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I'm looking for my manual for graceful living. I think I set it down somewhere over here...
Saturday, November 14, 2009
My new garden tool
I can't think why it took me so long to do this. For years I've paid ridiculous delivery fees for rocks and gravel, or borrowed other people's trucks or trailers to haul around big stuff, or struggled to fit eight board feet of lumber in six feet of space in a car, and each time I'd think, "I really need a small truck."
But I had no interest in owning a truck as an extra vehicle; I'd only use it a couple of dozen trips a year, and then the rest of the time it would sit around taking up space.
Nor did it make sense to sell my car and replace it with a truck, which isn't as fuel efficient, just because I need the hauling capacity a few times a year.
So I dilly-dallied and dragged my feet, all the while resenting those hefty fees and inconvenient delivery schedules. And it was especially annoying this fall, when I was working on the front garden. Installing an homage to an arroyo apparently takes a lot of rock.
And then, a stroke of brilliance: A trailer would solve my problems. It is cheap, easy to store, and doesn't require extra fuel except when in use.
I did a little research and found out that a 2002 Subaru Outback is rated to haul 2000 pounds with trailer brakes and 1000 without.* Since I probably wouldn't load the trailer with any more than I could move in a single day, my heaviest cargo would probably only be around 600 pounds or so.
There were some things I needed to make happen to in order to enter this amazing new world of hauling-ness. First I had to get a hitch and wiring for the wagon. Then I had to march down to the state office and pick up a "Texas Trailer" license plate (boy howdy, does that ever make me feel like using a drawl). And then finally, today I painted a piece of exterior grade plywood to use as a floor for the trailer (otherwise, all that gravel will just wiggle on through the bottom):
The paint color is suspiciously like that of our house trim. Not sure how that happened.
Having a trailer around makes me feel all moxie and can-do, and that is just fine with me, since I can't abide a helpless woman, even when she is me. This strikes me as both a self-sufficient and sustainable approach to a problem.
I figure that ten trips hauling stuff and the trailer will have paid for itself. So if you need me to haul that antique bureau you found in a dumpster, or a load of fencing supplies, or a bushel or eight of fresh corn, just give me a call. I aim to amortize this thing toute suite.
Oh, and by the way, I am already working toward that amortization, since I used it to carry home the plywood I am using for the floor. I can count that, can't I?
Nine more trips to go.
*It's my understanding that a 2009 Outback is rated to haul even more--up to 3000 pounds. I'm passing along this info not to tout the virtues of Subarus, but to illustrate that our cars may be more utilitarian than we give them credit for being. In fact, what really convinced me to take the plunge and get a small trailer, is seeing a huge one behind a Saturn Vue, driven by someone replacing part of my driveway. That trailer was in turn loaded with 10-12 bags of concrete. That's behind a hybrid, people! Once I saw that, the tiny can-do wheels in my brain started churning...
So if, like me, you've been agitating over the "I need a small truck question," do a little research and find out what your car is capable of doing. I found my info in the service manual that came with mine.
10 comments:
Sure it starts with a few scoops of gravel and a few pieces of lumber. Next thing you know you are towing an ATV to some wildlife refuge loudly tearing up the trails.ReplyDelete
I am sure that won't be you, have fun with you new tool.
Ha! Les, you're right. That won't be me.ReplyDelete
Oh I want one!!!!! I just had 2 yards of mulch delivered: $55 delivery from 2 miles away, and a total of $100. Very beyond my budget.ReplyDelete
Congrats on the purchase! Consider getting trailer brakes- they really do help a lot. Plus, I have never heard anyone ever getting trailer brakes on a Subaru- that would be really cool!ReplyDelete
Benjamin--$55? Holy cow. I am only paying around $45 and feel like I was getting ripped off. The trailer was only $400 new (couldn't find a used one), so I figure it won't take all that long to have it pay for itself.ReplyDelete
David--Thanks for the tip. I'll look into it. I could wind up becoming a tricked out hauling maven! LOL!
Susan, Please don't tell my husband, who has recently been eyeing trailers for camping purposes. To be able to store a trailer, we would need to buy a bigger house... and that would mean a whole new garden. Wait a minute, what am I saying! Can I give you his email address?ReplyDelete
Trailers, my friend, are very, very nice. Glad you got one.~~DeeReplyDelete
Had to come out of "lurker" mode to declare proudly: There is NOTHING more empowering than being a woman who can back up a vehicle with a trailer attached!!!ReplyDelete
Love your blog!
We've had a 93 Dodge Dakota since 1999 (second vehicle, not driven much) and every time I contemplate getting rid of its gas-hogging, steel-plated carcass, I think of all the times I've used it to run out to haul mulch or rocks, or load the unending leaf cleanup into it without having to bag them... You've inspired me to think again about getting rid of it and replacing it with a trailer. Thanks!ReplyDelete
Helen--That's too funny! Good luck on the new house/garden.ReplyDelete
Dee--Yes, I think it will turn out to be a wise move.
rbohemian--welcome in from the lurking world, and what a cool name! And re empowered women backing up trailers: uh, yeah it does! Now I just need to, um, learn how to do that.
DaughterN3: Trucks can certainly be handy, but they are awfully big to leave just lying around the house, too. Good luck on figuring out the best path for your situation.


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"It is a planted story. And if they shall come to Arunachal Pradesh they would be thrashed with shoes," Minister of State for Home Affairs Rijiju told reporters here.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader's comment came after a newspaper claimed that he has written letters to clear payments of the contractors in the construction of two dams for the 600 MW Kameng Hydro Electric Project in Arunachal Pradesh.
"Does serving people means corruption," Rijiju asked.

subset: commoncrawl


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We look for many qualities in the individuals we hire -- the ability to communicate effectively, a high level of organization, strong interpersonal skills, and so on.
Regardless of an applicant's qualifications, we always look for one attribute in particular -- the desire to provide high quality products with excellent customer service. We can train people how to work with clients or run pieces of equipment, but to have passion for customer service and pride for your work takes a unique individual.
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We are currently considering candidates for an outside sales consultant position. The successful candidate will have good experience in outside sales including but not limited to contact/lead generation, customer contact & development, order generation and follow-up, and customer service. While it would be very helpful to be familiar with the sign inductry and have a working knowledge of signs and how they can be used to fulfill customer needs it is not absolutely necessary. We will train to meet our specific needs.


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Ragini Sortha
Rs. 10,499.00 Rs. 20,999.00
Shipping Details
- Shipping charges: Free in India, US$10 in Hong Kong, US$20 for rest of the world & USA (higher for bigger sized Totes and will be visible during checkout)
- Shipping will take upto 1 week for India and upto 2 weeks for rest of the world.
"When I am with you, we stay up all night,
When you're not here, I can't get to sleep.
Praise God for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them. "
~ Rumi
RaagMala, a beautiful amalgamation of art with Indian Classical Music. Ragini Sortha, wife of Raga Megha, is an important ragini in northern Indian music tradition. In this painting the longing of love has been expressed beautifully. A lady is seated with a peacock in her lap.The peacock symbolizes her absent lover - this longing for love has been beautifully captured by our Kangra Artist Mukesh Kumar on this classic red tote.
- Length 10.5 inches bottom, 17 inches on the tip, height 9 inches, depth 6.5 inches
- Red leather
- Lining inside , metal fittings
- 1 internal pocket with chain , two small pockets without chain


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I know that I don't HAVE to do beachy layouts just because my kit is named, "Seaside Villa", but I just can't help myself! I'm thinking this should satisfy my scrappy appetite for a few days until I can get back to creating some more. Actually, on second thought, I think my scrapbook appetite is insatiable!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Scrapping in batches
Hello there. It seems the pace of my summer has only increased, instead of slowing down. The kids and their activities keep me busy in a different way than the school year. It's all fun and it's all good, but it doesn't include much quiet time to myself. Anyway, I've come to realize that I may need to scrap in batches to get anything done. Kind of like when you don't have much time to cook during the week, so you whip up a batch of chili, sauce and a casserole on the weekend so you don't have to worry about "What's for dinner?" each night. That's the approach I'm taking with my summer scrapping and of course, a counterfeit kit makes it that much easier to whip up a layout. The last 2 days I've had some time to dedicate to scrapping, so I put together 3 to share with you.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Vacancy at the "Seaside Villa"
Summer is not my favorite season. The oppressive heat bothers me terribly, but if I could spend all my summer days by the breezy seashore, then I think I would change my mind. So, I invite you to join me at my "Seaside Villa" - my July Counterfeit Kit. Based on Citrus Twist's June kit entitled, "Summer Boardwalk", my kit will transport you to ocean breezes, warm sand beaches and refreshing waters with cool turquoise patterned papers, warm neutral cardstock and little treasures found in the sand like hexagon chipboard shapes and wood veneer seashells. Come dig your toes in the sand with me as we take a look:
Yes, this is in my kids' sandbox and yes, I did get a little bit of sand in my Thickers, but I think it was well worth it!
Here on the "boardwalk" you can get a closer look at my collection. I followed the selection of cardstock pretty closely, along with the addition of the text paper. I just love the turquoise colors, so I included several different patterned papers in that hue. On the far left are 2 different wood grains and the obligatory chevron (I do love them, it just seems that they are always in there!) and a chevron mask for the off-chance I can't find some of that zig zag pattern. The only exact match I had was the Mini Market stickers in orange, so in they went along with a light turquoise set of Thickers. Here are some close-ups of my embellies:
Some orange chevron (there it is again!) ribbon, My Mind's Eye brads, and a stamp set with similar images as the original kit.
I used my Cricut "George" cartridge to cut out those blurbs out of ledger paper.
The Pink Paislee chipboard hexagons from their Nantucket line are just as quaint as their namesake. I wouldn't mind my Seaside Villa in that location! And some wood veneer shapes from Close to My Heart are a perfect souvenir.
Just love that vintage slide from Jenni Bowlin Studios and that "vintage" woodgrain boat and frame came from a stash swap over at Lain Ehmann's Scrap Happy membership site. I think it is from My Mind's Eye from several years ago, but I loved the woodgrain. Just goes to show you that if you hold onto stuff long enough, it comes back into style!
So, are you convinced to spend a few days at the "Seaside Villa"? I wouldn't wait too long to book your stay. Before you know it, there will be a "NO" on the vacancy sign. Grab your scissors and your sunscreen and join me for an enchanted retreat.
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S: Jackson Thomas - First Year
FC: Jackson Thomas
1: Once upon a time, there was a beautiful baby boy who was welcomed into the world by two loving parents and their family and friends...
2: 10 more weeks...
3: Mommy and Daddy Cant wait until you get here
4: Jackson Thomas 8bs. 2oz. 21 inches | We welcomed you into the world on Friday, June 22, 2007 at 11:01 am
5: Going Home from the Hospital!
6: Daddy's Little Man
7: Mommy's Sweetheart
8: First Bath in the tub!
9: BATH TIME | All clean
10: Our little Sweetie
11: Family visits to welcome Jackson
12: Our first family portraits August & December 2007
14: A baby is teddy bears and tickles, grins and giggles!
15: Tummy Time
16: My heart melts when you smile
17: Trick or Treat
18: Story Time
19: The beetle bug is rather shy, he likes to watch the world go by.!
20: Christmastime...
21: ...is the most wonderful time
22: Learning to eat was always fun and you liked almost everything
23: Yum, Yum...
24: Spring is here...
25: Happy Easter
26: Sitting on Mommy's lap!
27: First haircut | Spike it up
29: You'll be walking in no time...
30: Cousins... childhood playmates who grow up to be forever friends
33: We love you more than you will ever know | Happy 1st Birthday, Jackson


