Great Reads

One of my favorite books of this year is one I just finished "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline.

It is sort of a Hunger Games/Charlie and the Chocolate Factory type of book taking place in the future. All computer, gaming, virtual reality, and lots of 80s nostalgia.

I got the audio version read by Wil Wheaton - he did a fantastic job - get the audio if you're going on a road trip.

If you were into any sort of computer or D&D type games of the 80s, you will REALLY appreciate it. Otherwise, the 80s references to movies was fun in its own right.

Give it a go if you're looking for something different.

:)

RIP Tony Moore

A great letterboxing icon has passed.

:(

Fun Plants

I just can't wait until I can get my own little greenhouse. I have been looking at plants and plotting my plan of attack. One of the things I just love, is getting the more 'exotic' plants. You know, the ones you won't find at the local garden center. Every citrus variety, olive, avocado, tea, coffee, etc. It's like a collecting hobby to me - finding and caring for these exotics.

A place I found here in the UK gets two thumbs up from me as a supplier of these sorts of plants. Carreglefn Nurseries. I have ordered a few plants from them now and have had great success. Each plant comes nicely packed up and includes feeding and care instructions. All the plants have been very healthy and only shipped during the right part of the year for each variety.

Check them out if you are in the UK and just want to check out something different. They aren't cheap (for that, you'll just have to get some seeds from the various catalogs) but how many people do you know that have their own coffee plant?!

:)

Coffee Tips

Ran across this great article from Freakonomics on how to make the perfect cup of coffee with a French press.

I was all excited to try it out when I realized my French press got packed up when we moved house at end of last year and it now is lost in a box in a storage unit. Booooo!

Oh well, I'll get it sometime. Meanwhile, here's the link for you to check it out:

Coffee

Garden: Planting Schedule

Ran across this Planting Schedule by Mel Bartholomew online for raised bed gardening. Nice chart to plan your veggies for the year.

iPhone: Gardening Apps

On one of the gardening blogs I enjoy reading, they did a post on the best gardening iPhone apps that is very informative. As we now in the thick of springtime and enjoying the emergence of flowers and bees and visits to the garden centers, here is the link to check out these apps and website:

My Garden School iPhone Garden Apps

Letterboxing: Dartmoor Spring Meet

It's that time of year again. The clocks spring ahead in the UK, so that means it's time for the Dartmoor Spring Letterbox Meet. It's always held the Sunday of time change weekend, so here's the details if you want to go - their typo with the Autumn wording. There are always tables, new box clues, supplies, and lots of boxers to meet:

The Autumn Meet will be on 27th March 2011 at Lee Moor Village Hall ( NOT AT PRINCETOWN! ), commencing at 10am.

For those individuals and organisations wishing to put out a Charity Letterbox Walk in the Spring, please remember to obtain permission from D.N.P in plenty of time. Contact Sue Bishop 01626 831006, or visit their website www.dartmoor-npa.gov.uk

For more details on hiring stalls at the Meet contact Stephanie & Roger Paul 01647 231080. Email: rogerpaul@eprimus.co.uk

iPhone: Location Games

I have been trying out a few of the location-based 'games' on the iPhone. (I think they are available on other devices, but don't quote me on that!) The 3 I have looked at are: Gowalla, FourSquare, and SCVNGR.

You use these apps as you check in to various locations as you either travel or just go about your daily life. The only people who see where you are your friends who are also on these apps and you have okayed. You can check in, take a picture, make comments on any sort of locations - parks, resturants, buildings, roads, stores, etc. At first the idea was lost on me, but after giving it a go, it is actually kind of fun to check in various places, read comments from others, and compete against others for most check-ins.

Over the weekend, I went up to Oxfordshire, so had a good chance to try all of these. First off, there is a nice comparison post on Gowalla vs FourSquare here, so I won't go into any specifics.

Now, on to what I found. My favorite of the 3 was Gowalla. It was visually interesting with great icons, easy to use, and my fav feature was that it updated spots as you moved so I didn't have to keep refreshing the screen. This was really handy while in the car as I could see places I could check in if I wanted.

FourSquare is fun as you can become the Mayor of each place. I think this works by whomever visits that loacation the most. I haven't become Mayor of anything, so can't really say if it works and how well. I like FourSquare as a friend is on it, but I had a hard time getting it to update locations as I traveled.

SCVNGR wasn't bad. It tried to pull in parts of both of the others, but didn't really have any outstanding features for me.

Gowalla was the best one for me and I will stick with it. FourSquare and SCVNGR seem best if you just want to check in while you are at a location, not moving about. If the Mayor idea sounds fun, then give FourSquare is your best option.

All 3 are free on iTunes, so pick them up and give it a go. Make sure you add me as a friend!

Using Library e-Books with iPhone

For the most part, I have gone to ebooks nearly completely. There does always seem to be some books which don't make it to ebook format until much later than the hardcover versions - if at all. In those cases where I just can't wait, I will get the hard copy of the book. But frankly, it just collects dust afterwards unless I can sell it on Amazon. (Where is PaperBackSwap when I need them?!)

