I thought if I'm actually going to add content with any regularity I should post things that interest me. I love notes as I have a shocking memory. I keep text notes with "sensible names" often with the date format of yyyymmdd. This logic formate allows me to retreve information with simple searches like this. ls -R | grep search-term followed by locate search-term results. A great way to find them on my Computer. I'm well aware of fuzzyfind but am happy with my system and if it aint broken don't fix it comes to mind. I also try and avoid go and rust which seem to be what they are written in. If i could find a C fuzzy finder I might be tempted to change my system but I feel no pressing need. Providing a sort of linier diary of my life events mundain or not. I've found it quite interesting to scroll back and read them. A similar thing happens with my photo logs. Great memory joggers.

I guess it will evolve in time but after an big initial flurry I can see that the simpler the better and I've been busy removing reams of pages as I learn and rationalise. It should be easy for me to post and the reader to read.

KISS and content need to be king not fancy css or javascript

Can you publish 100 posts on your blog in a year?

↗ 100 Days To Offload

We shall see!

United states of Amatrixa is a real thing

Musk it seems is the emperor of the new world. Until he fucks off on his space rocket or meets his maker I think I'm done with politics

Iv'e been using wood as my main source of heating for 25 years. The current stove is a 10kw morse. It's a big stove but big stoves are the most versitile and reduce the amount of work. Less splitting, sawing and cleaning, more control and heat should one require it.

We'll now it looks like we'll be moving we started looking at wood stoves. I have a big home made stove that works very well but is a bit ugly, a bit to ugly for the living room so it'll end up in the workshop.

The new home has two fireplaces. One in the dining room and one in the living room. Yesterday I spent 4 hours trying to reasemble a cheap chinese cast stove and discovered why it was still in bits. It was deformed and no amount of jiggery pokery could get it back together. it was crap. So after admiting defeat I went on to Gumtree to see if i could find a good stove. Bingo! as I was searching up cam a 5kw Firemaster just 4 miles away. Messages done I went round and bought it for the bargin price of £40

It's very interesting looking at wood stoves. how they're designed, fitted and used. I see many very expensive stoves that are so badly fitted that they're little more than fasion items. Seeing this I guess I should state what my 25 years of experiance has shown to work in reguards to wood stoves.

• Get a big stove. it's less work and a much bigger heat sink
• Use good wood. We fell our wood and have our wood seasoning in 5 bays. Fill one each year to replace the one used.
• Fit the stove in the room so it radiates heat from all sides in to the room not tightly inside a fireplace or in a wall
• We use fire bricks from old stoarage heaters stacked on top of the stove as a heat store

Why is it that everyone that tries to improve things invarably makes thigs look prettier but work worse. Lets look at the Gnome desktop. Never have I come across such a bloated pile of pooh that uses all your resorces for no gain. It's incredably poorly designed from a user interface point of view even when trying to using like a pro and reading their docs. It's also really buggy and I don't think things will ever improve because the code base is so large.

1. ↗ external Gnome observations
2. ↗ external Gnome observations
3. ↗ external Gnome observations
4. ↗ external Gnome observations

This morning we heard the wife had an offer on her flat so we might be moving. We're also getting older and looking towards retiring. We currently live in a late 80's eco-house. So not so eco by todays standards. I've been very fortunate to have lived where I am for such a long time. It's beautiful but also can be a grind. That said the last year or so has been wonderful. We've been loving just living here. The garden and grounds can be just stunning.

We had planned to stay for a few more years but came across a property that whilst not perfect ticks 90% of what we both want. Walking distance from the park and beach, and the sea. Perfect for our wee kayaking trips. A walled garden though tiny in comparison to were we are now, a smaller flat with sea views and a very old and large workshop both dating from about 1840

The history of the property is quite interesting and it seems to have become a wee oasis of old in an ever changing city. I looked through old maps and it's been very interesting to see how the environment around the property has changed.

The earliest good map shows both buildings were there in 1855. If you search the address the land registery says it was built in 1866 but this clearly refers to a newer larger building but mentions the workshop as a former byre. If you look at the stone works you can see it has been modified from a sloping roof to a much larger pithched roof. A best guestimate is 1840s but it could be older as the very old maps are way to crude and undetailed.

Looking at the dates of the railway line I can see that 1845 was when the line was built along with a now defuct local station. This is interesting as it may be why the house was built as there were no buildings to the east or north for a good distance. In short it was literally the last house in the east of the town. apart from the big house next door which was built in 1830. interestinly the oldest map of the area dates 1832 does show the big house next door but not our property or the workshop

Edit

20241014 yesterday I discovered another map printed 1828. Surveyed 1826-27. It clearly shows a building in the street where our new property is but no out building and obviously no 1830 Big House. No idea if the outbuilding was just not drawn or if it wasn't built. Anyway quite an exciting find.

