Vietnam, vacation

Here is the view of the shower area. I should have taken more images showing the stepping stone path leading across a bed of white gravel to here, with the twin glass was basins and rich wood in the wash area, but is did not, unfortunately.

Vietnam, vacation

The interior of our villa, showing the bed laid with welcoming heart formed from hibiscus flower petals gathered from plants growing around the villas. This was a delightful touch, adding a feeling of welcome, to the charm of the villa itself, with its thatched roof, white walls, Vietnamese red and black lacquer work.

Vietnam, vacation

Our destination, where the boat will dock and we will disembark, with a villa to the left, similar to the one we will occupy for our stay. We stayed at villa number 5, which as it was sitting on an elbow of the path leading to the villas, and we were reading our way through Winnie the Pooh on the holiday, we dubbed Pooh Corner by writing the name in the sand at the entrance.

Vietnam, vacation

Hannah

Hannah, hair blowing in the slipstream as the boat raced along to our island paradise...

Vietnam

Hannah on the boat going to the small island of Tam Hai, just off the coast of Vietnam. She is excited to be taking this trip, going to a beach villa, in the Domaine de Tam Hai which has only 12 villas. We are all excited, and joyed to see Hannah's face light up and hear her shout in her excitement. Everything is new, everything is different for her, and she was relishing all she saw, all she heard as the boat sped across the water. Soon the jetty and our first images of the villas will appear...

Vietnam, vacation

We spent out summer vacation in Vietnam. Left is a picture taken from a car traveling from Danang to Tan Hai island where we spent most of our time at the Domaine de Tam Hai relaxing. This was a 2 hour trip by car that was at times quite scary as the traffic on the two lane road appeared to obey no rules other than the biggest is the strongest is the one with priority. I will up some more photos over the coming days.

Elegy for Jane by Theodore Roethke

Elegy for Jane by Theodore Roethke

I remember the neckcurls, limp and damp as tendrils;
And her quick look, a sidelong pickerel smile;
And how, once startled into talk, the light syllables leaped for her,
And she balanced in the delight of her thought,

A wren, happy, tail into the wind,
Her song trembling the twigs and small branches.
The shade sang with her;
The leaves, their whispers turned to kissing,
And the mould sang in the bleached valleys under the rose.

Oh, when she was sad, she cast herself down into such a pure depth,
Even a father could not find her:
Scraping her cheek against straw,
Stirring the clearest water.

My sparrow, you are not here,
Waiting like a fern, making a spiney shadow.
The sides of wet stones cannot console me,
Nor the moss, wound with the last light.

If only I could nudge you from this sleep,
My maimed darling, my skittery pigeon.
Over this damp grave I speak the words of my love:
I, with no rights in this matter,
Neither father nor lover.

Girl with Dragon Tattoo - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I have not written for a little time now, partly because the weather has not been good for photographing the garden recently, and progress on the greenhouse / potting shed has slowed by other garden tasks determined by the calendar as well as the weather, such as sowing seeds.
Recently I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which started as an amazing tour de force, of complex plotting with themes and sub-themes without the principle theme being immediately apparent. Eventually, the story settles down and the major theme, plot becomes more conventional with its simplification. I have avoided giving detail as that would spoil an intriguing aspect of the book for anyone beginning it. The story commences with a disgraced financial journalist and magazine owning partner in Sweden being confined to prison for libeling a major industrialist. The girl with the dragon tattoo is introduced as a misfit who obtains a job working for a security firm, who quickly recognise she has major investigative talents and assign her in that line of work, freelance. These two themes become entwined in a mystery of the death of a girl some 30 years earlier which the journalist is hired to uncover... The book is part of the Millennium Trilogy, written shortly before the death of its author Sven Larsson, I have the second volume, but have not yet commenced reading that one as I started reading another book while waiting for the next volume, The Girl who Played with Fire to be delivered in the post.
I picked up Gabriel Garcia Marquez's wonderful book Love in the Time of Cholera that I bought many years ago. I had thought I had read this books, as I read many of Marquez's books while reading a large number of Latin American fiction over a good many years earlier. The last book if his I read was The Melancholy Whore, the last one he has written that is published. But, shortly after beginning Love in the Time of Cholera I discovered that I had read only the first 40 or so pages, where the book mark lay. Why I never finished this, is lost to my memory; as not finishing a book is an anathema to me, even when the books is not enjoyable or turns out not to be so good as expected... I can only guess that some major work, reading or writing project prevented me finishing the book and I simply forgot to pick it up again or put it away during removal of home.
The book is beautifully written, a thoroughly modernist work, with a sense of hope and redemption at the end... I will write more on this book later, now other duties call me as I expected to write shorter comments than this...

