Origins of the Internet - 1969

The following YouTube video came to my attention this morning, if you are interested in the Internet and its origins is worth a look. More interestingly in Youtube you will discover a whole range of linked videos on the same or similar topics.

Balloon Flight - over Kemnay

Subsequent to last weeks hot air balloon flight, by daughter SMS'd me this morning at about 7.15am to say that the balloon was up again and flying over our village - Kemnay. I went out to see if it was visible from our house and its was!


This view of the balloon taken from the street just outside our house ( which is in the right hand corner of the picture)


And this view from our recently installed new bathroom window.



Also, just over the weekend I received my certificate of flight and the photo of the balloon basket and all its occupants (at about 500ft) which was taken by the pilot during our flight. A "nice to have" memento of the experience.

Balloon Flight - it happened - More!!!!!!

Further to my last post I wanted to also publish some video footage which gives an on the ground account for the balloon flight. The video covers the preparation phase and launch.

Balloon Flight - it happened!!!!!!

Well after a whole year and 9 failed attempts to do the balloon flight it happened today. It was really worth the wait and the weather was just perfect for it! This was a father's day and birthday present combined from the kids last year - a really special present and very much appreciated. So I first want to say a big thankyou to Fi, Rich, Linda, Phil and Abbie + Hollie ( the last two are actually the dogs but apparently it was from them too).

As you would expect I did take my camera along to take a couple of photos! I took over 250 throughout the experience and I have published a selection of them. See the link at the end of this post for access! I have picked a few to add to this post.

The weather was simply perfect for a balloon flight and the departure location is beautiful at the best of times. See in the photo below me with Castle Fraser in the background. As you can see the sky is blue with light cloud cover.


This was very much a team effort with all 16 of us passengers being given various tasks to do during the flight preparation stages! The photos below was taken during the balloon inflation stage when the pilot was checking the rigging. A hot air balloon is seemingly quite a complex device with lots of ropes and pullys which affect different parts of the balloon trim etc.... At this stage no hot air has put in it - just cold air which is blown in by two very noisy fans - this was the only noisy part of the whole process.


Once the balloon is more or less full of air but still lying on its side does the pilot apply the heat! This then causes the balloon to float upright! This is just what is happening in the next picture.


Then a few minutes later we were airborn! Very gentle - no turbulence etc.... The whole flight was a really pleasant experience and allowed me to take lots of photographs ( about 250 ) of teh country side in the vicinity of Kemnay, Inverurie and Kintore where I live. I provide one photograph below which shows the sort of views we enjoyed throughout the flight which lasted about 1 hour.

Below are three photos taken a different stages of the flight. The first taken about 3 minutes into the flight looking back towards Fraser Castle an its grounds.


The second taken about mid way through the flight which shows a shadow of the balloon with an apparent hallow around the basket - an interesting effect I thought. Around this part of the flight we also were able to look down of deer and other wild life grazing on the pastures.


Finally, we are about to land and looking for a suitable place to put the balloon down! At this point there was very little wind which is good news for landing a balloon. A windy landing can result in the basket being dragged along on its side with the occupants still in side - I am told ;-) No hair raising experience like that in this flight - we gracefully drifted down and came to rest upright without so much as a bump!!! This view shows the river Don complete with about eight swans and there was a fisherman - but he was just a little bit to the side of the shot.


This was a really great experience which I would recommend to anyone. It is definitely a great way to fly with none of the side effects associated with powered commercial flight like standing in check-in queues, and noisy flight time...... But then again we did have on this occasion near perfect whether which made the experience as good as it could be. I did hope that the flight route would have taken us over Kemnay where I live - but on this occasion the little wind that there was did not blow that way! Who knows, perhaps another time!!!

You can see more photos here

In closing I want offer a word of complement to the staff of Virgin Balloon Flights who certainly did all they could to make this a most enjoyable experience.

Balloon Flight on!

Balloon flight on tomorrow morning - leaving Castle Fraser at 6am ;-)

Watch this space for photos!

Remote performance

Just had to blog this - it is an excellent demonstration of how new technology can be used in novel ways. Here we see Cisco's Telepresence being used to facilitate a performance where the orchestra is in the room and the singers are in a remote location. Bear in mind that the singers need to hear the orchestra and see the conductor in real time for this to work!!! With previous Video Conferencing there is always a lag in the video and voice being transmitted from point A to Point B which would make this sort of live performance impossible!

Mystery Tour May 2009

Each year six good friends embark on a mystery tour. Well it's a mystery to 4 of the participants as one of the three couples take responsibility for mapping out the route etc....

This year it was our turn so we decided to have a tour with a theme. Bird watching was the theme and we incorporated into it a number of nature reserves on the north east coast of Scotland which included, Don Mouth Nature reserve, River Ythan Nature reserve at Newburgh, village of Collieston - for lunch stop, Peterhead harbour where to view the seal community there and The Loch of Strathbeg

We finished our trip by travelling north for hight tea at the Tufted Duck hotel in StCombs ( note that this is right on the theme) and then on to the villages of Cairnbulg and Inverallochy.

