LEDs rule.

It’s hard to describe how barren the garden was in my home when I bought it three years ago. After some 20 years the extent of the landscaping was a couple of dying Texas Sage bushes with blown irrigation. Landscape lighting was provided by those execbrable solar cell units, doubtless stuck in the ground by some cretinous realtor looking to make her 6% for showing buyers the bathroom. Their light output was reminiscent of the three position lighting switch on British motorcycles equipped with lighting by one Joe Lucas – the options were Dim, Flicker and Off. Mostly the result was Off regardless of the position of the switch and these miserable landscape lights were probably made by Joe also. The first two things I did was have the garden dug up to lay all new irrigation lines and then chucked those solar lights in the garbage.

Their replacements came from LampsPlus in the guise of floods and spots, the latter used to accentuate the many sculptures and dramatic new plants I installed. These are not cheap, but you will not be replacing them any time soon – read on.

One unexpected result was that the new irrigation saw to it that the new plants prospered, even in the blast furnace summers in Scottsdale, Arizona, and one of the honeysuckles was now denying light to my twin crane sculpture. The option of cutting back the plant was simply not a choice, so I did the logical thing and added another spot, wiring it into the 14AWG bus line I had installed in a huge loop under the gravel. The lights tap into the bus, so if one fails the others are unaffected.

The second crane enjoys drama again.
The thermal blanket in the rear protects fragile Lantana from frost.

These LED spots – a three lens affair set in a very robust metal enclosure – consume but 3 watts (the floods draw 4 watts), and it will give you some idea of the number of lights installed that I use dual 120 watt timed power supplies/transformers; the whole thing runs on safe 12 volts power. In the three years since installation not one light has failed and they burn 5 hours every evening. So that’s almost 5,000 hours and counting. The manufacturer claims a 30,000 hour life.

But all this preamble is yet another excuse to show off the iPhone 11 Pro’s Night Mode. I clicked the button, the iPhone told me to hold steady for 3 seconds and the result is SOOC, of course.

Steam locomotion at its best.

The Flying Scotsman was a British three cylinder steam locomotive which served on the London to Edinburgh run from 1923 through 1963. It was the first passenger locomotive to reach 100mph (that in 1934!) and was designed by the Englishman Sir Nigel Gresley who would go on to craft the Mallard, the fastest ever steam train, and the most beautiful.

The British, despite having ruled half the world’s economy just one hundred years earlier, were slow to convert to diesel power which was clean, far lower maintenance and cheaper to run, so whereas America had largely done so by the late 1950s, the British continued on their merry way building more steam locomotives well into the 1960s, all scrapped after very short service lives.

I am a member of that dwindling cadre of passengers who can claim to have enjoyed 100 mph on the Scotsman, having taken it from London to Dundee in 1960 at the tender age of nine, to visit my eldest sister, then a student at nearby University of St. Andrews. She gave my youngest sister and me a Scottish Terrier, the source of much joy for the next decade and a half. Tough, resolute, no toady, he exemplified all that is best in the Scot.

The BBC had a program with current video of a restored Scotsman running – at sadly low speed – on a midlands cruise. This is (mercifully) a commentary ‘lite’ documentary, allowing the viewer to enjoy the sight and sounds of this special locomotive. Some of the images are nothing less than spectacular, though it has to be added that someone should give the Beeb an iPhone so that they can learn about HDR.

In the cab. The American instruments are marked ‘Westinghouse, England’.

Simply gorgeous.

Letting off steam – too much and your boiler will burst!

The locomotive is incredibly popular, crowds lining the route.

Ah! England, where the sun always shines.

Now when I wrote ‘enjoyed’ that needs qualification. In reality, steam train travel was awful. Noisy with dated and grimy interiors, and when I foolishly opened the window in a tunnel the full reality of steam, oil vapor and coal dust was visited upon my person. I arrived in Edinburgh smelling like a Welsh miner, and suitably bruised from the pounding my youngest sister had deservedly given me. Steam trains are great as long as you are a spectator from a distance, and this BBC documentary does the Flying Scotsman justice.

The fine British painter Terence Cuneo has done the Scot justice in oils, and reproductions of his canvas make for fine gifts for those of your friends with good taste.

Terence Cuneo’s tribute in oils to the Scotsman..