New Combo Jazz, 20100131

Left is a photograph taken of the pianist with the Japanese trio, Visions. I watched the images, shadows cast on the wall, the light and shapes seemed to reflect the interacting piano and bass...

Garden Path

I have been trying to figure out how to cover the garden paths between the raised beds, as they are long it would be too expensive to lay any commercial materials.

Well, it got around the neighbourhood that I accept logs, wood from cutting down trees. Shortly after new year a guy stopped his small farmers' truck at our gate. I have never seen him before. In the back of the truck were logs, branches he had chopped from a tree. Do you want these he asked, I heard you took this sort of wood? Of course I replied, so we unloaded the lot. He then asked if I took smaller ones, and point to some thinner branches. Yes, I can use these for kindling, thank you. Off he went and returned twice, later for a third and fourth time. The second two he dumped conifer hedge trimmings. Gosh, what to say, no thank you after he had dumped half of them on the ground on his first return. Okay, what to do with these: 1) make a raised bed and slowly layer them to make a blueberry patch, as the firs acidify the ground; 2) Eureka, how about layering them lengthways along the paths, and make a covering. This will break down over time, will look nice and green, can be trimmed to remove the larger branches, looks good and even smells nice too... So that is what I did, see the photo left of the trimmings being laid. It is a bit springy to walk on, but where it has been frequently used it is flattening down, and it is also easy to run a wheelbarrow over it. So far, no problems, is this a win win?

Morning Snow

The path towards the top of the mountain side...

Morning Snow

The hillsides, or mountain side if you prefer...

Morning Snow

Colour, the first or Black and white, the second?

Morning Snow

The view from the university rooftop...

Morning Snow

Hannah rushing back indoors...

Morning Snow

We awoke this morning to find the ground covered with a layer of snow. Here, at 06:45 is Hannah in her gown walking in the snow on the path.

Jazz Photo- New Combo 20091218

Before when taking photographs I employed two cameras; one permanently held B&W film, the other colour slide film. B&W was usually given priority, so that film we in the better of the two camera, a Nikon F3, the other being an older Nikon FE. Now using a Nikon D300 the camera can be used for either without the problem of having to switch films and settings on the camera. But this feels is rather peculiar, because previously it was a simple matter of deciding this image would be better in B&W and that one in colour and choose the appropriate camera. Now the master image is always colour and the switch is made after the photographing session is complete. I provide two examples of the same picture, one is in B&W the other on colour. Which one do you prefer of the two, if any, and why? Please comment if you would...

Setting sun

The afternoon sun provides a gorgeous light for photography. So, this photo of the path stretching up the hill just across the road from our house is bathed in rich light, and shadows. Our neighbour recently had his home renovated, and externally repainted, but it is really the colours on the tree, the fence, and the bicycle waiting to be used that attracted my attention.

Potting Shed, Greenhouse Project

This is the level of progress attained at the end of today, 3 January. In effect, this is the 4th day of work on the project. Now all of the verticals are in place, with the dividing wall structure built, allowing for a doorway access between the potting shed and the greenhouse sections. The dividing verticals have added strength to the floor. The base structure is also painted to preserve this against moisture and bugs. Should the upper structure be given the same treatment? I wonder? The plan is to paint the completed shed/greenhouse either white, white shaded with a hint of lime, lemon or green, with the window frames painted a brighter colour such as yellow, orange or red. It may even be the case that Hannah will paint flowers on the outer walls, and perhaps a line or two from some favourite poems painted on with acrylic paint. We will see.

