This bunch of Canadian geese were on a pond to the side of the Nature Center. Those are the Sandia Mountains in the background as they are in so many of my photos. 
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Canadian Geese
This bunch of Canadian geese were on a pond to the side of the Nature Center. Those are the Sandia Mountains in the background as they are in so many of my photos. 
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Chil Pepper Ristra
Chili Pepper Ristras where hanging a lot of places in Old Town. A ristra is a string of dryed chili peppers. New Mexico is known for lot of different kinds of chili peppers. It was and still is tradition to hang the strings of chili ristras on your house to finish drying and then over the winter you could take down a string and use it in what ever you were cooking. I don't use enough chilis or chili power to buy the ristras (and most people don't). Most of what I use is already ground into a fine powder ready to put into my beans, or chili stew. Hatch, New Mexico raises more chilis than any other place in the United States. I can't seem to raise them at all.
Friday, July 25, 2014
Coquelicots - A Memory of Summer
Coquelicot at Sunset, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.
These coquelicots, also known as Flanders poppies, were growing along a country roadside in the Dauphiné region of France, near Lyon. Summer sounds so good right now...
Thursday, July 24, 2014
We also visited the museum and watched a few movies. We had a great day here!
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Douro River Valley Tour 5: A visit to a Port wine estate — Quinta do Tedo
This is the last stop of the Douro River Valley Tour, a visit to a Port vineyard located in Armamar (Viseu district) along the Douro River and Tedo River just before reaching Pinhao. Maria told us that this estate is a very small, single Quinta A classification. Quinta in Portuguese is equivalent to an estate, hacienda or domaine.
Wine estate classifications runs from A to F with A being the highest. You can find more information here: Portuguese Quinta Classification
Quinta do Tedo on a much better weather (blue skies!) day. Picture from wiemax.com
Quinta do Tedo
From my seat in the mini bus (I was sitting in front), I could see Quinta do Tedo coming into view, the estate is perched on top of a hill and is waiting for us. Maria said the views up there are beautiful. I am sure I will not disagree. This part of the Douro River Valley is very peaceful, raw and pure. It was raining when we drove up the private road leading to the estate but when we jumped out of the mini bus, the rain drizzled down a little bit providing us the opportunity to enjoy the breath taking views while we took the obligatory pictures.
The place is soooo lovely, even on a bit gloomy and rainy day!
There are 3 dogs in the estate but this one is the sweetest. He came to greet us.
Breath taking views are they not? Even for a bit gloomy day...
The man from the winery welcomed us as we stood there in awe of our surroundings. He told us that the valley we are looking at—35 acres of vineyards including the body of water, all belong to Quinta do Tedo. There are another 22 acres of land planted with olives and fruits that belongs to the estate as well.
Then he urged us to follow him to the cave where they store and age the wines in oak barrels. The cave is located at the other side of the estate and as we rounded the corner, we were again confronted by the beautiful scenery, he had to patiently wait for everyone until we were done snapping pictures. I can probably hear him mutter under his breath, ‘Ah, tourists…’ Haha, he must be used to this.
Port Wine Cave
Mr. wine man explained to us the aging process of Port wine and all that stuff, yadda, yadda, etcetera. Anyway, there’s a ton of information about Port wine available online for those who are interested. There is google for that so I will not be posting that here. But in this winery, I learned that for Port wine to be called vintage, it must be at least 10 years old. Naturally, the value of a bottle of vintage Port follows its age.
The wine estate is actually now owned by a Frenchman coming from the Bouchard wine growing family in Burgundy, France.
Isn't she just too cute? This is the little girl of the Japanese couple living in Frankfurt, Germany.
Here I am smiling reluctantly (disapprovingly!) at the camera because of the bad weather. Unfortunately, after our short Port cave session, it rained again. Here I am walking back to the main part of the building for the next part of the agenda which is the Port tasting.
Port Tasting – Vintage is my favourite
I really would have wanted to buy a vintage bottle of Port from this winery but I came by plane with a carry-on luggage. It is also too much of a hassle to have to ship a bottle of wine to the Netherlands but I really enjoyed their vintage here very much. So smooth and elegant.
Read here my entry about the types of Port wine and my visit to the Calem Caves in Vila Nova de Gaia: Port cave tour and tasting at Calem: You drink Port at the end of the meal!
We had a tasting of Port wines, from left to right: 10-year old Tawny, a Ruby 2007 and a Vintage .
