Day 35 - Fifty, Going On Fifteen

The beach!

I was like a child in a sweet shop.  Jezz and I were on our way to climb at Calshot, which is a sports centre on a spit of land on the South coast, directly across from the Isle of Wight.

As you approach, the roads get narrower and quieter, and eventually you find yourself driving along a small track on the land side of dozens of brightly coloured beach huts.

I'd thought about the fact that I'd be by the sea.  But with Cowes just opposite, you can't really see the open sea, and I wasn't convinced that the view wouldn't be a little greyer and more bleak than I'd prefer.

In any case, I was looking for photo opps, so when I saw all the huts I asked Jezz to pull over.  I hopped out and made my way between the huts to the sea-side. 

Suddenly, I was on the beach, and felt an immediate, childish delight at the pebbles, and the waves, and the spray.  

"I'm on the beach!", I cried, much to Jezz's bemusement.   He'd forgotten that I rarely see the sea.  For some reason it had taken me completely by surprise, and I found myself poking about amongst the pebbles and having to resist the urge to splash in the foam.

Anna has been telling me about this amazing starling that learned to speak English, to some degree, and reputedly could construct original phrases.   Whenever we see one, I wonder whether it needs looking after - I couldn't bring myself to catch one otherwise.

Consequently, upon finding a complete cuttlefish bone, I wished we had a pet bird to take it home to. 

I took a few snaps, trying to capture the feel, and then wandered happily off for a climb. 

For the whole of the 45 minute drive we'd been nattering and catching up, and I'd been outlining some of my musical plans.   So when we got into the climbing centre, I was mentally completely unprepared.   

Again, I found I was surprised and filled once more with childish excitement...yay climbing!

All this, and we hadn't even got as far computer games!

Anyway we haven't had one of these for a while, so here goes:

Today I Learned; despite being 50, it's still fun to embrace my inner 15 year old. 

Note to self...act like a kid again more often...

Day 34 - Death On a Plate

Evil, or divine?

This evening, I drove down to Bishopstoke to spend the weekend with my main man Jezz, and our good friend Dave.  Apart from going for a climb tomorrow morning, we'll be playing computer games and over-indulging in ridiculously unhealthy food.   It's gonna be great!

Last time we did this, Dave's lovely wife Jan made this amazing killer snack, which, when you eat it, tastes as though it's approximately 50% peanuts, 80% Crunchie bar honeycomb, 150% sugar, and around 260% chocolate.   It's the most unbelievably amazing stuff.

My teeth are trying to fall out just thinking about it...and how Dave isn't the size of a house, I don't know!

Jezz sent me a photo just before I left, and I'm touched that Jan remembered how much I enjoyed it.  Suffice to say, I set off with my mouth watering at the prospect.

My mind wandered as I drove, and I really enjoyed the head space.  I used to do the drive down to the south coast and back weekly, and used the time to listen to music, learn songs, and cogitate.

Thus, this evening, it was with a sense of nostalgia that I spent the drive pondering, fairly productively, a range of topics...

I thought about recent developments at work...potential opportunities...battles to be fought...tactics to be deployed...ideas to promote....people to develop and encourage.

I pondered a colleague who is having a hard time lately, and how proud I am of the team for rallying around him (most of them, anyway).

Music played a significant role in my journey, as it always used to.   The auxiliary input on my car stereo is playing up, so it had to be radio.  I settled for Classic FM for the first half of the journey.   It was pleasant and conducive to introspection, and I enjoyed it.

The signal started to break up eventually, so I scanned for a while, and ended up listening to late 70's and early 80's disco music for the latter half of the journey, on Heart FM (for god's sake don't tell anyone, it'll destroy my street cred, if I've got any). An enjoyably high funk quotient made it bearable, in a vaguely painful kind of way.

I'm planning a jam session with a friend at work and my brother.  We'll just have bass, drums, guitar and vocals.  It'll be bluesy and raw, and we'll see if we gel.  I'm not sure who'll play what - we'll swap it about, I think.   Certainly the guitarist will also play bass.  I'll play guitar, bass or drums, and will probably have to sing too.  Should be fun - we're possibly having a first bash in the next week or so.

I'm also planning a new musical adventure, experimenting with more of a participative model of music making, that I hope to share with small groups, such as friends around our house for an evening.  I have lots of ideas for that...I think it's going to be great fun!

Watch this space for more news...

