Big Timber – A Netflix Documentary Series
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Big Timber – A Netflix Documentary Series

Byrichard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-swFnrFptc4


For a few days I have been watching a few documentary series on Netflix. Big Timber is one of them. Usually I like nature that is untouched. I like to see trees that are standing tall and proud, not on their sides, ready to be chopped up into wood for housing. 


It is because I like to see living trees that I started watching the series, and then gave up. As a person that likes trees it makes little sense to watch as “claims” of trees are cut down, and hauled up the slope, down the mountain and then turned into wood for various projects. 


Eventually I did start to watch the documentaries and I enjoy them. Kevin, the owner of the company, has learned how to build roads, scavenge wood from the sea shore, and more. He likes to buy machines, second hand, and repair them, before using them. In so doing he is able to get machines that do what he needs, at a much lower price, than if he bought them new. It helps that he has access to mechanics and more. 


The documentary is broader than “A and his team go to cut down trees, and bring them to the mill, to make things”. It’s A uses this machine for that, but because it’s slow he wants to use that machine, but that machine requires someone with other skills. It’s fun, and every episode is different. It’s the type of show where you think “oh, one more episode”. I burned through the first two seasons fast, because I enjoyed it. 


A Lot of Drone Use


I noticed that both in Big Timber and an English documentary series about castles they used a lot of drone shots. The drones are used to show the forests, the landscapes, the castles, and a top down view of trees being cut down. It’s a great way to get a diversity of shot types and values that would not otherwise be possible. 


It’s great for getting the camera into places that would otherwise be inaccessible or dangerous. I would be more specific but that might count as a spoiler. 


With the documentary about castles I noticed that one type of shot was missing. The “detail” shots of castles. They would regularly have drones flying over the castles, flying from one end to the other, over the town and more. They did not often have drones flying to show details that we can’t see from the ground. They could have shown us specific parts of the architecture that we wouldn’t notice otherwise. 


If they make a documentary about cathedrals then they must get close to the statues, gargoyles and more, to show the intricacies of those details. Now that we have flying cameras, we should take advantage. 

Colza, Sheep, Metamorphosis and Mindfulness

Colza, Sheep, Metamorphosis and Mindfulness

Byrichard

Yesterday I took a picture of brilliantly yellow Colza with the Jura looking dark due to storm clouds overhead. If you walk at this time of year you will see a lot of cola. At the moment it is brilliantly yellow and at it’s prime. Later on, the colza will be passed its prime, and at this moment it will lose all of its petals, and become green, before drying up and becoming brown. Colza is not beautiful for that much of its growth cycle. 


Colza field with the Jura in the background, looking dark due to thick clouds
Colza field with the Jura in the background, looking dark due to thick clouds


I have been passing by some sheep for several days now and each time they have progressed down the field. I walked by the field yesterday and it was quite amusing to see the path of grazed grass they left behind them. It went from being a prairie field with long grass, to a short grass field. The sheep are doing their job well. 


Sheep grazing in a field.
Sheep grazing in a field. You can see where they have been, and where they have yet to be.


At this time of year you see spiders and beetles running across the tarmac in front of you. It’s when hiking that I first noticed the hundreds, or even thousands of spiders running around beneath my feet


I try not to step on the beetles and spiders as I walk, and that’s why I noticed a beetle lying on its back. Upon seeing this my reaction was “This is a real life instance of “Metamorphosis”, the book about the person who wakes up, stuck on his back, unable to get up. It is rare for such a sight and I thought that I had filmed it, but I didn’t. 


Although I walk around in circles or loops, I do notice new and different things on every single walk, which is why I walk these routes so regularly. I do vary between five to ten routes, but where I turn left instead of going straight, or right instead of left, etc. 


And Finally


I started to “read” Mindfulness for Dummies while walking. I tried listening to other content but this one kept my attention. The idea that struck me, so far, is the idea of kindness. It speaks about learning to be kind to yourself, of not being negative about yourself. It is something worth hearing. I will be reading this as I walk from now until I finish it. 

