This crocheted skull shawl is going viral amongst the crochet groups. Here is mine, just finished. I still have a couple of ends to work in and it needs blocking, but then it's ready to wear.



I quite like the cognitive dissonance that pink crocheted skulls create. :)

I used a 4 ply cotton yarn and a 3.5 mm hook, so it's come out neck scarf sized, which is what I wanted because I thought it would be good for the summer. But other people have done it in wool and with thicker hooks, so it makes a shawl and of course you can keep on going until it's the size you want.

This is the pattern I used.

Current Mood: cheerful

20/52 for the group T189 alphabet challenge

The set theme was: J is for Jettisoned

Whoever discarded this can took the trouble to poke it into the vegetation growing on a wall. It's a shame they didn't make a bit more effort and take the can home with them. :(

( More discarded objects behind here...Collapse )

Tags: 52 weeks, photo-a-week, photography

20/52

I did this for the theme "high key" for the monthly competition in the T189 group I belong to. As I set the theme, I feel obliged to post something that fits. :)

I've tried high key before and not been very happy with the results, but I'm a bit happier with this.

Tags: 52 weeks, photo-a-week, photography

I think I have really and truly transferred everything over from the old computer now. The final thing was to plug in my old clicky keyboard (see icon). I did give the wireless keyboard a try, but it had all these extra fancy keys and I kept hitting the Windows key instead of the Alt and was being zapped into the Start Screen when I didn't want to go there.

I did wonder whether I would have to say goodbye to my faithful old keyboard. It dates back to the 1990s and I acquired it when the local nuclear power station closed and they donated a lot of old IT equipment to the study centre where I taught. But there's something about the sturdy clickiness that I really like, and I've kept it going all this time. it already had a converter to convert a large round plug into a smaller round plug. Now it also has a PS/2 to USB converter, plus a USB extension cable because the converter thingummy was too chunky to fit into the USB socket next to the other plugs.

The one thing I couldn't do in Windows 8 was set up an ad hoc wifi network to enable me to download Kindle books to my iPod Touch. We don't have wifi, preferring the speed and reliability of wires, so to connect the iPod to the internet, I had worked out how to make a connection using an ad hoc network. It was a little cumbersome, but it worked fine because when I'm at home the only reason for the iPod to access the internet is to download a Kindle book. I assumed I could do the same on the new computer, but a bit of Googling revealed that I couldn't.

Well, that's not entirely true. I could either resort to altering settings via a command line or download a program that would do it for me. I didn't fancy either, so instead I've set up the ad hoc network on the laptop that runs Windows XP. That will see me on for a year or so until the laptop dies.

The final final step is to dismantle the old computer and stow it safely in the garage, just in case there's something I forgot...

Current Mood: accomplished

19/52

A train thunders through our local station.



Or does it...?

Sadly, not really. This glimpse into the past was courtesy of a one day exhibition of an amazing model of the railway line between Dolgellau and Penmaenpool, enabling visitors to get an impression of what the railway used to be like before the Beeching axe fell.

Here's another view of the station...



None of this exists any more -- apart from the road bridge at the extreme left -- and the bypass now runs where the railway line used to be.

( More photos behind here if you like model railways...Collapse )

Tags: 52 weeks, photo-a-week, photography
Current Mood: accomplished

19/52 for the group T189ers alphabet challenge

The set theme was: J is for Just handy.

The idea was to take a photo with whatever was handiest, in this case my mobile phone. Also the photo had to be straight from camera with no Photoshop tweaking.

I don't usually take my DSLR when I walk my friend's dog. Partly because it's heavy and partly because I can't take serious photos when I'm concentrating on what Brith is doing. I do always have my phone with me, however, so I took the opportunity on this gorgeous May day to grab a photo of the leafless tree against a cloudless sky.

Tags: 52 weeks, photo-a-week, photography

I don't think I normally manage to get the first mowing of the year done so early, but the neighbours had mowed theirs, so their half of the front grass looked pristine whilst our half looked decidedly unkempt. Also the weather has been dry for a couple of days so it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

The upside to doing it early is that it's not difficult to do and so I merely feel righteous rather than exhausted. :)

The forecast says it will be sunny tomorrow too, so I might even make a start on the back garden...

