Seaside Man

My partner Helen is a contestant in this year's AMW. She is Miss Flotsam. The event takes place on Saturday night at the Roundhouse in London.

The AMW was set up and is run by the famous jewelry designer Andrew Logan, and the show is hosted by Ruby Wax. This is the website:

http://amw.andrewlogan.com

Please join me in wishing Miss Flotsam good luck!

Cheers, Tom.

I read somewhere once that most serious road accidents are caused by either "bad driving or stupidity". The picture above shows criminally dangerous driving. The red lights on the left were of a car driving "normally", those on the right belonged to a car being driven insanely fast in a 30 limit overtaking the other one (note it's breaking lights by the white van). It is with some interest therefore that I note government plans to reduce speed limits:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8009364.stm

"Reductions from 30mph to 20mph in urban locations and 60mph to 50mph in the countryside are being considered"

On the face of it this seems sound, because of this sort of thing:

"Road safety researchers say only one in 40 people who are hit by a vehicle at 20mph dies, compared with one in five at 30mph...The 20mph zones are proven to save lives and that is especially important when thinking about children and the elderly"

So I'd like to know this: Exactly how many children's lives will this save in a year? So I did a bit of research.

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/accidents/casualtiesgbar/roadcasualtiesgreatbritain2005

Pedestrians are 20% of road fatalities, and in 2005, of the 3201 fatalities, 141 were children, so the number of pedestrian children killed is 20% of 141, i.e. 28. So, 28 is the maximum possible number of children that will be saved. So then we need to know how many of these happened in a 30 limit. I couldn't find that but I did find this:

"Five of the six most frequently reported contributory factors were some kind of driver or rider error or reaction"

i.e. bad driving. So, divide 28 by 6 and we get a maximum of 4.6 children saved. Exceeding the speed limit was a factor in 26%, so we're down to to 3.4 (maximum). But only 32% of accidents happen on urban roads:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/accidents/casualtiesgbar/suppletablesfactsheets/flagbfactsheet.pdf

This gives us (at maximum) 1 child's life saved by a speed reduction from 30 to 20 in urban areas. The number could be(and probably is)  zero. So:

Is it worth it?

If the reason for doing this is to save lives, ban smoking and save 100,000 lives a year, or ban booze and save 25,000 a year, give people a healthy diet and save hundreds of thousands a year. So why this suggestion? Call me cynical, but I think it's because it's a vote-winner. Labour can trumpet "We want to save children's lives" and who doesn't! Good old Labour! Except, as I've shown, that's nonsense.

This is heavy stuff so I'll end on a lighter note. I've mentioned here before the brilliant comment by the American comedian George Carlin (which was then nicked by Dennis Leary):

"Have you ever noticed how everyone who drives faster than you is a lunatic, and everyone who drives slower than you is an idiot"?

Cheers, Tom.

So the old adage has it. If that's the case then Shepherd's must find it delightful when rain is bucketing down as that's what it's like this morning! And of course today is sheep-shearing day for our 9 remaining pet sheep. Typical! This is Betty (Helen took these pictures):

This is Twinkie:

This is Betty and Twinkie as lambs:

This is Lizzie with snow on her back and not even cold:

And yippee - I lost another pound this week!

Cheers, Tom.

(click on the picture to enlarge it)

I heard a chap once say that he did it "To get away from the wife". That seems pretty...shall we say unfortunate. Wanting to be a part of nature or to see nice scenery sounds good, but couldn't you just have a nice walk instead, or even just a sit down?

Catching fish doesn't seem to be a primary concern as far as I can see, anyway.

Or am I wrong?

Cheers, Tom.

Yonks ago, I remember reading a book called "The Crystal Singer" by Anne McCaffrey. I remember liking it, but not as much as "The Ship Who Sang". I read a lot of sci-fi in my teens and tweens.

Sci-fi is a funny genre, it appears to be about other times and places but is almost always about the here and now of the author when they wrote it. It's not about aliens, it's about us.

I used to love sci-fi books but they don't move me now. The books haven't changed so it must be me. I think it's because hard science fiction is necessarily scientific and the science just isn't exciting to me any more, and soft science fiction (or fantasy) is so formulaic - the genre is stagnant.

