Nana R.I.P. 8th April 1927 – 9th October 2009

My wee Nana passed away on Friday. She might not have been the best singer in the world but she brightened everyone up who knew her.

Missing her so much already. I told her to say 'hiya' to Papa for me and tell him i'm still playing golf.

x

Pedal for Scotland ’09

Last weekend me, Steve Walsh and Marcus and Ross Hammond did the cycle for Scotland Glasgow to Edinburgh charity bike ride. It was great. We did the 53 miles no probs. Thanks to everyone who's donated - we've raised more money than we ever thought we would. If you'd like to donate you can go to: http://www.justgiving.com/katherines-wheelers/ and help the cause.

Geysir

On the way back to Reykjavík we went to visit an active geysir. The Great Geysir that’s in the Guinness Book of Records no longer erupts but it’s wee brother “Strokkur” still does. Very hot.

The long and windy road

After a trip to a glacier on skidoos (which was organised by Eider Gudjohnsen’s mum) we trekked back in a bit of a blizzard. You wouldn’t believe how cold it was – and I’m Scottish.

The Blue Lagoon. Geothermal seawater.

Smells a wee bit like egg but is still amazing. -15 degrees above the water and toasting below. The water temperature is constantly changing so you have to follow the hot patches around!

When you come out of the water you need to get to your towels quick as the wind chill takes your breath. Thirty seconds of standing on the wooden deck and your feet feel like blocks of ice.

According to Wikipedia “In 2006, 26.5% of electricity generation in Iceland came from geothermal energy, 73.4% from hydro power, and 0.1% from fossil fuels.” Knowledge is the bomb.

Going off road. Deep tread.

We went out into the country and had to do a bit of shoveling – including digging out some old English guy who was in a hire car.

What an arse.

Golden waterfall at Gullfoss

Here was the coldest I have ever been.

Icelandic panorama

Looking from the North American plate over to the Eurasian tectonic plate. Every year this gap gets wider by 2cm. That’s why flight costs to the States are more expensive year on year. Fact.

The top image shows the plates and the bottom image is just a large version to wonder at.

Iceland trip

My work, Elmwood, has won an award for the work we did for the University of Aberdeen. Just before Christmas we created a student accommodation guide that has been warmly received both by the client and now by McNaughton Papers.

For those that don’t know, McNaughton are a leading paper company and like to have an
expensive annual awards do. This year it was in Reykyavík and, as Graeme Cook was over watching England getting beat at cricket in Trinidad, I was asked, as I did all the artwork on the job, if I fancied going over to collect the award. What could I do but say yes.

As well as the awards, we went 4x4 snow roading, ski-dooing, stood on a glacier, checked out some volcanic activity, danced along a tectonic plate, ate puffin, shredded wind-dried cod and rotten shark (which actually tasted worse than it sounds) and swam in a geothermal lake.

The whole trip was absolutely amazing and, if you get the chance to go to Iceland, grab it. Here’s the work and the trip in nice colour pictures.

These pics show the A6 and A5 accommodation guide and the posters.

Frog's back.

The frog is back in the pond again. Spotted him the other day. He sat in the same spot all day.

And no Ross, I haven't 'chucked a tin of peas over him'.

Who the cluck are they?

We got the new 'hens' in two weeks ago. We gave the two cockerels back to the breeder as it's very difficult to squeeze eggs out of them. We've been assured that these two are definitely female.

Feathers crossed we might get some eggs in the summer time.

They are taking their time settling in but, slowly, they are finding their feet. In the pics here it was a nice sunny afternoon and they were doing a spot of sunbathing.

These chickens are again Silkies but, unlike the previous two, they are Blue Silkies. We've called one Lavender and one Thumbelina as she's tiny and missing a toe.

The new stove

We got a stove on Wednesday. It's magic. We got it from The Fireplace in Haddington and, as it's the first stove I've ever used, I was a bit sceptical of how good they actually are. This wee guy is great. We've not had the central heating on since Wednesday.

World's biggest ever misquote?

You know what really gets on my tits? It's that every single time Jose Mourinho is mentioned on tv or in the written press they always put in quotes "the special one". It is a huge misquote that has annoyed me for years. Jose is arrogant, confrontational and loads of other stuff but he has been given the label of "the special one" which makes him sound like he thinks he's the best, hand picked by a higher being, and better than any other manager. He actually said he thought, after winning the European Cup with a small European team like Porto, that he was "a special one". This means he thinks that he's not the best but that he's in the upper bracket of managers. I think his record shows that he was right with that claim.

Here's his quote in full:
“I’m not a defender of old or new football managers. I believe in good ones and bad ones, those that achieve success and those that don’t. Please don’t call me arrogant, but I’m European champion and I think I’m a special one.”

I'm glad I got that off my chest. Up yours lazy journalists. Nobody reads this blog except for you, so, whenever you hear the misquote, think of me and have a little laugh because we know better.

Pheasant plucker

We had a visitor at the weekend. A pheasant decided to have a wee drink out our pond. By the time I got the camera out he was just about ready to bolt. Luckily I got one photograph to remember him by. He was really noisy as he flew off too.

HDR photography

I had my first shot at High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography on Saturday morning.

Took the camera and a tripod out in the garden and took 5 shots, each with a different amount of exposure, ranging from darkest, darker, average, light and lighter

Then I bring them into Photoshop CS3 and let it combine them so that you end up with a very well exposed shot that holds the highlights without them getting blown out and dark, rich shadows which retain detail. A few wee tweaks and it's done.

Basically, it's a bit of digital folacio. I'm going to try some shots at the beach etc and see how they turn out.

You can see the results here with the final image at the top and 3 of the 5 images used to make it below.

Bye-bye Rainforest.

I think half of Dalkeith Country Park has been chopped down and delivered to our back door. We're getting an Aga Little Wenlock Classic stove next month and took delivery of the seasoned logs on Saturday morning. Should keep us warm for ages!

Sleeping Beauty

Here's Ross, heavily hungover, sleeping in his car before a game of sholf at the Prince's. Didn't effect his game too much though. He beat me by three. The dick.

A right pair of cocks.

Here's a picture of the two cockerels we ended up with. I'm hoping that, come the weekend, we can get them swapped for a pair of egg laying hens. The shuy who sold us them said it'll be no problem to get them swapped.

Fingers and feathers crossed.

Snow fair. Ah'm boilin'.

I've put this wee video up for Craig. He's totally B.O.ing it up in 47º down there in Melbourne. Sweat dribbling down is back into his ass crack whilst we're chilling up here in -10º.

Hope you're safe and that you don't mind that everything tastes like smoked haddock. Yum-yum.

Good luck at the end of February to you Susan when you bring a little baby Craig into the world. Hope all goes well.

x

Lake Placid

The big pond at Dobbies is frozen over by the way.

Sissy & Betty?

I spoke to the shuy from All Year Round Birds today to ask why we've not had any eggs yet from our hens? I was told that it's because of the lack of sun light at this time of the year. I asked him why both out hens crow in the morning? Silence on the other end of the phone. "Eh, because you might have two cockerels."

When i played down the phone the video I posted the other week so he could hear them he said, "yeah, that's not a hen".

That's probably more to do with the lack of eggs then the sunlight thing.

Anyway, we've to take them out next week to his place and he's going to replace them. So it turns out that they are more Stevie and Bert than Sissy and Betty.

Here's pictures of Calvin trying to squeeze eggs out of them. In one of the pictures he's holding Sissy up in the air like Simba in the Lion King. It's the circle of life.

More news to follow...