In the meantime, do enjoy your weekend...I'm certainly going to enjoy mine!

That chocolate/peanut/honeycomb thing...I might be dead by morning...

Wish me luck...I'm going in.

Day 33 - Howlin' Mad

Lunacy...

The animals are all weird at the moment.  They're each behaving a little strangely, in their own apparently random ways. 

Loz has taken to charging round the house at all hours, rushing up and down the stairs, and acting completely over-surprised whenever she sees anyone.   She'll screech to a halt, then dash off in the opposite direction. 

Then she might repeatedly scratch the stair carpet (or any other carpet) with her claws.

She won't eat properly either, begging for food constantly but utterly disinterested when you give her some. 

Jazz has been mostly much more lively over the last few days (for reasons I may go into in a later blog), which has been nice.

But this evening when we went out he just dawdled and dragged on the lead, and seemed almost unable to walk easily.  We turned for home, and the nearer we got, the more comfortable and interested he seemed. 

Last night, he went upstairs on his own (which he almost never does), and then stood at the top of the stairs panting at me.   I couldn't fathom what he seemed to want.
  
We've been for a climb this evening, and part of his greeting my return consisted of rolling about on his back like a lunatic and panting with exuberant excitement (see previous posts).

Last night, Maisie didn't appear when we came home, most unusual.    She has a bed upstairs that's like a little cave.   When I carefully put my hand in to see if she was there, and upon finding her, gently stroked her back, she hissed and bit me.  

She then got up and came out, and accepted a chin-rub, but wouldn't purr...really most unlike her.

Maisie also won't eat properly.  Both cats seem to be unpredictably reluctant to eat from particular bowls, or when the bowls are in particular places. 

Overall, for the last couple of days, Anna and I have both found ourselves frowning and scratching our chins and saying "what on Earth is up with this animal?!" about each of them. 

Coincidentally, as we went out for a pre-climb walk with Jazz, I was planning on trying to catch a photo of the full moon, which had looked spectacular on my drive home.  

Of course, it was nearer to the horizon then, and thus looked much larger (as it does).   By the time we were out with Jazz, it had risen a bit, and cloud had developed, so options were a little limited. 

I tried a few different settings, and to catch a gap in the clouds.  It wasn't brilliantly successful, but I was quite pleased with the picture above.

As we got back to the house and were discussing Jazz's odd behaviour, it suddenly clicked...full moon!  

It seems to me that it's at least possible that tonight's full moon is what has provoked all the oddness of the last few days.  

Jazz really was writhing on his back like a lunatic!

The science is a little mixed on this, I will concede...mostly (although not exclusively) the current theory is "little to no correlation" between animal behaviour and fullness of moon.

However, recent studies have found levels of injuries amongst cats and dogs around 25% higher around a full moon, and other studies have found behaviour changes apparently relating to the lunar cycle in several other species.   

The argument here is whether it's caused by the moon in some way, or is actually (and more simply - Occam would approve!) related to lighter nights or some such.

Personally, I remain open to the idea that the moon does indeed exert some sort of influence, to greater or lesser degree in some species or individuals. 

I generally feel that open mindedness is the most rational position to take on many things.

Anyway, you must excuse me, I'm suddenly feeling an inexplicable and inescapable urge to go outside and how-ooooooooooooooooooooooooooh-oooooooooh-oohl...

Day 32 - Zebra Stripes

dream of a pot

I've just realised (as I wrote the title for this entry) that this is officially Month Two of my 12 month blog series.   I made it through the first month without missing a day!!  

I'm really pleased about this fact, but I don't really know why.   The blog has no particular direction or purpose.   It was just supposed to be a series of random photographs...but I clearly hadn't thought it through. 

I hadn't planned the mechanics of it further than a vague thought of "I'll keep the pics on a blog".   

I've never been that interested in blogs and had certainly never written one before.

However, I use google products a lot, and I thought they had a blog tool.  After a quick search...so they have.   Ok, where to start?

Create a blog...great, now

Give it a name...oh, erm, 501aday?  No that's taken..ah, ok 5Oh1aday...

Now pick a theme...black and orange, that works nicely...

Create a post...Title?   Oh, ok I'll give it a title.

Load the pic...Caption?  Ah, erm I dunno, some witty comment.

Now enter your text...oh, I have to write something?  Erm blurt...

So there I was having to put a load of extra stuff around the photo...and having a natural tendency to the verbose (when writing at least), before long I found myself producing fairly long posts daily.  

