Friday, May 25, 2007

Sweating with envy.

We're here in Kuopio, Finland visiting the other cold one, the pshycologist, the budding violinist and no. 2 in their new home.

I have to say, I'm somewhat jealous, they've got a Sauna, and I havn't. Oh dear, that's moved that project up the prority list.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Very Lazy Beds

Who needs garden help when you've got guests like these!

After the great success of last years "Lazy Beds", I duly arranged a delivery of a large quantity of cow muck for this years attempt.

Yesterday morning I left for work and the large heap was still one steaming mass, I came home and this was the scene.



The saw sharpner had recieved permission to buy us a new garden fork and as you can see, subsequently proceeded to put it to good use. We have calculated that we have space for 50% more potatoes than last year, so we'll be heading down to the garden center on Friday to purchase around 30Kg of seed potatoes.

As if this wasn't enough, I also came home to find the rest of the 1st vegetable terrace dug over and the strawberry bed weeded. I am eternally grateful, In one day this years veg garden has taken a great leap forward.

Friday, May 11, 2007

Before and After

We're in wet and cold Cumbria for a long weekend visiting our old haunts and checking up on The Thoughtful Scotsman.

Blog regulars will be well aware of what happened last time he came to visit for the aborted skiing holiday.

I can report that TTS is in good spirits but 12 weeks on from his winter break he's still on crutches and only after todays trip to the fracture clinic is he finally allowed to begin weight bearing on his leg.

Here's the fracture immediately after the repair,



and here it is 4 weeks ago, 8 weeks after the event. Todays X-rays didn't look so different but there was progress.



You can see a huge amount of bone has grown, but as the gap was pretty wide there's a fair bit more to go. Mrs VL assures us that begining to weight bear will help the bone to reshape itself to it's original shape. Hopefully he'll be off his crutches and pacing in his true fashion inside the next month.

Photos courtesy of TTS

It's passed

Great News.

It's been over 8 years, but the Triumph is finally complete and approved as technically sound for use on the public highway. A quick trip to "biltilsynet" last week to check out the few things I had had to fix got the required stamp of approval.

We've decided to delay paying the extortionate registration fee and organising insurnance until the wheels and the rest of the body work is complete. Working on the car knowing that registration is now a purely paper work excercise which can be completed in one day will be a big motivation.

Summer motering is one step closer.

Friday, May 04, 2007

It works.

After much anticipation, and to everyones surprise, the Charcoal experiment worked.

The charcoal produced last weekend lit, took a little time to get going and did not simply dissapear in a ball of flames. I think the burn time was perhaps slightly shorter than commercially available charcoal, but the heat output was more than satisfactory. Here are the resutls.

A new Starsprung Star, anyone fancy a trip to Sweden?

One of the kittens from Asia most recent and final litter, Starsprung Esk Pike, aka Luna, and her owner have been enjoing great success in the show arena.

This photo is from NORAKs show the weekend before I came back to Norway. This is taken during the "panel" to decide best in show after Luna had been nominated and won best of breed.



I'll think, even those of you who are not feline experts, will agree that she looks absolutely stunning. The show before, LIRAK, she won best in show and best overall club cat.

Her she is with her proud owner.



As a result of all of this Luna has qualified for the Scandanavians winners show on the first weekend of June. Unfortuanetly, both Lunas owner and Mrs VL are not available that weekend, so I have been volenteered to take both Luna and Vegas (being an International Champion he also qualifies) to Sweden for the weekend. I may have already found company, if not, anyone fancy a weekend in Sweden surrounded by the best cats Scandanavia has to offer?