Please forgive my excitement but I have been for a ride in a motor car… for the first time in eight years.

I always start with the same three words:

😡

Another stormy weekend another tree down 😔.

Meanwhile back in 1999:

Alas WaybackMachine does not have the “Movie experiments” which apparently included “Duncan’s Dance Studio” 🤷‍♂️

Guy Fawkes Night? Does anyone in the UK use this name for the 5th? In 70 years living in numerous places I have never known it as anything other than Bonfire Night.

One of my September photos was of a sunrise over Colwyn Bay. In the box of photos from the 1980s there are several such sunrises. Here is a combination of three showing the movement of the sun rises across the bay through the year. From spring time on the right to winter on the left.

Saturday morning’s golden sourdough treasure - sorry you are missing out on the smell 🤤

The weather in the UK can be so changeable that there is often a stark contrast between what a weather app thinks is happening and what is actually happening.

After the first few months of retirement I was aware that I was not using many muscles and was starting to fade away. So I purchased these weights for me to swing around to help slow the decline - but I would hesitate to call it a workout.

Embracing my daughter in 1989 after she decided we would both look better with a bit of make-up. Fortunately she has since embraced a career in publishing rather than as a make-up artist.

This box of photographs from the 1980s I found recently has been very useful 😁

That was an excellent beverage - but is now an ex-beverage:

In the early 1980s we lived on the seafront (apparently beachfront for American readers) at Colwyn Bay and enjoyed many splendid sunrises.

My old belt is over 50 years old. Originally purchased in Suters in Slough in 1968/69. A couple of years ago Martine cut off a broken section, glued the buckle end back together and started wearing it but it has been neglected lately.

After she finishes work Martine comes around for the weekend. So I have a tidy up and take the rubbish and recycling out to the bins. Then bake some bread and cook some dinner. Anything else would be a lie as I loathe the noisy busyness of weekends and never venture out.

The road to recovery. Are we nearly there yet?

A photo of a photo of me at Aber Falls waterfall sometime in the 1980s.

It is surprising how much disruption can be caused by a cupboard door falling off.

Edge(s):

The crumpled fabric of my dreams.

The aroma from the Basil plant can be quite intense at times.

Oof! The sound of dough being tipped from the mixer and left to rest a while.

The 500 day streak on Knotwords today was a Red letter day for me. Alas a false start sent me in the wrong direction which doubled my time.

As most of my emails seem to say these days… One day only! Two for the price of one: On the way to take a picture of the Lincoln commemoration this morning I passed the Emmeline Pankhurst one.

In Manchester in England is a statue of Abraham Lincoln from the same casting as the one in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was given to Manchester in 1919 to commemorate the hardship endured by workers in the 1860s who refused to handle cotton from southern states of America; for which Lincoln thanked them.

The morning sun leaves the leaves glowing:

Don’t panic - it is all under control:

In retrospect the new roof was a good idea.

The Tour of Britain cycle race started up here last Sunday and finishes down there today but I find it is easier done from the sofa.

The language of the French flour packs can be reduced to the T65 and T80 etc.

Late summer in the city. Walking home - which is way over yonder on the other side of the Mersey.

My son sent me his panorama of St Michael’s Mount at low tide, when you can walk across, after his recent visit to my sister - everyone’s favourite aunt during the summer.

I think the reason I took the panorama from Stow was to try to make something like:

Which is a lot easier to do today than it was 20+ year ago.

Well. Some 20 years ago we lived in Stow-On-The-Wold. This is a panorama (Yes - I know that’s tomorrow.) looking east from Stow towards Oxfordshire. If you turn right and walk to the end of the path you will find the old Well. Older residents could recall when it was still the main water supply.

The small coffee plant I was given for my birthday has proved to be quite prolific and is rapidly becoming a forest.

To the casual observer my tape measure appears to be orange but as soon as I need to measure anything it becomes invisible.

Listen. Sunday morning silence from my bedroom window in a city. For an introvert such moments of quiet solitude are precious.

Today’s sourdough experiment needs a few more stretch and folds and then left overnight to build-up (I could not bring myself to make it one word 🤷‍♂️) the yummy goodness (I think that is the technical term for it).

At nearly 70 years old here I am, at 1:23 a.m., making abstract patterns of flashing lights which the computer turns into sounds.