The estate also offers Bed & Breakfast accommodation. In fact, many quintas offer this in the Douro River Valley. My wish would be that during the warmer months, I’d be able to come back here and stay in the valley for a few days.
So we have come to the end of the tour and as we drove back to Porto, my last memory of the drive and everything else were these pictures below before I dozed off.
I woked up just in time when we entered Porto. The streets seem to be dry, so I am grinning and hearing hallelujah ringing in my ears. The evening is going to be promising!
Previous entries:
Douro River Valley Tour 4b: Lunch in Peso da Regua at Restaurante Douro In
Douro River Valley Tour 4a: The flood in Peso da Regua
Douro River Valley Tour 3: Wine, Cheese and Presunto tasting in Lamego
Douro River Valley Tour 2: A rainy and misty 'Douro viewing point' stop
Douro River Valley Tour 1: Amarante village, Vinho Verde (green wine) and some Travel Agency rant
Wine estate classifications runs from A to F with A being the highest. You can find more information here: Portuguese Quinta Classification
Quinta do Tedo on a much better weather (blue skies!) day. Picture from wiemax.com
Quinta do Tedo
From my seat in the mini bus (I was sitting in front), I could see Quinta do Tedo coming into view, the estate is perched on top of a hill and is waiting for us. Maria said the views up there are beautiful. I am sure I will not disagree. This part of the Douro River Valley is very peaceful, raw and pure. It was raining when we drove up the private road leading to the estate but when we jumped out of the mini bus, the rain drizzled down a little bit providing us the opportunity to enjoy the breath taking views while we took the obligatory pictures.
The place is soooo lovely, even on a bit gloomy and rainy day!
There are 3 dogs in the estate but this one is the sweetest. He came to greet us.
Breath taking views are they not? Even for a bit gloomy day...
The man from the winery welcomed us as we stood there in awe of our surroundings. He told us that the valley we are looking at—35 acres of vineyards including the body of water, all belong to Quinta do Tedo. There are another 22 acres of land planted with olives and fruits that belongs to the estate as well.
Then he urged us to follow him to the cave where they store and age the wines in oak barrels. The cave is located at the other side of the estate and as we rounded the corner, we were again confronted by the beautiful scenery, he had to patiently wait for everyone until we were done snapping pictures. I can probably hear him mutter under his breath, ‘Ah, tourists…’ Haha, he must be used to this.
Port Wine Cave
Mr. wine man explained to us the aging process of Port wine and all that stuff, yadda, yadda, etcetera. Anyway, there’s a ton of information about Port wine available online for those who are interested. There is google for that so I will not be posting that here. But in this winery, I learned that for Port wine to be called vintage, it must be at least 10 years old. Naturally, the value of a bottle of vintage Port follows its age.
The wine estate is actually now owned by a Frenchman coming from the Bouchard wine growing family in Burgundy, France.
Isn't she just too cute? This is the little girl of the Japanese couple living in Frankfurt, Germany.
Here I am smiling reluctantly (disapprovingly!) at the camera because of the bad weather. Unfortunately, after our short Port cave session, it rained again. Here I am walking back to the main part of the building for the next part of the agenda which is the Port tasting.
Port Tasting – Vintage is my favourite
I really would have wanted to buy a vintage bottle of Port from this winery but I came by plane with a carry-on luggage. It is also too much of a hassle to have to ship a bottle of wine to the Netherlands but I really enjoyed their vintage here very much. So smooth and elegant.
Read here my entry about the types of Port wine and my visit to the Calem Caves in Vila Nova de Gaia: Port cave tour and tasting at Calem: You drink Port at the end of the meal!
We had a tasting of Port wines, from left to right: 10-year old Tawny, a Ruby 2007 and a Vintage .
The estate also offers Bed & Breakfast accommodation. In fact, many quintas offer this in the Douro River Valley. My wish would be that during the warmer months, I’d be able to come back here and stay in the valley for a few days.
So we have come to the end of the tour and as we drove back to Porto, my last memory of the drive and everything else were these pictures below before I dozed off.
I woked up just in time when we entered Porto. The streets seem to be dry, so I am grinning and hearing hallelujah ringing in my ears. The evening is going to be promising!