Fiction writing more generally has become formulaic, largely because of all the "how to write fiction" books that would-be writers now read and because of the power of publishers to say NO to books that will be hard to market, i.e. not firmly in a genre. Add on to this the diminution of interest in reading because of games, internet, etc., and that's another nail in the coffin.

But on the up side, apparently there is a local "Book Group". That's very positive.

Cheers, Tom.

A lovely clip here of the fabulous Creedence Clearwater Revival playing their song "Lookin' Out My Back Door". Any film buffs may recognise this from The Big Lebowski.

What a great song.

Cheers, Tom.

The above is a small section of this (they both get bigger if you click on them):

That's Dan my dog diving after his ball!

Cheers, Tom.

When I got up yesterday morning, the sea was totally flat. Not even a ripple, no waves at all. That is most unusual. Later on I was talking to the windsurfer above and he was telling me that when the waves are already low, an offshore wind reduces them further, and that's what had happened. He also told me that an offshore wind is perfect for windsurfers, which was why he was there. Unfortunately for him, the wind had totally dropped by the time he got there. Windsurfing without wind simply doesn't work!

The gulls seemed to be enjoying the windless conditions and sun though, and I was pleased to catch these 2 together:

Cheers, Tom.

dunDun dunDun dunDun dunDun dunDun dunDun dunDun dunDun duddler DER!

The telephone wire just happened to be in the right place!

Cheers, Tom.

Sometimes, things just come together by accident, as long as you notice. I nearly walked straight past these gulls.

Cheers, Tom.

For some mysterious reason, lots of fishermen appeared on the beach tonight at about sunset. I have no idea what made them all suddenly appear on this day and time, but they did. I'm quite pleased with this picture. It captures the fishermen themselves, the sea, the sky and a lone seagull all together. Here it is:

Cheers, Tom.

I went to a musician's house party last night. About 12 people, all of whom were pretty good musicians, some of them excellent. There were at least 3 guitarists there who were far better than me, and I learned a lot by watching them. Proximity to someone very good at their art really does help, I find. I played a few songs and we did a few duets and everyone seemed to have a good time.

The thing that surprised me most was how quickly the time passed. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, 7 hours passed and it was time to come home. The fingers of my left hand feel a little sore this morning!

Cheers, Tom.

There were only a few of them, and I only managed the picture above as the so and so's were mostly staying underwater. Still, that's a cheery sight to see in the morning!

Cheers, Tom.

You know, people often say to me "Tom, what exactly is Longshore Drift"? I tell them that sand gets washed up the beach and back down again by the waves, in the same direction that the waves are moving in (like moving mud with a bucket of water - the mud flows away with the water). So when a coastline is at an angle to the prevailing wave direction, this results in sand being shifted along the coast by the waves, not just straight up and down the beach. If the coastline was straight on to the waves, the sand would just move up and down and all would be well. However, when the coastline is at an angle to the waves, the sand moves sideways down the coast.

This is a bad thing because over time the beach will move along the coast. So, barriers are put up to stop this from happening. They are properly called Groynes, but the term "breakwater" often gets used too. If you have seen many of my beach photographs you will have seen these a lot. The picture above is a row of them, and here are 2 blow-ups from it (click on them to see them larger):

These Groynes cost £50,000 each but they are an essential part of our coastal defences in some areas, and certainly here in Cardigan Bay.

And as for my title, well I was thinking of the Groove Armada sample really, but here is the original by Patti Page: Old Cape Cod:

And now the one that samples the above: Groove Armada: At The River

Cheers, Tom.

Here we have the two contenders:

They both look pretty mild-mannered here, but the battle between them is constant and endless, and it's a battle that has been going on since time immemorial. They are battling for food. It might be worms, fish, discarded chips, or anything else that looks tasty.

The blacks (blackbirds, jackdaws, crows) outnumber the whites and are more manoeuvrable, but they are smaller and less powerful. They have more stamina.

The whites (different types of gulls) are fewer in number but bigger, stronger and faster, although they are less manoeuvrable.

Over the long run the fight is pretty evenly matched, as you might expect, since evolution has made it so. The whites tend to win smaller battles by using their superior size and speed, but the blacks tend to win longer ones by sheer weight of numbers and determination. They are constantly trying to psyche each other out as here (sorry about the poor quality of the pics - it was getting dark):

I think this is a battle that will continue for as long as these birds exist.

