Blue Marble

The other day we celebrated 45 years since the Apollo 8 astronauts took the first image of "blue marble earth". Has it been that long?

What a lovely looking place to live, especially if you like water, as I do. The physical aspects of the rocky upper crust, combined with a suitable hydrosphere and atmosphere, make this a humdinger piece of real estate.

Since this first photo of the Blue Marble, many satellites now circle the earth ceaselessly, taking snaps all the time.

Being a geologist I am often mesmerized by the images of erupting volcanoes. No place on the planet is too remote for satellites to see.

For me the New Year's Eve is a time to reflect on where I've been and where I am going. Like a satellite in orbit, I try to find some distance from the here and now.
 
Since I am away from camp right now, I can think about it objectively. This year we completed the second of the boat barns and now all of our storage needs are taken care of. Garden plots were established so that we can grow more of our own food. And at long last I set up a lovely little library in the garage, where I can easily access all of my books. This is truly a luxury to me.
 
About the only thing that remains to be improved at camp would be the main cabin. The kitchen is not well laid out and it too much of a "traffic lane" in that tiny cabin. The fridge lives out on the back porch because it doesn't fit indoors. And at some point it would be nice not to have to walk to outside buildings for a shower, bathroom or laundry purposes. Ideally there should be more windows or patio doors facing the lake. So you can see, there are some things I can dream about and maybe one day I can do something about it.
But for now it's back to today and a wish for each and everyone of you for a Happy New Year 2014.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Medico Loom by Leclerc

Image
Here's the newest addition to my Painted Floor Studio. This is a Medico table loom, manufactured by Leclerc, a Canadian company. Research suggests this loom was manufactured for WWII veterans to use. As such it utilizes hand levers for changing the shed. But as you can clearly see in this picture, I have the floor stand which includes six treadles, essentially making it a floor loom.  The maximum weaving width is 22 inches. When I bought this loom last week it came with the blue and white warp on there already. I decided to just play with it, getting the hang of the levers and treadles. I figured out how the previous owner had the tie-ups done, and then "went with it."  Altogether I wound up with a piece of fabric about ten feet long. I will either cut it into bits and sew small bags out of it, or maybe use most of it for a scarf. In this photo you can see the four hand levers (silver) in the top right corner of the loom. In the top centre area of the loom...
Read more

What's old is new again

Image
Recently the talk of the Fiber Prep group on Ravelry is about "blending boards". It's like a drum carder, but without the drum. A flat surface covered in carding cloth. During the same week this was impressing many on Ravelry, hubby and I were in a thrift store where he spotted this! Naturally it had to come with me. (This model is not the same as what the current buzz is about.) So it is a heavy wooden box construction, with a separate handle that also has carding cloth on it. The manufacturer is Louet, a good name in spinning circles. A little vacuuming to clean out the remains from the previous owner and I was ready to roll. Here is the end on view, so you can see how the two sets of tines are proximal to one another. The batts in the back ground came off of an Ashford drum carder. And here is a view of the pegs on the handle which help to guide you in a straight path and you sweep away from yourself. In this image you can just see two wool locks ...
Read more

Ulla Cyrus Loom

Image
Get a look at what followed me home recently! I have gleefully adopted " Courage "  - my new addition to the family. WELCOME. The original owner of this loom was William Dyer, a famous weaver who lived in California and Washington State. He made very fine damasks with this loom.   A very large loom manufactured by Oxaback in Sweden. The model is called "Ulla Cyrus". It is a vertical countermarch with 16 shafts and 18 treadles. Plus it has the additional, optional unit draw and pattern shaft draw. Two different drawloom attachments. The weaving width is 63 inches.  I picked up this beauty in the north part of Texas, and the loom was already disassembled. This photo shows just a fraction of the gear. It was great fun to meet the current owner. Here we have returned home and both the box of the truck and the 5 x 12  landscape trailer are entirely filled with loom pieces. Completely. It is a lot of gear. And this is a glimpse at a small p...
Read more