It's been fascinating, and I've enjoyed it immensely.  I often start writing with no plan, and see what comes out, and so I'm always surprised by the thoughts and ideas that emerge.

The blog has brought colour and depth to my life in a novel way...the diversity of the photos, the writing - and by extension, how it reflects me and my life - makes me feel both grateful and humble, in equally large measure.

I hadn't fully realised how I have such interesting, stimulating (and in some cases adorable) people, animals, environments, and interests around me, all the time.   

It has helped to bolster the feeling that by turning away from the corporate world, and deliberately choosing a quieter, more local (albeit poorer) lifestyle, I have not "thrown it all away".

Rather, I have embraced a more natural way of being, in a more natural world, and this stimulates my curiosity and my mind, and drives me into adventures of many kinds - such as this blog, and many of the mini adventures and episodes it documents. 

And it's not even climbing season yet!

Once the days grow a bit longer, it'll be time to get on with all the other ambitions from my 50 List.   There'll be much more scope for good photo's and fun stories once that all ramps up. 

Which brings me neatly back to today's picture (I bet you thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?).  

A few years ago my bro' gave us a Money Pot like this.  The idea is that you can put money in but not take it out until it's full.   It's a way of putting a fund together for some specific purpose (or whatever you want, of course). 

This is our 3rd in 3 years, which we've just started.  It's got zebra stripes, I like it!

Our strategy is to put all £2 coins and £5 notes that we have, into it.  

The first one had £670 in it when we broke it open!   This became our Climbing Gear Fund, and we used it to buy much of the equipment we needed in order to start climbing outdoors.

Or at least, it funded the first £670 of it! ;-)

The 2nd, which we broke open on my birthday a month ago, contained £530.   This has become my 50th Adventuring Fund, and will help towards any costs incurred whilst pursuing all the other stuff I randomly decided I'd do this year.

Given that this blog has turned into about 20 times the amount of work that I anticipated (having not really anticipated any), maybe I've been a little ambitious with the rest of my list?

Time will tell, but I'm up for it...I reckon it's all doable.

Just you watch...  

;-)

Day 31b - Double Trouble

Rusty in Red

Another bonus blog entry, with an update on the developing Intruder Alert! situation...

I hadn't checked the camera for a few days, and this was one of the things outstanding for the day (see original non-bonus blog entry for today).

Running through the pictures we came across a few of Loz, then a few...wait, what?!  Is that Loz?  That isn't Loz!  Is it?  It isn't, is it?!

We quickly grabbed Loz and compared the coat markings...

THIS ISN'T HER!  

Hmm, interesting...we have a new player in the game.

In the Red corner, I present the handsome tortoiseshell Rusty, with the big bushy tail...

In the Blue corner (a mere 5 hours later), I give you the punk panther, little Blackie below...

Blackie in Blue

Elsewhere, hiding in the house...Jazz, Loz and Maisie...

So what on earth is going on with these cats?  Why are they coming around?

Is word spreading in the feline world of the demise of that old black dog who ran round the borders and barked a lot, and they're all coming to see what he was making all the fuss about?

Are we just going to keep seeing new cats prowling around our front door?  What's so interesting about our front door anyway?!

Will we see a confrontation at any point, should any of the 4 cats and one dog that use this crossroads happen to meet?!

The plot thickens...watch this space!

PS I've no idea what their names really are, I'm just making this stuff up!

Day 31 - Sunny Daze

ray of light

As I was about to rush out to work this morning, I happened to notice it was sunny outside, so I opened the bedroom window and rattled off a few snaps on my phone, to see if I could capture a sense of the lovely view. 

On a cold, grey, winters day, when the caw of a passing crow betrays the damp heaviness of the air, it can be drearily bleak here...not so today!

The low sun cast warm rays across the crisp, frosty landscape, and immediately lifted my spirits.  It made a bright start to what was to become a long and challenging day...

It was certainly a mixed day in many ways.   Work is very busy, with a whole range of issues to juggle...some interesting, some promising, some gratifying...yet others demanding, difficult, concerning, unsettling or upsetting...

In particular, one colleague is quite unwell and in need of some help...another sought support and guidance as he has a very poorly dog.

Even the weather was mixed.  Morning, you can see...day, mild and bright...evening, overcast and damp...and mid evening, I drove home from Birmingham on the M40, in the driving rain.

