Little boys
I am pleased with myself, I have managed to refrain from ranting for a good while, but today the day has come for a good old letting off of steam.
This was prompted by a sight I seem to be greeted with time and time again on my daily commute, and even from my house! That sight is grown men wee-ing by the roadside. Continue reading this entry »
Too nice a day for the show..
Well, today was the first day of LIDS - the London International Dive Show, held at Excel in the east end of London. We had planned to go along and have a mooch around, but a combination of a late night last night, a touch of spring cold and the first of the spring weather finally hitting us meant that we gave it a miss.
Early reports on YD indicate that the number of bargains to be had were down again and some of the bigger makes were missing. I wonder if the time has come to make the show a show again. The attraction of it these days for me are being able to compare alot of kit in one place, to fondle and ask questions about things I may never be able to buy and to listen to some excellent and interesting talks. The crowds barging and pushing around stalls that are packed too tightly together dulls the shine of that. It makes it all too much like hard work.
So, today we enjoyed the sun, the daffodils that have finally shown their faces over the last week and had a little play with a new camera bought last week. this picture was taken with it in the garden, and commemorates the first ladybird of the year!
How old is old?
News stories earlier this year covered the 175th birthday of Harry, one of three Giant Tortoises taken, along with two others, from the Galapagos islands by Charles Darwin on his famous expedition in 1853. This story really caught my imagination - imagine the changes that tortoise has seen, the history it was part of!
Then yesterday came the news that Awaita,a tortoise that was allegedly the pet of Clive of India, had died! The estimates bandied around here are that Awaita was 250 years old. There are going to be attempts to carbon date the remains of this veteran creature, but even if he wasn’t that old it is still a tale that stops you dead in your tracks.
Think about the consequences if humans could live that long. Would it affect the way we behave, knowing that the things we do, fully aware of thier destructive implications, would take affect in our lifetimes? Would fuel-guzzling cars fall out of fashion overnight when we realised it was us, not our children or grandchildren who will face the true effects of global warming? Would fleets of fishing vessels begin to regulate themselves as the industry recognized that it wasn’t a working life of 30 or 40 years they needed to survive, buy one of 200 years?
How about the size of families? Would they reduce so that the planet’s population stabilised, fearful of the overload that would happen within lifetimes as 7 or 8 generations needed to co-exist?
Maybe it would just be a good idea if we all imagined we could live that long - if we developed the ability to empathise with future genreations instead of just looking out for our own? After all, who really wants to work for 200 years?
Spring is not yet sprung…
Looking through some photos on the hard-drive on my PC I came across a series I took of frogs in our neighbours’ pond at this time last year. I remember the day well. It was a gorgeous, sunny, warm day; we were all say in the garden in t-shirts, drinking chilled wine after an afternoon sorting through the composter in order to get some decent compost out to fill our new, raised vegetable beds.
The pond was full to the brim with frogspawn and every time someone walked past there were several watery plops and sploshes as frogs dived for cover. I decided to go and get the camera and see if I could capture a few shots of them. As it was I came out lucky and got a few pics that, as a point and shoot snapper, I was very pleased with.
It did feel a bit odd to click away as they earnestly went about creating the next froggy generation….
The same time this year there is no sign of any frogs as yet. I haven’t seen a single daffodil in bloom, the snowdrops are still out and I have scraped ice from my car window twice so far this week! By my estimates we are at least six weeks behind in the onset of spring.
The big question is, however, does this mean a lovely summer of no winds, clear skies and perfect diving to make up for the extended winter?
How to eat an Elephant…
The answer is, of course, one bite at a time. I took my own tiny bite in the name of sustainable food over the weekend.
