Monthly Archives: May 2013

Learning Calligraphy

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I’ve always enjoyed calligraphy. Not that I’m very good at it, but I do want to get better. In about a month from now, I’ll be taking private lessons. I’ll follow what the teacher wants me to learn first, but I did mention that I want to learn the Copperplate style. It’s that beautiful penmanship from the late 1800’s, early 1900’s. It’s just so beautiful. Here’s an example taken from the New Zanerian Alphabets originally published in 1900.

SamplefromNewZanerianAlphabetsof1900

Don’t you agree that it’s so beautiful? I just love it.

Earlier this week, I ordered the flexible nibs required to create this style of letters. However, I didn’t order an oblique nib holder and from what I’ve read so far, it looks like that’s what I’ll need to get better results. Oh well, I have a straight nib holder and we’ll start with that I guess and see what the teacher says.

Windy day

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The wind has been blowing non-stop since this morning. When I say blowing, I mean blowing! Weather service says the winds are around 30 mph, with gusts up to 50 mph. I have no problem believing it. Proof: this picture taken with my phone. Not a good quality pic but look at all that dust!

051413141949

Upland sandpiper

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We have been lucky to see a lot of wildlife this year. The weather and food distribution must be just right in our area. Earlier this year, we saw a herd of deer in the field. Neither of us had ever seen so many deer at the same time. Some of you might have seen the pictures I posted in our gallery. We have also been seeing a lot of different birds of prey. In the previous years, we were mainly seeing only harriers and great horned owls. This year we’ve added sightings of kestrels, bald eagles and golden eagles. And tonight, we first heard and then finally saw an upland sandpiper. Their song is particular. I would have loved to post a sound file here but couldn’t find one I could download and post here legally. So if you want to hear it, you’ll have to visit this website I found: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology. They have a good sound file on their site. The link will take you directly to the upland sandpiper’s page.

UplandSandpiperOntarioCropped

By Johnath (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)

First varmint rifle match of the season

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Yesterday, we had our first Varmint Riflle Match of 2013. Gary started this discipline at the shooting club last year and people really got interested in it. We even have several long range shooters participating in our matches!

North Dakota being true to itself threw us some cold weather and some wind as well, to make the whole thing interesting. Below is a view of where we shoot from: Continue reading →