Mush!, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

Snow day on Sunday. Elsie (Springador pup) pulled a sled. A harness (rather than a collar) was attached to to the dog at one end and a sled at the other and hay presto. Sophie loved it. Eislie loved it. She had a job to do and she was very proud of herself for doing it. Good dog.

Tonight I took Elsie for her first lesson in a 6 week course called Puppy Life Skills at Tailwaggers in Harrogate. Good stuff. A reward based positive reinforcement, non coercive approach. Down to earth common sense practical stuff. Part of the time we were there, I felt like the dad of the school brat as she was barking a whole bunch – and at other times I felt like the proud dada who’s kid has just won a gold prize (when the had us up demonstrating how good she is at Sit and Lie Down.) All creatures great and small. Well, all dogs great and small. Well, all dogs, small. Poppy from the Puppy Party was there. This could be why she got so excited. Puppy Party was ALL about the good fun – this session had (by comparison, from a dogs perspective for this session) quite boring.

Angela who runs the class, comes across as someone who’s got stacks of knowledge and experience. Just what we need. It feels like it’s going to do both the dog and I some good. Elsie’s now wiped out and having a good ol’ sleep in her box now.

At the weekend Eirene and I along with a collective of 10+ other people convened in Birmingham to join several thousand other people in The Q Club for the last ever Atomic Jam there. Back in the mid 90′s, Eirene and I went to one of the first Atomic Jam’s there – so last October when my friend said he was buying tickets – who was in?, I stuck my hand up. So very glad I did. An incredible night with some world class DJs in the main hall of a big old Methodist church. The night also featured two other rooms (+DJs), several bars, loads of corridors and cubby holes, stairways, landings, loads (and loads) of smashing people… and Techno.

‘Techno’ today as a genre remains very close in essence to its Detroit roots from the mid 80s, but arguably its roots go back way further that this. There’s something primeval about it; Techno is about utilising TECHNOlogy to make noises and structure them as patterns in rhythm. The first sound we heard was our mothers heart beat and it’s this that gives us our first taste of patterned rhythm. Pattered rhythm music has been part of humanity since the beginning – the worlds first musical instrument was almost definitely a percussion instrument (something that you hit, shake or rub  that makes a noise) and almost definitely, a rhythm was formed. Rhythm is something we innately understand and put into practice – for example – every time we walk.

We’ve been making music with similarities to Techno for a long time.  For instance –  here from India – the Mridangam Drum and from The Cook Islands the Log Drum. Both of these forms were formed totally without influence of each other thousands of years ago,  and along with Techno have a definable commonalities. They trigger a similar emotive response in a lot of cases and even though the pieces above are faster and with more complex time signature than most 4/4 Techno – they are predominantly a concentrate of patterns in rhythm. Some of the technology has moved on a great deal – the boxes that make the noises – from hollow logs to complex electronics as well as the things that peripheral with the noises – from sticks to Serato, but the feel and structure  has stuck with its roots; Patterned rhythmic music made by people who like to make noses for people to dance all night to – to me Techno has kept the bloodline of these origins of primitive party music, more than anything else.

The taxonomy of music gets more and more complex as time goes on – along with it, contention, as it fragments and re invents itself.  An easy split in definition is this:  music that was made on a computer and music that wasn’t. The skills of composing are often very similar – but the noise making objects differ. Old instruments – eg piano = pressing keys to make noises. New instruments – eg : computer = pressing keys to make noises.  Most computer music falls into what a broad brush describes as ‘dance music’. Techno, along with House music are the Godfathers of dance music. There’s no real definition on this – but to me, House music tends to be a bit lighter than Techno and House emulates and often incorporates more real instruments and vocals, and is more about the groove – Techno is more about the percussive rhythms and synthetic TECHNOlogically sourced noises.

In the early 90s I first fell in love with Techno at a venue called The Orbit in Morley, Leeds. Luckily for me, this legendary club – one of the finest Techno clubs in the world at the time – was just a short hop from home. Some of the DJs I’d seen there are still on the circuit – including Dave Clarke who I was lucky enough to see again at Atomic Jam at the weekend.

I like all sorts of music – but the weekend reminded me how much I ♥ Techno. Appreciating it properly is hard work takes a lot out of you – but it’s well worth it.

Last week myself and several hundred web heads converged on Nottingham for New Adventures in Web Design 2012. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect – some very good things had been said about its inaugural year (2011) and this year looked to be a very well put together gig. The brainchild of a fella called Colly – ’twas a real labor of love by the look and feel of things.