The Sound of Bells and the Smell of Colza

The Sound of Bells and the Smell of Colza

Byrichard

What do you hear and smell when you go for a walk in Vaud at this time of year? You hear the sound of cowbells and you hear the sound of cows mooing. I like the sound of cow bells


https://youtu.be/63O0JqNuo2Q


A few days ago I could hear mooing from a distance. As I looked across, at an old train station, now used as a house or office I could hear mooing so I crossed the train lines to see where the cows were. They were mooing incessantly. Usually they’re quiet but not this time. 


https://youtu.be/waCF-U4VXGk


Weeks ago we walked by a plant but we couldn’t recognise it. Within the last two weeks the plants flowered and so we could see that they were cola. Colza are funny plants because they’re so different at every stage. At first they’re just leaves, then they’re taller plants with leaves, and then they turn yellow, and after that they’re yellow and they smell strong. After that it rains and they lose all the petals and they look strange. Eventually they’re harvested. It’s a plant that goes through several transformations. Now you have fields of yellow.


Geographically I am walking in circles but because I walk around in circles where there are crops every walk is different, from week to week and month to month. Recently Garmin Connect added expeditions so I am walking the Appalachian Trail virtually. So far I have covered 423 kilometres of 3500. I’m twelve percent of the way there. 


I prefer the Pacer app and how it shows long hikes. I am currently doing the Don Quixote trail and every 35km or so I reach another waypoint, so I get a real sense of distance travelled, rather than an abstract notion of it. 


I’m walking through Toledo now, after walking from Alcala de Henares to Madrid and from there to Esquivias before reaching Toledo. I have plenty more cities to cross. That makes the journey interesting. 


And Finally


If it wasn’t for cars that drive too fast, and too close to people on foot and on bikes, the walks I do would be great. There is plenty to see and plenty changes from month to month and season to season. I walk on a segment of the Jura Trail and part of the Camino De Santiago route. Where I walk is not lunacy. It’s part of three or four big hiking systems. If cars were more respectful of pedestrians, and if paths were made into the soil, then walking would be more pleasant. 


Between some villages paths that were just grass have been worn away to being short grass, to being dirt paths because of the volume of people walking. If walking was made more pleasant, between villages, then the walks I do would not be lunacy, they would be fun. 

Call of the Re-Wild

Call of the Re-Wild

Byrichard

Europe wants to bring back top predators like lynx, bears and wolves. In the US national parks brought back certain wild animals and it helped to control the population of elk and other herbivores, and to control the biosphere. 


The challenge, with Europe, is that it is tiny, compared to the wide open American spaces, and it’s densely populated. Wild animals can roam thousands of kilometres for food and more. Europe is thousands of kilometres wide, with plenty of people, especially in Northern Italy, Switzerland etc. To bring back wild animals is to bring them close to humans. 


I feel differently about bears and lynx. I saw bears in Giant Sequoia national park and felt no fear. As long as you keep some distance from them you should be safe. The US ensures that people either hang their food, or use bear cans to prevent wild bears from reaching their food. I have read that bears find ways of getting to the food anyway. 


With Lynx I am less afraid because with cats, foxes and other animals, when they see us, they run away. They prefer to run, than to challenge us. I have seen plenty of goat like creatures and felt happy to see them. 


Dogs and wolves are a different matter. Both fill me with real fear. I have just one desire, to climb out of their reach, or find something to shield me. Once I climbed onto a fallen down tree to be some distance from a dog, another time I climbed onto a pillar for a property to be out of reach of dogs. In two cases I just froze. I am afraid of dogs. By association I am scared of dogs as I fear the same behaviour. 


The reason for which I bring up this topic, is not to repeat myself, but rather to comment on the difference in attitude between dogs and wolves, on one side, and bears on the other. 


A single bear threatens a father and son, before killing a jogger and there is talk of whether to be afraid, and whether to cull bears. On the other side we have packs of wolves killing livestock, and getting closer and closer to human habitations and no one is worried. Humans have feared wolves for centuries, for a reason. 


I love the idea of wolves in spaces where you can walk for ten days without seeing humans. I hate the idea of wolves where humans are half a day’s walk away. Is the wildlife such a problem that wolves are justified? 


