AACV
Pictured is the AACV - Aiddy Alternate Commute Vehicle, or, in local lingo, the Aiddy alter-Nate Commute Vee-hee-call.
Did 10 miles there and 10 miles back yesterday and am feeling it slightly today. For the unfit like me, the hill up to campus is a killer.
Bus Stop Views
Hummmm.
No wonder my request for a "tall late with an extra shot" gets odd looks around here...
...and here's the best local coffee (the little hut, top & left of middle)
Bus, stop
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It felt sooo great to be able to get a bus again, and, ~~worse~~ better, to be using a bus to commute in the homeland of the automobile.
Public transport here is far from perfect, and really does need to get a whole lot better, but at least it's actually usable for my commute - Berkhamsted to Cambridge on public transport doesn't work at all. Even better, there's even an in-bus wireless trial.
This piccy is at Bear Creek Park & Ride - nothing beats a bus journey on a sunny autumn day, except of course a train journey.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-12-29 to fix broken links
Crumbs no Crumble?
There's an apple tree in the garden (as well as a couple of plumb trees). This afternoon we picked a load of apples, & F did his best to make sure there weren't enough for a crumble!
The windfalls disappear very quickly - we think they make a tasty pudding for the dear.
Fire!
Last night we had a fire - of course it had to be a 'minimalist' fire to be in keeping with our sans-furniture house.
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H sorted out the mess with the
Hoover
vacuum cleaner
Cheap Shower
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Rock hopping on the Snoqualmie River
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Just downstream from Snoqualmie Falls (where H asked "would dad kayak off that?").
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Luckily power plant #2 wasn't running.
A bird in the viewfinder is worth...
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…another entry in the 'need a long lens' - 'don't need a long lens'
debate
.
H spotted this woodpecker in a tree in the park this afternoon. I've no idea what kind of woodpecker it was - I'm guessing a Hairy Woodpecker , but I'll leave it for you to decide.
Swinging
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Having a swing at
Farrel McWhirter
Park this afternoon.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-12-29 to fix broken links
Rain
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After the
sun
came the rain. We like rain.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-12-29 to remove broken links
Acoustic Energy
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I'd had enough of listening to iTunes, the
BBC
, and my new love
NPR
on tinny Dell laptop speakers. After some sound advice (thanks Brov) and a quick mouse click on Amazon, a nice man from FedEx left an Acoustic Energy Aego 2 on the front porch.
Sweet.
Not even two weeks
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We've been here less than two weeks, and Fay, ably assisted by Dawn, did a run to the
British Pantry
for some goodies.
Initially I was very disappointed with the lack of discipline (Fay that is), I thought we'd manage at least a month...then I tried the meat pie ;-)
The teapot came with us (yup, we used precious baggage allowance on a tea pot!)
yin - yang
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Look up in the garden and the trees are full of beautiful leaves that gently sway in the wind to catch the evening sunlight.
In a couple of weeks there'll all be dropping to the ground, the skies will be low, grey, depressing stratus, and I'll be down there sweeping up the leaves with a rake.
You can always look on the bright side...
brush up
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We've given the tree house (bunk house) a sweep out - and hopefully significantly reduced the spider count...
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...although H is still working on a critical examination of all the nooks and crannies!
office or studio
The view of, and from, the new home office - the trees are in the front garden, and the sunlight is from a big yellow fiery ball that does a circuit across the sky each day (or at least has each day that we've been here).
I'm trying to get the room as organised and permanant-feeling as possible before Fay decides it would make a nice studio ;-)
one week
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One week on, and this probably sums
it
up best.
Note: This post was updated on 2020-12-29 to fix broken links
gas and kite flying
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Kite flying and seaplanes today in Gas Works Park .
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The park turned out to be an excellent spot to watch the world go by on a sunny Labour Day , where the world appeared to be ' going by' via boat, kayak, bicycle, and plane.
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The park was also a good base camp for a mini-expedition to the Fremont Troll , which, this time, wasn't hiding .
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More piccy's on flickr .
Oh, and yes, we are having fun. Hope you all are too :-)
ground control calling
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F does skype - or is it an impression of an air traffic controller?
We like skype, even if it is a bit dodgy at times ;-)
park life
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An evening stroll to, and around, our local Cottage Lake Park .
As the crow flies, it's very close but for those of us restricted to ground level travel the lack of foot paths (or trails ) means it's a tad further.
(and no, the piccy's from a T-Mobile SDA aren't as good as from a SonyEricsson K750 )
Book store
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It's been too long since I've spent time in a library, I'd forgotten what wonderful places they can be.
In the age on the jolly interweb, we sometimes forget that there are other, often better, sources of knowledge and information. A library is one of them. Whether or not the shelves in your library have been replaced by computer terminals. Afterall, if Gutenberg had been around today, he'd probably be the inventor of the Tablet PC .
All at sea
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We took to the high seas on
Goodtime III
today - well, actually it was
Lake Union
with a quick dash out into
Puget Sound
- to see a little of our newly adopted local city place thingy.
flickr Some of you might spot a certain object that has been adorning H & F's T-Shirts for a while…
Note: This post was updated on 2020-12-29 to fix broken links
Herb Garden
Following a trip to The Gardens at Cottage Creek we now have a mini-herb garden. Not nearly as cute as the previous herb garden featured on Crossoak, but it's great to have some plants around none the less. I wonder how long before the deer find them?
Zone
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Either they were in the zone or they were completely zoned out .
Answers on a postcard please.
Kettle!
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Another post with a bang in the title.
This time it's for a brand spanking new kettle, and it wasn't as hard to find as I'd expected . The only down-er is that it doesn't boil as quickly as our old new kettle, but then what do you expect from only 110 volts? ;-)
Deer!
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I used to get all excited when we had deer in the garden at Barrington Hall - but waking up this morning we find we now get them in the garden.
Good news thrice: I get to see them without a 100+ mile round trip commute; les and jessica got to see them in realtime via skype; and they're close enough not to need a big lens .