The workshop…

I signed up for a workshop on the Wednesday – the day before the conference ‘proper’. This workshop – one of three on the day –  entitled “Paper is your friend” was run by a charasmatic duo who call themselves “The Standardistas“. In a room right at the back of Nottingham’s Albert Hall, (with it’s  massive organ) this pair of authors and  Ulster Uni lecturers kicked off the days activity.

I think I already knew that paper was my freind but the arty, paper friendly side of my brain guilt-tripped the ‘efficient’ computer hungry side of my brain into giving it a go. They put thought into action - with web design in mind. The first part kindled a theme about the diversification of an idea and how to get it down on paper – principally through mind-maps. We learned that these work “because your mind wants to fill in the blanks”  - good point – turns out, that’s true. Trying to use pictures instead of ‘just’ words was a new twist for me. Diversification of ideas was the justification of purpose. Don’t just go for the obvious, solution or to put it another way “don’t just go for the path of least resistance” – these were watchword for this part of the day.

They showed us some other fantastic paper based tools – like Brian Eno’s ‘Oblique Strategy Cards’ [click here for an online version]. A very interesting concept. An idea wildcard system – you think of your idea then challenge it with these Oblique Card – works really well at the ‘pitch’ end of a concept – how to play Devils Advocate all by yourself. Mental Notes was another card based thought jogger that they introduced. Not quite the simplistic brilliance – but potentially useful, in the right settings – more of an after dinner muse that a hard n fast ‘tool’ perhaps. They also told us about the value of mixing up existing teams – don’t always work with the ‘go to’ people – mix it up if you can. The Mind Map Book was ref’d a couple of times during this session – it looks pretty comprehensive.

The second part of the workshop was about the aesthetics. Look and Feel. Colour and emotive response to design (in a way).  - the Visual Grammar  as they referenced it as. Moodboarding is something I’ve used from time to time. I find it a handy way of expressing an idea, or, to help me arrive at an idea and convey it.  The Standardistas were pushing the idea of not neccacarily just screen shotting a load of stuff of the internet but using the real world and (more importantly) real bits of actual paper to create a moodboard. They also suggested that we screenshot stuff from real life – using photography. Go to a library. Take photos of stuff. Go to an Oxfam and buy a bunch of old books and hack them up and stick them down to a board. Some of the latter ideas I found a bit limiting / limited though – if you’re going down that route – bring out the paints. If an oxfam had a limitless supply of stuff – then cool, but I saw this particular excercise a bit limited by the designer of the times mood / brief / etc. It was a bit ‘pot luck’ that we got an Envelope of Awesome (their pre filled cut up mags and books of stuff) that had some good stuff in it. Problem was it was all the same as the other groups. Anyhoo – not a biggy, I got the gist.  The big take away for me was the way they implored us to diversify an idea – to expand an idea to several ideas – build on them for a while then hone in. Think outside of the (Mac / Dell / IBM ) box.

The conference…

Kicking this off  was the web legend Dan Mall who structured his bit around “what do you do”. A good question. As for him, he designed startwars.com (that piqued our interest). A fascinating and funny guy who oozed creativity. Down to earth even though he’s done some world class stuff. He told us to build a fake CMS and that humans > algorithms. He told us that his biggest challenge of recent times was the notion of all things “Releted” (products / concepts / content). He also told us about the back (rub) story on a project called mostawesomestthingever.com . He illistrated a point by showing us this;

His point was – Encourage the adjacent possible. Creativity is just connecting things. Enjoy yourself. Spare no expense.

Following Dan, was a young British designer, who’s on the up –  Naomi Atkinson. She has some interesting ideas – quite a lot of it to do with yourself – as a brand. Think about how you promote yourself, where you get talked about, how you are seen by others and that you should evolve your brand language. The cited example was Sean Combes into Puff Daddy, P.Diddy, Diddy and for one week only ‘Swag’. Clever.

Next up - Travis Schmeisser – a UX guy who’s big n bold slide style kicked off with a thought – “we used to build forts” (as in dens). We’re all creative. We grew into this job because it suits our creative ‘type’. The stand out bits for me were “Appreciation for the experimentation is the wild west of the internet”. He told us to become an artist again and that we should inovate, create and dedicate. We should (and this was quite a reoccurring theme from a few of the speakers) Keep making stuff.  It’s not a waste of time just because its not client work – it’s training.