Potting Shed, Greenhouse Project

This is the stage reached when I stopped working on the potting shed, greenhouse yesterday afternoon, when the weather clouded over and a shower of rain occurred forcing me to give up as the clouds caused the temperatures to chill considerably. But, the supports for the roof are now in place as well as most of those for the surrounding walls. It is looking as I expected but the structure may need strengthening through the addition of some diagonal beams.

Winter Garden Produce

The array of colours, forms and textures created by companion gardening is evident in this photograph of beet leafs emerging from carrot fronds, neighboured by leeks.

Winter Garden Produce

Here you can see our Brussels sprouts, still quite small but growing, next to the broad beans sagging under the shivering coldness. These beans are Spanish varieties which are frost hardy and produce prolifically in the late spring. Usually I dislike cutting them to stop their growth, the end up growing way too high. This year I am determined to stop their growth at about 1.3 - 1.5 metres.

Winter Garden Produce

Here is the Sorrel sagging in the bitter cold, frosted over.

Winter Garden Produce

While this is mid-winter, and the weather is appropriately cold, that does not mean the garden is bare; indeed some plants thrive better in winter for being left alone by pests. There was a sharp frost on this morning, 27 December, so I took some pictures. On the left you can see the frost on a leek, seeds from Britain. Of course, because of the companion planting, the leek is not sitting in the middle of a row of leeks, but is surrounded by carrots, garlic, and other vegetables not seen.

Potting Shed, Greenhouse Project

Here is a picture of the shed at the end of work on January 1. The upper frame is now sunk into the lower frame, and a couple of uprights, and bracing straps added to the corners. My neighbours passed on their way to visiting their relatives or friends and wondered why I was working on New Year's day, me too. But time is not something I possess a lot of so, a little done here and there speeds things along a little more.
One very kindly neighbour remarked that she had old hoop greenhouses on abandoned farm land, I think she was suggesting I could have had or used them.

To the left, foreground you can see last year's Xmas tree stripped bare of needles in most of its branches by a bagworm attack late summer. The infestation went unnoticed because I was busy and neglected the garden, and the worm gather pine needles around themselves, looking like a part of the tree, from which they exit, gather more needles into the cocoon to dine in cycles. I pulled off 200-300 of these cocoons, large and small. The treatment is weekly feeding with fishmeal fertiliser mixed with molasses sprayed over the plant, and compost and vegetable scraps, coffee grains etc., scattered around the base. Watching to see if spring bring some recovery, though it is obvious that the branches have not died as they remain flexible and have not become brittle.

Potting Shed, Greenhouse Project

This was the shed as work began on January 1. My daughter Hannah is sitting in the centre of the shed.

Potting Shed, Greenhouse Project

Here is the results of the first day's work on the shed. I dug out much of the sandy soil from within the base, to allow me to build the frame for the floor and the growing beds. Next the verticals were put in place, with supports, adding the top frame in stages. The next day saw the way the top frame is attached here modified slightly to lower it within the verticals supports. Two reasons for that: One, I discovered that the two main woods used for the project sold as 2 metre lengths are different lengths; the frame lengths here are a little over a 2 m, while the other piece that will make up the wall, door and window frames were shorter, and nearer to 2 m in length. Thus by lowering the top frame here this problem is solved. Second a modicum of strengthening is added by sinking the top frame into the bottom frame.

Potting Shed, Greenhouse Project

On the left is a picture of the base prepared. The base is partly sunk into the ground to the north, top of the picture, and partly elevated above ground to the south, requiring some adjustments later to enable a raised bed in the south side as the greenhouse.

Potting Shed, Greenhouse Project

It has been too long since last posting to the blog, so now I return to write about a new garden project. It will soon be time to think about sowing seeds for next years growing season, thus the question arose of where to put these and the idea of a potting shed for sowing and storing the seedlings arose. This soon developed into the idea of a potting shed with adjacent greenhouse. After searching for some open source plans for building a potting shed, I adapted some i found and came up with my own. In the left is a picture of the ground being prepared for the construction. Previously this was where my daughter's garden and sand pit were, but it became obvious that this was not the best place for her garden and the design was not the best for her either. So, some new concepts came into being, and some new plans are being worked on for Hannah to have a new garden and perhaps an equivalent of a tree house.