A Note From the Road: Road Trip Colorado - Ancient Wall - RD N - Cortez CO

-
Bricks as old as Greensted Church
Wall ruins
Ancient Wall - RD N Cortez CO

Back in Cortez, Colorado Mom:

This time at the Canyon of the Ancients - it amazes me those whole communities existed and thrived here - the desert is quite inhospitable.

Their walls are still standing.  How many modern buildings will have that type of longevity.

xoxo a.d.


Location: Mesa Verde National Park, Mesa Verde, CO, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Routes to Mount Everest and Sunflowers - Macro Photography

-
Image
Dear Henry,

I am sure that by now you have seen the photo of the lines getting to the summit of Mount Everest. 

Part of this congestion is caused by the lack of routes to the summit, while there are currently 20 named routes to the top, only two are feasible for the guides and widespread use.

Those two, especially in recent years, as mountaineering has become more popular, have seen heavy traffic.

Two guides, Cory Richards and Esteban "Topo" Mena are trying to ease some of that congestion.  They are creating a new route to the summit.

The process, due to the narrow climbing window and the difficulty of the undertaking, it may take several years for the route to be established.  The process is painstaking, slow, and quite dangerous. When it does, it will hopefully ease up the traffic jams to the summit.

As a side note, I noticed that Topo Mena worked as a guide for Alpenglow Expeditions, an expedition company that does NOT use supplemental oxygen for their Mount Everest exp…
Read more

Iguana, It's What's For Dinner and Coneflowers - Macro Photography

-
Image
Dear Henry,

Have you ever heard of the green iguana?  A common reptile in Central and South America it has now become an invasive species in the Carribean, Puerto Rico, and Florida.

In Florida, the iguana problem is especially bad.

The green iguana lacks a natural predator in Florida and their population has exploded.  Their burrowing nests will undermine sidewalks, building foundations, and roadways.  They grow up to six feet long and they poo everywhere.

Florida has declared them a nuisance and is encouraging homeowners to eradicate any they find.

To help encourage Floridians to take part in the widespread culling of the iguana, it's culinary capabilities are being publicized.

Apparently, iguana tastes like chicken. (What doesn't taste like chicken?)

A quick internet search brought up a bunch of recipes - from an Iguana Pazole found on eattheinvaders.org to Guyana's Iguana Stew and it appears that any chicken recipe could be easily adapted.

I like the exploration into d…
Read more

Mushrooms, Mushrooms, Everywhere - Boletus Tylopilus - Macro Photography

-
Image
Dear Henry,

This is one of the Tylopilus versions of the Bolete mushroom.  They are gorgeous, with deep purple caps and, like most boletes, are non-toxic (there is a bolete with red spores which is said to be dangerous.  They don't appear to be wide-spread and I haven't seen one).

There is, however, a huge variation in the edibility of "non-toxic".

Any bolete with a purple cap tastes awful and by awful, I mean so bitter that your tongue tingles.  You could not eat this mushroom, not even if you are starving.
Ask me how I know.

You see, once, Fish and I, armed with the "all boletes are non-toxic", picked, sauteed, and attempted to eat one. They smelled heavenly while cooking.  They taste horrific. The taste is so bad that we were afraid we had misidentified the mushroom.

I hear (unverified and unresearched) that they are a component of bitters.  I did, however, make a joke about eating one on social media and I should not have.  Anyone who tries to eat one …
Read more