Seeing this today reminded me of a visit to Buxton (in 2017 apparently) where we encountered this:

I guess I am at the end of the road with Wordpress/Jetpack. This stuff used to be fun but it is increasingly becoming a pain.

It says you need to activate it. It asks for your licence key. You provide your licence key. It informs you that it is already activated and gives you an Activate button. 🤷‍♂️

Happy Bank Holiday Scotland! The delightful sharing of Grandad’s diaries reminded me that in the summers of my youth England had the first Monday in August as a holiday too. Apparently we switched in 1971 to the last Monday. Perhaps they moved it to avoid the traditional Bank Holiday bad weather. 😂

Friday night is sourdough pizza night 😋

Delightful synchronicity after admiring the early 1970’s Computer Controlled Display in the repeat of The Ascent of Man

I happened upon the Cathode app on an old disc. Alas it is no longer available or supported but still works on an M2 Pro Mac and looks great in full screen on a Studio Display.

May I reassure cricket fans around the world that it does not always rain in Manchester as today’s view from the roof window can confirm.

Typical! 🤷‍♂️

If you are struggling with the July 1st Knotwords you are not alone.

The Mini has KHAKI and MATTE backwards and the Classic and Twist are all over the place with random letters and gaps. 😟 Hoping for a rapid fix or my streak and weekend will be ruined.

update: later the faulty puzzles were replaced with functioning ones.

The siege of the roofers is over. But is it roofing or art? 🤔

It may be pushing my M2 Pro over 50% but 1000 oscillators droning away is worth it.

I guess my weekend will be spent making oodles of MIDI knobs on the iPad for the tweaking.

This would have been an excellent picture of an elegant heron - if only it had stood still for a moment longer.

Random play has just thrown up Mumford’s Four Dances for Boris. Seemed apt.

And then it threw up Machine Woman. Seemed apt.

Machine Woman’s “Have you been to Salford shopping centre, have you seen Argos?” is right up there amongst the best song titles ever.

Sign of the day:

😂

Alas nominee Knotwords was not a winner in Apple’s Design Awards. It gets my vote having accompanied my morning coffee for over a year. The grid expands daily - a quickie on a Monday but thirty minutes or more on a Sunday. If Wordle is your kind of thing Knotwords may well suit you too.

Today I will be learning to say “Roof Window” in multiple languages:

I am always surprised by the low survival rate of birds. Zero surviving ducklings and just a single gosling at the local pond today. At the osprey nest one egg was lost during an owl attack. One egg hatched so far. My partner wrote about the blue tits nesting in my wall but expectations are low.

First day done…

At last! It is actually happening!

Behold!

The first sourdough loaf of the year.

Ahhhhh! It’s alive! 😱

The start of the sourdough season:

My home is never warm enough to sustain a sourdough starter during the winter but it will start bubbling away once the temperature starts to rise.

The Sharp Computer Users Newsletter December 1982:

If you look up Frustration in the dictionary it will probably mention using FORTH on a system using cassette tapes for storage 🤬.

My first and (probably) my last computers

It would appear that my box of wires has now expanded to five boxes.

Perhaps it is time to let the RS–232 and the SCSI ones go. Although there are some interesting looking widgets and dongles - I wonder what they do 🤷‍♂️

Pleased to see the ospreys are back from warmer climes to a still snow capped Scotland.

Need to investigate what happens to the young from last year.

Our local spring lookout guy was checking for blue sky, sunshine and blossom before he could call it.

For some years my son, daughter and myself have adopted the practice of sharing a picture of our feet to mark the start of a new season of Taskmaster…

…all present and correct.

Apparently the bread knife can also be used as a mirror.

The bread knife and board are ready to slice into today’s freshly baked loaf.

Whilst desperately trying to resist the obvious image I pondered why, in the AI enhanced twenty first century, I still receive a prompt to pay nothing at all 🤷‍♂️

Perhaps we will manage a trip to Edinburgh in August and support The Fringe - which is always a fun trip to take.

My top floor flat came with its own instrument. The landlord assured me that the old upright piano had to stay as they were not going to lug it down all those stairs. The old Oxygen8 on the left is not MIDI compliant but the addition of a MIDI Bluetooth adapter means it can still function today.

My weekly trip to Unicorn will invariably result in me standing in front of their spice section or some other display of wholesome goodies with the thought… “I really should have made a list”.

