The three bay composting structure at RSPB Sandwell Valley, built to my design, but by someone who normally builds bird watching hides, so significantly improved!
Status:
Did some compost training today at the RSPB site in Sandwell Valley, because this is what I do sometimes. It went very well - I like talking about my special interest! Fi came along to support and I had assistance from the person who hired me, so the stress levels were low, but this evening I’m knackered even though I was only really “on” for about 90 minutes.
Tomorrow will be a write-off – I can already feel the hard-to-describe fuzziness in my brain. Hopefully I won’t be too grumpy. But it was worth it. For a short period of time today I was a useful person, good at the job asked of me.
Overnight listening:
Music:
- Dream Time: Synthesised sounds… with Zakia - a special edition of my favourite Radio 6 show, celebrating the centenary of Daphne Oram, the first full-time electronic music composer in Britain, cofounder of the BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop, and the inventor of her own synthesiser. Loads of really fun and weird music including Sister Irene O’Connor’s Mass which I don’t think I’d heard since the Incredible Strange Music or 365 days eras.
Reading:
- Here’s how much money Los Camp! make from streaming… - I use Apple Music for my streaming mostly out of convenience (though I may return to mp3s next year, we’ll see) but it’s nice to see they don’t pay artists as badly as Spotify.
- TIL: Button cell battery names are actually codes include the chemistry, shape, diameter and thickness. e,g, CR2032 is C lithium, R round, 20mm diameter, 3.2mm thick
- Is Gen X Actually the Greatest Generation? - went into this sighing like a disinterested slacker but found the whole thing a rather enjoyable read.
- Thank God for Bluesky - I enjoy Ian Dunt’s writing and podcasting even though I don’t always agree with him (always read people you don’t always agree with, btw) but I must raise an eyebrow at calling out people who still use the Nazi-bar-that-was-Twitter when your newsletter is on Substack and your paid journalism gig is the i Newspaper owned by the Daily Mail. (No criticism for using the platforms available but have some self awareness man!)