Sitting here as midnight draws near, vaguely making a list in my mind of what I still need to do tonight, I feel as though I've run the full gamut of emotions since I awoke at 7ish this a.m.

Out of this mixed bag of a bit of everything, what's my over-riding impression of the day? 

Well, we remember that which we choose to focus upon.  I can take what I want from the day!

So, despite coming away from a brief contact with the NHS with the usual frustration and anger, I choose instead to reflect upon the warm, sympathetic support that everyone has shown to those around us who aren't doing so well at the moment, for whatever reasons...and there are a few!

Is it the time of year?   It's cold, winter - I certainly find January the most depressing month.   The lack of sunlight, the lack of warmth makes me cold and blue.

However today, the universe conspired to present me with this warm ray of sunshine to send me into my challenging day feeling more calm, more grounded, and better prepared to deal with the trials of the coming day. 

Thanks, Universe!!  :-)

Perhaps you few, dear readers, can also take this ray of sunlight, representing the warmth of human kindness, as a gift from me, to help you through your day...

Day 30 - My Boy Bluez

picture in picture

As you may have surmised, today was a bad photo day.   I had a really busy day at work, I spent my lunch time picking one of my team up from hospital, and it was 6.15 and fully dark when I got home, with a handful of pressing chores to attend to...feed and walk the dog, clean out and relight the fire...and of course, my blog.

So I was a little strapped for a subject, and felt reluctant to do anything too contrived, but had neither time nor light to go looking for something exciting. 

Bluez was on my mind, as he often is, and I realised that my eye is often drawn to this picture of him.

After he died, I happened to discover that you can take a jpeg on a memory stick into Boots and get a full size print straight away.  So I got this one printed, popped into the pound shop and bought this frame for £3.50 (wait, what?!), put the photo in it, and it now sits up on the shelves facing where I sit.

Some days I have to consciously avoid it, as it tugs on my heart-strings...but it so captures his essence that I feel as though I'm actually looking at him.   Suffice to say, I talk to him often.    I do find this photo immensely comforting, as though through it I'm maintaining some small contact with him.

Don't get me wrong, he wasn't the perfect dog.   He could whine for hours, but utterly fail to communicate what he was whining about.  He could be a real scrounger of food.  He could bark incessantly at the night when the mood took him.  And he was a master at the convenient application of selective hearing.

He could become afraid of the most random things, like a suspicious haystack that appears in the field, or a plastic bag stuck in the hedgerow, or a passing hot air balloon. 

But he was also brilliant...warm and affectionate...yampi as a loon...gentle as a lamb...

He was self appointed guardian of the borders, and the rest of the pack all enjoyed the safety they found in his guardianship.

And he was so handsome, both the inner and the outer Bluez.  

(Reminds me of the old Groucho Marx line; Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.  Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read...")

It's no exaggeration to say that Bluez had an uncommon grace and elegance about him.  He was light on his feet and fluid in his motion, and he made everything seem effortless.  

He was a beautiful dog, a faithful companion, a best friend, and I loved him completely. 

So anyway, accuse me of cheating for using a picture of a picture, if you will...but good god-damn it if Bluez isn't getting a headline post of his own in this series of blogs! 

If you think I'm going overboard, well maybe I am...sue me...or maybe, ya know, just get over yourself and forgive me!

:-)

Day 29 - C(r)ow?!

not a crow...

It's a typical January day out there today.  Grey, overcast, damp, and icy teeth on the wind. 

Mid afternoon, we dressed up warm and headed out for a stroll around the field.   I guess this may sound dull, but it really isn't.

For one thing, quite apart from the usual wildlife-spotting, I'm now constantly on the lookout for good photo opportunities.   The light was very poor today, so I abandoned thoughts of taking a "good" photo, and instead prioritised simply finding an interesting subject.

The usual array of Corvids were out and about, as was the usual good natured banter they provoke. 

We have pretty much all of them around us; Crow, Rook, Jackdaw, Magpie, Raven, and the occasional Jay.

As the main four look so similar, being big black birds, telling which is which can be tricky.  

One way of distinguishing is their call.   They vary from a deep rasp to a chirpy voice, on a sort of spectrum.   I think of it this way;

Raven - nothing but deep, slow rasp, no voice
Crow - medium pitch rasp, with a hint of voice
Rook - medium voice, with a hint of rasp
Jackdaw - all voice, no rasp

Another way to tell which is which is how many of them you can see.