This morning we started prepareing for doing skip runs. In my garden at my flat I had an almost garage sized workshop. A few yeas a go we had some very strong gales which pretty much distroyed it. I removed the items of value but there was an emence amount of detritus still there. The roof and walls were burnt but three years of rain and snow ment that there were many one tonne bags to be filled and carried down the steps and loaded on the trailer ready for taking to the recycling centre.

We managed to get 4 bags and a load of scrap securely strapped on to the trailer ready for depositing tomorrow. We'll reuse the bags for the next load and once cleared well put terram and gravel down where the base was install the home made BBQ and a table and a couple chairs. Just to give a sence of what you can do in the garden. I'll also cut the grass and probably the nehbours while at it.

I'm planning on selling it come the spring and although my nehbour wants to buy it I want the home report to be as high as possible. Tidying up the low hanging fruit should help put a few extra grand on it's value I hope.

We went to see these 5 venues this Sunday. Afer working out the logistics of route and opening times we headed out to the ↗ Saline & District Heritage Society.

Their exhibition on the history of Communication and Information Technology from across Saline & District was very interesting to me. Lots of tech people over 50 would recognise most if not all of them. Some of the artefacts on display were still usable and I remember using them and in some cases still do!

There was also a display of a selection of finds from their work in the Glebe field, right beside the Old Kirkyard.

We were offered and enjoyed a guided tour of the Old Kirkyard, a few hundred meters from the exhibition with a very knowledgable guide. How the research and information gathered was used to peiced together where he old church lay and the information from their 'Headstone Workshops' recorded and stored was impressive as well as interesting to learn about.

We then drove to ↗ Lathalmond Railway Museum which is just at the rear of the ↗ Scottish vintage bus museum I did find it a tad confusing when turning up about what we were visiting and it felt like they were still learning the ropes. There was a mini train and a full sized one that would take you on a ride for $4. It was clear that the exhibition was a work in progress with not all bits completed. That said baby steps and all that. I think it will be much more impressive with just a little more polish.

Off we headed to ↗ North Queensferry Railway Station Like many smaller rail stations, small and quaint. There was a small exhibition of the life of the ferry boats that gave the places it's name before the rail and road bridges. There were a couple old men (brothers in their 90's) that used to opperate the last of the ferry boats. They were most happy to chat to visitors and even had the original plans of the old ferry scrolled out across the wall. On the table was a scale replica of said boat and if I understood correctly with plans a float to try and sail it!

A short trip down the hill and we were at↗ St James chapel Although no remains are to be seen so in effect it's an old grave yard. Like at Saline it was quite interesting to see the very old head stones with their skulls and cross bones and hour glasses and how the professions we carved on to them. There were plow shears sextents and other trade tools. In many ways the older 1700 century stones though simpler and more crude are more interesting than the later more uniform offerings.

100 meters away stands↗ the worlds smallest light tower Tiny it is and a light tower as opposed to a light house as it's un-maned one would assume. One qurious feature was the small stove at the bottom of the tower with it flue traveling through the centre of the stonework of the spiral stair. It emerges at the top of the stairs and makes an elegant swerve around the lamp reflector where the oil lamp flue joins the main stove flue. I would assume the purpose is to either stop the oil loosing viscosity with colder tempretures and affecting the un-maned lamps flame and hence brightness or perhaps even the ability to burn at all? I suspose it would also ensure the windows are kept clear from condensation or snow. Anyway most interesting

Yesterday we continued our Doors open Day travels and went to the ↗ merchants house in Kirkcaldy. Very interesting fron an architectural point of view as well a being the oldest existing house in KirKcaldy. Below it is a nice wee cafe with a courtyard and quite large sloping garden going back up the hill. A lovely place to sit and enjoy a cup of something.

Before that we went to the Adam Smith garden and down Adam Smith close which has a nice history time line carved in the flag-stones. This brings you to the ↗ Adam Smith centre. The garden was quite untidy but it's clear there are plans the conect it to the center and the close by opening up the pre-existing garden door and a new one through the center.

As a staunch anti-capitalist I have mixed views of how some of Smiths free market thinkings have been interpreted but I don't believe he was as anti statist as some of his American followers would have us believe.

