Month: September 2021

Grindstone Cowboy TWTW # 145

On By TontowilliamsIn audio, books, Garden / Allotment, The Week That Was, work

As I sit down to write this post I see that my notebook is a little empty of things to talk about this week. I curate a list during the week, of things I should include in these posts. When something happens I’ll add it to the list. This week that list is blank. Not because nothing has happened, on the contrary I’ve had quite a busy week, but because a symptom of that busyness is not having the time to add things to it.

Work

This is what has kept me busiest this week, I’ve been making progress with client work. Doing quite a bit of research and creating models and calculations to look at a variety of different scenarios for that client to help them with their planning for reaching net-zero.

Out of the blue I also had a separate approach from another client for some further work. We’re talking this coming week to discuss but it’s an another old project coming back around again, partly due to the pandemic pushing it into the long grass for a while.

Reading

I finished London Match by Len Deighton and am still visiting Derek Jarman’s Dungeness garden via the pages of his diary each day. I don’t read much of this each time but I do enjoy reading other peoples journals and diaries. I have several in my ‘to be read’ pile and it’s interesting that each one is a slightly different style or approach to what they recorded, or felt was worth recording about themselves and what happened to them.

I also dipped into The Collected Adventures of David Cranmer’s “Drifter Detective”, there’s a review here, and I’m looking forward to reading some more in the coming days.

Allotment

A lot of weeding this week. I’ve cleared enough space for over-wintering things and most of those have now arrived from various seed suppliers. It’s still a little early to be planting and sowing, but time passes so quickly that it won’t be long. I’ve harvested about half of my apples. The variety is a hybrid and the earlier you harvest e.g. in September the closer they are to a cooking apple, the longer they stay on the tree e.g. October / November the closer they are to an eating apple. So I’ve left about half, mostly the smaller ones on the tree in the hope that it doesn’t get too windy or cold and that I can have some eating apples in another month or so.

I visited my Mum this week for her birthday. Covid restrictions mean that there are still some limitations, and we had about an hour together, but with her Alzheimer’s the way it is that is probably about the right length of time. She was in good spirits, although the fact it was her birthday had passed her by until I showed up. We both have milestone birthdays next year and she was talking about having a party. Who knows if that will be possible but it was a nice thought. Not sure I’m up for a milestone birthday or a party to be honest but who knows.

I recorded some audio on one of my dog walks this week, it’s about half an hour of me rambling on about all sorts of things. I posted it earlier in the week, but if you’d like to listen and haven’t already I’ll embed it again here:

There are no links this week – mostly because all of the things I’ve been looking at have been work related and probably not all that interesting unless you’re into carbon reduction. The week ahead is looking similar to the one just gone, with a catch-up visit to the vet but otherwise it’s going to be head down.

Whatever you’re up to take care and stay safe!

A Morning Audio Ramble

On By TontowilliamsIn audio, podcasts, walking

Some audio thoughts from our dog walk this morning.

This is a binaural recording – if you listen to this with headphones you should hear what I was hearing i.e. different things in your / my left and right ears.

It’s quite long and there are no prizes for listening to the end, but if you do listen, thank you!

Book Review: The Collected Adventures of David Cranmer’s “The Drifter Detective” Volume One

On By TontowilliamsIn Book Review3 Comments

My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Jack Laramie is the grandson of legendary US Marshall Cash Laramie (search for this in the sidebar and it should bring up my reviews for those). He is a PI for hire and lives out of the back of his horse trailer.

I’ve read these (long) short stories before on kindle but it is good to get them gathered together for the first time in a real book. It’s sometime since I read them so they felt new to me but familiar.

They pull no punches (quite literally at times) but this is hard boiled noir with a hint of the old west but set after the Second World War.

They are exactly how I imagine the old west would have evolved, and the character of Jack is as alive as his grandfather was.

Recommended.

Disclosure: David Cranmer is a friend of mine, but I bought this book with my own money and I have received no recompense for this review from the authors or publishers. The thoughts are my own.

A Work Production TWTW # 144

On By TontowilliamsIn books, Garden / Allotment, The Week That Was, work

It’s been a busy week, but busy is good. Mostly I’ve been at home in front of the computer, with trips out to walk the dogs or to go to the allotment and I’ve been pretty productive and got a lot done. I like weeks like this but they can be quite exhausting by the time the weekend arrives.

Work

I’ve started a new piece of client work this week. This has meant a lot of time researching and tracking down data and then starting to develop a spreadsheet to manage the data. Neither the client or I had a clear idea what the final output was going to look like, but I think now I’ve had a couple of days on this I can see what it might look like. There’s still much to do, but it’s good to be working on something.

