Some photos

I think it's time we had some pictures here. These are some that I took on a visit to my grandparents. A lone cow. The local poplar plantation (one of many). A lone sheep. I would make these pictures bigger, but Blogger doesn't like me uploading them any larger than 'small'. It's probably for the best, as the camera used for these shots is getting fairly old (for a camera). Anyway, enjoy!

The marvels of technology

As people go, I'm quite good at hoarding the most ridiculous pieces of junk ever seen by man.* One of them, however, has become rather a favourite of mine. In essence, it is an ancient static electricity generator. By pumping the handle on it as hard and fast as you can, you are supposed to be able to generate a very pleasing spark between two pieces of wire quite close to each other. For reasons unknown, it no longer works, but for reasons even less known you can still get a fair zap out of a strange and presumably meaningless piece of protruding metal that I swear wasn't there before. It will quite happily give a mild jolt to anything vaguely conductive which, to my not-entirely-pleasant surprise, includes me. With a bit of hard work I found that I could create a most satisfactory arc between the metal and my finger, albeit quite painful on my part. Although it's all very well being able to charge yourself up from time to time, I wouldn't recommend it. Not of course, that everyone has a pump-handle-spark 'n' shock-generator. * Or woman, for that matter.

Part Six: The head volunteers

 Late that evening a figure crept furtively up to the pavilion, grumbling as it went. The headmaster rubbed his hands together and half-heartedly attempted to bring down a curse on all teaching staff. He’d never seen such a bunch of wimps! It was amazing; he thought bitterly, how quickly someone could contract a contagious disease.  Eventually, he reached the pavilion and cautiously peered in through a knot in the wood. There seemed to be someone – or something – in there, but he couldn’t make it out what it was. That didn’t matter, he would teach the blighter a lesson anyway. Drawing deeply from his courage reserves, he stormed in.  “Come out of there now, you filthy scoundrel!” he cried, with a commanding air that surprised even him. “I know you’re in there!” he added as an afterthought. Suddenly, there was a loud crack from the doorpost beside him as though something had hit it. Whatever had hit it, it then proceeded to hit the headmaster’s leg. “@§%¶¿ªǂɿ!” He yelled, utilising the author’s character set to its full extent. Slowly the pain in his leg turned to numbness, lifeless numbness that spread all through his body. As it reached his head, he gradually slumped to the ground.  “That bounder is going to pay for it when I…” Then a loud thud. Then silence.

Being Green

Actually, it's easier than it's made out to be. Here, for example, are some of the things we do to keep green:

1. Composting: We have, as you've probably guessed from my last post, a compost bin. And, as compost bins go, it's a pretty good one. You put garden waste in one end and (eventually) lovely, nutrient rich compost comes out the other. But you probably knew that. What you probably didn't know is my 3 Interesting Things you can Do with your Compost Bin. They are:
   1. With only some ping pong balls, an egg whisk, a sink plunger, a broom handle, a broken web cam and some imagination, you can make it into a Dalek.
   2. You can harvest flies from it to feed your pet tarantula (if you have one).
   3. You can, at the right temperature, grow mushrooms of varying toxicity in it.
   But most importantly, you can improve your green credentials. Would you rather let your clippings rot into an insubstantial, useless and foul smelling mush at the bottom of a landfill site, or let them rot into a more substantial and useful (although admittedly still foul smelling) mush at the bottom of your compost bin? Waste them or use them? The choice is yours.
2. Recycling: This is the biggie of all environmental issues, the one that pressure groups always nag you about. And with good reason. It takes a lorra lorra metal and energy to produce a can, and we haven't got an infinite supply of it. Sure, we can get energy from sustainable sources such as wind farms, but where the heck are we going to get all that metal from? Recycling! You've seen the adverts: Your can could end up as a plane, train, automobile etc. Now isn't that exciting? Well, not particularly, but at least it means we use a lot less metal. Not, of course, that it's just metal you can recycle. Paper, glass, plastic, those magic little men at the council will take anything and turn it into anything else. Or, if you like your rubbish, you can reuse it. Put all you ingredients into plastic bottles. Get your children into junk modelling. Donate your old clothes, toys, pets, unwanted kids etc. to charity. Do anything, but don't throw it into a landfill site!
3. Anything else you can think of: You know the sort of thing I mean: Drive less, buy organic, don't buy peat. It all adds up to a better planet.

Blog Action Day

Blog Action Day This is a neat concept whereby, for one day only, an awful lot of blogs talk about the same thing. There's some pretty A-list blogs taking part, such as Google and a host of others. And then there's the lesser known blogs, who are posting nonetheless. And then there's me, posting for the benefit of about three people and a computer literate sheepdog.* Anyway, this year's thing is the environment and, game as I am for anything, I will be writing about it tomorrow. Then, you'll be able to hear all about my compost bin. Whoopee! * They do get bored of rounding up sheep, you know.

Part Five: The head has a cunning plan

 Later that day, the headmaster had a dangerous thought. Although he didn’t particularly hold with the whole concept of danger, it took him as being a good way to have this investigation malarkey over with once and for all. Indeed, when he thought about it some more, he realised that there needn’t be any danger at all. The idea was this: If you want something doing properly, do it yourself. Or rather, get someone else to do it for you. There was one thing the head knew helped make for a successful career, and that was delegation. Anyway, he would get someone to investigate the incident for him, but he would be in complete control. All he had to do now was find a willing mug…ahem…volunteer.

Warwick Castle

Last week, we went to Warwick Castle. It's expensive, but worth it. Once in, you can make your own way around the attractions. We watched the trebuchet display, those things are lethal! And boy oh boy, they don't half fling things a long way. You could kill some poor unsuspecting peasant in the next village with one of those. The archery was interesting, too. A good archer could do more than a dozen arrows per minute! Rather than have me bore you with details, you can take a look at their website here: www.warwick-castle.co.uk. Even better (and more realistic), go there. It's a nice place.