As a child I wrote a report about wolves, but with time my fear of dogs, and by association wolves, has grown. I’d rather encounter a bear, than a wolf. I have encountered bears, and lived to speak of the experience. 


At the Crux De Van I walked up a foggy hill and come to within metres of a type of goat. At La Dôle too. I have come across deer running across fields cycling, and surprised another deer while walking near some woods. I have seen two or three foxes and more. I love to see wildlife, I just feel a strong fear of dogs and related animals. I want to enjoy walks, without fearing dog, or wolf attacks.  

Trees Turning Green

Trees Turning Green

Byrichard

Trees are currently turning green on the Jura. Leaves are growing and so the colour of the Jura is shifting from brown to green at last. Trees suffer in Summer at the moment, due to the lack of rain. That lack of rain results in them changing colour sooner.


Yesterday I went for a run in between two lots of rain and I was lucky. As I arrived home rain started to fall on me. Within minutes I could hear lightning and the rain started to fall heavily. I was lucky. I timed my run to be right in between two lots of rain. It would have soaked me if I had been unlucky.


Ultrasound Plants


According to a Tel Aviv university plants broadcast their distress, either from drought or from injury. Imagine the noise during a forest fire or when plants are harvested.


The Hidden Life of Trees


When walking in a shopping centre I noticed a few books about trees. I saw The Hidden life of Trees and started to read it, as an e-book, despite seeing the physical book. I could have bought it in French but English was cheaper. It speaks about how trees communicate with each other, although I haven’t read far enough to understand how. It also speaks about how crops are silent and isolated, due to how they are planted. I will elaborate when I know more.


It’s interesting to consider that plants can communicate with sound, or through networks of fungus under the ground. It’s interesting to consider the wood wide network, the notion that the soil is a means of communicating between trees. I am currently trying to revive a few orchids. After a year or two of thriving they suddenly slowed down and now seem to be struggling for life. I want to revive them.

Repotted Orchids

Repotted Orchids

Byrichard

Recently I repotted Orchids and now they seem to be doing fine. I see evidence of new buds and suspect that they have continued to grow despite my intervention. For months I considered repotting them but I was afraid that it would kill them. I waited until they were between blooms but they’re constantly blooming so that wait was long.


In the end I repotted them when I noticed that a plant was growing and flowering in the air. I found that it seemed to be completely detached from the mother plant. I filled a pot with the wood chips that are meant for orchids, wet them, and then placed the orchid plant within. I did this for several plants and now have four pots with orchids.


In one case the buds that were growing dried up and seem to have died. I spotted new growth though, so I think that they have all survived. If that is the case then orchids are not that difficult to keep. For a while I thought that the orchids were dead because they weren’t flowering or doing anything. Eventually I watered them and they started to grow again.


These orchids are now five years old, or even older than that. Rumours that these plants are fragile are either not true, or my flower keeping habits are right for this type of plant.


And Finally


I set off for one walk but ended up doing another. There is a pond/lake that has formed on a field, and I saw plenty of birds. I decided to walk by the lake/pond/puddle to see what bird life had been attracted. It’s plenty of seagulls.


https://youtu.be/bsOW-vnEzGo


A few days ago this water was frozen and I could walk across it. Now it is populated with birds, until it dries up.

Grapes and Apples
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Grapes and Apples

Byrichard

I have seen combine harvesters at work over the last two days. Yesterday I saw them harvesting colza, and today I saw them harvesting wheat. At the moment you see grapes that are still in a juvenile state, and apples that look a little more mature, growing on their respective plants.


Apples on an Apple tree
Apples on an Apple tree


When you walk every single day of the year, you see nature change. You see plants flower, the fruit or nuts grow, the harvest, and then the next crop, You see this all year long. At the moment as I walk by the vineyards I can see the grapes growing every day. They were tiny and unrecognisable and now we can see what they are, but we can see that they still need to grow more juicy and filled with fluid. There is no rush. They have three or four more months.


