Very Short Sighted

http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article3098854.ece

 

 

The One About Trainspotters

Notwithstanding what I said yesterday, and because both Will and Beth came here yesterday, I had to write something today.

 

One of the fascinations of travelling on the train to and from work is at one of the intermediate stations that we call at.  This station is at an interchange of several lines, it's also a goods yard and next door to a repair depot.  Suffice to say it is busy, there are lots of trains of all shapes and sizes coming and going.  It also has more than one or two trainspotters.

 

Now I know that I have joked before about turning into a trainspotter myself, but that was because I thought they were a dying / dead breed.  Boy was I wrong!

 

Traditionalist:  Anorak, bobble-hat, spiral-bound notebook, opera glasses.

 

Geek:  Goretex jacket & goretex Mountain cap (Lowe Alpine or North Face), PDA/Smartphone, Nightvision monocular (as used by Jack Bauer in 24).

 

Hardcore:  Either of the above with camping chair, insulated mug / thermosflask.

 

Newbie:  Notebook, and squint ('coz no binos)

 

Social butterfly:  Notebook, binos casually slung around neck, not really watching the trains, spends most time talking to fellow spotters - possibly regaling them with stories of trains of yore.

 

I could never be a hardcore trainspotter myself, but perhaps I might be a geek.  For now I'll stick to travelling on the train - I don't think I could handle anymore standing on platforms than I already do, but you never know.  Where did I put my PDA?

 

 

Still Here

I'm still here, but I just haven't had time to post properly for ages.  I'd like to tell you all about trainspotters I have met, about the frogs living in our garden and all sorts of other things.  To do so at the moment however would almost certainly mean incoherent posts which don't do the subjects justice.

 

Therefore, unless things change, I am holding off from significant posting until Christmas, sorry.  Makes me feel guilty, after all the upheaval etc of moving blogs, but other calls on my time are more pressing at the moment. 

 

I'll be back.

Concern

Those of you who follow my twitterings will know that my GF has gotten a new bike. You might also be aware of the ongoing twitter debate between us about whether or not she should wear a cycle helmet or not when riding her bike.

Now I know that part of my concern is irrational. You see when I was about 12 I was knocked off my bike on my paper-round. Not my fault, was hit from behind by some driver who was up too early and half-asleep. I now will rarely ride a bike anywhere. The roads are busier and more dangerous than when I was 12 so the risk is greater, right? The irrational bit is thinking that something similar or worse, will happen to my GF.

The rational bit says that she needs the bike to make getting to work easier or at least a little quicker. Not being a driver (no licence), and now having moved from an evening to a daytime shift there is no one to give her a lift at least one-way.

The irrational bit is not helped by the whole helmet thing or the fact that when I picked up the bike it was supposed to have been assembled by professionals who know what they are doing. All I can say is that they might have been professionals but not in building bikes. Even I can spot the fact that the headset (handlebars) turn without turning the front wheel, and I'm not a rocket scientist.

Anyway hopefully I can calm my irrational fears, hopefully my GF will wear her helmet, hopefully nothing bad will happen.

Housekeeping

New sitemeter code added.

Blogroll's revised (but not quite right yet)!

Out of Touch

Feel a little like the world has been passing me by for a few days. With the mad scamper to Brussels and back, and then a busy weekend I've not had much time to sit down and do "stuff". You know - "stuff"! Blog, read blogs, check out how the gardens getting on, decide which book to read next (an ever ongoing challenge), read and reply to emails.

This week however I am on leave, i.e. no work, plenty of time then for all that "stuff", but no, still time seems to be passing me by. I guess most of my "stuff" involves not doing very much, and so consequently I feel guilty.

Take this morning for example. I thought I would sit and do some housekeeping on the blog. It's still not quite how I want it, kind of a skin that doesn't fit properly yet. I wanted to sort out my blogroll - having separated out the wildlife blogs I also wanted to separate out, and give more prominence to those blogs I read regularly, which are in my opinion the best blogs in the world ever. To undermine my plan however is the fact that blogrolling is down and I can't log-in. Similarly I want to add my Sitemeter code, but can't remember my password, and the retrieve by email has yet to send me it. Therefore I guess in the meantime, I'll have to make do with this simple post and come back and finish off the housekeeping another time.

I'm Back!

Did you miss me?

Back from Brussels, having won an award for project management. For now will leave you with this stitched together panorama taken from the roof of the military museum in the centre of the city.

Even better, I am on leave all this week!

Train Spotting

I think I am turning into a train spotter.  Where did I put my anorak?

Hello?

The downside of switching blogs is that you loose readers.  That's quite sad.  I never had loads but sadly now I seem to have two or maybe three.  There is/was a running joke about the number of readers that one blogger had/has (come on Will admit it you have more than two now)!  Sadly I think I might have to take up that mantle for a while, at least until things pick up!

 

Anyway just stopped by to say that I'm off to Brussels tomorrow until the weekend, and probably won't have time or internet access to post - so there probably won't be much difference to the posting rate around here while I'm gone.  ttfn

A Full Day

We haven't had a Saturday like it for a while, no commitments. We had been indecisive all week about what we should do. We thought about heading to the outdoor store for new wet weather gear, but monies were a little tight following car repairs, so had put that idea to one side. We thought about getting in the car and going somewhere for a nice long walk, but because that had involved driving, had put that idea to one side (we wanted to do something as low impact as possible). What about a DVD fest', we thought? We do after all have a whole list of films we want to watch or watch again, but the weather forecast was good, and we decided not to waste the good weather.

"What about exploring the other side of the creek?" I had suggested. So that was what we did. We packed light, planning to walk via the bakery on the edge of the town centre to provision and then cut back. I checked my camera, and found that the batteries in my SLR were flat, and we had no spares for my small compact digital. I will never be a professional photographer!