Our next place to visit was the ↗ Ravenscraig park allotments. A large walled garden allotment space that looked well managed. Nice sized plots 9x9m for a single and 9x18m for a double. Big waiting list of several years. The site also was home to ↗ Greener Kirkcaldy and ↗ Kirkcaldy Mens shed. A facebook page only I'm afraid but any one interested that like me dosen't do FaceBook can find details here ↗ It featured a community orchard and a very nice topiary elephant that looked very Dumbo like

Time was running out so we went to the ↗ Kirkcaldy Art Club A very nice community feel about the place and plenty of hands on fun stuff to do with clay. A wee craft shop and cafe up the stairs. We bought a 2025 calendar of nice water colours of local points of interest.

Playing with this site has made me think about how to lay it out. Given I want it to be friendly for blind and poorly sighted users has meant I've had to think about it in such a way as to be easy to manage, and easy for users to navigate. Not everyone has good internet speed or connectivity. I want the loud speed of to be good so the size of each page are a concern to me. I'm also aware the css can aid in page size reduction and load speeds but do want to try and keep it as pure HTML centric if possible.

I'm also aware of the energy and hence environmental effect of the modern web. I want my site to be in the right zone when it comes to longevity and content. This is a tricky balance to find. Anyway I've decided to set 100kb as the maximum page size.

I run a script that reduces images to 200 pixels wide which is big enough to give a viewer a clear image but small file size. I did find a minimalist site I really liked where each post was at the end of the day a .txt file. I'm not sure yet if I want to go that route thoug i can see it would have several advantages in that I have years of already written content. it also makes editing way easier as the html is basicaly just the navigation method

The advantages are you link to a complete text document so once set up, very little messing around with HTML editing. The downside is you can't include images etc in the text document. though ther is no issue in linking to images but I guess then the minimilisum is lost. KISS is king either way.

This site gives another reason why plain text is good. In this case in email but the principal is sound

I seem to have a doors theme going on! Today was ↗ Doors Open Day We went to ↗ Cambo country gardens. We were late leaving and the satnav sent us via St Andrews. I dislike the place, it stinks of money but is actually not that nice a place to visit unless you have to. Full of well to do students and tourists all prancing around trying to be cool, while simultaneously clogging up the town. Eventually we got through the town and on to the coastal road to Kingsbarns and found Cambo.

We entered the driveway and found the car park, walked to the entrance only to be told that to get free entrance You have to go to the Mausoleum and get a sticker. This entailed a treck back to the car park past the car and another few hundred meters in to the middle of a field along a track. If it had been raining or I'd been old or infirm I'd have gone back to the car and fucked off such was my mood. There we were met by a nice man that had obviously been practicing his Mausolem history. We then decided to follow his advice and go the long way around back to the entrance. The walk was nice but not for the reasons we were told to take it. A field off brasicas mixed with poppies and other flower lifted our spirits and we endevoured to put the bad start behind us and visit the gardens

I really like seeing other gardens and how the flowers and vegetables compare to ours. What have they done and why? Are their leeks better than ours? First we went to the veg garden where they use a No dig approach. Not my cup of tea but interesting non the less. They seem much more hands on (intensive) than I expected. I'm not sure it's less work or that you reap a better crop. Their courgettes were better than ours but most other things not so. The soil was noticably sandy. Being a few hundred meters from the sea it's hardly surprising.

Into the flower garden we went. Given the time of year, like ours it was well past it's best but I suspect it would look rather fine earlier in the year. A nice wee orchard and very enjoyable stroll through the grounds then out in to the woods and on to the beach. Golfers galore. What one would expect being so close the the home of Bullroarer TooK where golf it's self was invented.... apparently ;-)

A nice drive home using a map and avoiding St Andrew followed. Though Fife councils idea of road signs leaves something to be desired. We drove past one junction with no sign as we approached but I looked in the mirror and could see that if we'd been traveling from the other direction there was a sign to where we wanted to go! Anyone would think they don't want you the leave!

Not the 1960s Band, the ones you open and close

I've been renovating my flat on and off for serveral years with a view to renting it or selling it. Since I've been married we've become property rich as we were both single with our own moddest homes. One of the main jobs still to do was renovate the doors. All of them. Being an old traditional building not one door was the same size . No cheap off the shelf doors, as the required sizes are not avalible at a reasonable price. So I set about renovating them. Years and years of painting had left numorus layers of thick old paint. That along with the moderisations to make what are nice old solid wood doors look trendy. like hardboard skins to make them look flat in the 70's and newer type handles to replace the lovely old traditional ones.

