Monthly Archives: January 2012

Jan22

Second darkness adventure

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We tried again to see the aurora, and again we failed. Again due to cloud-cover.

iDJ is diligently perusing the net and twitter trying to find out the latest details and if anyone else has seen it. He gave up a while ago on our taking a third trip up the mountain and opened a bottle of wine.

When you see the pics I took of the road up the mountain, you’ll see why sobriety is a must if you want to drive up…

I was less nervous tonight, in my passenger seat. Perhaps because I’d been on that road twice the night before and survived, or maybe because I was looking through a camera instead of my own eyes. Without a doubt I have been a passenger when the road was worse than it is this year. I don’t know if I’d be brave enough to drive it myself. Well, I would, but only if guaranteed no one was coming down while I was going up, or vice-versa.

Now, before I start with the pics, please remember we were driving and it was bumpy. Therefore, they are blurry. And dark.

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This is the only ‘good’ picture, because we were stopped. It was also at the bottom of the hill on the way back home. This is the good part of the road: it is flat, it isn’t rutted, it isn’t washed away by rain or full of holes from logging trucks or tractors. Good road. Really.

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I edited this shot to brighten it up and make everything more visible. Going uphill, and curving. Only spinning the tires a little bit here…

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Getting worse, and steeper…

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This picture is both cropped and brightened. Notice the ditch on the left, and the wall of vegetation on the right? Did you forget another car could be coming down toward us around the blind corner at any moment? Just where are we meant to pull aside to make room?

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Still going…

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Hooray! At the top. That’s my little town, all lit up and looking so small from here.

We might have missed the aurora, but I enjoyed seeing my home like this at night.

Jan22

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Experiment time, I’m trying out the shiny new ‘reblog’ button for the first time. This post rocks! SpellSword asks for story ideas, and I had one, and offered it up – and he picked my idea! Voilà- a really cool short story that somehow feels like it is about me. Enjoy!

G. Derek Adams's avatar

The latches of his guitar case were brass, but they hadn’t closed properly in years. The case was cracked red leather – an elaborate network of twine kept it shut for travel, and generally he had plenty of time before  a show to tease loose the knots.

Running through the midnight streets, breathing hard, with seven ghost-faced dogs on his heels, Max wished he had scraped up the coin to get the latches fixed.

He tumbled over a cart full of purple pears, and watched as the guitar case went skidding across the cobblestone street. He ignored the cries of the cart’s owner, and the blood coming from his scratched hands, and crawled after the case desperately. He laid one hand on it, as the first dog skidded to a stop.

Someone had spent a pretty purse on their construction, brass tubes vented steam, and through its transparent skin Max…

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Jan22

The winter that wasn’t

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I’ve not been spending much time outdoors of late. The job means I leave and return in the dark, or near enough. The constant rain keeps me in on the weekends, too.

Today, however, there have been little glimmers of sunshine now and again. So I got outside and cleaned up here and there – swept up chunks of moss that flew from the roof, picked up dog poo. I also took the last remaining branches off our Christmas tree, and hauled the trunk outside to saw into fireplace sized chunks. Then I swept again, which at first made me feel stupid for having to do it twice, but then I realised there was just as much new moss as there was before I had swept at all.

It’s sunny and dry, it doesn’t mean there is no wind!

Chores out of the way, I had a little walkabout to see what, if anything, was growing. What a surprise to see this out front:

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Snowdrops! Of course, they are one of the earliest to show their heads in spring. But the last time I looked, there wasn’t even any greenery, much less flowers!

Also out front:

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My scraggly tulips are well on their way. These are at least 8in (20cm) high already. Not good, really – I think it is way too soon for this much leaf. Hope it doesn’t frost or snow.

I got these for free two autumns ago:

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Daffodils. I really don’t care for them that much, but hey, they were free and I just stuck them in the grass in the swampiest part of the back garden.

The big surprise, however, was finding this:

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A rosebud, in January? Oh dear. The weather is certainly unusual this year!

Jan21

Adventures in the dark

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Another short post tonight. This time I’m sober. I drank enough last night for three nights! Whee!

However the main reason for our sobriety tonight is that the aurora borealis was meant to show up in our skies. We’d first heard it might start last Monday, but the updates have been, well, updated, and it was tonight and/or tomorrow. So we waited and hoped, and then went for a drive up our local mountain to see if we could see anything.

No joy, unfortunately. It’s too overcast. Rats. At least it wasn’t raining, but let me tell ya, even in the daylight in summer it is windy and cold up there, so a nocturnal January visit was really chilly. It’s also rather terrifying just driving up that road. I’ll try to get pics for you tomorrow.

I’ve not been up there at night before, it was really pretty but hard to photograph. Need to use the ‘good camera’ and hope the gusts of wind don’t make the shot too blurry!

Jan19

If you drop it, they will come.

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I was vacuuming upstairs last night, and I got hot, as you do. So when I came back down, I took off one of my two shirts – we keep it cool in the house – and put it right where I knew it would attract the cats. It didn’t take long before Spot found it, and Lokii as always was right behind, muscling in on his brother’s comfy place.

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The boxes are full of holiday decorations. They need to go up to the attic. Or at least go upstairs on the landing, and out of my living room…but in the meantime, a warm sweatshirt on a high place is kitty-heaven!

Jan17

I’m a killer (?)

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I had a dream last night that was a bit stranger than usual. I dreamt that the body of a man I’d murdered was found. I had buried it in the woods on my friend’s property in Baker, Florida.

I was pretty confident that I would never be a suspect as I had no connection to the dead man.

My dad was in charge of the investigation (he’s a retired policeman). Out of the blue, he told me he thought I was the killer, because the edges of the bullet holes in the body were very clean and precise, just like the edges of the bullet holes I left when I went shooting at the gun range. He showed me one of my old paper targets as an example.

I woke up feeling so guilty that I actually lay there and thought: I didn’t kill anyone, did I? Could I have murdered someone and blocked the memory? I’m sure if I did, he deserved it, and there must have been no way to prove he was evil, so murder was my only recourse…

I’ve never been to a gun range, and my dad retired over a decade ago – and he wasn’t in charge of homicide investigations.

I wonder what I feel so guilty about to make me have a dream like this? Does my brain even work that way?

Jan16

Aaaaarrrghhhh!!!

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Neko: whine whine tick tick tick tick (toenails as she runs around the house)

Spot: mmmrow? Mmmrow? Mmrroww? Mmmmrrrrooowww?!?!

Lokii: maaaahhhhhhh! Mahhhhhhh! Mmmaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! (repeat until ears bleed)

iDJ: …I could roast it, or put it in foil, or in the halogen oven, here’s another recipe, I could do this… Oh I can go to the store tonight and get cat litter if you want?

Everyone just shut the hell up! I’ve only been home ten minutes!!!!

Jan14

Usyaka has inspired a Brushing!

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HOORAY!

Sorry for shouting, but I got to play tonight and finished up the picture that Usyaka inspired. It’s not exact from the photo, I managed to use my imagination a bit. My favorite part of the original photo was the sheer power in her hind legs – the beauty of muscle in motion and the line of her leg and tail. Hope you like it!

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