Worryingly there has been no sign of the foxes returning to their den at the end of the wild patch we like to call the garden. They would usually court one another during January and February producing cubs in April or May before the family all move on by July.

Good chance of more rain later….

…and by later I mean about two minutes later leaving me soaked.

An insect on a petal - taken at Dunham Massey a couple of years ago.

The tiny lardons can add a lot to a meal.

The ivy houseplant plant, which I had rescued from the bins - it having been abandoned by a neighbour moving out, was the sole survivor in my south facing window during the extreme heat (by UK standards) last summer; the others having scorched beyond salvation.

With my record collection reduced from several thousands to three the old dusty and rusty Thorens analogue (or analog 🤷‍♂️) turntable just gathers dust today.

I do not miss the limited storage capacity, sound compressed and mangled, easily damaged, difficult to store and heavy to transport vinyl days.

The original Portico Quartet was far more interesting than the later Portico incarnation as a trio.

There is not much to see from the bedroom window early in the morning…

…but there is plenty to hear.

The canal system was once seen as vital but was eventually replaced by rail and road networks.

Not sure if I have ever mentioned the roof here but yesterday my landlord informed me that we will have a new roof by the end of May - having lived with a leaky one for some years. Patience is all it took.

Living in a mostly flat city there is no opportunity to see a true horizon. But visiting family in Cornwall provides plenty of splendid horizons.

The view from a grubby window at the Tate but look at that lovely new roof 😒

Moving here five years ago required a guy to brave the Artic conditions to make my connection.

I have been grateful for his efforts every day since.

After sitting in the desk drawer for a whole year (because sometimes a chap forgets these things) the shiny anniversary card was unveiled today.

Building a collection of freebie dough scrapers from the good people at Bakery Bits…

…which may or may not qualify as a gimcrack but I have no idea what that is and the dictionary was not much help 🤷‍♂️

The daily morning ritual

[@thedimpause](https://micro.blog/thedimpause) The no need to know Vaughan Williams portrait is from the Howard Coster collection at the National Portrait Gallery. The original is dated 1938 but there were printings in the 1940s and 50s. Given the 1945 date it may relate to the Carols which were commissioned by The British Council.

Today’s loaves had bonded together.

There was a time when less than four miles an hour was considered a stroll not a walk but I am edging towards seventy so 🤷‍♂️

Screenshot from the excellent Pedometer++ app although I do use myTracks or Footpath for longer excursions.

With a wry smile of satisfaction the whole first week of random word prompts was completed tied to a single picture…

….Beat that AI content creator.

It will take some serious engineering to fully restore the roof.

It will take more than a new tile or two to fix the roof

Perhaps some zip ties could help secure the gutters.

Solitude: A lone bird amongst the bare branches.

The old roof had long endured the English weather…

…but it was now failing to provide adequate protection.

mbmar

I suspect the guttering could be more secure…

…and don’t even look at the roof 🫣

I tell people that I only spend £10 a year on my phone but that turns out to be a lie as, one year on from adding a tenner, I am still £4.34 in credit.

I guess I am not a telephone kind of guy.

Hmmmm 🤔

It is at least two years (probably three) since I last rode the bike so whilst the sun shines let’s pump up the tyres, splash some oil and take it for a spin.

Phew! That got the aged heart pumping.

Even with the new extended Knot Words timing option it is a rare treat to actually improve on a time.

Finished reading the Seabright (it’s mostly pictures ;-) but disappointingly none of them seem to have the picture of my mother at school in the 1920s so the search for that continues.

Daring Fireball: Making Our Hearts Sing:

On mobile, the cultural differences are as polarized and clearly delineated as the politics of our national affairs.

In my informal, unscientific and statistically meaningless survey at the time of Brexit Android users would be Leave voters whilst iOS users would be Remain voters.

The perpetual building site that is Manchester these days. The Hilton Tower was the tallest in Manchester…

…until the South Tower arrived.

The Snowdrops always tease us hinting that Spring is just around the corner when it is usually still some way off.

Also very true for retirement 😁

via: This isn’t happiness

and a me too for Jack’s post …but without the pets ….or reading a book.

Escape (befrore the re-freeze tonight)

Just watched The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz which I had never seen but it was time well spent and raises many questions.

Waiting.

New year ✅

New Computer ✅

New Micro-Blog name ✅

New version of Mars Edit ✅

Set up a Micro-Blog account ✅

Figure out the domain mapping thing ❎