I’ve been working with my old friend Kyle at Precipio Technologies on a website for the Center for Institutional and Social Change, an project affiliated Columbia Law School to meet the “urgent need to rebuild the capacity of institutions to address pressing public problems in a democracy.” GroundShift.org launched today for the opening of a conference entitled “The Future of Diversity and Opportunity in Higher Education.”
The site is built on Plone, an open-source content management system. I’ve been digging around in the plumbing behind the scenes and it’s refreshing to work in python rather than php. Plone seems well suited to social networking and collaborative processes and is powerful and flexible enough to accomodate many different scenarios. It’s been fun working on it so far, though I haven’t had as much time for my usual blog posts.
We had a bit of snow fall this morning. It was very exciting!
The kids ran out to play in it, drawing pictures and eating it. I got hit with a snowball or two on the way to the car.
The roads seemed fine to me, but traffic was atrocious. There may have been some spots that were not in quite as good condition, but I imagine there was a fair amount of panic that contributed to the congestion. Snow is quite an event here!
Last Sunday, we went to Cresswell Crags, a limestone gorge in northeastern Derbyshire with a number of caves occupied by Ice Age people. We had to wear helmets with lights when we went on a tour of Robin Hood’s Cave. Apparently, there is no evidence that Robin Hood actually used this particular cave, but it is relatively close to Sherwood Forest and he might have used it while hiding from the Sheriff…
Our guide was very good and helped us envision the landscape as it would have been when the glaciers were nearby and mammoth, reindeer, hyenas, and bears roamed the landscape. There would not have been large trees since the few that could survive the cold would have been growing close to the ground. We saw some of the flint and bone tools the people would have used as axes, knives, spears, and sewing needles while they followed the seasonal migrations of the reindeer from southern France.
Apparently, when people arrived at the caves after during their long journey, they would send in the kids to make sure that there weren’t any dangerous animals already sheltering in the caves. People generally lived in the entrances of the caves and stretched animals skins across the openings to provide additional shelter.
We were hoping to be able to see the recently discovered artwork in Church Cave, but it was closed for the winter due to hibernating bats. We had listened to a program on the BBC about the first discovery of cave art in Britain here and everyone was interested to see how it compared to the art we saw in Rouffignac Cave in France. We’ll have to return in the spring after the bats have emerged and the new visitor centre is completed. In the meantime, we might spend some time exploring the virtual ice age.
We’ve all been very busy recently. Here are some of the piano pieces River has been playing recently. Actually, I think she’s just been playing these from one of her books rather than learning them for her lessons.
We had been learning Spanish in Massachusetts, but the kids have started French at Foremarke. I think they were a bit put off at first switch languages, but they seemed to be more interested in French after our trip to France last summer. I taught Sage this song last week when she was home sick.
Yesterday, I went to watch River’s second hockey match. They played very well! This video shows a bit of the game. It’s not the most exciting bit of action that I filmed, but it does have River in it, so…
In other academic news, Sage was awarded a Golden Leaf for being gentle,
and River got an Academic Star for her work on adverbs. These are excerpted from the Foremarke Flyer, a weekly newsletter that can be downloaded from Foremarke.
I went to watch River play in her first hockey match this morning. They played a team from another nearby school. She was pleased to be asked to play on the team and I thought that she did pretty well picking up a new sport.
Fireworks are exploding in neighborhoods all over England today.
Most folk are either celebrating burning Catholics in effigy or that someone had a pretty good go at blowing up parliament, depending on their perspective.
But there is plenty to celebrate for those of us who are perhaps a mite less cynical than we were yesterday.
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
Yes, we can!
I’ve been enjoying playing capoeira recently. I’m looking forward to the autumn Cordao de Ouro event in Nottingham this weekend. Hopefully, I’ll get some good pictures. In the meantime, check out this video from one of our regular training classes.
Edit: Molly said that I should mention that I’m in the video about half-way through.
Yesterday, I went to Stanage Edge, a gritstone escarpment that forms that border between the High Peak District and Sheffield in South Yorkshire. Gritstone is a coarse version of sandstone laid down when the area was a delta during the Carboniferous period. It was once quarried to be used as grindstones for milling flour. Apparently, it is known as “God’s own rock” by climbers and Stanage is well known for the excellent routes and boulder problems.
I walked through this beautiful woodland on my way to an area known as the Plantation Boulders.
It was quite cold on the rock, especially in the wind. There was a thin layer of ice on this pool.
I ate lunch on top of a rock known as “The Mental Problem”. From here you can see some of the boulder problems I did on “The Long Block” and “The Photograph”. I picked up an excellent guidebook, Stanage - the Definitive Guide, which helped me get oriented.
Here is someone nearing the top of the route known as “Goliath’s Groove”.
In other climbing-related news, River and Sage came to the Nottingham Climbing Centre last week during their half-term break. River learned how to belay her sister!
Then she had a go at it herself.
They had a great time climbing!
I think we’ll probably all try to get out to Stanage sometime soon. Climbing outside on the gritstone is terrific.
The Scottish Highlands are truly a magical place. After leaving Loch Ness, we drove along Loch Cluanie. The mountains here are increasingly rugged and there is a grandeur to the landscape.
The effects of glaciation are apparent in the sculpted glens, but even more striking to me is the influence of what I’ve decided to call mono-ungulate rumination. This little tree germinated on top of the rock, high enough to be out of reach of the pervasive Ovis aries. I suppose the exposed rock emphasizes the starkness of the mountains.
The quality of the light was incredible, something I don’t recall ever seeing anywhere else in the world.
We spent the night on the Isle of Skye, arriving just in time to shelter from the approaching storm at a lovely hotel. Molly described the tempest as “chucking it sideways”. The next day, when it was merely “spitting it sideways”, we hiked a relatively sheltered forest trail near Portree. The bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh to Skye is visible in the picture below.
From Skye, we made our way to Fort William and spent a night in a hostel in Glen Nevis, just under the shoulder of Ben Nevis. Ben Nevis is the highest peak in Britain; the elevation at the summit is 4406 feet. I had thought of hiking that route, but we decided it was a bit too long and the peak was shrouded in cloud anyway. We settled on a route through the Glen Nevis gorge to Steall Falls. The signs at the trailhead were a bit disconcerting, but we decided to go ahead anyway. Somehow it seems very British: “You might die here, but at least make sure you have good shoes on!”
The recent (and ongoing) rains rushed down the mountainside. We had to leap across this waterfall:
River was in good spirits the entire day, smiling and singing along the trail.
We eventually arrived at this beautiful meadow and caught our first glimpse of Steall Falls.
The torrent we had observed through the gorge was fed by this cataract.
I traversed the bridge to get a closer approach to the falls. It was hard not to think of the cautionary signs at the trailhead while inching my way across.
The power of the water plunging from 120 meters was pretty amazing!
Continuing south from Fort William, we drove through the spectacular Glen Cloe. The landscape here is simply stunning.
I’ve seen these “Blind Summit” signs before, but this one just happened to get into the frame of this picture. It turns out that they are warning of a hill in the road that hides oncoming traffic, rather than a commentary on the perennial cloud-covered state on most of the local mountain summits.
After leaving Glen Cloe, we drove through Rannock Moor, which was much flatter but still starkly beautiful. I’d certainly like to return to Scotland some time soon. We are considering planning a backpacking trip next summer.
We saw more rainbows during the few days that we were in Scotland than I’ve seen in ages elsewhere. I guess the continually changing British weather has some advantages! Here are some of the more spectacular ones:
Our friend, Gudrun, has also been visiting Scotland recently and took another amazing rainbow photograph.