Previous entries:
Douro River Valley Tour 4b: Lunch in Peso da Regua at Restaurante Douro In
Douro River Valley Tour 4a: The flood in Peso da Regua
Douro River Valley Tour 3: Wine, Cheese and Presunto tasting in Lamego
Douro River Valley Tour 2: A rainy and misty 'Douro viewing point' stop
Douro River Valley Tour 1: Amarante village, Vinho Verde (green wine) and some Travel Agency rant
I want to adopt a cat
Recently I went out with Blondine for lunch at a really nice chic place in Amsterdam but will post more about this another time soon. So I picked her up in Amstelveen and when we went back to the car, we had a little surprise. Look who's waiting for us!
Awww, isn't she just soooo cute? I want to squeeze and pinch her.
This very relaxed cat was lying there like there is going to be no tomorrow. Seriously, the cat looked like she was having the best time in her life, lying on her back leisurely, no cares in this world, wriggling and rubbing her back. Even with our presence she was not moving away, she was just not budging! And she continues to wriggle and rub her back against the car, her head upside down and her eyes looking straight at me. If those teardrop green eyes could talk, she must have said, 'I haven't had lunch yet... can I come with you ladies please?'
Sorry Miss Cat but we cannot bring you with us to our lunch, so we need to get you down! Miss Cat protested but she eventually got down, albeit grudgingly.
I will let you in a secret wish. I really, really, really want to have a cat. Unfortunately, we don't know where to leave the cat when we are travelling. Dutchman argues that leaving the cat somewhere else, like an animal hospice is not healthy. He said cats are territorial and thus prefer to stay where they are.
Hmm, we could actually ask our neighbours, but Dutchman and I are not the type of people to inconvenience others. It's not us to ask favours from other people.
Helaas, I will just keep on dreaming until I find a solution.
Amsteleveen, The Netherlands
July
Awww, isn't she just soooo cute? I want to squeeze and pinch her.
This very relaxed cat was lying there like there is going to be no tomorrow. Seriously, the cat looked like she was having the best time in her life, lying on her back leisurely, no cares in this world, wriggling and rubbing her back. Even with our presence she was not moving away, she was just not budging! And she continues to wriggle and rub her back against the car, her head upside down and her eyes looking straight at me. If those teardrop green eyes could talk, she must have said, 'I haven't had lunch yet... can I come with you ladies please?'
Sorry Miss Cat but we cannot bring you with us to our lunch, so we need to get you down! Miss Cat protested but she eventually got down, albeit grudgingly.
I will let you in a secret wish. I really, really, really want to have a cat. Unfortunately, we don't know where to leave the cat when we are travelling. Dutchman argues that leaving the cat somewhere else, like an animal hospice is not healthy. He said cats are territorial and thus prefer to stay where they are.
Hmm, we could actually ask our neighbours, but Dutchman and I are not the type of people to inconvenience others. It's not us to ask favours from other people.
Helaas, I will just keep on dreaming until I find a solution.
Amsteleveen, The Netherlands
July
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Search terms
Further down, there are fifteen other variations on the yellow fuzzy caterpillar theme, and even more versions with misspellings of caterpillar or yellow.
This topic came up the other night at the Blount County Blogger dinner... what is the top search term for your blog? Mine tends to vary seasonally, but year in and year out, the overall winner is always... yellow fuzzy caterpillar.
Blue snake usually comes in second.
I used to look at my stats compulsively, but these days I tend to forget for weeks at a time. So if anyone's sent me a rash of traffic, I apologize for not thanking you properly. The stats roll over after about a day, since I'm cheap and don't pay for the extended version.
We also talked about answering comments, and I admitted that I'd been kind of slack in that regard, especially lately. If I've ignored your comment, it wasn't on purpose. I just tend to put things off, or get started doing something else, and then forget. I wish there were a pill for that.
-----
Who else was at the dinner?
countrypeapie
Edifice Rex
The Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore
and a friend who I'm trying to convince to blog.
The Country Experience couldn't make it this time, but we hope to see her next week, as well as mountainmelody and WhoKnowsWhat.
Friday, July 18, 2014
Dachstein Wool
Don't hate me because I still have an original ;-) They made two versions, a "standard" as shown and a Lwt version. Significant price difference back in the day between the two. I first bought the Lwt version telling myself it was "thinner" and more useful.Both were stout versions of a "sweater". But not moth proof which was my sweater's demise. I now think I made a mistake on the thin version as being more useful.
