Sshhh

It has been a quiet day at the home of the Gorse Fox.

We finally managed to connect with Cousteau-cub (who was still chuffed by the Cup Final result). She was suffering from a slight ear injection that was keeping her out of the water for a few days. Overall, all was well.

The Silver Vixen spent much of the day with her fabrics, cutters and cottons. GF, however, spent much of his day searching out several old sets of course notes, documents from previous engagements... and that power block for the old laptop.

He finally found the power block (which seems huge compared with those we see on modern laptops). Firing up the old machine he found that it still started but that there was no functioning operatying system on the hard-drive. (Also, looking at it he realizes that it had no Ethernet or Token Ring - nor (of course) any WiFi.

As for the notes and old papers - they are background for some course material that GF wants to develop in his spare time before starting his next engagement.

Blue

It seemed that the day was dominated by blue.

From early morning the sky settled on a rich blue hue that remained unbroken throughout the day. The sun streamed down and the garden glowed. Unfortunately some of the morning was consumed with various Starfleet tasks that were needed in preparation for Monday.

Urban-cub had disappeared for the day, down to Gunwharf in Portsmouth - so the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox had a quiet day. The Silver Vixen planted a few specimens that had been collected over the past week or two, and the Gorse Fox caught up on some reading.

Of course it was Cup Final day. This saw the blues of Everton play the blues of Chelsea (who wore yellow). With and early goal for the blues (in 25 sec.) it promised to be a lively game and it certainly lived up to its billing with the blues (in yellow) equalising, and then eventually taking the lead. (Gorse Fox is sure that Cousteau-cub will have bee delighted).

GF tried to phone C-c several times but could not get through... and will have to retry tomorrow.

The evening involved catching up on some recorded TV and watching "Britain' Got Talent". The latter being won by an innovative and interesting dance troop... much against the odds.

Parting Views

Some parting views of Rosemoor. The Gorse Fox loved it.

As they left the Silver Vixen was waylaid by an Embroidery Exhibition that had been lurking by the door... so we wandered round that for a while. As we approached the exit a matronly woman entered, followed by her husband who muttered something soto voce. She turned and demanded he repeat what was said.

"I said, 'If I lose the will to live, you'll find me outside, impaled on a pitchfork'".

The Gorse Fox smiled and caught his eye as it rolled out of sight. 

We left the exhibition and hit the plant shop (which we, somehow, escaped empty handed).

We got back onto the road and made our way back to Sussex. It had been a fun few days.

Lakes and streams

Gorse Fox loved the area closer to the lake. The small rill that cascaded down amongs the ferns and gunnera towards the lake. The mix of depth, colour and texture made it hard to drag the eyes away.

Diversion

The route home was not what you might call direct. We diverted into North Devon and stopped at the RHS Gardens at Rosemoor near Great Torrington.

Having spent time at Wisley, this came as a bit of a surprise. It's on a different scale, nestling in a secluded wooded valley a few miles from the North Devon coastline. It was well worth the diversion.

As you leave the entrance there is an area of formal gardens which melt away to fields, a lake, and quiet woodlands.

These first few photos are from the formal parts of the garden... which the GF really enjoyed.

Farewell St Benet's

Friday morning saw the sun finally explode through the cloud of the last two days. Unfortunately we had to say farewell to St Benet's Abbey and the family that ran the place. We have no doubt that we shall return.

Bodmin Jail

Dinner was great. On Wednesday we had tried the local pub, and whilst adequate it was hardly a fine-dining experience. We decided that tonight should be a more memorable. It was difficult to get a good recommendation for a meal that we fancied (Silver Vixen not being a great fan of Chinese or Indian food).

A little bit of surfing highlighted Bodmin Jail as a possibility and as it was close, we started there (with a Plan B if it didn't work out).

Well for a prison(*) it made a might fine restaurant and we thoroughly enjoyed the meal and the surroundings. The Gorse Fox started with some fine ribs (which will come as a huge surprise to those that know him). We both followed with lamb shanks which were accompanied with perfectly cooked vegetables. A nice bottle of wine formed the perfect accompaniment. Probably not quite fine dining, still. Several mighty leaps up the ladder from the previous night and certainly a place we'd return to for a further sentence.

(Oh yes, and Plan B wouldn't have worked either - they had closed down!)

(*) No it's not still operating as aprison, but used to be the County Gaol.

Quarry-side

The project is know for the huge Biomes, but the whole quarry is now being reclaimed by the terraced planting and will soon disappear beneath the lush flora.

Plant this

An 80 tonne Cornish granite sculpture of a seed head. It's a good job these don't fall from trees.

Nestling

The Eden Project is like some huge Sci-fi film set hidden away from view at the bottom of a vast quarry. The Gorse Fox likens it to a film set because it has a magical, whimsical feel about it that somehow makes it feel other-worldly.

Though it was very busy today - the crowds just melt away into the vastness of the site and it was rare that we saw large groups except at the entrance, restaurants, and exits.

Aerodynamics

Pictures are being brought to by curtesy of Canon and the aerodynamic qualities of their cameras. Yesterday GF had loop the camera over a chair back, over his soaking wet jacket. After we had eaten GF got up and grabbed the jacket - forgetting the camera. Well fogetting it until he saw it soar across the restaurant and land on the slate floor a couple of tables away. 

There was a sharp intake of breath from around the room as GF gingerly lifted the camera body from the floor. No shards of glass were evident, no chunks of plastic, now springs or motors. It had survived and GF heaved a sigh of relief. So a vote for Canon and the robustness of their cameras.

