Memories

I’ve spent this morning going through photos for pictures of my grandfather, Harry Trelogan, who passed away on Thursday afternoon. It’s made me realise a couple of things.

First, that my picture taking habits have changed quite a lot over the past ten years – I used to take hundreds of photos, put them on facebook, store them in big batches and look at them occasionally. Not any more. These days it’s all about snapping a quick shot on the mobile and working out the best way to share it with people. Once it’s sent or uploaded or whatever, I just don’t think about it again. Photos aren’t memories any more, but more a method to crack a joke.

I’m not sure how I feel about this really, but now that I am actively seeking photos for memories, I can’t help but feel I might have it around the wrong way.

The second is that who my grandfather was to me has changed a lot over the years. My earliest memories of him (and many after) were always of him as half of pair – Gran and Gramps. Those memories revolved around visits to their house, being spoilt rotten, crying together at the sad scenes in Dumbo, Terry’s Chocolate Oranges and being showered with love. They were hugs and biscuits and comfort.

Later, he was a role model to me in humour, hospitality and sharp dress sense. To this day, I am yet to see another man wear a neck scarf with such aplomb or meet anyone quicker to offer you a drink when you walked in his door.

More recent memories are centred on the decline of this health, where his personable nature was increasingly clouded with confusion. Even during these days Harry maintained a strong work ethic – mum and dad’s garden has never seen such sustained attention as when Harry was still able to potter.

Throughout all these different understandings and perceptions of him there were common threads of sometimes surprising sensitivity, unconditional love and wit.

The last thing that I realised was that despite not having seen him in almost a year (and even then it was challenging to see the man I once knew), I still miss him more now that he is gone.

It's a freaky freaky cat video, Bowie.

By cyriak (via Boing Boing)

Don't drink and drive bro

The NZ Transport Agency has way better drink driving adverts than anything in Australia...

Watching that was thirsty work. I could murder a beer right now.

PS: all right, one more for the lols.

Pallets and puppies

Now that the weather is starting to improve, I’ve been feeling the need to get some things growing in the garden. Unfortunately, most of the garden still needs another week or two before the green manure crop has sufficiently decomposed so that it doesn’t damage new roots.

To kill time until then, I decided to try out a recycled shipping pallet project that I’ve seen around a couple of times on the web (for example here and here).

The idea is basically to take an old abandoned shipping pallet, reinforce it a little, wrap it in landscaping fabric, fill it up with dirt, plant it out, wait for the roots to take hold and then prop it against a wall as a simple vertical garden.  There are more detailed step by step instructions at the links above.

Sourcing the pallets can be a bit tricky – there’s a fine line between abandoned and stacked waiting for the pallet company to collect them. Thankfully a misspent youth of nicking traffic cones and empty kegs from the back of pubs left me well placed to deal with this moral quandary.

We cut the pallet in half to make it a bit more manageable – a full size pallet would be ridiculously heavy when complete and would also cost a fortune to plant out. Here’s the pallet sanded down and ready to close in the back:

 Around this stage the neighbour’s puppy came to visit:

Reinforcing the back with some cheap treated pine fence palings:

Below you can see the pallet filled with dirt. We’ve wrapped the back and bottom in landscaping fabric to keep the dirt in while allowing for drainage, and covered the front gaps with chicken wire to keep the dirt in. We had to cut holes though this to plant in.

Plants, planting and planted:

 

 

The finished product just needs a few weeks horizontal for all the plants to take root properly before it’s propped against the wall. I’ll plant out the top gap around then as well. The plants are mostly succulents mixed in with a few grasses and some potted colour for the top.

Roll em up!

via boing boing

Beaurtiful video of ferrofluids

Saw this amazing video on the Scientific American website this afternoon, it's bloody amazing.

It's called 'Morpho Towers -- Two Standing Spirals' by Sachiko Kodama.

Counting down the minutes until it's time for an afternoon beverage in the sunshine...

From Vimeo - A Day in California

Saw this video by Ryan Killacky on Gizmodo during my lunch time browsing today. I've seen a couple of videos in this style, and I always love the way they manage to make people look like little lego men running through a landscape. I also love the similarity between some of the landscape and flora in it and Australian landscapes.

A Day in California from Ryan Killackey on Vimeo.