Cloudless Clifton

Another clear and windless day at the airfield. Not to fly, but to assist in dismantling the Jabiru to get the wings ready for re-painting.

But the peace and quite was noisily disrupted by a crazy driver on his quad bike.

Thank goodness he does not yet have a pilot license

The Loss of a Friend

When one of our family hurts - we all hurt.

Leonie expressed it so well in these words:-.

Pacey is sleeping in heaven tonight. We six walked to the playing fields this afternoon for one last roll in the grass.  As Richard said, we made a family together, two by two by two, and this is the first time we’ve had to subtract one of us.  I’m not the first person to lose a dog, but she is the first dog this person has lost.  Her dignity and stoicism these last few years changed us all. We are consumed with our grief, love and memories.

A Rare Experience

We have experienced many unique sights in many locations throughout the world. Notably in Norway, Alaska, and the Swiss and French Alps. But nothing beats the isolated beauty of the Siberia Valley in New Zealand. We were flown in to this idyllic location by light plane, and after it departed, we were left as the sole occupants, to enjoy the perfect isolation that enveloped us. We were the only humans in that place on that perfect day, and the peace and quiet was only broken by the constant sound of the flowing clear blue river.
But time was too short, and we soon faced the 3 hour walk through the bush to our rendezvous point in the adjacent valley, where we were greeted by a couple of other humans for the jet boat trip back to civilisation.

Wait till tomorrow

It was a long wait yesterday, and after a couple of holds in the countdown, the launch was aborted with just 1 minute abd 55 seconds remaining.
It is now rescheduled for today and at the time of this blog, it means another wait for 13 and a half hours before hopefully it will blast off on its massive journey to the Sun, reaching speeds never before attained by a spacecraft. This is the ULA Delta-IV - the heaviest of the current range of active rockets. This 3 stage rocket produces the enormous thrust necessary to push the small payload towords Venus and then towards the Sun.

A Clear View

If this was a normal shopping centre in a major city, it would be crowded with eager shoppers. But our city of Toowoomba is not normal. This is the view at a busy time during the day - where are the people you may ask? There are over 200 shops in this complex - they cannot all be profitable.

A Road Journey

Our journey to Canberra by road, passed through many well known towns and landmarks. But the astute observer can see an even greater number of sights along the remote areas that reveal the true nature of this vast country.

The loneliest job: A safety roadman holds up the traffic at one of the many roadworks locations. This one outside the town of Boorawa.

Cattle grazing on the roadside: Due to the dry season, graziers have been forced to feed their cattle along the roadsides. This large herd near Barraba was a definite hazard for motorists.

The postman's destination at an isolated road to nowhere.

Cubes and Planks

I have a friend that I have never met. He is Erhan from Turkey, and he has a website showing the numerous puzzles and problems that he has invented. 
Today I learned that he has recently died, and in his memory I am showing you the latest wooden puzzle that I made from his instructions. It is titled "Cubes and Planks" and it is constructed from 9 components, and it is quite hard to assemble.

I found that his instructions for assembly were a little hard to follow, because the orientation of the cube changed which caused some confusion, and also the 9 components needed to have the direction of the grain shown, so that the grain on the assembled individual cubes would be consistently in line. So I have drawn my own solution which addresses these problems and hopefully assists others who want to make one of these puzzles.

The details of the 9 components can be found at his website:-

https://diypuzzles.wordpress.com/2015/01/25/cubes-and-planks/

Autumn

Unseasonly Autumn

We are already into April and we should not be experiencing warm sunny days in the mid 20s during this Autumn.
This scene greeted us today as we went for a walk in the botanical gardens.  The garden beds are all barren of flowers as they wait for the new planting in a couple of months time which will transform the whole place into a mass of colour.  In the meantime, the trees will remain the focal point of this beautiful setting.

Extremes Below

Observers of this blog will note that I have included "Blind Descent" in my list of favorite books. I have always followed the extreme tales of the great mountain achievements, but I never realised that adventures below the surface are equally if not more extreme and dangerous

This is a fascinating description of the efforts by a number of teams to find the deepest cave on Earth. It explains the traumas of exploring in absolute total darkness, where the possibility of an accident or fatal tragedy is ever present, and the near impossibility of a rescue or a recovery. from such remote confined locations, thousands of meters underground.

