along with that. But that is the first. What is the construction?



SecondI want to knowwhat the quality of the downused. The fill rating? 750 cu inch per ounce or 800 fill or 1000 fill?



How much actual down fill, as in ounces used? And the jacket's size. Most importantly how that size fits me personally.



Three additional measurements matter to me. Cana full size climbing helmet EASILYfit inside the hood?



Length of the jacket's back from shoulder seam, @ the base of the hood to the hem.











And finally the height of the insulation measured 1/2 way between the neck and the point of the shoulder with the jacket laid flat and completely zipped up. It means little other than as a comparison of loft in the jacket one to another. This number could easily be fudged to gain or loose insulation depending on your bias and sway the charts.( even the pictures are difficutlt to read accuratly so I don't post them intentionally) I know that and try to make a consistent and realistic measurement so that I show no favorites here. It is also why I don't go smaller than 1/2 inch in differences.






Close up of the height of insulation at the shoulder. This jacketactually has 3" of loft Although the angle of the camera shows almost 3.5". You have to be consistent on every measurement and honest when you postthe numbers.









Shoulder between point of shoulder and the hood on ajacket

How will climate change affect our National Parks?

The topic of climate change took exceptional relevance here at Mount Rainier after the floods and wind in November of 2006 caused significant damage throughout the park(check out the Mt. Rainier N.P. report documenting the flood's damage), forcing our gates to close. This was not the first storm that hit this park hard, nor will it be the last. There is a high likelihood that future storms will cause similar damage (if not worse) and climate change will have as-of-yet even greater undetermined impacts on the park's resources. The result of this event and uncertainty brings into question the ability of the federal government to sustain long term access to places such as Mount Rainier from an economic and ecological standpoint. Obviously, this issue has implications for us all - recreationalists, admirers, climbers, skiiers, and just anyone living in a town near the park.

How will climate change affect Mount Rainier National Park? Well, this is the question that many are beginning to ask. You can be a part of this discussion on Wednesday, September 3, along with a panel of experts in climate change, outdoor recreation, economics, wildlife and roads and trail construction (among others). The evening's event, co-hosted by the Washington Parks and Forests Coalition, is titled, "The Way In: The Future of Access to Northwest National Parks". Panelists will focus on global climate change and how it will affect our national parks, especially Olympic, Mount Rainier, and North Cascades National Parks. This panel discussion is free and open to the public.

This event is co-hosted by the organizations from the Washington Parks and Forests Coalition, which include National Parks Conservation Association, Washington Trails Association, and the Student Conservation Association. For more information, contact David Graves at dgraves@npca.org or 206.903.1444 x25.