Family, Photography and other misc news
Family related posts; generally only of interest to fellow members of the Brown Clan and relations by Marriage into this mad house.
Spring really seems to be bursting ahead. Our plants are growing well, we have a number of nests in the garden and the chickens are now enjoying being let out to roam in the later week day evenings now that the nights are getting lighter.
The chickens are moulting at the moment and are definitely not looking at there best but they like being let out while we are there to stand guard.
So far we have been lucky with no escapes and sampling of the veg plot.
Last night while riding the BMW home in the late afternoon sun, I saw a view that really made me appreciate living in the English countryside. There was a hint of rain in the distance so black dark clouds were in the distance but in the foreground was the brightly lit rapeseed fields and fresh green of the up coming crops. The colours and contrast against the dark sky with the sun streaming through gaps in the cloud to form columns of light against the dark was simply stunning.
If I had stopped to take a photograph and submitted it for criticism then photo editors and critics would have complained about my heavy handed and unrealistic use of Photoshop and HDR techniques, but this was real and in front of me. Inspiring stuff.
Spring now seems to be in overdrive. I managed to prune a few bushes and trees but all that has to stop now, not only are the trees full of blossom but the bushes seem to be full of Blackbirds and Thrushes making their nests. A pair of house sparrows has even figured out, how to get under the corner end tile on the roof and make a nest there.
This weekend we took the opportunity because of the fine sunny weather to plant out the peas, beans, and cabbage, as well as the lettuce we have been raising in the cold frame. The pigeons were looking interested so it will be interesting to see if they last the week.
Monday morning we had a frost again despite the improving weather so we need to get some more seed trays planted up just in case what we have planted out does not survive.
Until this Easter weekend the veg plot was looking a little bare. While we have seeds planted out in the cold frame, the only thing in the veg plot is last years leaks and this years onions.
This weekend we set to and planted the potatoes. Its going to be great harvesting some fresh new potatoes and some salad leaves in the early summer for lunch.
We had a big family get together this weekend, it was Caroline’s fathers 80th birthday.
We had nice meal then an evening of embarrassment, as we dug out the old projector screen and projector and had a slide show, some of the slides went back over 50 years.
It was great to see such old photographs, its a shame that today a lot of photographs may get lost. Whilst we all take hundreds of digital photographs, what will happen to them?
So there, we have had the partial eclipse. It was quite fun. We had a pretty good view, and good weather from the office windows and I quickly put together a pinhole camera to view the eclipse safely with.
The human eye is a fantastic thing and adjusts for an amazing number of light levels, so while it seemed to get a little darker, it was not until you checked with a light meter you could see how dark it had really gotten.
Afterwards I logged into my homes solar panel system and as you can see in the above chart, the dip at 9.30 matches the eclipse.
The end of February saw us setting the first seeds of the year. Whilst the onion sets are already planted and the potatoes are out to chit, this weekend was the first weekend of sowing seeds. Cabbage and Leeks, sowed direct into seed trays then out into the cold frame.
Last year we had great success with the leeks but the cabbage white catapillar decimated the cauliflowers, lets hope this year we have better success.
https://twitter.com/AstroTerry/status/571700996360970241/photo/1
It was a sad day last week when Leonard Nimoy died. An inspiration to a generation of scientists, pilots and astronauts.
What is less know was that is was very good photographer, artist and humanitarian.
Well all the DIY, new boiler, windows and doors have been worth it and we had are new EPC completed yesterday and we are now a a grade D.
This means we can now go ahead with the Solar PV installation, which should make us energy independent during the day. If you have a grade D you can get more government help in the form of the feed in tariff to help pay for the installation, basically you get paid more for generating the electricity if your home is more efficient.
We had three local companies round and from those got four quotes, two basic systems and two more high tech systems which while costing more would produce more electricity.
The savings in fuel costs of the period more then off set the expense and with the feed in tariff you end up with a better return then if the money was sat in the bank.
Generally we holiday and commute on the motorcycles, and when the weather is dry commute on the bicycles. The car gets used for the heavy lifting, and has been really abused over the last year while we get the house straight, so this Monday it was time to get the car sorted and give it a bit of TLC.
Caroline had washed it the day before and today we were dropping in to the local inderpendant VW dealer, to get a number of things sorted.
We bought it from the main Skoda dealer but were less then happy with the servicing and the local independent garage gives us far better service. Its often worthwhile finding a local independent rather then the main official dealer as you tend to get a better deal.