Category: Journal
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The Glenlivet
The Glenlivet Whisky Distillery is about 1.5 hours north-west of Aberdeen in a beautiful, rural pocket of the Cairngorms. It’s surrounded by forests, rivers, hills, and farmland. The buildings are black in this next photo because the whisky production process attracts microorganisms causing it to go black. A fungus – Baudoinia compniacensis – feeds on…
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Beetroots, beans and bikes
We went to the allotment today and the kids harvested a couple of beetroots. The allotment is giving us beetroots, tomatoes, broccoli, kale, and herbs right now. The other crops have either died away with the cooler weather or have been harvested already. We have an abundance of kale which should see us right through…
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Cycling advocacy and cross-country skiing
We had a fantastic day today. I’m on holiday and this morning I handed over one of the copies of Designing for Cycle Traffic to the Aberdeenshire Council. Two copies were crowd-funded by the Aberdeen Cycle Forum – one for Aberdeenshire Council and the other for Aberdeen City Council. The Evening Express asked for an…
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Aberdeenshire in the Autumn
A photographer friend of ours visited for a few days this week and took off before dawn each morning to capture the sunrise. One morning he got this shot of Dunnottar Castle which then made The Times the next day: Isn’t is marvellous? You can see the full version on his site at https://www.bigladder.co.uk/ We decided…
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Killing machines
I want to demonstrate a similarity I’ve noticed between racism and bias against cyclists. Have you ever noticed our unconscious bias towards minority groups like Black British people or African Americans means that if one member of the group does something wrong, the entire group is tarnished? If one African American commits a crime then…
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Smacking is a euphemism for assault
Smacking is to be banned in Scotland, hopefully from next year, and I’m very happy about this. But apparently only 30% of Scots support the new legislation. I find this surprising. Hitting a child is assault. It’s always done in anger and it can cause long-term psychological harm. Once upon a time it was legal…
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ET phone home
They say you can’t cycle in the rain. Well poop to them because that’s exactly what we did today. Every Saturday I take Elizabeth to Highland Dancing by bike and we cycle on Deeside Way. It is particularly gorgeous right now with autumn colours. The kids watched Netflix in the bike on the way. My…
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A lemon tree in Aberdeen
I know I shouldn’t count my chickens before they hatch but I’m so excited about these little babies growing on my lemon tree. I bought this lemon tree about 3 years ago as a tiny plant and it has tripled in size and this year has lots of lemons. Last year it started to produce…
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The road to hell is paved with chocolate and cars
I can’t resist temptation. Buy me a block of chocolate and I’ll eat the whole thing in one day. Replace my bike with a car and I’ll drive everywhere becoming fat and lazy. This is why I don’t have chocolate in the house and don’t own a car. I have no willpower and I don’t…
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Courgettes and tomatoes
I’ve been so busy this month with cycling-related activities that I’ve neglected my plot. However I managed to get out there today and brought home more courgettes and tomatoes than we can eat. I also got a couple of cucumbers and some broccoli and kale. I’ve got masses of kale but kale will grow all…
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The People’s Front of Judea
So much of life is like a Monty Python sketch. They were so cleverly able to turn life into the absurd and make it funny. Last night I attended an evening of talks for the launch of a new cycling group in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. I gave a talk too and this time there were…
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When no one comes to your talk
Yesterday I gave a talk at the Aberdeen Science Centre to, er, 6 people. That’s embarrassing enough as it is but 3 of the 6 people were Daniel, Elizabeth, and Ben. The other 3 were staff at the centre. I won’t give up my day job for paid speaking gigs just yet. My talk was…
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Pollution from cars is harmful to children
Air pollution from motor vehicles is harmful to humans but especially harmful to children. We know it can damage the growth of their lungs, raise the risk of asthma and allergies, affect brain development and intelligence, raise the risk of heart disease and cancer, and it even affects unborn children in their mother’s womb. But…
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Street art
I saw this fantastic street art in Aberdeen yesterday. I think it’s new because I haven’t seen it before. It’s on Justice Mill Lane near the junction with Bon Accord Terrace.
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AWPR demo recap
The demonstration organised by Aberdeen Cycle Forum and members last Sunday was a huge success. It’s the third such demo I’ve helped to organise and it was by far the best in terms of turnout. Aberdonians are conservative engineers who don’t protest. We go to go work, keep to ourselves, and don’t complain. However people…
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Building new roads leads to more new roads
Last month I stumbled across an article from 2006 called Induced traffic. Again. And again. And again. It was first observed early last century that building new roads generates new traffic. So 1925, 1937, 1958, 1963, 1968, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1994, 1996, now 2006: for 80 years, every eight years on average, there has been…
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The blunders continue
You might have seen headlines recently about the worst cycling event ever where event planners for the AWPR (the new ring road around Aberdeen for cars only) planned a cycling event in which you cannot take a bike. After much criticism they changed the event and now people can take bikes. However the blunders continue.…
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The Plant Police
Elizabeth (who is 8) and her friend have started a committee at lunchtime called The Plant Police. The aim of this committee – from what I understand – is to protect the plants in the playground from rampaging children. I know what you’re thinking – she’s my mini-me. I almost feel a bit bad: what…
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Gathering llamas with the Queen
We had a fantastic weekend away at Glenshee Ecocamp and the Braemar Gathering. We stayed in a vintage train wagon which has been converted into off-grid accommodation. It was wonderful! Very quiet and peaceful (except for our noisy kids!) and lots of stunning scenery including a starlit sky at night. The kids were not bothered…
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Bike paths for all demonstration on 9th September in Aberdeen
The new bypass for motor vehicles – the AWPR – is set to open soon and I posted recently about the attempts to make up for the absence of cycling provision in the new road by organising a cycling event where you cannot take a bike. After a lot of bad publicity the event was…
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