I have chosen to feature two photos of Collieston village - the first is taken on the day we did the mystery tour when the weather was pathetic!!! Rain, wind, grey skies and poor visibility



and the second was taken on the day which Mary and I traced the route about two weeks earlier with the weather was perfect - blue skies, sun and warm temperatures!!!!


That said a great time was had by all!!! and we learned a bit about the vast number of birds which inhabit these reserves which are situated literally on our door step!!! You can see some more photos taken on the day here!

Not all locations are featured but do note the improvised shelter which was necessary for us to have our lunch with some protection from the wind and rain. Happy times....... ;-)

Roll on next years mystery tour where every that will take us to?????

Bought a Kist

I am quite excited having now become the proud owner of a Kist! The reason for this is that I can recall may happy occasions rummaging through a Kist in my very young days. A Kist was a common possession of people of my grandparents generation and before! It was basically a box which would be used to contain stuff including clothes, blankets and all manner of possessions! I come from a fishing community and it would be quite common for a fisherman to have a Kist in which he would keep his possessions and precious items! I found a picture on the SCRAN database as follows of a typical Kist you can view it by clicking here

Here is my Kist - next steps will be get it generally cleaned up and re-varnished - that should restore it to reflect its former glory!

Glow wins another international award

See this post by Laurie O'Donnell which provides the news that the Glow project has won another award - fantastic to see this project being acknowledged in this manner.

Great achievement ;-)

Jim

Flowering Cherry progress

This morning the weather is beautiful with blue skies ( for now - rain forecast again). This is how the tree looks today ;-)

Excellent performance - GMC

The annual Gospel Music Convention was on last weekend this is its 11th year. Mary and I were able to attend on the Saturday evening and the concert was most enjoyable.

It is often the case that there is one performance that stands out and for me this was indeed the case. My music taste is varied - I can listen to most genres from traditional choir to modern pop ;-) But on this occasion was simply blown away by one group of four singers from Sweden called Dynamic. Their music is varied and includes the following styles , pop, jazz, soul and traditional hymns.

At the end of their performance they sang a song called "For Your Glory" which I thought was simple outstandingly good so I wanted to acknowledge it here! Click this link to have a listen to the preview from the groups web site.... Apart from the excellent quality of their voices, the thing that impressed me most about the group is that they have no instruments and no backing track - pure vocals - I just had to purchase their CD...... Actually they did use a solo violin on one of their tracks but everything else what pure vocal!

You can read more about the group one their web site which is here!

Mizpah

This weekend I was able to visit my Mam and Dad's graveside. The grave stone had been removed from the scene to have an inscription added about Mam who passed away last October. I wanted to view the gravestone to confirm that the inscription had been done to our requirements. I think that it is quite self explanatory with the exception of the word right at the bottom which is "Mizpah" - this has a special meaning, in fact my Dad had a wedding ring band which had this word inscribed on it.

This is what it means:-

"And Mizpah; for he said, The Lord watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another."

you can read a more detailed explanation here

Feels like the end of an era!

Bathroom Project Complete

In order to set the context for this post I want to offer a photo of the project before work started - here is it is! This view is the closest I have to the one later in this post because of the fact that the later is taken through the door which was moved as part of the project!


I took some time over the May Bank Holiday Monday to put the finishing touches to the Bathroom project. Since I have been posting information about this ongoing project I wanted to make one last post to confirm that the job is now done. Below are a couple of photos which show the finished product complete with all the female touches which transform it from a functional project into an extension of our home environment. The first photo shows the view looking into the bathroom door where you can see the new window and blind in place and of course the shelf unit complete with towels and other essential items ;-)


I have also published a photo album which tracks the full project from start to finish ( when you look there, spot the lady ). One of the key features which I like about the new room is that we now have a clear glass window (the old one was frosted glass - for privacy purposes!) which means that we now have a view of the River Don and Fetternear Estate which just at the other side of the river. This view changes with the seasons so we wanted to be able to see it each time we visit this place. Of course we also need to ensure privacy when necessary so we decided to add a wooden slatted blind which you can see is now in place.

Here is a photo of the view taken through the new window.


And finally, I want to mention that this project is dedicated to "My Love" and that is of course not the lady on the shelf but Mary my wife. Since we moved into this house ( approx 20 years ago) we know that a serious renovation would be necessary! I recall the creaky floor and all the other things that we needed fixing. We have planned this project for a very long time and it is a real land mark event to have completed it. So we can now start to enjoy it on a daily basis with no thought of planning the next stage of construction!

If you want to review all the stages of the project you can see all the posts by entering the key word Bathroom into the blog search box.

See all the photos by clicking here

So onward to the next project - watch this space ;-)

Spring is here!

I have photographed this tree during the fall ( Autumn ) when the leaves have a really rich orange/red colour tone. It is actually a flowering cherry tree and as spring is getting underway its flowers are getting to blossom. I thought I should record it now - I really like this time of year when the trees start to bud and blossom ;-) Feel good time from a scenery point of view after the general dullness of winter!!!! I will be tracking this tree over the next few days is comes to its full glory!