Category Archives: Life

It’s the Cavalry

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Finally have some aphid eatin’ Ladybirds on the Willow.  During the day, they’re fast little buggers, this one was hoovering up aphids as fast as it could!

I have about 50 shots of it, blurry, running all over the leaves, it paused here just long enough for the autofocus to get it.  And then a moment later, it took off, this next shot was pretty lucky timing.

Went out a bit later, and there’s another one sleeping on the tree (looks asleep), which is good news for me, and bad news for the aphids.  Also, I think this ant was interested in me too.

And this one, I’m really pleased with, very pleased with this shot indeed.

The Story of our Willow Tree

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Myself and Grete, we both like trees.  We were sad when we had to fund cutting down a very large tree in the garden (for various reasons) and we promised we’d plant some to make up for it.  We tried a cherry tree, but got it badly wrong and the tree it was grafted onto was the only thing grown (and would have been huge, so that had to come up).  Then we saw a miniature willow tree and that sounded perfect.

So this year we got it, planted it and cared for it, within only two days it had sprouted a load of extra leaves and branches (more than the cherry tree ever did) and we thought we were onto a winner, and then it went wrong.

We’ve got several large ants nests in the garden, and either I plant the tree in one, or they moved into the soft earth shortly after.  They swarmed all over the tree, and although I couldn’t see them doing any specific damage, they weren’t helping the root ball settle in.  We also got a spot of super-hot weather (just two or three days) and the tree didn’t get enough water.  The new foliage died.  We were sad, we were killing another tree.

But I took some corrective measures, more top soil, and some solid application of the end of a lump of wood on the ground left the tree solidly bedded in.  I watered it every day.  I tried to kill the ants (but failed, as usual).  I watered it some more.  And it stuck it out, survived a few weeks of miserable weather and made it to the long strip of hot weather we’ve had.  I’ve been out every day making sure that tree has enough water (even if the rest of the garden is turning into a desert).

I think it’s paid off – it flourished, new leaves, new branches, thickening of the branches already there.  I think it might pull through.

But now we have aphids.  Not one or two, but billions.  We’ve never had aphids in the garden that I can remember seeing in any number, so it looks like we’ve brought them in with the willow and they may well be a specific willow based aphid.  I’ve just been out to squish them, again.  The ants look like they’re milking them.

I need a ladybird infestation!

Anyway, I don’t think the aphids will kill the willow, but they do generate some annoying issues (honeydew and the stuff that feeds on it, including wasps and mold).

So I’ll be out making sure they stay as dead as I can for the next few weeks, washing them off and squishing the hangers on.

I’m rootin’ for you miniature willow (pun intended), we can do this.

Willow when we got it in April:

Willow in mid-June:

Willow now:

My hands are too shaky, I don’t own a big enough tripod and the camera is really not good enough to take photo’s of  ants and aphids, but I tried anyway.

Just aphids.

Ant vs Aphid (I think it’s milking them)

And last, but not least, more aphids.

You came in that thing

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Built my birthday present.

Fewer pieces than it looks, only took an hour or so to put it together but it still looks pretty cool.  If I felt like it, I’d do a bit of glueing, filling and some touch-up painting, but we’ll see.

It makes me want to build more model kits but you can’t get Star Wars ones that are true kits, just the snap together quick ones (as above), plus, I have nowhere to put them anyway.

It’s also rekindled an urge in me to scratch build scenes / dioramas / buildings.  I’ve never tried, but always thought I’d be good at it 😉

Blood sugar

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I took my eye off the target (knowingly, complicit) and my blood sugar control is shot to shit.  The orange line is where I was in 2006, the red line last year, and the blue line is now.  They’re single day snapshots so not perfect, but they’re good enough to kick me up the ass.

Taking my head out of the sand and taking control is actually a good feeling.

Painting

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Haven’t painted any miniatures for approaching a year now.  Managed to really dent my confidence and interest last year and never really regained any interest.  Now however, I’m starting to get that itch again.  Got all the stuff out tonight, went through everything, re-boxed some stuff, and then put it all away without actually painting anything, maybe next time.

Prepare to Launch

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I’ve waxed nostalgic about computers before, and I’m going to do so again.  This time, it’s the fault of team members at work.  After a short conversation about The Hobbit (movie, lack of progression), a colleague reminded me of the ZX Spectrum adventure game based on the book.  Oddly, we both remembered getting stuck in the same place.  That in itself isn’t amazing, it was obviously the place to get stuck when you played The Hobbit, what’s amazing is that it’s approaching 30 years since the game was released (1982), and it’s around 25 years or so since we played it.

25 years.  And we still remember where we got stuck.  Anyway, that led to a range of discussions of the humble ZX Spectrum, including Sabre Wulf and how you can’t download it for emulators because the copyright holders still exist and refuse to allow it (in case they want to cash in on their 25 year old intellectual property).  I also, badly, tried to do an impression of the first digitised speech I heard in a computer game.  It was a game on the ZX Spectrum, and I knew it was some kind of space game, but couldn’t remember the name.  I’ve been quoting the phrase ‘prepare to launch’ in a stupid, static-laden voice since I was in my teens.  I still do it now if I hear that phrase on the TV or talk about the first speech I heard in a game.

A couple of years ago, I blogged about Wing Commander (here) and how I’m still quoting stuff from my early life – and this Spectrum game was no different.

Luckily, we have The Internet, and a quick bit of googling and I found the game.  Death Star Interceptor.  Amazingly, the game had a tie-in license with Star Wars, and uses music and themes from the film (including the Death Star).  Essentially you have to launch your interceptor (which is annoyingly hard, straight off the bat), shoot down some tie-fighters and then fly along a trench to blow up the Death Star.  I can’t remember if I ever beat the game or not, or if you even can.  But I do remember the speech.  And thanks to a little emulator, now you can too.  Have a listen, see if my impression is any good (click the text!)

prepare-to-launch

I just spent 10 minutes playing the game, and after a few minutes of getting hit by flying tie-fighters I got a little better.  I didn’t get better because I was learning how to play, I got better because I was remembering how to play!  From 25 years ago.  I still remember how to play this bloody game.  I sometimes can’t remember what I ate for dinner yesterday but I can sure as hell remember how to play an obscure shoot-em-up from a Spectrum game in the mid 80’s.  Nice.

I’ve got a real computer nostalgia kick going on right now, I’m sure there’ll be more blog posts to come!

I have a driving license

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Still only a provisional, but I finally got a driving license sorted out (thanks to Grete who did most of the hard work).  Now I just need to organise some lessons in the next 10 or 15 years to keep up the same pace and I’ll be golden.

I swing between optimism and complete and utter terror.

So no change there then.