All Things Considered August 22, 2017

Fantastic view from Discovery Park here in Seattle on another sunny day

A Cycling Odyssey July 19, 2011

Given my interest in all things Nordic and a son who is keen on long distance cycling, I seized upon this book when it came out not so long ago.  This past week said son was participating the a long distance endurance cycling challenge in Colorado so I thought it appropriate to be reading this book as he was cycling up and down those mountains.  As it turned out, the book was also appropriate in reminding me of a trip that said son did maybe 20 years ago in Norway and Finland.  That long-ago trip was in somewhat reverse direction from the cycling done by Robert Goldstein in Riding With Reindeer.  And also it wasn’t done by bicycle, so far as I know.  I’ll ask James when he gets back from Colorado to find out just what and how he did that trip north from Oslo to loop over the top of Norway and then south in Finland to Helsinki.

The Riding with Reindeer man did his trip ex-Seattle flying to Helsinki and then cycling intensively east and north, completing over 2000 miles.  A great adventure.  He did this trip in the summer of 2007 and the book has a 2010 publication date.  If I’m not mistaken it was launched only a couple of months ago when the author gave a talk about the book at the Nordic Heritage Centre.  I didn’t get to the talk, but I did buy the book at that time when I saw it in the Heritage Centre shop while browsing before my Norwegian language class.

Reading the book, I came away with a somewhat better knowledge of the history and geography of Finland.  And his roughly day by day account gives a good feeling for the possible triumphs and hardships to be encountered in such an endeavour.   There are some good black and white photos in the book but for some lovely colour photos of fishing in Finland follow the link. 

Also I have just been reading the official blog of the Colorado High Country cycling challenge that James did.  That makes for good reading and viewing also.

 

The Lure of the Sea June 20, 2011

Join me on a voyage up the coast of Norway.  It’s all being shown live and it is so interesting.  The ship is now in the Lofoten Islands, wending its way ever North.  This is a cruise that my sister invited me to go on this coming September.  Well, if I were to go – and I would certainly like to – this live video is certainly whetting my appetite.  Here are several images I found on the internet.

Photos From My Walk May 9, 2011

There is a very interesting blog that I read called Postcards From My Walk.  It’s actually postcard sketches, usually in watercolour, from artists in various parts of the world.  I haven’t joined that group – that’s sort of on my “to-do list”- but I just get inspiration from seeing the sketches.

Today my blog entry is going to be some of the photographs I took last Saturday when we went downtown on the bus and had many adventures – see previous entry.

Now I’m going to post photos in the order in which I took them

  I’m just not sure where I took this photo – I think at this point we were on Pine and we remarked on how the trees were now in leaf and the streets were looking so different compared with the last time we were in town in March and the trees were bare.

  walking along Pine en route to Pike Place Market – policemen on patrol

  there is still construction at Pike Place Market – on the corner to the right there used to be the Left Bank Bookstore.  I wonder if it will still be there when the boards come down

  tulips everywhere

  more tulips in Pike Place Market

  view of Puget Sound from the Market

  more tulips again

  the clouds were breaking up and the sky was getting bluer – here’s a view from the Market of one of the skyscrapers

  another skyscraper

  waiting for the bus on Third Avenue – note the little dog peeping out from  the  woman’s shopping trolley

  approach to Fremont Bridge

  view of the canal as I started walk across the bridge

  a boat was getting closer

  the Bridge went up

  several boats went through

As you can see it was lovely sunshine for a few hours.  Later in the afternoon the weather changed again and we had a brief shower.  I was inside Fred Meyer by that time and I was oblivious to the change in the weather outside.  The sunshine returned to show off these lovely shrubs outside one of the houses along 70th as I walked past en route back home to my house.

I’m Still Knitting September 8, 2010

Maybe it’s time to show my latest knitting project.  Not really new – it’s another blanket which I am working on as I sit in one of our new chairs and read Stephen King or some other book of choice.  I got a bit bogged down in The Time Traveller’s Wife so I turned to D.E. Stevenson’s book Mrs. Tim of the Regiment.  That was such a delightful read.  Then I came back to TTTW and zipped through to the end.  I’m not sure I want to read any more by this author, Audrey Niffenegger.  We’ll see – maybe I will mellow and give her another try.  Her background is so interesting – Chicago, art, paper conservation, the Newberry Library.   Currently I’m reading Stephen King’s Firestarter.  So far, I preferred his book Dead Zone.  I thought that was really good.  Apart from Lisey’s Story, which I didn’t think was very good, I am new to Stephen King.  His subjects are not my usual choice.

