Wulf's Web-den

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Tuesday 7 February 2012
by wulf
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Today’s Ornithological Entertainment

Watching the birds outside is one of the pleasures I enjoy at breakfast. Two things particularly caught my eye today. First was to see the hawthorn tree at the end of the garden serving as a perch for a flock of Redwings. I can’t remember seeing Redwings in the past but there have been a lot around in the area this year. This morning was their strongest show from our window theatre although they still haven’t yet come down into the garden itself.

The other treat was while I was following the Red Kite that has become quite a regular visitor to the skies over our neighbourhood. As I watched, it fumbled and dropped something from its claws and then dived twenty feet or more to catch it in mid-air. Every time I see them, I am reminded of Gerard Manley Hopkin’s soaring poem The Windhover:

I caught this morning morning’s minion, kingdom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon…

What a great way to start the day.

Monday 6 February 2012
by wulf
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Always Read the Question

There were some good entrants to last week’s Digital Photography School contest thread but, as one of the moderators who gets to look through every single photo submitted and cast my votes, I have to say that quite a few people seemed to have made that “schoolboy error” of not reading the question properly.

The subject was Monochrome Colour. It followed three weeks where the theme was a particular colour. This time we allowed participants to pick a hue of their choice but asked that they deliver an image featuring only that colour. Despite explicitly ruling them out of bounds, there were quite a few entries that were simple black and white images (ie. no colour at all) as well as a smattering where there were two or more prominent colours.

Some were lovely images in their own right and might have been serious contenders given a different theme but we had to pass over them in the judging. The lesson is to always make sure you read the question before putting effort into coming up with an answer.

Sunday 5 February 2012
by wulf
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Snowcercise

Looking down our drive at the street on a snowy night

Snow Has Arrived

I know that even in other parts of the UK 3cm of snow is not a particularly remarkable amount but that is about what we have had in Oxford since it started last night. Jane and I have been getting our workout this morning, first with a trek through Brasenose Woods and up to the edges of Shotover and then, on our return, I stayed outside and shovelled the drive and side passage clear. Who needs a gym?

The temperature is relative warm and it is definitely melting but it does look set to drop below freezing again overnight. The slush outside could freeze into hard ridges, possibly topped with a further blanket of fresh snow. Unless we have a blizzard, I will be able to get in whether by bike or (if it looks as icy as I fear) yomping in wearing my walking boots but I suspect the office will be quieter than usual tomorrow morning.

Saturday 4 February 2012
by wulf
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Snow Problem

Snow has finally arrived in Oxford. So far there is only a light blanket but it is more than just a dusting. Time will tell if it will become such a prolonged patch as December 2010 but at least Jane will get to try out the Yak Trak boot grips I gave her for Christmas.

Friday 3 February 2012
by wulf
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Winter Harvests

We are in the coldest patch we have had all winter and I’m still able to harvest from my plants. Today we’ve enjoyed the (small!) aubergine that was on the plant we have kept on the windowsill and a fennel plant from the back garden (also not massive but unlikely to grow any more).

Of course, when I ventured out after dark to collect the fennel I was soon reminded that one of the reasons for limited winter harvests is when the ground is frozen! Fortunately I only had to free up a couple of inches before I could pull it free.

Thursday 2 February 2012
by wulf
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Not Believing in Shakespeare

I have just finished reading Bill Bryson’s book on Shakespeare, which was up to his normal high standards of witty writing and research that revels in both major and minor facts. Most of the book had the expected structure: birth (which we don’t know much about), life (which we don’t know much about other than that Will came up with some brilliant plays and poems) and death (which we don’t know much about either). Bryson also touches on family and other aspects of the bards life but, as you have probably guessed, we don’t know a whole lot about those either.

He rounds up with an interesting chapter I hadn’t been expecting, devoted to exploring (exposing might be a better word) the many theories that have been put forward to suggest that Shakespeare was not the genius behind the corpus of work we attribute to his name. It is a popular idea — Hollywood even made a film about it last year (Anonymous; I haven’t seen it so have no opinion on whether or not it is a good piece of cinema). Although Bryson has spent most of his book admitting how little we really know, to the extent that even our popular picture of what he looked like is based on only the most tenuous of evidence, he has no patience with these naysayers. At the heart of his argument is that all these theories start by refusing to believe that Shakespeare really wrote his plays and then end up with an even more implausible authorship scenario.

Perhaps it is the mark of the highest levels of historically significant fame? No matter how wonderful your works, there will always be people who take against believing in your story? Reminds me of another character from history, about 2,000 years ago…

Wednesday 1 February 2012
by wulf
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Getting a Whale in the Car

Well, not an actual whale but my double bass case. I haven’t mentioned yet that I got a double bass shortly after Christmas (still waiting to take pictures of it) but I did, I am very happy with it and it came with two cases. One is a gig bag, relatively unpadded, but the one I used tonight is a monster, over 6′ tall and well padded and reinforced.

It got the bass safely to and from the church event I went to tonight, where the acoustic bass was very well received but it was a struggle to get it in the car; no room for passengers with this behemoth hitching a ride!