A year in Greenwich Park: January

Well January was a funny old month weather wise wasn't it? And I think I captured most of it on various days. It started with heavy frosts and blue skies, and gorgeous light. Over the month I've settled on a more regular route, discovered new parts of the park and bumped into people I know at times and so had company on my journeys. So six months into this series and I'm still making new discoveries, that's something I never expected, but it shows how things can be the same and yet change.

My most regular route takes me parallel to Maze Hill and I've been intrigued by these properties whose back gate opens onto the park. How special is that?

And as well as the view, I'm also rather taken by the brick wall.  Imagine having this view though.

Onto the new discovery. In the bottom right hand corner one day I stumbled across this rather fancy gate, which I later discovered leads to the Queen's Orchard. It's shut for the winter - I know, boo! - but given the date in the ironwork, and it's name I'm taking it as a Golden Jubilee tribute. Which means that the last time I was in the section of the park, it wasn't there. 

I can't wait for it to open in the Spring and have a nose around, and learn more about it.

I mentioned before about the light this month, it's been amazing that I've made it to work on time as I keep finding new vistas to snap. The one below is a reminder of just how close to the City you are.

THAT'S THE SHARD IN THE DISTANCE

I also spotted some welcome colour - the yellow of the flowering witch hazel, a funny looking plant and one most of us are more used to seeing in a bottle or a gel.

Another boundary wall of the park has also held my interest this month. It wends and waves its way along Maze Hill. I've taken many pictures of how un-straight it is, and where it's been repaired and this is the best of the lot.

Ah. And then there was the snow. Or the excuse of the snow. For the first time in a long while the threat of snow didn't bother me. With a walk to work, and the chance to take some snowy pictures, I was almost quite looking forward to it. Hurrying home in the flurry of wet snow on the Thursday night, I did the sensible thing and got my sensible boots out of the car in readiness for use the next morning.

The only thing was, it didn't materialise. 

This was the snow.

PEERING OVER THE RAILINGS AT THE FLOWER GARDEN

I couldn't believe this former hater of the white stuff was disappointed. But these frozen puddles almost made up for it.

Like mini ice rinks - untested by me though - they're something I've not seen before, although I did see some unfrozen versions back in November.

And if the weather hadn't already given me enough, then came the fog.

And eery walks through the park when you really couldn't see much in front of you. And when all of a sudden a neon-clad runner would appear out of nowhere. At times I'm not sure who was more shocked.  Later in the month the frosts returned and gave this bush a covering. It made me smile and almost looks like its gone grey overnight.

There's been another new development too, scaffolding on the Royal Observatory, which you can spot in the distance between these trees.

So with all these new routes I've missed seeing some of my regular dog walkers, but I've bumped into people I know and at times have had company on my walk through the park, or stopped for a chat. It really is quite a social place, even for its commuters.  And as I said at the start, quite a month, who'd have thought that for January!

More than 'just' a lawnmower

Last week I said I'd share more about my trip to the Viking factory in Kufstein as part of the Stihl and Viking press trip, and I've started to write this post in my head many times. It's a post I want to reflect the warmth and hospitality we enjoyed, but also where I hope I can share some of the passion that was so apparent from the Viking workers.  

And I also want to explain why now I think Viking lawnmowers are more than just a lawnmower. But let's start at the beginning, or with cake anyway. This was part of our packed lunch as we travelled from Munich to the factory in Kufstein.

CAKE IS ALWAYS A GOOD PLACE TO START

Arriving at the factory, and having got over the amount of snow I started to marvel at the icicles. And once I'd snapped this one I joined the rest of the group and admired the amount of snow, the blue skies and the view. Not a bad view, hey? It was only later during the factory tour that we saw this mountain view is the one the workers on the production lines have.

ICICLES ABOVE THE DOOR

JUST A BIT OF SNOW SURROUNDING THE CAR PARK

HOW ANY WORK GETS DONE WITH THIS VIEW IS BEYOND ME

Viking are actually a relatively young company, founded in 1981 in Kufstein, with twenty people. Since then they've joined the Stihl group and moved into a new factory, which with tremendous foresight, is a space that has allowed them to expand their operations and double their floorspace, creating the Competence Centre where they do everything from the ideas, the design, the testing and build the machines.  And they still have enough land to double the size of their factory again, now that's forethought. 

I've not been on many (any) factory tours but I was struck by just how happy and proud all of the Viking employees were, from the production line to the research department, and yes it's not something you think about is it. Research into products, I mean. We learnt - and saw - just how this passion for their product has driven research to make the lawnmowers efficient, quiet and long lasting.

