Flipping the switch

"Grace will meet you in the valley, and her song will carry you home on the wind to another sky filled with ethereal beauty unfolding and love everlasting." 

Shannon L. Alder

Apart from spelling "Grace" incorrectly (Charis, Shannon, Charis!) it remains a lovely thought that our valley is filled not only with remarkable winter beauty, but also with a song for those stilled enough to hear.

And how could you not be stilled by such a place.

Wrapped up in the warm glow of crystallised winter

Our home pace now slows to treacle: fill the fire, fill our bellies, sit back and soak in a glass of wine and meditative conversation which is occasionally punctuating an enveloping quiet appreciation of this deep winter.

We have seen others scurrying about clutching brollies and lined jackets close to ward off the promise of such peace. Embrace it we say - the song is there waiting to carry us home.

Aerial paradise

"Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth 

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air....

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.

Where never lark, or even eagle flew —

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

– Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

John Gillespie Magee Jr. (9 June 1922 – 11 December 1941)

Inevitable march of "progress"?

"Wyrd bith ful araed"

Bernard Cornwell

Food is pretty important to get right (and isn't the customer always right?) and yet some folks tamper with the simplest of meals to the point where you have to wonder if they're just having a laugh.

What bacon and eggs should look like

A lunch date with a friend takes an interesting turn to the left.

Just add several hipsters to bacon and eggs

So it seems that even in the depths of Southern Tasmania we are not safe from the inevitable march of the tofu curtain < sigh>. Our ruminants meanwhile have decided that no fancy presentation is necessary for their dining pleasure. Good one ruminants!

Any sauce mate?

What is making?

"The more people have time to experience the joys of creativity, the less they will be consumers, especially of mass-produced culture. I see that as a kind of new wealth that counts for more than owning material things. I also see art as something people will do rather than consume, and do it as a natural part of their lives; creative endeavors are a form of profound spiritual satisfaction."

Theodore Roszak

We really enjoy the process of moving from the conception of an idea, like our own clock, to the final product. The months of programming and building rigs to cope with our crazy ICs is loads of fun. The other part of the production is the soldering and also the necessary "crafty" stuff that has to occur before we can walk away from the bench with an actual physical object worthy of the name "clock".

That process used to take around 3-4 hours, and the result would certainly not win any awards for beauty as at the "time" (pun intended) the clock's function clearly triumphed over form. Then we learned the gentle art of PCB design and production, which cut down on the soldering time considerably, and with a few other refinements, the process now takes around 20-30 mins depending on factors outside our control (e.g. a nice cup of tea break or emergency goat shearing).

No matter the joy of the process, we still would not subject anyone to the full reality of the bench work, but as luck would have it we have made a time-lapse version - if you have 3 minutes and 47 seconds to spare. Go on, you know you want to.

We hope you enjoyed that as much as we did.