. . . . Ricks Extra Long Summer . . . .: Rocket, stars and Baby selfies

I sit here, writing this at 11.41am on Monday 3^rd September 2018. I am on the dock, at the lake and have a cold beer sitting beside the laptop. The screen is difficult to see as the shimmering sun dances on the waves of the lake that sits just a few feet in front of me. The temperature is just over 20 Celsius and there are a number of boats passing by as the Canadians enjoy the last day of the final long weekend of a wonderful summer The weather this year has hardly dropped below 30 degrees since June and the lack of rain has hindered the growth of the mosquitoes that cam smite the city – so we have been virtually bite free all summer and the multiple opportunities to spend time outside, in the warm air, chatting, listening to podcasts, eating dinner or having a drink have not been wasted.

Add to all this the celebration today of 2 full years since a bunch or strange people from around the globe gathered together with me and my missus to watch as we ‘got a bit married’ and you can probably guess that for us, me and the small person called Hannah, life at the moment is pretty sweet. We know winter is coming, but we are looking forward to the near and far future with open eyes happy anticipation of what is to come. For now, though, we should concentrate on the present and the previous couple of weeks since I last filled you in on the coming and goings of what has been a great extra-long summer.

The Rocket

Last December when we went to the greatest city on earth to see Chris and Emma get their wedding schnizzle on - we were given a cool little model of ‘The Rocket’. The rocket was one of the first steam locomotives and it won a trial to be used on the Liverpool to Manchester Railway – widely regarded as the world’s first railway – in 1829. As kids we were always interested in trains as dad was a train geek! Especially steam trains.

We spent a considerable amount of time as little boys touring the Railway museum in York and riding steam trains with mum and dad. At the science and industry museum in Manchester there was even working replicas of the old trains like the Rocket, that would take passengers on trips around the museum. So, this was a perfect gift for me – a steam train play with and a model to build. Unfortunately, with life getting in the way of things I didn’t have the time to sit down and get started on the model until just before Hannah was born. It then took me 3 months of working on and off to get the thing finished!

It’s a beautifully crafted wooden model that you painstakingly glue together. Sometimes working for 5 or 10 minutes and then having to wait half an hour for glue to dry before it is possible to continue, so you can see why it took so long. But it was worth the wait as I now have a working (hand driven no steam involved) model of one of the greatest pieces of engineering ever created. By turning a handle, the wheels turn and the piston pumps along the side of the engine itself. I must be honest, when I finished it I sat there – all alone in semi darkness at about 11pm, turning the handle, just watching the motion or the wheels and pistons. It is wonderful. So, a big thank you to Chris and Emma for this amazing present - Here are a few pictures of the build and a video of the finished model.

The steel is holding up the adjustable base so that the wheels align correctly (The glue took ages to dry here)

The chimney also had to be held by had for about 25 minutes while the glue dried

Finished

Here is the video...

Stars

Before we dropped the sprog in July, we had decided we wanted a decent new camera to be able to document all the good bad and ugly parts of being parents. Both our old cameras were falling apart and so we tried our DLSR's and mirrorless cameras hoping to find a good enough camera to carry about, that would give us the greatest photos. What we discovered though is that we are basically amateur at best with photos. Neither of us could be arsed carrying a big camera about everywhere and when the camera came with a 800 page manual we knew we needed something smaller and easier to use. We ended up with a lovely little canon gx9, which although very small, is also very powerful and with wifi, touchscreen and a small easily understandable manual - above all - we will actually use it.

All summer we have been hoping to test it out with a few photos of stars at the cabin at night, but the gods of weather have been against us and after many clear afternoons, the clouds rolled in and the night times were not great for stargazing.

Until this weekend

We had two good nights this weekend and even though the camera battery needed charging, I managed to set up and take a few photos. I didn't know what to expect, but I will let you make up your own mind whether or not it was worth the effort. First a short video of the stars moving, then a few photos of last night.... enjoy..

So that has been the last couple of weeks. Of course I know that some of you are only here for the baby photos. So here you are - I hope these take away your baby craving for a week or two. Hannah is amazing. She is now able to lift her own head, smiles all the time and is growing into a proper little person. She is so much fun. Enjoy and I will be back in a couple of weeks...