Some of the creek was frozen over, some was frozen under, with running water pouring over the frozen riverbed! Beautiful but decidedly chilly, so we retreated to the house and the fireside warmth after grabbing a few photos.
For those wondering these were photos taken on my phone using Vignette for Android at its 5mp fine setting.
A young man entered the world today.
With love and best wishes to him, and his parents Pete and Anna!
As an alternative to my usual ranting and postulating, today I’m going to share some photos of the kittens! Every blog needs a kitten post every once in a while…
So first up is kitten #1, Koshka. She’s now just over 2 years old, weighs in at around 12lbs, and although she isn’t a lap cat per se she is an adorable and loving bundle of fur. Cute habits include curling up between my keyboard and screen when I’m working from home, and following me round the house like a dog when I get home from work. Annoying but cute habits include licking my hands and arms at about 5am most mornings and waking me up!
Click the image for more photos of Koshka.
Then we have kitten #2, Sputnik. She’s a youngster, barely 6 months old, and weighs about 4lbs. She is a bit of a ragdoll, and goes limp if you pick her up and start stroking her. Her cutest trait is her little chirps and the smile in her fur that makes her look perpetually cheerful. Her most annoying habit is her tendency to try and dominate Koshka by biting and chasing her all over the house. As you can imagine a battle between a 4lbs kitten and a 12lbs cat tends to end rather predictably, but she keeps on pouncing on Koshka at every opportunity.
Click the image for more photos of Sputnik
Just in case you were wondering, usually they get along pretty well!
Smartphones are everywhere these days, and they’re replacing our cameras, diaries, address books, maps, GPS, and many other things in an easy hand-held unit. We take them everywhere, and wherever we may be we know communication is but a swipe of the finger away.
Listening to a podcast recently (on my phone) I learned how these devices might not be as helpful in an emergency as they at first seem. The podcast was January 1sts special edition of the BBC Radio Scotland’s Out of Doors program, in which the show’s presenters went out on an avalanche rescue exercise in the Cairngorms with the Grampian Police Mountain Rescue Team and the Braemar Mountain Rescue Team. During this fascinating show the rescue teams explained how although smartphones frequently included GPS functionality which could be helpful out on the mountains they also tended to consume battery power far faster than traditional phones, and in emergency situations this rapid loss of power could make maintaining communication with the rescue team extremely difficult if not impossible.
This set me thinking about my friends (both in the UK and the US) who enjoy skiing, hiking in the mountains and generally getting out and about outdoors, and how most of them are quite possibly permanently attached to their iPhones and other smart-devices. I found myself wondering how many of them had thought about how that rapidly fading battery, which is usually just an annoyance requiring a charging cable at work and at home (and in the car if you’ve got an iPhone), could put them at greater risk in an emergency situation.
With that in mind I encouraged them, and you, to listen to the podcast if you head out off trail, or into the woods and wilderness, and to make sure you plan for the worst even though I hope you’ll never need it. When global distress beacons (like the McMurdo Fast Find here) and avalanche transmitters (like the Backcountry Access Tracker here) cost less than a new smartphone it seems crazy not to take one with you!
You can download the podcast here, and please note that all title, ownership rights and intellectual property rights in and to the BBC Podcast remain the property of the BBC (alternatively it may still be available from the BBC Podcasts website here).
In addition you may want to check out the following links:
