Saturday 20th April - Farnham Sculpture Park

This was a bit of a treat in many ways. We collected a ready-made picnic (thank you, Waitrose, for making our sandwiches) and set off.
'Have we been here before'
'No, never, at least I don't recognise these roads... er, or maybe I do?'

Yes, we had tried to visit the Sculpture Park last year, but found the place was mobbed by visitors and we couldn't park within half a mile. This time we were much more fortunate.

This griffin looks s though he means business - I'm not sure he is really as fierce as he is pretending to be...

This little bear, made by a 6-year old, is not for sale!

These sculptures are harder to spot - a number of highly polished pyramids set in a clearing.

There were a number of skeletons around the place - this one is actually doing some work, others were just messing around, riding penny farthings as so on.

I look quite stylish, wearing a hat... 

This was perhaps the highlight of the whole trip...

let me zoom in...

A lizard, about 9 inches long, looking like a fully articulated Faberge creation, beautifully iridescent, slipping across the log and in and out of the bits and pieces on the woodland floor. We looked it up - an incredibly rare sand lizard, and the heathlands on the Surrey Hills is one of the few places it can be found. The sculptures will be there tomorrow and next year, but I don't expect I'll ever see a sand lizard again.



This picture above is from https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/reptiles/sand-lizard - it looked Exactly Like This. That's a Huge Big Wow.

Tuesday 29th April - Flash Bang wallop NOT a picture!

I was on the phone when it happened; sitting at the dining room table, which is actually a sort of office area rather than somewhere one could eat.

The weather has been really April-like today, alternating greyness, sun, and sudden heavy showers.

The water was pouring down, and, without any warning, there was a mighty explosion and brilliant flash of white light, apparently in the garden just the other side of the French Windows. It was so loud, so violent, so unexpected that I nearly threw the phone in the air as I cowered away from the glass.

That was it, just the one stupendous explosion, followed by the sound of the neighbour's car alarm.

Thunderstorm over.

Everyone (except me - I was on the phone, remember?) rushed outside to check for damage - but nothing appeared to have changed. The TV aerials were still in place, the chimneys intact, the neighbours special weather-station equipment in just as it was.

Inside, once he had finished dripping, further inspection was done. TV - check. Computer - check, oh, wait a minute, no internet, no wireless. Our clever black box (router?) was dead. The neighbour next door has lost the serial connection to his weather station. His neighbour's television stopped working, and also the telephone, but he still has broadband. (? weird or what?) and our other neighbour's elderly Sky box has gone phut.

We think it must have been a ground strike, as we cannot find any sign of damage anywhere, but it must have been close. Nothing outside seems singed or burnt or smouldering (shame that, it would have solved the problem of dismantling our decaying garage and shed nicely if it had all gone up in smoke.)

Thursday 4th July - Getting ready for Winter Sports

In my work as a peripatetic music teacher, I have had some pretty testing experiences as I drive around the county from one school to another.



http://www.avis.co.uk/blog/driving-winter/

I've been cross-country ski-ing in my car. I was the one in the lead, creating the tracks through virgin snow along the route of the old A3 in West Sussex.


I've been skating in my car: http://boingboing.net/2011/01/19/cars-sliding-down-ic.html
fortunately I had the road to myself. Unfortunately it was up a little hill. Fortunately I had very, very good tyres. Unfortunately there was a line of parked cars. Fortunately I made it to the top without hitting any.


Then I went home and recovered.

I've been swimming with my car. Several times. I've been luckier than whoever this poor motorist was - my car never actually drowned but my word, it was scary, scary, scary. 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/2005-06-07_Car_died_in_puddle.jpg



Now I can inform you that there will never be any seriously bad winter weather in West Sussex ever again. That's because I have just been given a folding snow shovel and a pair of snow socks for my front tyres.

 

. 
In July. Now that's what I call thinking ahead.




The Perfect Pocket Handkerchief

the double-point fold

the balloon fold

If you have time to stuff mushrooms (remember "Superwoman" by Shirley Conran), then you have time to create the perfect pocket handkerchief. I assume this is for show; and you keep your paper tissues in another pocket for real use?

I don't really like to think of the handkerchief being carefully refolded and put back after use.....


http://www.atailoredsuit.com/mens-pocket-squares-folding.html

Sunday 20th May - What Jesus might have seen



sea ice spirals near Kamchatka

http://www.buzzfeed.com/gavon/33-stunning-photos-of-earth-taken-by-an-astronaut

Do you think Jesus got to see the world from this angle when he ascended into heaven last Thursday (or sometime today - depends which liturgical calendar you are using)? I hope he took the time to look around on his way up, to see what an amazing and beautiful and strange and intriguing world he had created all that time ago.



Scandinavia and Northern Lights

Of course, 2000 years ago, Paris and Scandinavia wouldn't have been lit up with street lights.

snowy fields and river in Canada

and Canada wouldn't have been divided up into millions of square-shaped fields.

I've just snipped a few bits out of a couple of the pictures. The whole sequence is "out of this world". And I'm not joking!