Playtime!

A few photos of us having fun with Noah:

Time for a quick bath...

A few photos of some bath-time fun :)

Noah on Film

Daddy has a new toy, and Noah is intrigued by the camera...


We discover that Noah 'likes' us to blow across the top of his head...


Noah Chatters away in the morning...

Photos of our son pt4

Here are a few of the recent snaps we have been taking:

There will be some videos coming soon too...

First shoot of the year

A beautiful day at Celtic Harmony, ideal for my first shoot at the club.

The club certainly lived up to its reputation for friendliness, and i was walked around the course by the club secretary, despite arriving a wee bit late (they were just packing up to go home...!).
The Bikerstaffe shot beautifully (easy to draw, and very powerful), and my aim didn't embarrass me - most arrows comfortably on the target board, and i got a good set of 'kills'* even from the hardest peg**.

A perfect way to spend a couple of hours.

* : hitting the board isn't enough. Field archery target have images of traditional hunting quarry, and you have to hit within a marked boundary inside the animal for a hit. There is a kill area inside this boundary, and an inner kill within that for maximum points.
** : each target has 3 places you can shoot from, at various levels of difficulty. Distance is obviously a factor but the red (hardest) peg can throw in challenges like there being a large tree in the way...

Who or what inspires you?

A colleague recently asked the office "who or what inspires you?".

It really caught me, so i thought i would share my thoughts, and see if you would like to share...

People with a clear view when they approach … anything. Not being constrained by assumptions / precedents / previous attempts (by themselves or others).

These people put us on the moon, imagined software, invented the GUI, gave us passive resistance, said the homeless are worth more, are custodians of ancient wisdom.

Also, Mr Tuckwell, Mr Jones, Bob Godfrey, Philip Larkin, Jerzy Grotowski, and William Shakespeare, without whom I wouldn't have managed my own personal moments of clarity.

And some things...

• an amazing fungus – beautiful structure, amazing differences. Very delicate but the can kill you if you don't respect them.
• trees – these are living organisms. Vast. Majestic.
• clear sky – peace and space to dream / imagine.
  Looking into space gives a useful sense of proportion "all this was made just for me…?!" ;~)
• dew on grass in the morning – begs to be walked on. Makes me want to start walking and leave footprints (I want to leave a mark, if only for a little while).
• making a fire in the evening – has to be without firelighters / petrol etc.
  It's a really simple thing to do, but takes care and focus. Once it is made you have light, warmth, a means to hot food, entertainment (watching the flames, or telling stories).
• singing folksy songs – like the fire, our ancestors did this. It connects us back. It's so easy to keep looking forward and forget hard earned wisdom.
  Also – singing feels great, but for the longest time i didn't feel very good at it. I feel more comfortable singing these tunes – I think they suit my voice better, which inspires me to sing more and pass on stories to my son.

So that's me.

Share you thoughts below.

Brompton upgrade

I have had my Brompton for about 18 months, and i love it.
I tried other folders, but nothing matched the build or ride that a Brompton packs into such a tiny package.
I have a raw lacquer finish, rather than an opaque paint - one of the things i love about these bikes is that they are handmade (in London), and the raw finish shows off the brazing beautifully.

I also opted for a hub dynamo to power the lights, which was expensive but brilliant.

However, after last winter's snow i wanted something brighter than the standard front lamp, which was ok, but the dynamo had more power than the lamp could use. So when the bulb blew, i grabbed the chance and bought a new lamp rather than a replacement bulb.
I got a Busch and Muller IQ Cyo - very bright at 60 lux, and it has a feature where it stays on even when i'm not moving. (A problem with standard dynamos is that they are off when you are static, leaving you vulnerable at junctions and traffic lights.)
The front light fitting on a Brompton is just above the wheel - works with the folding and simplifies the cable routing. This means it is very low and underneath my front pannier (a daily commute necessity), which doesn't affect the forward cast of the light, but i feel makes me less visible to cars than a higher mounted light. So, rather than double-up the front light with a removable LED flasher on the bar (which admits the lower light is ineffective), i chose to bar mount the new light.
This works excellently.

The IQ has on / off controls which are usefully to hand, and the beam is perfectly positioned for vision and visibility. Also, the small sized light fits perfectly in the gap between the wheel and front fork when folded, which can cause problems with bar mounted anything on the Brompton.
I had to bodge a mount from bits and pieces, and (as you can see), lots of tape. Also the cable routing took a little trial and error to balance neatness with the necessary looseness required for the fold.
However, the final result is robust - fully tested in a fast black-ice related incident just before Christmas..!