Spring Watch
Magnolias in Nyon
The Léman Rose by Seven Centimetres Overnight
With the weather system that we have had over Europe a lot of rain has fallen. So much rain has fallen that it has swollen rivers and flooded plenty of regions. In Switzerland, because almost everything is on a hill flooding might be noticed in some parts of certain cities, but in theory it is easy, within meters, to be safe from the flood.
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Boats in Nyon -
Boats in Nyon -
Visible flooding in Nyon -
Boats in Nyon -
Boats in Nyon
Today in the port of Nyon you can see that the boats are much higher than usual. Normally they would be one to two meters lower than they are in these images. According to a conversation I overheard the lake rose by seven centimetres overnight, i.e. enough for the lake to be level with the access platforms.
In some images, you see that the petrol station is now partially immersed in the lake. I don’t think that there is a risk of pollution when it is at this specific level, but I am not certain. What is certain is that the lake is at an interesting level compared to usual. Flooding is occurring for properties that are close to the lake, or below lake level.
Some cantons have banned access to the water, probably due to silt, sediment and other detritus found in the water. In contrast, the water from the Léman, in so far as I could see, looked clean. This is positive. If properties are flooded by this water, they will find clean up and drying easier than if the opposite is true.
In Neuchatel, due to the waters rising so much, they intentionally flooded a parking. Les images de La Maladière inondée. I find such events interesting. It’s interesting to see how high the water can get. It’s interesting to see how people respond, and it’s interesting to see what curiousities result from the excess of water needing to be dealt with.
It would be interesting to see the Pont Des Machines in Geneva, to see how high it is, and to see whether all the sluices are open.
A Ten Kilometre Sunday Ingress Walk
I was going to take the scooter but it was stuck by three SUVs so I had no option but to lazily give up and go on a 10 kilometre Sunday Ingress walk. I couldn’t be bothered running up to the second floor, getting the car keys, moving the car, getting the scooter out and then moving the car back. This is especially true since it’s going to rain tomorrow.
I do have the goal of having at least one day a week without using an internal combustion engine so by the neighbours each having jeeps/SUVs I reduced my own carbon footprint. Days without internal combustion are always good.
My goal was to complete the Nyon by night set of missions. It’s the top line in the screengrab above. It’s a quick set of missions to complete with just a hack but portal for six portals. As the servers were not acting up or slow the time it took to do the walk was enough to complete the six missions. In the process, I captured a few portals and established a few more fields over the city.
While on this walk I listened to the You’re Dead to Me podcast by the BBC. It’s a podcast that explores history in a light-hearted manner. It has a comedian, an expert on the topic of the episode and the presenter. In the episode I listened to they were discussing Harriet Tubman, It’s the little brother of the In Our Time Podcast.
When I was playing Ingress a few years ago I didn’t track the walk with a GPS. I tracked it for this walk. You see that rather than be a large circular hike without overlaps you have the opposite. You see that I walked over certain streets in Nyon two or three times. You also see that there are thorns where I walk to the right or left of my course to get a portal or other.
It’s especially around the Centre of Nyon that you see that I walk through many more streets than usual. On a normal walk, I’d walk from A to B choosing the most direct route. In this case, I go up and down certain streets two or three times.
If you do this without trying to complete a mission it will be even more chaotic as you walk from portal to portal to hack, capture, up, field or other.
During the lull between summer sports and winter sports Ingress is a good way for some people to get out and be physically active without necessarily driving for hours.
Summer Nyon
This is an image of Nyon on a day when the thermometer indicated at least 31°c on a sunny Sunday afternoon. In this image you can see the CGN boat leaving Nyon and heading towards Geneva. You can see the Jet D’eau in the background. You can see a sailing boat in the distance, some kayakers nearby and two pedalos. What you don’t see in this image are the people playing volleyball, other people sitting at Nyon Plage or yet more people at the Nyon Swimming Pool.
From Nyon you can cycle along the lake road to Geneva or Lausanne and if you feel you have the stamina you could cycle from Nyon to Nyon by taking the long way around. This may take 10 hours depending on your level of fitness and endurance.
If this does not tempt you then you could go up to the Jura. You can either go up towards La Dôle and choose one of three routes to get to the doppler radar or you could go to St Cergue and walk from that side to the peak. The walk is short but physical so make sure to take appropriate shoes and something to drink.
If those options do not tempt you then you can catch the boat you see in the image above or the smaller boat that you see below. These boats are regular. People like to take the boat from Nyon to Yvoire, have lunch, dinner or an ice cream and then come back. If you have the right friends then you could do this trip on a sailing boat as we used to do frequently with one friend.
Nyon has quite a few activities to distract people in summer so if you’re in the region there are a few events and activities to choose from.
Nyon in Spring
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Today I went down to the Nyon Lakeside to play with the camera to try it out. I watched the video playback and it looked fine. I saw some pixelation between a girl’s face and her hair when she was walking and some artefacts just around the people’s bodies as they move. That’s at 1440*1020, not full resolution. I’ll have to find time to do test at full HD quality during my days off.
Please note that for monitoring I was using a 40″ Sony Bravia and standing a few centimeters away. From a few meters back it looked fine.
Playing with HD some more
Yesterday I was playing some more with the High definition camera and got a few more seconds of footage uploaded. Right click or control click to download the files and alt/option F to play them full screen.
Now I wih I had an HD monitor to view the footage properly. Look at the detail on the shot of the castle. You see so much. Really nice image to work with.
Slightly Ahead Of Their Comfort Zone
Today I went to film some friends playing a gig by the lakeside in Nyon and it was a great occasion. The sun was shining, the air temperature was good and many people that I had not seen in many years were present.
The shoot involved two cameras. One was at the back as a safety shot whilst I got the fun camera at the front. There was one electric guitar, one acoustic, and one bass. There was also a drum kit and a synthesizer. The music was good but I forgot my hearing protection so I had a slight ringing by the end of the event… all in a day’s work.
I managed to get the whole concert filmed without getting tired which is great. I’ve been using the camera I used for the past 7 years so it’s normal I’m so comfortable with it. I watched the footage and I’m happy with it. It’s good, a nice variety of shots, switches at the right moment from the key instrument to the next.
Bart Simpson was sitting on the drum kit and then got to dance with a girl who was meant to sing, the only problem is the sound engineer didn’t make her mic loud enough. It’s normal since they didn’t take enough time to prepare everything before having the gig go live.
I’ve captured all the video footage and it’s ready to be compressed and uploaded to Facebook. I’ve actually annoyed them and got a “You recently uploaded a video to Facebook, and it could not be processed because it was too long.” message. hehe, that’s normal for me.
I’m uploading those videos to the video section of my website and they’ll be available on the RSS feed within the next few days. I need to count about two hours of processing per video clip unfortunately. With the Macbookpro I’m waiting for it should be faster.
Today was in some respects a perfect day and I’d like more of them to be like this.