stop and smell the garlic

A warning to the world: Sherlock is now old enough to be sneaky with Mycroft and Greg. He suggested a bike ride for today, and the four of us set out toward the coast. We kept going, further, and a little further, and then we were at the ferry…

Which we took, bikes and all, and my only starting to suspect something might be up. I did eventually realise it's my birthday on Monday (look, I've been distracted, all right?). And L clearly had a very specific destination in mind... One, as it turned out, with a hot tub.  And a trampoline.

Anthea and the dogs met us here, and it's just... It's really nice. Everyone all together and relaxed. I wish we could've brought the kitten, but she's probably had enough of motorbikes for a while, and she was curled up in Mrs Hudson's lap when we left anyway.

Oh, and when we got here, the wrong lock was locked, and L had to break in...with a coffee shop loyalty card. One of many, I suspect. Sherlock started practising five minutes later and didn't stop until he went to bed.

phobos

Watching L watch football is more entertaining (and occasionally heartbreaking) than actually watching almost any sport.

Sherlock's class are doing ancient Egypt related things again, although no one's getting mummified (that I know of) (possibly one of us if we stand still too long). I called Mycroft earlier and got about two minutes to talk to him before Sherlock stole the phone and told him about Egyptian temple architecture for two hours and also discussed what sort of animal head he would have if he were a god. His top options were jackal, crocodile, and cobra. (He said I ought to have a giraffe one, for which I blame my husband.)

I then got two more minutes of Mycroft before he had to go and do his homework. He says he's fine and, if transformed into a god, would like the head of something with no ears. We'll have him and Anthea and the dogs home again this Saturday, which will be very nice.

In his first two minutes, he told me a story about Phobos going after the rugby ball while some of the younger boys were practising and making off with it...all the way back to Anthea. Bounding across the campus with two teams of twelve year old tearing after him and whooping. He laid it at her feet and sat down, proud and panting and expecting a scratch behind the ears. Sometimes I wonder if Anthea regrets meeting us...

rotating buildings

They're making unbranded versions of various products...I think I have to get the Marmite for L, don't I? And here are these buildings in Dubai, which are apparently going to move and reshape themselves?

They're not built yet, but here is some information about them (second on the list). And somehow they generate wind power in the spaces between the floors? It seems like something out of Star Trek, to be honest, but the article talks about them like they're actually going to happen. Amazing.

So, yesterday... Yesterday was work, for just about 12 solid hours. Usually there are a few slow periods and I can get lunch and even pick Sherlock up from school, get the chores done... Not yesterday. Someone took pity on me around three and gave me half his sandwich, which I got two bites of before I had to leave.

And then when I got home, I found L had made dinner, despite being sick and looking after Sherlock all afternoon, either one of which is enough to make a person want a nap. He's amazing, and I'm very lucky.

spring

Well, I think it's safe to say that it's spring now. L took these today...

Things are blooming, the sky is blue, the sun was out... We got very dirty at the allotment... Well. Very dirty is relative. I have no doubt it will be much worse later on, but there was mud in abundance. And I strained the top of my foot somehow getting my boot off later. That's unrelated to the allotment. Probably.

Reg suggested to Sherlock that he make a scarecrow to keep the birds away from the new plants. He doesn't know what's he's wrought. I remember one of you being worried you'd started something here a few nights ago -- never worry about that. Honestly, it is impossible not to start something with Sherlock. His enthusiasms are enormous and often overwhelming, and always entertaining. We will have the most terrifying scarecrow of all time.

The running is...going. Well, the running itself is fine. Finding time for it is going to become increasingly difficult as the runs get longer, I think. And of course one has to schedule in all that time lying pathetically on the floor afterward...

training

I've been looking at half marathons since L foolishly agreed to do one with me. There's a few in France, in the mountains - which is good because it'll be cooler, but bad because...they're in the mountains. But we don't get Mycroft back until late June, so it's going to be either heat or elevation, and I think I'd prefer elevation. Greg? Preferences? Or we could just do one around here and then we could do it anytime, but I thought something different might be nice. 

There's also a Midnight Sun Run in Iceland, which sounds interesting. Apparently you get to lounge around in thermal pools afterward, which will probably be all we can manage.

And here's a training schedule that Sherlock sent me because "you and Lestrade are old and you should be careful you don't die when you run for miles and miles."

Noted, Sherlock. We will do our best not to die.

There's a link to the website where he found it, but I'm also pasting it here because the constantly moving text at the top of the screen on the site makes me want to hurl the computer across the room. 

moss power

HELLO this is Sherlock and that picture is of a lamp being powered by moss. This is a thing people have made up called biophotovoltaics and it is where the plants photosynthesise and release stuff into the soil that feeds bacteria and then the bacteria break that stuff down and release electrons and you can make power from that. Not very much yet, but I think this would be a good way to power space ships.

I think the different kinds of plants release different stuff, so moss works well and trees might not even though it seems like trees should release a lot more of it. They should find trees that release the right combination of things to feed loads of bacteria and then you could make a giant sphere in space with lots and lots of trees and plants and stuff and it would all run on BPV and could go forever because if the plants died you could just plant new ones.

The plants need their bacteria though so you would have to not do it from the same plants all the time, but it doesn't seem like you would need that much to power a space ship once it got off the ground and if you built it already in space that wouldn't be a problem and it would go forever and we could go to other planets. So I think they should work on that.

Also there is a man who wants to replace all the roads with solar panels you can drive on. That's not as fun but it's probably a good idea but I would rather have spaceships.