golden spiralling - but not out of control

Before the picture of the sunflower scrolls out of the main pages on the blog, I thought I'd mention that it's a 34.

I don't do it with most plants, but sunflowers require that special extra moment to (a) estimate and sometimes (b) count the number of petals. Not if they are a complete field full of flowers, you understand, but if they are singular.

Some people are surprised that flowers have set numbers of petals when they grow, but I think I'm 'amazed'. I know it is all about Fibonacci series and phi and golden means, but for some reason the sunflower is the perfect type of flower to check that nature is still working properly.

The right number of petals for flowers are (1), 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89 and not really any other numbers (I know there's a few mutations, and so-called 'doubles' like on lilies, but let's stick with the main ones). The arithmetic is simply that the two previous numbers add up to the next available combination.

So my sunflower planted by the birds is a 34, and Pat's Michaelmas daisies are also 34s.

My picture of the complicated rose above is probably an 89, but it is a bit difficult to count the petals. I suppose that's the attraction of sunflowers for the purpose. They are easy to count.

The same thing happens with the spirally bit in the middle of a sunflower. The clockwise and the anticlockwise number of spirals are also in a similar ratio. It'll be something like 34 one way and 55 the other way.

Even pineapple bumps do it. Count the clockwise spirals and then the anti-clockwise ones. It'll be something like 13 one way and 21 the other.

There. I've managed to rationalise my flower petal counting. Now, back to the spreadsheets.

drive my car to penny lane

A bit of a helter skelter day tripper visit to Liverpool today, including a stop in a road with a famous name.

Altogether now, it was a magical mystery tour, during which I had to drive my car, following someone along a long and winding road.

I should have known better, but my ticket to ride didn't give me time to let it be. I suppose I was here, there and everywhere, before I had to follow the sun to get back.

a bat, an indifferent hedgehog and a sunflower

The bat that flitters around our garden at sunset is quite unphased if I'm outdoors and will usually swoop for a quick look before going on with its hunting for insects.

The midnight rambling hedgehog is similarly happy to continue about its fairly slow speed rummaging for earthworms. I have this theory about townie hedgehogs having a good turn of speed so that they can avoid cars, whilst country hedgehogs are more likely to roll up in balls which might not always be in their best interest.

The one in our garden treats me with indifference. And yes, I do know that song by Stackridge. And the one by the Incredible String Band.

Today's feature, though, is one of the sunflowers which have been donated by the birds. I spotted it a while ago, when it could have been mistaken for a fast growing weed. Fortunately I decided it was a plant in the right place, so it survived and today receives the iPhone photographic treatment.

pickin' me a bouquet of dogwood flowers

I took yesterday's bike picture with the camera set to 'automatic' and the flash-gun popped up. I couldn't help notice how it made the bike look quite shiny.

No such luck with these pictures of the bike's pedals. Most people seem to use either the original flat pedals that come with bikes, or get those road clipless pedals. For some reason I've always used the mountain bike type clips even with road bikes.

I'm sure there must be some down-side to using them on a road-bike, but I'm not sure that it makes all that much difference.

It also means that I can have the same pedal types everywhere and also that they have little flat pedal surfaces for cycling in other shoes.

The ones I use are called Candy and I notice I still have what would now be a collector's edition of an old type on one bike. The black ones are the long surviving originals, with special plastic inserts for different colour combinations - see my imaginative choice of grey.

The blue and the gold pedals supposedly signify different qualities, although I'd say the blue ones are by far the highest mileage.

And speaking of mileage, I see that I have now passed my 3,000 mile cycling target this year, which I think I decided would constitute a Silver Wagon Wheel award. My original target set back in January was 1,600 miles, so I think I'm doing quite well.

And I'll now see if I can achieve 4,000 miles by the end of the year to achieve a Gold Wagon Wheel. Construction and consumption of the wagon wheel (Silver at this stage) will follow in another post.

* title is a line from a banjo song... called Wagon Wheel.

steel frame and disk brakes being prepped for the upcoming season

This is going to sound sort of daft, what with it being sunny outside at the moment, but I thought I'd better check a different bike in preparation for the upcoming seasonal changes.

After my recent musing about the fixie, I've decided I'll go back to a retro steel frame and some wider tyres for the winter. I took it out for a preview spin to check that the various components were working. I know it's early, but I'd rather be adjusting things in the warm than later on when everything gets a bit more painful.

