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Month: September 2019

The Sunday Crypto Recap – Down the Rabbit Hole 46

September 15, 2019 Published by

A ridiculous number of high-quality articles have crossed my path this week. I’ve included just a few. The opportunity to be challenged and engaged while exploring the mad, bad and sometimes sad world of crypto is not to be underestimated, it is truly a learner’s paradise – just keep that open mind and delve on!

Pick of the Week

If you explore only one thing – let it be Nic Carter’ treatise on BTC as a vehicle of peaceful revolution.

Twitter

World currencies in a race to devalue means…:
https://twitter.com/Travis_Kling/status/1172221635958648838

How ‘to Bitcoin’:
https://twitter.com/melikmanukyan/status/1168969406501793792

Where to start your crypto journey (highly recommended):
https://twitter.com/TheCryptoLark/status/1168808222527873025

Adding some context to Van Eck’s moves of offer a BTC product:
https://twitter.com/krugermacro/status/1168909634381471747

Look, see, understand:
https://twitter.com/JoshuaGEdwards/status/1168799874671923200

There’s a pattern here:
https://twitter.com/meshikharv/status/1168848992433606658

A contrarian perspective on trading but a considered one:
https://twitter.com/hodloncomrades/status/1172745092848701440

On passion (not that kind):
https://twitter.com/katherineykwu/status/1171972627113680896

A quick primer on global gold reserves:
https://twitter.com/theworldindex/status/1168725510651858946

Articles

Nic Carter explaining the Bitcoin revolution (highly recommended):
https://medium.com/@nic__carter/a-most-peaceful-revolution-8b63b64c203e

A perspective on the long-term growth cycle of BTC:
https://medium.com/@hcburger1/bitcoins-natural-long-term-power-law-corridor-of-growth-649d0e9b3c94

An in-depth analysis of recent BTC price action and likely trade scenarios (highly recommended):
https://trybe.one/buying-btc-for-investors-current-market

High-value post on investing in the crypto space (highly recommended):
https://medium.com/swlh/cryptocurrency-investing-101-common-pitfalls-to-avoid-hopefreiheit-com-bc58829d3ef3

Token supply approaches examined (highly recommended)
https://medium.com/messaricrypto/crypto-monetary-policies-bef1779e1422

A collection of proposals/ideas on how to approach ‘fixing’ EOS governance (highly recommended):
https://www.eosgo.io/blog/ideas-that-might-fix-eos-governance/

Even some bankers decry current monetary policy:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-04/deutsche-bank-warns-of-grave-side-effects-from-more-ecb-cuts

Podcast

Another informative discussion of BTC past, present, and future with a heavy hitter in the Bitcoin space (recommended):

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/michael-goldstein-president-satoshi-nakamoto-institute/id1434060078?i=1000448789132

YouTube

Examining the question of individual BTC address safety:

Straightforward explanation of how Bitcoin functions with a simple primer on fiat:

What’s up with NEO – lots to dig into here in this interview with NEO’s head of global development (recommended – if only as an update):

EOS clearly has some governance issues (recommended):

This short-term call on gold is well worth considering (though has the ECB reset sentiment and boosted gold?):

Infographics

If only there was a pattern here…

https://twitter.com/Xentagz/status/1169155098716581889/photo/1

Interesting comparison of Bitcoin Cash v Lightning Network over the last year:

https://messari.io/c/research/messari-research-comparing-bitcoin-cash-and-bitcoin-s-lightning-network

Website / Utility

One of the first websites to bring together BTC resources. Very sparse landing page but a deep reservoir of material here spanning BTC’s entire operational life (highly recommended):

https://nakamotoinstitute.org/

This real-time representation of Bitcoin Cash v Bitcoin is supposed to show the transaction superiority of Bitcoin Cash but perhaps shows something else – you decide (BTC is the bottom lane).

https://txhighway.com/

A whale of a week in terms of learning opportunities. As always, looking forward to reading your comments and suggestions.

