Weekly walks with Uncle Charles

The Beloved Husband's uncle lives very close to us, and he's a brilliant man. He taught at Penn State many years ago (I want to say he was the Dean of their Geology department, but I'm sure I have it at least a little wrong...), and he still has a love of teaching. Charles loves his grand-nieces, and is enjoying introducing the Darling Munchkin to all sorts of good stuff, now that we live close by.

Yesterday, we took a walk up to his place to enjoy his irises, and he took us on a little tramp around the property. Unfortunately, I couldn't take as many pictures as I wanted, because my little Sony was in her death throes. Nevertheless, I did coax a last few photos out of her, and I hope you enjoy them, too.

Charles is really a brilliant man; I haven't come up against any topic that he doesn't know at least something about. As I said, he has a love of teaching - he must have been wonderful in the classroom! - and really enjoys answering questions. I'm hoping to do this regularly over the summer, longer if possible, and post about all the fascinating information he gives us. I will have to remember, though, to a) wear my hiking boots for ankle support, and b) make sure I'm dosed up on my allergy medications!

One thing that's blooming around here right now, and which I did NOT photograph (baaaaad Kat!), is the honeysuckle. It's beautiful! The flowers are white, pink, and yellow - sometimes on the same vine - and it smells heavenly! Of course, that's probably what's giving my sinuses fits right now, but... Anyway, I'll make sure to take some pictures when my new camera gets here.

We walked up the Charles' place and gave our co-dependant dog, Tasha, a treat by taking her with us. Of course, you can't see her in this picture, but it does give you an idea of how... rustic our area is! This road runs between our property and Charles' - ours is on the right in this picture, with our house about, oh, 100 yards off this section of the road.

I suppose it's about a fifth, maybe a quarter mile walk to Charles' house. It's lovely; all shaded and quiet and private. That's one very nice thing about living where we do: we've got 18 acres of PRIVACY!!! No one's looking over our shoulder. Mmmm!

Here's a shot of a lovely old wild rose of some type or another. We originally thought that it was a blackberry, since we have blackberries growing all over. The flowers looked just the same, but the leaves were much smoother and less crinkly than the blackberries. Also, the thorn pattern was a little different. Charles said it's no surprise that we confused them, since this rose and blackberries are in the same family.

These roses bear very little resemblance to what you find in a florist's chop. As you see, they're tiny, and only have one layer of petals. And their scent!! My gosh, do longstem roses really even have an aroma any more? These small beauties, however, have a lovely, delicate scent that drifts out from the plant and just lures you in for a deep sniff.

Egad, I hope these guys aren't responsible for my aching sinuses! Yup. Call the Doc tomorrow - time to get back on Allegra, and maybe go for allergy testing... *blech!*

Finally - well, not finally, but for the last photos I was able to take - we got up to Charles' iris patch.

It's very cool the way the leaves of the iris grow out like a fan, all flattened. I wasn't able to get a good shot, but it looks very cool!

Charles also took us over to his little bog and showed us some pitcher plants, several lush ferns, and some water irises (I think that's what he said they were). He also has a gingko tree, and some Mahonia (Oregon Grape). He also has some... horsetail? broom weed?... I forgot what he called it, but it was a little bush, with droopy, willow-like "branches" that had tiny leaves and beautiful little flowers, yellow with dark orange or brown centers. I think he mentioned that he has some papyrus, and I know he's got some lily pads in a little teeny pond...

... Good gracious, Charles has a LOT of stuff! I'm looking forward to my new camera's arrival, because I've got a LOT of pictures I want to take.

Anyway, that's all for now - I've got to take care of my poor, sore nose!

UPDATE: Suddenly I notice that I repeated myself several times (brilliant, cool!) in this post. I blame the Claritin: it can't clear up my allergies, but it certainly confuzzles me!