Trees!

I like trees. We like trees. Do you like trees? Here’s a short post about some lovey trees we’ve seen this year.

First off two pictures from Nostell Priory. There’s a tree in the inner grounds with an amazing long low branch.

That was April. In August we went back with Tom and Gemma…

Ah, the majestic oak with its massive trunk and crown. It is an oak isn’t it? I can’t see the leaves from here. I should learn my tree shapes. Whatever it is, it’s a nice one.

Here are the same explorers in Thornes Park Wakefield, near the castle hill…

Now three pictures from Haw Park in Wakefield…

A bit of forest fire:

Finally a spooky ivy-laden tree from Stafford, between the castle and town…

Lovely trees!

Modest Designs: DIY Playhouse

Two years ago I built a wooden playhouse for Scarlett. I thought she’d like playing in it and I knew I’d like building it. It’s a very strudy construction based around a chunky frame with plywood sides.

I chose to build it with a frame rather that from flat panels shed-style for a few reasons:

• Flexibility of use. The idea is that if Scarlett changes her mind about it in a few years I can pull off the thin plywood exterior and change it to a castle or boat or climbing frame.
• Strength. A shed is comparatively weak in construction, relying on the walls and roof to push/pull against each other. Realistically, I doubt a child could exert enough force to do any damage to a flat panel design; but a whole bunch of kids, climbing on the roof? I didn’t want any chance of  it collapsing. That won’t be a problem as this design can easily hold an adult human on the roof and the whole house is very sturdy. And heavy.
• Practice for the mythical future in which I get to build my own shack in the woods. Because of the scale I cheated on the joints and just used screws but if I did it bigger I’d do some proper mortise and tenon work.

The frame was made from pressure-treated timber and decking boards held with coach bolts and decking screws. The design is all my own, in a sort of Victorian styling. I actually did proper plans to work out the best way to minimise waste.

The roof and floor going in. The floor had to be done in two halves to slot between the uprights. Both are made out 6 mm external plywood. Incidentally, all of this wood was carried home from the timber yard by me. You might be aware that plywood comes in large sheets (4 ft × 8 ft), so they cut it into approximate thirds to make transporting it easier.

The sides were made from 3mm external ply and untreated pine. I figured that since they weren’t structurally significant they’d be fine just with a good coat of paint. Here’s an unskilled labourer doing the painting…

The finished design (photo from this summer), showing the two doors open wide for easy access. I set it the same height as the decking. I’ll talk about the decking in another post (woo hoo!).

The interior, showing the strips I put in to reinforce joins in the plywood back. It’s round the back so no-one will see it. It would have been nice not to have a join for aesthetic reasons but I didn’t want much waste. Also you can see the extra roof support blocks in each corner. You’ll see the painting is a little sloppy. It was pretty tricky using gloss paint squeezed into a tiny house so I didn’t bother too much about getting it on the bare wood. That dark wood in the bottom right of the picture isn’t part of the house, it’s stock accumulated for sale in Scarlett’s shop. By shop I mean the house.

An aerial view of the house, showing:

• The roofing felt spine to the roof, coving the join
• The entirety of our back yard in its vastness
• A load of weeds, demonstrating our laissez-faire policy on gardening

I only clear the weeds from the area that the neighbours walk over for access. Why have a sterile back yard? The gaps might as well be filled with organic life for the benefit of the local wildlife. The poppies are popular with bees.

Second-hand Goodness

Look! Bargains!

I went to the car boot sale specifically looking for this lead. The charger to our camera uses one that’s really long (1.5 m) and since we take it on our travels, I had a plan to buy another one, cut off the plug and attach the figure-eight plug to a new mains plug, thus shortening it to something more manageable. But lucky me found the exact thing I needed in a plastic tub of assorted junk for 50p!

The exercise books were 10p each from a different person. They’re lined but I bought them for Scarlett to draw in.