Note on Sources:

Twitter & Reddit (cryptos current meta-brains) / Medium / Trybe / Hackernoon / Whaleshares / TIMM and so on/ YouTube / various podcasts and whatever else I stumble upon. The aim is a useful weekly aggregator of ideas rather than news. Though I try to keep the sources current – I’ll reference these articles and podcasts etc. as I encounter them – they may have been published just a couple of days ago or in some cases quite a bit earlier.

Kicking the sugar habit

September 14, 2019 (updated September 14, 2019) Published by

Sine, I think, I started earning my own money, I have had an issue with sweet things. Candy, chips, ice-cream etc. I always had a sweet tooth but my parents did not really keep much around the house so as a kid it was not such an issue.

dreamstimefree_2354079.jpg
Free photo 2354079 © Alexey Aleshkin – Dreamstime.com

Over the years my wife has pointed it out numerous times though, a few years back she decided to change her eating habits, for the sake of her health and wellbeing. She tried to get me onboard too, knowing that, while it did not show, I was not eating healthy and I was becoming less and less active.

She wanted support as it would be harder for her to change if I kept on my merry way. I agreed in principle.

In reality I struggled immensely. I finally started realising what a problem it was.

dreamstimefree_175953.jpg
Free photo 175953 © Johanna Goodyear – Dreamstime.com

Still nothing changed, only last year did I make a concerted effort to cut sugar out completely. It was eye opening how difficult it was and how much I craved any snack. My wife has been super supportive, knowing I was struggling, she bought 70 or 75% cocoa chocolate, which I did not enjoy at all. I craved the sweetness of milk chocolate and candies and biscuits even.

Soon enough I fell back into the trap of snacking multiple times a day, then eating even more after dinner.

dreamstimefree_2028960.jpg
Free photo 2028960 © Anthony Berenyi – Dreamstime.com

My wife set an ultimatum (another one, she has tried more than once). She was to eat more healthy and I had to join her, starting in September. The first week we both lapsed, but last week we both faired much better.

I went a week with no sugar, it did not even seem that hard, till my wife brought home a treat for me, when I saw it I could feel my mouth watering. I ate it and immediately after felt I needed more.

chips-close-colors-479620.jpg
Photo by icon0.com from Pexels

This weekend so far I have had pancakes for breakfast, a pastry at coffee with my wife and some ice-cream. While it is less than any comparative Saturday, I feel I need to stay away from it completely or I will be tempted to go back to my old ways.

So here we go again, I am going to try get through another week with no sugar or processed snacks.

Wish me luck!

Facts…

September 14, 2019 (updated September 14, 2019) Published by

I feel as I have been one of the most critical steemians regarding the possible negative consequences concerning the deployment of the HF21 but now I have to say that I like what I see, despite the evident reduction on the number of posts we can see in our FEED page.

The truth is that, putting aside the controversy of what I think is a very drastic Rewarding Algorithm which penalizes posts that do not reach a certain threshold of upvotes (see chart below), the downvote solution is really fixing the blockchain from abusers and also the number of spamming posts has dramatically reduced as well.

Threshold is currently at $3, below you are getting less in author and curation rewards

It’s a fact that big stakeholders are doing now greatly but also is a fact that if you are a consistent steemian I am sure you have benefitted as well for the whole update.

Take my example, now that we are more or less close to the equator of the month.

Before HF21, I used to get 8 SP a week in Curation while in Author Rewards the value was around 60 SP a week…

Today, without changing my overall posting and upvoting behaviour, things are going much better in overall for me.

  • My curation rewards have increased to around 15 SP a week, which is almost double the old rewards.

  • My Author Rewards are dancing around 62 SP a week as well so, no reduction on this aspect or even getting a little more than before…

To tell you the truth, I don’t know how I managed to sustain those Author Rewards… I have powered up around 700 STEEM lately but this cannot explain this good value. Certainly, the huge reduction of the number of posts published has something to do with this. There are less content to be discovered and so there are a higher likelihood to be nicely upvoted by bigger stakeholders. Also, the downvoting effect is returning STEEM to the rewarding pool so, if you are an active steemian you have more chances to be rewarded too.