Allotment

I’m getting the plot ready for the over-wintering onions and broad beans. It’s going to be a few more weeks before they need to go in. Put them in too early and they get too big and are at potential risk of being damaged even in a mild winter. Too late and they don’t germinate or start to grow in time and become big enough. Normally this window is around the end of October / early November.

The plot is still producing a good amount of French climbing beans, although I am now leaving some so that I can save some seed, and squashes and courgettes. I suspect the latter will not last much longer as overnight temperatures start to drop. It also looks like we’ll have some Brussels sprouts for Christmas.

Reading

I’m still reading about Derek Jarman’s garden but have also started on London Match by Len Deighton. I find engaging with fiction far easier than non-fiction when I have a lot of work on, maybe because it doesn’t require me to think quite as much.

Links

RIP Sir Clive Sinclair

Pharmaceutical companies should pay for raiding nature’s medicine cabinet – The Lancet

The Last Word on Nothing – Homeward Bound

Sean of the South – Thank You

The week ahead is looking like being fairly similar, it’s also my Mum’s birthday, so I’ll be visiting her on the day. I wonder if she’ll remember that it is her birthday. Last year her care home was in lockdown on her birthday and I wasn’t able to visit so I don’t know how she was and when I rang to wish her a Happy Birthday, she seemed a little vague. We’ll see on the day.

Whatever you’re up to in the week ahead, stay safe and take care.



Twenty Years TWTW # 143

On By TontowilliamsIn books, Cooking, Garden / Allotment, The Week That Was, walking, work1 Comment

Twenty years ago today I was working an early shift covering a colleague while he was on holiday. It meant I was in the car driving to work just as Radio 4 was taking over from the World Service on the radio. I was still trying to absorb what had happened the day before. Although we used to have a radio on as background in the harbour office where I was working at the time, I’d been out on the patrol boat as news had started to filter in as to what was happening in New York. At first they made it sound like it was a small light plane, a Cessna or similar that had hit the North Tower. When the news arrived of a second plane it became clearer that this was something more sinister.

By the time I reached home after my shift the horror of what had happened was becoming apparent and the world changed forever.

We’re back “home” again after our brief stay elsewhere. It’s interesting that while we were away my sleep patterns were much better, despite a slightly lumpy bed. I’m not sure whether it was because of all of the extra exercise I was getting or the overall quieter and darker place, here it is all streetlights, traffic and people. It’s certainly made us think and reconsider our surroundings and what we need from life.

Reading

I don’t feel like I’ve had much time for reading since we got back either, nor have I been able to keep my eyes open for long enough of an evening to read more than a page or two. How can I be so tired and yet sleep so badly?

Anyway when I have been reading I’ve been picking up Derek Jarman’s diaries of his time living in a little cottage at Dungeness. The cottage is famous for the garden that Jarman created before he died.

I haven’t read very far yet, but it’s clear from the words that Jarman was very much a creative.

Also if you’re looking for something good to read, can I recommend checking out the Drifter Detective series, now available in this collection:

https://twitter.com/BEATtoaPULP/status/1436731587366895621

Allotment

I’ve been getting a piece of the plot ready for sowing overwintering broad beans. Our allotment shop under it’s new management has declared that it is not doing seeds this year (or onion sets or seed potatoes), so I will have to buy them elsewhere. I won’t go into how this rather pathetic state of affairs has arisen but one of the strengths that I saw in our little shop was the fact that it sold seeds etc. Now it just seems to sell bags of compost and only on a Sunday.

My apples are now mostly ripe and I’ll be picking them all over the next week. I sampled a few yesterday and along with some of the autumn fruiting raspberries made a rather spectacular apple and raspberry strudel. My god it was good, even if it did look a bit like a Hannibal Lecter recipe.

Work

A purchase order arrived from a client for the piece of work we’ve been discussing, work commences tomorrow. I’ve been doing some prep work this week – timesheet templates and other admin stuff. I’m quite looking forward to it because it’s also quite an interesting piece.

Links

Memorializing Animals Who’ve Been Killed on the Road

Dear Sean – Should I get a dog?

Twelve More White-tailed Eagles released on the Isle of Wight

Oxfordshire celebrates first Crane fledging in 500 years

Well that’s everything for this week. Next week I’ll be doing quite a bit of paid work, interspersed with some gardening and allotment work if the weather holds. I also hope to receive a roll of film back from the processors that I took partly while we were away. The first half I took some time ago and although I think I know what’s on there I’m not 100% sure, so that should be a bit of a surprise.

