Beddgelert

It's a cool sunny day here in Fergus.

Most of my morning has been spent writing Gerry and it is coming along nicely, I must say.  I've imposed a deadline on myself for the rough draft to be completed and am well on my way to meeting that deadline.  I had a ready-made break built into this day, as my wonderful friend Willow had an appointment with the local vet.  Everything was fine and when I got home there was an unexpected postcard from my aunt and uncle in the mailbox.  I love the postcard and would have scanned it if my other computer was not in the shop - There's a rant I have about technology that I won't go into right now.  I love this particular postcard because there's a story on it.

 The Story of Beddgelert


  In the 13th century, Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales, had a Palace at Beddgelert.  One day he went hunting without Gelert, "The Faithful Hound", who was unaccountably absent.  On Llewellyn's return, the truant stained and smeared with blood, joyfully sprang to meet his master.  The Prince, alarmed, hastened to find his son and saw the Infant's cot empty, the bedclothes and floor covered with blood.
  The frantic father plunged his sword into the hound's side thinking it had killed his heir.  The dogs dying yell was answered by a child's cry.  Llewellyn searched and discovered his boy unharmed, but nearby lay the body of a mighty wolf which Gelert had slain.  The Prince, filled with remorse, it said never to have smiled again.
He buried Gelert here.
The spot is called  Beddgelert.


The story on the face of the card is accompanied by a pair of photographs.  The first is of a few of the old buildings which comprise the village.  The second, is what appears to be the grave of Gelert, himself.

Okay, now back to stories about Giants.

Happy Earthday to You, You Live in a Zoo...

Here in Fergus we started Earth Day with a power outage.  It's a day of litterless lunches and walks to school.

Here's my Earth Day gift to you (courtesy of the National Geographic Society)

I'm putting all my money in airships.

There's been a lot of talk about air travel and volcanoes this week.  Apparently our jets have a problem with volcanic ash building up in the engines.  Apparently something called "catastrophic engine failure" may occur.  Now, I'm no aeronautical engineer but I assume catastrophic engine failure is a bad thing.

With tens of thousands stranded in Europe and predictions saying Icelandic volcanoes and their resulting ash could be a jet plane nightmare for years to come, I got to thinking...

Zeppelins - blimps - airships.  Why not?  Sure they're slow, but slow is infinitely better than stationary.

Think about it.  Massive, helium supported, solar powered platforms.  Propeller driven by enclosed electrical engines.  Able to cross the Atlantic in three to five days.

Why the hell not?

Just something to ponder on a Tuesday morning.