Truth be told, everything was in good nick, except that I discovered after the trip that the brakes were very slightly 'on' the whole time.

I'd initially put this down to just being on a heavier bike but after I'd finished I thought I'd just spin the wheels to see how they compared with my road bike.

Hmm. Quite a difference. The road bike's wheels will spin for quite a long time (many revolutions), whereas the steel bike was only 2-3 revolutions at most.

I initially wondered about oil and bearings and things like that, but then loosened the brakes just in case they were the culprits. Sure enough, there was a marked improvement. This winter steel bike has disk brakes, so I did that thing with the thin piece of card to get the clearances right and then retightened everything.

I think the next trip will be easier.

Next is to remember where I've put all the little lights and clip on mudguards.

a surfeit of scrumpy

We'd agreed to meet in one of those railway arch type wine bars near one of the main-line train stations.

It's a well-known London venue, but was surprisingly quiet when we arrived.

We'd both taken the precaution to travel by public transport, so that some modest imbibing would be possible.

I should have heard the buzzer making that 'Brrp' noise and seen the big red cross in the air.

But I didn't.

"They do a good cider here," said my friend.

"I'll give it a go," I replied.

It looked innocent enough and fairly clear. Not an obvious rough scrumpy candidate although the apples had that tart taste.

"It's only six-and-a-half-percent," said my friend.

I should have remembered that I am not very cider-proof.

We had a great afternoon.

Although I did decide to make it an early night.

And this morning's 6 a.m. start was surprisingly difficult.

Tonight it will be comfort food.

Beans on toast.

And no cider.

all of your adapter are belong to us

I see the new iPhone has been announced and that it can show even more icons for Apps purchased from the App Store on the new bigger screen.

The faster chip required to refresh the larger screen and the increased pixels require more battery, so they've shaved the circuit boards to pack the phone with ever more lithium ion polymer.

I also noticed that there's a revised connector - named Lightning, which is to go with the already available Thunderbolt high speed connector.

It's a clever commercial move to design a new connector.

None of the existing stuff will fit it, except with an expensive and fairly ugly adapter which costs about £25.

I guess next iPad will also move to the new connector, so we'll all eventually have another collection of defunct power blocks and adapters.

* excuse the poor artwork above. I've been using PS CS6 and not quite figured out a few of the changes.

iPhone 5 unboxification

Katzenstok technology threatens to upset the launch of the newest Apple iPhone via Puppetshed.
Thunderbolt and Lightning, very very frightening me.

sun appears again

Kudos to our fellow blogger Daniel (@danielh_g) for getting the lead in this advert for the Sun newspaper. I saw it on telly last night in the middle of a drama show and felt the need to rewind it and watch again. Very entertaining.

As is the way with T.V. ads, there appear to be several versions and the one I've featured above is the full 1:30.

The sun seems to get featured in these 'morph between scenes' type adverts, as witnessed by the one below about the sun coming out - and featuring the fastest beachside quickdraw of a mayo that I've ever seen.

And of course, there's always the ones where there 'Ain't no sunshine' too - as witnessed in the famous walkthrough scene in the movie Notting Hill.

chickpea salad nom nom nom

Yes - I know.

dismantling the head clicking disk

The wheels on the disk go round and round.

head clicks, but in a good way

It's been a little over a year since I rebooted the way I'm operating and I can honestly say it's been a good change. I've also been a little surprised that there's still a pile of projects that I'd planned to do that haven't really reached fruition.

I guess it is partly because I'm still quite busy, albeit in a different way. I still have business meetings, phone conferences, travel and so on, although in a more balanced mix than previously.

I certainly feel more in control of my time and no longer get those Saturday morning business calls from the middle east when I'm in the Sainsbury's car-park with a shopping trolley.

Similarly there has been a drop off in the number of meetings scheduled on Californian time, which would often mean 8 or 10 o'clock in the evening for me.

Someone said to me that 2012 is blurring past, and although I understand the comment I'm not sure it's quite how I feel.

As an example, glancing through my 2012 photo albums is enough to remind me I've already had a lot happen. It includes time working in Wales, sunshine in Miami Beach, kicking around in Key West, the recent trip around a chunk of Europe as well as the inevitable London adventures. Add in some theatre shows and music plus the typical home stuff and it starts to get hectic.

I still found time to dismantle the broken disk drive from my iMac - I may even upload the video showing the broken heads clicking.