Why we need a chainsaw...

Where we live there it often seem are in the middle of a wind corridor. We often have quite strong gusts mostly in one direction. Looking at the landscape it there are not a lot of trees, buildings or other obstacles from where the wind comes.

In the beginning of June we had some serious wind and not surprising there was some damage in the area. We were lucky that only a branch form one of our trees broke but our neighbors had a whole tree blown onto a small shed. The branch from our tree fell into a bushy area breaking several shrubs. We needed to remove this and below is a video of the process. It took around an hour (the video is compressed to 5 minutes), and we had no motorized assistance. I feel that a chainsaw will be quite handy in these circumstances. There are also 3 dead trees in that we will remove at some stage and I am not sure that my ax skills are up well enough developed. We are thus considering getting a small chainsaw.



With all this wind around our house we at some stage start to measure it (as scientist we cannot help collecting). I also have several  ideas on how to harness this constant resource and will post some of the projects a bit later.

R&C

Crete

Unlike our previous post appears to suggest, we did not only give ourselves over to gluttony and wine during our vacation on Crete. We saw quite a lot of the islands' northwest coast and also explored the surroundings extensively on foot. According to my WiiFit step-counter, we walked an average of 7 km each day. This might be an explanation of why this gluttonous breakout did not cause that much of a BMI disaster when we got back.

But more about our adventures on Crete...
Below I will detail more of our pursuits on foot; our visit to Chania; and the two trips we took on the tourist train.

We walked a lot in the surroundings area of the Chania suburb, Agia Marina, where our hotel was. This included the nice beaches with crystal clear water, a small hill with an awesome view of Thodorou island on the one side and the White Mountains on the other, and picturesque buildings, which is an interesting mix of old and new. Below are some photos with more info.

The view from our hotel room. The sea and Thodorou island. The island is uninhabited and no humans are allowed on the island. It was declared a nature reserve, where the endangered Kri-kri mountain goats can procreate and live undisturbed. A myth about the island is that it is the leftover of a sea monster that wanted to attack the small sea side village but was turned into a rock by the gods in answer to the prayers of the villagers. Today you can still see the open mouth of the monster - ready to engulf the village.

Nice beaches along the coast

Crystal clear water

Nice view of the sea and island from a small hill. (An olive orchard in the foreground)

The view of the White mountains on the other side of the hill

Interestingly, on Crete the bottom parts of many things are painted white, houses, streetlamps and  trees (note also the legs of the animal/s :). The white is supposed to keep things cool and protects the trees against a certain tree disease. This tree grew right in the middle of a road... 

Obviously we got a bit of sun on the beach ...

Everywhere in this coastal tourist town, one could see traces of a bygone era of a small harbor town

The third day on Crete we took the bus to Chania, the second largest city on Crete after the capital, Heraklion. The history of Chania stretches into the mists of time. It was already an important city in Minoan times (27 centuries BC) when it was called Kydonia. It has a beautiful historic harbor and old town.

Lighthouse of Chania harbor

The harbor water was exceptionally clean and one could see schools of fish swimming underneath the boats

The snow capped "White mountains" form the backdrop to the historic Chania harbor

Wall of an old fort in the harbor

Chania - a mix of old and new

Chania old town

Small streets with eateries

Always time to look for interesting ants. Ronnie on the historic Kasteli hill in Chania, which has been inhabited since Neolithic times

We also visited the Archeological museum in Chania, which hold artifacts from excavations in the region. The museum building itself is very old and acted as a Franciscan church in the past. The exact date of building is unknown, but it is mentioned to
 have survived the great earthquake of 1595. In this photo various artifacts from graves are featured, including toys from a child burial.

Apparently the idea of shot glasses is very old :)

We also took two very pleasant outings on the "The Little Fun Train". This small tourist train/tractor is an interesting concept, a small tractor with passenger wagons that go on tours of the surroundings. There are multiple trips you can choose from with around 2-4 hours duration. We took the "Orange Valley" tour into the mountains and the "Pleasures of Crete" tour along the west coast. The Orange valley tour took us through rolling valleys of orange orchards with small towns (each with its own beautiful Greek Orthodox church building). We approached the White Mountains through small ravines in which Maple Trees were growing that reached ages of hundreds of years. At the foot of the White Mountains we had a rest stop at the small village of Meskla, while we enjoyed a glass of freshly pressed orange juice. The village of Meskla has a very old church. According to legends, this old church was built from stones that came from the temple of Artemis, which was built at this same site in ancient times. The old church is not used anymore and a new church was built just behind the old building. Below are some photos from the "Orange Valley" tour.