Redistribution of power have not finished yet

The market is hitting STEEM and the rest of the altcoins very hardly, that’s for sure. We have less activity at the blockchain not only due to the effects of the past HF but also because the permanent decay of the STEEM price.

But, you know, I am totally sure now that the problem is not STEEM. The problem is the situation of the whole market itself which is cyclic.

It’s really painful to see day after day how we loss price…but also it is a fact that as soon as we get out from the bears, not only BITCOIN but the whole cryptosphere will resume the uptrend…

…and then, it will be very difficult for everyone to “build” the STEEM POWER you need in order to take profit of the uptrend conditions of the market. I am sure many will then try to buy STEEM again at any price and so, we will have another SUPER FUD PUMP there.

The best we can do now is…

  • To keep posting, publishing your thoughts, amazing ideas, photos and creations
  • Try to do your best to engage with the audience. Work on your network. Buy some BEER token and provide them to your best commenters and followers for instance.
  • Build your STEEM POWER as much as “morally” possible… I am buying small quantities every now and then at the lowest prices we have seen during the last 2 years. Remember 50 Euros = 350 STEEM at BITVAVO , PEANUTS!!!! I have bought the same quantity at more than double that price 1 year ago!!!
  • Invest on TRIBES that you like in a wisely manner. For instance, If you are a sport lover, use #sportstalk as a tag, check the trend page and your wallet account at https://www.sportstalksocial.com/ , use the voter (@sportsvoter) there in order to “burn” SPORTS token there and obtain some STEEM in your sport related posts… The same for other tribes, LEO, PALNET, NEOXIAN…all of them are here to help us.
  • Share your best posts at other social media as Tweeter, FB and the like
  • Vote PROPOSALS that develop the STEEM ecosystem (https://steempeak.com/me/proposals )

These are only a few things you can do, I am sure there are many things and ways to keep growing at the STEEM blockchain but the most important is always related with your level of ENGAGEMENT.

Keep on growing!

@toofasteddie

EOS Price Showing Signs of Strength

September 14, 2019 Published by

EOS is testing resistance again as we speak. After making a run at the 3.90 area it took a little breather before making this next attempt.

What I like is that we only saw a very modest pullback on very light volume the past few days before today’s push.

There are no guarantees we see price breakthrough, but if it does then 4.20 and 4.60 are the next upside targets I am watching.

As for the downside, I’d like to see price hold 3.70 so that this higher low that was just put in remains valid.

? Daily Crypto News, September, 14th?

September 14, 2019 (updated September 14, 2019) Published by
  • Bitcoin Price Indicator May Signal Next Leg Higher ;
  • Square’s Cash App Is Testing a Stock Trading Feature ;
  • ? SteemMonsters Statistics AND Big Datas ? ;
  • Will Blockchain Stop Personal Data Leaks? ;
  • US Treasury Sanctions North Korean Hacker Groups for Cyber Attacks ;
  • ? Daily Crypto Calendar, September, 14th?
  • STEEM Trading Update

Welcome to the Daily Crypto News: A complete Press Review, Coin Calendar and Trading Analysis. Enjoy!

? Bitcoin Price Indicator May Signal Next Leg Higher

History looks to be repeating itself in the bitcoin market, as a key indicator’s bullish turn could mark the beginning of the next meteoric price rally.


The world’s most valuable cryptocurrency’s price action seen over the last eight months is very similar to the moves seen in 2015, according to Bitstamp data. For instance, the bitcoin bear market ended near $3,100 in mid-December 2018 and prices built a base below $4,000 in the following three months before breaking into a bull market on April 2.


Notably, the bear market drop ran out of steam two months before the 50- and 10-week moving averages confirmed a bearish crossover (in February 2019).

Weekly chart

? Square’s Cash App Is Testing a Stock Trading Feature

Square’s cryptocurrency-friendly payment app Cash App is reportedly testing a new feature allowing customers to buy and sell stocks.