I started the job of removing all the doors and all their fittings. Several days later I had most of them looking pretty clean and ready for filling, sanding and repainting

The first door to refit was the kitchen. It was the only odd door. Being a cheap modern non solid hardboard and cardboard thing, as opposed to the other nice solid doors. It was the one door I really wanted changed. Having just about completed the kitchen and bathroom renovation these were the fist doors I contemplated fitting. The kitchen like many of the other doors needed to be rehung to open the other way. Like most of the doors they were hung for privacy as was the traditinal way. This is a right royal PITA as it makes the rooms smaller as you need to walk around the doors to get in the room. Therefore giving the rooms less usable space. It also makes the rooms look and feel smaller something I didn't want. I'd already moved the light switches to the other side of the doors so they would not be behind the doors when opening them.

All these issues made me think I should replace the kitchen door and I set about searching for a glass paneled door. As luck would have it I found a free one onGumtree but got no reply from my message. That turned out to be most fortunate as I found 7 doors at £5 each complete with hardware. I thought I only needed one but bought them all for the hardware. They had nice brass handles. An email followed by a wee trip with the trailer to collect them and £35 later I was the pleased owner of 3 solid glass panel doors and 4 solid 4 pane doors. Once I'd got them back to the flat i started to measure up. To my great pleasure I discovered that with a little jiggery pokery with rebuilding the locks, swapping hinges and trimming I will be able to replace all 5 interior doors in my flat with nice matching ones. Glass in the kitchen and living room, solid else where. There was even one with a bathroom door lock.

Once I've completed the fitting I will have 6 interior doors to sell at the auction. Plus the very wide front door when I get around to fitting the new one. I also have a very good quality teak and glass front door that I'll sell on Gumtree. Happy days!

Two have been fitted pictures to follow

One of my pet hates is people trying to communicate via convoluted artificial means rather than something so simple like speaking

Many people will assume you have whatsapp or messenger and facebook or instagram or some such slaveware. Even at our business meeting where we have signal I see the same banial actions. So much so I have the groups I'm in on silent. Of course when I do want to use ⭧ Molly or Molly-foss in my case. Molly is a signal fork and molly-foss strips out all the google crap. Because oneline communication is really poor we get so much more tention and missunderstanding than in our real meeting where everyone is much more civilised and our understanding of each other is at a much higher level.

This afternoon a colleague came over for a chat and lamented how she was missing real meetings as nearly all her meeting are remote now. Off she went and 30 minutes later I see 2 corispondents that would require several more corispondents to answer properly. I found it really frustrating because she could have:

• Asked when she was sat next to me
• Called
• walked the 80 meters back over

I couldn't be arsed to jump through all the uneccasary hoops even though I have all the answers to the question because I couldn't see the point in wasting what's left of my life with yet another example of Greens law of debating that it makes me want to scream! RTFM came to mind but as there's no obvious manual at least do some cursory research before asking basic questions.

Use the best means of communication avalible. i.e. Face to face if possible. Written words are best used in novels and court documents etc. They work best when stating fact. Not for asking questions. Especially when the two line question requires a 20 line answer because the questioner doesn't know what their writing about.

The same goes for sms or text messages as we call them in the United Kingdom. I know it stands for Short Message Service but you can write more than a few words. If I recall correctly it's 160 charactors per message. You can keep however keep typing and it sends the message but charges each 160 charactors as one message. As sms messages are very cheap and free in most of our phone contract deals you can write long and detailed messages if you need to.

It used to be the case that communication via sms used many shortcuts and abreviations to save cost.

sms are very eco as the data is very small. Quite often an sms will get through to a mobile with a poor signal where as a call or voice or video chat wont.

Now we have the case with unlimited data that nobody gives a shit. Constant 3 word communication is the annoying norm. ping, ping, ping, bloody ping. Always at the most inaproprete moment. Watching a movie PING Having a snooze PING Just about to get your leg over and you can be sure of a bloddy PING. And you can be sure it'll be a friggin thumbs up or some other such waste of time, space and life.

No wonder our children are growing up with such mental health issues. Constant bombardment of their brains with inane bullshit

I'm well aware that my dyslexia contributes to my strong dislike of poorly written communication and also might in others eyes contribute to it. But I believe the fragmentation caused by numorous social media platforms are a far bigger issue. When we're all singing from the same song sheet the sound is sweeter and the harmony is far improved.

We have a buzzard that's taken up residence locally. It frequently flys over the garden and sits in a tree at the end of it. Much to the consternation of the jackdaws that will mob it if it gets to close. Yesterday it flew quite low over the garden and was quickly joined by a squadroon of jackdaws that swooped close by until it was driven far enough away.