Cheers, Tom.

(sorry, I've been a bit verbose here!)

BrokenDownAngel suggested I post a recipe, so here is one. This is designed to have strong tastes - diet food is boring. I do this at least 3 times a week at the moment and it has several important benefits:

1. It's almost infinitely variable so doesn't get boring
2. It has good, strong tastes in it
3. It's full of healthy stuff
4. You can eat as much of it as you like
5. It's relatively inexpensive
6. You can just as easily make a little or a lot
7. It will last 2 days without going weird

I'll call it "Thick Vegetable Stew" for lack of a better name. The below will make loads for 2 people - probably more than enough. Multiply up as necessary.

The basic method is this:

Fry some onions and garlic (+ leek if you have any)
Add herbs and spices
Add loads of vegetables
Add some fluid
Add whatever extras you fancy
Leave to simmer for 30 minutes

Serve with rice or potatoes

I'll now expand on each of the above in turn.

I use one medium size onion and 2 cloves of garlic per person, but this is down to personal taste. If I have any I'll use leek here as well, about 1/3 of a medium leek per person. I use extra virgin olive oil for frying, and one normal sized eating spoon full of it is enough for the 2 of us. Any more and it won't be so good for dieters. Because there is so little oil, you need to fry for a little longer than normal on a lower heat or it'll stick. Do the onions (+ leek) for 5 minutes then add the garlic and do for another 5. If they go dark brown they're overdone.

Add whatever herbs and spices you fancy. For the two of us, I'd use a heaped teaspoon each of sage, basil, oregano and coriander plus some paprika and a little chilli powder (less than I'd like as Helen doesn't like things too hot). Perhaps some Rosemary, turmeric, garam masala, cumin or whatever else I have if I fancy it. Just bung in whatever you like and use loads of it. About a minute should be enough.

Next, chuck in your vegetables. These should be reasonably well chopped but not too small otherwise they'll just disintegrate and the final meal will lack texture, but not too large or they won't cook. Use whatever you have, and the greater variety the better. Any of these are good:

sweet potato, squash, carrot, parsnip, broccoli, celery, cauliflower, Swede, turnip, and so on. But not potato. You can also stick in any other sorts of things you have around. I often use tinned butter beans and chick peas as we both like them. I sometimes use lentils and TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein - Soya) too, and if you do this a little more water needs to be added.

Now throw in a tin of chopped tomatoes, or if you prefer chop up a load of tomatoes yourself and chuck them in. At this point, add as little water as you can get away with. Less than half a cup is normally enough for the 2 of us. If you have any stock, use that instead. I normally add a teaspoon of marmite or vegetable stock powder at this point but if you've used stock you won't have to (unless you want to anyway). Salt and pepper to taste. Also add whatever else you like - soy sauce, tabasco, whatever.

Extras. Seeds are good for you and add texture and taste. I normally add some sunflower seeds and some pumpkin seeds. It doesn't need much, one or two eating spoons of each is enough. If you like nuts, add some of those. Brazils and Walnuts go well, but chop them pretty small. And again, whatever else you fancy. Sultanas make a nice change sometimes.

The just leave it simmering for 30-40 minutes with a lid on, stirring occasionally. If it looks runny, take the lid off to let it reduce but if you do this increase the cook time a little. It should end up really thick, not at all like a soup - when served it should make a mound on the plate rather than a splat!

Serve with either rice or potatoes. I've been using brown rice recently as if I put it on when the above is all finished, it's ready at the same time.

A point I would repeat is that you can basically throw in whatever you have, and whatever you like. Make it thick and make it tasty. BUT, you do need to make sure you have lots of different vegetables in the house, preferably about 10 different types plus some stuff in tins - chick peas, butter beans, kidney beans and loads of tomatoes (fresh or tinned). I keep tomato puree in tins and add that sometimes too if I fancy it really tomatoey. The more stuff you have the better it will be, so get some seeds and nuts too. They cost a fair bit to buy but last ages. If there is a Julian Graves shop near you, they’re not too bad for this sort of stuff.

And there we have it. My apologies for not laying it out like a traditional recipe, but this is all out of my head and because of the huge number of ways it can be varied, it seemed better not to.

Cheers, Tom.