We walked through the park, under the railway. Once provisioned with sausage rolls and doughnuts, all freshly baked that morning and still warm from the oven, we headed off.

We had to stop en-route so that I could loosen my left boot, for some reason my foot was hurting, but slackening the laces seemed to help. We headed around the path on the creek edge. As you can see the path trails around the edge of a golf course. At times we felt like we were running "snipers alley", as over-hit drives missed greens and headed through the scrub that protected us and onward towards the creek.

We walked around and found a spot to stop for our lunch, we combed the beach for anything interesting, and watched the boats leaving on the rising tide for an afternoon sail.

We returned slowly, picking some the abundant blackberries that lined either side of the path. Ripe and sweet. As we walked and picked we discussed the rest of the day. We decided to make the most of what we had gathered, and also the sloes that were already picked and in the freezer. Our return journey took us via the town for sugar, and the pub for a quick pint.

When we got back home we started our blackberry and apple sauce. Sloe gin, blackberry vodka, and generally laid waste to the kitchen. These all now require time before they are ready for the next step.

We did catch a DVD in the evening, and then retired to bed to read. Unfortunately my foot is now very sore, I think it must be the boot because I've not had a problem with it before. I did try and anaesthetise it with some of last years Sloe gin, and as a reminder of why a sore foot will be worth it in the long run.

New Resident at No10

Introducing Sybil

Enthusiasm

Something that I seem to lack at the moment, when it came to writing blog posts.

 

Since being discovered, and I don't mean in the nice sense, and having to shift blogs, I keep wondering whether I have truly shaken off my discoverer.  For as I have gone into hiding, so probably have they.  It means that when I come to write something here, I don't, because I don't want that one person to read what I've written.  I guess that sounds kinda daft, but there you go.

 

So for the time being at least expect sporadic posting.  Sorry

Bookworm

Here's is one of those jobs that you start and then wish you hadn't. We literally have hundreds of books, and it is difficult to part with any of them. From time to time they cause the shelves to bulge at the edges, and normally at that point it is time to have a sort through.

Some become Bookcrossing books, but most go back on the shelves, slightly re-ordered, but better stacked, and neater and tidier. Today however I feel we have reached a tipping point. No matter how hard I try they won't all go back on. It's time to face facts. We have more books than we have bookshelf space for. Something will have to give.

We need more shelves!

Archnaphobia

For the arachnaphobes amongst you.

Weekends are all too short

Never enough time at the weekend. We've been busier than normal due to the number of things delayed as a result of an unreliable car. We managed fine without it all week and I dare say could have done all of the other things that we saved until it was back on the road. The problem with it turned out to be a sensor which was part of the engine management unit, it was faulty and therefore not telling the EMU what to do, ergo the car wouldn't start.

With friends around yesterday, that has left us just today, to go to the pet store to stock up on dog food, garden bird food, and other odds and ends. Plant some seeds, in our newly sorted vegetable border, having spent the bank holiday weekend transplanting what was previously there to other parts of the garden.

The highlight of our weekend, will be, as it always is, a long walk with the dog, followed by a proper Sunday dinner. Then sadly it is back to work tomorrow.

Wild Twitterings

Now twittering as wildtales - I'd be pleased if you want to follow me at Twitter

Starting from Scratch

Been a while since I have had to start a-fresh. If you have found your way here, chances are you "know me" from another blog. Simply I have had to leave that home because I think someone I work with "found me". I blame Facebook. That's all I am going to say and leave it at that.

For the time being I am leaving the other blog in place, just in case there are other readers who haven 't yet seen the last post there, and might still want to read my inane witterings.

So why "Wild Tales"? Well because I wanted to write more about the world around me, and names like Urban Wildlife etc were all taken. (Note to self: Must check out some of the names that were taken, you never know where you inspiration might come from). For now I consider this site a work in progress, although if I'm truthful it always will be. I enjoy writing. I profess that perhaps I'm not that good at it, but then as the saying goes; "Practice makes perfect." As you might also know, I don't always have that much time for it either, so maybe a new home will make me write more (no please don't, I hear you cry)!

In terms of the rest of this page, structure etc I'll probably keep adding, changing things I see blogger has changed somewhat, and there is all sorts of cool stuff to play with.

Anyway, welcome. Pull up a chair by the fire. Pour a glass of wine, beer, mug of tea.

Close Encounters of the Wild Kind

While we were walking the dog yesterday in our local forest, we came across a pack of 'Brownies' (the girl scout variety, not the chocolate version). They were walking in a long crocodile and making loads of noise.

When I led school groups on forest hikes, there were times when we all walked as close to silent as we could get, to see what we could see. Often this meant that we would see far more wildlife than if we were walking normally. I say normally because it's actually very difficult to walk silently if there are twenty of you and most are under sixteen! Anyway I digress.

As the brownies approached I saw just off the path less than 50 metres away a young female roe deer. She was in the open and standing stock still watching the brownies approach, I don't think she'd seen us. Quickly I clipped the dog back on his lead (he doesn't tend to chase deer but I didn't want to take a chance). As the brownies drew level with us I put a finger to my lips and pointed, heads swivelled as slowly one at a time mouths fell open in amazement. Magical.

The deer stood for a while and then eventually turned and walked back under cover.

Later that evening I had a second close encounter. I was sitting in our conservatory looking out at the garden, when a large shadow came overhead. Surprised I looked up to see a heron landing on our garage roof. Now he's probably the one who's been killing the fish in our pond, but nevertheless I wanted to get a picture. I didn't manage it, he flew off (fish-less, I hasten to add), before I could get the camera organised.