I use the Kindle app (free!) on my iPhone to read books. I love it. A lot of people have commented that the screen is too small to read. Perhaps. But I always have my phone with me. If I spent the money on an actual Kindle unit or iPad, it would probably stay at the house most of the time and I would miss out on some quick reading opportunities (school pickups, school lessons, appointments of various types, etc.) All times where you just sitting for a short while and could be reading your book instead of twiddling your thumbs. Duoh!

Unfortunately, the downside of all of this is the cost. Regardless of what form you buy your books, the cost adds up for those of us who love reading. I have tried to use the library in the past for books, but find that the books I am looking for never seem to be there. Either they are out and there is a waiting list, or my book is just too vague to make the cut on books they purchase.

What about combining ebooks and the library? Would the books be more available? Would I use the library more and not purchase books as much? I decided to check it out.

First I had to get out my library card and check it online to make sure everything worked and it was all registered. Check. Now, how do I get the books to appear on iPhone?

For that you need an app called 'OverDrive'. This gets the books from the library to your phone. It's free, so add that to your iPhone. Also, you will need an Adobe ID (Adobe owns OverDrive. Go to their website and get this before you try to check out a book as it will hold up the process if you don't.)

Once you have those in place, you are ready for OverDrive on the iPhone. When you open up OverDrive, you'll see an option called 'Get Books'. Click on that. Next you will need to search for your library under 'Add a Library'. In my case, I have both a Surrey (county) card AND a Hampshire (county) card as I lived in both. I found the Surrey library listed first and clicked it. At the bottom of the screen, you should see your library system listed along with the formats available. (I can check out ebooks and audio books with both Surrey and Hampshire.) After clicking on your library, you should find yourself at their log-in screen at the library. Here is where you put in your library card number and password.

Once you are logged in with your library online via OverDrive, you are ready to find and checkout books. I was a bit disappointed by what I found. Surrey only had about 400 ebooks and only 29 MP3 audiobooks. Hampshire was much better at just over 1400 ebooks and 295 MP3 audiobooks. I browsed through the books to find anything I was interested in checking out. MANY of the ebooks were checked out and I had to go in a waiting queue/reserve for them. (They will email you when the book is available and you have 3 days to check it out.) I clicked on one and did this. (Note: I got the email less than a week later so that wasn't too bad.)

Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything else I was interested in, so just picked any available ebook to try to download it. I clicked on the book and it added to the basket. Then 'Proceed to Checkout'. (You will be asked to login here if you didn't do it earlier.) Confirm. Then you should see the Download button for each book you checked out. They will download to the OverDrive app.

From this OverDrive app, you should see all the ebooks and audiobooks you have checked out along with how many days you have left on the loan via a little calendar symbol. I have books my OverDrive from both libraries so it is possible to use more than one - this is probably handy if you have both a local library and say a county, or university library you use.

And that's it. Just click on the book and you are reading library ebooks (or listening to the OverDrive MP3 audiobooks) on your iPhone! The books will automatically close once your loan time is up, so no more overdue books either.

I'm sure all this is the same for Android or the iPad or Kindle unit, so give it a go if you haven't yet. I haven't seen a lot of specific books I want, so not sure how much I will end up using this. The libraries REALLY need to do a better job of educating people on ebooks and improving the selection. Ideally, I would like to see a massive library available AND unlimited users checking out the same book at once. THEN, it would really be an awesome feature - and think of the popularity of libraries!

Blog Re-Design

It's been a few years with the same design on the blog, so made some changes. Everything is in same place and same items on sidebar. Only changes are just the template and colors. Will continue to tweak, but what do you think??

Bees: What Bee? and Where?

Another theory class this weekend. Had a nice talk on the types of bees out there. England basically has mongrels as so many different ones have been brought in and have now mixed.

I was surprised to learn that Germany is trying to only have the one bee - Carniolan. Many good traits of this species.

The British Black bee sounds good for the climate here, but definately has some personality issues. I don't want aggressive bees.

Last week I was thinking of what bees I wanted to get, and went ahead and ordered my first nuc. The bees are a Buckfast/Carniolan mix. Interested to see how they turn out with such nice traits from both breeds.

Almost wonder if there is any point in buying a specific bee. Looks like after the 1st year, the queen will go out and breed with mongrel drones in the wild anyway. But it should at least give me a nice gentle colony to get started with - and hopefully the queens traits will dominate.

Oh I think I forgot to mention - one of the first considerations I had for beekeeping was WHERE I would keep them. My little yard was not an option, so I was worried what options I had. Amazingly, I was having coffee last week with a friend at her house when the topic came up. She then informed that they had a field they owned and I could keep them there. I had no idea they had any property. What a great break of luck for me. They are only a few miles away so ideal for travel.

It was also this friend who told to just jump in and go for it this year. They have chickens and she told me about getting started with them and how they didn't know anything. But by just jumping in and going for it, they have learned so much. Yes, they did lose a few hens from foxes due to housing errors. But they fixed the issues and moved on. She said the same would probably happen to me. I would make some mistakes, but I would learn so much more than just reading and classes. Thus, I decided to go for it and started to look for my own bees.