There is an old saucy seaside postcard with a picture of a buxom young woman with a red, surprised face milking a "cow" while an old farmer observes. The speech bubble from the farmer says:

"That be a bull miss"

The picture above is definitely a cow rather than a bull, but I didn't like the way she was looking at me. These cows have calves and it's only a short time ago that they chased Helen, who had to jump over a fence to escape. Cows might be placid most of the time but like most nursing mothers can be fearsome when you get too close to their offspring!

On a different cow-like note, I have lost half a stone in 3 weeks simply by eating no bread or cheese. I've still been eating a lot, but as it's necessarily been more vegetables and fruit my calorie intake has dropped and the weight is coming off. I'm pretty pleased with that, although I do expect the loss to slow now.

Cheers, Tom.

I have noticed someone making a lot of posts here recently advertizing courses on "7 habits of highly effective people". This is based on a book by Stephen Covey and quite a few years ago I attended a course that covered similar ground. Below is my summary of the course. Some are obvious, some less so, but it's when they are all put together that the true benefits can be gained.

1: Be Proactive and take responsibility for all aspects of your life.

2: Visualize what you want to achieve and set specific goals accordingly.

3: Do important things first. Long term goals outweigh apparently urgent tasks.

4: Seek solutions that benefit everyone, not just yourself.

5: Empathy: first understand, then explain. Listen before speaking.

6: Synergy: encourage teamwork, diversity and innovation.

7: Rest: you will work better if you are rested, but keep your brain sharp.

8. Review regularly. Have your goals changed? Are you achieving them as well as you can?

Cheers, Tom.

Even the most massive objects look tiny if you are far enough away.

To see more detail you have to get closer.

But if you get too close you can no longer see the context.

Finding the right distance from which to examine your life is difficult but crucial.

Cheers, Tom.

I think it's pretty easy, but can you see what the picture is of?

Cheers, Tom.

Home, I suppose, but this is how the beach looks today:

Lovely :-)

Cheers, Tom.

A girl on the beach made this yesterday:

I think that's rather nice and shows signs of both an orderly mind and creativity. The next step could be to make the line vertical instead of horizontal, like this:

Bill Dan is something of a master of the art of rock balancing (I got these images from his website, I hope he doesn't mind:

http://www.rock-on-rock-on.com/

Here are a few more of his works:

This is the man himself:

I must admit I am quite tempted to have a go at this myself. The main thing that puts me off is the not inconsiderable risk of the pile collapsing and me ending up with broken toes. Here is the sort of thing I'd be aiming at:

Cheers, Tom.

Whilst walking on the beach earlier I somehow lost the lens cap off my camera. Not a disaster, but pretty annoying as I'd have to be incredibly careful not to scratch the lens. So, I literally retraced my footsteps in the sand. After about 30 minutes of methodical searching, I found it.

Result! Phew, I'll treat myself to a drink...

Tom.

The people on the jetski seemed to be having a whale of a time yesterday, and I suspect the man in his magnificent flying machine was as well.

It's easy to understand why so many older "primitive" cultures worshipped the sun. It provides light and warmth, is the brightest thing you can see. and it appears every morning in exactly the same way, more reliable than clockwork.

About 11,000 years ago, agriculture was discovered and this enabled civilization. The former mobile hunter-gatherer bands of 50 or so people (about the same size as ape and chimpanzee groups)  gave way to sedentary tribes of larger numbers and eventually to chiefdoms and states. Something was needed to justify leaders and authority, and that thing was religion. It also served another purpose: instilling fear in order to keep peace. Members of a band would all have been related, but in these newer groups that wasn't true so fear of god was created for this purpose.

The twin founding characteristics of religion were fear and control.

Cheers, Tom.

To be honest, I was underwhelmed.

The characters are there, albeit a little caricatured, but the plot was very forced and the rip-offs in it just astonishing. The basic idea came from the League of Gentlemen film with a healthy dose of Bladerunner thrown in, and the story just steals details from previous episodes.

The decision to film it without audience and without laugh-track was probably good, but it changed the character of the programme in a way that fans (like me) find problematic.

There were some laughs, some very good ones in fact, but overall I got exactly what I expected: a pretty lame rehashing of previous ideas. But what else could you expect: only half the writing team was involved and times have changed.

Sorry guys but this was lame, and this from an original fan.

Tom.

