Thursday 16 May 2013

The week rolls on...

Mrs RC is making it a regular thing to meet me for lunch on Thursdays.  I bring a sandwich with me so she brings me pudding:
 
 
Yes I am spoilt, yes she is wonderful and yes I do appreciate her.  We sat in one of the Uni gardens and chatted about "stuff".  It makes a great feature of the week, and I hope we can keep doing it, at least while the weather is passable.
 
 
Passable is about as good as the weather gets at the moment - banks of thick cloud, often dumping a ton of rain as they go, followed by warm sunshine, the effect of which tends to be wiped out by the cold wind.  BLAH!  Bring me a real summer!  Roll on August and me and Mrs RC roasting ourselves in Malta!
 
Years of mixing with my Head of Department has given me a niggling interest in woodland.  In the last few months, an area of woods that I cycle past has been felled, creating this clearing...
 
 
I have decided to log what happens to the clearing by taking photos at the beginning and middle of each month.  Not sure how long I will keep it up, but it would be fun to do a year so that I could them do a time lapse movie of how things change.
 
 
So, what else?  Oh, I have nearly finished painting a set of pack camels that I started a couple of months ago.  Just have to do the groundwork and they are finished!  Then I can get on to painting my next army - Persians, as seen in The 300 Spartans. 
 

 
Ah, what a great movie - love the way the Spartans are portrayed as the defenders of freedom - never mind that they were a non-democratic slave owning city themselves!  Anyway, I will be the nasty Persian leader who thinks he is unstoppable...
 
Just have a couple of hundred soldiers to paint...

14 comments:

Abby said...

Well, yes, a bit cloudy, but pudding makes it all better! I like your idea of a woodland log (as in journal, not "log from the woodland"!). There are scientists doing ongoing study of the changes from last summer's wildfire. I learned they are known as "geomorphologists". You can be Geomorphologist Rock Chef!

meleah rebeccah said...

Oh my word - I would kill for some of that pudding!

ShadowRun300 said...

So nice that you two are making your lunch dates regular. I have a feeling she loves spoiling you as much as you love being spoiled!
I'm curious if it bothers you that they are cutting down those trees. We have had a few places cleared around here, and for some reason it makes me sad. If it's somehow beneficial, then I suppose I can understand. But I couldn't see how our last clearing was beneficial... Then again, I may not be in the "need to know" loop.

agg79 said...

Mrs RC is such a saint. To join you for lunch each week and bring you pudding. Definitely spoiled.

Would be interesting to see your journal of how things change in that clearing. It always bothers me when progress seems to take precedent over nature in those cases. Would rather see the trees than some new store or parking lot.

Good luck, Xerxes. Remember those Spartans are a persistent lot to deal with.

Anonymous said...

Painting the details on an army...so intense!

Yes, do keep track of the clearing, especially as the seasons change.

Nice to have a quiet lunch with the Mrs. And she brings dessert!

Rock Chef said...

Abby - if they are geomorphologists I suspect they are looking at what effect the lack of plant life is having on the soil and slopes - increased erosion, maybe a few slides here and there. Very interesting stuff!

Meleah Rebeccah - I can understand that. Can you eat stuff like that or is it a no-no?

ShadowRun300 - I am OK with these trees being cut - the area is designated woodland so will either be replanted or allowed to do its own thing. Both are good for the environment.

Agg79 - These have not been felled for building, although there is plenty of new building planned on land that should not be built in...

Ninny - Hi! Yes, I am aiming for a very relaxed time at the moment and painting toy soldiers is about as intense as I need :-)

wigsf3 said...

The concept of freedom as we know only received that definition 50 years ago or so. Early classical freedom is just as brutal and totalitarian as anything we can imagine today.
Context!

Rock Chef said...

Wigsf - Being happy in the knowledge that you are being repressed by your own people and not some foreigner...

Shammickite said...

I'll be watching your pictures of the clearing with interest. Any idea why the trees were cut?
Lots of trees being cut in areas close to me in order to isolate various non-native pests that have arrived in this country e.g. Asian long horned beetle attacks maples and other broadleaf trees, Emerald ash borer attacks ash trees.

Rock Chef said...

Shammickite - Various areas of the wood have been cut in recent years - some replanted, some left to go wild and some strips kept clear, presumably as fire breaks. We do have a disease that is attacking ash trees, but I don't know if that is part of it...

lotta joy said...

Your wife is a keeper - or else she thinks YOU are, and is prepared to hang onto you. I really, really, miss the real dirt and real trees of Indiana. Now I've got sand and crab grass for a yard.

Rock Chef said...

Could you plant a tree or would it just die?

Well we are about to celebrate 28 years together so I guess we are both in it for the duration now!

Riot Kitty said...

I need to go get strawberries now. Like right now.

terri said...

Mrs. RC sure loves you! :-) You both seem to know how important it is to make time for one another.

Hope warmer, steadier weather makes its way to you. Ours has been beautiful. Of course, now that it's the weekend, it's steady rain showers!