Owl, 5p. Come on – 5p? Why sell anything for 5p? We would have bought this for a pound. I’ve used a nice old slot-headed screw that’ll rust nicely in keeping with the colour scheme. It’s taken from my large collection of reclaimed screws. Reclaimed by me from stuff thrown away or recycled.

The most expensive of the lot, an Invicta Weather Board for £4 from Scope. We had to confer about this but decided to buy it. Our original motivation was that it’d look good on the wall then we remembered that we have a child who’d like it.

We bought this in March by the way,  I’ve been meaning to blog it for a while. I remember the day vividly – it was Sunday the 20th, there was a light easterly breeze and the sky was either clear or cloudy.

Car Show

Last month we visited a classic car show at Thornes park in Wakefield. We’ve been to the car show once or twice before. Considering it’s pretty big, it’s really under-promoted in my opinion. It was held on a Friday afternoon through to evening. I’m not super keen on cars but there was a good range from really old (1930s?) to fairly modern (1990s?) and the event was free.

Despite my eco-friendliness I’ve got a soft spot for massive American muscle cars. That’s some awesome typography above too. Look at this airbrushed beauty:

I’m no expert but I don’t think it does much to the gallon.

This monster honestly had a bonnet almost as big as our bed:

It was absolutely enormous. I don’t know what model it is exactly but I believe that it’s a V8, making it either a 7 or 8 litre engine. I imagine it takes a lot of power just to get the thing moving.

Not everything was so luxurious. Some of the hot rods were pretty rough-and-ready. I’m feeling chafed just looking at this one:

There were also all sorts of  motorbikes, trucks, buses, and even APCs (that’s Armoured Personnel Carriers).

I took loads of photos of shiny metal logos but have resisted the urge to post them all. OK, just one more…

Symbolic Logic

My meandering reading has brought me to this book by Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland. I’d heard before that he was good at maths and logic so wasn’t surprised to see this come up on the library search.

I was going to check it out (as in literally check it out of the library) anyway but then I read the first page:

A Syllogism worked out.
That story of yours, about your once meeting the sea-serpent, always sets me off yawning;
I never yawn, unless when I’m listening to something totally devoid of interest.
The Premisses, separately.
The Premisses, combined.
The Conclusion.
That story of yours, about your once meeting the sea-serpent, is totally devoid of interest.

The slow, deliberate analysis of the story concluding that it is totally devoid of interest is very amusing. It reminds me of Stuart Lee or Richard Herring. And it’s funny that a story about meeting a sea monster could be boring.

The book was written in 1896 and this actual edition is from 1955.

What I’ve read so far is very interesting. I haven’t got far because it has puzzles to work through and I want to do them properly.

35 mm Failure and Success

I’ve had films back from two cameras recenty. A sunny day at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park with my Halina 35x and a rainy stay at Scarborough with Michelle’s Olympus Trip 35.

I bought the Halina from a car boot sale last year with gummed-up aperture and focus rings. I loosened them up surprising easily with lighter fluid and was excited about using such a manual camera. I like its 60′s styling too.

Well the photos turned out ‘interesting’. I’m used to estimating focus distance and it was a sunny day (i.e., I kept the aperture small, resulting in a deep depth of field and very forgiving focus) so I think that the elements are out of whack or whatever the term would be.

Still – the blur, viginetting and colour lend the photos a retro dreamy feel.

Now, you might be thinking these aren’t too bad and don’t deserve the title ‘failure’. Well, it was a 36 exposure film and these are the best.  Most were rubbish.

Next is the Olympus Trip 35. You can’t go wrong with her. Solidly made, fully automatic exposure and well suited to quick shooting.

The day started off OK, REALLY rained, then ended nicely moody for a clifftop walk back to the B&B.

I cut Scarlett’s feet off that one because I forgot to allow for how close she was to the camera. The Olympus Trip is a rangefinder so you don’t look through the lens itself. Up close that can make a difference to the framing.

That’s a shell she has on her nose.

Anne Bronte is buried in this graveyard.