If it was possible for a buzzard to look really pissed off, then this one did. If looks could speak it was saying If I catch you I'll break your tiny little necks Quite amusing.

While birds are on the table. We had 4 unwelcome visitors last night. Two peahens and two peacocks appeared in the garden. Escapees from the big house next. We hearded then out and back in to the woods that ajoin the property. Pretty they might be but they cause a lot of damage in the garden and crap everywhere!. It was interesting to note while shoowing them over the wall that the peahens seamed to be better flyers. I suspect those big fancy feathers the cocks have make then a little tail heavy.

Edit:20240910

I witnessed the buzzard being mobbed again today. What was interesting was it was by a single jackdaw. It flew alone but very high above the jackdaws roost staying above the climbing buzzard with the odd swoop at it. The buzzard was obviously circling on an updraft and not at all interested by the roost. The jackdaw was but failed to realise the buzzard just wanted an easy climb. Eventually the buzzard drifted off and peace was returned. A couple things struck me. The jackdaw has some balls and how missunderstanding can lead to conflict.

I have no TV. Not had one for over 20 years. It's great. A TV is a one of those things that slowly sucks the very life out of you. Much like social media and especially centralised social media. My daughter doesn't have a TV and the benefits to my grandaughter and how an out door life has created a vibrant strong, healthy and inquisitive child. Who at the age of 5 completed a 3 day 80 mile cycling holiday is a joy to see.

The one thing I've notice over the later years is that more and more people are loosing the TV... But and it's a big but. It's not because they've stopped watching it. It's because they're using a computer to access TV content. In no way is it comparable to not watching TV or TV programes via the likes of iplayer etc.

For me no TV is more than the actual hardware the TV set as it were. It's seeing the content as generally poor and inane. For me it takes more out of life than it contributes to it. Like wise radio. I do like radio but only tend to listen when driving. The only stations I have tunned in are BBC R2, BBC Scotland, BBC R3, and my go to station BBC R4. I also have classic FM but it's pretty boring after listening for any length of time as it recycles the classics far to much. I guess you get what it says on the tin!

I used to dislike them but the more I watched the more there was to admire. From the waiting for me to plant beans.... for them. They'd wait for me to finish and monitor them. Waiting for the little bean shoots to appear so they could come and dig them up for tea! Bastards. Then watching them chase the squirrels away if the ventured to close to their nests in the wall. Hopping madly after them on the top of the wall.

Suddenly on a gusty day they'd reach for the sky as a joyous flock bobbing about on the air currents. Having just so much fun it simply wasn't fair. Then watching them fly back to their nests entering the hole in the wall with such speed that death would prevail should a gust take them of course for but an inch.

I recall one day one returning at speed just as it's mate decided to leave. Air traffic collision was only just avoided. Whilst providing me with much merryment through out the remainder of the day as the vision insisted on reapearing in my mind.

One of my bar stools is missing

We put some items into the auction. Loaded up the trailer and off we went. On arrival it was discovered that one of my bar stools was missing. Some how it chose an almost certain death and incineration rather than a new home. Basically it jumped out of the trailer at 50MPH. Quite how it managed such a feat I'm not 100% sure but suspect some sort of Eddie the eagle ramp up the side of the one of the mowers.

It was while unloading that we noticed a nice little kitchen dresser. Well wifey noticed and I was tasked to come and bid for it! Her being away visiting her mother or on a wee holiday as I would say.

On the way home I spotted the bashed and broken barstool on the verge. Back in the trailer it went, then chopped up and in to the kindleing shed

Anyway I arrived to early and had to sit through 200 items before the dresser came up. Only benefit was I scored a few nice trunks as in large suitcases type trunks not swimming trunks or briefs. No where to put them but I think they're nice quality, useful and were a steal at £20. Eventually the dresser came up I bid at £50 it went to £60 wavered I thought that would be it but it rose to £85 before I won it at £90. A fair price but more than I wantd to pay. Wifey had allowed up to £150 max.I'd not said about the trunks but while attempting to show them to my daughter on Molly accidentally posted the photos to the wife! There went my little suprise. Well it was a suprise to me once I realised what I'd done

Note to self don't post a picture

I came home and wanted to cook

I was working on renovating my flat. Not a very good day as I was fitting a new oven and hob. The oven cabinet needed assembly first so that's what I set about doing. For an £80 cabinet there was not a lot to it. A few bits of conti-board some fixings and plastic legs. If the parts cost a tenner I'd be very surprised.

Well the instructions were pretty clear and assembly went well. The only tricky bit was the oven floor that required hand measuring. Not sure why when the rest of the board had pre-drilled holes the shelf brackets didn't.

