In the style of the “What Happened Next?” game beloved of talk shows, geeks and geekettes, what happened before Fiona shook her finger in my face and shouted, “Dat’s a MOON not a ‘pace tason!”
Category Archives: Blogging
A Walk in the Woods
A mouse took a walk in the deep dark wood…
Actually, it was a whole family out searching for the Butterdean Wood geocache, but two keen little children found the idea that a Gruffalo might be lurking among the trees pretty exciting. Martin, clever bunny, proposed a caching expedition to get us out in the beautiful (if chilly) sunshine, and this was a good cache to look for. It was about half an hour’s drive from home, taking us over flat paths that were just wild enough to seem adventurous. They were also perhaps a little muddy.
I brought my phone camera, of course, and stopped from time to time to take pictures.
Fungus on a fallen log.
Taken 4 February 2006
Alex took the GPS and went ahead, following the arrow and talking of treasure. Playing Zelda has sharpened his taste for quests and adventures. He waited patiently whenever I would stop to take a shot.
The twisted stem of some vine – I don’t know what kind. (This picture has been cropped.)
Taken 4 February 2006
Two leaves on a twisting vine.
Taken 4 February 2006
Fiona strode along the path, first with one parent, then with the other. At two, she is rock-steady on her feet and entirely unafraid of any mystery the woods might hold. She has been a strong walker for some time, and I think she enjoyed the challenge. When we were walking together and I would step aside to take a picture, she would venture onward without a backward glance.
Fir cone among the leaves.
Taken 4 February 2006
Eventually, Alex relinquished the GPS in favour of a stick sword, and Fionaberry took over as navigator. (We pretty much followed the path.) She thought my eTrex was a camera, and every now and then would stop, hold it to her face, bend very close to the ground, and say, “I take a picture. Cheese!” before going on. Not a landscape photographer, I guess…
Tangle of sticks, a pattern shot.
Taken 4 February 2006
Lichen on a branch. It’s almost blue!
Taken 4 February 2006
Alex was soon wrapped up in Zelda-esque adventures, which reminded me vividly of my own childhood games. The forest around our cabin was always Lothlorien and Mirkwood, Stephen R Donaldson’s The Land and Sherwood Forest. For him, East Lothian became Link’s country, and he crept and ran through it like the hero of his favourite Game Boy game. I’m happy that our mostly urban life has opportunities for that kind of imaginative play.
He has not yet developed the love of the woods and trees for their own sake that I have. But I learned that a bit older than four. Maybe one day he’ll see it.
The pattern of decay on the limb of a fallen tree reveals so much of its underlying structure.
Taken 4 February 2006
Concentric rings on tree bark. I don’t know why this occurs.
Taken 4 February 2006
Alex used his stick to open “gates”, mostly by keying his name into the trees. This one, in particular, required a number of passwords to be entered. We touched certain parts of the branches and said certain letters, spelling out our names to pass onward along the path.
Taken 4 February 2006
By the time we found the cache, a good half mile from the car park, the kids were running out of adventurous spirit. They weren’t crabby, or unhappy, or even tired, but they were more focused on getting the “treasure” than on telling themselves (and us) stories on the way.
We found the box easily enough – it’s both well hidden from the casual passer by and easy to find if you know where to look – and there were toys enough for both of them. Alex chose a deck of cards, and Fiona took a mini pencil set. I left some stone animals and an amethyst in trade, and we turned back to the car.
Although she wanted to be carried early on for the return journey, Fiona soon regained her energy and did a good deal of walking on the way back to the car. We covered over a mile as a family, and she managed about two thirds of that. Alex walked the whole distance, and wasn’t worn out at the end.
We left the wood as the sun began to head for the horizon.
Late sunshine on brown leaves. The shot looks warmer than it was!
Taken 4 February 2006
Go Get-a Milk
One of Fiona’s favourite Christmas presents this year was a pushchair, from Grandma and Granda Sutherland. Ever since she got it, she’s been putting her new teddy bear or her latest doll (“Baby”, the third of that name in our house) into the seat and bustling it around the living room. “I’m going home,” she’ll inform us, “Bye! Have a good day!” Then she’ll walk it to the entry hall door, open it, and vanish from sight.
Moments later, she’s back, grinning hugely. “Hiya!” Bustle, bustle, then “I go get-a milk! I go to the shop! Bye! See you later!” And out again. She can do this for half an hour at a time, easy.
So yesterday, since we actually did need milk, I decided to walk out to the corner shop with her, Baby and the pushchair. (Martin and Alex were at the cinema, and I needed to tire her out before her nap. I also had to get outside and get some light after Saturday’s catastrophic mood crash.) When she realised we really were going to go out and get milk with the pushchair, she practically floated off of the floor.
We set out, and she was all over the pavement in her delight.
Taken 8 January 2006
Taken 8 January 2006
It took us half an hour to get to the foot of the road (a sixfold increase on my average time when heading for the bus). It was worth every minute in the cold air. We paused to take some more pictures, including a rather nice portrait of Baby.