I'll come back to the noise levels, taking efficient as read, let's start with long lasting. Now I'm not technically minded, and apologies if you are - actually if you are you'll probably be interested in this review by Jay at Gadgety News who was also on the trip - but what I learnt about the elastic properties of metal in a short presentation was fascinating.

I'll attempt to put that briefly into non-technical speak.  

Lawnmowers have blades, those blades are made of metal. The blade is attached to the crankshaft, which (very) basically attaches the blade to the lawnmower.  If you try to bend one of those blades, you'll struggle because they're hard and unbendable. The blades rotate and cut the grass, simple. Now this might not be something you'd ever thought of (and I'm with you there), but when your lawnmower hits a stone, or something else hard, what happens is something has to give, and because the blade is hard, traditionally it's the crankshaft which does. And that's not good, because it's expensive. Expensive to fix and expensive to replace.

With me so far?

So what the clever people at Viking have done is develop a blade that can in effect be sacrificed, instead of the expensive crankshaft. The research that's gone into this is astounding. And it makes sense doesn't it, sacrifice a cheaper part that is easier to replace rather than a key and expensive part. 

Now this was the bit that was really fascinating. What they've done is make use of the elastic properties of the metal, yes that hard metal blade that's unbendable. When it rotates at speed its properties change and I saw it with my own eyes gracefully flapping like a bird. The movement is relatively small, but there is movement and that means when the lawnmower hits something hard, the blade is able to absorb the impact and the more expensive crankshaft is protected.

And that's what struck me about Viking, they want to deliver the best product they can to their customers. They don't want us throwing away their lawnmowers with a broken crankshaft, and replacing them with another model or worse still make, they'd much rather us buy their products and replace the blades as we need to. It's the kind of thing that really plays to my sustainability ethos, and yours too I'm sure. 

Just like the compact range - remember I shared unboxing the Stihl Compact Trimmer recently, and yes I'm still waiting for my grass to grow - with their interchangeable batteries. It just makes sense.  Actually while we're talking about the compact range, in the Viking showroom I saw there is also a compact lawnmower which uses the same size battery.

As I said it just makes a lot of sense.

But anyway, back to the noise levels.

Now I shouldn't have been surprised at the extent Viking go to to ensure the noise levels of their lawnmowers are low. But I was. In the Competence Centre, we were treated with a visit to Europe's largest anechoic chamber. And until I stepped through the door, I had no idea what it was or what I'd experience. 

But it was amazing.

It's basically a room where the echo is removed. From your steps, from your voice, from clapping your hands, from everything. It's the opposite of an echo chamber and is designed to absorb reflections of sound or electromagnetic waves. A totally surreal experience, and one that MOH who's into his hifi was slightly envious of when I told him. 

So you'll be able to tell if your neighbours have a Viking mower, as you won't be able to hear it and it won't disturb your gin and tonic in the garden, as they start to cut their grass. I don't know about you, but that always happens to us. We've finished our gardening, and want to enjoy the efforts of our hard work, we just get settled and then the neighbours fire up their lawnmower, which is clearly, by the noise levels alone, not a Viking!

A happy workforce

I've mentioned this before, but it was so noticeable. I'll admit I don't have a UK production line comparison, but I've a hunch that it won't compare. The Viking products are on the whole assembled by hand, they have machinery to check parts of the process, of course they do, but there's also a lot of human interaction. As we toured the factory floor and the offices, the Viking employees couldn't help but show their pride and enthusiasm for their company, and the part they played in it.

As a communicator in my day job, that was a pleasure to see, and when I correctly guessed that passion was one of their company values, the management team couldn't have been more proud this had been spotted based on their employees behaviours. And if I'm honest, if I were them, I'd have been proud too.

Can you spot what's different here?

I'll admit it's not the greatest picture, but the one below should give you more of a clue.

Yes, it's the new mono handle. 

At first, I thought it looked odd and not lawn mower-like at all, but having seen the research that Viking put into their products I was sure there'd be a reason for this. And in fact there's three:

1. It gives easier access to the grass box, which means it's easier to empty too.

2. It has a different folding system to most mowers, which means it has a smaller footprint for storage (you can see this in the photo above)

3. It's height adjustable.

So knowing all of that, it does makes sense, and the design grows on you, and it's something I think we'll see more of. I tell you, these Viking people are clever.

