Shrubs

Daphne
Colesville has

Daphne transatlantica Summer Ice

Daphne burkwoodii Carol Mackie

both hybrids hardy further north than the pure odora strains.  Deer-resistant.

Crossing the Patagonian Andes by land

We began at 10am yesterday from Hotel Altuen at km 7.5 west of Bariloche, a beautiful day with a few clouds towards the Andes.  After a few tens of minutes our bus arrived at Puerto Panuelo, near the Llao Llao hotel complex where we boarded a crowded catamaran to head up the Blest arm of Lake Nahuel Huapi, the largest lake in Chile, very deep (1500 feet) and cold (50F) and extremely clear.  The catamaran cruised for an hour up the steep-walled glacial valley, draped with waterfalls, trees and signs of ancient landslides to the hamlet of Puerto Blest, which insofar as I could tell consisted of a single building.  Most folks were on a day cruise and after several hours of examining that building or perhaps hiking they would proceed to see a cataract and return to Puerto Paneulo at nightfall.  About a dozen intrepid adventurers would board a bus for the short unpaved hop along the glacial Rio Frias to Lago Frias, to board another boat for the 20 minute journey to Puerto Allegre, our port of departure from Argentina.  There were several aboard from our previous lake journey who had decided to enjoy another cruise.  Lago Frias was another glacial valley, carved by the glaciers from looming Cerro Tronador, at nearly 13000 feet the highest mountain in these parts of the Andes.  The cliffs along the lake were very sheer, the water a glacial greenish color.  High on Tronador, one could see the glaciers, one of which fed our lake, another of which fed the river we would descend after crossing the Andes. 

Again a single building, the customs office and immigration.  We checked out of Argentina and boarded our second bus bound for Chilean customs somewhat over an hour away in Puella, Chile, crossing into Vincente Perez Rosales National Park.  The road was unpaved and sinuous through a southern forest with abundant tall slender trees.  Noteworthy among the trees were ones I believe the guide identified as coihue--a grand tall tree, and arayan, a red-trunked tree much like the Texas madrone or crepe myrtle back home.  After a while there were abundant ferns lining the road and dense stands of Chilean bamboo.  There were also giant-leaved shrubs which I believe were called nalca. The guide said that the stems could be eaten like celery.  We hoped we would not be driven to such despair.

Shortly we reached the pass, the site of the border into Chile, where we posed for photos under the signs at an elevation of perhaps 1000 meters.  On the other side, we plunged into the Puella River Valley.  Fed by another of Tronador's glaciers, clearly visible along the road, the river ran along canyons clearly dug by the glacier itself in its younger more spectacular days.  The walls of the valley reminded my of Yosemite, some sheer cliffs laced with waterfalls from the snow cover visible on the peaks above.  After a while, we reached Puella itself, a hamlet of 120 souls, the border station where we entered Chile, a post office, the derelict hotel Puella, and the Hotel Natura where we would be the second guests for the night.  Next day we would board another bus to the ship which would take us across Lago Todos los Santos south beneath the Osorno volcano to our final bus, which would transport us around Lago Llanquihue to Puerto Varas, our destination at the southwest side of the lake.

Planted Weber's Parrot tulips on either side of the walk to the front door, and another variety of parrot tulip (blumex) at the west end of the front porch, all in front of the boxwoods where I thought they would get good sun in addition to protection from wind.

I also planted some blue Iris in the garden to the left of the garage, among other iris.  One variety was called Alaskan Seas blue (two), the other mixed bearded iris. These were from van Bourgondien

Visit to Patagonia

We'll drive to Richmond for a flight to Houston, followed by the overnight flight to Buenos Aires.   We land at the international airport and will transfer downtown, about an hour away, to the Hotel Boutique Recoleta. 

Recoleta is a downtown residential neighborhood in the city of  Buenos Aires, Argentina; it is an area of great historical and architectural interest, principally because the Recoleta Cemetery is located there. It is also an important tourist destination and cultural center of the city.  It is also considered one of the more affluent neighborhoods, and the cost per square meter/foot of real estate is one of the highest in the city.  it is the district chosen by the most exclusive brands in the world, plenty of art galleries, restaurants, museums and exhibition centers. There are excellent restaurants with outdoor seating allowing patrons to enjoy the December sunshine and warmth.  Steaks are world-famous and affordable and Argentinian wine flows freely.  Nate and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner in Recoleta on our visit to BA.  Many tango lyrics reflect life in the Recoleta neighborhood. See the Naional Geographic walking tour.

The hotel is a suites hotel.  Our 25m²-one-room suite is decorated with contemporary furniture and fully equipped. Single or double bed, kitchenette (including dishware, portable stove, convection oven and mini-bar with in-room refreshments) complements a fully-equipped bathroom with bathtub.