The old historic church in front of the new church

A very old Maple tree at the tea garden where we had our rest stop

The Little Fun Train

The tour along the west coast was very nice as well and had awesome views, a visit to a monastery with real monks and a guided tour of an olive factory. The tour started out following the coastal road along the northwest coast, passing traditional fishing villages and climbing over the Spatha Penisula. We visited the 14th century monastery of Gonia, which is still active today and then winded further up the narrow roads of Spatha Penissula with magnifiscent views of the Aegaen Sea. Reaching the top of the mountainous peninsula, we drove more inland through the olive plantations and small towns. We stopped at an olive oil factory (see more in our previous post here). Below are some pictures of our west coast tour.

Driving along the west coast - these small churches are found all over Crete and are memorials on places where people either lost their lives, or were saved

Winding road on the Spatha peninsula and breathtaking views over the Aegean sea. Thodorou island on the horizon

Enjoying the sun at a rest stop

I wondered who lived in that house on top of the hill and if they knew that their everyday view is probably one of the best views in the world. In the middle of olive orchards, surrounded by views of the Aegean sea coast and the White Mountains

In the heart of the Spatha Peninsula - rolling hills of olive orchards

Something very beautiful, and a common theme on Crete, that I thought I should mention, are the vines. You see them everywhere, old mature vines growing as "trees" outside, on porches, inside houses along the inner roofs, and even on top of roofs. A very beautiful and unique feature I thought.

Overall, both of us had a wonderful vacation and a delightful breakaway - we would really not mind going back to this island of treasures

Loot brought back from Crete, including cheese, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and some small mementos

C&R

Holidays and the winter that never was

This is a short blog about our holidays which, sadly, has come to an end. Ronnie and I had a very nice two week holiday over Christmas, which we spend mostly indoors doing as little as possible. Actually that is not entirely true since we did a lot of fun things on which I will elaborate on a bit more below (more complete blogs on some of these may follow).

Thus far this winter the weather was very disappointing. We only had one good snow storm but since the temperatures stayed above 0, the snow quickly melted. What was left was a rainy, wet winter with temperatures oscillating between 1 and 5 deg C and clouds that never cleared. Perfect weather for cozy indoor fun. The first part of the vacation we spent time on preparing for Christmas and enjoying the Christmas spirit. The second part were spent mostly playing with our presents. New Year was (unlike most previous New Years) snow free. We went up to the castle to watch the fireworks. Every New Year people congregate on various spots in town and shoot their own fireworks. We did not take any ourselves, but watched the usual mayhem of slightly unstable hands lighting up fireworks, with the occasional accidental explosion on the ground between crowds of yelling people. The castle is a very nice place to watch these goings on with a nice panorama over town with fireworks everywhere and the church bells ringing in the New Year.

Christmas tree and presents

Christmas food

Fusion South African Swedish Christmas food

New Year at the castle

So a bit more about what kept us busy during these two weeks of deserved laziness ….

As Christmas presents to ourselves we bought two sets of Lego modular buildings, the “Grand Emporium” and the “Fire Brigade”. Quite a few hours were spent assembling these giant 3d puzzles. But the end result was very nice actually.

Lego modular buildings:  "Grand Emporium" and "Fire Station"

The second present to ourselves was the “Wii U Fit” software and balance board. Using the Wii game console and the TV in combination with the balance board, the Wii Fit offers a wide range of routines to help you exercise and monitor your own fitness and weight. This is the perfect way to keep yourself moving even though it is cold and rainy outside. The routines are combined with fun games and there are nice graphs that tracks your progress.