Robbie Manson had me (and judging by the #naconf tweets that were flying around) awestruck – something quite bard like in his performance. He structured his opening around a reference to Kubric’s 2001 – the atmospherics, the emotivity, the timings and the feel of it all. He Talked about time to tool and, like The Standardists, stressed the importance of paper in your process – he favoured a concept called ’6up’ which is simple, easy to adopt and effective (I’ve used it this week). He suggested that we “Step away from the computer at every possible opportunity”. As I type these words, I think – how would I do that? But I guess I could always dictate and transcribe. I can see his point although his idealism isn’t always practical – sometimes, the computer is the paper. The keyboard is the pen.

After Robbie, we got Trent Walton. A Texan font maestro and Responsive Web Design (RWD) aficionado, who referenced his family in a heart warming and relevant way – how his dad (a proper engine head, car enthusiast, a grease monkey (his words)) used to spend months making a car – then race it – then take it to bits again. Every nut and bolt, every turn of the spanner – has it’s place and often earned it through trial and error.  This whole speech reminded me of Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance  – how you’ve got the classical v the romantic types – those who understand the machine intimately and those who (just) know what it does and how to use it. He was saying we should think about our craft in the same way – break everything (so we understand it and can refine and improve it I guess).

Cameron Koczon was up next.  Big bags of charisma type of guy. A guy behind a highly regarded project called Brooklyn Beta.  He talked about start-ups, and how we should all make something we love. Effect change, elicit emotion. Induce Action. Easier said than done – but sound advice.

The wild card of the day – who’s thang really polorised the crowd (#naconf live) was Denise Jacobs. Web interlectreratii high council. Her piece was entitled “Your brain on creativity” was unlike any of the other talks. If the content of her fairy tale style delivery wasn’t so subconsciously compelling, I’d have thought she was utterly patronising. However – her left brain / right brain “be balanced” advice cut through and won a few hearts – in hindsight – mine included. She talked about helping your brain achieve Alpha state to increase creativity – through the application of Low Fi time (again – a ‘get away from the computer’ chime). I particularly liked the ‘Don’t force creativity, let it come to you’ quote from Erik Ford – from To Sketch Or Not To Sketch.

The headline act came from a slight man in a tie called Frank Chimero. He started out with story about a tiny pony he saw in an Apple store. He talked about “The Search” which smacked of “sometimes the journey is the destination” sentiment. He was revalationary in the respect that he told me that design is the bit that sits between art and commerce. He stated that designer are choreographers. Design is the bit between A to B. Spaces are important. The bit between the past and the future. Brilliant. Clarity.  So now I get it. Thanks Frank. Thranks.

Frank also came out with my two favorite soundbytes from the whole thing; Firstly “The world is not yet done… lucky is” and a gem of a George Kubler Quote – “The moment just passed is extinguished forever, save the things that were made during it”. Which summarises the big take home for me – the observance of a common theme form so many great minds – keep making stuff.

The social aspect…

One of the surprise bi-products of having that many internet heads in the same space was the extremely heightened propensity of appropriate use of social media – or to put it another way, a shed load of geeks tweeting about the same thing at the same time in the same place. On twitter – the ‘official’ #naconf hash tag was on fire – update after update of people commenting, sharing and generally discussing the world of New Adventures 2012. Sat right at the back during the conf, as was my want, I could see a sea of iPhones scrolling through twitter – especially during the contentious bits. Like a telepathic / silent conversation amongst hundreds – and it wasn’t that people were missing a beat – the tweeting enhance the whole thing.

I’ve never been in that kind of environment before – often I’m tweeting and foursquaring and g+ing and it feels like I’m talking to myself. These few days were fascinating. People were tweeting – I’m here, having a beer, talking shop and within minutes, a the bar was full of internetz. I’ve never been to things were so many people had ‘checked in’ before. It really did feel a very ‘collective conciseness’ (dare I say borg like).   Internet  community – this was a thing to behold. It wasn’t just a conference, but a convergence. So many conversations with like minded people. A success for (I hope and presume) the organisers and contributors, a success for me and my fellow attendees. If you’re reading this and contemplating 2013… do it! hope to see you there!

Riverside walk, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

A weekend of contrasts – Eirene and I had been out to a Festival warm up party on the Friday evening (the festy in question is DragonGate 2012 – no doubt more on that to follow). Much fun was had at this till the wee hours on Saturday – when I remembered I had a forgetful friend staying at our house so ended up collecting the dog and going back into club-land to collect him. We called our mutual friend in California on the way home at about 5am our time +20 dec C there, -3 here. Winter has finally arrived.

