Status:
I had a thought about managing the compost at the allotment so sent it to my sister who suggested we meet up there and have a chat. Which turned into actioning the plan and emptying one full bay into another. Lucy did most of the work but I couldn’t help getting a bit involved (this was my big passion pre-CFS!) and we’ll see if I overdid it or managed it well.
The compost it looking good considering it’s missing a lot of the food inputs I used to get from friends and Loaf so is mainly rabbit poop and hay alongside the usual allotment detritus. Some patches at the bottom were a bit anaerobic and stinky but that’s to be expected.
I’ve been thinking about trying to do some longer-form writing and how I might make that work alongside this blog. Looking back at the early efforts it’s grown a lot so can certainly be pruned back, and I might go to 3 times a week, using the time I’m habitually writing to focus on something else. Will see.
Reading:
- Half of Europe’s towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago — These maps are quite eye-opening, especially in Spain. At the bottom is a zoomable map and you can get right down to local districts.
- Eye on Moseley’s local election hustings – 2026 — It’s no exaggeration to say that this is likely to be one of the most consequential Council elections that Birmingham has seen in over 20 years. As a result, you’d expect no holding back as candidates play for what is the highest-stakes game in local government, control of one of the largest local authorities in Europe. If this is what you are expecting, please manage your disappointment now.
- James Bridle’s introduction to anarchism — in response to a Guardian journalist that got confused about how mutual aid works.
- Is this thing on? — My chum Matt has started blogging again after a year off.
- Firefox’s new boss has a very old-school plan: ‘build a better browser’ — Firefox is my browser of choice (well, to be honest I have so many plugins running switching would be a massive ball ache) and I mostly come across people moaning about parent company Mozilla in my feeds, so while this is totally a PR hype piece it’s good to read about what they think they’re doing.
- You’re about to feel the AI money squeeze — Whenever I read about someone doing something amazing with a commercial AI service (like this, for example) I do wonder how much it would cost if they actually charged properly. It seems we’re soon to find out.
Watching:
- Prince & 3RDEYEGIRL - Lets Go Crazy (6:25) — Live in Manchester, 2014
- Torbjörn Åhman blacksmithing - making BIG industrial tongs (22:05) — Bonus giant-chainmaking factory at the end.
- XOXO archive — All the videos and associated gubbins from the self-described “experimental festival for independent artists and creators from the internet”.
Listening:
- Adam Buxton podcast ep.269 - Jamie Hewlett & Damon Albarn AKA Gorillaz — Listened mainly for Hewlett who I sort-of met (in that he signed my comics) back in the Deadline days when I was a spoddy teen and he can’t have been more than 20, but haven’t really kept up with since the 90s. Nice to get a hint of how he and Albarn co-author the Gorillaz albums.
Researching:
- Did some digging into the plug-in solar plans for the UK. British Gas (irony alert) have a good guide to what’s coming and what it means for homes, this is the government press release, and this is a mercifully short video by a calm man explaining how it works.