Exeter

If you live in or are visiting North Devon and Barnstaple just isn't enough for you anymore (and who can blame you - there's no way Wilkinsons makes up for the loss of Woolworths) then a trip to Exeter might be just what you need. The new shopping centre at Princesshay is great. There's a massive Next, loads of other clothes shops, a Hotel Chocolat, and more shoe shops than you could hope to see in one life time. I know this because yesterday I went in every single one of them.

It's bit of a drive from North Devon, about an hours travelling. I drive down to Tiverton and from there cut through on the country lanes towards Credition as it seems shorter than going all the way down the duel carriageway and on the M5. Plus its much easier to get to the city centre car parks that way.

It was lovely and sunny when my eldest daughter and I arrived and we set about shopping straight away. Now I feel I have gone sadly wrong in raising her as she is not a great lover of shopping and has no interest in shoes whatsoever. However, the converse trainers she lives in will not see her through the winter weather on her walk to college everyday so I insisted she have something waterproof. After hours of walking she eventually talked me into buying another pair of converse trainers with a plastic coating! I am not convinced but she'll live and learn.

Princesshay also holds one of my favourite restaurants - Nandos. Unfortunatley yesterday the wait for a table was about 30 minutes so we resorted to MacDonalds instead.

Some Pictures To Get Caught Up

I've been carrying around my little USB flash drive thing for a while now, and it's got some pictures that I meant to put up one time or another, but never had the chance. So, here are some selected pictures of what's been going on here recently:

This is a little flower/rock garden I made in the front of our house from rocks I dug up in the yard (while trying to flatten the dirt for the grass). We got those little bushes put in, too, by the same people who brought the sod. I was impressed, since it was only about 100 bucks for 360 of those little plants, and the people even planted them for us.

Back for Costa Rican Mother's Day (August 15th), we took Angela's mom and her sister Toni to Termales del Bosque, one of our favorite tourist spots. This is them enjoying a much-deserved froofy drink in the hot springs.

Also in August, we went to Colorado, but when we came back, we discovered that the drawers in our closet were all covered with mold on the bottom. It's hard to see here, but it was like salt and pepper mixed in with wasabi. Mold is depressing.

We also bought a couple dozen Costa Rican tamales recently when Berl�n's community hall was broken into. Some thieves took the school's cooking supplies, so local mothers made and sold a bunch of tamales to pay to replace them. Why was the school in the community hall, you ask? Because the roof of the school blew off nearly a year ago in that fierce wind storm, and they've not gotten around to replacing it. Therefore, Berl�n's school is back to one room, with plastic tarps dividing the grades. Dammit.

We bought a carrier to take our assorted cats to the vet, and for some reason Cucho loves to sleep there. Thus proving once and for all that Cucho is a moron.

My friend and ex-coworker Angie (or as I call her, "Fonseca Quiros," due to her last names) sent me this picture of us during a job fair. I'm the one on the right.

This is a nice plant called "rice and beans" due to its two flowers of different colors. On our trip to Lim�n during Annie's visit, a lady gave us a twig from the plant, and we put the twig in some water in our kitchen. A few months later, we have a beautiful plant.

When I was walking around Berl�n the other day, there was fog everywhere except a little opening in the clouds, showing Puntarenas and the shining Gulf of Nicoya around it. Berl�n is frustrating but beautiful at times.

Speaking of beautiful, here's an orchid that my mother-in-law Cecilia had growing on her back patio. It's strange, since it grows down, from the roots of the plant.

Nature's weird.

Well, thanks for reading. I'll be trying to get some more posts up later this week, but until then, hope this finds everyone in good health!

Aurora Borealis In Photos

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About 2 or 3 years ago one of the most loved anchormen of the Italian TV, Mike Bongiorno (dead a month ago), wanted to partecipate on an expedition to the North Pole. He was more than 70 years old. So, I think, if one wants to see the Aurora Borealis, there have to be special tours and there are possibilities to visit one of the cities like that where the author took his photos.

The author of these photos lives in Norilsk. I've seen many photos of Aurora Borealis. I wrote about a special site and the "championships" for the best photo of it. They were beautiful, the photos, but "photoshopped". And they had no landscaft there. It seemed not natural. That is why I like these photos.


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Still Around

I realized I've not been on the internet in a week or two (when my students started complaining that I'd not gotten their emails). I should remedy that. I'll get some posts written ASAP. And I've almost finished the video game Fable, about 5 years after most people finished it, I realize...

In the meantime, enjoy this poster/calendar displaying Costa Rican meat cuts (taken at my sister-in-law Toni's house):

(First Rule of Blogging: Always keep an image like this on hand to post in a hurry, just in case times get busy)

The Baymen

Baymen is a regional term that refers to the small, independent, fishermen who make their living on the bays of Long Island. Usually associated with the shellfishermen of Great South Bay on the south shore of Long Island, they are also a common sight on the larger bays of Long Island Sound; Oyster and Huntington Bay in particular.
Using only manual tools, these two shellfisherman worked the West Harbor section of Oyster Bay last week. This photo was taken while looking south from Centre Island Village Beach.

Back To Baysics
Loving Long Island: Boating With The Baymen
NY Times: Proud Baymen Scraping Bottom
Keeping The Oyster In Oyster Bay
Map

Das Boot

Perhaps it is a coincidence, but I rarely see submarines in the summer months. During September and October however, I see them quite frequently. They move along at a good speed and have a habit of sneaking up on you. Despite being surfaced, they seem to blend in with the horizon, until you eventually realize that a portion of the horizon is moving towards you.

My first encounter with a submarine occured about 25 years ago between Montauk and Block Island. It was also the scariest. With no other boats around and a relatively calm sea, a submarine surfaced on our starboard side. I don't recall how close it actually was, but it's sheer size made it appear to be right alongside us. I still remember the 5 seconds or so, where I did not know exactly what was happening. It was as if the ocean just opened up.

I have yet to visit the USS Nautilus Museum in Groton, but it is on my rainy day list. According to its website, it has the largest collection of submarine artifacts in the country. Visitors can also tour the USS Nautilus, which was the first nuclear powered submarine. Admission is free.

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USS Nautilus Submarine Museum

Groton Naval Submarine Base

TV Kings Pointer

The Kings Pointer is the flagship training vessel for the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point. Built in Tacoma, she was launched in 1983 and served as a surveillance ship for the U.S. Navy. She was converted to a training vessel when acquired by the academy in 1992. She is 224 feet long with a beam of 43 feet.

The forecast does not look very promising, but two smaller ships from the USMMA will be on display this weekend at the annual oyster festival in Oyster Bay. The Liberator and the Growler will be offering tours at the Oyster Bay Waterfront Center.

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Kings Point Waterfront Blog

Wikipedia: Kings Pointer