Review: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

William Kamkwambe was a school drop out – not because he was lacking in intelligence, but because his family could not afford school fees during a time of famine. Even though the family made it through the famine, they still could not afford to send William to school.

So, how did young William spend his time when he wasn’t helping his father on the family farm? He spent a lot of it at the Wimbe Primary School Library. There were books on English, history, science, and secondary texts from Zambia and Zimbabwe, and novels. At first he chose books on subjects similar to those his friends were studying in school so that he could keep up and hopefully re-join them when his parents could afford the fees. But then one day he came across a fascinating book entitled: Malawi Integrated Junior Science. Then, continuing to pursue his interests, he finally came to a book called Explaining Physics  and through chapters in this book on hydro electricity and magnetism he came up with the idea of building a windmill to generate electricity.

The remainder of the book details how he went about this, using just basic scrap metal, old motors and engine parts. He was greatly misunderstood but kept pursuing his objective and eventually was recognised in the world of science for his amazing achievement.

This is a truly inspiring story, and one all aspiring wannabes should read!

For information about William and more links go here. Click here if you would like to browse inside the book. Links to purchase are on the left-hand side.


William Kamkwambe addressing the 2009 TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Conference.

Blogger is better!

If you've been considering using a free blog service you really can't go past Blogger. I've been toying with the idea of setting up this blog in wordpress.com but after some consideration I've decided in favour of Blogger, specifically, Blogger in Draft.

The final look of a blog is what draws readers in. Simplicity and an uncluttered look are inviting. Widgets on the side add interest without looking too busy. I like to add side widgets with things that interest me and, hopefully, will interest others. Blogger allows me to add widgets using java script but Wordpress doesn't allow this at all, as a security precaution. While I see their point of view, I think this is very limiting. I can add all sorts of interesting side widgets in Blogger but without these Wordpress looks too boring.

Another thing I like also to include is a blog roll of things I like to read. Wordpress gives me a widget to add a blog roll but fails to allow me to add a blog title or snippets of text (which I don't use, but some might like to) in order to tweak the readers' interest. It gives me a title "Blog Roll" and the website link. I can add a description which you can see if you hover over the link. Well, really, I can't be bothered with that when I can get a whole lot more with Blogger and with far less effort!

In Blogger  you have a wonderfully wide choice of backgrounds and can change fonts and colours of fonts quite easily in the design view in Blogger in Draft. Also, posts are saved automatically in draft every few minutes - I hardly every have to do it manually. And, one final plus, the post writing window is much bigger, giving you a better view of the finished product. Wordpress' tiny little composing window can be changed to full screen but in order to save it you need to go back to the small window.

Give me Blogger any time! :)

A little bit of fun!

I discovered a new  creative website today. You type in a bunch of text or a blog or URL with atom or RSS feed and up it comes with a……wait for it……a WORDLE!  What is a wordle? Well you probably should go and take a look for yourself here. Click on create and make your own! Here’s what I created using the URL to this blog:

Italic pens

I visited my parents recently. My dad, in his mid 70s, approached me one morning and said, "Well the italic pens still work." I must have looked rather mystified because he went on to say, "When I'm gone they'll be yours".  I guess at his age you start to think about things like that. It took me aback a little, but also got me thinking.

I used to use italic pens a lot when our children were younger. Initially it had started out as a way to save money by making our own cards for birthdays and other celebrations.  We had some quite creative results and I would often use my italic pens to write in them. We could buy the blank cards quite cheaply through a local craft store and, as we were home educating, our card making was part of our art work. Sometimes we even made little miniature cross stitch pictures relevant to the season. I still have a lovely one of some carol singers done by one of my daughters - she did one for me!

When the children were older we started making them on the computer. It's relatively easy to find images online that suit but after my dad's mention of the italic pens I began to think a bit. It's ok but it's not really as creative. If you make your own card you can add, not just a picture, but a whole lot of other things like beads, ribbon, cut outs, pop outs etc etc - whatever creative idea takes your fancy.

There is something about handmade that computer made just can't reproduce. Handmade has a bit of yourself in it.

I might just go and get out those italic pens....

My latest project (apart from King and I)

Just before Easter I started thinking about doing some more knitting. I'd had a vest I'd been knitting for Hannah in the cupboard for a while and thought it would be nice if I could finish it so she could take it back to Melbourne with her. It was a lot of fun really, and got me in the mood to do more!


My only question (to myself) was - what should knit? I don't really need to knit anything for myself. I then thought of knitting a blanket or afghan. I could knit various squares and it wouldn't matter if they were all different - in fact that would be better. So, anyway I've been browsing websites, looking for books on knitted squares etc. I've done one square and am half way through the second.......going to be a long project I think!


I also had the idea that I could knit some scarves in between. I saw a pattern for one in fisherman's rib (a stitch I have always liked the look of) so I might do a couple of those. If you want one just let me know what colour!