Funny thing about the Dachstein's. I first saw the mitts in the local climbing shop and the early '70s GPIW catalog. Likely the only way to keep your hand warm in really cold weather back then. I went through half a dozenpairs over the years. And I later used them in combination with other mitts (generally Helly Hanson pile lined shells) up till the early'80s.
Dachstein mitts and the luxurious gloves (not the GPIW Walker wool gloves mind you) were the bomb back in the day. Still are if you have a use for them. Fun to see Andy Turner climb with Dave MacLeod whileusingDachstein mitts and Nomics..
Mil Spec version above.
Mitts "shrink to fit with use".My size Euro sized 52 Dachstein weighs in at 3# 4 oz. So it is no light weight. A jacket of comparable performance (well sort of comparable anyway) is the Arcteryx Atom Lt @ ajust over 14.4 oz. Well less than a 1/3 in weight.
But it isn't just the numbers that tell the story here. The Dachstein sweater can be a decent rain jacket, an amazingly good wind shell,a stretchable and extremely breathable layer all in one. Someof the weight just gets ignored. But no question you notice you have something on! Stuck out side for an unplanned over night? The Dachsteinis the garment I'd choose. May be not for all the time use but it is fun once in a while in the right conditions. Cold, dryand windy?
Herman Buhl used one.
Michael Kennedy did as well. Here after thenight out, on the 1st ascent of the Ames Ice Hose.
Photo courtesy of the "Lou Dawson, Steve Shea, and Michael Kennedy" collection found online.I dumped mine for the first Patagonia red pile. Now I have all sorts of climbing sweaters I really like. The SherpaAGear, Mantra is one, the E. Bauer Hooded Down Pullover another along with the Arcteryx Atom Lt. All different weights and materials but all useable.
But none of the "sweaters" named besides the Dachsteinwill I throw over a synthetic t shirt (don't believe anyone who tells you boiled wool doesn't itch. It does.) and wearsidehill skiing in marginal NW spring weatheras my only piece of clothing onmy upper body.
And be happy doing it!
Well happy till it is totally full of water anyway ;-) Not sure I could pack the 50# around of a totally soaked Dachstein.. Better used where it won't rain all day on you I suspect. But this sweateris the"original soft shell". It will still do most of what we required and do it better than even the best of the new versions of "climbing sweater". Not everywhere mind you. But not the worn out old war horse to be abandoned either.
Mountain 33 (March 1974.) No photo credit given.More here on that story:http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?tn=20&topic_id=395619The retro kool factor can not be denied. Like how many guys do you know that have actually even seen a Dachstein sweater let alone worn one? EBs in Bard's "hopeful" hands BITD in case you wondered.
All is not lost. The Austrian Armycontracted to havemanufacturedboth pull over and zip front Dachstein sweaters for years. Also known as the "GUIDE" version. Those can be had on the after market for reasonable prices these days. ORTOVOX now sells the gloves and mitts of boiled wool. And they are nice. But they aren't of the same quality as the originals imo. But they are close!
Places to find the "Dachstein" versions still available? Often times a Google search for "Austrian Military wool sweater" will bring surplus military sweaters up as well.. These things rock as the ultimatewool sweater. $40 plus shipping seems to be the going price as I write this on Ebay and online for the surplus version, used and new. Last made in the early '80s I believe. Likely the best $40 you'll ever spend for usable but somewhat funky climbing clothing
Current sources for Dachstein style wool items:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280657136079
http://www.ortovox.com/classic-wool
http://www.bradleyalpinist.com/dachstein.html
MEN'S sizing conversions off the Internet which seems to fit my 52 Dachstein / 42 US conversion
Suits and overcoats
European 46 48 50 52 54 56 58
UK 36 38 40 42 44 46 48
USA 36 38 40 42 44 46 48
size 52 is:
63" wrist to wrist
24" arm pit to arm pit
19" at the waist
The military surplus siz largeI just bought but haven't seen yet is:
62"
22.5"
19"
Close enough to a size 42 to work for me.
A Dachstein sweater won't replace anything I own or get very used oftenbut they are a fun bit of quality kit that isn't easy available today.
A short history of the Dachstein area:
http://www.ramsau.com/en/information/history.html
More on the modern sweater versions here:
http://coldthistle.blogspot.com//12/climbing-sweater.html
http://coldthistle.blogspot.com//04/patagonia-nano-puff-pull-over.html
http://coldthistle.blogspot.com//02/arcteryx-atom-lt-hoodyjust-how-good-is.html
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