A Touch of Country Life

Always nice to see this group of ladies exercising their horses through the village:



Been making the most of the brighter light today. A couple of hefty showers yesterday dumped an inch of rain on us. Could have been worse as Louth, the nearby market town in a valley, had a couple of inches in an hour with the inevitable results. I've experienced being in the shopping area at the bottom of the valley when the heavens open and rain rushed down every steep road, lane and path down to the bottom. Instant paddling pool.

Tomorrow could be wet and windy when the remains of Hurricane / Atlantic Storm Bertha reach us.

I decided to start an additional blog devoted to the Raspberry Pi so I don't clutter up the more nature like happenings on here as I record any disasters or occasional successes with my experiments. Of course I have called it MIDMARSH Pi!

Friday at the Flicks - Eating Upside Down

Well, to be accurate, not really eating upside down but collecting food to take to a nearby branch to eat. This youngster seems to prefer this method for pecking off bits from the peanuts in the all mesh feeder. I'm pleased I bought this particular feeder as it gives a good opportunity to watch the acrobatic skills of Blue Tits, even from an early age.



Sorry I'm getting more than a bit behind answering comments and visiting blogs. A lot of my internet time has been taken up with finding the information and programs I need to get on with programming the Raspberry Pi.  At last I have found a version of BASIC called FUZE which is more to my taste as most of my computer programming has been with various forms of that language.  Sinclair BASIC on the ZX81 and ZX Spectrum, BBC BASIC on the BBC model B and GFA BASIC on the Atari ST so at least many of the structures are familiar though the remaining grey cell needs a good prodding to remember how to use them. I have reached the age where learning a new type of programming language is well and truly a very slow climb along a steep learning curve.

(BASIC - Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

Does It Taste Better Upside Down?

A new cheap peanut feeder has given the Blue Tits a chance to show off their agility.  Unlike my other feeders which have solid bases this one continues the mesh underneath.

Not brilliant photos as they were taken at high ISO on a very dull morning but I couldn't resist the antics of this juvenile Blue Tit:





It makes sense to attack the bottom peanuts as the weight of those above help to keep them in place while the bird pecks at one.

Video to follow on Friday.

Tuesday Twister - Guess What

It would appear last week's twisted picture turned out to be a bit more difficult to identify. Anyway, congratulations and virtual gold stars go to Adrian and Wilma who managed to identify the cone:

   


I hope this week's twisted photo will be a bit easier to work out.
Guess what:



Please leave any guesses in the comments.
They will be revealed next Tuesday along with the answer.
No prizes. Just for fun and a virtual gold star.

Soon be All Grown Up

Many of the young birds are moulting and changing their fledgling plumage for their adult colours:

Robin:


Starling:

Raspberry Pi

Penny has been though the wars again. Thursday she had yet more treatment for her teeth. This time she only lost one little one. Mike, the vet, is trying a new, to him, treatment which coats the teeth below the gum line to help slow down decay. This treatment has had very good reports but is a first for Mike. This time she seems to be recovering much faster and I need to wear sun glasses to look at her teeth they are such a dazzling pure white now.


I have toyed with the idea of buying a Raspberry Pi to play with. This is a bare bones programmable computer. Recently a new version has been released, the B+, so I decided to order one. One thing which interested me was the built in interface for a specially designed camera, obtainable extra so I got one of those along with a USB WiFi 'dongle':



In use I plug in a mini keyboard and mouse.
A good job they increased the number of USB ports from 2 to 4 on the B+.
There is an HDMI output which I plug in a 15 inch TV.

The Pi B+ does not come with an operating system but takes a micro SD card which can be loaded with one or more of several free programming languages.  One aspect of using the camera I liked was being able to monitor it over WiFi or even the internet. The camera has 5 Mpixels which is reasonable and the software can be programmed to take still or movie.

This is a 640x480 capture taken over wiFi with a Samsung Galaxy Tab 4:



For android based phones or tablets there is a very easy to use free app (RaspCAM Remote).
There is a free iOS app (BerryCam) which takes much more setting up.

The Pi seems to me to be a bit more delicate than the Arduino in one respect. The input signals cannot exceed 3V and many extras were designed to work on 5V so, as far as I am concerned, an interface is a sensible idea. There are many interfaces which do one job but also available is this versatile Tandy jobby which comes as a kit:



It was designed for the earlier versions of the Pi (A & B) but should be OK with the B+ as far as I can see. There are about 70 items to solder on the board but as some have up to 20 pins I reckon about 200 solder joints will have to be made. Should keep me out of mischief for hours! As will coming to terms with learning to program the Pi as the languages used seem nothing like those I have used in the past.

Friday at the Flicks - Blackbird on a Hot Roof

A bit of video I took when the Blackbird was 'basking' on the roof of my shed: