Tales of Home [9]

{{That worrying moment you realise your cat is more crabbit than you are!   My oldest cat Kiera showing me exactly how she feels about me taking her photograph! }}

 they are expressive little buggers aren't they, my cat did 'that face' to me today as well. I was trying to stroke her head.

It says: "Really?  REALLY?"

Its says " you do & you'll find out what I do when I DONT use the litter tray!"....

{{Going to work and coming home from work! }}

Ah yes, the joys of winter daylight hours.

where's the sun?

{{The what? Don't ask me Figg I'm on nights, its a world of darkness and artificial light for me 



Can be pretty though- (incidentally that red glow over the hills is not the coming dawn -though the sun does rise over there- that is the accumulated reflected glow of the densest  populated part of Scotland- that's the glow of everything from Gourock to Glasgow via Paisley glowing on the horizon).



Though on the few occasions I have seen daylight its been absurdly mild. Technically its winter, but it looks like Autumn still in some places-



and like spring in others, everything is still really green-



and stuff is budding way too early all the over the shop-



On a complete tangent found this old table with a weird wooden box on top of it in a rarely used room in the hotel. It being half 4 in the morning and having nothing better to do I decided to nosey and see what was in the box. And found this was!













Was somewhat surprised to find its English made. Usually when you stumble upon an old sewing machine in these parts its from one of the massive Singer factories that used to exist in and around Glasgow. Unusual to find an English one. So dont know much about this one- anyone know anything about sewing machines? }}

Fine craftsmanship back then. We see nothing like it these days.

{{Quick google indicates it was made somewhere between 1879 and 1910 in Ashton-Upon-Lyne in a partnership set up by two chaps of the names Jones and Chadwick, they started out as Jones and Chadwick but later dropped the Chadwich part and just went with the Jones Sewing Company when Chadwich left. Which given the name on that machine puts it probably between 1890 and 1910. The company survived till 1968 when it was bought out by a Japanese company and the Jones name was still appearing on sewing machines into the late 1980's. }}

I love the attention to the details. The time & care spent on decoration. Makes all the difference. That sewing machine is lovely. I miss all that, everything seems so "cheap N cheerful" or its sterile.

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{That worrying moment you realise your cat is more crabbit than you are!   My oldest cat Kiera showing me exactly how she feels about me taking her photograph! }}

ah yes, i recognise that expression, my GF's cat often does that too...still haven't worked out if it is a 'plotting to attack you' or 'where is my food hooman' look...

nice looking cat petty...though slightly scary expression!

saw this sign in town a couple of days ago:

These Geraniums have survived all thru this winter. I took these snaps yesterday. Things are on the move already

Already?? You folks have a warmer climate than us, we're hovering around freezing.

A question for the Brits:
It's fairly common for your beaches to have at least a band of round cobble at the top of the beach, isn't it? I can remember lots of it on the west coast of Skye, but that was many years ago, and now all the beaches run together in my mind...

The reason I'm asking is that I'm still working on that erosion control project I told you about, and now I seem to be getting some traction with the researchers. Here's the most recent story. http://www.thedailyworld.com/news/rock-cobble-beach-at-north-cove-working-as-planned-so-far/

Now there's a researcher flying out from University of Bath to observe and measure.  Not sure why he's coming all this way when you've got so many great beaches there. Maybe because ours are being made from scratch while yours are thousands of years old? So maybe he's wanting to watch a cobble beach being born? Just guessing...

Should be interesting. Hope he's not disappointed.

we have dunes with lots of low lying vegetation here as well, by all accounts dunes with vegetation stop erosion happening. its called the 'macchia mediterranea', or maquis shrubland its made up of many types of low growing shrubs and plants resistant to salt.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0964569195000607