Taken 8 January 2006
Taken 8 January 2006
By the time we were in sight of the crossroads, Fi was getting tired (it’s a long slope for short legs). So she tried carrying Baby on her shoulders, which didn’t really work. (Baby is falling in this picture).
Taken 8 January 2006
Eventually, as I expected, Baby and the folded pushchair ended up in my rucksack while Fionaberry sat on my shoulders and got dirt on my jacket with her little feet. The trip home, across the field and over the fence, was faster and muddier, but less memorable, than the trip to the shop.
A Day at the Beach
So the last day before I go back to work, the New Year’s Bank Holiday, we decide to go to the beach for the day.
Actually, we managed about 45 minutes on North Berwick beach itself before the kids got too cold. And with everything shut for the bank holiday, we didn’t even get to take refuge in any warm place but the car. Martin did a bunch of photography with the big cool camera while Alex threw rocks in the water and Fiona walked around exploring the sandy world. (There was also a certain amount of climbing on rocks, running about and shrieking, and generalised beach fun.)
Nonetheless, I did see a couple of things that just needed photographing, and as usual, the camera phone came through!
Rock and seaweed
Taken 2 January 2006
Roseate seaweed
Taken 2 January 2006
Rocks and sea glass. (I am particularly fond of sea glass, for long complicated reasons.)
Taken 2 January 2006
I love the dark trails in the sand under this bit of seaweed.
Taken 2 January 2006
Yeah, yeah, more seaweed. But I like it.
Taken 2 January 2006
I did a bit of colour messing with this shot – but only a tiny bit. I love the textures, but I know I may be alone in that.
Taken 2 January 2006
This is the prize shot. I tried it with the big fancy camera, but actually, this one from the phonecam is the best of the day. In my opinion.
Taken 2 January 2006
(And, by the way, happy new year.)
Abi’s Wishlist
As usual when I try to make these sorts of lists, I find myself overwhelmed by how little I actually need, or even really desperately want.
I’m very lucky.
My clothing sizes are:
- Tops UK size 12, US size 10
- Bottoms don’t even try – they never fit
- Shoes UK size 5 1/2 – 6, US size 8 – 9
Please do consult Martin before getting anything, to avoid duplication!
Bookbinding
I am aware that many bookbinding items are excruciatingly expensive or a pain to obtain. If there is something you want to give me, but don’t speak enough binding jargon to obtain, I would be delighted to receive “money toward” any of these items. Martin has prices, if you want to do a price-based query (I’ll never know!)
- Japanese drill punch from Hewit’s
- Brass roll heating ring from P&S Engraving
- Single letter type holder from P&S Engraving
- Take me to Hewit’s and let me spend your money
Books
- Farthing, by Jo Walton
- Modern Bookbinding, by Alex Vaughn
- A Craftsman’s Guide – Edge Decoration by John Mitchell
Specials by Scott Westerfield
DVDs
- Star Trek, the original series box sets
- This is Spinal Tap
Other
- A massage (preferably “Theraputic massage” at the Floatarium
- Dinner out somewhere nice, with childcare
- A jewelry box – preferably wood or leather – with multiple small compartments
- Hair ornaments – hair sticks, clips for extra-thick hair
- Chickens. Everybody needs more chickens.
- A bike. (or anything else from that site for the Third World)
BOING
So I’m finally off work until Christmas, just in time to meet up with a friend from my accountancy days, Kirsty. The two of us on Princes Street with no agenda but a very brief shopping list (present for x, stocking present for y, spray mount): what do you do?
Well, you go to the German Christmas Market, and Munich-resident Kirsty suggests what to order. (Thanks for the tip about the shot of Amaretto in the gluhwein, Kirsty!). You go to the Bucks to escape the lunchtime rush. You go on the giant Ferris wheel by the Scott Monument to see the city. You egg each other on to buy a suit.
And (unless you’ve just done your ankle in) you go jumping.
Taken 21 December 2005
With flips
Taken 21 December 2005
The Nature of Photography (and the photography of nature)
Due to a combination of factors (longer lunchtime walks, better camera phone, encouragement by commenters), I’ve been taking a lot more pictures of late.
I’ve been in love with photography since I was 15 or 16, when I got a 35mm camera (a Pentax ME Super) from my parents along with free run of the darkroom. I spent a year or two exploring the world as seen through a lens, and inhaling vast quantities of extremely interesting chemicals.
One of the things I learned early on is that other people don’t see the same things I see. Yes, we both look at a tree and go “Big thing, brown on bottom, green on top.” But something in me is also going “Oooh! Oooh! Pattern and regularity of leaves as they grow, shapes of trunks and branches! Wow!” Seriously. For every tree unless I consciously shut it off. I walk through the Botanic Gardens with my mouth open, or smiling irrepressibly, when I go alone. I also get that feeling from a lot of repetitive patterns and textures. (Ask Martin about my reaction to the hobbit cloaks in the Lord of the Rings films.)