Despite the rains, the ground is dry again, so it is easy to walk without getting too muddy. The rivers, too, despite the flood warning for big lakes, are low again. The soil around here was not saturated.


Today I was at a petrol station and I could feel that someone was standing right behind me so I asked “pardon me, but could you step two meters back, and could you wear your face mask, as I gestured a mask on my own face. I said all of this automatically, without thought or consideration. It was a reflex. I’m old-fashioned. The limit is one metre, not two. I surprised myself with that reaction.


What’s of interest is that I was then thanked by the person at the petrol station because usually he’s the one that has to tell them to wear the mask, so I avoided him that unpleasant chore. I think that it might be the first time, this pandemic, that I say this. I haven’t been in such a situation as I tried to avoid people for the last 470+ days.


Day Twenty of ORCA in Switzerland – An Island of Tranquility
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Day Twenty of ORCA in Switzerland – An Island of Tranquility

Byrichard

Today I went on my daily walk and found an island of tranquility. Instead of walking in one direction I reversed it. In doing so I saw the river from another point of view. I was on a trail and saw that I could get down to the riverbed and did. I saw a tree lying from one bank to the other and I thought, “Look, a bridge” but of course I didn’t cross it because I’d have fallen in.


Today’s walk was shorter than usual and there are two reasons for it. The first is that I’ve walked the routes so many times over the last three summers that I’m in need of a change. The second reason is that today it was warm, it’s a Saturday, and it’s warm.


All of these factors meant that people were motivated to go out for a walk. When too many people go out during a pandemic the challenge of not walking within three meters is more pronounced.


As I got close to home, and saw how many people were walking I thought that the last four hundred meters would be really challenging. I thought I would have to find a quiet spot and watch for a gap in pedestrian traffic before I could walk home. Luckily that fear stayed theoretical.


I had planned to ride the bike indoors when I got home but then I got distracted with the need to work on a motivation letter but this was interrupted by a phone call and now it’s time for dinner and I have to write the blog post first.



I want to keep my daily routine up. I want to keep discipline. I also want to be ready for when life gets back to normal. I want to know that I set daily goals and I reach them consistently for weeks or months at a time. I am on day 208 of my German practice streak for example.


“COVID-19”, as people have been saying, “is not a holiday. It’s a pandemic. Stay home, and self-isolate.” Did you notice the shift from “social isolation” to “self-isolation”. I prefer the second term. I am self-isolating. I am keeping myself company, and at the end of the day, after having conversations via whatsapp or other apps I have a conversation with myself, in the form of writing. By the end of my “write a blog post task” I feel rested and relaxed, and I often feel my mood lift. It’s serving me well.


Now I can prepare dinner.

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Watching clouds form as a 360 timelapse

Byrichard

Time-lapse videos are fun because we can see something happen faster or slower than real time. By watching this content we gain a better understanding of the world and how it works. For years I have been filming time-lapses and the results can be fun. In some cases we record time-lapses with video cameras and at other times we set an interval timer to take pictures every so many seconds. In this post you will be watching clouds form as a 360 timelapse.

I have chosen to share both the flat image and the spherical image. The reason for sharing both versions is to give you an overview of how objects move in both.

Spherical Version

With this version look to your right and you will be able to watch the clouds move through space. As they move you will see them grow thicker and then cover the sun. At this point everything gets darker. If you watch this video a few times you can watch the landscape change.

The next step would be to get a 360 camera somewhere high during a total eclipse of the sun by the moon. During such events you will see a grey mask cross over the landscape, you will see birds fly away and then everything will be dark. You can then turn around and watch totality, the corona and then the reverse process. The time is right for eclipse chasers to be at the right place to capture such an event as a 360 video.

Flat Version

With the flat version you can imagine where you would aim a standard camera. Would you try to get the clouds that are forming over the mast or would you prefer to look out towards La Dôle and watch as the large clouds form and float to block off the sun? In this image you can see from Villeneuve and Lausanne to Geneva and the Salève.

Having such a wide angle of view allows you to see everything that is going on in front of and behind the camera. The timelapse is a sequence of pictures rather than video so in future I hope to export the video in a higher resolution.