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Friends this is my review of the book Clarissa Oakes by Patrick O'Brian. This is book 15 of the Jack Aubrey series, one which I have been reading over the last few years.
Captain Jack Aubrey is back on his favourite ship Surprise, and they have escaped the prison colonies of Australia with a stowaway, that is unknown to him. William Oakes, a midshipman on the Surprise, smuggled Clarissa aboard when the ship departed Sydney. To ensure her safety she is married to William Oakes, and then proceeds to cause quite a bit of trouble on board ship by chatting up the officers. She eventually befriends the ships doctor Stephen Maturin, who is also a secret agent for the king. When Clarissa reveals to Stephen some vital information about spies in London, he realises that she must get back to England as soon as possible. He helps arrange for Mr Oakes to make that journey in a prize that they have managed to capture, and of course Clarissa goes with her husband. The writing style of the book was very noticeable in this case. With most modern authors the ratio of action to description is probably around 2 to 1, maybe even less in some cases!! Here in this book it was probably about 8 to 1 in favour of description. In the book Patrick uses words to beautifully paint, the world in Napoleonic times in Polynesia. There was one section which I though was very clever was where they were sitting down for a meal with the native queen and she gives them bowls of food. Floating in the liquid is part of a human ear!! a local favourite. Just five and a half more books to go in the saga.. This was book 17 week 12 fiction 15 (2 on audio) non fiction 2
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Friends this is my review of the book Out of the Sun by Robert Goddard. Those of you following this blog, will know that I like Robert's books, and even though this one was written some time ago (1996) it was one that I had not read, when I saw it for sale.
Of course the quotes on the back, are full of superlatives, and it is a good book, but maybe it is a format that he has copied in later books, as it was a little predictable. This is about Harry Barnett, and in late middle age he unexpectedly finds out that he has a grown up son David. The result of a distant fling (don't want to give too much away). David is a brilliant mathematician, but he is languishing in hospital in a diabetic coma. Was this attempted suicide, or attempted murder. Harry has to find out, and in doing so uncovers a great mystery relating to an American forecasting institute. Harry goes in search of the truth, followed by a trail of bodies. Normally Robert's heroes do not die, well certainly not till the end of the story, so seemingly when the story is solved, and there is half a book to go, one knows that things are not what they seem. The story then goes on to suspect, and then knock down all the characters that have been introduced in the first half of the book, one by one as if knocking skittles down in an alley. Till finally all that is left is the least likely person and of course they did it. This was an enjoyable read as book 16 week 12 fiction 14 (2 on audio) non fiction 2 For some time now we have been thinking about planting some form of wood plantation for heat, at our Trostrie garden. Our own biomass project. Having looked at several sites offering willows for fire wood, we hummed and hawed and were finally persuaded by some friends who have also started a willow plantation this spring. We did think we had left it too late for this season, but as it has been so cold this was ok so we ordered a wood fuel kit from Water Willows  Kit - Weed Suppressing Fabric and Pegs The kit came 100 willow plants, weed suppressing landscape fabric, pegs and an instruction guide.  Willow Plants soaking before planting We put the willows in a bucket to soak for 24 hours before planting  Area for planting The area where we are putting them is in a scrubby part of the garden on a slight slope, with plenty of room to expand to the east next year. Eventually we will try and put in 6 x 12.5m double rows. I was putting in the first two now, the remaining four will go in next year.  Pegging out fabric I rolled out the weed suppressing fabric, and pegged it down, one peg per metre, each side of the material, together with one in the centre at one per metre, but offset by half a metre.  Planting out the willow shoots Then started to plant the willows. Each plant had to go into a hole 9 inches deep. I used an old large screwdriver to make the holes, having marked off 9 inches with some red tape. Hitting the screwdriver with the hammer to drive a hole through the fabric and into the ground. Fortunately I only hit stones on about 10% of the time.  The first 50 shoots took just over an hour to plant, the second 50 took twice as long. Maybe it was because I was getting tired or maybe it was because, they were a bit thicker and so making the hole took much more effort.  Nice even rows Anyway eventually they were all planted. I then watered them in. Now I just have to wait for them to grow, and they will get their first pruning later on in the year.  This is my ad hoc update and diary describing how I am developing our garden at Trostrie Cottage in Galloway. You can see the garden for yourself if you book a self catering dog friendly holiday @The Shieling which is attached to Trostrie Cottage http://www.trostriecottage.co.uk/