Whatever you’re up to, stay safe and take care.

Home From Home TWTW # 142

On By TontowilliamsIn books, Dog, Film, photography, The Week That Was, walking, Wilson's Story, work

Slightly different surroundings as I type this today. We’re still in the process of sorting out my Mum’s house and decided to come and stay for a couple of days to try and get a bit more done than we can by ‘commuting’. It’s worked well so far and it’s also been nice to reacquaint myself with an area I used to know very well. It’s interesting to see how some things have changed but the broad landscape is still very much the same. Paths that I’ve not walked for a few years are once again becoming familiar, and my daily step count is going up rapidly. I’ve put a few pictures that I’ve taken in a slideshow below.

Wilson had another vet appointment this week, and received praise from the vet. She’s very pleased with his progress and if it continues in the same vein we might be able to reduce the dosage of one of his tablets. I also received a very prompt turn around to a claim I made to the insurance company. I am surprised at how quick to be honest so I hope they didn’t make a mistake.

Work

I’ve had some good news this week and the proposal I wrote has been accepted. The client had a couple of clarification questions but has accepted it without further alteration. Subject to receiving a purchase order I’ve said I’ll be starting on it in about a weeks time with the aim of having it completed before the end of the year.

Reading

I finished Mexico Set by Len Deighton. It stands up really well as a cold war thriller and it’s interesting to see how much the world has and hasn’t changed in the intervening period since the book was written. Perhaps same problems just different fronts might be a good way of looking at it, but then again some of the fronts aren’t all that different.

I picked up Horatio Clare’s Heavy Light which could be more contrasting a subject. It’s about the author’s mental breakdown and descent into psychosis and his experience of the mental health system before, during and after his breakdown. It’s not an easy read and although mental health and stability have featured in some of his previous books, this is much more concentrated in it’s treatment and discussion of the subject. From a first person perspective it is also very frank and honest of his experiences. It is very well written but I struggle to say that I enjoyed it, rather I think that I learnt a lot about certain aspects of mental health and it’s treatment.

Watching

The Clint Eastwood boxset has been taking keeping us entertained again. We’ve watched Space Cowboys, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before and Firefox, which I’ve don’t think I’ve watched since it first came out. Neither were particularly taxing but were a couple of evenings entertainment.

I’ve been using Evernote since 2014. I use it both for my work, and also personally, it helps with content for these pieces too. I’ve been paying for the “Premium” package for several years. It renewed recently and then a few weeks later I got an email to say that my subscription was changing and that I was now going to be on the “Personal” package as a new tier of “Professional” had been introduced. Don’t worry it said nothing has changed your package content remains the same.

Now firstly Evernote has been getting a bit glitchy of late (well before this recent subscription change) but there were some changes being made to the apps and software so I wasn’t unduly worried. One of the things I liked about Evernote was the interchangeability between operating systems and desktop and mobile platforms, wherever or whatever device you were using your notes synced between devices seamlessly. This then stopped being quite so efficient. I noticed that notes that I’d save on say my phone, weren’t showing up on my desktop app and vice-versa. Also Evernote made a change that meant when you saved something on a mobile device you then had to open the Evernote app to sync. Before I could simply save something to Evernote from say a browser or other app and Evernote would do the syncing in the background. Evernote was becoming Evernot.

I’ve stuck with Evernote because I really liked it and because I have an enormous amount of information stored there, but after this recent subscription change I am thinking of finding something else. I don’t think there is any malice in the change so soon after my subscription renewed, that’s probably just coincidental timing, however as I pay upfront it looks likely that I won’t be able to get any of that subscription back if I do move. The question however is what to move to. There are a few choices (DevonThink, Obsidian, Omnifocus are ones that I’m aware of so far) and obviously I have some time to make that decision. If you have any others that you think I should look at then do leave a comment below.

Links

Notebooks – I read a piece on Alastair Humprhey’s blog that took me down a rabbit hole of a twitter feed about notebooks (I’ve posted this before but it keeps growing) and then on to another piece about artists / writers and their notebooks.

Inspector Morse voted No. 1 TV theme tune

Photos from ‘beyond the grave’: camera discovery reveals climber’s last images before fatal avalanche

Hilary Mantel: why I feel ashamed in England, and I will be an Irish citizen soon and European again

COVID-19 Long-Haulers Are Fighting for Their Future

FAA Grounds Virgin Galactic Spaceplanes Pending Investigation Into July 11 Flight

Ministers face showdowns on post-Brexit green bill weeks before Cop26

Well that’s it for this week. I’ve got some more sorting of stuff to do. Whatever you are up to this week, take care and stay safe.