Sunday, April 11, 2010

“Ducks in a row” – that’s it, of course. Thanks, Moorecat. I love the one your husband heard, too.

Here’s Tier Five, finished.


Here’s the complete jabot, pinned together. I had a while yesterday, after doing the pinning, when I wondered if I hadn’t gone Over the Top with a fifth tier. It looks better this morning.


The only way to go from here, is on. Unpin everything, tidy the loose ends, and start attaching, layer by layer. I could have embarked on the process last night, but I was frazzled by a day which ended up with only one duck in position – Delia Smith’s Luxury Fish Pie is made and refrigerated. I’ll leave it out to get to room temperature while we’re at Mass, and put it in the oven while we drink Prosecco afterwards with our friends, as we did last week.

Last night, I retreated to Ketki's KF socks, and reached the heel flap of the second one. Thank God for socks.

This morning, I must cut up things for a salad, and arrange the dining room. Two more ducks.

Something completely different…

I don’t know how long the BBC will keep this one up, but for the moment here is a clip about the measuring of a tree in Argyll which has been pronounced the tallest in Scotland, or is it GB? We saw the item on the news on Friday evening, with additional material which doesn’t appear here, and lacking the scene for which I include it, namely Alexander and his sons, standing under the tree, peering upwards like the men of Galilee on the first Ascension Day. Their bit lasts less than a second, I would say, but they are perfectly obvious, in the foreground, the boys wearing red. It’s right at the beginning – you don’t have to stay around for the tree-climbing.

(The tree is in the arboretum on the Ardkinglas estate, and that’s where the Loch Fyne Mileses live.)

In the item as shewn on the news, the men came down from the tree and stretched out their rope on the ground and measured it. I will ask Alexander about this when he gets here today. Surely trigonometry – available since the Enlightenment if not since Archimedes -- would provide a quicker, easier and probably more accurate measurement.

8 comments:

  1. JennyS10:04 AM

    My forester grandfather did indeed always measure trees using trigonometry. Perhaps the rope method was deemed more interesting for the cameras?
    JennyS

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  2. I suspect it might be because most people have forgotten more trigonometry than they ever managed to learn - and even more would not know what it is. (I confess I would not be able to solve a trig problem any more!)
    Jabot is looking really good! You inspire me!

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  3. Fascinating to watch that clip. Thanks.

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  4. Two things.

    First, how will one clean and block that amazing Jabot once it's fully assembled? Will it have to be disassembled each time?

    Secondly, in the US they indeed use math to measure tree heights. They don't climb them for fear of damaging them. It's the basic right triangle math. If you know the distance from the base and use a laser sight to get the distance to the top (i.e., >) then math will give you the third side of the triangle.

    Oh, one more thing. Fish pie? Tell me more, please.

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  5. Jabot is looking full and fruity. I'm with Jenny - I bet it was for a photo op. A bunch of people doing trig isn't really very interesting to the general public. It was the only math I was any good at, and I can't remember anything about it but that.

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  6. Anonymous4:53 PM

    Don't worry - only me!! The clip is so great. Much better than watching someone with a laser. Truly a majestic tree. And the jabot. I don't think there are words to describe it. Another piece of art.
    Ron

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  7. I remember the thrill of using trig to measure the majestic maple in our front yard. I had not taken it in school, having failed the required algebra, but I found the formula in a book and it was so easy.

    Love the jabot; not at all too fruity. Sometimes too much is just enough.

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  8. Anonymous7:51 PM

    Jabot is looking truly wonderful - looking forward to a pic of the sewn-up final version.

    Fish pie - I like Delia Smith's recipes in general, and her web site is good. Still have some pages from her Frugal Food, bought when in lived in London in the 70s. I do a fish pie with garlic mashed potatoes mashed up with whatever leftover fish we have (usually rainbow trout from an Indian reserve north of Toronto) - used to work with canned salmon, too - topped with a square of frozen puff pastry, rolled out. A favourite meal.
    - Beth in Toronto

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