After a long time looking for a local, organic vegetable box scheme to reduce our reliance on the evil Tescos I spotted an article in our quarterly village paper promoting a company call Ethical Foods. Although it didn’t do exactly what I was after I was impressed enough with their mission statement of improving food supply that I had a browse through their site. Continue reading this entry »
The U90 Jinx strikes back
Off the Isle of Wight (an island off the south coast of England) lies the wreck of the U90, a First World War U-boat that is believed to have sunk whilst under tow to a salvage yard at the end of the war. Some believe that the sinking was not entirely accidental as the value of scrap was so low after the Great War that rather than tow it all the way to a suitable yard the Royal Navy sent it to the bottom.
Whatever the reason for its consignment to the sea, the rediscovery of this wreck in recent years is a veritable bonus for divers. It is in a wonderful condition of intact, and yet with sufficient holes in the hull to let light through and divers in. The conning tower is in almost immaculate condition, although, of course, the thoughtless actions of spidge-hunters degrades her state with every dive.
Diving British Columbia - Quadra Island
Introduction
Like many, I did my first dive training in the warm waters of the Egyptian Red Sea. However, unlike some cold water quickly called me and I found I enjoyed UK diving immensely. So the viz wasn’t as good, and you had to wear enormous amounts of gear to cope with the cold water, but there was something about it.
The pleasure of finding a creature to hover and admire for a while was special in comparison to all those tropical fish that flirted shamelessly for one’s attention on tropical reefs. The variety of environments with seabeds made from the finest sand or the largest boulders, of crushed shells or mud or metres of thick silt, and of kelp forests with hidden promises within. Ah, yes, kelp forests- a particular favourite of mine. I could spend a whole dive poking around in the trailing blades or thick stems or kelp, stalking the beasties that use this amazing plant as home.
Then a friend told me of a place for a different diving holiday. It had cold water, giant kelp, fish very different from what we see around our shores and to top it all everything was “three times larger than here”. Surely this was too good to be true? Apparently not, the same friend also informed me that it was described by Jacque Cousteau as “the best cold-water diving in the world”. Continue reading this entry »
We’re going to the ‘Gos!
Last Saturday saw us meet up with the group of reprobates we are off to dive in the Galapagos Islands with in Oct 2007. Although Caroline & I had met everyone before it was a first meeting for some.
The Galapagos Islands are a dream destination for me, both for diving and for the landside attractions of the weird, wonderful and downright bold fauna. The visit there has become reality through a post made on Yorkshire Divers by David A (see http://www.yorkshire-divers.com/forums/recent-trip-reports/27205-galapagos.html) reorting back on his own, utterly fabulous, trip there. A group of us were bowled over enough to go and badger the hell out of Maldive Scuba Tours at the Nov 2005 Dive Show at the NEC, and ended up booking Deep Blue (see http://www.scubascuba.com/edit/pdf/worldwide/deepbluetn.pdf) for us and us alone.
Now it is all real and alot of saving is required - it is not a cheap destination. Still, whilst we are there I am hoping to fulfill another long-term ambition and hike the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu. That isn’t so much a monetary concern - more a fitness one, so the 20 months until D-Day need to be used in some training. The boots are already bought!
Intro to me…
My name is Louise and I have been diving for about 5 years. In that time I have taken it nice and easy and now do a bit of accelerated deco where required, but depth isn’t really my bag and I stay around 35m in the UK. My main motivation is to see the wildlife down there and I can get quite passionate about wildlife issues and conservation. I have no idea what this site will end up like - it is my first excursion into the weird world of blogging so please bear with me until I find my feet.
I hope to fill this little bit of the big web-world up with trip reports, wildlife sightings and general notes, complaints or downright rants about issues that deserve a bit more attention.
You can also find me on www.yorkshire-divers.co.uk where we chat, make friends, fall out and most of all - organise dives.
Hello world!
What on earth is all this about? Why am I here? Let’s play it all by ear
Why “Wrasse & Rants” - well, I had to think of a title and seeing as I tend to argue about eco-issues a fair amount whilst sat in front of this machine, or face-to-face with friends, I thought it was a good enough place to start.
Where it ends, we shall see in time…