Next step was fitting the oven in the cabinet. literally lift it in. It fitted fine so I guess my measuring was good. Next step was the plinth. Not predrilled again but straight forward

The one thing I noticed was the oven had a standard 13amp plug! And there I was thinking I was clever and previously installing a proper 30amp cooker socket and switch in the wall ready. But no standard socket. Damn. That rather put the kibosh on things but rather than drive home and fetch sockets and cable to extend the ring I thought I'd look at the hob instead

The hob was fine and came with a heavy cable. I read the booklet and it was very poorly written. this hob is 3 phase shit was my first thought. Reading on it became clear it could be made in to a single phase by fitting a bridge In a bit of a panic I turned it over and removed the very awkward cover only to discover the bridge was already in place! Could they have not said this cooker is single phase but could be converted to three phase by removing the bridge as it's a domestic hob.

Anyway to save a trip and a hour I fitted the kitchen lights. Nice and shiny but on closer inspection crap. Job done I started to head home. Called the wife to see if she'd picked up milk. Nope. So a wee shop before my travels. On arriving home with all the ovens, hobs and shopping I felt like cooking. Now the fun begins. Onion mushroom and kidney bean curry with left over lambs liver creamy mash and our first bit of curly kale from the garden. It was raining and miserable as I picked it but I got a strangle feeling of satisfaction all the same as I lifted the nets and snapped off the dark green leaves. 30 pence per plant so £3 to keep me in kale all winter.

Back in side cooking under way I stuck some ↗ Chumbawamba on and danced as I cooked and laid the table. Dancing while cooking is such fun. It just lifts the soul but in my case sometimes means I get carried away with the portion sizes. Not this time and after we'd eaten there was enough room for a nice bowel of ice cream. Vanilla for me vanilla and chocolate for the wife. Ice cream is a weakness of mine. I could eat a kilo tub at a sitting if I didn't have my new self imposed weight limit of 78KG. It used to be 80kg but I prefer to be vain. No Pain No Vain!

Note to self don't post a picture

Yesterday we hosted a wee gig

100 plus people, 5 bands, some very new beginner bands. Some old timers. After more on-line grief than one would think possible for something so simple. They came played and were gone by 17.30. It was a success \o/ for everyone involved and to be fair rathereasy-peazy

I was up prepping the site at 10.00 the co-coordinator arrived before 11.00. By 13.00 all was setup with tarps hung around the greenwood timber frame that would hold the bands and a wee gazebo and table for the tea urn and cakes. People started to arrive at around one and by two-PM it was rocking

The better half had suggested running a tea/coffee and cake stall. She spent a few hours the night before cooking flap-jack because they're gluten free and vegan and have no need for plates! She also cooked some fruit cakes. £2 for a coffee and a flap-jack or slice of cake. She got it spot on as we sold out at the death. We gave a third of the profit to the bands which covered their venue hire. We really need to increase our prices :-)

I not a real music fan so snuck off to watch the football. On Saturdays I like to catch up with one of my sons via ↗ Molly-FOSS and chat as our team plays. We won! I then snuck back to tidy up the site. To be fair a fair few stayed and helped and the site was back to normal very quickly

Note to self post picture

Awe struck by a seagull

Today I marveled at a seagull. It was doing what seagulls do all the time. Flying... well, gliding to be precise. I was traveling over the tay bridge at a leasurely 25MPH due to the never ending roadworks and happened to notice a seagull just ahead of me, gliding at just over roof hight about a meter or so over the side of the bridge. It didn't veer off one bit, just stayed just in front of the car, gliding. It was a beautiful thing to behold, the elegance and effortlessness was just stunning. It struck me that it's watching things like this that make men want to fly. It caused my mind to wander and think of all the crazy contraptions men made before the Wright brothers actually flew. And all the while this seagull still just sits there, cocking it's head to look at the cars. I edge foreword so I'm level, increasing my speed to 30MPH. I'm in awe and I dislike seagulls, noisy, aggessive and plain pests most of the time. Not today, not this one. I hit the slip road and we part. everywhere but in my mind.

Note to self post picture

Local flower and industrial show

Today we entered the local vegetable show. Spuds, beans, flowers, cider and wine

Well our spuds were a fail. Our presentation was poor but who the heck polishes their potatoes!

On the flower front we were scuppered once we'd read the rules. One entry for each household in certain categories that meant my winning display was doomed to rule the center of the kitchen table.

Wifey will be upping her game next year I can see. She's already planning what to plant!

