Cheltenham Science Festval - OVER-AMBITIOUS DEMO CHALLENGE

We are recovering from the Cheltenham Science Festival. Six days, 12 talkes, and several discussions with science geeks. Brilliant!

Although on Sunday the Over-Ambitious Demo was less of the talk and more of the action. Hosted by Andrea Sella, we saw demos from Steve Mould, Matt Parker, and the lovely Fran and Greg who stepped in at the last minute and managed a most spectacular show. As we were there with the wheelchair, we were in the front row. We got covered by cornflour but that is easy to get out compared to the orange goo that Fran and Greg used!

Martin magaged to get a couple of photos on the Shiny Phone. Note to self, next year I will take the good camera - with a waterproof cover just in case!

Apple Blossom

Blackbird Singing

Pigeon says: Quick, put in the ear plugs!






Black Bird says: I didn't think it was that bad!

Autumn Light

Words are unnecessary.





Joyce's Pool, Didmarton











Sycamore Light












Crab Apples











Down the Lane

The Chicken's blog has been updated!

Just to let you know that one of the new chickens has already got to grips with the computer and updated their blog!

http://cyberbarnchickens.blogspot.com/



A little background, Porch, the last of our rescued chickens, died last Saturday, and on Sunday we got three point of lay girls to join the two others which we bought as point of lay chickens last year.

The one that looks most like Porch is called Terrace, the one that looks most like Tikka is call Masala, and the other one is Korma.

We have now gone from two eggs a day to four! What fun! I had better get baking!

Nearly There

Look now because you will never see the upstairs as clean and tidy as this!

When we got quotes we were told it would be 4 weeks, so I immediately joked and said that meant 6 weeks, telling the company we rented the portakabins from that it would be at least 8 weeks. So, 10 weeks and counting, we are finally nearing the end. The bathroom is nearly finished so it is just the finishing touches to the downstairs floor, then it has to be oiled, and we are in.


Well, not in as such. What I really mean is then I can carrying everything back in from the shipping container! It took me three weeks to empty the house, and I now have only nine days before guests arrive. Could be interesting!







The 'guest' end of the open plan upstairs.










Our bedroom

















Working in the bathroom



















The 'galleried landing'

Where is my Teenager?

While putting up the pool on the weekend, Peter was less than helpful. He needed each and every step explained. So just saying, "Right, now we have to connect up the solar panels" didn't work. He needed me to say, "take this pipe and put it there."

I had gone inside to get the camera in order to take photos of how we set it up to make it easier for next year, and when I came out I couldn't see him. I eventually found him laying under one of the solar panels:






















When he realised I had snapped a photo, this was his reaction!









Teenagers eh! Good thing I love him so much!

After

And this is what the cabin now looks like after we have moved in. It is only 23x8.5, and I think it is good that Peter will learn what it is like to live in such area. It will set him up for being a student living in a bedsit!

Inbetween

It was hard during the transition when we were neither in the house or in the cabin. The house was 'wrong' because the computers were not in the study, but in the main part of the barn where most of the furniture had been taken out.





And this is where all our belongings are going!

Before

Here are some photos of the portacabin from before we moved in:

It Has Started!

Today was the day the portacabins which will be our home for the next few weeks arrived. We are moving everything out of the barn so that we can renew the underfloor heating pipes.

As is often the case with people in the construction industry there was a lot of umming and awing about whether they would get them in, and as you can see, it was a bit tight:





















There wasn't inches to spare between the cabin and the guttering on the garage, it was millimetres!



















The cabin on the left is where we will live, and the one in front is where we will be putting all our belongings. They are both anti vandal cabins which is really ironic, as there are not many vandals in our area, but they couldn't get the normal ones up our narrow drive.

Travelling

Safe in our own little world, protected by iPod and sling...













Gazing at the ghost sheep outside the window, watching the world go by...














It is so confusing sometimes, so mixed up, but we are safe in our own little world.

Decoupage

Two dimensional decoupage is where pictures are glued onto a hard surface and varnished to make it look like it was painted on. It started way back when people couldn't afford to have painted furniture so they got their carpenters to hand colour black and white prints and glue them on. Then enough layers of varnish are added to embed the paper so deep that it no longer looks like paper.



This is a 'before' example of a print:




















And this is what it looks like after colouring:


























It is particularly good on country furniture like this old rocking chair:






















Here is a close of of the detail. This one hasn't had the full treatment of varnish yet:



















It is also a nice treatment for sprucing up wooden tissue boxes:

At least there is one good thing to come from having too much snow!

For Peter's 13th birthday we had a private session with the falconer Gary. He was brilliant with Peter, and was very passionate about his birds.





He started with a history of falconry and some information about the different types of birds, then we got to hold some that we weren't going to fly, including a lovely little merlin.





We then moved out into the arena where we were able to fly the bigger birds, such as the Harris Hawk here. Each of us got a chance to have the hawks land on our arms, then fly off, and land again.













Gary also put the birds though their paces flying from post to post.





They are so accurate in their movements, that even though it looks like they are in for a crash landing they elegantly pull up at the last minute.





















Gary threw a piece of meat up into the air and I managed to get a photo of the hawk flying up to get it, then following it down and getting it before it hit the ground. I am amazed I got any photos of it as it all happened so fast! The little black dot is not a speck on the screen, it is the piece of meat!









































This is an Eagle Owl from India. Owls have to be hand reared to work with humans, as they are normally solitary hunters, unlike the hawks who are usually parent reared. Hawks know they are hawks, and will work with humans as they are used to working cooperatively to hunt. On the other hand, this owl thinks he is human!






He took a liking to Peter. We had been told not to hoot at him as he was approaching his mating time, and they didn't want him to latch onto a human. However, he did seem to like Peter a lot, and Peter said it was all he could do to resist hooting at him!





As we were the only ones there, Gary had no problem setting up a couple of shots for me. I still haven't got to grips with the camera though so they are not the best, and the weather didn't help, but it does give you an idea of the wing spans of these beautiful birds.

Lego Anti-gravity platform

The whole platform



Detail of top


The glowing red eyes that come into place when the inner platform is raised by the pnumatic lift


Detail of the guards



View of the control room from the back


Detail of the control room from the side


Left hand side with Scarabax in the front and a flying Visorak



Overview of the inner platform


Detail of the inner platform in the lowered position


Detail of the inner platform in the partially raised position


Detail of the pnumatic controls for the inner platform


Detail of the anti-gravity platform from the side


Detail of the anti-gravity platform from the front