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Choc-Lish is a great way to start kids or adolescents eating healthy breakfasts! They will love it and it's good for them.
Choc-LIsh is inspired by the favourite style of muesli from the birthplace of muesli - Europe. Schoko Musli (Chocolate Muesli) is popular because it appeals to all ages in the family from young children though teenagers to adults and the elderly. Wth Choc-Lish we wanted to emulate the style for that reason but we wanted a high Health Star Rating (HSR) which we did with a HSR of 4.5 and it is wheat free! We use only the highest quality Aussie ingredients such as Cadbury Dark Chocolate, Tasmanian Walnuts, Australian Chia seeds and Lupin from Western Australia mixed with Australian Rolled Oats.


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Moving is not easy, it takes a lot of planning, researching, packing, leaving family and friends behind or worse – taking them with you ;); and getting ready to make new ones. But what if you were to move to a place so distant, unknown and different from everything you've seen? How would you prepare for something that not everyone can face?
I have to admit that it takes some guts to move to Alaska, so, if you have decided to take the leap and explore the not so populated, filled with fresh air, territories of Alaska, then cheers to you!
You have probably seen some of the videos on YouTube about people who have moved to Alaska; why they did it and what they have discovered since they got there, including the National Geographic documentary on Bushmen in Alaska. All of them are very helpful and educating, but the main thing they have in common is the fact that the people who moved there, wanted to be away from the city noise, crowds and complications.
A simpler and less stressful life is what many of us want, but not all of us can handle Alaska, especially if it comes with 6 months freezing darkness or endless days without a setting sun (ok, maybe I don't mind the last one). My point is that living in Alaska is adventurous, but it could be stressful at times, (remember our friend THE BEAR), but all in all you have to be mentally prepared to enter a new, different way of living.
What do you need to know about Alaska?
It really depends on what your goals are…for instance, if you are interested in solitude and living on your own up North, i.e. being a Bushman, then you should definitely learn how to hunt (even better if you get licensed), build a house from scratch and portion your supplies well, because you can only get what you need a few times a year. Alaska is the least populated state in America for its size (570, 640.95 square miles) – 736, 732 residents as of 2014 with a people density of 1.2 per square mile, so if your goal is to get away from people – you are on the right track.
If you happen to be interested in a modern life, filled with the vast outdoor experiences Alaska can offer that too. In this case you might want to go for one of the bigger cities – Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau. These three cities offer a lot of career opportunities and given the fact that Alaska is being targeted by so many big companies nowadays, I am sure it won't be hard to find a job.
Alaska happens to be the only state that does not collect state sales tax or levy an individual income tax on earned or unearned personal income (only some cities do). On top of that, every Alaskan, receives a yearly payment from the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, every resident can apply online in order to receive the Permanent Fund Dividend.
I know that the lack of personal income tax is very appealing, however the weather is still in the back of your mind isn't it? The good news is that you shouldn't be worried about it – yes it does get very cold in the winter up to -65 F in some regions, however, the summer can be very appealing with temperatures varying between 60 – 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
Moving to Alaska – Where should you begin?
- The City of Sitka – situated on the West side of the Baranof Island, Sitka is one of the safest cities to live in Alaska, with a crime rate of 2, 379 crimes per 100, 000 people. It is well known for its high median real estate price of $309, 800, has an incredible air quality (one of the lowest pollution rates -> 13) and it has an average summer temperature of 55F. If you are interested in going to a university or expanding your career, this might be the place for you – the city is famous with its university and the Baranof Island Brewing Company.
- Anchorage – a dream come true – it has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, standing at 5.5%, a huge amount of career opportunities, no sales tax and an average summer temperature of 56 degrees. You can expect a bit more expensive homes and the rent is a bit higher too, however, the median household income stands a higher as well, so I'm sure you can afford it.
Photo credit to packca.files.wordpress.com
- Juneau – great quality of life, 4.7% unemployment, comes with all the amenities you might need, of course the real estate is on the higher end, however the median household income is 20% higher than the rest of the state.Alaska's capital is not to be overlooked, but make sure to have a job before you move, unless your relocation is temporary and you are interested in a seasonal job.
Photo credit to wickershamsconscience.files.wordpress.com
- Fairbanks – there is no way you haven't heard of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and its Museum, in terms of quality of life and access to amenities its stands right behind Juneau. If you want to move to Alaska, but the cold is not really your cup of tea, then you should go straight for Fairbanks with an average summer temperature of 60 degrees, it is one of the warmest places to live in Alaska.
The above mentioned cities are barely the top of the iceberg. There are so many wonderful places and cities to check out, depending on your goals – if you are interested in winter sports, go to Bethel, if low taxes are your priority – well that's not hard to find in Alaska, not to mention that the crime rate in its major cities are incredibly low – Wrangell standing at 1, 410 crimes per 100, 000 people.
In terms of business opportunities, Alaska is becoming more and more popular in the technology and healthcare sector and as in every other state, the bigger the city that you move to, the more chances you have for your career to grow. However, if this is not your priority or you are happy with hospitality or a fishing job, then any city in Alaska would suit you.
Here are some curious facts about Alaska:
- Out of the 20 highest peaks in the US, 17 are located in Alaska – Denali (The Great One) equals 20, 320ft above the sea level and is the highest peak in North America
- Alaska has an enormous storage of water – there are more than 3 000 rivers and over 3 million lakes only in the state of Alaska
- Alaska has the highest number of active glaciers, equaling 5% of the state's surface. In total, Alaska has around 100, 000 glaciers
- In my head for some reason glaciers and volcanoes don't stand hand in hand (honestly, don't know why), but Alaska has more than 70 potentially active volcanoes, which is not great given that Alaska gets approximately 5 000 earthquakes each year
And of course, you can explore all of the National Parks located in Alaska, but let's face it – any place in Alaska looks and feels like a National Park. If you happen to be moving during the winter months, you should take a look at our tips on How to move in the winter. And should you need to transport your automobile to Alaska, we can help with that year around.


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Sunday, 11 June 2017
Eid Gift Guide 2017 + GIVEAWAY!!
9 comments
This was the best post😍😍such amazing ideas 🙌🏻🙌🏻Now its easy for me to choose eid gifts thank you❤❤ReplyDeleteReplies
Ah thank you, glad you found it helpful! Let me know what else you'd like to see XXDelete
Love your selection for Eid, I can't join the giveaway, but love everything about itReplyDeleteReplies
Ah so glad you liked them, they're great items and companies for sure :)Delete
I'll be holding an international giveaway next iA so keep an eye out, I couldn't this time as international shipping is tricky with fragrances etc xx
Thank you so much for this. Love the whole list!! <3ReplyDelete
All these lipstick shades are super cool and look simply amazing on you. I will go for them real soon and will share my experience with this productReplyDelete
You can then draw some shapes and lines with a white crayon on the cover of the card. TeddyBär XXLReplyDelete