  latest blanket,  The Time Traveler’s Wife, Simon the fake cat purchased in Westport Ireland

  seen shopping at Fred Meyer’s

  James, Ethan, and Sean

  customers at Caitlin’s restaurant

  evening sky, 7:20 p.m., looking east along 70th NW, Ballard

  evening sky, looking west along 70th NW

 flashes of red – foretaste of autumn along 70th

  that beautiful blue hydrangea that was

Solstice Notes June 21, 2010

Continuing my fascination with the Solstice, I found the following information this morning.  This website is the source

Rising and setting times for the Sun

			Length of day		Solar noon
Date	Sunrise	Sunset	This day	Difference	Time	Altitude	Distance
							(106 km)
21 Jun 2010	04:56	21:57	17h 01m 26s	+ 03s	13:27	60.0°	152.020
22 Jun 2010	04:56	21:58	17h 01m 22s	− 03s	13:27	60.0°	152.029
23 Jun 2010	04:57	21:58	17h 01m 12s	− 09s	13:27	60.0°	152.037
24 Jun 2010	04:57	21:58	17h 00m 55s	− 17s	13:27	60.0°	152.044
25 Jun 2010	04:57	21:58	17h 00m 31s	− 23s	13:28	60.0°	152.051
26 Jun 2010	04:58	21:58	17h 00m 00s	− 30s	13:28	59.9°	152.058
27 Jun 2010	04:58	21:58	16h 59m 23s	− 37s	13:28	59.9°	152.064

All times are in local time for Dublin
June Solstice (Summer Solstice) is on Monday, 21 June 2010, 12:29 in Dublin. In most locations north of Equator, the longest day of the year is around this date

And looking at the times for the whole month of June, I see that the length of the days and nights have been and will be quite similar.  Around the Solstice we seem to reach a sort of plateau and then the days get gradually shorter.

Rising and setting times for the Sun

			Length of day		Solar noon
Date	Sunrise	Sunset	This day	Difference	Time	Altitude	Distance
							(106 km)
1 Jun 2010	05:03	21:43	16h 39m 51s	+ 2m 07s	13:23	58.7°	151.690
2 Jun 2010	05:02	21:44	16h 41m 53s	+ 2m 02s	13:23	58.8°	151.714
3 Jun 2010	05:02	21:45	16h 43m 50s	+ 1m 56s	13:23	58.9°	151.737
4 Jun 2010	05:01	21:46	16h 45m 41s	+ 1m 51s	13:23	59.0°	151.759
5 Jun 2010	05:00	21:47	16h 47m 26s	+ 1m 45s	13:23	59.1°	151.781
6 Jun 2010	04:59	21:48	16h 49m 06s	+ 1m 39s	13:24	59.2°	151.802
7 Jun 2010	04:59	21:49	16h 50m 40s	+ 1m 33s	13:24	59.3°	151.822
8 Jun 2010	04:58	21:50	16h 52m 08s	+ 1m 28s	13:24	59.4°	151.842
9 Jun 2010	04:58	21:51	16h 53m 30s	+ 1m 21s	13:24	59.5°	151.860
10 Jun 2010	04:57	21:52	16h 54m 45s	+ 1m 15s	13:24	59.6°	151.878
11 Jun 2010	04:57	21:53	16h 55m 54s	+ 1m 09s	13:25	59.7°	151.895
12 Jun 2010	04:57	21:53	16h 56m 57s	+ 1m 02s	13:25	59.7°	151.912
13 Jun 2010	04:56	21:54	16h 57m 53s	+ 55s	13:25	59.8°	151.927
14 Jun 2010	04:56	21:55	16h 58m 43s	+ 49s	13:25	59.8°	151.941
15 Jun 2010	04:56	21:55	16h 59m 27s	+ 43s	13:25	59.9°	151.955
16 Jun 2010	04:56	21:56	17h 00m 03s	+ 36s	13:26	59.9°	151.968
17 Jun 2010	04:56	21:56	17h 00m 33s	+ 30s	13:26	60.0°	151.980
18 Jun 2010	04:56	21:57	17h 00m 57s	+ 23s	13:26	60.0°	151.991
19 Jun 2010	04:56	21:57	17h 01m 13s	+ 16s	13:26	60.0°	152.001
20 Jun 2010	04:56	21:57	17h 01m 23s	+ 09s	13:27	60.0°	152.011
21 Jun 2010	04:56	21:57	17h 01m 26s	+ 03s	13:27	60.0°	152.020
22 Jun 2010	04:56	21:58	17h 01m 22s	− 03s	13:27	60.0°	152.029
23 Jun 2010	04:57	21:58	17h 01m 12s	− 09s	13:27	60.0°	152.037
24 Jun 2010	04:57	21:58	17h 00m 55s	− 17s	13:27	60.0°	152.044
25 Jun 2010	04:57	21:58	17h 00m 31s	− 23s	13:28	60.0°	152.051
26 Jun 2010	04:58	21:58	17h 00m 00s	− 30s	13:28	59.9°	152.058
27 Jun 2010	04:58	21:58	16h 59m 23s	− 37s	13:28	59.9°	152.064
28 Jun 2010	04:59	21:57	16h 58m 39s	− 44s	13:28	59.8°	152.069
29 Jun 2010	04:59	21:57	16h 57m 49s	− 50s	13:28	59.8°	152.074
30 Jun 2010	05:00	21:57	16h 56m 52s	− 56s	13:29	59.7°	152.078