The 6 suites for solo cello by J.S. Bach were responsible for making me stop playing the guitar for two years while I tried to learn the Cello. I eventually gave up because I realised how long it would take to get this good:

That's Mischa Maisky playing the prelude from the 1st suite. Simply astonishing playing, he gives the piece an arc from start to finish that most players don't manage, and his dynamic range and control is remarkable.

Cheers, Tom.

This is an acoustic version of a song I originally wrote as a heavy rock song (with drums, layers of guitars, solos and what-not). Something just didn't feel right with the heavy version so I thought I'd try it in a simple country arrangement. That's what this is:

All opinions, whether good or bad, are welcomed. Oh, and you'll notice me reading the lyrics off the stand as I had to rewrite them a bit for the new arrangement!

Cheers, Tom.

I find it hard to believe that it's only been 3 months since this (click on it to enlarge it):

That was taken at the Devil's Bridge waterfalls and was the first outing I had with my new camera.

I find it hard to believe now how bitterly cold and wintry it was then, such a comparatively short time ago.

How time flies, eh!

Cheers, Tom.

...you mustn't sigh and you mustn't cry
Spread a little happiness as you go by
Please try."

Have a great day everyone.

Cheers, Tom.

I've been fiddling with a picture of a stone again and I seek opinions: do you like the above picture? The small size doesn't show the detail very well, so please click on it to see the larger size.

A comment left by Lois Wakeman last night about night photography seems to be equally true for this sort of manipulated image: you just can't predict what colours will be there when you've finished!

Cheers, Tom.

Last night, I posted this manipulated picture and asked people to identify it:

Mr Smarty Pants Kevin Wilson got it right straight away :-)

Well done Kev. This is the original:

Cheers, Tom.

There are so many greens around at this time of year. There is a lesser known Johnny Cash song called "40 shades of green" which he apparently wrote whilst in a plane flying over Ireland, seeing all the differently shaded green fields. It was Johnny's music that got me back into playing the guitar again 5 or 6 years ago, and without his influence I wouldn't even be trying to sing myself. I wish I could thank him.

There are browns around too:

Which brings me to James Brown. The most sampled drum beat in the world is from his song The Funky Drummer. Here is that original beat played by the original drummer Clyde Stubblefield:

I find that clip absolutely fascinating, and it's worth waiting for the drum break he plays in the middle of it. It's easy to hear why it has proved so popular. That beat has been used on countless records in all sorts of genres.

Cheers, Tom.

Normally, I don't do much manipulation to my photographs. This time, I thought "what the hell"! So, I have edited this quite a lot and to be honest I am fairly pleased with the result:

But can you work out what it was originally? Click on it to make it bigger - essential this time really!

Cheers, Tom.

This was taken at about 10PM last night, about an hour and a half after the sun had gone down. It seemed to be dark, but as you can see from the picture (which is pointing towards where the sun disappeared) it can't have been. This was a 30-second exposure (click it to enlarge it):

This next one is at 90 degrees to the one above and no trace of sun is visible so the sky looks blue. The long exposure (30 seconds again) has smoothed the waves, and the lights of the houses on the headland reflect in the water.

Long exposures when it's dark or almost dark produce peculiar colour properties that are nor "real" but which often look interesting. Both these pictures are totally unmanipulated.

Cheers, Tom.

It's a lovely town. The seafront is stunning, the headland overlooking the town from one side and the castle from the other (not in this picture) and the Victorian and Georgian brightly coloured houses in-between:

The centre of the town has managed to resist many of the "modernizations" that have plagued other towns with the result that there are still lots of old, narrow streets, fascinating buildings and local, independent shops. This is why it's so very annoying that there is a plan to change all this and the guilty party is Debenhams.

Yes, Debenhams. There is a plan to literally rip out much of the centre of the town and replace it with a Debenhams Store. This plan involves the compulsory purchase of at least 20 existing businesses, and a reworking of the town's road infrastructure. All that local character and history lost in one fell swoop.

How the hell is it possible for a company to force others out of business to do this? The fact that compulsory purchases are involved means that government must be involved. If this goes ahead, something seriously rotten is at the heart of this country. I suspect bribes, or at the very least "incentives".

The wholefood shop I go to, the veg shop I go to, clothes shops, all sorts of small shops in lovely old buildings, all long-existing and with character, all removed by one big, dirty business.

