Literary Camomile

Thursday, 21st October 2004
Wild West Yorkshire nature diary

'Your site remains a soothing source,' writes an angler friend (who asks to be included on my mailing list for updates), 'like literary camomile tea or valium, depending whether you are on the alternative or conventional side of the medicine fence.'

Please try and stay awake through today's episode!

There was a 90 minute power cut during the thunderstorm in the early hours of this morning but, to be honest, this is an unremarkable day: I spend most of it writing my Dales Way Diary, which will be my next Sushi Sketchbook publication. Writing up our April journey along this 84 mile route has been a way of reliving the experience and it makes me want to get out walking again.

The Perfect Floor

I'm sure that I will get out again soon but the highlight of this morning is that the joiner comes to fit our new cork flooring in the bathroom. We'd looked at vinyl cushion floors that were cunning replicas of marble, stone or wooden planks but then we spotted the cork which I much prefer because it is what it's appears to be: a natural material. It's lightly stained in a colourway marketed as 'Tea' (which has just been discontinued by Wincanders, see link below).

Tea and cork; that sums up our drinking habits quite well.

It's warm and quiet to walk on. And I like to think that by choosing cork I'm making a small contribution to the conservation of the cork oak forests (see links below).

The Perfect Fried Egg; the search continues

'Barbara, just come and have a look at this: it's turned out really well!'

'Uggh! That's horrible - it looks like plastic!'

*Sigh!* The loneliness of those of us who are engaged in artistic endeavour.

Following my problems with Bryce 3D this was cooked up in Vue d'Espirit 3. On a technical note, the yolk is a squashed sphere but I've now worked out how to edit the materials, changing a 'green plastic' texture supplied in Vue for an equally unappetising yellow. The white of the egg started out as a target-like tonal drawing that I made in Photoshop which in Vue can be pasted into the terrain editor as a kind of contour map. It is rendered in 'white porcelain', which is included in the basic Vue palette of materials.

PC Format

As I mentioned yesterday, Vue came free on the cover disk of this month's PC Format (left; you can still order it as a back number, if you have a yen to design 3D fried eggs).

I pick the November edition (right) from the newsagents this afternoon, which includes part two of an simply explained Vue tutorial as well as a copy of the 3D mesh modelling program Amapi 3D 6 on the cover disk (plus a tutorial in the magazine, look forward to doing that), a free paperback on 'web stuff' and, characteristically for PC Format, an attractive young woman brandishing a crowbar on the cover (she's fighting spam, apparently).

I like the combination of astute technical analysis and ebullient silliness in this magazine. It's a lot of fun.

Related Links

Corkwatch

The Natural Cork Quality Council

Amorin cork news and information for the wine industry

Wicanders cork flooring since 1868

PC Format 'the world's greatest PC magazine' and that's not just my opinion; they actually believe that too!

Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk