Flint the lurcher

Canicross Team Elmewych member Flint, is a three and a half year old saluki lurcher cross, bought from travelers working stock.  A striking, elegant, tall, and well muscled smooth coated lurcher with more than a hint of saluki heritage in his physique.  Flint is at his finest off the leash - he runs with incredible speed, jumps wide ditches with grace.  It seems incredible that he is submissive to his young whippet team mate, but he certainly is!

In the house:  A fearsome watch dog, constantly looking and listening for intruders.  He can be grouchy, overly defensive, and I don't trust him on the leash with larger dogs.  Smaller dogs on the other hand - he adores and fawns.  Perhaps I should have socialised him as a pup with more friendly big dogs?  He might be tall and muscled, but he never packs a gram of body fat - it all goes into muscle, and however much I feed him, his ridged cheetah-back and ribs still stand out as though he is half starved.  Despite his grouchiness - he still likes a cuddle on the couch.

On the canicross line: certainly not a natural, he needs frequent commanding and shouting, otherwise he wants to sniff every lamppost, piss at every tree.  He can be hard work on a line.  What worries him?  Maybe that he'll run out of urine, otherwise big dogs, wheel hub caps (see the below video), and bits of paper laying on the pavement.

Off lead in the field: This dog lives to run.  A joy to watch, so much speed, moves through long grass with ease, jumps over ditches with ease.

Loki the whippet

I don't know what to call our canicross pack / team?  Technically I bought both dogs for Anita, so they are more her dogs.  How about Team Elmewych?  Anyway, today's pack profile is Loki.  Named after the Norse mythological figure / deity, Loki is a twelve month old whippet.  Although he gets excited before a run, and puts his little heart into it, he can be quite the couch potato at home.  He didn't show an awful lot of aerobic interest as a youngster.  While his team mate was jumping ditches from a pup young age - Loki was a bit slow off the take.  Still, he is making up for it now.

In the house, a couch potato, but also the dominant dog, the alpha dog - terrorising Flint, although Flint is twice his size and packed with muscle.  If I give the dogs a chew each, it isn't long before Loki is sitting guard over both chews.

On the canicross line, Loki is top lead dog.  He really has taken to it well, likes to pull ahead.  My no.1 canicross hound.  Not much upsets him, except large lorries, puddles, and drain covers

Off lead in the field.  As I said, he was a slow developer, but now charges after Flint, almost keeping up with the big saluki lurcher, jumping across wide ditches, a cracking little dog, although without Flint or a crow to chase, I suspect that he'd slow down a bit.  When Flint wanders too far - Loki returns to my side, trots next to me, looking concerned that Flint is out of sight.

Not a bad dog at all.

Testing for 23andMe

Photograph for today

The above photograph is another one from my day trip to Huntingdon with the Yashica T2, and Kodak Tmax 400 film.  It shows Huntingdon Mill, across the River Great Ouse.  Not too sure how much that I like this one.

Running with Dogs No.16

Ran again today.  Intended to make it a shorter run, but it ended up longer - 5.3 miles long.  The longest run for these dogs yet, or for me for several years for that matter.  Average speed was 5.8 mph, taking 54 minutes, but there were hold ups, particularly near to the primary school, stuck behind mums picking up their kids, and with meeting other dogs.  With the dogs, I've run over 47 miles over the past thirty days.  Cool.

23andMe

The DNA sampling kit arrived today.  For the records, it took under four days for delivery.  I sampled with my spit, registered the sample online, then took it back to the Post Office to catch the afternoon return mail.  Later on, I completed my profile and registrations on the 23andMe website.  I'm really looking forward to the results, and to using the online tools to analyse my DNA sample.

23 pairs of chromosomes

Crease Drain and the Red Tile Wind Farm

I took this photograph yesterday, using the Yashica T2 loaded with Kodak Tmax 400 film.  We actually had a little sun on one of my days off work, so I took a day trip with the Yash to Huntingdon.  The late sun on the way back looked great for shadows and landscapes, so I pulled up here at Crease Drain, to take a few photos of the Red Tile wind farm between Warboys and Chatteris.  I wanted the capture the straight lines and black soils of the Fens here.  I'm quite pleased with this one.  I don't photograph landscapes too often.

