Good Morning, America, How Are You?,

Patents Pending.

I went to the Patent Office yesterday to register some inventions. The lady at the main desk pulled out a form. She wrote down my personal info and then asked me what I had invented. I said, "well, a folding bottle, to start with" She said, "OK. And what have you called your folding bottle?" "A Fottle", I replied. "What else have you invented?" she queried. "A folding carton", I said. "And what have you called that?" she replied. "A Farton", I confirmed. She sniggered and said, "Those are silly names and one of them sounds a bit crude." I was so upset that I walked out without telling her about my folding bucket.

Flee! The Robots are Coming!!!!

'Calculord3' is on facebook. I don't do facebook, but for those of you who do, I'd suggest 'friending' a power-crazed, six-inch high monomaniac tyrant just might be your only hope of salvation.
Here

Music Monday?

I saw this first on the Presurfer.... it's elsewhere too. But in the spirit of my gritty gears, I thought you might like to see Laurel and Hardy and some dancing girls with a snappy tune sung by an Azerbaijani pop princess.
The song? Ohh, the Andrews Sisters did it way back, but this is more fun.

"Bei Mir Bist Du Scheen", sung by Ilhana, got to number one in the Azerbaijani charts. Where else but here could you listen to an Azerbaijani number one AND watch Laurel and Hardy (and a chorus line, whew!), dance?





Scheen!

Pots from my Past

I was at my sister's house for a party, and met a few pots I'd made back in yesteryear. I think the teapot will date from about 1988?  Or thereabouts.

Nice to see them, I'd forgotten that she has a fair collection of my stuff.

 

 

 

 

 

Driving Home Yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday in the Rain

 

My pal, Ken, and I, went to Howarth, West Yorkshire, to try out the beers of the Howarth Steam-Brewing Company.  On the way into the village (famous as the home of the Bronte sisters, all that Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre stuff... "Take me, Heathcliffe!")

we passed over the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway, and I thought I'd stop to grab a couple of pics of  the scene outside the engine-shed. As I turned to go, I heard a whistle behind me, and spun around in time to film an approaching train.

I was drenched, it was raining heavily, the pics are blurry, but hey. It's fun.

The beer and new friends were good too. 

The Red Dirt Girl shares my enthusiasm for trains, and I wished she was there. I confess, last time I took her to Howarth, I bullied her into mountaineering up the steep village street, when I could have parked at the top.
I think, though, that struggling to get somewhere makes you appreciate it all the more.  Sorry, my dear.

Some pictures from an earlier, sunnier visit:

Moving House?

Back a few years, there was a movie called 'Nights in Rodanthe', it starred, according to hollywood, Richard Gere and Diane Lane, but to me the star of the movie was the house itself.  The movie was a bit slow and lacklustre, and with a crummy ending.

Now, the house you see in the movie, is an illusion. Oh yes, it was based on a real house, but a real house heavily modified by the production department, all those blue shutters, the big deck, well, they went on for filming, and promptly came off again. I know this because I happened upon a pic on another blog, of the house standing, bereft, and forlorn, all alone on the sands.
Illusory or not, it's just the sort of house I'd like, all those different levels, high up look-out rooms with a view, deck opening out of the bedroom, external stairs... I'd like this house up on a hill, in a forest....
Or by the sea, but on a nice solid promontory, well above the waves. Quite honestly, the only word I can think of for someone who builds something like this on wooden pilings, in dunes, on a hurricane coast, is 'stupid'.

 Not quite as in the movie, but I thought it looked similar.

Lots of shutters and the deck improve it, I think.

 In movie disguise

And now, the real thing.

Battered by storm, and condemned.

 

The house, which I though looked rather old and quirky, is certainly quirky, but hardly old. It dates back only as far as 1988. 

Back then it did not have its feet in the ocean. Houses here are coming in for vociferous criticism, as some residents of the Outer Banks believe the houses themselves are contributing to erosion of the coast. This one, 'Serendipity', came in for a big share of that criticism, the owners, it was said, had bulldozed dunes in a futile attempt to save it. They put it up for sale, at a pretty steep price, but, surrounded by storm, its sewage tanks destroyed and water and electricity lines severed, it's hardly surprising that the market was not brisk. Local authorities had given it ten days, before it must be either moved, or demolished. However, a couple who were fans of the movie read of its impending doom. They offered a more realistic price, it's said.

And.... rescued it.

We just don't do this here in Britain, uproot and shift buildings. I've seen it in National Geographic, and in TV documentaries. I'm overawed by the teams in the U.S. who have the skills and patience to jack up a building like this, insert a steel girder raft, and wheels, beneath it, and then haul it with a WWII tank transporter to a new home. Amazing.

It has been moved to a new home, a little under a mile from its first one, and is being refurbished, and will, if the new owners have their way, end up internally and externally, pretty much as it appears in the movie. The real house's interiors actually look nothing like the movie, whose interior shots were all done in the studio.  But they will, soon.
You'll be able to rent it for your holiday, at an eye-watering price.
A couple of years from  now, though, who'll remember a less than stellar movie called 'Nights in Rodanthe'?

Here's some background from the Island Free Press.  And more.