Day 239 - Dark Skies Ahead

bill's mother's

These ominous dark clouds, blocking the sun and threatening to completely overshadow us with darkness, seemed disturbingly apt today.

A couple of my nephews were involved in a horrific accident last night, which has resulted in the younger Ollie being in bandages up to his elbows on both arms, due to burns, whilst the elder Chris is unconscious in intensive care, badly burned on his head, neck and arms...

To make matters worse, they were on holiday in Mallorca...16 year old Chris has been flown to Barcelona, where he will have to remain for a couple of months, and several operations at least...

It's a terrible tragedy, and my heart is aching for Chris, Ollie, and the rest of the family who are having to deal with this nightmare...not least my bro', of course, because, you know, he's my bro'...

It's been a trying day all round...

Somehow, after all the exercise I do, I put my back out pretty badly turning over in bed in the early hours of this morning. 

It doesn't feel like a huge, long term problem, but I'm not sure...certainly today I've struggled to stand up or move around, despite all the drugs I've taken, as well as both icing and lightly exercising it.

I'm really hoping it's not going to cause problems for Fontainebleau...bad enough that it's putting a spanner in the works of my preparation programme!

Then I had to spend a supremely painful hour or so trying to get Orange to give me a PAC code so I can finally give them the boot after 18 years and 8 months of being messed around and over charged by them. 

Still, they offered me £30 to compensate...it didn't...  :-/

Also, after several hours rain, I checked the two last inspection hatches in the drainage systems (old and new) - and neither of them are moving any significant storm water...so where's it all going?!

One tiny bright spot in all of this was a flock of sparrows that were clustering in the hedgerow just outside our lounge...

pair of tits

There are 17 house sparrows in this photo, and a couple of blue tits...more sparrows were out of shot, along the new fence that just went up yesterday, for example...

spot the tree sparrow

They're mostly juveniles, I think, recent broods out and about, and finding safety in numbers. 

So it was good to see them doing well this season, even though the dark clouds were so thick as to drain all colour, barring blacks and blues, out of our day...

Please send all thoughts, vibes, prayers - whatever your preference - to young Chris and family as they face challenging times ahead...

Thinking of you, Bird...

:-(

Day 113 - Risky Business

friendly neighbourhood spiderboy

We had a surprise birthday party/BBQ for Roobs, Kim's boyfriend, today at Coombe Abbey near Coventry.   

The weather was against us, but in the end it held out, only spitting with rain a little here and there.   For my part, it was a good excuse to wear a few of the outdoor clothes I've been addictively buying, or I've received as presents but not worn yet.    From this perspective it was a great success - I was warm and comfortable at all times, despite standing around on a chilly afternoon for several hours. 

I'd also taken Anna's camera, and was hoping to get some good practise in.  There was a squirrel scampering about near us, so I wandered over to a nearby vacant picnic table, and waited for a good shot.  Almost felt like a proper wildlife photographer, patiently sitting in wait...

The squirrel never came back...didn't see hide nor hair of him again!

Sigh...

Then, as I sat there experimenting, taking random shots of tree stumps, my nephew Chris ran over and pointed out that his younger sibling Ollie was up in a nearby tree.   Ollie had bravely walked along a low, dead branch, with nothing for hands but small branches hanging down from above.

As I focussed in on the scene, I saw that Jools was remonstrating with Ollie to get down, so time was of the essence!

Luckily, I already had the zoom lens on, so I quickly framed him before he climbed out of sight, and grabbed a couple of shots... 

I was strongly tempted to join Ollie and a couple of others who'd climbed the tree - it is on my challenge list after all!   However I had big walking boots on, which didn't seem entirely appropriate, and I figured that falling out of a tree in front of several generations of extended family might not be the best example to set... 

In some ways, it might be a great, if controversial example to set - if I had fun and didn't hurt myself.   If I slipped due to it being a green, greasy tree, or because of the inadequate feel or grip from big clumpy boots, it may set entirely the wrong example.

In any case, it seemed sensible not to try it today...although on one level I'm annoyed with myself for missing an opportunity. 

I was super-impressed with the kids though, especially Ollie, Tembie and Marnie.

I know Tembie and Marnie have done a variety of high rope and similar assault courses, and they seem to have no fear.  I love their adventurous spirits, and their casual confidence in their own abilities.  I must make a plan to take them climbing - at least half the battle in climbing is having the confidence to get on and do it and these three really seem to have what it takes.

So many people these days live under a black cloud of fear and insecurity, apparently unable to distinguish between perceived and actual risk, and thus missing out on invigorating experiences because they're too afraid to do anything out of the ordinary. 

I find it refreshing, then, to see these kids apparently managing risk very well.  Rather than using perceived risk as an excuse to never try anything, they use actual risk (albeit their perception of it (I know, this is beginning to boggle the mind!)) as justification for doing whatever they feel capable of doing.  And as they are comfortable with the risk, and confident of the outcome, they are much more relaxed, which means that they are much less likely to get hurt. 

Wins all around, it seems to me...

Go, kids!

B-)

Day 22 - Snotsville, Arizona

Forecast: Blowy

Well, all plans for today were scuppered by the onset, late yesterday, of a stinking head cold.

Don't know where I picked this up...at work?   Matt's fault, probably, even though I haven't seen him since Xmas Eve...how does he do it?!

;o)

We were planning on visiting my nephew Oliver, in Burbage, whose birthday it is today.   

Happy Birthday, Ol'!

After that we were going to nip to Loughborough for a climbing session - great bouldering centre there - I was quite looking forward to it.   But this morning I felt pretty rough, and I think I would have been too tired, and not thinking straight.   So I would've climbed horribly, and probably hurt myself.

Instead, I've spent the day sitting in my chair monging out, whilst playing Borderlands 2 on the Xbox (360) with Jezz.   I played that fairly horribly too, and definitely hurt myself quite a bit!   Fortunately only in cyberspace though, not here in meatworld.

Speaking of which, it looks as though this might be the year that Virtual Reality finally starts to live up to its promise, with devices such as the Oculus Rift Headset scheduled to come to market.   It doesn't seem too much of a stretch to suspect that these things are going to change the world.

The future is now...looks like it could be an interesting year!

PS Apologies to Christina for the brevity of this post...brain power stuck on feeble today...you'll just have to get on with your work...  :op