Expanding Cash App
Citing a source familiar with the matter, Bloomberg reported on Sept. 12 that the San Francisco-based startup’s employees began testing the new feature in recent weeks. Once released, it will allow Cash App users to make free stock trades.
Square has reportedly not yet determined the exact date of the new option launch.

? ? SteemMonsters Statistics AND Big Datas ?

SteemMonsters reached 136,8k visits in July 2019!

N.B: My main sources of datas changed the way they calculated and estimated the datas. Therefore, this report might not be comparable to the previous one. Nevertheless they also adjusted all the past datas to make it comaprable.

I] Traffic

Daily SteemMonsters Traffic

SteemMonsters Daily Traffic kept on improving since the launch to reach close to 10k daily visits in August 2019.

My assumptions for August 2019

  • Total visits to SteemMonsters.com: 136.8k
  • Assumption of Total unique visitors in August: 15-20k
  • Total Daily visitors: 5-6k
  • Assumption of Total Daily Unique visitors: 2.5-3k

SteemMonsters Market Cap is Healthy and at an ALL TIME HIGH !

This is a collective achievement and I would like to congratulate all of us! We need to continue helping @yabapmatt to grow this platform

? Will Blockchain Stop Personal Data Leaks?

If you are one of the 2.4 billion active Facebook users, the probability that your data has been leaked is around 17%, given the recent news of 419 million accounts being exposed. This means that, unless something changes, every sixth active user could lose control over their personal data. Again and again, no matter the government or the company managing personal data or how secure their systems are, personal data leaks happen all the time. But what are the fundamental problems of centralization and how can we rescue our data from criminals, greedy marketers and corrupt governments?


Leaks are inevitable


The last two weeks have brought us tremendous news about leaks. The most recent concerning the aforementioned database of 419 million Facebook accounts was found available to download on the internet and complete with details such as names, phone numbers, gender and country of residence. A while ago, Mastercard officially reported about 90,000 exposed accounts to European Union authorities.

? US Treasury Sanctions North Korean Hacker Groups for Cyber Attacks

The United States Treasury Department announced further sanctions against three North Korean state-sponsored hacker groups, responsible for “North Korea’s malicious cyber activity on critical infrastructure.”

Continue to enforce existing U.S. and U.N. sanctions against North Korea


On Sept. 13, the U.S. Department of Treasury announced sanctions against North Korean hacking groups, more specifically the renowned Lazarus group, and two lesser-known entities, Bluenoroff and Andariel. Sigal Mandelker, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said:

“Treasury is taking action against North Korean hacking groups that have been perpetrating cyber attacks to support illicit weapon and missile programs. […] We will continue to enforce existing U.S. and UN sanctions against North Korea and work with the international community to improve cybersecurity of financial networks.”

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? Daily Crypto Calendar, September, 14th?

2019 Texas Blockchain Summit from 10 AM – 7 PM (CDT).

“Learn about PumaPay – Blockchain payment method and the potential of electronic payment in the economy 4.0”

“Presentation of the Development Strategy of EDC Blockchain and ECRO Place ▪️On September 14, 2019”

“Part of our Cryptour in Africa, we’re coming to Accra

“#Aeternity Universe One #Haeckathon starts on Saturday and guess who will be mentoring the participants?”

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STEEM Trading Update by my friend @cryptopassion

Here is the chart of yersterday :

STEEMUSD.jpg

Here is the current chart :

STEEMUSD.jpg

Today, we continued to test the support line around 0.154$ anf it starts to look good for buyers because sellers canot break this low. The market is becoming more and more nervous and we should have a major move in one of the direction soon.


If the BTC is not massively correcting, we could have a nice surprise on the STEEM because sellers start to have difficulties to continue their drop. In case of a correction on the BTC, we could break that support line but it will be the case of most altcoins.

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Last Updates

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Join this new Free To Play on the STEEM Platform !



Crypto Contest September 14: Vodi X

September 14, 2019 Published by

Vodi X (Bittrex: VDXUSDT) has broken out of the triangle pattern in the four-hour chart.