Luckily, there is a resistance campaign and it’s getting my full support.

Tom.

...to brighten up a dull day (the pics get large if you click on them).

Daffs:

Dunno:

Cheers, Tom.

Last night, I set the tripod up on our balcony and tried a few long exposures lit by starlight. The results are quite interesting, I think. Can you see the ghost in the top one (click on the pictures to see them larger):

This is definitely something I'll be trying again.

Cheers, Tom.

A sobering picture, in more ways than one:

Cheers, Tom.

P.S. Click the picture to see the sour faces full size

I've always liked this slow country song by The Rolling Stones, and it's a bonus that it's featured in one of my favourite films, "The Big Lebowski". This is my cover of it.

The Rolling Stones: Dead Flowers

One of these days I'll do a more full version of this with several guitars and harmony vocals on it, but not today.

Cheers, Tom.

This is the road leading up to our allotment, which is just the other side of the church you can see top left:

Those are goats. As I'm sure you all know, goats are famously good at getting through fences.And they are very curious, and neither shy nor scared:

Pretty cute too:

But they do want to wat the grass inside the allotment as it's longer and greener, and we haven't even got any veggies in there yet!

This one has his feet on top of the fence, eyein up m patch:

But how can you dislike them when they look as cute as this:

Interesting times ahead!

Cheers, Tom.

My nosing at the grindstone and beavering has continued apace. These are the 5 stages the allotment has gone through now:

Next comes forking over everything I have dug, after which planting may commence. We are running a little late for some crops now, but that couldn't be helped. It#s certainly not too late for a few vegetables as long as I get cracking.

We could really do with a shed soon to keep a few tools in, some compost, and what about water for when it's dry? Ah, so much to think of. Oh, and a compost heap.

Cheers, Tom.

Not the bad sort. It's heaving with people here today. The expected bad weather hasn't materialized and holidaymakers are out in force to enjoy this sort of thing:

I can't say I blame them. I was walking to the pub at about 9PM last night and the sky looked gorgeous - no camera with me unfortunately as I was carrying my guitar.

It was session time again in the pub. A good selection of instruments, even piano this time, and lots of folk and blues music.

I was wondering last night why depression is associated with the colour blue. Anger is red - that's clear enough as it's the colour of blood, but why blue for depression? I would have thought grey was more appropriate, but what do I know! Maybe I should invent a style of music called Oranges!

Are there any other emotional colours?

Cheers, Tom.

Here is my first attempt at covering the Bright Eyes/Conor Oberst song "First Day Of My Life". I make a couple of errors with the lyrics, but nothing too serious:

This is the first day of my life
I swear I was born right in the doorway
I went out in the rain suddenly everything changed
They're spreading blankets on the beach

Yours is the first face that I saw
I think I was blind before I met you
Now I don’t know where I am
I don’t know where I’ve been
But I know where I want to go

And so I thought I’d let you know
That these things take forever
I especially am slow
But I realize that I need you
And I wondered if I could come home

Remember the time you drove all night
Just to meet me in the morning
And I thought it was strange you said everything changed
You felt as if you'd just woke up
And you said “this is the first day of my life
I’m glad I didn’t die before I met you
But now I don’t care I could go anywhere with you
And I’d probably be happy”

So if you want to be with me
With these things there’s no telling
We just have to wait and see
But I’d rather be working for a paycheck
Than waiting to win the lottery
Besides maybe this time is different
I mean I really think you like me

Cheers, Tom.

This picture looks fake:

I know it does. Go on, be honest, you think I've photoshopped the colours don't you? I haven't, all I’ve done is cropped off more of the black area at the bottom (this was taken from my garden and that‘s the sea wall). Occasionally we get sunsets so vivid that they look fake even when you’re stood in front of them.

If you don’t recognise the title, it’s from The Catherine Tate Show. One of her characters has that as a catch-phrase. My mentioning of Catherine Tate is a thinly disguised excuse to show the clip below. There is something very modern and uncomfortable about the humour in this clip. In the same way as Borat did, this displays a stereotype (several in fact) and then allows us to react to it:

It’s embarrassing but it’s also so exaggerated that it couldn’t be real (could it?) and that’s how it gets away with it. Of course, it does help that she is a brilliant comic actress.