Tags: mowing the lawn
Current Mood: pleased

I think the transfer to the new computer is almost complete. As usual, it's taken several weeks to move over all my data and my favourite software and sort out updates for things that no longer work.

After hearing lots of horror stories about Windows 8, I was delighted to find that the only thing that wouldn't run was the email program Turnpike. Though Demon do now provide a webmail option, I still like to actually download my mail to my own computer. The thing about Turnpike was that a) I've used it for 17 years and know it inside out and b) it's designed to cope with having multiple email addresses. Basically you can set up any name you like before the @ sign and thus have mail addresses appropriate to your needs. For instance I've set one up with my Dad's name. Not that he's ever going to use it, but it means that when I order things online for him, the emails relating to that purchase automatically go together into the same folder and everything is kept tidy.

So... Googling had revealed that my best option was probably Thunderbird and I proceeded to find out how to make it work as much like Turnpike as possible. (Thankfully there were plenty of people who had already travelled this road, so I found lots of help in various Demon forums.) Because email is complicated, I've done one step at a time, first just getting the program installed and then working out how to transfer all my existing mail into Thunderbird. I was really pleased to discover that it was possible and having exported all my mailboxes from Turnpike, today I managed to import them into Thunderbird. Then, after correcting a stupid typo in the settings box, I successfully downloaded my mail. :)

The messages have sort of gone into the right folders. I need to do a bit of tweaking of the filters to refine the filtering, but nothing seems to be getting lost, so that was a huge step forwards. The final step is to set up the folder personalities so that mail sent out from Thunderbird shows the correct address, but it is supposed to be doable and though I'll be sad to leave Turnpike behind, it looks as though I have a workable alternative. Which is a big relief.

Regarding the hardware, I wasn't very happy with the wireless mouse that came with the computer, so today I've put my old mouse back. It just moves better over the screen. The wireless mouse was fine for things like web browsing etc, but for PhotoShop, I found I was gripping it hard to get the fine control I needed. This was asking for trouble and I don't want a recurrence of the RSI I suffered from some years ago. I also intend to revert to a wired keyboard. The wireless one is behaving itself today. I don't know whether changing the mouse has helped (both mouse and keyboard were running off one USB socket) or whether it's because I've moved the dongle from the USB port at the back to one at the front. Anyway, it is now fine after behaving very weirdly for the past few days. However, I'm still probably going to see if I can get my old clicky keyboard (see icon) to work with it and have ordered a PS/2 to USB converter.

Current Mood: accomplished

18/52 for the group T189 alphabet challenge

The set theme was: I is for Insect

At last it's warm enough to tempt the bees out to forage.

Here's another photo of the same bee coming in to land on another flower.

Tags: 52 weeks, photo-a-week, photography

This mosaic shows all the photos taken for my LiveJournal project, Stop for a moment and look. The idea was to find something interesting each day and post it to my blog.

There was more repetition than I intended and I hope in June there won't be so many photos taken in the back garden. As those of you who have been following along already know, mostly it ended up being about the very very slow progress of spring this year. :)



1. Tiny daffodils, 2. Early morning light, 3. Variegated ivy, 4. Porth Oer, 5. Daffodils, 6. Ewe & lamb, 7. Determined dandelion, 8. Time for a cuppa, 9. Traditional Welsh gate fastener, 10. The road to Corwen, 11. Old shops, 12. New hawrthorn leaves, 13. Morning sunlight on the hawthorn, 14. Celandines, 15. Bible Garden, Bangor, 16. White Shetland pony, 17. Walking the dogs, 18. Daisy and dandelion, 19. Brith, 20. Sunny day, 21. Cloudy day, 22. Spring rain on primroses, 23. Celandines in the garden, 24. Cherry blossom, 25. Bay horse, 26. Twin lambs with mum, 27. Dew on grass, 28. May blossom buds, 29. Church and flowering tree, 30. View from Brith's house


Back in 2010 I did a 365 project. I didn't want to commit to taking a photo every single day for a year, so this is a sort of compromise. I thought doing just the months with 30 days might be enough of a challenge without becoming a burden. Besides, a 30 day month creates a neat 6 x 5 mosaic. :)

Tags: stop for a moment and look
Current Mood: accomplished