I've so much more to tell you about my visit to the Viking factory, including the future of smart gardening and the Viking iMow and our evening at the Fortress at Kufstein, but I'm saving that for another day.

This post is long enough already and stuffed full of information I never thought I'd write about before this trip, let alone be fascinated by. I hope I was able to share some of the passion and pride that was so evident throughout my visit, and I'm sure you're starting to realise why I think these are more than 'just' a lawnmower.

UPDATE: Since I've been back there's been some Stihl and Viking news. From 2019 the Stihl group will manufacture the entire product line of Viking exclusively under the Stihl brand name, so in effect Viking's green will change to Stihl orange. This picks up on lots of the points we made during the trip while talking with Viking's top management about leveraging the popularity and prestige of the Stihl brand name.  

There's good news for us too, as there's growth potential for the Stihl dealer network in the UK and it's also likely that jobs at Viking's plant will be boosted as well. And after having met so many of them, I'm really pleased about that.

* This is a collaborative post with Stihl and Viking whose factory I visited as part of the UK press trip, but as always all views and opinions are my own.  

My current obsession: Scrappy quilts

I've always had a thing for patchwork quilts. I've even made a few in the past; more recently that fondness has manifested itself in the patchwork bread bag I made.  You'll know I planned to make another one, but somehow I haven't yet, and that's because something else has been gnawing at me. And that something is bigger than a bread bag.

It's a full blown quilt.  Well, actually it's more than one.

I know, crazy huh? 

It's not like I have plenty of spare time, is it? But I can't shift the desire to make a quilt, or two. So I've been looking around for what type of quilt, and what pattern I want to make. I know I'll need something relatively simple, and something that grows quickly too. As I've a feeling that if the first one is too hard, or something I perceive to be too hard, then it'll likely get stuck.

I already have some material, well quite a lot in fact. I have a bundle from Prestigious Textiles of yellows, greys and white geometric prints that I always planned to make into a quilt at some point. And I still will but I've realised these will be my second quilt. As while the material is gorgeous, and will be perfect in our bedroom, it suits a more complex design, and isn't for my relatively simple and quick growing quilt.

The design I've chosen for this material is Lori Holt's picnic star quilt, which you can see on her website - scroll down on that link until you find the red, white and blue quilt, and you'll know why it's on my list, and why it's not in top spot, yet.

So what kind of quilt will I make?

The other reason for rejecting the yellow and grey star quilt as my first quilt, is that to me it won't be truly scrappy. I think scrappy quilts should be more, well scrappy. But coordinated scrappy, if I can. When I saw Lori Holt's Great Granny Squared book I knew this was the kind of thing I had in mind. There's enough of a design, enough fabrics repeated, but still scrappy enough to qualify as a scrappy quilt to me.

But how to make it happen?

I could buy the material to make this quilt, but again that defeats the point of the scrappy quilt.

I've material that has been amassing for some time now. Some I've bought, some left over from my earlier quilt making days, which is quite a feat as it's survived several clear outs and has hardly been touched since we moved here some fourteen years ago!  Some more material I'm sure has come from my mum, who is a big sewer. And more still has come from clothes I've cut up instead of throwing out. 

And so, the thing I'm wrestling with, is do I have enough material to do the scrappy approach justice. I'm hoping that by mixing in materials that hold memories the quilt will have that extra-specialness I'm after. MOH's initial reaction was that I couldn't use old clothes for this, but soon backed down when I asked what he thought the origins of patchwork quilts were. It was the easiest win I've ever had, I can tell you. He doesn't know yet, that the space freed up using material is only making space for future treasures, but then again perhaps he does.

I *think* I have enough scrappy material, but I need to work that out for sure before I start. I'm telling myself that "I only need 33 two and a half inch squares" as a minimum to make it work. I mean just thirty three squares, that's not so many is it. In fact I need quite a few sets of thirty three squares, which is where the doubt and uncertainty creeps in. So I think next weekend you'll find me looking for enough similar and contrasting materials for the main part of the quilt. And hoping I have enough. And if I'm lucky, actually cutting some of those squares, but we'll see.

I'm less worried about the background as I have that sorted. I have a king-sized duvet that we no longer use, that should be plenty big enough to at least provide the background for the top of the quilt. While it's cream (which I like), it's design is a bit too fancy and it doesn't look so good un-ironed (I'm less keen on those) and so it too has been relegated for another use. If it doesn't to the back, I've plenty of time to come up with a plan for that.

So wish me luck, acknowledge my craziness and definitely look out for some updates along the way!