Erika's New Hobby

   Well, it's not really a new hobby for Erika. She did a lot of stained glass back in California, in the 90's. I must say, she has a great eye for color and design. She got the idea of making a candle holder off the internet and turned it into something that's entirely hers. She wanted to create a relaxing and cozy atmosphere by adding candles to the room. This holder, which I hope is one of many, really does the trick. With the lights turned down, the candle projects many soft colors onto the walls and ceiling. Very nice and romantic if you're into that kind of stuff. 

  The glass is from leftover pieces from other projects so nothing is wasted. The glass nuggets were purchased in Japan from the same dealer who sold me large sheets of glass. Erika designed, cut out the glass. and foiled each piece. My job was to solder the whole thing together and add some wire things. Erika wanted a rustic feel so I purposely did a very crude solder job and added solder blobs here and there. I had to change my soldering technique from super neat and clean lines to rough and sloppy. It was good practice for me and I think it will help improve my soldering skills. Three dimensional soldering is tricky as the solder must remain horizontal or it drips onto the floor (or shoe as in my case). 

  I'm looking forward to doing other stained glass projects with Erika. We also have a woodworking project we are going to do together. Please stay tuned for that. As far as the progress for panel number 3 of 4, I'm quickly approaching the 90% completion mark with an estimated finish time for panel number 3 to be around the end of the year. Pictures will be posted soon. Have a great Thanksgiving and please stay safe. Cheers!

  

Erika's Special Present (Shhhhhhhh)

 

We don't celebrate holidays by giving presents. Never have and never will (almost). With that said, once in a great while we'll give something to each other, not because it's a holiday or anything, but because it seems appropriate. Yeah, it's not very romantic, but at least it's practical. Keeping with the practical theme, I built a wood shed for my lovely wife. Hey, what says you care about a person more than a wood shed? Last year she got a really nice........wood splitter. "Poor Erika" is probably what you're thinking. Don't give it another thought...she LOVES it!!

What started all of this was the fact that my original wood shed built ten years ago decided to rot the vertical supports. Rather than have the shed fall down I decided to replace it...sort of.

I designed a shed that would allow snow free access to the shed by incorporating an overhang.

It was important to have heavy canvas curtains that easily slide on the metal poles to protect the wood from typhoon force winds. Also I added rain gutters to both the new and old shed. Why the old shed?

Because after further inspection, I discovered the old shed is in perfect shape except for the vertical supports. After some thought I decided to keep the old shed and build the new shed on top of the old one. Of course, I will replace the old vertical posts with a four post metal cage that stands on its own. Pretty slick huh? Here's a photo of the rear new supports being supported by the old shed.

The best thing about this whole project is that it didn't create any new garbage from tearing down the old shed. Metal, concrete, and time is all that's needed to build a very long lasting wood shed. Cheers and enjoy your present Erichan!

Baking again

Finally baking again. Snickerdoodles are on the menu today. Many thanks to my dear dear friend Klaudia in Washington for the recipe. Crispy on the outside and soft/ chewy on the inside. Yummy! 

 

IC 1795

It's been a long time since I posted one of my images. Well, I collected these photons about 2 years ago. I started processing the image over a year ago, but I ran into some technical as well as personal difficulties. All of that is behind me so hopefully I can get back into the groove of processing and taking photos.

This nebula (fancy word for gas and dust cloud) is IC 1795. Do you see a "fish head"? Yep, it's also known as the Fish Head Nebula. According to NASA, this large cloud spans 70 light years across and is over 6000 light years away. 

I chose a different approach to processing this image. I wanted to bring out the colors and detail rather than focus on the science of the object. In other words, I wanted to make a pretty picture! Hope you like it and please stay tuned for more images in the near future. I've got a hard drive full of images waiting to be processed.

 

Trip to Miyazaki

 October was a busy month. Stained glass was put on hold until I completed a new wood shed. More on that in another post. We also took a trip to Miyazaki for a few days. This may sound strange, but I haven't been to the ocean in over ten years. We live in the mountains and the nearest large body of water is Beppu Bay...not exactly the Pacific Ocean. The strange part is that Japan is made up of islands so it would seem natural that the ocean is conveniently around us. Nope. We had to drive several hours (on the highway) to find the nearest ocean beach. I've never driven through so many tunnels. I lost count after 20. These tunnels range from 500 meters to over 3 kilometers. The trip was well worth it and I had my cravings for the ocean satisfied. The feel of the west coast of the U.S. is much different than the east coast of Japan. For one thing it's much drier. The climate in Miyazaki is warm and dry. It almost reminded me of Hawaii with all of the palm trees and lack of fog. It's beautiful, but it's not like Big Sur or Point Reyes with the dramatic rocky cliffs and the fog rolling-in in the evenings. Access to the beaches is limited to only a few choice spots. This makes it easy for vendors to catch many tourists in a short time. I found that aspect very unattractive. We stayed at two hotels, The Garden Terrace and The Sheraton Grande Ocean Resort. The Garden Terrace is small (only 12 guests allowed) and the room and food were terrific. I highly recommend this place. On the other hand, the Sheraton is huge (43 floors). The food was mediocre, and the service was nothing to brag about. I think it's all about the name brand stuff and I really don't care about that. Nice big room with views, but that's about it. We stayed on the 25th floor. That was high enough for me. Definitely overrated for what you get, and I certainly won't stay there again. 

I'll include some pics from the trip here:

Downtown Miyazaki

Palm trees everywhere

A small island off the coast. Interesting rock formations, but not much fun to walk on.

Small description of the formations

Welcome to the Hawaii of Japan

Quite a few remote lighthouses line the coast. Makes sense since these formations would rip a ship apart.

The beach is made up of tiny seashells.

This is an UNESCO World Heritage site. Translated...tourist trap.

Long story short, these statues are from Easter Island and given as a gift to Japan. The previous picture shows a structure that is aligned with the sun and casts a narrow beam of light onto the middle statue marking the seasons. Honestly, I think it would be cheaper to use a calendar instead, but where's the fun in that.

Japan uses these concrete thingies (is that a word?) to prevent coastal erosion. The large structure in the background is the Sheraton Hotel. Kinda sticks out like a sore thumb.

Ah yes!!! The highlight of the trip...electric bicycles!! Now that was FUN!!

Finishing up...views from our room at the Sheraton. Yeah, it's surrounded by a championship golf course, but I don't play golf. Well anyway, it was a once in a lifetime experience and I look forward to our next trip next year to Nagasaki.