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A canonical link is an HTML element that helps webmasters prevent issues with duplicate content. The canonical URL tells search engines which version of a URL to index. One page may be associated with many different URLs. A search engine will attempt to identify the canonical, or authoritative URL for each page. Unlike duplicate content, canonical URL issues happen only within a site and not between separate sites.
In 2009, Google, Yahoo and Bing announced support for the canonical link element, which can be used to prevent a loss of search engine ranking due to duplicate site pages. Google stated that the canonical link element is not considered to be a directive, but a hint that the web crawler will "honor strongly".
While the canonical link element has its benefits, Matt Cutts, leader of Google's webspam team, has claimed that the search engine prefers the use of 301 redirects. Cutts stated the preference for redirects is because Google's spiders can choose to ignore a canonical link element if they feel it is more beneficial to do so.
There are many different forms of duplicate content, but the major reason is multiple URLs that point to the same page. This happens for a lot of different reasons. An ecommerce site may allow various options for sorting a page. An example of this would be by lowest price, highest rating, etc., the marketing department might want tracking codes added to URLs for analytics. This may lead to a hundred pages with 10 URLs for each page, creating 1,000 URLs for the search engine to sort through.
This causes problems because:
- Less of the site may get crawled. Search engine crawlers use a limited amount of bandwidth on each site. If the crawler is only able to crawl 100 pages of your site in a single visit, you want those pages to be unique pages, rather than 10 pages being crawled 10 times.
- Each page may not get full link credit. If a page has 10 URLs that point to it, then other sites can link to it 10 different ways. One link to each URL lowers the value that the page could have if all 10 links pointed to a single URL.
Using a new canonical tag
Specify the canonical version using a tag in the head section of the page as follows:
<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.example.com/product.php?item=swed
You can only use the tag on pages within a single site including subdomains and subfolders. You can also either use relative or absolute links, however, search engines recommend absolute links.
This tag will operate in a similar way to a 301 redirect for all URLs that display the page with the tag. Links to all URLs will be consolidated to the one specified as canonical. Search engines will consider this URL the one to crawl and index.
Best practices for a canonical URL
The search engines are more likely to use this process if the URLs use some best practices including:
- The content rendered for each URL is very similar or exact
- The canonical URL is the shortest version
- The URL uses easy to understand parameter patterns, as in the case of ? and %
Matt Cutts of Google claims, when asked if this process can be used by spammers, that the same safeguards that prevent abuse by other methods (such as redirects) are in place here as well, and that Google reserves the right to take action against sites that are using the tag to manipulate search engines and violate search engine guidelines.
This tag will only work with very similar or identical content, so you can't use it to send all of the link value from the less important pages of your site to the more important ones.
If there is a conflict between tags, for example, if they point to each other as canonical, the URL specified as canonical redirects to a non-canonical version or the page specified as canonical doesn't exist search engines will handle them as they do any other pages, and will determine which URL they think is the best canonical version.
The canonical tag won't completely solve duplicate issues on the web, but it does help make things a lot easier especially for ecommerce sites. Site owners need all the help they can get to stay ahead of the pack in search rankings.


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Wichita bus riders: Don't cut transit service
Wichita's bus riders had a clear message Tuesday for the City Council: Anything, from higher fares to other project cuts, is better than further cuts to the city's transit program.
The city unveiled a series of transit cuts Tuesday to bridge a $540,000 budget shortfall in 2012. Among the proposed changes: eliminating a west-side connector route, eliminating a transport to Goodwill Industries and making hourly instead of half-hour stops during peak service times, from 5:45 to 8:45 a.m. and 3:45 to 6:45 p.m.
City officials will take comments on the proposed changes during a 6:30 p.m. meeting Monday in the council chambers at City Hall, 455 N. Main. Proposed changes, which require council approval, would take effect on June 9.
"Absolutely raise the rates, or keep it the same period. That's what I think," Jon Lott said "If it wasn't for the bus, I wouldn't have a job, probably."
Lott works at Coleman at 37th Street North and Hydraulic, coming from Ninth and Minnesota for his second shift job that already requires about 40 minutes on the bus both ways.
"I'd encourage them to look at cutting other things and keep their minds on the things that matter to us, rather than cutting transportation," Lott said.
The proposed cuts would not affect half-hour stops for two routes, South Main and East Harry, which are the longest routes and must run 30-minute frequencies to meet buses with shorter routes at the Wichita Transit center.
Proposed service reductions include the elimination of a transport to Goodwill Industries at 37th and Oliver, generally one morning and one evening trip during peak hours. City officials are exploring an alternative, but didn't elaborate in a mid-morning news release. Also proposed is the elimination of the west-side connector route due to low ridership; that route provides service in northwest Wichita and at Mid-Continent Airport.
Vice Mayor Janet Miller said Tuesday the council has no good options to balance the 2012 transit shortfall, and the system's long-term future is even darker without a new infusion of cash.
"We are forced to choose among a lot of alternatives that are painful," Miller said. "The advantage, if there is one, is that the proposed cuts in most cases keep the routes in place. It just makes the time between them increase, which I know is an inconvenience and a hardship"
Any change to transit services is a huge hardship, said one Wichita woman who uses the bus to get exercise every day that is crucial to her health.
"It's just awful," said Angela Childers, who comes downtown from Central and West to exercise six days a week for a disability. "It gives me something to do during the day because of my disability. If anything, still raise the rates. I'll find the money. I've got to have a ride."
One council option that isn't on the table, Miller said, is another rate increase. The council's 50-cent increase last fall sent ridership plummeting, the vice mayor said, and is partially responsible for the current budget shortfall.
"Apparently there were a silent number of people who couldn't afford that increase," Miller said.
One Wichitan said his education depends on bus access.
"I ride every morning to go to school," said Aaron Childs, who attends classes at Wichita Technical Institute on Meridian. "It's terrible to eliminate the west route, but hopefully I'll be able to find a ride to get to school.
"If you live on the west side or go to school on the west side, you're going to be in serious trouble if you can't find a ride."
The future of Wichita transit will likely fall into the hands of citizens who don't use it, Miller said, through the approval of a new dedicated tax on sales, motor fuels or property.
"We recognize this is an absolutely critical part of some people's existence, every bit as much as streets, police, fire or any other essential service government provides," she said.
"I just hope others who don't rely on the transit system can come to realize how important it is to a significant portion of our population in Wichita."


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A new book examining the impact of light shows all over the world highlights Blackpool's Illuminations as the one to beat.
The academic study Cities of Lights looks at illuminations in Los Angeles, New York, Hong Kong, Berlin and Johannesburg among others.
Manchester Metropolitan University human geographers Dr Steve Millington and Dr Tim Edensor have provided a chapter on Blackpool's famous Lights to the book which will be studied in colleges all over the world.
In their section the two academics trace the history of the Illuminations and contrast their impact on visitors with other attractions such as Atlantic City in the United States.
Dr Millington said: "There are other light shows all over the world but it is fair to say Blackpool is unique.
"There is a sense of fun and enjoyment with the Illuminations which you do not find elsewhere.
"We looked at a festival of lights which is held in Lyon which, in many ways, is the complete opposite to what Blackpool has to offer.
"It is all very cool and arty but lacks the sense of fun and adventure which you get at Blackpool.
"The other thing which sets Blackpool apart from other celebrations is its duration.
"The one in Lyon only lasts four days and no similar displays in Europe or North America can boast the length of the Illuminations.
"One of the other things we highlight is the idea people have that the Illuminations are always the same.
"People tend to remember them how they were when they were children.
"In fact, the Illuminations are changing all the time and that is what keeps them fresh and keeps people coming back year after year to see them."
The book is published as the resort celebrates a £2.4m boost which will usher in a new era for the Illuminations with new light shows and digital projections.
The LightPool project bid to rejuvenate the Illuminations was awarded a £2m investment from the Government's Coastal Communities Fund, with additional investment of £300,000 from Blackpool Council, and £120,000 from arts body Left Coast.
LightPool will see a predicted extra two million visitors during the next five years, with 11 full-time jobs being created within the Illuminations department and a predicted 532 jobs being indirectly created thanks to the increased visitor numbers and spending.
The chapter ends with a quote from celebrity designer Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen.
Speaking of his time helping to design parts of the Illuminations in 2007, he said: "Restraint, straight-laced good taste aesthetics and minimalism are your sworn design enemies.
"To work, Blackpool Illuminations have to be more than a little 'nudge nudge, wink wink'. Terms no-one ever teaches you at art school."