(Chart courtesy of Tradingview.com (log scale))

Elliott Wave Analysis

In Elliott Wave terms, Vodi X began a wave one advance on September 4. The red wave one (blue sub-waves i-ii-iii-iv-v) finished on September 10, and the red wave two (blue sub-waves a-b-c) correction ended on September 12. If this wave count is correct, Vodi X should be heading next towards the September 10 peak in the red wave three.

(Chart courtesy of Tradingview.com (log scale))

Funnymentals

Vodi is a mobile platform boasting 5+ million users in over 200 countries and is tokenizing its ecosystem by launching Vodi X. You can watch their latest update below.

(Sources: Vodi X and YouTube)

How can I vote? Where is the contest?

You can vote by following this link.

Messi to Accept CR7 Formal Request for a Dinner

September 13, 2019 (updated September 13, 2019) Published by

Hello everyone, Today is another day for sports news. When the Fifa awards was ongoing a question was thrown to CR7 where he addressed it nicely so as Messi was also given the same question    And he also answered it nicely. Messi said he will accept a dinner request from Cristiano Ronaldo if only he sent it. But he is also bot sure if the request will come off because both players has their differences which might not make them meet or have the dinner together but it turns to happen he will accept that and go with Cristiano Ronaldo. This has cleared the point of this Rivalry between these two players because people taught that it was personal but it now turns out that it is not but is a healthy Rivalry. The Rivalry comes only in football they dont take it off pitch. Thanks for your time for reading have a great day. 

Here’s Why You Always Add a Buffer to Your Reno Budget

September 13, 2019 Published by

If you have done a couple large renovation projects then you know what I’m talking about.   When estimating rehab costs – always add a buffer on top of your total number.

Here’s Why You Always Add a Buffer to Your Reno Budget

This isn’t about how good an investor is at estimating the costs of repairs and replacements.   Most of us can get good at that with some experience.

This is about the stuff that you generally can’t foresee. The stuff that just pops up, and trust me there will be things that pop-up.  Especially if you are working with properties that are much older.  In fact, the older the property the more likely you will have “surprises.”

Real Life Examples

I’m going to keep it simple and give you a “cheapie” I’ve personally experienced so not to scare you off.  Just know, the surprises can range much higher is cost.

This is one of the reasons I stress performing as much due diligence on a property as you can before purchasing.

There are many “surprises” that can be avoided – then there are some that are just part of doing business.

My latest example fits into that category.

Main Water Valves and Sleeves

We are finishing up a major renovation on a property that was built in 1901.  However, along the way we got caught with a few surprises.  One of which had to do with the main water shutoff and the sleeve pipe that runs to the water department’s main valve.

Long story short is the sleeve had become so cockeyed that it was not possible to access the valve to turn it back on.  Considering you need water in a home this was a bit of a must fix.

The real question was – is the sleeve bad or the valve too.   Either way we needed to have a qualified operator come in a do his thing to repair.

After widening the opening to the exterior piping/valve and doing a little digging out the earth he was able to access the sleeve to replace and test the valve.  

Good news – valve was fine.  Bad news – sleeve needed to be replaced.  $1200 later all is good an we can got water turned on.

Unexpected cost, yes, but at only $1200 feelt like a win.  Here’s the things though.  What happens when you have 4 or 5 items come up that cost that?

Since this property was so old that is exactly what happened because things needed to be up to code.  Replacing the side door entrance became a $1500 costs instead of $300 because of all the layers of siding that had been slapped on over the decades.  The flashing had been bumped out so far it was a mess and we basically needed to re-frame it.

These examples are the cheap ones.  I have heard plenty of stories from other investors that got hit with $5-10K “surprises.”

Add a Reno Budget Buffer

This is why on the majority of big rehab projects I always slap an extra $10K on my total expected budget.

If the numbers still work with that then I know in the end I should come out in decent shape and better yet, if the “surprises” are limited or not existent than the deal becomes even more profitable.

Always be working your numbers and buying right!

To get the full guide on how I buy right check out the videos or the book.  Remember to use the property calculator when analyzing deals!

? SteemMonsters Statistics AND Big Datas ?