"Dune management is defined as all measures aimed at the preservation and restoration of the natural values of a coastal sand dune area. It is essential that beach and foreshore are seen as parts of a whole dune system. Management must take into account all processes within this system. It should aim at nature conservation and wise use of coastal resources and all forms of land use should be ecologically sustainable. Dune management should work as much as possible ‘with’ the natural processes and not ‘against’ them.
Four types of Mediterranean dune systems (including Portugal and SW Spain) are distinguished:: mainland dunes, lagoon-bay barrier dunes, delta dunes and remnant dunes.
Like in most parts of the world, Mediterranean dunes fulfill several functions at the same time. The following functions will be dealt with: nature management, coastal defence and erosion, dune stabilisation and afforestation, agriculture, tourism and urbanisation, recreation, golf, information and education. The concepts of management which are considered include: sustainable use, large and coherent units, compensation, management planning, environmental impact assessment and function analysis.
Dune stabilisation is not always considered necessary. In case of stabilisation by planting, only indigenous species should be used, preferably pioneers and not trees. Planting of exotic species should be avoided."

https://www.jstor.org/stable/4312322?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Glad it's working, Dave! It seems you've got a lot of surveying going on, and lots of interest.

I'm sorry I haven't jumped on the satellite imagery the way I hoped since I've been called in to take over a class for an instructor who's had a back injury. Perversely the threat of extra work coming down the pike has made me procrastinate more before classes start. Not helpful.

Interesting abstract Figg. Rebuilding a stable natural dune system above our beach will be the next step for sure. There seems to be a desire among the big players to engineer the perfect dune and then build it all at once, exactly as engineered. I'm arguing for building it a little at a time, adding and repairing as necessary, and letting natural forces do the bulk of the work for us. I wish I could read the full article but JASTOR wants to charge me $43.95 (and that ain't happening )

halfwise wrote:Glad it's working, Dave!  It seems you've got a lot of surveying going on, and lots of interest.

I'm sorry I haven't jumped on the satellite imagery the way I hoped since I've been called in to take over a class for an instructor who's had a back injury.  Perversely the threat of extra work coming down the pike has made me procrastinate more before classes start.  Not helpful.

No worries Halfy. I was able to do enough back-of-envelope calculations using measurements pulled directly from my laptop screen with a ruler to get a rough idea of what I think a proper analysis might look like, then emailed some of the people who do such things for a living. I got no direct comments of course, but I'm pretty sure the message was received and a new path recognized. That's part of the reason we're getting extra monitoring now I'm thinking.... All good!

Hi Dave, Where I live in South East Sussex we have very pebbly beaches. The tide seems to push the shingle up the beach towards the land with the larger cobbles & rocks up at the surface. Along our beach are plenty of groins, mostly wooden but only a few that are concrete. Every so often a dredger pumps shingle on the beach but all in all Eastbourne beach doesn't really suffer. Its the chalky cliffs that are the danger & work is being done about that. Erosion is evident up on the cliffs, Houses have fallen onto the beach below, animal grassland has been lost & areas are closed to the public.

David H wrote:Interesting abstract Figg.  Rebuilding a stable natural dune system above our beach will be the next step for sure.  There seems to be a desire among the big players to engineer the perfect dune and then build it all at once, exactly as engineered. I'm arguing for building it a little at a time, adding and repairing as necessary, and letting natural forces do the bulk of the work for us.  I wish I could read the full article but JASTOR wants to charge me $43.95 (and that ain't happening )

Send me the link, I may be able to get it for free due to academic tie-in. No promises, but we can see.

azriel wrote:Hi Dave, Where I live in South East Sussex we have very pebbly beaches. The tide seems to push the shingle up the beach towards the land with the larger cobbles & rocks up at the surface. Along our beach are plenty of groins, mostly wooden but only a few that are concrete. Every so often a dredger pumps shingle on the beach but all in all Eastbourne beach doesn't really suffer. Its the chalky cliffs that are the danger & work is being done about that. Erosion is evident up on the cliffs, Houses have fallen onto the beach below, animal grassland has been lost & areas are closed to the public.

Thanks for the pictures Az! That really helps me understand the similarities along your part of the coast. Those wooden groins would be lucky to last through a winter here. If the posts weren't broken off by impact, the constant rubbing of the pebbles would grind them away. We've been trying sculptures of large logs with big root wads, loosely intertangled and anchored with boulders. I wish I had a way to upload pictures.

Shingle isn't a term we use much here, so I'm not quite sure how big or small it can get and still be called a shingle beach. If I were pressed, I'd have to guess that it would be bigger than sand but small enough that you could still walk on it without tripping. Is that close?