But I found, showing my “Oooh! Oooh! Pattern!” shots to other people, that they didn’t get the same buzz. My mother once said it looked like I’d just pointed the camera at everything and taken a picture. The two decades since then have been spent, at least in part, trying to find ways to show other people what I see all the time. I do things like choosing a contrasting element against the patterned background, or photographing patterns with other redeeming features, such as good colour saturation.
But the other day, I found a link to a set of photos by professional photographer Jim Brandenburg. Although I’m intrigued by the specific challenge he set himself – 90 days’ photography permitting only one exposure a day – what really delighted me is that some of his pictures are ones I would take myself (if I were his technical equal). He can use pattern, and pattern alone, to lead the viewer into the shot. His quaking aspen shot, the Patterns of Branches, and most of all his picture of Norway Pine grove are all part of what I have been trying to capture for twenty years.
I’m not discouraged to have seen these shots – far from it. I’m excited by the chance to learn from them. Maybe I can find other ways to lead people into the world I see, and show them how beautiful it is.
Today, at lunchtime, I made my first attempt at a “pattern” photograph that did not use a contrasting foreground element to focus the viewer.
Taken 20 December 2005
On an unrelated note, I also got my camera to do this ghostly image (entirely untweaked, I promise you!). It’s of the disused Scotland Street tunnel, which has one brave plant trying to eke out a single-leaf existence in its shadows.
Taken 20 December 2005
Snappy comebacks from the under-fives
At dinner:
Alex: (quoting Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) Look out! Behind you! It’s a Dementor!
Abi: (refusing to look behind her) I doubt it.
Alex: You have to look behind you!
Abi: No, I don’t
Alex: Yes, you do. Otherwise you’re cheating.
Abi: No…going off of the script isn’t cheating. It’s called improvising.
Alex: It’s called ANNOYING.
Rident omnes
Civil Partnerships
So today the new Civil Parterships Act comes into effect in the UK. The Beeb calls them Gay Weddings, but even their FAQ on the matter admits they’re not.
Before we get too het up on the marriage/not marriage distinction, though, the reasons civil partnerships are not marriage are:
- They can be conducted in private. Civil marriages are public matters, with both partners signing the register simultaneously and saying certain words. A civil partnership is formed when the second partner signs the papers, even if that happens at a different time or place than the first signature.
- There is no religious connotation to a civil partnership. In this land of the established church, a Church of Scotland minister can officiate at a wedding and have it be binding. S/he cannot do the same for a civil partnership. (This does not ban religious ceremonies for civil partnerships. Ministers of non-established churches – and mosques, and temples – have religious ceremonies for weddings, but the legal marriage is not formed without intervention of a registrar.)
- No one wanted to be the politician who legalised gay marriage.
Nonetheless, I’ve skipped through most of the Act, and it’s all there. Formation, dissolution, degrees of relationship, adoption, intestacy, insurance benefits, next of kin, pension rights, immigration… Most of the text of the law is actually a series of insertions, reading over and over again, “For ‘husband or wife’ read ‘husband or wife or civil partner’.”
On the surface, looking out over the nation today, all is quiet. No one much was talking about civil partnerships, though all the papers had stories on the subject. The chat at the office was about the lack of large cups at the coffee cart, who was getting kicked off of the reality TV show, and of course the weather.
But the first ripples of change are coming. Asda will apparently be stocking “Mr and Mr” and “Mrs and Mrs” cards. The Times has added a Civil Partnerships column to its “Births, Deaths and Marriages” page. My employer posted a vocabulary chart for the new terminology (“divorce” is now “divorce or dissolution”) so that our personnel forms can be updated consistently.
And the world spectacularly failed to end. I didn’t really expect it would, just because more of my fellow travellers on the biggest adventure of my life are now share my rights.
But I admit I had hoped for some dancing in the streets.
Assumed Knowledge, Geek-Style
I’m not sure we’re doing right by the kids, in fannish terms. I think we may be giving them a less than complete basic grounding in SF&F types and memes. This will harm them in later life, in certain circles.
Fiona is fine. No worries there. She, contrary to most stereotypes, is clearly a science fiction girl. Whenever she sees a hooded and cloaked figure, she exclaims “Star Wars!” We don’t know if she’s thinking Obi-Wan Kenobi, Emperor Palpatine, Jawas, or Anakin Skywalker, but she’s definitely got the dress code crystal clear. She also calls all explosions “Star Wars”.
No, it’s Alex who seems to have missed out. I first noticed this when I was talking to him about Hagrid, from Harry Potter, and he hadn’t realised that Hagrid is a giant. He wasn’t clear what a giant was, either. I explained that it was a special kind of person who was very, very tall.
I explained that giants appeared in a lot of stories, from the Bible (Goliath) to Narnia (I’m trailing the film heavily around the house, having brought it up in light of the centaur that appears in the first Harry Potter film as well.) Then I explained that other special kinds of people in these stories were dwarves, who were very, very small.
“Other special people [my attempt at nonhuman character for the four year old set] in stories are elves, who are, um….foofy.”
Alex heard the word “elves” and put his arm over his head, with his forearm hanging down from his nose like a trunk.
Oh…dear…