Geobulletin alpha

[jules' pics] Let's Topiary 

Working from home, one no longer has to sit in front of the computer waiting for the end of the day. The disadvantage is neglecting to play with photos, including neglecting to blog them. But the advantage is that instead one can go cycling, or swimming, or shopping, or do some gardening, or even watch other people doing gardening. When it is not raining in these parts, it is important

[jules' pics] Happy New Year 

To celebrate New Year, we went on a group walk from Settle to the tea shoppe in the ipsy wipsy village of Feizor. About 9.6 miles in total. ShoCKInglY it DiD NOt RAin! -- Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 1/01/2016 08:09:00

[jules' pics] Bryce Canyon 

Arrived at Bryce Canyon to a cloudy afternoon, so decided to enjoy retail therapy at the inn, rather than visit the park for a non-existent sunset. We looked at cute trinkets for a while, wondering whether to buy a souvenir. Then I remembered having expressed regret that we bought such tiny ornaments while in Japan, as the ones we have disappear into the enormous house we have bought.

[jules' pics] Cedar Breaks 

Unlike at RMNP no one made silly remarks about our attire at Cedar Breaks. This could have been because the scenery really is too spectacular to bother looking at people, but probably it was really because there were not many people there, and those that were there looked cold and like they wished they had our woolly jumpers, hats and windproof jackets. We even sparked up conversation with

[jules' pics] Canyonlands 

After a regulation Moab cappuccino granola banana nut pancake breakfast, we visited the lower, south part, of Canyonlands. My dirt road driving non-abilities (and James reluctance to let me dent the rental car) stopped us visiting the actual Needles up close, but there was, nevertheless, some impressive geology. In the visitor centres to these places there are fanciful hand-wavey tales

[jules' pics] Arches 

Don't know how people survive without breakfast, but we didn't want to hang around waiting for service in the one open restaurant in Dustville Dinosaur. Next stop Moab is the opposite; very commercial with cappuccinos on every corner. It also badly needs a bypass, as it has a roaring road ripping it in two. It was quite hot for late September (low 90s F), so we spent the afternoon in the

[jules' pics] Rocky Mountains 

James says I must start blogging pix from our recent trip to the USA. Day 1: RMNP View of mtns from Boulder. Took Pops for a walk round Bear Lake and ate lunch half way round. No chance of seeing any bears as there were so many people. Day was overcast, but pleasant nevertheless. Americans on a day out come across as really quite strange because they seem unable to walk past

[jules' pics] Columbians 

People come from all over the world to live in New York. These ones are Columbians. I'd not heard of Columbia University, and I wondered why they'd named a university after a space shuttle, but apparently this is all wrong and I should have known better. In fact it is so old and wealthy that the space shuttle was probably named after it! Posted with Blogsy -- Posted By Blogger to

[jules' pics] garden 

Almost a year since we completed on our house in Settle. The garden is a bit over-occupied. Being not that large and yet with 5 woodland trees it has an almost continuous canopy to offset its unremittingly sunny aspect. It is similarly full of flowers. They are mostly new to me so I have been mostly just watching them this year. I think the previous people planted a lot of stuff, and

[jules' pics] Baaaa! 

Lake District Lamb. -- Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 7/16/2015 12:45:00

[jules' pics] Lovely James 

awww, i'n't 'ee sweeet? In photos on the internets, James makes most things look smaller than they are, because he is larger than you think, but maybe the little hill behind James was once a big mountain, before the glaciers scraped most of it away. It is fun to ride by bicycle as the track starts at a gentle slope and gets gradually steeper and steeper almost all the way

[jules' pics] Englefield v Myohoji 

Englefield seems to date from the mid 1500s, and Myohoji goes back to the 1200s. How much of which buildings may be "original" is another question, of course... Anyway... in 2010, I blogged the Deva gate and famous moss steps at Myohoji.  Both places have a large number of trees, but at Englefield I found no red gate with protective angry monsters - there was just a little metal gate

[jules' pics] Parking! 

I've been missing Starbucks Parking on Sundays. In fact I've been missing all the colourful, shiny, expensive and overpowered cars of Kamakura and Yokohama. Here it is mostly Land Rovers with dogs in the back, Quad Bikes with dogs on the steering wheel, and Caravans full of dogs and holiday makers. But then last Sunday there appeared, just down the road at Falcon Manor...  woo hoo!

[jules' pics] Our garden 

Almost everything in our garden is doing flowering at the moment. It is the British way, to bloom in May and June and hibernate the rest of the year. -- Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 6/04/2015 07:20:00

[jules' pics] The prodigal cat 

Oh noes. He's back! Apparently, Riley the cat has too much character, and his new owners gave him back after less than a week. So, on return from Vienna we had to go and pick him up again. However, Riley is so much trouble, that I begged for another cat to distract him. The rescue woman suggested Blackie, a probably older and definitely much calmer creature of similarly large stature.

[jules' pics] Vienna 

We went to the EGU in Vienna last month. I've already published my photos on postcards to relatives, via Touchnote, so the desire to blog them was less urgent. Not being anymore bound by Japanese rules, which do not permit one to stay away form work a minute longer than necessary, we had no need to bunk off and go touristing during the conference, and instead took an extra day

[jules' pics] Vienna Market 

 Subliminal wise advice for those who have been exercising their brains too hard at the EGU all this week. -- Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 4/18/2015 05:22:00

[jules' pics] Easter in Scotland 

Swans, Skunk Cabbage and Rhododendrons -- Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 4/06/2015 06:52:00

[jules' pics] Mountain Biking 

Even I, who am not a great fan of running, admit it has certain advantages over mountain biking when the ground is wet and slippery. Round here the mud is mostly not too thick, but it is quite slimy and the limestone is slick. But we thought that it might not have been raining quite as hard recently, so last week we risked a bit of mountain biking: the Whernside Loop. Only sunk the front

Ava Restoration Update: March 

Reconstruction of the skull started with 40 individual bonesWhether they are big or small, all ceratopsians sure do have a lot of parts. When they are juveniles like our Avaceratops, the lack of fusion in bones makes that even more apparent. For example, the sacrum (the wad of bones that holds up the rear end of the animal) in adults is usually one giant unwieldy piece. In our young animal, it is 26 individual parts, all with some degree of crushing, though not always in the same direction or [...]