All times are in local time for Dublin

I think the furthest North I have ever been at this time of year is Bergen Norway.  I was there in early July in the summer of 1959 and I was so struck by it being light until well after midnight.  It never did seem to get completely dark and some of us had difficulty in sleeping.  Our group was staying in the youth hostel high above the city and our view was splendid.  Were we lucky in it being clear?  Bergen is well known for its rain but as I recall we only had a few showers and that was during the day. 

Reykjavik is even further North but still not North of the Arctic Circle, where the summer sun doesn’t set.  In Reykjavik the longest day is almost 22 hours.

Following are a few photos from the wikipedia entry for Reykjavik

  colourful rooftops

 Reykjavik in the 1860’s

  main street

Colours of April in Dublin April 26, 2010

I enjoy participating in the Colours of the Month, spearheaded by Sue over at Life Looms Large.  It’s getting near the end of the month and I am reminded to search through my recent photos for the colours of April.  I flew from Seattle to Dublin on April 5/6 so have been here for most of the month.  The landscape is slowly but surely changing winter dull brown to spring leafy green.  And the flowers are starting to bloom.  The daffodils are now almost over and the tulips are coming into full colour, along with the wallflowers and assorted others.

  the Irish Reef – part of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project on display in the Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin

  the grass is looking greener and the students and tourists are taking advantage of the sunshine

  Tulips in the grounds of the Mansion House, Dawson Street, Dublin

  flowering cherry, in the grounds of the Mansion House

  this is the house we owned for 40 years – we made many changes to the garden, front and back.  The new owners have trimmed the forsythia in the front and also transplanted some of our shrubs from the back to the front.  In years past that forsythia in the front has been glorious – this year maybe was its last.  Interesting and fun to observe.

  pink/orange flamingoes at the Dublin Zoo

  Ducks at the Dublin Zoo, note the fading forsythia on the left

Corn Moon September 6, 2009

    Corn Moon, Sept. 4,Dublin,  10:30 p.m. 

 

 

 

           Barley Moon, Sept. 4, Dublin, 10:30 p.m.

 

 

A couple of nights ago as I was locking up the house, I happened to look out and was practically bowled over by the sight of the full moon.  I have subsequently found out that the full moon at this time of year is called the Corn Moon or the Barley Moon.  The yellowy/orange moon had a large ring around it of white and green and red.  It was absolutely breathtaking.

I checked out the following  link to learn a bit more about the significance of the Corn Moon.

Last night the moon was again in evidence but it was on the wane – still very colourful with a big ring around it but no longer full.

Holiday Jigsaw August 17, 2009

 

Follow this link to have the challenge of a 48 piece jigsaw.  The lake is not named but it could well be the lake in Greenfields State Park New Hampshire where my sisters and I spent a lazy afternoon a couple of weeks ago.  There had been so much rain in July that the land around the lake was still flooded and we had to wade through ankle-deep warm muddy-looking water to get to the lake shore.  It was a wonderful summer afternoon spent in special company.  The other side of the coin were the views of some of our fellow or sister lake enjoyees.  A number of rather obese tattooed men who probably had arrived on their Harley Davidsons.

Hope for Spring January 26, 2009

In these days of a winter which does not want to go away, there is hope for Spring, as the daffodils start to come up and the blossoms appear on the cherry trees and the days are gradually growing longer.  Today I was going through some old photographs and I found some taken in the month of March – the light looks so much stronger and the trees and foliage so much greener.

Dublin readers will recognize this well-known view of Sugarloaf Mountain, taken from Powerscourt Drive.