Giant's Causeway and the Carrack-a-Rede

Our morning started a bit earlier than I wanted but all's well that ends well as they say and we were up and out the door by 9:20 this morning armed with jackets, snacks, lunch and water.  Our first stop for the day's adventure was the Giant's Causeway.  This is a basalt rock formation in Northern Ireland from a volcanic eruption many tens of millions of years ago.  Through the millennia erosion has caused these rocks to weather in a geometric pattern of 3-9 sided figures, always forming Y connections where rocks meet.  We all had a ball scampering around on the rocks.  first down to the sea then up on a larger formation then back down again.  One of the highlights of the day was watching a pod of dolphins swimming out at the mouth of the bay.  We watched them for probably a good 15 minutes.  It was fun to hear the stories of the giant, Finn MacCool and his feud Scottish giant that required him to build the causeway and the other stories about different parts of the area.  The kids were enthralled.  It was, yet again, rugged and wild but awesome!!

After Giant's Causeway, we drove up the road two trips and a stagger as they say here to the Carrak-a-Rede Rope Bridge.  It is a rope bridge to an island used by salmon fishermen not so long ago.  I wasn't sure I was going to make it across but thankfully, I had to be strong to get Spencer across.  He only thought I was talking to him as I encouraged us both just to keep watching Hyrum's head in front of us.  It was gorgeous though.  The views were great and it was well worth the time.

The water was so clear and blue.
It was like being in the tropics but we knew the water was freezing.

We had a good day on our last adventure here in Ireland and the United Kingdom.  Monday we move on to Germany and our adventures on the Continent.  Stay tuned for our Germany adventures!!

What does our garden grow?

We spent a bit of time working in the garden again this morning. The carrots needed thinning, and weeds were starting to invade the periphery, so we took the kids out and spent a very muggy couple of hours hoeing and weeding.

Hannah in front of our tomatoes and corn

We've got blossoms on the cucumbers, tomatoes and beans, along with a few tiny beans already developing. The carrots we thinned were actually large enough that we'll enjoy them for dinner tomorrow night, and I suspect we'll be eating beans in a couple of weeks, at the latest. I hope with all of our travel this summer, we'll be around at the right time for the tomatoes and corn to come on.

Carrots

By the end of the morning, Jonathan was ready to come in, but Hannah and Heather had had some fun with the hose. I enjoyed playing with the macro features on our digital camera, though I'm still looking for a "manual focus" button.

Tomato blossoms

Beans and blossoms

Winter Garden

As, I've mentioned before in this space, one of the benefits of gardening in Austin is the ability to have something in ground all year round. In August, we put in a variety of heat resistant tomato, and we've now got many fruits on the vine. With temperatures still in the 80s during the day, and dipping into the 50s at night, we're hoping they'll ripen quick. With luck, we'll have some fresh tomatoes for Thanksgiving. In addition, we planted a few rows of bush beans, and they are starting to produce as well.

A couple of weeks ago, Heather and I spent a Saturday in the garden, preparing the ground, and getting ready for the fall/winter planting. We put in garlic, peas, spinach, and a couple of varieties of carrots. Hopefully, the birds will leave the seeds alone long enough for the plants to grow, and we'll get a good harvest over the next couple of months before a deep frost hits.

Peppers and Tomatoes

I seem to be posting a fair amount of content relating to our garden. My apologies if that is to the neglect of more weightier topics.

We recently had the first harvest of tomatoes from our garden. This year, I've got to varieties in the ground, Early Girl Bush, and Brandywine. The Early Girl lives up to its name, our bushes are about 3 feet tall, and showing lots of fruit. I haven't done much pruning (partly because I'm new to this whole thing), so the bush has grown large, and is beginning to bear.

The Brandywine has grown up and over the top of the metal cage, and back down the ground, but we're starting to see fruit on it as well. Hopefully the heat won't kill the plants before we get back from our summer vacation.

Our pepper plants, California Wonder variety for those keeping score at home, as also doing well. I've picked a few peppers, probably a little early, but I want to get them before the bugs do. They should survive the hot Texas summer just fine.

We also managed to pick and eat some of the corn left standing after the series of storms that came through. Not as big of a harvest as I would have liked, but we'll try a second planting this fall and see if we can't manage to get a few more ears.

Garden-Variety Tragedy

A couple of nights ago, a decent-sized storm blew through Austin. It dropped a lot of rain, but didn't seem to cause to much damage. Until we went out to the garden last evening. The supports for the 7-foot trellis which holds our bean broke and the entire trellis blew over onto the neighboring plot. To add insult to injury, about two-thirds of our corn also blew down.


Heather picking beans from the defunct trellis.


We ended up spending most of the evening picking what beans we could before taking down the entire trellis, and all the existing bean plants. Tonight, we start again, with new seeds, and a new, lighter and more sturdy trellis design. Chalk another one up to experience.

Notes from the Garden

One of the benefits of living in the Student Apartments here at UT is the community garden. It was closed for maintenance over the winter, but reopened in mid-March to much excitement from the residents, myself included. The plots aren't big, just 16'x8', but big enough to give me something to do when I'm tired of doing homework and just want to get outside.

This year is kind of an experimental year, as we find out what works, what doesn't and how much of different vegetables we can use. Right now, we've got corn, peppers, pole beans, and two different varieties of tomatoes in the ground. In spite of a record cold spell a few weeks ago, we managed to avoid a freeze, and most of the plants are growing quite well.

Hmm...I can almost taste the fresh corn-on-the-cob now...