Community Manager for TweetDeck.
Living the dream in rural France.
@richardbarley
richardbarley.com
Random snippets of stuff from the web and my life
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My trusty companion
Left alone for weeks on end, Tom Hanks turned to Wilson, the football, for conversation.
Me? I had Bin Boy to keep my spirits up during my week of solitude.
Could't have done it without you BB!The Longest Night
As expected, last night we felt the full force of the storm called "Xynthia". I shut up shop early, moved the garden furniture inside, secured all the shutters and braced myself for the expected 130kmph winds.
Xynthia did not disappoint.
I must have fallen asleep at around 10pm, thinking that maybe we had been spared the worst, but at 3am the howling outside signalled that I was wrong. I have never experienced such high winds and was, first time in ages, really quite scared of what might happen. In an old house, with a dodgy roof, I shuddered to think of what the storm could achieve.
For the next 3 hours I laid listening to the howling wind and random bangs, crashes, scrapes and snaps that it was causing.
When the sun began to rise I dared to risk a look outside. There I found the result of the mornings madness.
- Half a dozen tiles scattered and smashed on the floor
- The postbox lifted from its position on the wall and dumped in the flowerbed
- The tarpaulin over the swimming pool half-submerged in the water and half flapping around in the gale that was still continuing to rage.
- The trampoline once again up-ended, having tumbled halfway across the field, wiping out one of our pear trees. Both tree and trampoline are beyond repair
- The huge old tree in our neighbour's garden fallen across the lane, totally blocking the way out A fair list of damage, but then again, given the events in Chile just 24 hours earlier, we should really count ourselves lucky. No-one was hurt and all most of the damage can be easily fixed. It certainly made my journey to fetch Lisa and the kids form the airport an interesting one. For some reason I chose to take the forest route towards the motorway and thus spent half an hour weaving around the dozens of fallen trees on the way. Not one of my better decisions. Luckily all was well, the flight arrived ahead of schedule and we all got home again safe and sound. That was one of the longest nights I have experienced and not one I would like to endure again for a long time.
Here comes summer!
Today was a beautiful day. We drove out to Châtelaillon-Plage and had a lovely picnic on the beach, followed by a long walk in the sunshine.
After the cold winter, it was so nice to feel the sun on our faces again. It's amazing how a single day of sun can make the summer seems only just around the corner.
The family are heading back to England tomorrow, leaving me at home to cat-sit. I think I know who is going to get the better weather :)(download)
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A Millennium Falcon that Actually Flies
A Millennium Falcon that Actually Flies
It's not the full thing, it doesn't fly on anti-gravity engines, and it doesn't include lots of wookie hair, but I definitely like this 11 by 8-inch Millennium Falcon released at Toy Fair. Why? Because the damn thing FLIES.
The remote-controlled Falcon comes with a charging controller, all for $50.
Is it Christmas yet...?
A walk with the animals
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This afternoon we went for a nice walk up to the "new estate" to pick up the mail for our friends who are moving in later in the year.
As usual, Rory, our intrepid feline explorer, followed along, dashing through tunnels and investigating each and every garden on the way.
When we got back after half an hour, which must have felt like 3 hours for Rory's little ginger legs, we saw the most strange thing.
At first I thought it was just a fallen branch from one of the trees around our field, but on closer inspection we discovered it was actually a long line of caterpillars, all marching nose to tail. Thirty-one of the furry little things!
Absolutley bizarre but absolutley wonderful!UPDATE: Aparrently these are dangerous little devils who can cause very nasty reactions when touched! See this article for some background. Such a shame, as they really look amazing...
The bat-brolly!
Like it says, it doesn't protect you very well from the rain, but looks really cool when you put it up :)
I love my winter sunrise
Getting up to in the winter to take the kids to school never fills me with joy. Especially when, like today, we've run out of oil and the house feels like a freezer.
But as we pull away from the house and drive down to the lake, the early get-up is rewarded by the loveliest of sunrises.
This morning I just missed the best of it as I didn't have time to stop and snap the sun just starting to filter through the mist that was hanging over the lake. But I grabbed a few shots on my return anyway. I've probably taken hundreds like this over the last couple of years, but I don't think I'll ever get bored of seeing them.It even snows in the Vendee!
Just as word came in that the school buses were cancelled for another day, the sky went dark and the snow started to fall. Nothing like the national-emergency-level covering in the UK, but snow all the same.
Its not all sunshine and swimming pools here you know :) -
Richard Barley's Posterous
Community Manager for TweetDeck.