Its on Again soon

Yes its that time to start thinking about the Tour de France.
This year it covers some of the country that we are familiar with - especially stage-18 which goes through a section of the French Alps that we visited in 2015.

For that previous tour we saw stage-17 at Pra Loup near Barcelonnette (near the bottom of this map). The following day we drove north to Briancon, on the same roads that the tour will follow this year in the opposite direction.  The roads around the Lac de Serre-Poncon and over the Cote des Demoiselles Coiffees were quite spectacular.  I just hope that the SBS live telecast will start in time to show the riders traversing those areas.

A Dismal Day

What is on the program today?

Not much as far as I can see.
My bike will stay in the shed today, and I may be forced to get comfortable in my little office with my computer as a friend. It is amazing that I am prepared to make such sacrifices.

A Night at the Opera

Well not quite - but a pleasant afternoon with the Australian Army Band in our magnificent Empire theatre.  This band was a bit different, because they not only played the traditional military marches, but they also performed a bracket of "big-band" favorites, and also some music and vocals from popular musicals.

Another Milestone

In the recent past I seem to have added a disproportionate number of blogs about bikes and related activities. and unfortunately here is another one, but this time it is a bit special.
Since I bought my current bike a few years ago, I have faithfully recorded every one of the training rides that I have done. This week my trusty cyclometer recorded my 300th training ride which brought the total distance up to 10,149 km.
My rides are now not quite as long or as fast as they have been but a brisk 30km in the clear air of my home town does wonders to my health. Of course the BMC drink bottle handed to me at stage-17 of the 2015 Tour de France by Rohan Dennis, definitely inspires me to carry on.
How long will it continue? Who knows - at an age approaching 81 years, every ride is a bonus.

EBooks made easy

Creating your own Ebook is quite an easy exercise, and in recent times I have created 3 ebooks covering various aspects of my historical family records, plus this one that records a visit to Europe to see a stage of the Tour de France in 2015

The main text of an ebook is written in HTML, which is the same language that is used on all web pages, but you do not need to be concerned about this, because the source text can be written in MS-Word (or any other text editor) and a software package can then be used to convert it into unfiltered HTML files for inclusion in the ebook.
There are lots of software packages available that are easy to follow, and which create excellent results.  I use Sigil which is a free package only 27mb in size which creates ebooks in the "epub" format. These ebooks can easily be converted to various other formats using Calibre.

Parking - Italian Style

We have all heard of the many narrow roads in the Piemonte area, and the associated parking problems.  It is always best to keep to the side of the road to allow other traffic to pass.
This motorist has made sure that the road is not obstructed.

The Stillness of the Morning

Two weeks ago we spent a couple of nights at the Sommerville tourist park near Stanthorpe. It is a large recreational area providing cottages, cabins, and an unlimited area for campers.
It is set on the banks of the Storm King Dam, and this scene in the early morning describes more than I could put into words.

The U3A class

Last Monday we were having a discussion at U3A on websites and I stated that private users have generally gone away from personal websites because they were a bit of a pain to update. I said that there were so many easier ways to publish personal stuff by Blogs and Facebook etc, and that a blog was by far the easiest way to put stuff up for general viewing.
During the meeting, I proceeded to open this blog and make that unplanned entry which took less than 3 minutes, simply for the purpose of demonstrating the procedure.
I think they got the message.
Now I can relax, and tend the animals on the farm.

U3A Monday session

Here we qare again wityh a unch of dropkicks

Toowoomba's biggest day

It is September, and the spring flowers are at their best. This is the season that puts the local gardens trees and flowers on the front page, and attracts a few thousand visitors to the city.
It has been a rough week weather wise, with consistent rain for days, but this morning, the day of the big parade at the peak of the "Flower Festival" it dawned clear and blue. The local Botanical Gardens were crowded.

A 4 year effort

Back in 2012, my old racing bike got close to its "use-by" date. The wheels, brakes, and gear system were in serious need of a major overhaul or replacement, and this meant the expense of a few hundred dollars.
I debated at the time whether I would get the use out of a new bike, but eventually convinced myself that I was perhaps worth it, and I managed to find a good deal on a new racer. It was a Chinese imitation of the popular brands, with a neat modern aluminium alloy frame with carbon fibre forks, and quite reasonable quality wheels and running gear, and it cost just $490.

This week is the 4th anniversary of that purchase, and I enjoyed my 268th training ride, and in that time, my trusty cyclometer has clocked up a total of 9040km.