29/06/2009 by Paul Carpenter.

Considering it is the time of year that color burst forth from ground I thought a few pretty plant photo’s may be apprechiated.

1  2  3  4

1, heath spotted orchid. 2, bedstraw. 3, bellflower. 4, bell heather

5  6 7  8

5, blue tit. 6, chaffinch. 7, eclipse. 8, corn chamomile

9  10  11  12

9, cow parsley. 10, devils bit scabulous. 11, forget me not. 12, fox glove.

13  14  15  16

13, guillemots. 14, hedge parsley. 15, honey suckle. 16, mayweed.

17  18  19  20

17, meadow sweet. 18, mullein. 19, painted lady. 20, pignut

21  22  23  24

21, ragwort. 22, red admiral. 23, robin. 24, self heal

25  26  27

25, vetch. 26, willow herb. 27, yarrow.

Posted in gossip | Print | No Comments »

28/06/2009 by Paul Carpenter.

Had another of my fantastic idea’s after my little family gained another member in the form of a boxer collie. The idea was to do alittle tester session in the cairngorms to view the dogs fitness for a longer over night-er. In the end, the dog was fantastic still running and jumping as much at the end as she was at the beginning, I how ever was slightly less energetic especially on the first and only long haul up to Meall a’ Bhuachaille. Granted I have not hiked as much as I have in the past but it’s probably more to do with my BBFC with the occasional S diet that did not help (really embarrassing with two groups of older people hiking faster then me). But less about my short comings, bring on the fabulous photo’s;

  Lochan uaine or better known as the green loch - the color has something to do with some scientific mombo jumbo but I recone the real reason is because of all the local fairies living in caves amongst the scree field on the left who clean their cloths in it every night.

   ryvoan bothy just beyond the loch - very nice and clean, no rats and available fire wood.

    taken from the top of meall a’ bhuachaille. the first being of the ridge we walked along , the second of loch morloch and beyond.

   saw this nice little heath spotted orchid along the way - first I have seen in the cairngorms as far as I know but then I have never been crawling along before!!! Second photo is from the end of the ridge looking north.

From there the path swung left and descended into the caledonian woodland, past badaguish outdoor centre then onto the glenmore park and at last the car.

I was’nt really crawling along the route, apart from the initial climb the rest of the walk was fairly easy on well made paths offering some very different views from those from the cairngorm plateau also seems a well used route by bikes going by the tracks.

 Took this photo near the end. Now it may just be me but does’nt it look like she’s thinking ‘Oh no, not another stop’.

Posted in hikes | Print | No Comments »

19/06/2009 by Paul Carpenter.

been up to my old tricks again and with the lack of any other object to experiment on, I used my faithful old mini hatchet to fiddle around with some bits of lace. Been using this axe for years for bow making, used it as a plane, to cut and skive/bevel lace - did try it as a shaver once but these days I think my rough foliage needs more of a diamond blade.

Used 42 lace in all and made it the way I explain in my fid work PDF except in this case I just double over the lace meaning that the top end can just be tied around itself - much easier then having to place a knot over rough ends. I did try and spell gransfors along the shaft, but ended up with grans so I guess I’ll have to give it to her now!! 

It also meant I had to make another sheath and have included the design for that if any one else has one. I made this sheath to go on the rear cinch of a western saddle for a friend and naturally one for myself.

The knot on the top was devised by Chris Barr and published in a journal of the AWPA - it is a 27 bight gaucho knot, not exactly great for this type of work but I was dying to use it for some thing ever since seeing it. 

Posted in leather projects | Print | No Comments »

13/06/2009 by Paul Carpenter.

Have been asked in the past about filing and polishing horn plus more recently how I make the knapped knives, so at last I got round to making a tutorial about it. I should point out that the knapped effect is not my idea but Tom Sterlings and that the processes used are fairly dangerous, but these are all pointed out in the tutorial. Have also covered using horn as a whip handle.

Knapped knife and buffalo horn tutorial - over 2mb’s

Posted in Leather tutorials | Print | No Comments »

01/06/2009 by Paul Carpenter.

First major outing of the summer for me and the family and it felt like the hottest day as well, lord knows how the vikings felt in their gear. Guess they are used to it once their blood is heated up for battle. Thankfully these vikings are semi-tame and there was only the need for a simple rope fence between us civilised folk!! and the viking hordes.

Also managed to give Robert low his shield and also learnt that he plans to write a fourth book about the Oathsworn - I guess you just can’t keep the brothers in arms down.

The glasgow vikings are doing shows all over the place as they do every year - click on the link above to see if they are near you. Oh and the fact that an ambulance is behind in the photo’s is more to do with me being in the wrong location and not because I feared for my life - honestly……..!!

Posted in gossip | Print | No Comments »