Hospitality

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen were esconced in a fine room with a four-poster bed, period furniture, and anachronistically a digital TV and Wifi signal. St Benet's Abbey was a charming spot to stay. The breakfast was excellent and totally relaxed and the whole place just homely (right down to a huge dog - of the "Turner & Hooch" variety that was about the size of a bear - barked like a basso profundo and was scared of its own shadow).

It was a bit grey as we started out this morning so we had to think carefully about what we'd get up to. Being only 8 miles from the Eden Project it seemed like a prime candidate to fill the day.

Awash

After we had stopped for some lunch we set out again through the upper rhododenron garden and back round towards the lake. The rain seemed to have eased (at first) but soon returned to soak us further.

This is one of the most stupenous gardens in the country (if not the world) and in the rain it was still beautiful (though muted). A thoroughly nice few hours despite the rain.

Levaing Stourhead we headed onwards towards the west country. The rain seemed to fade away, but as we crossed the moors the clouds settled comfortably on the ground and reduced visibility to about 100 yards. 250 miles from home we arrived at St Benet's Abbey near Bodmin.

Occasionally when you chose an hotel from a web site you are not sure what you'll get. Boy, we struck lucky. The hotel is quaint, family run, and utterly charming.

Poseidon

It was quite clear as we walked around the grounds and the rain got heavier that Poseidon was definitely in control.

(THis statue of Poseidon is in a grotto that you walk through as you go round the lake)

Travelling

It was pouring with rain as the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen left for a couple of days in the West Country. The rain was driven by strong wind on the coast, but lessened a bit inland - but the rain was incessant.

The journey was planned to take in Storhead, where we planned to meet Betty and Barney Rubble. This had been planned several weeks ago - without (perhaps) due thought for the weather. Dressed in walking gear and waterproofs we headed out into the landscape garden. Despite the driving rain, it was not cold, but the vibrancy of the colours was muted by the grey skies.

Success.. or not

Some days are better than others.

Gorse Fox started by taking the comatose PC to the ER where a nice man was going to take a look at the problem. 

Then it was a matter of returning to Urban-cub's flat to fix a recalcitrant drawer. Unfortunately the recalcitrant drawer remained recalcitrant and whatever GF did, the drawer and its runners were too wide for the orifice into which it should slide.

After some thought and fiddling, GF gave up. Two options were open 1) make a new drawer, or 2) get a new base unit. GF headed to B&Q and looked at option 2... but whilst not too expensive they did not have the right coloured doors available. That led to option 1. GF stopped off at his favourite woodyard and bought some appropriate wood. Now it would just be a matter of taking the front off the old drawer and building a new smaller drawer frame.

Saw, band-saw, electric drill/driver, router, biscuit cutter. All was set. The Gorse Fox got cracking but was evidently not at his best. Everything was cut to size. The router ploughed (or started to) a slot for the drawer bottom, however it was clear the router bit was blunt and GF had no spares. Eventually all was well (except for cutting a biscuit slot in the wrong place) so GF got ready to dry-assemble the parts. This is when he found the drill battery was dead, and so was the spare.

Enough was enough. GF put his tools away and went to cook supper.

Technoclasm

The Gorse Fox has been at the centre of a technoclasm.

The day started well enough, helping Urban-cub publicize her flat for rent online. Already there has been a deal of interest and one request to view. So that was satisfying. GF then pottered about creating an advert that she can put up on the wall at work. All-in-all he was happy with progress.

He went outside to make the most of the sun but after a while thought he could hear the distant rumble of thunder. He popped in to view the storm track, and that was when he realised that all was not well. 

There was lack of humming noises in the study. There was a lack of lights in the study. The main computer (Falcon) was down. 

• Had GF switched it off accidentally? - No. 
  
• Was it a fuse in the house circuit? - No.
  
• Was it a fuse on the powercable? - No.
  
• Was he in trouble? - Oh yes!
  

Now fortunately the Gorse Fox is paranoid and so he has plenty of backups that should be no more than 30 minutes out of date... but the frustrating thing is having to either get the base unit fixed or replaced (and in the latter case the money and time it will take to get everything back to normal).

BBQ

The weather was stunning. The sun shone, there was little or no breeze and the only sounds were of the neighbour's tennis court, and children playing on the beach. The sea was so calm that the waves could not be heard in the back garden.

The Silver Vixen spent much of the day gardening, Urban-cub spent much of the day on a sun-lounger and GF was pottering about between the garden, the computer, the kettle, the football and so forth. 

Mid-afternoon we tried to call Cousteau-cub but failed to get through, though we did manage to exchange text messages.

It was too good not to make the most of the day, and so we fired up the Barbecue for the first time this year.

Silver Lining

They say that every cloud has a silver lining. Spurs were beaten by Liverpool but at least Newcastle went down.

Powerless

The Gorse Fox thought he'd resurrect an old (and fairly unique) laptop. This museum piece is 15 years old and is a model of RS/6000 that was never released for sale. GF, however, was presented with one as an award. When new it would run either NT or AIX and was based on a PowerPC chip and had a 10.5 inch screen.

The idea was to see if the Gorse Fox could resurrect this beast with a Linux distro. Having finally found a distro that GF thought was worth trying he started the download and wandered off to loft to find the old laptop. Clearing the dust of the case and taking it back to the study GF was horrified to realise that he had obviously stored the power supply and plug somewhere "safe". As this is a fairly unique machine (codenamed Woodfield) is even had a special (20V) power socket - which meant that he couldn't use one of his many spares.

GF will have to root around some more in the loft tomorrow to see if he can find his "safe" hiding place.