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Improving Long-Term Retention: Integrating Traditional Instruction Methods with Research-Based Approaches
Carrie Coxwell
Promoting student achievement is a challenge that teachers face every day. Low scores on standardized tests seem to indicate that students are not retaining what they are taught from year to year. If students receive hours of solid instruction every day from their teachers, why are they forgetting this information? What happens to that knowledge once students are tested on it in class? Is that knowledge actually lost, or is it just beyond retrieval?
Poor student retention is widely acknowledged anecdotally; many classroom teachers must spend a significant portion of the school year reteaching information that was presented in previous lessons or even previous years. This dramatically decreases the amount of time teachers can spend introducing new material. That cycle of learning, forgetting, and relearning lowers the bar for student achievement and can contribute to students' frustration and disenchantment.
Statistics underscore this truth: according to the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 40% of fourth grade students and 35% of eight grade students tested at or above proficient levels in math. These low scores aren't limited to math. In reading, only 34% of fourth graders and 34% of eighth graders scored at or above proficient levels on the NAEP. Many of the myriad factors that contribute to low achievement are outside the purview of administrators and classroom teachers. Socioeconomic status, parent education level, and level of parental involvement are among many oft-cited external factors. However, this is only part of the story. This paper will examine some of the factors within the teacher's control that are at play in these phenomena and discuss how different methods of presenting information in the classroom contribute to student retention, achievement, and confidence.
The method of student practice is an integral but little-examined factor in long-term retention. The vast majority of textbooks use two strategies: blocked practice and massed practice. Blocked practice is a technique in which students are presented with many repetitions of the type of problem they were just taught. Blocked practice is the de facto form of student practice and has been for centuries; it plays an important role in every aspect of education. The worth of this strategy as a mechanism of student understanding cannot be overstated: "Mastering a skill requires a fair amount of focused practice…It's not until students have practiced upwards of about 24 times that they reach 80 percent competency" (Marzano, Pickering, and Pollock 67). This kind of practice is essential to ensuring students' mastery of a topic. Massed practice is a condition where students encounter a block of exercises on one topic only once before moving on to another topic. While this time-worn strategy of having students practice one block of many repetitions feels right, as acknowledged by Rohrer and Pashler (409), its limited implications for long-term retention can make its unilateral use a liability in the classroom.
There are three effects that are related to dramatic improvements in memory recall and long-term retention: the interleaving effect, the testing effect, and the spacing effect. All of these effects arise as a positive result of introducing desirable difficulties into students' practice regimens. Desirable difficulties are obstacles placed between the learner and the information he or she is acquiring. Bjork and Bjork report that certain obstacles are considered desirable because "they trigger encoding and retrieval processes that support learning, comprehension, and remembering" (58).
The interleaving effect is attained through interleaved practice, which involves shuffling different types of questions in one practice session. Because different types of problems commingle in this condition, students must know not only how to follow the steps of a certain strategy; they must also be able to choose which strategy to use. This level of sophistication in practice leads to more meaningful memory creation, which in turn leads to long-term memory. A 2008 experiment by Kornell and Bjork illustrated that interleaving paintings by different artists aided participants' ability to identify the creator of a till-then unseen painting, whereas the massed condition produced less success. The researchers also noted that a "sense of ease or fluency" (591) is not necessarily an indication of effective learning, illustrating that making students work harder to learn material can enhance their memory.
The testing effect is achieved through a mechanism known as retrieval practice, also called test-enhanced learning. This is a condition in which the act of testing a student's knowledge enhances the learning of that knowledge. In a 2006 experiment, Roediger and Karpicke showed that testing participants several times on information they had been exposed to was more effective in terms of long-term retention than allowing the participants to study the information the same number of times. This shows that the success of the participants in the tested group was not merely a factor of repeated exposure to the information. Their findings illustrated that "testing clearly introduced a desirable difficulty in learning" (254). Furthermore, on the benefits of retrieval practice, Roediger and Karpicke noted that "frequent testing leads students to space their study efforts, permits them and their instructors to assess their knowledge on an ongoing basis, and […] serves as a powerful mnemonic aid for future retention" (254).
One way of achieving an elevated level of difficulty in testing is to create a delay between teaching students a topic and testing them on it (Storm, Bjork, and Storm 244). This is known as the spacing effect, which arises from a technique called distributed practice. Distributed practice creates "a memory advantage that occurs when people learn material on several separate occasions, instead of a single massed study episode" (Sobel, Cepeda, and Kapler 763). Empirical evidence of the benefits of distributed practice has existed since 1885, when Hermann Ebbinghaus first published Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. Indeed, most of these studies during the last century have involved adults, but a handful of experiments have shown that distributed practice is advantageous for child learners as well as adults (Sobel, Cepeda, and Kapler).
An ideal classroom situation would marry the tried-and-true method of blocked practice with the other techniques discussed above: interleaved practice, retrieval practice, and distributed practice. Simple Solutions achieves this by supplementing traditional classroom instruction with daily interleaved practice lessons and weekly quizzes that revisit all that material the students have been taught. With this approach, Simple Solutions strives to be an agent of change. Simple Solutions is committed to shifting the conversation in the education world away from practicing more to practicing smarter.
Works Cited
Bjork, Elizabeth L., and Robert Bjork. "Making Things Hard on Yourself, But in a Good Way: Creating Desirable Difficulties to Enhance Learning." Psychology and the Real World. M. A. Gernsbacher, R. W. Pew, L. M. Hough, and J. R. Pomerantz, eds. New York: Worth Publishers, 2009.
Kornell, Nate, and Robert A. Bjork. "Learning Concepts and Categories: Is Spacing the "Enemy of Induction"?" Psychological Science 19.6 (2008): 585-92. Print.
Marzano, Robert J., Debra Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock. Classroom Instruction That Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement. Alexandria (Virginia): Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001. Print. NAEP – Nation's Report Card Home. National Assessment of Educational Progress. Web. 03 Jan. 2012. .
Roediger, Henry L., and Jeffrey D. Karpicke. "Test-Enhanced Learning. Taking Memory Tests Improves Long-Term Retention." Psychological Science 17.3 (2006): 249-55. Print.
Rohrer, Doug, and Harold Pashler. "Recent Research on Human Learning Challenges Conventional Instructional Strategies." Educational Researcher 39.5 (2010): 406-12. Print.
Sobel, Hailey S., Nicholas J. Cepeda, and Irina V. Kapler. "Spacing Effects in Real-world Classroom Vocabulary Learning." Applied Cognitive Psychology 25.5 (2011): 763-67. Print.
Storm, Benjamin C., Robert A. Bjork, and Jennifer C. Storm. "Optimizing Retrieval as a Learning Event." Memory & Cognition 38.2 (2010): 244-53. Print.


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The Paris Agreement and The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out a raft of new an challenging global targets for people, the environment, business and development. SDG 13 directly embeds the climate change challenge in the framework. In other words, the global community has explicitly linked its broad development agenda and the climate agenda, clarifying that climate benefits must be part of our investments in the future of humanity.
Topic: forestry, agriculture, landscape, climate change, mitigation
Publisher: United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Publication Year: 2016
Source: Climate Action. 115-119


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Lexus RX 350L Failure
I had a chance to check out the new Lexus RX 350L at the recent local car show. This is the new stretched variant of the very popular Lexus RX that will fit 3 rows of seats. Since my parents have a regular length RX, I'm familiar with the interior and how relatively small it is so I've been really curious to see how Lexus would go about stretching it and making it fit three rows. The reason for Lexus to do this is pretty clear: the 3-row non-truck-SUV or CUV (for crossover utility vehicle) segment is wildly popular with cars like the Audi Q7 and the Volvo XC90 and Acura MDX. In fact, looking around the car show, Lexus and Subaru appear to be the last two major car brands to produce a vehicle to fit this slot. (Subaru's Ascent is arriving imminently.) The Lexus RX 350 (without the "L") is too small for three rows. The next largest Lexus is the GX which is undeniably a truck (shares a platform with the 4Runner and is built body-on-frame) which excludes it from this category. Therefore, Lexus has a hole and stretching their most popular model to fill the hole makes perfect sense. How did they do?


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One of the many concerns with regards to the current writers strike is how it will affect the new series that are just building up some momentum. Worrying about whether or not the growing popularity of series like Chuck and Pushing Daisies will suffer should they be forced to go on an early hiatus is a definite issue, but what about the series that are about to wrap up their final seasons next spring?
Scrubs is one of the series I'm referring to. The season that is currently airing on NBC is set to be the last for the comedy series. The problem is, with the strike preventing studios from producing new episodes, there's a chance that the series finale might never happen. For fans of Scrubs, who've stuck by the series for seven years, the idea that the show could end without an actual end probably seems preposterous.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Scrubs creator Bill Lawrence was asked to write an alternate ending to the last episode of the first half of the season. That way if the strike happened, they'd be able to close out the series halfway through the season if they needed to. The Heroes writers were asked to do the same thing but in the case of that NBC series, its only the second season so the story would be able to continue next fall if it were cut short due to the strike.
Lawrence opted not to do an alternate ending and wrote the scripts as he normally would have regardless of the threat of a strike. Well the strike has happened and though the season is supposed to run for 18 episodes, only "roughly seven" were shot before the strike started.
So what happens if the strike runs on for months and no new episodes of Scrubs are produced? Lawrence says he intends to write a proper finale for the series and hopes that he'll be able to work out a deal with NBC to get it produced and aired, even if it has to wait until next season. There's also a chance that the finale could air on ABC. ABC's programming chief, Steve McPherson developed the series.
As crappy as it would be for Scrubs to end without a finale, I admire Lawrence's choice to stick with his initial plan for the final season. Sure, he's run the risk of having his show end abruptly but its probably better than trying to jam an ending into the halfway point of the season. Scrubs might be just another half-hour comedy but hidden between all of the wisecracking banter and hospital-humor, there's an actual story being told. The devoted fans of this show deserve a real ending. Let's just hope that NBC allows that to happen.


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I will write more once my laptop turns up with Julie in a few days but here is a quick precis of the race so far.
There was a huge send off from La Rochelle with big crowds lining the walls at the exit from the dock and loads of spectator boats helicopters etc.
The race itself got off to a bad start with a misunderstanding of where the first mark was, and a large percentage of the fleet having to return a few miles to the correct one. After this there was a good spinnaker blast in increasing winds down to finisterre, with the winds ranging from 25 to 35 knots for the corner and a good way down the portugese coast, followed by much lighter and more variable breeze down to Madeira where I had 20-25knots all along the edge of island until 4 miles from the finish where it went to nothing at the flick of a switch!!!! I then spent a couple of hours drifting the last bit.
Compared with some the boat and me survived pretty well, I have quite a number of minor jobs to do, but nothing really major.
More detailed account to follow soon.


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The 52nd Annual New York Film Festival, featuring all the most anticipated movies of 2014, can't come soon enough. This year's slate includes David Fincher's adaptation of the bestselling Gone Girl, Alain Resnais's final film before his death, Paul Thomas Anderson's interpretation of Pynchon's Inherent Vice, and many more! To get you pumped the week before opening night on September 26, NYFF will run its Opening Acts series, which will feature some of the best works from these directors' filmographies. This year, the Opening Acts line-up is mobile and will include screenings and Q&As in theaters across Manhattan and Brooklyn.
If you're psyched for Alex Ross Perry's Listen Up Philip, check out his second featureThe Color Wheel on Monday, September 22. In this film, two adult siblings hit the road together in a formally and narratively abrasive venture.
Or, if you're looking forward to David Fincher's latest murder mystery, you can reflect on his earlier Zodiac, playing Friday, September 19. This one is about the notorious unsolved mystery of the Zodiac killer, which Fincher and his directorial team famously researched themselves.
Before Joaquin Phoenix was in every Paul Thomas Anderson film, there was Boogie Nights, which is playing on Sunday, September 21. Featuring a fresh-faced Mark Wahlberg as Dirk Diggler, you don't want to miss this unforgettable account of the adult-film industry in the late 70s.
The Opening Acts series runs from September 19-25, see the full lineup and get tickets here.