Raven - one or two
Crow - two to five
Jackdaw - five to twelve
Rook - dozens to hundreds

Today, a flock of about 50 or so corvids flew past, sounding like crows - most confusing!   Then we realised they were mainly rooks, with a crow or two amongst them. 

We also saw a large single bird, that took off as we entered the field, then settled a bit further away. 

Now, for a bit of context, ravens are quite rare around here.   They're really big, with a very deep voice, and very cool.   We tend to hear them in the mornings, but we're never sure when we see them. 

Well, I think we see them all the time...Anna thinks we never see them.   

I think all large black birds are ravens...Anna thinks none of them are. 

Consequently, we have this endless debate about whether any given example is a raven or not.   

I'm always, like "Woah, dude, take a look at that thing, it's huge!!", and Anna's all, like, "Yeah but nah, brah', that ain't so big!"

So anyway...the one we saw today?  Raven, definitely!!  ;-)

Sadly the raven(!) was too far away for a photo...

But then we met this old lady lurking in the next field, and went over to have a few words.   She said she didn't mind having her photo taken, although she wasn't keen on the dog nosing around.    She said she was cold and bored, so much so that even we puny humans seemed vaguely interesting. 

I took a few snaps and then we wandered off in case she started to find us intimidating, all standing looking at her with our big, front-facing eyes...

Then we spotted someone walking down the lane that runs adjacent to the field, with a jack russell terrier.  

Jazz must've spotted the dog, as he suddenly looked very interested. 

After all that I said yesterday, he suddenly seemed young and bright and sprightly for a second!   I encouraged him to go and see and for a moment he was like his old self...head up, ears cocked high and wide, super alert, and he even started to run with a canter for a few steps!  

It was lovely to see.   It seems that he can still get a little excited about other dogs.   Maybe he's missing his brother...maybe we need to think about whether he needs more canine company...

Maybe he's depressed...hmm I need to go ponder that...

So anyway, a stroll around the field, not so dull, is it?  

Is it?!  It's just me, isn't it...?   Well, me and Anna...

I blame Anna...yeah, that sounds about right...she's turning me into a countryside geek like her and all her mates...

Sigh

Day 28 - Outlook: Jazzy...

...with a hint of Maisie

Jazz is getting to be very much an "old man" nowadays.   He is twelve and a half, which is a respectable age for a Lab.   That's a human equivalent of around eighty one, according to the latest methods of calculating dogs relative age.  

Average life expectancy of a lab is 11.5-12.0 yrs, depending on who you ask.   In any case, both Jazz and Bluez were above average in this regard - otherwise they're fairly typical, I'm sure.

Jazz shows many symptoms of being an old dog... 

He rarely barks any more, other than a yap to be let back in once he's been out for a constitutional.   He used to love a good bark at passers by, or random noises off, or whatever -it-was-that-Bluez-thought-he-was-barking-at.    They triggered each other a lot, especially when they were younger.

Without his brother it now seems that nothing really triggers him, and he doesn't have the confidence to be a guard dog on his own...it's just not in him.

He also doesn't get as excited as he used to.  He was always a bugger for getting over-excited at the slightest provocation.  He would wiggle and pant and wag, and walk back and forth in a figure of 8, unable to contain his energy.

Visitors often took it as a measure of how pleased to see them he was.  Whilst he was always pleased to see people (especially those who gave him lots of fuss and/or treats), it was not a healthy excitement, and contained more stress than joy.  

Jazz is fundamentally a very submissive dog, and a little insecure, and the excitement was mostly an expression of his lack of confidence in how he should behave...he doesn't know what he's supposed to do, so he just tries everything at once, with a lot of nervous, excited energy fuelling the display.    

But these days he's much calmer, it's all much lower energy and he doesn't wag his tail like he used to.

He certainly sleeps a lot more too.  Probably 20 hours a day, which is not atypical, I don't think.

But most obvious are the physical symptoms.

He's quite lame in both front legs, and limps most of the time.   He rarely tries to break into a trot any more.  I carry him upstairs every night to sleep on the end of the bed (it's a big bed!), and carry him down again in the morning.  He can get up and down on his own but I think it's quite painful for him.  

He has arthritis, has had for most of his life to varying degree.   We figure the cold must be getting uncomfortable for him, walking on icy roads and fields in his bare feet and arthritic ankles and shoulders. 

So we bought him this lovely coat!  It's really nice, fleecy on the inside, water and wind-proof on the outside. 

