Starry night
I may have set expectations too high. This week the intention was to spend the night under the stars, but I was a little nervous because Canada has animals wandering around that can eat you. Admittedly they don't often, but I didn't want to be the exception. So I decided to sleep in the fenced pool area at Chrissy's parents' house. As a bonus, they had a nice sun lounger and an umbrella for me to hang my mosquito net from. They also lent me a rather snug duvet. All of which meant that I was not exactly out in the sort of wilderness that some of those following this blog had anticipated for this adventure.
Even I was a little disappointed as I lay listening to cars racing in the distance, planes overhead and the pool pump. And I slept very well, although I did wake in the middle of the night for long enough to look up at the stars. But, appropriately enough perhaps, they were muted by clouds. Perhaps I'll consider this a dry-run. Lorraine says that next time this adventure needs to involve a tent, rather than a house, nearby.
Actually what inspired this challenge was a book that I read a few years ago called by Alastair Humphreys called Microadventures. Highly recommended.
I'm not sure how feasible some of those adventures are in Canada - the laws are certainly different for the sort of wild-camping that he advocates. It still appeals though.
Perhaps I'll get closer to that when I plan a suitable bike touring adventure.
Of course I could go the other way, and embrace a true "glamping" experience. Chrissy and I were looking at a stargazer's tent that's available on a campsite not too far from here. You can even book a chef to come and cook for you; and there's a sauna on site. It's possible I could tick off a few items from the list in one stay.
In other news, I've started reading the guide that comes with the Lord of Midnight computer game, and I'm beginning to think I've taken on a more significant challenge than I anticipated. I’d forgotten that there was a competition for those completing the game to have their play-through written up as a fantasy novel. Of course you had to print out every screen to have a record of your game. I feel like the competition should have been sponsored by makers of the strange printer paper that the ZX Spectrum printer used.
As it happens that novel was never written - probably due to paper shortage - although many years later a version of the story was turned into a novel. I'm thinking it might be interesting to read. Perhaps I should read it as research to help with the game?
For now, I’ve downloaded the game for my iPad.
I may need to buy some graph paper to do this properly (for mapping it all). Of course to really do it properly I should get it running on a ZX Spectrum. But that might be a step too far.
The archery a week or so ago was a hit and now we’re trying to book some more lessons. Hopefully that will be happening next week. Sophie and I are talking about setting up an archery range at Chrissy’s parents’ house, which seems much more reasonable than doing it at our house. Chrissy seems to think that it would be a bad idea. She mentioned something about the hunger games.
Speaking of dangerous things, I’ve brought a mitre saw back from Chrissy’s parents’ house, and a work bench. I want to repair some of our deck with the wood we have left over from the boardwalk. I also have to finish the flooring in Jackson’s room. It can be a little difficult finding the time to do these things - especially if we do anything else at the weekend.
I'm still keeping up my habits. I’m enjoying Ulysses. I did take a moment to look up a link to the principle characters - because keeping track of everyone seems to be the hardest part of reading the book.
Piano playing is up and down. I suspect the other household members are a little fed up with all of the repetitive studies. I’m still finding it rewarding though, especially in those fleeting moments when my fingers do what they’re supposed to.
This week's Diderot question was about school lunches, so I wrote about the desserts I remember from my primary school.
Some more French phrases from my listening.
- À mon avis
- En chemin
- Je dois faire quelque chose
- Je n’y arrive plus
I’d like to think I’m getting better at this, but it’s very much hit and miss. I find it easy to lose the thread if my concentration wavers.
Finally, I’ve been doing a bit of flora research by trying to name the trees near where we live. As I suspected, there ARE a lot of maples - including Norway Maples and Japanese Maples. I'm assuming there are some Canadian ones too. And Spruces. Quite a lot of those. Birch. Poplars. And many others as yet unidentified.
Trees.