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This course will guide you through understanding and completing the tasks for November 2018 iGCSE / O Level Computer Science Paper 2.
Through a series of three sections, you will see examples of how to develop coded answers for each task using python programming.
Please ensure that you have checked the region that you are studying with the school / college where you will be sitting your exam before commencing this course. Copies of the task sheets must be obtained from the exams office – TeachAllAboutIT cannot provide you with official exam documents.
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The Coastal Brown Bear images you see in the gallery above were all taken on my trip to Alaska's Katmai National Park in August 2012. Katmai National Park has the world's highest concentration of brown bears per square mile so it affords some excellent bear viewing and bear photography. Brown bears found inland and in mountainous habitats are called "grizzlies" while brown bears living in coastal areas are called coastal brown bears. The Kodiak brown bear is isolated to Kodiak Island in Alaska. In comparison, the grizzly is considerably smaller than the coastal brown bear due to the abundance of food available in coastal areas.
I booked my trip through John Rogers at Katmai Coastal Bear Tours. Our guide was Buck Wilde and he was absolutely fantastic, his over 20 years of experience with these brown bears is evident the moment you hit the scene. On day two we were five feet away from an 800 lbs male, his choice to come to us, and the experience was surreal. Buck managed the bear and those of us soiling ourselves with all the wisdom and calm of a buddhist monk. Over the course of the six days we visited Kukak Bay, Hallo Bay and Kooliak Bay and I will say the scenery at every bay we visited is spectacular so be prepared to do some landscape photography while you're out there.
Facts About Brown Bears, Tips For Getting Great Brown Bear Pictures, Bear Tours and Brown Bear Conservation.
Facts About Coastal Brown Bears
The brown bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), also known as the North American brown bear, lives in the forests and mountains of northern North America, Europe, and Asia. It is the most widely distributed bear in the world.
When people think of Brown Bears there are generally two questions most people want answered. How big are brown bears and are they dangerous? From a size perspective the male (boar) is larger than the female (sow). Males weigh in on average from 400-800 lbs where females average 300-450 lbs. Along the Katmai Coast of Alaska the Coastal Brown Bears are amongst the largest anywhere in the world weighing up to 1500 lbs and beyond. On average a brown bear will stand 3-3.5 feet at the shoulders and is 6-7 feet in length with an average life span of 20-25 years. Keeping those height and weight stats in mind let's now move on to the second question which is are they dangerous?
I did a lot of reading on the subject in preparation for my Alaska trip, at my wife's insistence I might add, and my conclusion is that there is no simple answer to this question. In a recent book by Howard Smith he cited that in Alaska 19 people were killed by dogs during 1975-85, whereas only 20 people were killed by bears from 1900-85. So are dogs more dangerous? No we simply encounter them more often and as a result the odds of injury are far greater. I'm no rocket scientist however I think it is safe to conclude that if an individual were attacked by a grizzly bear vs a dog the likelihood of sustaining life threatening injuries is far greater from that of the brown bear. So the short answer to are they dangerous is they certainly can be so it is always best to maintain a healthy respect and learn as much as you can about the species so you are familiar with their threat signals, moods and motives.
Brown Bears live for space, food and breeding so if you don't crowd a Brown Bear or come upon it unexpectedly, act like food or compete for a food source, or give the impression that you are competing for a mate you are off to a good start. And of course traveling in the company of an experienced bear guide if you are intentionally heading out to view brown bears is preferred. You'll also learn a lot about brown bears along the way as most bear guides are eager to answer any questions you might have.
Brown Bears are solitary with the exception of females with cubs which on average remain with their mothers for three years. Female Brown Bears also known as sows produce one to four young, most commonly two and she is extremely protective of her offspring and will fight to the death to defend them. While primarily solitary in nature there are coastal areas like the Katmai Coast of Alaska where you'll find brown bears congregating in lush meadows in Spring and along streams and rivers in great numbers during the salmon spawn in late Summer. The salmon are critical to the survival of these bears as they provide the much needed fat stores required to get these brown bears through their next winter hibernation.
I mentioned above that I have been doing a lot of reading. There's a series of books from Stephen F. Stringham who has a Masters Degree in wildlife management and a PhD in behavioral and population Ecology. I know what you're thinking those books are probably about as exciting as watching paint dry given the scholastic credentials however you'd be wrong. Stringham draws on the thousands of hours he has spent with Brown Bears since he began studying them in 1969 so the books read from real world experience rather than text book anecdotes. If you want to know more about Brown Bears or are planning a trip to view or photograph them the books I list below will truly educate and help you get the most from any bear tour:
When Bears Whisper, Do You Listen?
Bear Viewing in Alaska: Expert Techniques for a Great Adventure
Alaska Magnum Bear Safety Manual
Brown Bear / Grizzly Bear Tours
There are hosts of Grizzly Bear (Brown Bear) tour offerings out there however I will only speak to those that I or fellow photographers have been on and speak highly of so you at least know the experience from these grizzly bear tours will be top notch.
Katmai Coastal Bear Tours. I first learned of this bear tour through Art Wolfe's Travels to the Edge show on the Katmai Coast as it was the Katmai Coastal Bear Tours staff that hosted this adventure for Art. This tour is run by John Rogers and he has a number of experienced bear guides that take up to a maximum of six photographers on 4,6 and 8 day trips along the Katmai coast of Alaska. This is the trip that Rob and I will be taking July 31st – August 5th. You fly into Kodiak Alaska and from there catch a float plane out to the boat which will serve as your home base for the duration of your trip. With 21 hours of daylight there's plenty of time for bear photography along with other wildlife like Puffins, Sea Otters, etc. If you'd like a sneak peak of what you can expect from this tour, Brad Joseph's one of the bear guides on the tour compiled a nice Grizzly Bear: Grizzlies From Kodiak to Katmai video which highlights some of the scenes from one of their 2010 adventures. If you want to learn more about Grizzly Bears Brad is world renowned so do some Google searching on his videos and you will not be disappointed.
Chilcotin Grizzly Bear Tours. This bear tour takes place in British Columbia's remote fly-in Chilcotin wilderness. This offering is lead by John Marriot a Canadian Wildlife Photographer and it offers up a great experience for those wildlife photographers wanting to photograph mountain grizzly bears as opposed to the Coastal Grizzlies that you'll see on the Katmai bear tour. Participants will be staying at a back country lodge in the middle of the Chilcotin Mountains, accessible via a private airstrip (participants will fly in on a one-hour charter plane flight from Vancouver, British Columbia over the spectacular Coast Mountain Range). This lodge has the only guide operator's license in the area and has several different boats that will be used on the lake and river to access areas that the grizzlies frequent.
Expect the majority of the photography to be done from boats and to be of varying degrees of difficulty, as you will be on a moving river. This is not your typical 'set up and shoot' type of tour, rather, it is a unique and exciting photo tour that will challenge every skill you have as a wildlife photographer. You can expect to be shooting hand-held, and with a monopod, beanbag, or tripod off of a boat, as well as potentially with a tripod from beside the boat or from the river's edge. Expect to be shooting in a variety of weather conditions; while normal temperatures are in the low to mid-teens (approx 50-60 F) at that time of year, there is the potential for heavy winds, rain, or even snow. Morning temperatures can often be at or below freezing. This tour sells out a year in advance so to avoid disappointment I suggest you get in touch with John as soon as you make up your mind so you can secure your spot. If you mention COOLWildlife it just might help your chances.:))
Brown Bear Photography – Tips For Getting Great Brown Bear Pictures.
- Most wildlife photographers I know are after the classic brown bear running through the water after a salmon action shot. Given the window for salmon is short you will want to contact your tour guide and inquire on when the best times are for peak salmon runs which of course fluctuate from year to year so there is never a guarantee.
- Another classic Brown Bear action shots is that of sparring boars standing on their hind legs. If you want sparring boars you want to hit the peak of mating season which is generally May/June. A word of caution, boars and sows can become aggressive during mating season so approach the situation cautiously and I strongly recommend using an experienced bear guide.
- Read a few books about Brown Bears so you are familiar with their habits and mannerisms. This will allow you to anticipate the action before it happens.
- I shoot f/4 for single bear shots when I am cropping in tight on just the bear as I prefer the background to be as out of focus as possible. If there are two bears or more I will jump up to f/8 or f/11. I am usually taking these shots with my Nikon 200-400mm or my Nikon 600mm.
- When the backdrop is a lovely mountain scene I bump up the f stop up to f8 or f/11 to keep the background more in focus. The f/11 in focus shot is what I use when I want to portray the bear in its natural environment and I will typically be using my Nikon 24-70mm or Nikon 70-200mm for that type of shot.
- If things get heated and the boars begin to chase the sows try to keep your shutter speed above 1/800 to freeze the action unless you are intentionally going for the blurred motion image which often turns out very nice result but it takes some practice.
- Shutter speeds for panning are always going to depend first on the speed (and distance) you have to move your camera. I've found 1/80th gives a nice artistic blur but you'll need to experiment with every scenario to get a shot you find appealing.
- I've mentioned the use of a bear guide several times now for safety sake. The other reason is that they know when and where to find the bears. If I 'm spending $8,000 on a trip to Alaska I will definitely hire a bear guide to get the most from the experience. I highly recommend bear guide Brad Joseph's whom many of you may have seen on Art Wolfe's Travels To The Edge on PBS or Bucke Wilde whom you will be seeing more of on the next BBC bear DVD in production now.
- You'll hear this repeated over and over in wildlife photography but having sharp focus on the animals eye is a must so make that your focal point. I've yet to see an award winning Grizzly Bear picture where the eye was out of focus.
- The very best wildlife photography images are usually taken at the subjects eye level so bring a comfortable stool or sit on the ground if it is safe to do so.
- Pay attention to the backgrounds. Snow covered mountains, lush meadows, fall colours and rock outcroppings all make wonderful backdrops for brown bear photography. Sometimes a good shot could have been great if only you had taken a step to the right or the left so pay close attention when you look through the viewfinder not only at the animal but what is behind it.
- Plan to take a variety of lenses with you. I will shoot everything from 14-24 to 600mm and everything in between. Shooting with different lenses yields varied perspectives and that makes for a more interesting and diversified portfolio.
- Don't forget to go vertical every once and a while especially with single subjects that are beside tall vertical objects likes rocks or trees. Often the front cover of a magazine or calendar is looking for a vertical shot so mix it up.
Brown Bear / Grizzly Bear Conservation:
The Brown Bear is listed as threatened in the United States and endangered in parts of Canada. Within the United States, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concentrates its effort to restore brown bears in six recovery areas. These are Northern Continental Divide (Montana), Yellowstone (Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho), Cabinet-Yaak (Montana and Idaho), Selway-Bitterroot (Montana and Idaho), Selkirk (Idaho and Washington), and North Cascades (Washington). The grizzly population in these areas is estimated at 750 in the Northern Continental Divide, 550 in Yellowstone, 40 in the Yaak portion of the Cabinet-Yaak, and 15 in the Cabinet portion (in northwestern Montana), 105 in Selkirk region of Idaho, 10–20 in the North Cascades, and none currently in Selway-Bitterroots, although there have been sightings.These are estimates because bears move in and out of these areas, and it is therefore impossible to conduct a precise count. In the recovery areas that adjoin Canada, bears also move back and forth across the international boundary.
All National Parks such as Banff national Park, Yellowstone and Grand Tetonhave laws and regulations in place to protect the Grizzly Bears. Even so, grizzlies are not always safe in parks. In Glacier National Park in Montana and Banff National Park in Alberta grizzlies are regularly killed by trains as the bears scavenge for grain that has leaked from poorly maintained grain cars. Road kills on park roads are another problem. The primary limiting factors for grizzly bears in Alberta and elsewhere are human-caused mortality, unmitigated road access, and habitat loss, alienation, and fragmentation. In the Central Rocky Mountain area, most bears have died within a few hundred meters of roads and trails.
Conservation efforts have become an increasingly vital investment over recent decades, as population numbers have dramatically declined. Establishment of parks and protected areas are one of the main focuses currently being tackled to help reestablish the low grizzly bear population in British Columbia. One example of these efforts is the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary located along the north coast of British Columbia; at 44,300 hectares (109,000 acres) in size, it is composed of key habitat for this threatened species. Regulations such as limited public access, as well as a strict no hunting policy, have enabled this location to be a safe haven for local grizzlies in the area.
John Marriot has long led a movement in Banff National Park in Alberta to help the recovery of the Grizzly Bear populations and I encourage you to give his blog post on the struggles of the Grizzly Bear a read and participate where you see the call to action. Let's do what we can to make our voices heard.
If you are planning to take a Grizzly Bear Photography tour be sure to watch this very cool BBC video as it will give you a very real sense of what a Grizzly Bear workshop in Alaska is like.
BBC Great Bear Stakeout Episode 2: Follows a mother and her cub and intense scenes with Van, the dominant male, approaching the film crew in a potentially dangerous situation.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNz4FRSGihQ