He really doesn't like it...

He will tolerate it for a little while, but if we take him down the lane with it on, he will only walk very reluctantly.  

He'll stand there and look at us as if to say, "I would speed up, but this thing has got me!  I'm not sure I should move, it might bite...".   

So he'll drag and drag on the lead, which isn't like him at all.

I think we need to start a program of desensitisation and building positive psychological connections, and work into it gradually. 

Anyway, this photo, whilst not technically very good, has at least managed to capture some of Jazz's response to his lovely new coat.  

He's got that look that says, "Don't look now, but it's got me again...I'm not gonna move...if I stand still, maybe it'll let me go...".

Oh Jazz-ah-by-zhan, you are such a legend!

Day 27 - Birds and Glasses

Has he got little sunglasses on?!

More photography experimentation this afternoon...trying to make sense of ISO, f-stops and shutter speed.   Who knew it was so complicated!   I can only do about 20 minutes before my brain falls out of gear.  Although that may be this lurgy, can't concentrate on anything at the moment. 

Photography progress is slow - it seems to be quite an art.  The photo above is about the best I took, although I have to confess it's a crop of a bigger image.   I quite like the composition, but need to work on focussing and depth of field.

I am struggling to get the camera focussed properly.

Anna pointed out that this may be because my eyesight is getting really poor...hmm, she probably has a point.   When I look through the viewfinder, I can't actually tell if there are any birds on the feeders...I have to look through my own lens's for that, which works fine at that distance.

Perhaps because I'm tired and my eyes have been a bit sore, but I can barely read my phone now, and I do really, really struggle to read without assistance.  I did have an eye test a couple of months ago that said my sight and general eye health is fine - except I need reading glasses.

I have some magnifying glasses that I bought in Waitrose or somewhere, on a whim.  They work well, except then I have to hold things very close.  And my eyes go crazy trying to adjust between looking through, or looking over them...I should get some to match my prescription.

It's my age, apparently.   Wouldn't you know...quite a shock though, after a lifetime of more-or-less perfect vision.

I've been increasingly struggling to focus on anything close to my face for about 5 years now.   It got to the point where I was resisting getting glasses until I was 50...what's my excuse now?!

I don't know...

Seems I've been in denial...guess I'm going to have to concede defeat, and get some glasses!

B-)

Day 26 - Jargon Alert!

Lifesaver

I woke up this morning determined to go to work, then quickly realised that I still feel really quite rough, so had to knock work on the head, again...

Having spent the morning feeling nauseous, for no discernible reason, the afternoon has primarily involved my right eye streaming and streaming from a mildly intense (is that even possible?) headache. 

I've still got this cold, and my streaming eye also seems to make my nose run...I've polished off another box of tissues today, almost...

Still, the arrival of the little beauty above gave me something interesting to peer at through blurry eyes.

This is my 50th Birthday present from my friends and colleagues at work.  

They don't know this yet - it came in the form of a mystical parchment from the depths of the Amazon(.co.uk).   Using the dark magic power of t'interwebs (wizard that I am), I brewed potions, wrought spells, conjured spirits of the cyberworld, and transmogrified it into a perfect piece of climbing gear.

My 50th was (well, would you look at that!) 26 days ago, but I was prohibited from buying any climbing gear until after Xmas.   Anna subscribes to the odd notion that you can have "too much gear", and that "maybe you don't need 2 of everything".

I don't know where she gets such propaganda from - is she not aware of redundancy?!

Still, respectful partner that I am, I duly waited until late last week to work my magic. 

This piece of equipment is about as complex as climbing gets.   It's commonly known as a cam, and cams come in many shapes, sizes and colours.

There follows an unreasonable amount of information about this device and its use.  For those who aren't interested, there's a TLDR (Too Long, Didn't Read) at the bottom.

This was made by a welsh company based in Llanberis.   It's sold as a DMM Demon Cam, size 0.5 (red).

Technically, it's a Spring Loaded Camming Device, or SLCD, most often called a cam, and sometimes a friend, which was the model name of a popular early example made by Wild Country.

Friend seems somewhat apropos, as the primary purpose of this piece of gear is to save your life!

Further, it's quite a feat of engineering - and comes with an appropriate price tag.  This one (a fairly small example of a relatively inexpensive model range) has an RRP of £45, although to be fair, you can always get them on sale for just over 2/3 for that.