Saturday – recovery day with a jaunt out to the paintball centre near Flaxby to collect Felix who was at a birthday party there. I took the opportunity, and the dog to walk the grounds (increasingly useful excuse tool for a nosey blogger like me to have) . A superb place – half of it is a huge quad bike track and the other half is a paintball, erm.. arena? zone? location?.. a paintball place. Completely wrapped in fine netting which I discovered the dog could not see in the slightest as she bounced off it at full pelt. As I got closer to the action – deep in the woods – I actually felt like I was a special ops scout. I spotted all the paintballers doing battle and they didn’t spot me. I was ready with the dramatic arms in the air whilst shouting “CIVILIAN – DON’T SHOOT, friendly, friendly..” or similar. Alas the potential war machines of tomorrow don’t notice some bloke with his dog 20 yards away only disguised by wall of black netting. I blame the video games. Kids don’t play army in the woods any more (apart from highly structured, albeit brilliant pseudo excercises like this). Mind you – army of the future doesn’t need the traditional organic skills of yesteryear. Probably. What do I care anyway? War sucks.

Sunday was lovely. After I’d parked a slow cooker of beef stew on low, we headed out to a bit of the OS 1:25000 that looked interesting. Near the Lido in Knaresborough (pictured above) – some paths by the river, some fields, some crags. We only saw two other people for the whole 2 miles or so round trip we ambled – yet we were at times really close to populated areas. I love winter for that.I’m glad winter has arrived properly.

A flurry of Adventure Shirt shots have been submitted for the gallery – due to one thing and another (broken computer that I had to fix to extrapolate saved images, Christmas and a bunch of other stuff) it’s taken me a while to get them up. Worth the wait though – some classics here – from the ice of  Iceland to the hot hot of The Sahara Desert, all leading inevitably (as all roads do) to Rome.

Slawek, Rome, November 2011

Ben, The Sahara Desert,  October 2011

Fin, Angus, Iain and Joel in Iceland, August 11 (click for biggy)

A few more photos from our walk can be viewed by clicking this.

I’ve had the same semi-joke resolution for around the last 8 years – so far, un fulfilled. I’d like to drive a tractor. Preferebly a big monster of a tractor with loads of equipment fore and aft.

Another resolution is to give up smoking in 8 years from now. My strategy for this is quite simple. 3 years ago, I gave up smoking for all of January. Two years ago, I gave up for two months, last year, three months and this year, I’ve set myself the target of 4 months giving uppedness. Next year, my intention is to do 5 months – etc. etc. In around 8 years, I should have given up entirely.

I also want to keep on bloggin’. DragonDrop is 10 years old this year. Time and location based reportage, comment and interaction with the fine burghers of the internet. I’ve blogged at least once a month (up to several times an hour) over this 10 year period. I’ve bolted on a few other things since then – twitter, social networking, foursquare, etc. but the essence of what I’m doing is still the same. The difference is that (thanks to social networking, facebook, et al) the rest of the world has joined me in my quest to fill the internet.

Eirene took me on a surprise weekend away last weekend, and a very nice weekend it was.  It’s been a while since we spent the weekend, sans kids. We did take the smallest of our brood with us though – Elsie (pic’d above) – our 12 week old Springador – who got her first official walk and was suprisingly excellent off the lead – I think we’ve blueprinted on her sufficiently for her to stick close.

What was billed as a surprise mystery location, but “close by”,  turned out to be The Chevin Country Park Hotel & Spa.  Our room was in fact a lodge type building with a grass roof type affair. Isolated and cosy yet close enough to the bar and restaurant (2 minutes walk)  for it to be hotel like in what it had to offer. As we dined on the 6 course taster menu on Friday evening, who should walk in but Chall & M, celebrating M’s 30th. A surprise for her also, we ended up having a few drinks and natters in the bar whilst a happy kilted wedding party got merry around us.

Saturday – After a beautiful walk along The Chevin, to see the view from Suprise View, with a very well behaved Elsie we headed back for snacks, naps and splats by the pool / sauna / steam room combo. Another 6 course taster menu that evening (reassuringly different from the Friday evenings), we headed back to watch Tommy Cooper’s Christmas Special on the tellybox. Just like that. Not like this, like that.

The final surprise was the discovery of an outdoor hot pool on the Sunday morning, where spent a blissful half hour in the rain,  pretending I was a Japanese Snow Monkey.

Slap bang down town Harrogate, two guys have all of a sudden found themselves more famous that Rudy (sorry – Harrogate in joke). In a very convincing bid to raise shed loads of money for St. Michaels Hospice, these guys have brought a slice of reality TV to town.