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Bain Marie 3 Pan/4 Pan/6 Pan for sale
Bain Marie 3 Pan/4 Pan/6 Pan for sale containing hot water in which smaller pans may be set to cook food slowly or to keep food warm. A form of poaching in which food is placed in a container which is in turn placed into another container (the bain-marie) half full with heated water.
A Bain Marie is used for many functions because plenty of different foods can be held in each pan while staying at room temperature, this will allow you and your guest to have hot delicious food no matter how cold the weather.


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Over time, files on your hard drive get fragmented, and your computer slows down because it has to check multiple places on your drive for those pieces.
Fragmentation doesn't cause your computer to slow down as much as it used to—at least not until it's very fragmented—but the simple answer is yes, you should still defragment your computer.
Do I Really Need to Defrag My PC
We have coded a simple vbs script here is the simple steps to use it :
1. Please defrag.zip download and unzip the script (at the end of the page). Right click the Vbs file , then choose Properties from the list. At the bottom of the Properties windows, make sure the box for Unblock is ticked. Then click Apply and OK.
2. Clik the defrag.vbe, User Account Control (UAC) windows can popup and asks you if you want to allow it , Click Yes to proceed.
3- Chooese ok button.
Waiting for analysis …
CMD to analyze "You do not need to defragment this volume."
If you receive this message, it means that there is no fragment on the partition. So you do not need to defragment this drive.
How to Defrag Your Computer
1- Open File Explorer (left-click the File Explorer icon on the Taskbar or left-click on the Start Menu and select File Explorer).
2- In the left-side column left-click on This PC.
3- In the right-side column right-click on the drive you want to check and select Properties.
4- Left-click on the Tools tab.
5- Under Optimize and defragment drive left-click on Optimize.
6- Left-click on the drive(s) you want to optimize.
7- Left-click on Analyze (Analyze all) or Optimize (Optimize all)