To balance out the exercises on the Wii Fit with the appropriate amount of laziness, we laid in front of the television for hours, watching many different series. We finished the “Game of Thrones” series, which is highly recommended and also watched various anime series. At the moment we are continually watching the “Hunter x Hunter” anime and watch them as they become available each week. We finished the first series of “Attack on Titan” which is a really nice series so far. During the holidays we also watched the whole “Death Note” series. All three of these animes are highly recommended to watch. They have very strong storylines, multifaceted characters and gripping intrigues. Especially recommended is “Death Note”, a series that sweeps you up in the plot and keeps you captivated until the end.

As the vacation draws to an end (we are starting work again tomorrow), we are looking forward to an eventful 2014 and eagerly anticipate the actual start of winter (seemingly from next weekend on).

Wishing everybody a prosperous 2014!

C&R

Life after a long long winter

Yes ... we're still here. Still alive after a very long winter -we have just been lazy to write a blog. However, this winter was quite serious, in fact it still snowed yesterday! Things are looking up however, the daily temperatures are climbing as the sun is fighting the cold back into the arctic. I never actually realized how big an influence the latitudinal position of the sun has. I mean I knew it from reading it in books etc. But here you can actually FEEL it. In the winter it feels as if the sun makes no difference at all in the temperature, night and day -- very cold -- doesn't matter. In terms of lighting up winter days -- well it does a little bit better than temperature-- but also a very half-baked performance :)  But come spring, you really start to see how the sun fights back the cold. The night temperatures still drop, the snow still try to pour down, the daily shade temperatures are still in the minus but where the sun shines - things heat up and melt. So slowly the ice on the roads and bike-paths disappear, the snow and ice on the lawns and fields stay a bit longer and is still visible now in the shade patches. The gravel and ice mounds next to the roads stay the longest. (Gravel are strewn on the roads and bike-paths in the winter to make them less slippery). This winter was quite long and icy so quite a lot of gravel accumulated on the roads and next to the roads as ice/gravel mounds (because the gravel get scraped off with the snow when the snow plows clear the paths from snow). Come spring - big sweeper trucks sweep the gravel up to use again next year. Luckily, these sweeps began last week since it got quite difficult to cycle through the gravel. This is a sure sign of spring coming, also the first flowers started to break through and nearly all the ice on the river is melted now. Another sure sign - it's getting harder and harder to find an open spot in the bicycle stand. But we are happy things are heating up and look forward to the coming spring (I don't think we can really say it started here yet).

Next blog - hopefully this week - will be about our recent trip to Estonia, and our visit to the wonderful medieval town at the other side of the Baltic.

C&R

Winter is here!

Yay! The snow began on Wednesday and continued on-off until today (Saturday). While the magnificent white stuff were accumulating, the temperatures dropped lower and lower. At the moment we are at -8 and it is predicted to go down as low as -22 by Tuesday. I had a nice jog outside today at noon, with the temperature at -5 and fine snow drifting down. The sun was out, the landscape was brilliantly white and the air crisp and dense - it was very refreshing. I would have never believed such a thing is even remotely possible while living in SA - jogging in sub-zero temperatures, on the snow. Obviously, you do not where your T-shirt and shorts... gloves, woolen hat, thermal underwear and a top layer of clothes is good for -5. Last winter I jogged in -10 , then you need a thicker outer layer, like a thick woolen track-suit. It is really nice and invigorating and not at all difficult to run on the snow - the compacted snow on the footpaths actually provides a very nice run surface.

Below are some photo's of the past week's snow,

Wednesday night when the snow started

My bike Thursday morning - yes, I'm still biking to work

On the way to work in the park on Thursday

Trees have snow only on one side because of the way the wind was blowing

The road to work

The road to work

The road to work

Thursday evening - unused bikes have accumulated quite a layer of snow

Thursday evening - unused bikes have accumulated quite a layer of snow

Thursday evening - unused bikes have accumulated quite a layer of snow

Looks as if a marshmallow man exploded

A bright Saturday morning with the sun out

A bright Saturday morning from our balcony

Even our balcony had a thick layer

Out jogging - My running path

Out jogging -The landscape outside town

Out jogging - Looking at Uppsala from afar. The cathedral and castle is visible on the horizon

Out jogging - Ice beginning to form on the Fyris river

Out jogging - Snow and ice

Thanks Sweden - this is the type of winter we love

C&R