Close inspection will reveal a marvel of detail and design, and given its stated purpose, I'm happy for it to be over-engineered and over-priced!

At the business end (the left in the photo), there are 2 pairs of opposing cams.   The central bar is the trigger, which when pulled, rotates the cams on their axles, making them narrower.   When the trigger is released, the cams open to their widest position.  

When trad climbing (a style of climbing most commonly pursued in the UK), there are no bolts or pitons permanently attached to the rock.   Indeed, damaging or changing the rock in any way is seen as unethical, and is widely frowned upon.   Leave No Trace!

Consequently as you climb to any height, you must protect yourself by placing bits of gear into appropriate cracks in the rock.  Usually, wedge-shaped chocks (known as nuts or wires) are wedged in (whodathunk?), before clipping your rope through the karabiner (the metal oval with the gate opening, in the right of the picture).

However, if a crack has parallel sides, then a wedge will fall out.  In these cases, a cam can be inserted into the crack.

When weighted, (should you fall off, for example), the pull on the device is converted through 90deg to an outwards push.  In other words, the more weight you put on the cam, the harder it will try to expand.   This makes it a very safe form of protection.   

This cam, for finger cracks, can safely hold at least a tonne, more than 10 times my weight.  There's lots more physics involved, to do with shock loading, stretchy rope and a variety of other factors...but the point is, this is a strong piece of kit, and might save my life one day.  

All that needs to happen is for me to go rock climbing, climb higher than a few metres, find an appropriately sized crack, insert this cam, clip my rope to the 'biner, carry on climbing, get a little more height above the cam, and before finding an opportunity to place more protection, fall off the rock. 

It could happen!!

And if it does, my (hopefully attentive) belayer will brake the rope, which will weight the cam.   The cam will "grab" the rock and not let go, and my belayer will catch me before I suffer the injury (not to mention the ignomy) of a dangerous ground-fall.

And then, good friends and colleagues, you will have saved my life!

Thank you... :-)

Oh yeah, I nearly forgot:

TLDR; Climb, Insert, Fall, Catch...Yay, thanks!

Day 25 - Robbin' Robin

Wasn't me, guv'...

Yet another relatively uneventful day, being largely dominated by this cold that just won't seem to go away.  It's getting annoying now.  My nose has been itchy and I've been sneezing for 4 days now.  Not to mention the crazy number of tissues I'm getting through.  Gah!

Still, First World Problems, and all that...at least it's not too cold, even with no heating in the house.  Well, that's not strictly true - some of the storage heaters are on (on the lowest possible setting).   But I haven't felt the need to light a fire, so it can't be too bad.

Stuck at home like this, I'm going a little stir crazy.  I don't quite know what it is about being off sick, but I really dislike it, I start to get depressed after a day or so.  I need to be getting on with my life...

So this afternoon I decided to dabble with photography a bit more, and try using Anna's zoom lens.

As it turns out, it doesn't immediately make you into an amazing photographer.  I had the same thing the first time I bought a decent guitar.  It had virtually no effect on my playing, much to my disgruntlement.   

Sigh...

I took a variety of shots of the birds on the feeders, and had a play with manual focus.   None of it was too successful.

I've chosen the image above partly because it was the nicest of the few I took (not necessarily the best technically), but also as a record of the current state of my photography skills.  

I'm hoping that when I look back in 11 months time, I will scoff at the rank amateurishness I showed at the start of the year...

The shot was taken from the chair at my desk, through a dirty window.   The robin is about 15 feet away from me, under the bird-feeders.  

You can see all the random foliage that's sprouted from dropped bird seed...tits in particular are fussy little buggers, often discarding 4 out of every 5 seeds they extract. 

I've no idea what the plant is, intermingled with the regular grass, but there's quite a bit of it.   Maybe neither those birds that feed on the feeders, or those that feed on the ground, are that enamoured with the seeds.

INTRUDER UPDATE

In other news, another visit from our new little friend this morning.  Here he is considering inspecting the cat-flap a little more closely, at 5.45am.

Still no pattern to his passing, except it's always at night.   

I can't see a collar...maybe he's feral?  He seems to be out all night in any case.

Curiouser and curiouser...

Day 24 - Deja Vu...

...all over again.

I'm stuck at home again today, with this head cold.  I was sure I'd feel better today, so I was surprised when I actually felt worse.   

'Snot fair (do you see what I did there?), I was trying to get fit and now I've fallen right out of shape again.  Damn!