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Hello Anna is the story of two people that are from opposite sides of the world and do not speak the same language. They met online and found true love. Anna is from Russia and Bryan Lives in America. They met online and fell in love through the use of Google Translator and Skype. They are now living happily ever after together in America. Check out my new blog at http://whoisbryguy1955.blogspot.com
Monday, November 23, 2015
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Friday, November 20, 2015
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Bringing you with us on our adventures
How To Get Your Kids Out of the House (without yelling or bribing)
Birthday Bouncing at KaZoom Inflatable Playcenter
Bouncy houses are a fun and trendy way to celebrate birthdays… however, if you don't have a summer birthday or a decent sized yard then this may not work for your child. Fortunately, thanks to KaZoom Playcenter down in Shakopee, you can have not just one but SIX large indoor inflatables, including an obstacle course and two slides. The space has 5,300 square feet of fun!
Pick Your Own Orchards – Apples
Apple picking generally begins mid-August and runs into November. Earlier in the season you can pick apples such as Paula Reds and Crab Apples. September gets into McIntosh and Haralson. Mid September gets into Honeycrisps and more. Check the farm's picking schedule before making the trip.
Puppet Wagons
Summer season is here and the Puppet Wagons are out!! You can find these wagons cruising through parks and libraries across the following cities
Farmers Market with Family Fun Activities
Don't forget to bring your dancing shoes to these fun farmers markets! Organized by day of the week, location, and time
More of the Best Minnesota Hikes for Families
Hiking is such a great family activity… it's free, it's great exercise, you get all the positive benefits of spending time in nature and it's something people of all ages can do if you pick the right trail!
Duluth MN Getaway
Oh Duluth, such a special place for so many Minnesotans. People that know Duluth seem to have their favorite places, Learn about our favorite warm weather spots.
New Ulm MN
New Ulm has a wonderful German small town feel, but is big enough that it has enough attractions to make a day trip out of a visit to just the beautiful city of New Ulm.
Amazing Places Animal Lovers Should Know About
If you live in the Twin Cities and have kids, you have probably been to the Como Zoo and the Minnesota Zoo more times than you can count. If you have an animal lover in your family, expand your animal experiences beyond the zoo!
Mothers' Day Events
This year Mother's Day lands on Sunday May 14th, 2017. We've collected special Twin Cities Mother's Day events for all types of moms. Find the one that's right for yours.
Staying Fit as a Family
Staying fit, as a family, has benefits for everyone. Here are some ideas to get more physical activity in, as a family and keep staying healthy fun!
Earth Day
Get out and celebrate our Earth at one of the Twin Cities many special events
How to Make Hiking with Kids a Blast
We've collected our best hiking tips to make sure hiking is something your kids will want to come back to again and again.
Eat Local
Why outsource your food when we have amazing options right here. Get onboard the farm-to-table movement as a family.
Free Indoor Nature Centers
Nature centers are great places to explore. They have loads of nooks & crannies, indoor/outdoor space, they aren't too crowded, and best of all they're free! Hours vary.
Cupcake Shops in the Twin Cities
Cupcake Boutiques have been trending up since the early 2000's but have really seen an uptick in Minnesota in the last year. You can find these sweet shops in all ends of the the Twin Cities.
St Paul Winter Carnival
Love it or hate it, winter is a part of life in Minnesota and the Winter Carnival is a great event to get out and celebrate winter!
Birthday Bouncing at IGM Gymnastics
IGM Gym feels somewhere between a serious gymnastics arena mixed with somewhere over the rainbow. While it has all the equipment for the gymnasts, it also has all the bright colors, foam pits, trampolines, roly-poly mats, fun music and inflatables to keep even the little ones enamored for hours
Movie Theater Discounts & Promotions
At movie theaters, Tuesdays seem to be the day of the Deal. While tickets can cost in excess of $12 bucks, these places offer value days you can get excited about.
Hill Top Farm Stay at Room to Roam Farm Guesthouse
If you take a scenic ride 2 hours south of the Twin Cities along the Mississippi you'll find nestled 400 feet up in the beautiful bluffs of South Western Wisconsin, rolling hilltop farmland as far as your eyes can see. Join us on our farm stay with cows, sheep, tractors, and much more.
It's Time for the Greatest of Minnesota Get Togethers
Read about our new favorites and get kid-friendly tips for how to enjoy the Minnesota state fair.
Woodbury Adventure Day
Woodbury is a wonderful place to hang out. Read about our trip to Madison's Place, the East Metro's first fully accessible playground, Kiln Kreations, Wooddale Family Fun Zone and more!
Pick Your Own Fruit Farms
Read our article featured on Minnnesota Parent! Minnesota farms will soon be ripe with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and much more. Minnesota strawberry season usually begins in early to mid-June, followed by raspberries and blueberries — beloved fruits for kids of all ages — in July and August. Learn about 6 PYO farms around the Twin Cities.
Summertime Fun
Schools out for summer – What do we do now? This collection is organized to make it super easy to find something fun to do outdoors.
Maple Grove Adventure Day
Maple Grove has a lot to offer for a suburb! It's located about 20 minutes west of Minneapolis and we found plenty of awesome things to keep busy for a whole day of adventure. Read about the indoor water park, rainbow park, music park, and killer cupcakes!
Great Spot for Young Anglers at McColl Pond Environmental Learning Center
For our first fishing adventure we wanted a spot that offered more than just fishing so that if the fishing only lasted a half hour before the calls of boredom came we would have other stuff to do. McColl Pond ELC fit the bill perfectly! There are hiking trails, a butterfly garden, an awesome playground, plenty of picnic tables and bathrooms!
Mother's Day in Minnesota
Make mother's day extra special by treating her like the wonderful woman she is. Here are some fun ideas around the Twin Cities to take mom out for her special day.
An Owatonna Spring Break
This year we wanted to get out of town but only had a couple of days to do so. Owatonna was the perfect choice. It's roughly one hour south of the Twin Cities and there is plenty to do to keep you busy.
Twin Cities Free Indoor Places for a Playdate
Looking for a place to go on a playdate that won't break the bank? Parks work great, except for when the weather isn't on your side.
Spring Break Ideas
Don't get stir crazy – Get out and discover something new! Here are some ideas for inspiration.
Pan Asian Dining with a Twist
These Pan-Asian restaurants are sure to keep the whole gang happy. They bring not only delicious noodles, but also a fun twist on the dining experience
Indoor Places for Early Risers
Rise and Shine! Do you feel like your children are rarin' to go before most businesses are even open? You're not alone. We have a list of places that open before 10am.
Minnesota Resorts, Cabins, and Lodge Getaways
There's no need to drive hours away from the Cities to find a perfect vacation destination for the family. Resorts, cabins, and lodges are available across the state.
Chocolate in the Twin Cities
Chocolate comes in many shapes and sizes. Candy, Ice Cream, and donuts are some of my favorites. The Twin Cities has an indulgently delicious number of options to tame even the sweetest sweet tooth.
Wisconsin Dells Winter Parkin' It
The Wisconsin Dells is a Midwest mecca for tourism, known for its natural beauty and waterpark hotels. We stayed at the Mount Olympus resort, which offered an indoor waterpark, indoor theme park, and tubing/skiing/snowboarding. Get the inside scoop here.
Swan Park in Monticello MN
Surprisingly loud, but extraordinary none-the-less. Watching the swans in Monticello's Swan Park is enough to take your breath away. From mid-November through March, Swan Park is home to over 2,000 trumpeter swans, which is one of the largest congregations of trumpeter swans in the world.
Spending a Minnesota Winter Night inside a Camper Cabin
Camping is such a great way to spend quality time with your kids. Then winter comes and you think you have to wait months for camping season to begin again. Not true! My girls and I have stayed at two excellent camper cabins this year that make year round camping doable, and most importantly very enjoyable.
The North Shore: A Winter Adventure with the Kids
An amazing weekend dog sledding, snowshoeing, and much much more.
Enjoying the Neighborhood Christmas Lights from the Back Seat of a Limo
Limo services are a great way to give everyone in the party the opportunity to sit back, watch the lights, and enjoy the ride.
Make a Tradition of Cutting Down Your Own Christmas Tree
Perspective from a converted artificial Christmas tree owner.
Amazing Quarry Hill Nature Center (Rochester MN) Best Nature Center, hands down. Fossil Hunting, live animals, and much much more.
A Southern Minnesota Fall Adventure Day (Byron MN) Zoos, orchards, and parks, oh my!
Stillwater – The Ultimate Fall Day Trip (Stillwater MN) While Stillwater is beautiful any time of year, it's especially spectacular in the fall!
Fun with Themed Staycations – Sure getting out of town makes for a great adventure, but sometimes all you need is a little creativity and you can make your own special weekend staying right here in the Twin Cities.
Princesses for the Day – Come with us as we take our girls on a magical adventure filled with glitter, cupcakes, and lots and lots of Frozen!
A Pizza Farm Experience at SunCrest Gardens Farms – After experiencing a pizza farm firsthand, I can easily say to you – don't wait like I did – go now! A visit to a pizza farm will be on our Must-Do List EVERY YEAR!
Splashing Around Bunker Hills Regional Park – The park offers a huge array of activities including horseback riding, hiking, camping (they have camper cabins!), playgrounds, disc golfing and more. The biggest highlight for a family though is probably the Bunker Beach Water Park.
Lily Pads and More at the Maplewood Nature Center – Maplewood is only 15miles from Minneapolis, but at the nature center you definitely feel like you are out of the cities!
A Day in the Life of a sKIDaddler – With sKIDaddlers as a resource there is no preplanning needed to go on an amazing adventure! Check out this day in the life of a sKIDaddler to see how you, too, can easily make the most out of every day.
The 2015 Great Minnesota Get Together: Get the Real Scoop on Food and Fun on a Stick! Let us help you make the most out of your trip to the fair this year!
Saving the Monarchs at Rudy Kraemer Nature Preserve – Milkweed, monarchs, and one of the best kid-friendly trails in the south metro.
Strolling through Rosemount – Downtown Rosemount is a wonderful place to take the family for a fun and easy day trip outing. You'll find a park, splashpad, restaurants, and shops all within walking distance of each other.
A Breath of Fresh Air at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum – The sky was blue, the flowers were blooming. It was a perfect day to visit the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
A Day Well Spent at Whitetail Woods Regional State Park – Get to know Dakota County's newest regional park
A South Dakota Roadtrip – Let's talk about the great Midwest roadtrip to the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota
PJ Party on the Como Harriet Streetcar – Milk & Cookies, trolley rides, and story time from a local author. Get ready to put on your jammies and party!
Strawberry Picking at Silkey Gardens (Dundas, MN) – A short but sweet season.. and one not to be missed!
Brainerd Minnesota; An Up North Getaway – Get that Up North feeling just a couple hours north of the Cities. Waterpark hotels, turtle races, Paul Bunyan, and more
Great "Starter" Camping Spot at Lake Byllesby – There's no need to put a hold on camping just because you have little ones
Man-Made Swimming Ponds: Where Have You Been My Whole Life – Get the feel of being at the lakes, but with the cleanliness of a pool
Keeping the Kiddos Happy on a Road Trip – With these tips and a little planning, you can keep kids entertained in the car for hours without ever turning on any digital device!
Top Places Near You to Turn Into an Adventure – Dollar Stores, Nail Salons, Grocery Store Salad Bars and more!
What's On Your Summer Bucket List – Here's a fun idea… make a list of all the cool places you've been wanting to check out, and then start checking them off the list. sKIDaddlers can help!
Tipi Camping in Upper Sioux Agency State Park – Why camp in a tent when you can stay in a tipi?
Our Favorite Splashpad – Nicollet Commons Park in Burnsville, MN has it all
Go On a Scenic Roadtrip without Ever Leaving Minneapolis – Exploring the Ground Rounds Scenic ByWay
A Perfect Day in Osceola, WI – Train rides, waterfalls, and good eats
Winter Oasis – A Bakery in a Greenhouse– Looking for an escape from the MN winter blues, Patrick's Bakery in Richfield is definitely the spot to be.