September 13, 2019 (updated September 13, 2019) Published by

Thanks to ALL of you, Steemmonsters (aka Splinterlands) is growing, it does not care about bear/bull markets and is ready for the next Bull Run !

Résultat de recherche d'images pour "steem monsters"

SteemMonsters reached 136,8k visits in July 2019!

N.B: My main sources of datas changed the way they calculated and estimated the datas. Therefore, this report might not be comparable to the previous one. Nevertheless they also adjusted all the past datas to make it comaprable.

There is an important difference between total visitors to a site and unique ones. In this case the 136.8k include the multiple times a person visited the website.

Therefore, as a good Steemian you probably connect everyday which will make you count for a total of 30 visits.

Therefore, how many “unique users” does SteemMonsters has?

This is a very important question that I will try to answer later on. According to the Beta Analysis from the website I use to compile these datas, it is c.15,03k in August (compared to an average of c.14k over the past 18 months) !

One quick word about the Methodology

  • Datas can come from multiple sources listed in the end of this post
  • These sources get their raw datas from companies working with them and sharing their datas in order to get access to competitor’s ones, browsers add-ons, in-app softwares which allow the Big Data to have a very large panel of users (north of 20mn) in order to statistically have the number of users/visits…
  • I use these raw datas to make excels tables, graphs…

I] Traffic

Daily SteemMonsters Traffic

SteemMonsters Daily Traffic kept on improving since the launch to reach close to 10k daily visits in July 2019.

If we compare to Steemit.com, we can see that there is a lower % of mobile traffic, let’s hope the future app will fix these issues.

Steemmonsters website is ranked 117,437 worldwide (vs 138,310 over the last 6 months).

We can also see that the rank is improving daily.

Google Trends

Google Trend is an Indice based on 100, which means that 100 represents the week when most people searched for “Steem monsters and steemmonsters” on Google.

Google Trends are still very low but there is hope as Bitcoin Google Trend is increasing slowly again, maybe more crypto users joining decentralized platforms?

Bitcoin Google Trend Graph

SteemMonsters Traffic share by country

In the Top 5, the strongest traffic increase came from Bangladesh with +76.5% visits!

Mobile Traffic is low compared as it represents only 21.19% of the total

87.03% of players on Desktop, probably as it is more convenient.

Be Careful with the Number of Visits

Also, remember that if you connect from a different device (home/work computer, mobile phone, tablet) you will count as a “new visitor” on each of these devices.

So as an example, let’s say you connected at home, at work and in the subway. You would represent 3 visits out of these 1mn+ Daily Visits.

II] Marketing Mix

Direct Traffic is once again improving and represents 90,3% of the incoming Traffic. This means, the player base is sticky and addicted but we don’t seem to onboard enough new people.

Organic search is when people research on Google. As the number of quality bloggers on Steemit increase, our content has a higher probability of being listed in Google’s Top results.

Different Channels:

Direct: When you type in you Web browser www.steemit.com
Mail: When you connect to steemit.com through an e-mail link
Referrals: When you connect to steemit.com through a link found on another website (github…)
Social: When you connect to Steemit through a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram… page or link
Organic Search: When you type a search term like “Crypto” on Google and you click on one of the following steemit link proposed to you

Traffic Share Evolution since inception of this analysis

You can see the continous improvment of the direct line. This is showing active players and commited ones. You can interpret this growth as the ability for @steemmonsters to grow its number of players and keep them addicted to the game. Congrats !

As a player myself, I can understand why people stick around :D.

Referring Social Pages

Youtube represented 69,8% of all the social platform incoming traffic. Reddit is also a strong source of new visits on the Steemit Platform.

5 most searched terms on Google that lead to Steemmonsters.com

What are Steemians main interests?

Gender Demographics

Age Distribution

III] Steemit website metrics

You feel a bit confused about these 3 metrics? Let me explain.