Anyway our intruder has helped my cause today.  Look at the time he came by last night...the only time he visited in the 24 hours worth of photos...good work little fella, you gave me a pic of the day, yay!

1,347 photos this time, so lowering the sensitivity didn't help...might have to RTFM to work out how I need to set it up. 

Speaking of which, I started to RTFM for Anna's DSLR camera...blimey, how complicated is that?!  150 pages of dense text and diagrams!  I think I need to play with it a bit then come back to the manual.

Anyway, back to the unfolding Intruder Situation.   So far I'm aware of him having been by at 1745hrs and 2200hrs on Saturday and 0001hrs today.   Not much of a trend there... 

And it's occurred to me that even if I can predict when he'll come by, I have no idea what I'm going to do.

I may have to rig up a webcam outside, so I can watch live from in here...then, I dunno, rush out and chase him off when comes by?!

If anyone has any bright ideas how to scare off one specific cat, but not the ones that live here, please leave a comment...

Day 23b - Intruder Alert!

Bright Eyes

This is a special bonus edition.   It's not an image from today, but it does relate to a story I promised to follow up on.

If you've been following, you'll remember the recent spate of cat fights.   Maisie was beaten up quite badly a couple of weeks ago, and Loz got into a scrap last week.   Both times it was late in the evening and we didn't see the perp', so I decided to try to catch a photo of him.

So last Saturday, I put the trail camera outside to try to catch the culprit.  I put it right outside the front door, facing across the garden.  

The problem was, the camera was on high motion sensitivity, and there is some vegetation about 1m in front of the camera.   It was set to take 3 photos when triggered, 1 second apart.

Of course, it was windy, so between 12pm and 5pm, it took 1000 virtually identical photos.

The reason I know that they're virtually identical is because I had to look through them!

Yep, I had to look through all of them.  One by one.  Relentlessly...

In fact, the camera had taken 1602 photos in 24 hours when it ran out of space on the 2GB memory stick.  

I had to sit and look through them to find a dozen or so each of Loz, Jazz and Maisie, and half a dozen of this cheeky chap.  

And he is bold!   The image above was taken at 10pm on Saturday night, but he also came by earlier on, around tea time;

Here he's nosing up to the catflap.  Both these times he passed, the house was noisy...earlier in the evening I was Xboxing, and late on we had friends round and were chatting away in the lounge. 

I'm really intrigued to see whether he tries to come in during the day, or if there's a pattern to his visits.

So I've put the camera back out with an 8GB memory card in, and motion sensitivity set to normal...

Oh, and for the potentially confused amongst you, the black panther crouched by the shed (a jaguar in this case I think, panthera pardus) isn't a real one, so don't go getting all excited...there have been sightings of large black cats near here, but it wasn't him!

As for why there's a fake black panther hiding in the undergrowth in my garden...well, it's just because that's where he lives!  Obviously.

Back on topic - for more developments in the interloper story, watch this space...

Day 23 - Sunny Interval

Misleading perspective

I had to stay home today, as I'm full of a head cold.  Coughing, sneezing, spluttering...where does it all come from?!

This afternoon I thought I might take Jazz over to the field for a walk, figuring the cold breeze might clear my head a bit.   So when a sunny interval appeared, I carpe diem'd it without further ado.

Anna had offered her camera to have a play with, so I dug that out, gave the batteries a 5 minute charge, and headed out, pockets stuffed with tissues.

As a photographer, I've really no idea what I'm doing, so I left it on auto, decided not to worry about it repeatedly flashing up "backlight" in red letters on the screen, and rattled off a load of snaps. 

Some of them are quite nice, and the difference in quality between my phone and a proper camera was immediately clear.   I took a few landscapes, some of a double rainbow, some weather shots, and tried for a bit of wildlife.  

I caught a pic of a couple of herons and was impressed that they're clearly herons even though the photo was taken around 100m away.   The blue tits on the bird feeders are better than I get with my phone, but I think I still need to understand what I'm doing a bit better.

In the end I struggled to decide which photo to use, and settled on the one above just because it looks like a nice sunny day.    This is the view facing north from the field over the road.

It's a misleading shot, as away to the south east the sky was dark and ominous, and I could feel the storm slipping by us once again, whilst off to the east, the break between the two weather systems was clear.

East

South east

   

This is a weird editor...could I get those two images horizontally aligned?!

Nope...nope, I couldn't...sigh