This is postmodernist comedy in the sense that we aren’t laughing at jokes, we’re laughing at something else, something deeper, we’re laughing at the people who think it’s funny to make fun of other people’s differences: we are laughing at racists. Racism is based on hatred and ignorance and making racist attitudes laughable is one of the best ways of reducing them. This clip does that brilliantly.

Cheers, Tom.

Time is fleeting and I'm not waiting to wear purple
Or red or kiwi or orange or magenta or any other color
I'll spend my time sitting under the sunflowers
while the mares snuffle my hair and kittens play in my lap
Today I'll take my knitting to the pasture
and chance a wet bottom when I sit on the ground
Samuel and Carly will nuzzle my pockets for treats of corn
while the other sheep bleat at their boldness

My needles will lie quietly as I watch birds float on unseen columns of wind
The barn swallows and goldfinches and robins and even the buzzards will
bring me joy on their outstretched wings
Tonight at midnight, the dogs and I will walk in the pasture
I'll whisper secrets to the horses and sheep
I'll look for falling stars and the big and little dipper
and will nail Orion's belt with the north star

I'll drink good wine and strong beer and sweet water
I'll eat chocolate for breakfast and pastry for lunch
mix cream in my flavored coffee and
turn up my nose at powdered milk and ill mannered people
Tomorrow I'll give compliments to perfect strangers
and speak to people on the street just
to watch their reactions as I grin at my silly self
I've worn hats for over thirty years and see no need to stop
I'll not waste happiness on tomorrow but spend it willy nilly today
Time is fleeting and I'm wearing purple now

-- Sandra Bennett, 2004

Honestly, the number of times in my life I've heard that! But I digress. This is too small:

It's a remote control for my camera. How the hell am I supposed to not lose that! Honestly, I like things that aren't too bulky as much as the next person, but this is silly. I'll be lucky if I last a week without losing this. And mobile phones as well!

Cheers, Tom.

10 Thoughts.

1. "We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world" - Helen Keller

2. "Any of us can achieve virtue, if by virtue we merely mean the avoidance of the vices that do not attract us" - Robert Lynd

3. "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist" - Dom Camara

4. “Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding on to” - Unknown

5. "What we see depends mainly on what we look for" - John Lubbock

6. "God is on everyone's side … and in the last analysis, he is on the side with plenty of money and large armies" - Jean Anouilh

7. “In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that worships them and a cat that ignores them” - Unknown

8. "The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that's the way to bet" - Damon Runyon

9. "An excess of virtue is a vice" - Aristotle

10. "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts" - Albert Einstein

Cheers, Tom.

I was doing a photographic project recently and that was my aim, focused on buildings and light. I thought I'd show 3 of the pictures here. The first picture is the public toilets in Borth. You can't get much more mundane than that! I did it with high contrast and high saturation and composed it with a bit of plant in the foreground and a sky reflection in the window. For my final set of pictures, I toned the colour down slightly, but it is similar to this:

(click the pictures to enlarge them)

The second one is the meeting of two differently coloured walls in the sunshine. Again, I composed it with a plant in the foreground to add variation of colour and a sense of depth:

The third one is of some scaffolding:

On a slightly different note, my eating plan is working: I lost 3 lbs since last Wednesday. Woohoo!

Cheers, Tom.

I passed these two lovely horses on the way to the allotment this evening. Aren't they lovely?

Cheers, Tom.

When I was a student, it was common to describe the teaching method like this:

"Getting educated here is like drinking from a firehose"

A constant, powerful stream of information was fired at us and if we really concentrated and strained, then we’d probably manage to swallow some of it without being knocked off our feet.

There were good reasons for this method: they had a lot to pass on in a relatively short space of time and this approach quickly sorted out the wheat ones who really wanted to succeed from the chaff ones who thought they were getting a free holiday at the taxpayers expense.

Now, there are no grants and most people have to pay their own way through degree courses. The hose is still there, but more drinking assistance is available. This is probably a good thing as everyone learns in different ways and at different rates.

Cheers, Tom.

Today, I grasped this:

In order to work this:

So that (as soon as possible) I can use these:

I have a couple of minor muscular aches, but nothing serious. Tomorrow is another day of course!

