Zonsondergang

Wolken in het oosten, bijna open hemel in het westen, en dat in combinatie met zonsondergang geeft enkele minuutjes lang onderstaand beeld. De kwaliteit is niet schitterend; waarschijnlijk veel te veel transformaties toegepast om alle foto's min of meer naadloos aaneen te rijgen.

Zweefvliegerij

Ik ben daarstraks eens een kijkje gaan nemen op het militair vliegveld in Brasschaat waar een collega gaat zweefvliegen. Wel knap om eens te zien, maar meegevlogen heb ik niet; enerzijds omdat in een kleine cabine kruipen nogal onhandig is met een kilo of tien aan leer en anderzijds omdat ik vergeten was mijn portefeuille uit mijn andere jas te nemen.

Zweefvliegtuigen maken toch meer lawaai dan ik had gedacht. Het opstijgen is vrij luidruchtig, vermoedelijk omdat de steile hellingshoek nogal wat turbulentie veroorzaakt. Maar ook bij het landen hoor je ze duidelijk langszoeven.
Hieronder een kort filmpje van een opstijgend vliegtuig. Ik heb het geluid weggelaten omdat de microfoon van mijn fototoestel naar achter gericht is, er was dus enkel achtergrondlawaai te horen, niet het gesuis van een opstijgend zweefvliegtuig.

First harvest

I finally tasted my strawberries. The first ones were eaten by birds, but after I placed a net to keep them away, the rest are getting a chance to ripen properly.
Today I cut the two ripest and had a taste: they were perfect. Firm flesh and slightly sweet; infinitely better than the tasteless hydroculture you get sometimes.


It also looks like I will be overwhelmed by strawberries next year, considering the production and growth rate of runners. I cut off most of them, though, to allow them to put more energy in producing fruit.
If the new plants on the existing runners are showing any inclination to bear fruit this year, I will have to get a larger net as well.

New chain

After 34000km of loyal and 3500km of erratic service, my bike's chain has finally been replaced. And not a moment too soon either. At the end, it was clearly well past it's best-before date: it was tightened at the maximum and still it rattled and even hit the center stand.

Not only was it too slack, a few thousand kilometeres ago I noticed some of the chain links were stuck at the angle they're in when running along a sprocket. This has the nasty effect of constantly tightening and slackening the chain. So my chain was effectively pulled at many times per second when driving, which of course increases the rate of wear even further.

A chain is always replaced together with both sprockets. You can see why from the picures below: the teeth on the old front sprocket are eaten away almost by half.



On the rear sprocket, the difference is less pronounced, but it's still noticeable. That's because the rear sprocket is larger and does less revolutions than the front one.



Interesting note: according to my garage, some people only get about 15000km out of their chain, which underlines the importance of a good driving style. A chain and sprocket set is quite expensive.

Jaarebees

Gisteren heb ik eindelijk nog eens in mijn tuintje gewerkt. Het was dringend nodig: met al die regen was het onkruid goed opgeschoten.
Ik heb ook de pompoen- en courgetteplantjes die ik eerder gezaaid had uitgeplant.


Pompoenen en courgettes centraal op de foto, mijn compleet gummi geworden, doorgeschoten aardappelen van deze winter staan links, met erboven mijn aarbeien.
Aardbeien die bovendien goed vertrokken zijn. De eerste is al bijna rijp:

Haspengouw

Today, I went for a bike trip in Haspengouw with some friends. Lots of small country roads and picturesque villages, most with their own mansion. Remarkably, a lot of the roads in the middle of the fields run quite straight; while others have hairpin bends, like one near Kanne.


A scenic view from some vantage point in Berg, near Tongeren:



Lying around and photographing my photographer:

Picasa

I just installed Picasa. I've only used it for one minute and already I don't like it. Why? Because the first time you start it up, it asks to scan either your entire computer or 'just' your My Documents, My Pictures and Desktop folders. No other option. And the dialog is not cancelable.
I probably have a few thousand photos on my computer, having them all scanned takes too much time; at least when the only thing you want is to quickly share one tiny little album.

So I choose the My Documents/Images/Desktop option; there shouldn't be too many photos in there I guessed. Wrong! (of course)
So then the thing starts scanning and goes on scanning and keeps scanning and here's me trying to find a way to get it to stop. Not a chance.
According to the instructions on the download page, you can choose which folders Picasa should manage from the Tools > Folder Manager menu. Well ... possibly, but certainly not while it's still busy with the initial scan.
Why the hell include an option for me to select the single folder I'm interested in (for now) to share, but first having to sit through a huge initial scan which I will have to undo entirely the first time the Folder Manager option becomes available?