We saw several categories we should have entered and several where we now know what to do. The spuds were poor this year mostly down to ↗ blight Which meant we had to cut off the potato tops to preserve our crop but they hadn't finished growing so we had a lower yeald.

We'll plant later next year in an effort to curb the blight. The thinking being that the ground will be less wet and cold. Though the guessing what the seasons will be like is getting harder as climate change has a greater and greater effect.

1. Four white potatoes
2. Three types of red potatoes
3. Four red potatoes
4. Top Vase
5. Six runner beans

   Second prize

6. Six french beans
7. Six pods of broad beans

   Second prize

8. Sweet peas
9. Cider
10. Grozet (gooseberry wine)

    First prize (outstanding in Wine & Beer)

11. Black current wine
12. Elder flower wine

    Third prize

13. Single dahlia

    Second prize

Local flower and industrial show

Note to self post pictures

Went to the local auction today after looking on-line and seeing some ↗ LeCreuset pots

The first lot was 3 nice clean green pots and a hand coffee grinder. It was marked in the brochure as Le Creuset The auctioneer started high had no takers and the starting price fell to £5 as is the norm before rising sharply to over £40. I dropped out at £20

The next lot was described as Box of oven dishes They were filthy but numerous. The auctioneer started at £45 dropping quickly to £20. I bid. Trying to kill a bidding war when it bottoms out a £3 and sure as hell once they start goes all the way back up to £45! It worked. Eight dirty Le Creuset pots were ours.

The next step was the clean up. A big bowel of hot water, soda crystals and vinegar. After several hours of scrubbing we have 8 Volcanic Orange pots As opposed to some orangish but mostly black as soot.

1. 24cm casserole pot
2. 21cm casserole pot
3. 22cm casserole oval pot
4. 21cm sauce pan
5. 20cm baking dish
6. 20cm earthenware baking dish
7. 20cm earthenware baking dish
8. 24cm frying pan

The satisfaction we gained from the whole exercise was interesting to behold. When buying property a few thousand here or there hardly crosses our minds. But the pleasure of the rescuing the pots along with the successful bidding maneuver and how they all cleaned up. was frankly crazily disproportionate. Along with the fact we we looking for them as we wanted pots the work well with induction hotplates and when we cook on the log burner.

We often do that in the winter and it heats the house with enough to cook and provide water for washing up and tea. Much more fuel efficient that the Bosky Which has to heat the whole house.

Note to self post picture

I've been tasked by my better half to do a Workshop tidy today. Ready for Auctioning off all my crap. Very interesting where we classify Crap. As a certified hoarder. Very interesting to see the legacy of not so much poverty, but a distinct lack of money in our house-hold throughout most of my life. Now I'm getting old and trying desperately to get rid of stuff.

The wife came home yesterday and said she'd quite fancy a BBQ. Well the big BBQ seemed just to big for the two of us so when she went off for her swim I grabbed an old metal jam making pot some thick wire grid and made a small BBQ from my Crap. :-) It worked great, I used my own home made charcoal.

I'm getting low on charcoal so will need to make more this winter. That said it's a nice easy thing to make I'll post how it done when I get around to doing it, unless I can find some older pics, then I'll update here

Note to self. Post a picture

Today was a scorcher... for Scotland at least. Awake at 6.20 so played with this site. I'm really liking all the minimal stuff. gemini, gopher, irc, plain text and bog standard html. I'm finding it really liberating.

Today I went to a memorial of a dear friend. Very good turn out of people who's life she effected. Poets, makers, co-workers and thinkers. The makeup of those gathered was of interest to me. Their social economic background and economic status. I felt the turn out was skewed and those she helped most were not there. Their social economic status probably meant they'd moved on and had more pressing engagements, be it putting bread on the table or centralised social media. I pondered my life and death as I edge ever near to it's certainty. Who would come to remember me? Would I care. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, atoms to atoms.

Due to my IBD I've been making cider. That's hard Cider to our American friends.

First thing you need is apples. I'm luck in that where I live we have an orchard and I get loads You also need a scratter to chop them up and a press to get the juice.

• USA: license = noun, to license = verb
• Everywhere else: licence = noun, to license = verb
• Example:
• In the UK we say this is my driving licence
• In the USA we say this is my driving license
• In the UK we say I'm going to license this software as GLPv3
• In the USA we say I'm going to license this software as GLPv3

I'm wood only heating. It can be cheap, carbon neutral, efficient and very warming.

There's a saying that a wood stove warms you twice. Once when you split it and again when you burn it, (All our log splitters have two legs and arms ). It's a damn lot more than twice for me. Clear the ground, plant and protect, thin the woodland, fell and clear before we even get to that point.