This will save money, gives me some much needed exercise, reduces our food miles and means that those dirty, thieving supermarkets get a bit less of our money. Quadruple benefit!

I'll be keeping a photographic record of progress :- )

Cheers, Tom.

Since we moved here:

there is something that has been a growing source of irritation for me. It's the amount of this:

that people leave here. Here it is closer up:

And then there is this sort of thing, bought and used for a day and then left:

Note the logo.

All of this crap was collected from the beach by Helen for an art project.

This world of ours seems, more and more, to be based on a throwaway mentality and built-in obsolescence. I found a plastic dinghie on the beach that was used for the day and just left there. One of my neighbours found a child's scooter that was used for a week and then left on the beach. Stuff is built as cheaply as possible deliberately so that people will just buy it and then dump it, and then buy another one the next time they need one.

Some of this plastic crap ends up killing birds and fish, some of it gets collected and ends up in landfills, some of it stays in the environment, and some goes to form plastic islands like the one in the Sargasso sea.

This planet is our collective nest and humanity is messing it up in a grand style.

Tom.

We finally have our allotment ready to go. Here it is - it's the bit inside the white posts - and my charming models are inside it to show the scale:

You can tell the site is new by the limited amount of work that's been done on it, and the presence of just one hut. We are at the top edge, and this is the view back down the site, towards the sea:

You can see how windy it is by these trees at the back:

So, careful choice of plants is needed. Does anyone have any tips about plants that thrive in a very windy location where the soil is probably a bit salty? Onions, leeks and garlic are high on our list, but what else?

Time to get digging!

Cheers, Tom.

In the past I haven't been fond of sunset pictures this way round - portrait orientation. I realised why last night: it's because they look smaller on the computer screen. No less information is present, the files are the same size, they just have to be displayed smaller to fit on the screen. I have let the technology dictate to me how things should be rather than making an artistic decision and this is wrong.

I wonder how many other aspects of our lives are decided for us by what technology allows rather than us choosing what we want?

So above, a sunset in portrait orientation. I think it looks OK.  Oh, and click it to make it larger!

Cheers, Tom.

I've just written and recorded a new song and I seek opinions on it, if you have 2 and a half minutes to spare! It's called "Johnny Cash's Guitar" and here it is (there is one “naughty“ word in it!):

I'll probably end up tweaking it a little, but that is basically it.

All opinions good, bad or indifferent are welcomed - please PLEASE let me know what you think of this.

Thanks, Tom.

When I was trying to knacker Dan out yesterday by throwing his ball on the beach, he trotted over to where this pair of Jackdaws were chowing down on something (probably) disgusting:

But did they fly off? No, they didn't. Dan is a viciously efficient hunter and if he gets a sniff of a pheasant that's one dead pheasant, ripped in two and food in seconds. Somehow, the Jackdaws knew that he wasn't interested in them. Helen tells me they are very intelligent birds, so maybe something in his attitude told them. Here he is even closer (sorry about the poor photograph):

He walked within about a foot of them and they didn't even move. He could have easily got one of them if the thought entered his head, but they knew he wouldn't.

Most curious!

There is something interesting about the title of this post - can you tell what it is?

Cheers, Tom.

This is the road that leads down to our village of Borth:

If you can read the sign, it says "25%". That's a pretty steep hill to drive down and it's been known to cause vertigo in those susceptible to it. It's nice and narrow too! I think it looks rather enticing, with those gorgeous yellow Broom plants either side.

This is the view from the top of the hill before you dive down the road above:

That's Upper Borth in the foreground, Borth in the middle on the right, and Aberdovey in the distance. While I was taking those pictures yesterday afternoon, this chap was circling a long way above me:

It's a Red Kite, and I think he was wondering if he could eat me!

Cheers, Tom.

"I buy my clothes from a shop for the larger sized gentleman....it's called Mr Fat Bastard"

I'm not in that territory, but I do have quite a few kilos I could do with losing.

So, as of today I start a 2-month campaign to lose some of my excess.

Today is 1st April, but this isn't a joke.

The primary plank of my plan is to eliminate bread, butter and cheese and eat more fruit and vegetables.

Since I am vegetarian, that should make quite a good difference.

Helpful weight-loss advice is welcomed.

Wish me luck!

Cheers, Tom.

P.S.  (all the pictures get larger if you click on them)