Now that the bees are on order, my next step is to find a horizontal top bar hive. This is the hive I have decided to go with instead of the National. It will be a bit difficult as my local group seems to be National hive folks, but everytime I read about the top bar hives, everything just clicks with me. I like the concept, I like the design, I think its the right thing for the bees.

I like this design from Heatherbell over in Cornwall. Will need to research all the UK top bar sellers to see which I will go for. Lots of details online for building your own, but not my interest to build my own. Maybe someday, if I want to get more hives.

So, that is where I am now. Will try to update the blog with UK vendors I find that sell top bar items. I was amazed to see that Thornes, who are supposedly the biggest beekeeping supplier in the UK, doesn't even offer any top bar items. I guess the need isn't there. Oh well.

Until next time. . .

Bees: The Theory Class

I have been interested in beekeeping for at least 5 years now. Well before we moved to the UK. It simply got put on the back burner. I finally re-gained interest after looking into getting an allotment and noticing someone commenting on bees. The allotments immediately around me don't have any bees, so a quick search on bee groups put me in touch with a local bee association. I went to their 'tester' day to put on the suit, handle a frame, and see the bees up close. It was great and I joined that group right away. This was last Spring or Summer.

At the end of last year, I started receiving the Bee Craft magazine and wondering what I needed to do next. Luckily, an email from the group came out offering the basic theory course starting up in late January/February. I signed up, and here I am.

We have had 2 classes so far. The speakers have been great. They are very personable and knowledgeable. We meet for 3 hours each Saturday with a tea/coffee break in the middle which is nice for getting to know the others in the class.

They are very pro-National hives and have given us lots of information. Not too much mention of Top Bar or Warre type hives. I did learn that National hives are the most popular in the UK, while Langstroth are the most popular in the world, including the US. I'm not sure I know what the difference is - we went through the National hives pretty well, so I just need to read up a bit on the Langstroth so I can understand the differences.

We still have 6 more classes to go before the practical course starts up. I may be in a bit of bind for that one as we will be in US in April. Even so, I am moving forward with purchasing the basics. I'll go over that in the next post.

Bring in the Bees

I have been taking a beekeeping course and have started to get everything together to have a colony this Spring. I wanted to journal my experience with this so created a new blog. But I find having 2 blogs annoying, and as I don't use this one enough, I am just going to bring my bee posts over here.

Some new sidebars will appear with bee info - this is mostly for my own sake so I can find information easily. And the few posts I had started will appear here shortly.

Bring in the Bees!

Fantasy Baseball

Time again for our fantasy baseball league. If you are interested, post in the comments and I'll send you the link.

Wii Rocker

With at least 2 full months of winter ahead, we find ourselves with a lot of Wii time. My son is the number one user. He is especially fond of Lego Star Wars and New Super Mario Bros. The rest of us don't use it that much really. (Although we did spend a lot of last winter completing all the levels on the New Super Mario. It was really fun to do that as a family.) Thoughts of upgrading to xbox or Playstation went unanswered by Santa, so still using the Wii with more new games.

This brings me to my favorite Wii game. Band Hero. I think I must be a closet rocker because I love Band Hero. I love the guitar and I love the drums. A lot of time was spent in 2010 on Band Hero. But, like most games, it ran its course and interest was lost. Until recently. . .

In an effort to get our son interested in music, we have agreed to let him get a real drum set and join his friend in drum lessons. His friend was lucky enough to get a nice full acoustic drum kit from a relative. But when we visited and heard the noise coming from it, instant panic set in. It was LOUD. Really LOUD. It wasn't going to work in our small neighborhood. So, we discussed with friends dad and all agreed that electronic drum kits were the way forward. Set them up, give the boys some headphones, and we're all happy.

Step two. Find a drum set. There are tons of used sets for sale everywhere. A run through ebay shows a lot of choices out there. I started checking them out and setting up ebay searches. The problem is the prices. A lot of over £1000 kits out there and out of our range. The search dragged on. . .

Meanwhile, the drumset from Band Hero was covered up and lost in the corner. The little control knob broke and was loose in the case making it nearly unusable. This along with the guitar which got a remote control unit yanked out of it and made it also unusable.

While Christmas shopping at the Game store, I found some used Wii guitars and immediately grabbed one. Back in business! I ran home and set it up and started enjoying the game again. But son was now getting more interested in the game and pulled out the broken drums and tried to join in. Hmmm. Back to the search.

Here is where the point of this is. . .I had no idea how really cool games like Rock Band and Band Hero really can be in learning music. The new Rock Band 3 supposedly really teaches you the guitar with more detail then ever before. And the drums - well, I found this cool place which repairs those controllers. And even neater, is that you can hook up your real drum kit and override the game one and really play the drums along in the game. I am excited to get my son set up and try this.

Of course, I know I will be giving a go as well! :p