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This is my review of The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo which I have read recently. It is the ongoing saga of detective Harry Hole. It is just before Christmas and the Salvation Army is preparing to sing carols to the shoppers as they get their last minute bargains. A shot rings out and one of the singers is hit and dies. Seemingly there is no motive for the killing, no suspect can be found, neither can the weapon, and the weather is worsening. The murderer has to stay the night due to the weather, only then to discover that he has shot the wrong person. What does he do not finish the mission or go home for Christmas? As the clues slowly reveal themselves slowly uncovering the professional assassin's history it becomes a race to save the intended victim from death, whilst at the same time the motive for the hit is revealed – a dark episode from the past. A very enjoyable, though complex book, that slowly reveals the secret as one is peeling an onion. As each layer comes off new information comes to light. Of course this now makes me want to read the next book in the series – The snowman, but I will have to wait a bit for that. So this good read was book 15 week 11 fiction 13 (2 on audio) non fiction 2 Friends I have not recently commented about coding but a few days ago I was very frustrated with an error that I could not easily work out. At the time it was not funny but now looking back on it, I think it is quite amusing, so I will share it here. It certainly makes quite a good blog title. Being dyslexic I used to use a variety of code letters and number when giving names and tags to things. I did this to try and reduce errors for example bd-mn-im1 cannot be confused with anything else, but it does not make my code that readable.  It was suggested to me that I could improve my code by using descriptive words rather than codes. Well this maybe the case but it does not make life easier for me. I give a recent example.  I was updating a website for responsive design using the viewport meta tag <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1"> and things were progressing quite well, until I got to an image section of the site. Because they looked like windows the elements had been called panes (window panes). Somehow I had run a spell correction over the bit I was changing (trying to do things in a hurry in the evening), which was not good. The pane had now become a pain!! The bit of code the helpful spell correcting software helped me with is given below #pane-main{left:330px;} @media only screen and (max-width: 768px){#pain-main{left:220px; } } And of course it does not work  To compound the problem somehow the error had been replicated several times. After much frustration and using Google chrome developer tools I eventually identified the lines of css that were not working, but my dyslexia prevented me from seeing the error, only that it was not working. The tags looked correct so only by coding to a non verbose tag and proving that it worked and then retyping it back as a verbose tag did I spot the error and fix it. #pane-main{left:330px;} @media only screen and (max-width: 768px){#pane-main{left:220px; } } giving the desired result The time wasted on trying to find the error means that I have still to finish off updating the site, which I will try to do over the next few days.
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This is my review of the book Programming the Raspberry Pi by Simon Monk, which I was given for my birthday a few weeks ago, and I have been reading, dipping into, over the last few weeks. I have had a Pi for a few months now and “play” when I have time. It is a book that one one hand is simple and easy to understand on the other gives glimpses of possibilities that make one want to go off and investigate. In my case I am interested in the automation and robotic possibilities of the Pi and Simon provides plenty of links to such things. Anyway I am digressing from the review. The subheading for the book is getting started with Python and the book goes through all the majority of basic areas of Python very briefly. He also introduces the Pygame library, and as with several of the concepts he mentions immediately recommends another book. This is good and bad. Good in so much as having wet ones appetite he gives guidance as to where to go next. Bad in so much this can be very frustrating. So the book is essentially a sign post pointing the direction to various things that can be done with a Raspberry Pi and saying that to follow up the majority of things mentioned there will probably be further reading, expense, and components required. This is probably obvious to anyone who knows anything about a Pi but not so to someone who does not and just wants to give a gift to a Pi owner. If one wants to read a Python Tutorial which goes into a bit more depth then Hands on Python Tutorial by Dr Andrew Harrington this is my review of one I read a couple of months ago and is more detailed than Simon's. So as the saying goes it does what it says on the tin, but this might not be understood, as to what this actually is. That being said I would recommended it to any budding Pi owner as it is not that expensive and does cover all the basic concepts. This was 14 week 11 fiction 12 (2 on audio) non fiction 2 Friends
