Rock Balancing

DSC01085
Originally uploaded by pandjmum.

Well I blame Dave Gorman for this inspiration.

A very therapeutic way to spend an afternoon.

Flickr

We've just joined Flickr (See Thom's and Anna's here), a fancy photo sharing thing.

Sailing Soon

Dart 16
Originally uploaded by tflaxman.

It's been a long and very cold winter.

I can't wait to get back on the water in April.  

Poppy has joined as a Cadet this year, and will soon be up to speed with all things nautical.

Snow in Devon

We were lucky to have snow for a few hours on Friday. We where almost at school when the snow started to fall heavily. As 4WD vehicles were going sideways Mummy phoned school, and they confirmed that they would be closing for the day - "Hooray." We were even luckier that Daddy had a sledge in the garage (that he hadn't told us about) and that we have a garden steep enough to slide down. In Poppy and Jake's words- "This is the best day of our lives."

More photos here.

Tarka Trail

Two months ago we thought Poppy'd never ride a bike, but she's proved us all wrong. Today we suggested a gentle ride from our home in East-the-Water to Instow (2.5 miles away) on the Tarka Trail. Mummy provided back up in the car, sure that one of the children would find it too much. How wrong we were! Both children were bright-eyed and red-cheeked by Instow and had no intention of stopping there at all. Instead they rode on to Fremington, a further 3.5 miles, with great enthusiasm. We stopped for a long, delicious lunch at Fremington Quay Cafe, to celebrate our eleventh wedding anniversary, before retracing our steps. Jake retired at NDYC and hitched a ride home with Mummy, citing poor weather conditions as his reason for stopping! Yet Poppy was determined to prove that she could complete the course and arrived home half an hour later, splattered with mud and full of pride.

A GPS tracklog of the ride can be seen here.

Double Rainbow

Whilst on the Rescue Boat last weekend, I saw a perfect double rainbow, complete with supernumeraries. It was so close you could almost touch it. It framed the White House on Braunton Burrows. If only I'd had a camera. For the science behind rainbows have a look at the Atmospheric Optics site.

Garmin Speed Freaks Competition

Have a look here. I'm currently on the Leader Board, but it won't last for long. I think I went faster earlier in the summer, but that was before I acquired the GPS. It was a perfect reach in flat water, and we positively flew past a small fishing boat. The skipper reckoned that I must have been doing 30 knots - yeah, right. Probably closer to 20 kts, but it was fun.