The next day (8th) we will take an afternoon flight from the nearby national airport to San Carlos de Bariloche, the jewel of Patagonia, which sits amongst Andean lakes.  We'll stay at the lakefront Hosteria del Lago  in the lively downtown area with views of the Andes across Nahuel Huapi Lake.  On the 10th we will begin our journey to Chile with a boat excursion across the lake then a short bus ride then another lake crossing in the high Andes to Peulla.  We spend the night at Hotel Natura Patagonia or Hotel Peulla, leaving the next afternoon for sailing on Lake Todos los Santos.  Afterwards we visit the Falls of Petrohué enjoying the capricious shapes of volcanic rock, bathed in green waterfalls before continuing on the border of Lake Llanquihue, Chile's largest lake, Towering over the lake is Osorno Volcano providing breathtaking views. We arrive at the conference where we are staying at Dreams of the Volcanoes Hotel.  The conference continues through 15th December; we have Sunday 16 Dec free.  We leave from nearby Puerto Montt on the 17th, flying though Santiago, Buenos Aires and Houston back to Richmond, arriving at 10am on the 18th.

October Oysters

Sorting the 500 oysters, larger ones in the bucket, smaller ones on the left.

Darby and I sort oysters.

A great deal of life enlivens the oyster environment including this worm--we tried to wash them away.

Some of the larger oysters could be eaten now.

Emptying the oyster bag for sorting,

We hauled the oysters out for what may be their last inspection of 2012 as the water temperatures dip into the 60s.  Many of the oysters are getting fairly large now though a fair number remain small so I sorted them into big and little.  I cleaned out the Taylor float--it had a lot of growth including Filamentous algae which I scraped off as best I could.  I then place the larger oysters in a layer on the bottom of the float and put the smaller ones back in the more finely netted insert atop the other oysters.  I only dessicated the oysters and float for about two hours.  I cleaned off as many secondary organisms--mostly the sea grapes--as I could.  There were about two dozen small oysters which had perished.  Then I threw them into the Creek while I shouted Oysters Overboard! 

I moved the float to the shady northern side of the pier in order to try to cut back the algal growth.  With the sun low for the winter it isn't possible to get it very far under the pier but hopefully growth is curtailed in the winter months. 

Oyster update

Checked on the oysters today, a cool and blustery day after a front came through after dark last night.  We had some Rappahannock River oysters, some Stingray Point oysters and some Old Salts yesterday at Merroir  at Locklies.  One delicious one had two babies on his back so I brought them home to lie in my oyster pot.  I checked up on it though it has only been two weeks since the last checkup.  They look fine, about 2-2.5" in size.  

I also put the crab pots out just before sunset last night.  Remarkably, we have seven crabs at noon the next day.  Sweet red pepper and crab soup?  or just pick them?  This may be the last crabbing of the season, this first full day of Fall.

Autmn begins

Photo by Ann Wootten

Oyster update

On Memorial Day 2011 I bought an oyster float and young oysters (spat) from oystergardner.com and secured them under my dock.  They had reached about 1.5" size when Hurricane Irene struck.  Although the float remained, the oysters were all gone (they were in an insert).  As the package weighed at least ten pounds, I rather suspect they were stolen but in any event they were gone.

In May 2012 I bought a new bag of spat from Tom and placed them into the float.  By July they had grown nicely and I moved them up to the next larger size insert.  This weekend they were ready for the next larger size insert, as they had grown to 1.5-2" in size (most of them anyway).  The insert plus its cargo now weighs about ten pounds--a fair amount of CO2 has been converted to calcium carbonate!  Besides decreasing the atmospheric carbon load, the oysters also filter and clean the Bay.  These are located at the confluence of Sturgeon Creek with the Rappahannock River, near the River's confluence with the Bay.  One can see the float and the insert in the photo--a later photo of the hummingbird feeder shows the waterways flowing together to the Chesapeake Bay in the distance.

Here you can see the oysters in the old insert, which is covered in growths.  There are also small crabs, worms of various kinds, sea grapes (gelatinous creatures--(Molgula manhattensis)), sea lice, shrimp, barnacles and goo.  I transferred the oysters into a new insert with a larger mesh which should allow better circulation.

Here they are migrating to the new mesh insert.  For scale, the boards on the pier are 6" wide.  The larger oysters have already grown to about 2" in size.  When this began in May they were the size of my pinky nail and all 500 fit into a tiny bag the size of my fist.

Finally they are all in, fastened and ready to go back into the drink.  They had been on the beach for about two hours, recommended as although they oysters can exist happily out of water that long, some worms which are their predators cannot, so the theory is that the worms die during this time.
Now I restored them to the float for the next month or so of growth, at which point I'll bring them out again, rinse them off and wipe out another set of worms.  Oops!  Three smaller fellows remained in the old float.  Some of the oysters didn't grow as well as others.  Perhaps that is because they are crowded.  I decided to put these smaller three into a separate insert, an old onion bag.

You can see how much smaller these were.  In fact, there were some smaller still.  We will see if they can catch up on their growth in this more commodious accommodation.
It is the end of the season for many migratory birds, so I made up a new batch of nectar for the hummingbirds after cleaning out their feeder.  They may be gone the next time I get down to Slacktide.

Lastly I decided to harvest the apples.  All three of them.  Well, actually, only two.  The best one is always just out of reach.  I had one for lunch--it was delicious.  The only other nearby apple tree is about 500 feet away and is in the last stage of its life, so mine didn't get much pollen this year.  I need to plant another tree if I want more fruit!

The flowers bloom

Most of the bulbs have bloomed now. Here is a view as of 15 March. The Webber's Parrot tulips also bloomed.