It started out with a fairly inauspicious repairing of the Lawn Mower.
It progressed through to an equally benign storing my fishing gear.
It ended up being a 7-hour, Kronenbourg-fuelled mass purge, clean, reorganize of the Garage. Design on a dime, if you will. Design on less than that, actually. Design on bugger-all money. I am not quite sure where the time went (suspect into liver) but somehow we ended up at 9pm with about 1/10th the stuff we used to have, and a fantastic nook that’s all mine! Now I have a place to work on the bike, car, whatever without being in the way of anyone getting in and out. Finally anything we could want in the garage is easily to-hand and not under 6 boxes containing last month’s supply of irradiated Haggis or a dead water buffalo.
The Kangal Dog (Sivas Kangalı, Kangal Çoban Köpeği) is a breed of domestic dog, and is the national breed of Turkey. Kangal, which weigh between 120-170 pounds (55-78 kg) full-grown, were originally used as a livestock guardian. It is of an early mastiff type with a solid, pale tan or sabled coat, and with a black mask. The breed is often referred to as a sheep dog, but it is not a herding dog, but rather a flock guardian. It lives with the flock and acts as a livestock guardian dog, fending off wolves, bears and jackals. The Sivas Kangal Dog’s protectiveness and gentleness with small children and animals has led to its growing popularity as a guardian for families as well, as it regards people as its flock and guards them with extreme devotion.
Do I ever want two of these sitting on my doorstep..
Simple things, like finding the perfect Sand Flea to use as bait make me happy. I’m not even very good at it, but discovering your own bait is a lot more satisfying than using a load of store-frozen malarkey. Even when the fishing is slow you can stay active in the perfect Outer Banks weather. Interspersed with appropriately regular liquid refreshments, of course.
I wish I could have this playing in the background in my office on a large projector when times get a little crazy. I could watch it for a very, very long time. It is but a small sample of Taylor Bay on Providenciales, where we spent a sizeable chunk of our vacation for obvious reasons. You could walk out 100 yards and the sea would still only be thigh-high and crystal clear. As you can see from the video though you have to watch out for the gnarly winds, pounding surf and powerful rip..
While the beloved Canon was not with us on this trip to do serious justice to the colours and vibrancy of the island, we did our best with the trusty old Sony Powershot snappy portable. They do leave us with lasting memories and enduring inner happiness, but I think we both have plans to go back one day with a camera that really does perform a faithful reproduction of beach supremity. Let us hope that the islands stay unspoiled and wild until we return.
Our recent stay at Ballyhoo Cottage was just one week long but oh, what a week! I’ll be posting up some videos each day of the various sights and sounds that don’t really do justice to just how incredible an island Provo truly is. Most amazingly of all we had most beaches entirely to ourselves. Proof later, here’s a little taste of our cracking cottage right on, appropriately enough, Smith’s Reef.
So Adam finally wins. I think the integration of Flickr and Lightroom is much better than Picasa so I’m moving over. To celebrate I went out for a ride on my newly fixed, hopefully more puncture-resistant fixie and took some shots of the Lupine Wilma at night in the end of my album. It’s a fantastic light and I love it.
If you want to add me as a contact on Flickr – I am, unsurprisingly called CatSpit
Last night while watching the ribloodydiculouslyamazing Hayao Miyazaki‘s “Spirited Away” (千と千尋の神隠し, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) for the nth time I put the bike on the stand. While continuing to marvel at this beast of a fantasy movie I ripped off the handlebars, tape, rear brake and installed all of the Profile Design Carbon components, leaving only the front brake on because even though it’s a fixie I’d like to see the brave soul who rides my commute brakeless.
I had honestly intended to put some bar tape on there as well to make the ride more comfortable, but.. I just can’t do it. The commute is only 11 miles and I can’t bring myself to cover up that glorious carbon fibre (UK spelling, natch) weave. I’ll get some thicker gloves because … oh hell just LOOK at it.
