21 December 2011

17 December 2011

Saturday Video - Rainbow Slab

A great video of climbing in the Llanberis Slate Quarries. The movie really captures the stark post-industrial beauty of the place and profiles the amazing Rainbow Slab.
But that is not what makes this amazing, nor is watching and listening to Jonny Dawes, which is always entertaining. No the thing that makes this awesome is Paul Pritchard, who was severally injured after an accident about 10 years ago and is now hemi-plegic. He somehow manages to get get his battered and broken body up the route. Listening to him talk and his condition and his philosophy on life is inspirational. And as an aside the route is E3 (7- / 5.11a) which is as hard as anything I have ever climbed in my life.

That is pretty fuckin amazing!

08 December 2011

The Ascent of Man (and descent...)

Bonus Friday joke 


No caption needed

Friday Joke - Noah and the adders

When Noah's ark had finally come to a rest on top of mount Ararat, and when the waters had receded, Noah and his family - along with all the animals - left the ark, and God told them to go forth and be fruitful . nd re-populate the Earth.

Noah dispatched the animals with the instructions to go out and multiply.  Soon there were baby lions and tigers and sheep and goats and frogs and every other sort of animal... except the adders. The adders refused to multiply, they would only add.

And Noah fearing the wrath of God who had told him to make ALL the animals multiply called his family together and explained the problem.

Noah's oldest son Sham was a smart kid who had an idea. He took the two disobedient snakes and locked them in the woodshed.

Two weeks later they came back and opened the woodshed door and out slivered the snakes followed by 20 baby adders. Noah was ecstatically happy.

"Sham my Son, how did you do this? Before you put them into the wood shed the adders would only add. Now look at them, they have multiplied. Its a miracle!"

"No father its not a miracle, just maths".

"I got them to use logs!"

07 December 2011

Wednesday Movie - Wildlife

Nice simple but very pleasing video from the WWF about living on a connected planet (from Shane via FB).

Two Pandas just arrived in Edinburgh Zoo on loan from China. It's the first time in 17 years that there have been an randy pandas in the UK - this is what they will probably getting up to

And finally a great video about the logistics of Noah's ark.

06 December 2011

Cowieswells Update

Work has almost finished on the steading (barns) at Cowieswells and it looks stunning. There are some timelapse movies of the roof going on here. They took the scaffolding down today and we got a first glimpse of the place in its restored glory.


The steading looks huge and its great to see it with a roof, doors and windows. Lots of space which I have already started filling with crap! We have plans for workshops, storage, climbing wall, animals etc. This is so much fun, as I drove down there today it was really cold and sunny and as I came over the hill into Stonehaven I felt so alive and happy. It really feels like it is all coming together.

I have been researching the place a bit. It seems that the last people to live in the bothy moved out in the 1950's and I found an aerial photo from 1973 which shows a working farm in much better shape than when we bought it. If you look closely at the picture you can see the former owner on the left side of the house, looking up at the plane. I find this both intriguing and also rather sad because I know what is going to happen to this fit and healthy looking young man, standing proud on his farm with his well tended vegetable plot and his animals.

The plans for the house are now complete and we go to tender this week.