Thursday, June 11, 2009

Longwood in Spring

So we need to do some catching up on the Hart Herald. In April we went up to Longwood Gardens, meeting up with Grandma and Pop-Pop. It was characteristically spectacular.







Harry and Eleanor both had a great time but for Eleanor it was her first opportunity to really enjoy the place fully. Of course it is still a little tough for her to keep up with Harry.



She did have a blast in the tree house. Eleanor must have spent a good half hour going up and down the steps, pausing only to ham it up for the camera.







Eventually Eleanor ran out of steam and it was just Harry ramming around. Fountains dominated the end of the trip.



He's like a young Korean Bernoulli.



"There's surely some way to relate the water's velocity at the base of the fountain to its eventual height achieved. Hmmm..."

But such intellectual pursuits where soon dispensed with, once we went inside and there were fountains you could play in.




That last one is clearly a child having wicked fun.

And here's a parting shot for Grandma. This trip introduced us to the Texas Weeping Redbud Tree.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Biannual Update

So yeah, it's been a while. My birthday came and went, Harry had another Gotcha Day and Eleanor is nearing her second birthday.

So what would rouse me from my long absence in blogging?

A Swiss G11 I guess.



Isn't she a beauty? 52 inches of Swiss precision crafted by watchmakers in 1913. She features the original Schmidt-Rubin straight pull action that was later perfected in the K31 and fires the same 7.5x55mm Swiss ammo.

I got my first chance to take her out at the NRA indoor range in Fairfax. Her full-throated voice was quite fetching compared to the shrill barks of the common assault rifles that shared the room. Anyway, she is as accurate as I expected, with a crisp two stage trigger and plenty of barrel to sight down. She is slimmer than the K31 too and fit my hand quite a bit better.

But then she fell into the arms of another. Why, she was actually passed around. And is that some Russian harlot?



She needs a name so comment away.