Icelandic sagas, new bike (maybe) and dramatic sky

While out cycling last week, I listened to an In Our Time podcast about Icelandic Sagas and it proved to be a very interesting and educational programme. The panel discussed the various types of sagas, including family sagas and adventure sagas. the sagas  cover events in Iceland in the 10th and 11th centuries and were written in the 13th and 14th centuries. It’s probable – but there’s no definitive proof, that the written sagas were based on stories handed down in the oral tradition. If you want to read some of the sagas, then the Icelandic Saga Database is an excellent source. An added interest for me is that my former colleague at Charles Sturt University John Kennedy is an expert on the sagas. His book on translating the sagas is recognised as an authoritative work.

My existing bike – a 10 year old Giant OCR and while it is still a comfortable ride, it needs a new back wheel at some point. As I was walking to Belhaven Bikes my local bikeshop in Dunbar to collect my bike after another repair, I started thinking “New wheel? Mmm – how about new bike?”. I now have some catalogues for new bikes and I am particularly interested in the Forme Longcliffe 1.0 which has been very well reviewed. Now, given that I am a pretty average cyclist, it probably doesn’t matter whether I choose this bike or a similar one, but I’ve been doing my homework online and the Forme is very well reviewed. One aspect of reading reviews of bikes is that the reviews can often get very technical and pass my understanding of bike technology but I can usually get enough pertinent information. Watch this space.

May has been mainly cold, windy and sunless in this part of the world so far, so it was encouraging to have one sunny day on Friday, when we took our son, daughter in law and two grandchildren, who are visiting from Dubai, to Belhaven beach. There followed a dramatic and colourful sky in the evening. So I went out to the back of the house and took the photos below. The tide was going out and the sky was reflected in the sea at some points. I particularly like the mix of blues, pinks and reds.

Evening sky looking towards Dunbar harbour

 

Evening sky looking towards Dunbar harbour

 

Evening sky looking towards Dunbar harbour

Tim Wootton, country diary and Librivox

A new exhibition at the splendid SOC gallery in Aberlady features the work of wild life artist Tim Wootton. The exhibition shows a real craftsman at work, with the larger paintings providing a detailed view of birds in particular, and Tim’s depiction of the colours of the birds are excellent. The environment in which the birds live is always shown in detail and provide the viewer with another range of colours and shapes. If you can’t get to the exhibition, then check out Tim’s website. I contacted Tim and he very kindly sent me the two photos below. The first one of the eider ducks really appeals to me as  I watch eider through my scope at home. Note the great contrast in colour between the show-off males and the more reserved (in colour) females. The second photo shows a completely different landscape and I particularly like the representation of the tree with its curving limbs and branches.

Staying on a wildlife theme, I am a regular reader of the Guardian which appears in my letter box Monday to Saturday. Having the Guardian there each morning is one of the ways in which I judge that the world is a) civilised and b) in reasonable shape. On the few occasions that the paper is late or has gone astray (e.g. new paper boy/girl), I know for a fact that the world is not right. One excellent feature of the Guardian is its Country Diary which features observations by a range of writers across the UK. This week’s entry by Paul Evans struck me as very poetic in its descriptions of bees at Wenlock Edge. Evans refers to the bees as “bombastic majesties” and writes ” The carder bumblebee hovered at the mouths of flowering currants with the precision of a docking satellite, a furry ginger blur against carmine pink flowers”. The phrase “a docking satellite” is startling and the rest of the article gives the reader an excellent feel for the environment, as well as the writer’s enthusiasm for his topic.

Recently, a good friend introduced me to Libribvox. The website states that “LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net”. You can listen to audi0books, short stories or plays on your laptop or you can download books or plays. I have been listening to Hedda Gabler while riding my bike. One of the added value aspects of Librivox plays is that you get the stage directions as well as the voices of the characters in the plays e.g. it tells you that Hedda Gabler has just entered the room or that Hedda Gabler looks aghast. A great new resource for travellers, walkers, bike riders – and everyone else.

Eider cascade by Tim Wootton

Winter sun by Tim Wootton

Weekly photo challenge – orange

Here are my entries for this week’s challenge. Check out Sue’s website for much, much more. I was surprised how many photos I had that has orange in them.

Freshly landed prawns at Dunbar harbour

Boat in the orange sunset at Coral Bay in Cyprus

Orange centred polyanthus

Dunbar life boat

Butterfly with orange stripes

Nicosia, gecko and tulips

Nicosia is a divided city, with the more prosperous Greek Cypriot side in the newer part of the city and the Turkish Cypriot side in the old part of the city. From 2003, people have been allowed to cross into the Turkish part of the city. However, actually doing the crossing is a bizarre experience for most people, as it represents a step back in time. Firstly, you have to fill in a small piece of paper, giving your name and passport number. When you get to the head of the queue, you hand over your passport and form, and the man/woman then manually inputs your details on a computer, stamps your piece of paper and returns it to you. When you return, you have to show both passport and paper. The Nicosia divide is a very complicated issue and no doubt my criticisms of the process would be contested by some in the Turkish part of the city. It is a strange experience nonetheless. The old part of the city (see photo 1) is historically very interesting and the highlight is the Selimiye Mosque - a magnificent piece of architecture to be admired whether you have religious beliefs or not. The mosque was a former cathedral - interestingly, there is no mention that I can see of this fact in the first link to the Mosque. This reminds me of my teaching and writing about website evaluation. We also went to see the impressive Buyk Han or Great Inn. When you enter the courtyard and look up, you could be forgiven for thinking that you were in a former monastery, but it is a 16th century building built as an inn for travellers. Today, it is a busy restaurant/cafe.

I’ve seen geckos in many parts of the world and I love watching them. Photo 2 shows a larger gecko on a limestone wall in Cyprus. Geckos have ability to cling on to rock surfaces and you often see them soaking up the sun on the rocks. They are fairly tame creatures and will willing sit and pose for your camera shots, ony daring into crevices if you get too near. You can also spot geckos in rocks as they often leave their tails sticking out of the crevice. They dart about very quickly and have great acceleration for their size.

In my garden recently, a dozen double headed tulips appeared. I had forgotten that I had planted them in the autumn, so this was a pleasant surprise. What is fascinating about these flowers is that they change colour, being brighter and predominantly white, with pink lines, during the day when the sun is out. However, when the sun goes down or it’s dull, they become more predominantly pink. Photos 3 and 4 show a close up and a group of these charming flowers. It is thought that tulips – so often associated with Holland – originated in Turkey, thus giving a nice symmetry to this posting.

North Nicosia

 

Gecko

 

Double headed tulip

 

Double headed tulips

Weekly photo challenge – sleep

If you’ll forgive the pun, Sue’s weekly challenge caught me napping last week, as I hesitated over putting the photo belong in the “Worker” category. I’ve taken it out now and put it in for this week’s challenge, as it’s more appropriate. 

Sleeping in Uranquinty

This was taken in Uranquinty, 10K from Wagga Wagga (pronounced Wogga Wogga). This man was travelling to a job in Victoria and having a sleep after a long drive.

Laptop, Paphos and Greek Cypriot wedding

No blog last week as a) my wife and I were on holiday in Cyprus and b) I left my laptop in security at Newcastle Airport. I was on the plane and about to go through photos when I discovered that my laptop was missing. You can see my wife’s comment here. In Cyprus, we spent 4 days in Paphos and 3 days in Nicosia. We stayed in a hotel overlooking Coral Bay (Photo 1)  which is12k from the town of Paphos. In Paphos itself, the undoubted highlight was a visit to the World Heritage Site containing extensive mosaics. The range and size of the mosaics are amazing and the photos on the website show the detail of mosaics which covered whole floors of large rooms. When you think that each piece of mosaic was hand chipped from stone and then laid by hand, you realise the extensive work which went into making these mosaics. The houses on the site were owned by wealthy Roman or Cypriot people and they show an amazing level of sophistication. We also went to the Tomb of the Kings, (Photo 2) where you can see an extensive range of burial chambers which date back to 300 BC. It’s worthwhile doing your homework before this visit, or buying the book, as there is no signage at any of the catacombs.

The main purpose of our visit was to attend a Greek Cypriot wedding party in Nicosia. Our friends’ daughter Fiona married Costa and the were married in Scotland on the previous Sunday. The Scottish wedding’s meal was followed by speeches from the bride’s father, the groom and the best man, another Costa. the best man stole the show as at the end of his speech, he asked the bride and groom to look into each other’s eyes. He then said that he had been studying statistics of marriage. to the newly wedded couple he said “You are now looking at the person (pause) most likely to murder you!”. In the evening , there was traditional Scottish dancing including Strip the Willow. The Cypriot wedding party had an excellent meal but no speeches, but it did involve us in traditional Greek dances such as the Syrtos. This was danced properly by a group of guests but then everyone else was invited to join in. (Photos 3 and 4). It was a great evening and an introduction to a different culture. More on Nicosia in the next posting.

Coral Bay Cyprus

Tomb of the Kings Cyprus

Greek dancing – proper version

Greek dancing – others invited

 

Weekly photo challenge – worker

Below is my contribution to Sue’s weekly challenge.

Building work in Venice

This photo shows building workers in Venice – no roads here, so materials are loaded from the boat.

