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A brief respite and some great puzzles
Mar. 23rd, 2012 12:02 pmThe weekend before last we made a spontaneous dash for Dorset to take advantage of a surprise long weekend off from work. As The Hobbit had voiced a liking for Corfe Castle as we sped through it on the way to a wedding last year, we hastily booked a few nights at Challow Farmhouse and basically winged it.
The B&B was utterly delightful (I was moved to review it online and am recommending to all and sundry who like a bit of peace in the country), the weather surprisingly glorious and much walking around stunning countryside (see above) and puffing around on steam trains were perpetrated. We managed to get a dinner booking at Morton's House, which was a traditional grey Tudor mansion, and a really wonderful meal.
We got to Swanage one day: town is a bit crap but the beach has awesome rock pools. Along with common things like prawns and shrimps (Palaemon serratus/elegans), I also scored some firsts: Galathea squamifera (squat lobster), Necora puber (velvet crab) and a shore clingfish (Lepadogaster lepadogaster). Also for the first time, we saw a weasel in the wild, squiggling at speed across Corfe Common.
Was very proud that we managed a 7 1/2 mile walk (some pretty much vertical, I can tell you) from Corfe via Kingston, Houn's Tout, Egmont Bight and Swyre Head back to Corfe. Amazing views, a small plane performing droning aerobatics overhead and a lot of stopping in village pubs for Jurassic Ale. Can't wait to go back, really.
This week at work has been mixed: lots of learning done, from operative techniques to obscure tropical diseases to old school immunohistochemistry titrations... but yesterday we had the bombshell that one of our busiest and most expert surgeons was killed in a motorbike accident.
This week also bought the first artifact from THE BLACK LETTER GAME. This was AMAZING FUN, you get an artifact delivered and have to decode the clues hidden on it to find several things: a WHERE, a WHEN, a WHO, a WHAT and a SIGNATURE. These answers then tie in with an ongoing plotline that is revealed when you submit your answers. The first artifact we solved as a team of 4 in around 20 hours, but we could have been much faster as the last item required us to obtain a piece of equipment to ascertain. The next box comes at the beginning of April and frankly I can't wait...
As I've been home alone, I've taken to telly. This was fortuitous, as last night I caught some of Sex and Sensibility, a series of documentaries on Art Nouveau. The item on Emile Galle was frankly stunning, and now I feel thoroughly untalented - though I would give quite a lot for some of his glassware. He was an artist, a botanist, a chemist, a proper liberal leftie, an incredible craftsman and technical experimentalist and produced some of the most incredible decorative items I've ever clapped eyes on. Respect to that man. I feel a trip to La Musee de l'Ecole de Nancy coming on...
The B&B was utterly delightful (I was moved to review it online and am recommending to all and sundry who like a bit of peace in the country), the weather surprisingly glorious and much walking around stunning countryside (see above) and puffing around on steam trains were perpetrated. We managed to get a dinner booking at Morton's House, which was a traditional grey Tudor mansion, and a really wonderful meal.
We got to Swanage one day: town is a bit crap but the beach has awesome rock pools. Along with common things like prawns and shrimps (Palaemon serratus/elegans), I also scored some firsts: Galathea squamifera (squat lobster), Necora puber (velvet crab) and a shore clingfish (Lepadogaster lepadogaster). Also for the first time, we saw a weasel in the wild, squiggling at speed across Corfe Common.
Was very proud that we managed a 7 1/2 mile walk (some pretty much vertical, I can tell you) from Corfe via Kingston, Houn's Tout, Egmont Bight and Swyre Head back to Corfe. Amazing views, a small plane performing droning aerobatics overhead and a lot of stopping in village pubs for Jurassic Ale. Can't wait to go back, really.
This week at work has been mixed: lots of learning done, from operative techniques to obscure tropical diseases to old school immunohistochemistry titrations... but yesterday we had the bombshell that one of our busiest and most expert surgeons was killed in a motorbike accident.
This week also bought the first artifact from THE BLACK LETTER GAME. This was AMAZING FUN, you get an artifact delivered and have to decode the clues hidden on it to find several things: a WHERE, a WHEN, a WHO, a WHAT and a SIGNATURE. These answers then tie in with an ongoing plotline that is revealed when you submit your answers. The first artifact we solved as a team of 4 in around 20 hours, but we could have been much faster as the last item required us to obtain a piece of equipment to ascertain. The next box comes at the beginning of April and frankly I can't wait...
As I've been home alone, I've taken to telly. This was fortuitous, as last night I caught some of Sex and Sensibility, a series of documentaries on Art Nouveau. The item on Emile Galle was frankly stunning, and now I feel thoroughly untalented - though I would give quite a lot for some of his glassware. He was an artist, a botanist, a chemist, a proper liberal leftie, an incredible craftsman and technical experimentalist and produced some of the most incredible decorative items I've ever clapped eyes on. Respect to that man. I feel a trip to La Musee de l'Ecole de Nancy coming on...