  • Bounce Rate is the % of people that leave the Website after just navigating on a single Webpage. The lower, the Better
  • Daily Pageviews per Visitor is the average number of pages a visitor opens. The Higher, the Better
  • Daily Time on Site is the full time a visitor spend on the website before closing the internet Webpage. The Higher the Better

Bounce rate is particularly low which is probably linked to the fact that most traffic is direct, meaning loyal users mak the biggest chunk of the traffic and they come to do their daily quest / tournament.

My assumptions for August 2019

  • Total visits to SteemMonsters.com: 136.8k
  • Assumption of Total unique visitors in August: 15-20k
  • Total Daily visitors: 5-6k
  • Assumption of Total Daily Unique visitors: 2.5-3k

SteemMonsters Market Cap is Healthy and at an ALL TIME HIGH !

This is a collective achievement and I would like to congratulate all of us! We need to continue helping @yabapmatt to grow this platform

This monthly report makes me very optimistic about @steemmonsters future !

Next BigData Analysis coming on @drugwars, different social Steem apps and other cool projects !

Sources: Alexa, SimilarWeb, Google Trends…

Yesterday’s trip to the river beach

September 13, 2019 (updated September 13, 2019) Published by

There is a small, secluded river beach less than 10 minutes drive from us. With yesterday being the final day of the kid’s school holidays we took a trip there after I had finished with work.

River beach?

If I am honest I had never heard of a river beach until we moved to Portugal. It’s not something I had experienced in South Africa, bearing in mind we never really went to rivers as kids.

The river beach close to us is quite small, very secluded and the river is nice and wide, with the water flowing smoothly and only a slight current. It’s much less intimidating for a parent with kids who are not strong swimmers than a river with rapids.

I was too busy messing around in the water then helping the kids on their inflatables to take photos, so these were taken right at the end as we were packing up.

Naturally when it’s time to pack up the kids remember they really want to play, or catch fish, or ….

But it was time to head home. So they had to rinse off in the water and get ready to go.

Power lines and trees

Something that has struck me every time we come here is the power lines that go overhead.

Firstly the trees, to me at least, seem incredibly close to the pylons and wires. Then there is the span. I am always blown away at the distance between the two pylons that keep the wires spanned across the road and river.

The wires come over the river, overhead and then to some other pylon hidden from view by the hill. On the way home I saw it from above, as the road we take home snakes along the hillside. I want to stop somewhere next time a grab a photo from the top, on top of being a stunning view you get a sense of the scale. Truly amazing that these things stay up!

Occasional visitors

So I have mentioned it is secluded, in reality it is quite close to a small village, no idea right now what it is called.

Every now and then we will see other people whilst we are there, twice we have seen people bring a wheelbarrow with buckets and clothes. They then proceeded to wash their clothes in the river.

Yesterday as we walked to the river we passed a farmer I assume, again with a bucket, this time on the front of his tractor. I noticed tyre marks at the river beach, so I assume he went there and filled the bucket up with water and used the tractor to move it.

Other than that we have noticed the occasional tourists, other than that it’s only the road in the distance that sometimes breaks the tranquility of the river and surrounds.

It took a few tries but I managed to catch a truck passing through a break in the trees. Did you notice that was a road before?

Get yourself some booties

It’s not often I encourage people to buy stuff, in this case I make an exception.My wife HATES walking in rivers or even the sea with a passion. If she cannot see where she is putting her feet, she sometimes flat refuses to swim or even go in knee deep.

I present to you hairy legs, no I mean these water shoes/booties whatever they are called. Not the most flattering fashion accessory, but very functional. Walking with these on, in the river, has probably saved me from a multitude of cuts and scratches on my feet from sharp rocks and sticks etc. in the water.

Another river beach we go to is made up of stones that are quite sharp and have noticed people walking gingerly over it to get to the water. We stroll along casually with our naff booties 😀

Panorama-mama

Often, when I find a place that has a really nice view I take a series of photos, from left to right, then wait to see if Google Photos stitches them together into a panorama.

Yesterdays photos were transformed, I like it so much I am sharing it here with you.

This weekend is going to involve a trip to the shops so I can but the bolts I need to finish up our gate and then onto removing more of our terrace roof. It’s nice to take some time off every now and then though.

September 2019
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