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I picked up William Shakespeare's the Clone Army Attacketh by Ian Doescher in Barnes and Noble the other day. It was an impulse buy, I was mainly there to escape the ungodly heat of my non-air conditioned apartment. But I peeked inside and saw one of Padme's soliloquies and was instantly hooked (more on that later).
Now some of you might be asking: There are six of these books, one for each of the original trilogy and prequel movies. So why pick Episode II as a starting point? Well, I have a confession to make. I am an un-cool fangirl. I love the prequels. I grew up with the original trilogy, but it was very much a thing which belonged to my parents. My mother loves to tell the story of the first time she saw Episode IV when she was 17, and has nursed a crush on Mark Hamill for close to forty years. My dad, on the other hand, is basically Han Solo (irony lol) except with drag racing instead of smuggling.
On top of this, I think I was exactly the right age for every one of the movies when it came out. I was 12 when Episode I came out, my mom took me to the same theater where she saw Episode IV for the first time (told you she was a big fan). I was just learning how to sew and developing an obsession with costumes, so Padme was absolutely my idol. I had a poster of her various costumes from Episode I on my bedroom door for close to a decade.
By the time Episode II came out, I was 16 and had been in a serious relationship for two years with the boy who would grow up to be my husband. Needless to say, the whole love at first sight at an improbably young age thing didn't seem terribly hard to believe for me. I was young enough that Padme's objections to the relationship seemed weak in the face of passion, and Anakin's whininess seemed justifiable (I was 16, okay?). The forbidden love story was the most romantic thing I had ever heard of, and I quite possibly fell harder for Anakin than Padme did. Even the wedding didn't seem unusual, big surprise, three years later I got married at 19 too.
Episode III was rough for me. I was only 18, but I'd aged a lot in the two years since I'd last traveled to a galaxy far, far away. My now fiance had been in the Navy for a year, was stationed on the other side of the planet, and could be deployed to a war zone at any time. Watching the scene where Anakin comes home made me cry, it was like watching the last time my man had come home on leave. Even my mom (of course she went with me to every one) turned to me in surprise and recognition. I whispered back that maybe George Lucas was spying on me. I don't really like to think about the end of Episode III. Needless to say I bawled.
Even now, with the new episodes coming out, it's not the same. The character I most relate to in Episode VII is Kylo Ren: we're the same age and I know how much it can suck sometimes having Han Solo as a dad. Fortunately I didn't grow up amidst political intrigue, so we had time to work out our differences without the use of a lightsaber. I was thrilled with Episode VII, especially since it's obviously much better material than the prequels. But it supplanted a lot of my favorite EU characters, and honestly… it just doesn't make me feel that same rush.
When you're a teenager, your brain is myelinating. This means it's stripping off all the coating on your neurons and replacing it, so for about a decade you're super sensitive to your own neurochemistry. The end result is you'll never feel anything as intensely as you did as a teenager, at least until your middle-age myelination (which is usually the cause of a mid-life crisis). You get especially attached to things you like during this time: people, books, movies, and music leave an indelible mark upon the structure of your mind.
I'm guessing some of that neurochemistry is to blame, because honestly, I'm not blind. I know the prequels suck. The dialog is terrible and the plot holes are massive and oh, god, Jar Jar Binks. But I can't help it. There's something about the love story that tugs at my heart, and I'm always a sucker for a visual feast, regardless of plot quality (Jupiter Ascending, anyone?).
So I picked Episode II, and I'm kind of glad. Because there's so much room for improvement, and my god did Ian Doescher rise to the challenge.
Despite what I had glimpsed when I skimmed the book, I still mostly expected the Clone Army Attacketh to be just a gag book. I expected poorly used archaic modern English, bad scansion, and probably painful rhyming schemes.
I was wrong.
The very first thing I look for whenever someone tries to write something as if it were Shakespeare is the scansion. Shakespeare's plays are written in iambic pentameter (look it up, I don't need another tangent lol) and if they can't manage that, then I'm not really impressed. Not that it's easy, it can be a real pain in the butt to get English to fit into a regular rhythm without resorting to short words, but still. It's kind of my threshold.
Doescher not only writes in iambic pentameter, he almost does it better than Shakespeare. He rarely uses the female ending (a kind of cheat where you can add one unstressed syllable to the end of the line if you really have to). He uses period-accurate contractions like e'en for even and syllabic emphasis like determinéd (pronounced de-ter-mi-ned instead of de-ter-mend) to make the rhythm work. And he does all this while staying remarkably close to the movie script. I nearly died when I discovered that "I truly, deeply love thee, Anakin" needed no modification.
But perhaps more impressive than his use of iambic pentameter is when he chose to discard it, always for great effect:
- Yoda speaks in flawless haikus, a form that doesn't take to English well at all, and is doubly difficult when trying to preserve the Jedi Master's inverted syntax.
- Jango & Boba Fett speak in prose with no rhythm applied to it. This gives Jango a weird feeling, like there's something off about him and he doesn't quite fit in, that honestly conveys his unsettling presence in the movie well.
- The Geonosian monsters speak in iambic tetrameter and rhymed couplets. They make references to the Witches of Macbeth, who also speak in tetrameter couplets (although they're trochaic, but that's splitting hairs).
- Jar Jar Binks, when acting the fool, misses the last emphasized beat of every line. This sounds really wrong and is extremely annoying and therefore suits him perfectly.
On the subject of Jar Jar, Doescher has shown his genius once more. He's chosen to portray the Gungan as a Clever Fool, instead of a Natural Fool. This means that Jar Jar has lots of asides and a couple soliloquies that are very intelligent and insightful. Like many of Shakespeare's clever fools, he explains to the audience why he chooses to appear unintelligent to the other characters, and his reasoning is believable. But he's not a perfect person, he still falls for Palpatine's machinations. I'm not saying it completely fixes Jar Jar, but it certainly makes him a more interesting and complex character.
Beyond the scansion, Doescher provides us with a treasure trove of literary devices. One particularly brilliant scene is when Obi-wan goes to Kamino and meets Taun We and Lama Su. The Kaminoans speak their lines in Palindrome, which is to say, they give their lines, and then after Lama Su explains the clone army, they begin to deliver the same lines in reverse order. Obi-wan's responses and the punctuation change, but still. It's absolutely mind blowing, because it works.
Another thing that blew my mind was when I noticed, partway through Act IV, that Padme and Anakin were speaking to each other in rhyming quatrains. As I mentioned before, rhyming is a lot more of a challenge to an author than most people think. I've seen so much amateur poetry that uses this rhyming scheme poorly, forcing awkward phrasing and bad similes to make it work, that I'm actually pretty averse to quatrains at all. So it says a lot that I had to actually go back two whole acts to find where it started: the moment when they first kissed on Naboo. This is more than just a nod to Romeo and Juliet, it has the effect of making the couple seem connected and in synch with each other, and in the scenes where it stops happening we miss it and want it back, and feel it as tension. This is a subtle masterpiece of poetry: using the form to create an emotional response in the reader, and honestly I can't even. I think this was the point when I started worshiping Ian Doescher.
The really wonderful thing about this retelling is that it takes the time to expand. Most of the main characters have lengthy soliloquies, which give the audience insight into their motivations and character development. This is particularly beneficial to the relationship between Anakin and Padme, as this peek into their thought processes makes the whole thing work. Padme is constantly surprised and delighted by Anakin, finds his unorthodox and somewhat naive perspective refreshing, and is bemusedly impressed to find the young boy she knew transforming into a man. Anakin is clearly infatuated and obsessed – it's revealed that he has long held on to the memory of Padme as a beacon of hope during dark times. But throughout the book he comes to see Padme as she really is, not the image he had held of her, and he's even more impressed than before.
By no means does Doescher attempt to improve upon Anakin's character, which I thoroughly appreciate. He is still an arrogant teenager with his priorities completely out of whack and a serious attitude problem. But that makes him a realistic, believable person. Other characters have their flaws, too – Obi-wan is overly critical of everyone, himself included. Padme is idealistic to a fault, she's never willing to see how bad things really are. In short, they're people, and I'm pretty sure that's why I love them so much.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about The Clone Army Attacketh is that in addition to it's astounding technical mastery, it's still enjoyable to read and yes, funny. Turns out it is a gag book after all, it just happens to be an incredibly good one. There are, of course, many references to Shakespeare's plays and the Star Wars movies, but also a good helping of external references. C-3P0 quotes the Wizard of Oz, Obi-wan spouts wisdom from the Gambler, Padme makes a surprising call to Apocalypse Now, and Mace Windu, of course, makes all the Pulp Fiction references you can imagine, as well as working the phrase "die hard, with a vengeance" into his dialogue.
In true Shakespearean tradition, there are more puns than you can shake a stick at, and lots of fun extended metaphors. There are even dirty jokes–imagine, sex actually mentioned in Star Wars!–so subtle and clever that I'm sure Shaky Bill is applauding somewhere in the afterlife. Particularly fun is the beginning of Act IV, scene iii, which consists of two unnamed Jedi pondering the improbability of some distant future society telling tales of These Dark Days.
In short, this little gag book is quite possibly the most enjoyable read I've had in a long time. I'm pretty sure I annoyed my husband to no end, squawking with delight each time I found some new clever trick to admire. But seriously, if you have any appreciation for Shakespearian literature, you owe it to yourself to read some of Ian Doescher's work. If you're not a fan of the prequels, get one of the books based on the original trilogy. I know I can't wait to read them too!


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41 Wallace Street
Monday to Friday 10 am - 5 pm
Saturday: 10 am - 1.00 pm
For repeat prescriptions and info
Garan Vale Historic Homestead
The Restaurant ♦ genuine Italian dining experience (or take-away and home delivery)
The Function Centre ♦ ideal wedding facilities (catering up to 120-150) or a venu for other events.
Born Vintage - Best Kept Secret of Braidwood
Come on in! It's more than a historic home (aka the "Old Maternity Hospital") .
Born Vintage is a treasure trove located off the mainstreet of Braidwood - 'the Elrington streetby-pass' if you want to avoid the stop-n-go of maintsreet traffic ...
We specialise in the unusual and promise that it will be genuine.
Our displays include
- older antiques,
- retro 60's and 70's, and
- even pop culture fun.
A house full of furniture, kitchenalia, linen, glassware, porcelain, and decorator bits will draw you from one room to the next.
As you reach the back of the shop, the vintage clothes will continue to excite and inspire you on the fashion front.
You haven't shopped until you've shopped Born Vintage!
Hours: Monday, Thursday & Friday 10.00 am - 5.00 pm, Saturday 10.00 am - 3.00 pm
We proudly accept:
Contact Details:
Born Vintage Collectables & Old Wares
25 Elrington Street Braidwood NSW 2622
p: +61 2 4842 2991
Map reference
Note: Google Map says house no 27 - don't worry, the street view IS No. 25!
A sample of vintage and retro clothing (click to enlarge)
A sample of our rich collection of antiques and collectables (click to enlarge)