Lifting seaweed in Coral Bay, Cyprus

This photo shows 3 young men manually lifting piles of seaweed on the beach at Coral Bay, near Paphos in Cyprus.

Craning day, cycle route and Ben Waters, and Bert’s Bar

This morning, I walked along to Dunbar Harbour to see the biannual craning day. In the spring, the yachts are craned into the harbour and in the autumn, they are craned out, as the high tides in winter could cause damage. Organised by Dunbar Sailing Club, craning is an elaborate process of fixing straps to the yacht, rapidly painting over the gap left by the supports, holding the yacht with ropes at either end, and steering the yacht over the harbour. Photos 1-3 below show the spectacle.

Out on my bike yesterday, for a 27 mile (44K) ride and a fairly hilly route after the first 5 miles, to Cockburnspath (pronounced Coburnspath or Co’path), up the Abbey St Bathans road, up the hill to Oldhamstocks, then another hill as you leave the hamlet, on to Innerwick and then up a big hill to The Brunt farm, then (thankfully) down Starvation Brae (Photo 4) and back home against a cold east wind. On the bike, I was listening to, amongst others, Ben Waters’ Boogie 4 Stu. Waters is a fabulous piano player in the boogie woogie style and he features heavily on the alblum. There are also tracks featuring Mick Jagger singing Bob Dylan’s Watching the river flow and the final track is Ian Stewart (to whom the album is a tribute) sings a great version of Bring it on home.

On Tuesday, my pal Roger and I had our monthly meet up and we’ve been trying out food and beer in a range of pubs in Edinburgh. We started in Teuchters for lunch and some excellent Timothy Taylor Landlord beer. Across the road is Bert’s Bar where we had the tasty April Theses. This bar has several exhibits relating to the law on the walls, as well as account books from the pub dating back to the 1940s, so it’s an unusual bar and well worth a visit, although I’d avoid days when there are rugby internationals in Edinburgh.

Craning day in Dunbar harbour

The yacht is strapped up and ready to lift.

 

Craning day in Dunbar harbour

Swinging the yacht over the harbourside

Craning day in Dunbar harbour

Lowering the yacht into the water

 

Looking down Starvation Brae

The road ahead, tulips and compass rose

Each week I send an email to people on my Wagga Wagga Road Runners distribution list, partly to forward results from the previous weekend and partly to keep list members aware of races going on in Scotland. This week, I alerted people to the Sri Chimnoy Self Transcendence 50K and 100K and also to the Sri Chimnoy statement at the top of their website “There is only one perfect road/And that road is ahead of you, always ahead of you”. It’s one of these interesting/ambiguous sentences that is open to different interpretations e.g. humanist or religious. So, is there such a thing as a perfect road? Or does it mean that we should always keep going and persevere (in what ever we do) in the hope of finding the perfect road. My own interpretation is that we should always look forward. Never look back and never go back (especially to a former workplace) has always been my motto.

I took some photos of tulips which my wife bought last week – see photos 1 and 2 – and today, in my poetry calendar, there is a poem by Grace Schulman entitled Celebration and it contains the phrase “.. tulips, white cups inscribed by licks of flame”. I’ve said before on this blog that I have a penchant for close up photography and that these close-ups often show an abstract image. The insides of the tulips can appear to be something completely different from what they are e.g. in photo 2, what does the 3 pronged white feature remind you of? An animal’s skull, perhaps? And the weird pollen topped structures – skyscrapers? There are certainly “licks of flame” in the first photo.

I’m reading Don Dellilo’s 1980s novel The Names which is set in Greece, in and near Athens. It features American ex-pats working in Greece and in the Middle East and is often a reflection of how Americans view other countries and how these countries see the USA. Although published in the 1980s, it still feels very relevant today. At the end of one chapter, De Lillo writes about Athens as a city which brings in people from elsewhere in the world and these people have different backgrounds e.g. escaping terror, seeking a better standard of life or gaining employment in the city. Athens absorbs these people and their histories and is “A compass rose of memory”. On reading this, I had to look up the words compass rose, as it was new to me. Was it a type of rose and an analogy to the multipetalled flower reflecting the backgrounds of Athens’ citizens, for example. I was wrong. A compass rose is a compass designed in the shape of a rose and dates back to the 13th century. You live and learn as you make your way on the road ahead of you.

Tulips with bursting centre

Tulip with intriguing centre

Weekly photo challenge – music

Here are my suggestions for the Weekly Challenge – see Sue’s website for more. The first one is not a great photo technically, with the sunspot in the middle but the contrast between the piper’s kilted uniform and what he’s playing was striking. The 2nd photo was taken in Florence, where this man used to serenade the world from the window of his flat. He graciously agreed to have his photo taken.

Piper with unusual instrument