23andMe

Night shifts can be a bitch.  Tiredness, upset metabolism, before you know it, you have a break, and you've bought something that you don't need from the Internet.  On a recent night shift, I ordered a 23andMe personal genetic profiling service.  I'm now waiting for the DNA sample kit to arrive.

I've been attracted to genetic profiling for some years.  Particularly for any ancestral data that such a test might provide.  Genealogy was a past interest of mine, and using traditional archiving materials (it was before I had internet access), I had already collated a family tree of over 1300 individuals for my kids - going back on their mother's side to the early 17th Century.  That along with my good knowledge of British prehistory, and landscape archaeology, I'd say that I have a pretty good idea of what my heritage is.  However, at the same time, I have been very skeptical at some of the claims made by Ancestral DNA companies, that appear to target New World customers, with suggestions that they can pinpoint the European (and other) nationalities, and even ethnicity, of their ancestors.  I can't believe such claims, surely in truth, the genetic map of Europe is too blurred from thousands of years of migration and genetic flow, to be used as a tool with such accuracy.

However, what attracted me to 23andMe, is that they don't appear to make such promises with their genetic profiling.  Instead of ridiculous claims to show percentage of Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, etc.  They at most divide Europe into wider geographical zones such as Irish/British, French/German, Scandinavian, East European.  I expect that my 23andMe ancestral profile will be mainly Irish/British, perhaps with a percentage of Scandinavian, and even French/German.  I'll see if I'm correct.  Even then, I hope for more reliable data such as my haplogroups, my mtDNA, my Y chromosome - where they may have been and when.  However, on the Ancestral aspect, what perhaps helped me to plunge into the bank account, was that 23andMe are now producing your percentage of DNA that is believed to have originated in a Neanderthal genome.  Not necessary to know, but for the armchair anthropologist in me - very cool.  I'm guessing around 2.6%.  I'll see again if I was correct.

Another aspect of the 23andMe approach that I quite like though - is that they don't focus just on the ancestral, but instead, offer the service for health information.  This aspect has been very controversial.  Critics have suggested that this could lead to a World where we select DNA for our offspring, where insurance premiums could be set according to your genetic profile.  However, my father's family suffered dreadfully from cancers and Alzheimer.  I would rather know if I should be doing more about my lifestyle, in order to adjust for the genetic probability.  Genetic profiling isn't just about fun, it could extend my well being.

I'll see if I still feel the same in 12 months.  What will I learn, how will I find the 23andMe service, will it change my life at all?  Come back in a year's time if I'm still here.

Running with Dogs No.15


I've been quiet on here the past three days. I actually fell a little bit off the saddle, into a man-well perhaps.  A large glass of brandy, a whole box of chocolate coated brazil nuts, and a bit of cake just made me feel that I'd let myself down.  Then I missed an opportunity for a run.  However, I'm back in the saddle now.  I will cross that twelve stone barrier any day.  Today I ran with the dogs in stormy cold weather (some sleet, 0 C) for 4.5 miles at a pace of 5.9 mph, in 45 minutes.  A slight improvement in performance. The hold ups are now less to do with my poor fitness, and more to do with my lurcher's desire to piss up every tree.

Back on track.

10th January 2016

I normally run following at least one day rest (at least from running), but this afternoon, the dogs were asking, no-one else wanted to walk them, so I thought, "why not, maybe a short run?".  I at least took the dogs on a different route, down to Friday Bridge, up the Stitch and around Bar Drove - but it turned out to be a similar length to my recent runs - 4.4 miles in 46 minutes.  That was Running with Dogs No.14.

