Colour-blindness

I was talking to some children before half-term about colour-blindness. Here are some simple tests to see if you are like me. I am slightly red-green colour blind. This makes it difficult for me to tell the difference between some colours, like yellow and green on teletext.


If you are colourblind you should see the yellow circle. If you have normal colour vision you should see the yellow circle and a "faint" brown square. I can only see the yellow circle.



If you are colourblind you should see the yellow square. If you have normal colour vision you should see the yellow square and a "faint" brown circle. I can only see a yellow square.

If you are colourblind you won't be able to see anything but dots. If you have normal colour vision you should see a boat. I can't see anything but dots.

To find out more about colour blindness follow this link:http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetailsKids.aspx?p=335&np=152&id=1700

To do other tests go to this web site: http://colorvisiontesting.com/

Cool information for kids.

I found this Australian web site whilst surfing the internet. It is all about children's health and concerns. It is very good and child friendly.

http://www.cyh.com/SubDefault.aspx?p=255

It can answer lots of questions, but if you feel sick or unhappy, it is important to tell your mum or dad, a teacher or another grown-up.

Dancers

None of the circles are moving, but when you look at the picture the two people seem to be dancing.

Watermelons

Look at one watermelon and the others seem to move. Check the others and they stop moving. Do they really move or is the picture tricking your brain?

Optical illusion - squares.

This is an optical illusion which tricks the brain. The picture is made up of squares. Four sides all the same length. The brain is tricked in to thinking that the picture is not flat and that some of the squares are not square.

Our amazing brain.

I was siunfrg the inetnert and fnuod sionehtmg taht aawyls azemas me. Eevn tugohh the wdors in tihs snetncee are mxied up, you can sltil raed it. Tihs is basceue the bairn olny nedes the fsrit and lsat lteetr in ecah wrod to be in the rgiht pcale.

Finished summer house

This is what Mr Lewis does on his holidays. Jobs! I built the summer house last year, but never got it painted. So this half-term I have been painting it.

The access for our neighbour

When we bought the new land, one of things the seller wanted was a new access. Two double rows of willow, 240 metres in length needed to be dug out. The first man to try gave up! Another man wanted to charge a small fortune. So I said I would do it with Katy. It took us 4 weekends, working 8 hour days. The problem was not digging the roots out, but moving the willow somewhere. Katy could not do this, so I had to get off and move the trees by hand. This is the finished entrance. The boundary and our 3 acres of willow are on the left. It is now fenced.

Our new land

At long last the fencing has been finished on our new land. This is a picture of the triangle of land near the house. At the bottom of this field is a pond. It needs a lot of clearing out. The rest of the land is planted with willow trees. They were supposed to be used for fuel for a power station, but the company closed down.

Victorian schools

When we visited the Lake District we saw an old Victorian school. This is what a Victorian classroom was like.

This is where the children would sit. The children would scratch their work on to a slate using a sharp scraper (top center). When they needed to clean their slate they would wet it and wipe it with a cloth. Can you see the ink wells?

This was the headmaster's room. He had a very springy cane for hitting children who were naughty. Some hit your hand and some your bottom. Which do you think would hurt the most?

There were no electric lights. This school had oil lamps. They would not be very bright. The white plate at the top of the light would reflect the light down to the desks.

Symmetry

This picture was taken in Scotland. The loch (lake) was perfectly still and so it acted like a mirror. It reflected the mountains in the water, making a symmetrical view.

Texture

The world is full of texture. This sand was sculpted by waves. I thought that the way the sun caught the tops and shadows formed in between the rows was very attractive.

Chickens

These are my chickens. Unfortunately the one sitting down, called Poppy, died recently of old age. The other two are both called Peggy, because it is almost impossible to tell them apart. I am hoping to buy an incubator in the new year and hatch some new chicks as a school project.

I have kept chickens for 6 years now. It is hard to believe but they have their own personalities and are very easy maintenance. They also reward you with lovely eggs, which are better than any shop bought eggs.

Rainbows.

Rainbows can only appear when it is sunny and raining at the same time. This one went right across our garden. The colours of a rainbow are Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. You can remember the colours with the mnemonic “Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain”.

Notice how the inside of the rainbow is always lighter than the outside. You can find out more about rainbows and other light effects at this web site:

http://www.atoptics.co.uk/bows.htm

Our summer house

This is the view of our summer house with the Lincolnshire Wolds in the background.

My nephew

This is a picture of me and my nephew on holiday in the Lake District. We visited a farm and enjoyed sitting on this 'Grey Fergy'.

Sophie the cat

This is Sophie the cat. She is now 14 years old. She does a lot of sleeping. She enjoys sleeping outside in the summer.

Our house in the winter.

Lincolnshire's sky

Lincolnshire's sky can be very beautiful. This picture was taken early in the morning.

Lightning and thunder

This is a tree at my house that has been struck by lightning. Lightning does not strike the ground very often. It normally strikes something high, like this tree. You can work out how far away lightning is by counting the seconds between the lightning and the thunder clap. Each five seconds is 1 mile.

Common Hawker

I love watching dragonflies flying in the summer. It is difficult to take photographs unless they have landed. If you watch carefully, you can normally find their preferred landing spot, and then position yourself to take a photo.

You can find out more about wildlife in Lincolnshire and dragonflies at:
http://www.lincstrust.org.uk/species/dragonfly_damselfly/index.php

Brown Long Eared Bat

I was very fortunate to be able to take this picture of a Brown Long Eared Bat which had for some reason decided to come out during the day. Bats roost locally, and when I am working in my study at night, they swoop on moths which are attracted by the light.

You can find out more about bats at:

http://www.bats.org.uk/

Hedgehog

Rescued! I was digging a hole for a gate post and had not finished by nightfall. Later that night I was checking I had put everything away, when I heard a sound from the hole. A poor hedgehog had fallen into the hole and could not get out. It was difficult getting the hedgehog out, but as you can see it was perfectly alright. I then covered the hole up!

Grass Snake

This is a grass snake, found sunbathing near our front door. It is not poisonous.

Do you know the best way to tell the difference between a grass snake and an adder?

Ask the snake what 2 + 2 makes. If it gets the right answer, it's an adder.

This web site is very good for identifying British reptiles.
http://www.herpetofauna.co.uk/identification.htm

Field Pansy

I have six and a half acres, and we have a lot of native wildlife. There are lots of small wild flowers. This one is a Field Pansy. There are lots of them in the grass fields. They are very beautiful and flower from April to October.

Common Lizard

This is a Common Lizard, spotted sun bathing in the garden.

Mr Lewis' tractor

Welcome Katy. Katy is my new tractor. I named her Katy because she has the letters 'KT' in her registration number.

She is a New Holland TC27D. She is four wheel drive and has a Lewis front loader. Some friends thought it was very funny that Mr Lewis has a tractor with a Lewis front loader.

Katy was born in the year 2000. She can use lots of different implements. She has a Orsi flail mower for cutting the grass.

One of the surprising things about Katy is that her tyres are filled with water. This helps to stop her from tipping over. Katy does not have a cab, but she does have a roll-bar. This stops her from crushing the driver if she tips over.