Spring Flowers

Here are the first spring flowers I captured on The Estate. I didn't get the snow drops since they were buried under the snow.

Current Blooms:
Witch Hazel
There are yellow varieties also. This one has a pleasant scent, which does not remind me of anything. The scent is not too strong so you have to get pretty close to catch a whiff. Maybe I should think about adding a hedgerow of Witch Hazel and other shrubs for winter color and scent.

I prefer the orange, the petals reminds me of crepe paper.

Winter Aconite (Eranthus hyemalis)
I need to get some more of theses. Their blooms are very short lived and some years I miss them completely.

The brake line on Lump (1963 Land Rover Series IIA) was replaced successfully; the system was bled and there exists a nice firm pedal. Biggest problem was starting the fitting on one end of the brake line into a junction. It was in a difficult location and the fitting just wouldn't catch. After cleaning the junction threads and threading a loose brake line into it, the fitting finally caught and eventually was tightened up. I didn't even bother Gina once, though I did call Rovers North to make sure the correct part was ordered.

Spring Snow

Friday was the first day of spring and we had snow. It wasn't too bad and I made it home before things got too annoying. At least it looks pretty.

Beers in the Fridge:
 Joe's Spring Prost is a maibock style lager. It is pretty strong 7.3 ABV (alcohol by volumn) and it malty. The German Beer Institute page gives a good description of what a maibock is. I'm feeling lazy today and that was the first web page that provided a description. It is not bad.
I also have Guinness Draught in cans, like the taste, like the feel, like watching the bubbles in the glass.

I will be working on replacing a brake line on Lump today, went to get a safety inspection and a brake line sprung a leak just as I was turning onto the next block.

Gina had to fly home for a family emergency otherwise she would have had the pleasure.

Gramptraption

So I was down in the Laboratory last weekend and saw these laying around.

 The extendable pole we used when off-roading to measure the depth of water we were planning to ford. The aluminum plate was already curved, something to do with knights probably, but had no hole in it and the scrub brush we use to scrub things. It must have been cabin fever, but I had this urge to use the three items for a grander purpose. We still had lots of snow in the yard and on the north side of the garage roof and I thought "Snow Rake", that's what what I need. So I drilled a hole in the aluminum plate slapped the three things together, went out side and played in the snow.

Beers in the Fridge:
The beer in the can from Sixpoint Brewery was very good. At first I placed it as having a citrus flavor, but I later refined that to be grapefruit. Sixpoint is in Brooklyn and currently is not giving tours. Their cans seem tiny, but they contain 12 ounces. I'm definitely gonna try some of their other brews.

The Porter was disappointing, it tasted thin and was not much better than something I had made in the past.

So the snow rake was extremely easy to use and effective. I was able to pull the snow off the roof without getting any on me. While I don't think the 18 inches of snow on the roof would have been a problem if we had had another large storm maybe there could have been trouble.
So in memory of my Grandfather loving referred to as Gramps here is the snow rake I made.

 

 Of course there is a scrub brush on the other side of the curved blade, but I skillfully declined to include that in the photograph.