What really inspired this post though, was what I was just reading in that Richard Askwith book Running Free (2014).  He cites a number of surveys and studies from across both Europe and the USA, that seem to praise running outside in green areas, as opposed to treadmill work inside gyms.  The studies appear to correlate that exercising outdoors, particularly in green areas, appears to offer tremendous benefits to our mental state, our health, our sense of wellness, even perhaps our fitness, compared to working out indoors only.

I have not read any of these studies, but I'm not at all surprised.  It is something that I have considered at length many years ago - the benefits of being close to other species of animals and plants - being out in Nature.  Biophillia.  We are drawn to it, and appear to benefit from it.

The above photograph is of myself.  Taken last week in the pocket cemetery by Anita, using my 50p camera, and that strange Rollei retro 400S film.

Candid reflection on a train.

I captured this photo this week, using my 50p camera (Olympus XA2), loaded with Rollei Retro 400S film.  That film can be very temperamental, often producing dark, underexposed, or overly contrast negatives.  I must remember to stop the camera up, and add a minute to developing time.  However, regardless of it's faults, this film can sometimes produce really interesting high contrast images.  I developed yesterday, it this time in Ilford LC29.

That's the technology.  The image is something else.  I kept seeing her staring into the reflection, not seeing me, but through the window.  Candids of pretty girls can be a dodgy affair, particularly in the confines of a railway carriage - but I couldn't help myself.  I saw this image, and tried to capture it. 

The Upgrade Culture

One of the things that I want to frequently discuss in this journal, are the ways in which I see English society, and the World at large, changing within my lifetime.  That has to be worth recording?

I am presently reading Running Free by Richard Askwith  2014.  I found the second hand book for sale in a local charity shop.  Reading it for running inspiration.  In the early sections he discusses the rise of consumerism in British running during his lifetime.  When he started running, all that he needed were a pair of gym trainers, and to put one foot in front of the other.  Now, a multi-million dollar industry convinces us that you need to spend thousands on the latest running socks, branded running shorts, nutritional recovery drinks, GPS health monitoring systems, and of course, ultra-expensive running shoes.  The markets and their sponsored magazines promote the belief, that without buying their latest necessities, we could never be real, or serious runners.

I was really pleased to read Askwith's views.  I've been expressing the same views with regards to photography for years, in my previous blog The Tight Fisted Photographer, and with my 50p Camera Project, where I used a thirty year old 35mm film camera to take photographs.  I bought the camera from a car boot sale for 50p.  I've also witnessed it in British angling.  You can't be a real or serious angler, unless you sit on that latest, branded, state of the art tackle box.  As if a tackle box could catch you more, or larger fish!  It happens in almost every pastime or interest, and in society at large.  We are told by the markets to buy stuff that we do not need.  To keep spending, to keep upgrading.

Of course, Capitalism, and even Consumerism, is nothing new.  As I've said before with regards to photography, George Eastman soon replaced his first box camera at the start of the 20th Century, with an improved Mk II box camera.  None-the-less, one of the aspects of change that I have witnessed in English society, has been the accelerating expansion of consumerism.  Karl Marx thought that Capitalism was doomed to die, as it would milk the poor, to benefit the rich, until all resources were depleted, and all markets fulfilled.  Maybe he failed to see how Capital could generate new markets, and new desires?  Look at the mobile phone.  We lived perfectly well without them for many thousands of years.  I lived without them for the first thirty plus years of my Life.  I could have never predicted that they would become fashion accessories, and status symbols for young people.  A solid state device that (let's be honest), in casual hands, has a life of six months to three years.  A device that apparently out dates within that time scope, and needs to be upgraded.  Who would have thought that children would be carrying them to school?

The point is, that there was no desire for mobile phones before it was created.  Young people suggest to me, that it must have been incredibly boring and unexciting to live before the Binary Age (before Internet, small computers, smart phones, etc).  Of course it wasn't!  Life was at least as rich, before we felt pressured to carry the latest upgrade Iphone!  The Upgrade Culture.  Perfectly created by Capital.  Keep people working, obeying, paying tax, and of course, consuming the products of the markets.