This is my review of the book Jack Reacher : One Shot, which I have read recently. This is the first Lee Child book that I have read, and I must admit the fact that it has been turned into a film with Tom Cruise, swayed me into buying the book. The start of the book is not that nice with it's vivid description of the murder of five people, and I did wonder what I had got, but fortunately the story improves. Seemingly it is a closed case and the police are certain who did it, but of course this is not the case, and gradually the mystery is revealed. There are several mysteries here and they are slowly revealed. Each layer of intrigue is slowly pealed back just to reveal the next level. The writing style makes it an easy read, which along with the levels of mystery make it hard to put down. - Just what the quote from the Independent on Sunday said according to the back cover. As such I read it in a couple of days over the weekend. It was in the main an enjoyable read, and I will be looking out for more of his books in the future. This was book 13 week 10 fiction 12 (2 on audio) non fiction 1 Friends Over the last couple of days we have noticed our latest new residents – the fox family wandering around the garden. Now I am not sure if they have moved in because of the snow, or just think they have found some easy food.  Mr Fox on the look out But we do seem to have a plague of rabbits at the present and anything that will help keep them down is a good thing.  Mr Fox killing the rabbit Pauline says I should not show the images of the fox ripping the head off the rabbit and pulling on the gut so I have put this one in instead.  Mr Fox making sure it is dead We were sitting having our tea when bold as brass Mr Fox walk passed the window with a wiggling rabbit in its mouth.  Mr Fox making sure no-one is watching before taking the food home Evidently he was worried that it may get away as he stops to kill it by removing the head, then has a look round to make sure everything is ok before carrying it off to his home (his earth)  Mr Fox taking the food home to his family Finally placing it down the burrow for the rest of the family to eat  Its dinner time!! This is my ad hoc update and diary describing how I am developing our garden at Trostrie Cottage in Galloway. You can see the garden for yourself if you book a self catering dog friendly holiday @The Shieling which is attached to Trostrie Cottage
This is my review of the book Our Kind of Traitor by John Le Carre, which I have listened to recently as an audio book.
A left-leaning young Oxford academic Peregrine "Perry" Makepiece and his barrister girlfriend Gail Perkins take an holiday on the Caribbean island of Antigua. By seeming chance they bump into a Russian oligarch millionaire called Dima who owns a peninsula and a diamond-encrusted gold watch. He then challenges them to a game of tennis. Dima, describes himself as "the world's number one money launderer," Dima wants Perry to pass on information about his criminal activities to British intelligence, in exchange for protection for himself and his family. Dima fears for his life because "The Prince", the new leader of his criminal brotherhood, had a good friend of Dima and his wife murdered. What else he wants propels the young lovers on a tortuous journey through Paris to a safe house in the Swiss Alps, to the murkiest cloisters of the City of London and its unholy alliance with Britain’s Intelligence Establishment, as the Prince now wants Dima to come to Bern to sign over control of the money-laundering operations to him. The story ends with a very dramatic unexpected ending and John does not disappoint. A very enjoyable book to listen to whilst driving around. This was book 12 week 9 – fiction 11 (2 on audio) non fiction 1 When we were thinking of what to have as the digital wallpaper for April, it was not really very spring like with the snow still outside, so our thoughts went back to last summer.  April Digital Wallpaper For this month's image we have chosen a close up of the gears that are part of the drive system used to turn the lens which is part of a light house on south Kent Coast  White Cliffs of Dover To get to the lighthouse we walked along the white cliffs in the sunshine!  Boats in the Channel Watch the boats going by.  April Digital Wallpaper The mechanism inside the lighthouse was fascinating, especially as all the gears worked when the lens was rotated. I hope that you agree with us. We hope you like our choice of free Gears digital wallpaper for April taken in southern Kent last summer. Hopefully we have included all common screen size combinations, so you can enjoy it too, over this coming month. There are more free digital wallpapers to be found here...
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Tim Fuller
Dyslexic doodles on photography, food (growing, cooking & of course eating), faith and other fascinating things. This is a personal blog expressing my views. Archives
November 2015
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