We have an old ↗ "Bosky" it was old when we got it and it's been no trouble bar a chiminy clean every ten years and cleaning ash every now and that's in the past 30 years.

You do need to learn how to operate it. Once learnt it's super easy and you can have the radiators hot through out the house in 30 minutes to an hour from lighting it. The time depending on if the hot water tank still has any hot water left in it. Without a doubt it has out lasted all the other central heating boilers I've ever had. They cost a fortune to service. Enevitably get screwed during the service and then condemed as either to expensive to repair or old to get the bits.

A note to the spelling nazis I can't spell! My punctuation is apauling, grammer shite, and writing shocking. That said after 40 years of never writing anything I now do.

TLDR.

Allowing some one with this disability to fail in public is a fantastic help. It's like allowing a one legged person to fall and it be OK, rather than shouting at them to watch their fucking step! Read between the lines

The consiqueses of my dyslexia have had a prefound affect on my life. Some of it good most horrific.

At the age of 43 I was tested for dyslexia. Forty fucking three! Two tests. I failed or passed both miserably depending on ones perspective. Then 35 years to late and doing a degree I didn't particulary want to do, But chose because it was mostly marked on the product created. Rather than my written work. I was offered help.

Waste of time for me mostly. All that coloured text. All that voice to text. All that fucking about with fonts. had a minimal positive benefit. For me at least.

What did work for me was writing freely. In a safe environment free from critisisum. I found that place on IRC A small close knit group that ignored my errors and read between the lines so much so that my correcting my errors started to anoy them a bit. At least until I explained the fixes were for my benefit not theirs!

My writting is immensly better than it was 10 years ago. For that I thank them.

The Bad

• Being treated as thick because I can't get the stuff in my head out because it must be in written form. This is one of my pet hates
• Because I can't See the obvious errors in simple lines of text it means I can't code (that includes write html). Something I'd love to do
• The disproportionate time I waste doing something that for most is so easy. This used to really anoy me until I realised that many of the things I found so piss easy were so friggin hard for others. There I was thinking it's obvious!

  The Good

• I'm a great visual learner
• I have a very good emotional intilegence

The Consiquences

• Great with hands and head sort of jobs
• Good at talking and listening
• In short my other skill sets are desirable
• I'm going to write from my feelings and not bother as much as I should about spelling and hope it gives others a boost, While giving me the freedom and time to write SOMETHING

This page is my thoughts and experiances of inflamitory bowel desease

I have IBD. Not so much a P.I.T.A as one might think but truely life changing.

After about 7 years of being fobbed off by my Dr, with It's probabley your age! And years of getting up at 5AM to have my 5 shits every morning to completely empty my bowels

All this so I could get picked up and not worry about shitting myself on the journey to work. A journey that could be anything up to a 2.5 hour trip.

Anyway long story short, I got a camera up the bum. 30 seconds in Oh you've got IBD! Five years on I'm 12KG lighter and I have a normal morning routeen.

So what did I do, that, while not curing my IBD has got it in to such a state that I rarely even think about it.

Long story short I went on a motorbike camping trip.

Now that didn't fix me but it put me in a non-standard environment. I had limited space so took no bread just rice. After a few days I though my guts haven't been quite so bad?

Back home I went wheat free and saw an improvement. Less bleeding, less urgency. but not perfect

Then I started to research. I found a Youtube video from some Dr in the USA talking about the gut lining. and how when it breaks down you get leakage and the body attacks and then you get inflamation

It struck me that if I remove what ever was causing the gut lining to breakdown all would be fine. I did. Being a lazy sod I just went glutton free. After about 4 months I was much improved. I struggled with no bread, no spaggetti, no anything with glutton that I was so used to but it has transformed my life Now 5 years on no bleedig out my harris no more sprinting down the garden path, key in hand, belt half undone. No more emergancy clothing kit in the van Life if great again and I'm 12KG lighter with out even trying

Like all diets they can be hard. Change is hard especially after decades. But once you find those little helpers that get you sticking to it life becomes so much easier.

For me that was buckwheat. Which dispite it's name is not a wheat and has no glutton. It cooks quickly and can be used like rice. I made Buckwheat spoonsOther things that helped we rice cakes and oat cakes. Both incredibly boring but can be loaded with nice stuff so you don't feel like you're eating cardboard all the time

The knock on effect

Everything about my diet has changed. No Beer! was a biggie. I checked the celiac web sites to see what I could eat and drink. Wine, spirits, cider. (see my cider page. I'm self now sufficent in booze).