I caught wind of them in Lancashire on Thursday when someone told me what was going on in my town. After a few beers at the Swan on’t Stray last night I popped home, grabbed my camera and headed down. At around 1 in the morning, town is a circus of a place at the best of time – and this shop window is on one of the main clubland thoroughfares and had amassed quite a crowd of Harrogatonians. A shop window with Jason & Ben two MusucBag clad chaps chilling and chatting and inter netting for 6 days.

An interesting dynamic – being able to interact with them by picking up a phone –  quite an odd experience – akin to a video conference crossed with a house party crossed with buying a ticket at a train station. Their facebook page shows a drift of nightlife through the small hours, whilst day time has seen TV crews, live music and gourmet food deliveries from William & Victoria. I asked them a few questions – but when I got in, fired off an email ‘interview’ at them which Ben graciously replied to.

Interview with Ben Davies ofuv The Mannequin Challenge

Below how  Ben handled my Q’s… I’d already asked “What’s the most asked question you’ve had” – the answer – toilet arrangements.

…But why else are you doing this? – Both Jason and I, like most people in Harrogate have been effected by the fantastic work that St. Michales do, they need to raise over 3.5mil a year from fundraising alone. So when we where asked by the hospice to enter the be inspired challenge to raise as much money as we could for the Hospice in a month we both jumped at the chance!

How did this come about – how did you wangle a shop front? – We have to thanks Harrogate legend Phillip Lund from Lateral Property Group for that one, we managed to get a meeting with him last week he loved our idea and gave us the keys almost straight away!!

Did Michael Vaughn, former England Captain, get in touch? (he’s in Harrogate tonight – filming for Question of Sport, was tweeting about jam and bettys earlier) No he didnt but we would love it if he did!

Who is the most famous person who’s been to say hello? We had a phone call from JK earlier in the week, he never showed his face though, we did manage to coax Charity Dingle in to the window with us for a cheeky picture though.

Have you you had National or International telly people saying hello? I have no idea because we don’t have a Television in here, Id love it if we did though!

Are you going to do another week? If the money was right I think we would do anything, I might walk out a single man if I stayed in any longer though and i really don’t want that to happen!!!

What has been the highlight (so far)? I think all the unexpected media attention (TV especially) we had a right laugh when ITV came down, it still doesn’t seem real to be honest, we thought we might make a couple of grand and get our picture in the Herald if we were lucky we ever thought it would ever grow as big as it has done!

(click for more photos)

Charming and polite chaps the pair of them. They also agreed to be official DragonDrop Adventure Shirt wearers – I popped down again today – armed with shirts. Good sports all round.

Support their cause – donate : justgiving.org/shopwindow

Like ‘em on the book of face : facebook.com/themannequinchallenge

Follow them on twitter : twitter.com/awvida

The big highlight of the now is that we’ve got a teenager all of a sudden. Felix has turned 13. Lovely morning this morning of cards and prezzies. Xbox is the big un – clubbed together prezzy from several of us.  He’s having x2 sleep overs and we went out on Saturday for eats. A place called The Spice Quarter on Millennium Square in Leeds. Fantastic place – an all you can eat buffet that has Indian, Chinese, Thai and Italian cuisine on offer. Prior to that, we spent an enjoyable couple of hours in The Leeds City Museum (photos) – a superb free thing in the heart of Leeds. The natural history floor had some great things to see - defiantly worth a look!

Yesterday was also cool – we went to the Countryside Live show on the Great Yorkshire Showground.

Wasn’t quite sure what to expect – but discovered it was a less farmery and slightly smaller version of The Great Yorkshire Show. The highlight for me was a display of a sheepdog hearding first ducks, the geese. Only one of them got away. I spotted a flaw in this method of gaggle management. Things with wings generally have an omnidirectional choice – including up, over the dogs humble two dimentional options. Diggers and sheep, chickens and eggloos (of which Eirene now wants one of) and chat with some folks from a company called Oscar – suppliers of (what looks to be) high quality dog food.

It was one of those weekends that (for me at least – who’s not on half term) seemed to fly by far too quickly.

We had a choice of the last two girls from the litter. This little lady won my heart. Really tough thing to decide. One of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make in a while!

Beautiful wee things all 8 of them and it was lovely to meet their mum and dad. Dad – the chocolate lab is an amazing dog. Mum was a bit shy and perhaps a bit “who are you all coming to see my babies?” but had a very graceful way about her.