Married Couple Conversation

I’m trying to write a blog post about what I’ve been reading and am listening to heavy metal on Last FM. I’m listening to deathcore, to be specific.

“Deathcore is an extreme metal subgenre. It is an amalgamation of death metal with metalcore or hardcore punk, or both. It is defined by an ‘excessive’ use of death metal riffs, blast beats and use of hardcore punk breakdowns.

Deathcore is heavily influenced by modern death metal in its speed, heaviness, and approach to chromatic, heavily palm muted riffing and dissonance. Traditional growls and screaming are common. Clean vocals are very rare, but present in certain occasions of songs. Deathcore is defined by breakdowns and a focus on fast tempos and abrasiveness.”

Deathcore on Wikipedia (as usual).

Anyway, my favourite track by has just come on…

ME, TO MICHELLE: This is my favourite track at the moment, and this bit… wait… this bit <bout of pig-squealing-style screaming> is the best bit. It’s f#cking fantastic.

MICHELLE, ON SETTEE, EATING NUTS AND READING: I think I prefer these pecans to almonds. There’s more to them and they’re softer.

Famous Watch

Wow, according to the BBC, my watch is highly regarded for its reliability and long battery life:

Casio F-91W: The strangely ubiquitous watch

Not so good is its use by terrorists but I suppose that’s not the watch’s fault. It just goes to prove how robust a design it is.

Michelle bought me mine a few (7+) years ago on a visit to Scarborough and it’s still going on the first battery. The third strap, but the first battery.

In fact I’m so fond of it, I gave it its own painting:

Looking at Flickr, I see I painted it around 2004. I sold it to a guy who I believe wore a Casio F-91W himself.

It’s the second version (a re-imagining, if you will) of an earlier small painting I did for Deb. It was based on my observation that my hands were getting hairier at the time. Nowadays I’m more concerned about losing hair…

New Books

I bought these two books from Huddersfield second-hand market a fortnight ago. 20p each! Forty pee the two!

I’d never heard of Malcolm Lowry but they looked interesting. I saw Dark as the Grave wherein my Friend is Laid first, then found the other in a different box. I mean, how could a title like that not get your attention. And the fact that it was a Penguin Modern Classic swung it.  The rest of the books on the stall were a pretty lightweight hotchpotch as I remember.

So anyway, you can read all about Lowry on Wikipedia etc. He lived the sort of life appropriate for a serious writer – world travel, alcohol abuse, misadventure, shack-dwelling. Born 1909, died 1957. He didn’t have much luck and Under the Volcano (1947) was one of the two finished works published in his lifetime. Dark as the Grave… (1968) came out after his death.

I’m afraid I’m not as hard-core as I used to be with reading. I used to have much more time for it and could stick with heavy works but now I just get a bit of time on the train really. 10 minutes at lunchtime. I’ll give them a proper go though. Under the Volcano is meant to be a tragic classic.

The same weekend I bought this Iain M Banks from a car boot sale for 50p.

I’ve read it already as I’ve a new convert to Mr Banks. This one was just as good as the others I’ve read. Maybe I’ll talk about Banks in his own post but for now I’ll just say that I REALLY like his stuff. I think so far Consider Phlebas is still my favourite.

Dark as the Grave wherein my Friend is LaidDark as the Grave wherein my Friend is Laid

We Love Torches

I love torches, Scarlett loves torches, Michelle is keen but not in love. We lost two torches at new year when my rucksack was stolen from the train; my nice Duracell one and a toy one that Scarlett got for christmas. As a kid I really liked exploring the house by torchlight and Scarlett is the same. In fact she goes one better by enjoying climbing the stairs and getting to the bathroom in absolute darkness. Personally I find it a bit scary but I can hold on to her for moral support.

9 LEDS, 3AAA batteries each. On offer from Clas Olsen at 3 for £6. His (black), hers (silver) and lil’ hers (red).

Some day I’ll get myself a Maglite. These do the job but it’d be good to have a decent torch. I don’t think these are particularly robust.