I’ve come across a couple of sets on flickr from other larbradingers – who look quite a lot like Elsie – you can’t see it on this shot but she’s got a pretty white flash on her neck – have a look at these : Clyde | Ella

A heck of a treck – nearly 3 hours (in a car which had a broken stereo) then a puppy pit stop then back again to a slow cook coq o van type thing I’d had brewing all day.

Splendid weekend – this was the highlight as far as family life goes but we did have a lovely Saturday tea with friends where I cooked a super doop roast.

Perhaps his broad appeal and accessibility is behind the fact that he has not only a gallery honoring his name, but a theatre, a car park and a shopping centre also.

I’d had “take family to the Lowry, Manchester” on my todo list tagged #rainyday for about 2 years. Perhaps like pretty much everyone, he appealed to me.  His ubiquitous, iconic street scenes are the ones people know – the matchstick men and matchstick cats and dogs.  Everyone, especially people who’ve experienced a northern UK town can identify with these but I found the gallery and the introductory film and other supporting info, emblazoned on the red walls of the main gallery space a brilliant eye opener into his world.

There’s another side to his painting. The memorising piece entitled The Cripples is, on closer inspection a self portrait. His work was punctuated with break-away styles – abstracts, self portraits, Dark erotica.  He was always questioning what and why he was doing what he did. Driven almost by an invisible force. His whit and incisive perception, the subject matter typically being the people in the world around him but there was also an esoteric side to his art, and a window into his obsessive and occasionally dark self loathing.

I love the moment you can get in a gallery where you ‘own’ a piece of art. Just before getting told off for taking the above photo (of his Oil on Canvas called ‘Ann’) I had a moment of exclusivity with it. I was captivated. Standing in front of a painting, able to get as close as 1cm – sans spectacles – is something I love to do. To breath in the brush strokes and see every spec and crumb of paint. Incredible.

We didn’t even explore the theatre side of the gallery (arguably, the ‘main event’) but from what we saw, we all loved it.

Click here for a link to The Lowry official site»

This Friday, Ben “What’s your beef” Osmond, a DragonDrop Adventure Shirt and a bunch of intrepid adventureres and sets off for the Sahara. He’s raising funds for a very worthy cause. In his own words..

“I am taking part in the Sue Ryder Sahara Trek, which consists of 100km trek through the desert! This is something my father would never have been able to achieve even before he was diagnosed with cancer. I am aiming to train as hard as i can, fundraise as hard as i can and complete this challenge to the best of my ability in my dads memory. The money raised will be going to Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice where my dad was so brilliantly looked after during his illness. 

The people of Manorlands deserve all the credit for the help and assistance they give to people in need of Palliative care.

I love you and miss you everyday Dad. This is for you.”

Hats off to you Ben – well – perhaps keep your hat on, in the interests of desert health and safety,  but you get the picture. Good luck!

If you’re even remotely moved by this, I’d implore you to stick your hand in your virtual pocket and bung him a couple of quid. Here’s his online sponsorship form»

Here’s the latest DragonDrop Adventure Shirt shot – from Ali and Marcus. This icon of obsession,  from a film I obsessed about – Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind – is Devils Tower in Crook County, Northeastern Wyoming.  For those that haven’t seen the film – go and watch it  immediately – and you’ll see why people re create the form of this monolithic igneous intrusion out of mud, mashed potato and lately, shaving gel.

There’s a bunch more excelent DD Tshirt Shots fo their current adventure over here»

We left off where we started the camping season – at bobbybees campsite in Burton Fleming. My birthday and the last camp of the year (probably.. although I won’t rule it out entirely)

The site itself has the feel of a part built sculpture. An installation of art – of sorts. Quite a fascinating mix of things to look at (a few snaps over here)  A small contingency of us – 18 in total –  ascended for the Saturday night (we got the place warmed up on the Friday by selecting a top spot up the top of the tent field).  Hanging out, drinking, talking, chucking the very last of the summer wood on the fire on a beautifully warm and calm evening. I got to try out my new toy – a telescope – and drink rum and beer and cider and Jaegemeister (not in the same glass).

A lovely birthday surrounded with a bunch of lovely people. Smile on face inducing memories. I feel very lucky to have such nice friends and family.

I’ll miss the summer, but the impact winter hasn’t kicked in yet largely due to an Indian Summer that we’re being blessed with at the moment. Looking down the barrel of winter and we’re battening down the hatches. We’ve just commissioned secondary glazing with K glass to keep our house a bit warmer in the winter. I’ve got the a romantic notion that I’ll be hibernation, reading and cyber whittling.