| Sat 1 | It’s literary society subs time, so I spent half the day wrangling renewal payments. But why is it that to do job A, you first have to do H, and to finish that do T, and that means also first doing Q. By which time you’ve lost the thread of where you’d got to with A. It does my head, even when I’m running at full power, which is like never! |
| Sun 2 | Isn’t it great when you have a good day! I think I managed everything I set out to do, barring a couple of odd jobs. And wedged in a couple of things I’d not planned to do. With luck that’ll have freed me up some time tomorrow. |
| Mon 3 | A lovely sunny day which encouraged me to have a short while in the garden; mostly to feed the fish and fettle their filter. The hellebore now has about half a dozen flowers on it; there are little clumps of celandines and violets popping up and flowering everywhere; and a lot of things are beginning to wake up. |
| Tue 4 | It isn’t full moon for another two days – it looks so full this evening that I’m surprised we have to wait that long. But then I’m not a connoisseur of celestial moons, full or otherwise. Calliope on the other hand … |
| Wed 5 | Had a phone call this afternoon from one of our GP’s patient group members who doesn’t do online (by his own admission he’s not bright, severely dyslexic and over 80 – so why should he). I mail him our monthly newsletter and he calls me occasionally to keep in touch. He’s a lovely guy who always remains cheerful, but once you get him on the phone you can be there all day. Today I needed to be patient and listen as he obviously needed to talk. He’s been unwell and in and out of hospital over the month or so; and fighting with the District Nurses (lack of) organisation. Against that he had nothing but praise for the hospital medical staff and our GPs. |
| Thu 6 | It’s a long time since I facilitated (and took part in) a project definition workshop/kick-off meeting. But with a big project on the horizon for the literary society I got everyone to agree this was necessary. Having done the homework we achieved a lot in just over an hour. Now we need another meeting to properly define the requirements. |
| Fri 7 | ‘Tis the day when for some totally inexplicable reason the western world celebrates the murder 2000-ish years ago of a little known Galilean prophet by a paranoid, fascist Roman Provincial authority. Beats the living daylights out of my brain. Still we get a holiday out of it. |
| Sat 8 | An afternoon spent in the kitchen resulted in a large Pork Pie with proper hot water pastry; a mixed fruit galette (use up some fruit from the freezer!); and then for dinner pan-friend hot smoked scallops, with pan-fried asparagus and mushrooms, baguette, and champagne. |
| Sun 9 | Another lovely sunny day, before several days of predicted biblical rain. So we spent half an hour in the garden, much of it just sitting, when we were joined by the Rosie cat (the other two were sleeping hard on our bed!). It was surprisingly quiet apart from the occasional passing metal bird.  |
| Mon 10 | Well that was a British Standard Bank Holiday: peeing with rain and windy, but with a bit of sun too late in the day to do any good. |
| Tue 11 | You never know what you’ve got until you look. Somehow we’d built up a surfeit of tomatoes. Rather than let them go to waste we decided to make tomato soup. Having cooked down the tomatoes etc. it needed sieving to get the skins out. This turned out to be a tedious job, which would be better done with a centrifuge – which we don’t have. Do we really not have such an attachment for the (hardly ever used) food processor? Well there’s this centrifugal juicer. Will it work? Yes, sort of. It wasn’t brilliant or ideal, but better than the alternative slog. So we found a use for something we didn’t know we had, because we decided to excavate the back of the cupboard in desperation. |
| Wed 12 | Went for my annual diabetic eye screening this afternoon – the appointment which got screwed up a couple of weeks ago. Yet again I got away with not having to have my eyes dilated, which is a definite result: less invasive for me, saves time for the tester, and saves the NHS the cost of the drug. But in terms of Covid, people really have given up; of the about 40 people I saw while waiting (patients & staff; majority over 60) I think at most five were wearing masks. Afterwards I sat outside at the bus stop (sans mask, avec fresh air & drizzle) while my minicab arrived, whereupon I masked up again. |
| Thu 13 | Why is it that people who use Apple machines never seem to know how to make them work properly with things like Zoom? But then why can’t a large percentage of the population not get to grips with any computing? Answer: because they’re frightened of it. Many years ago (like late 80s/early 90s) at work (remember large IT company) one big location actually ran courses for IT illiterates (viz non-techies like secretaries & admin people) called “Computing for the Terrified”. Given the ubiquity of computing now, at least 50% of the whole population could do with that training. |
| Fri 14 | Yes, they’re extremely annoying, but I can’t properly function without them these days. |
| Sat 15 | Well I suppose it happened, but today has been a completely nothing day, despite a literary society online talk. |
| Sun 16 | The gardener decided not to come today. Which is a pity because it was a nice day. At last the pond fish are out and feeding eagerly. And there are all sorts wild flowers springing up in the lawn – which means it won’t be cut until July; treat it like a hayfield. |
| Mon 17 | It’s beginning to feel like Spring is here. Our small ornamental crab apple has been in flower for a week. The Ballerina crab apple is suddenly full of bright pink flowers. The young eating apples are just beginning to look like flowering. Suddenly today the silver birch catkins are beginning to open. The buds on the oak tree are just beginning to break. In the last two days we’ve had a couple of queen wasps find their way into the study, and out the fanlight again. We need a lot more of this! |
| Tue 18 | So today I finally got to go to audiology at the local hospital for a hearing test – well I’ve had my current hearing aids for 5 years and I think my hearing has deteriorated further in that time. But there’s no test as there’s too much wax in my ears. So soften the wax and go back in two weeks to have my ears vacuum cleaned; and then a test, we hope. It’s so seldom easy, and it’s a continual round of appointments. Yep, it’s called getting old! |
| Wed 19 | At last! The gardener cometh. Having been given some instruction as to what we want doing (or rather not doing) he spent a few hours tidying up, eating our lunch and cake, and having a good moan about the state of the world. |
| Thu 20 | Not just a good day, an excellent day. Lovely and sunny morning and early afternoon, but with a chilly northerly wind. Just after lunch, the first Holly Blue; and then the first Brimstone Butterfly ♀ which latter was fluttering around the Alder Buckthorn, despite it not yet being in leaf. So far so good, but then a first for me: a Hairy Footed Flower Bee (Anthophora plumipes) ♀ (all black) feeding on the newly opened lilac. Also a queen wasp or two around, quite a few small (probably solitary) bees, and lots of flies of various types. Which all bodes well for having the apples pollinated. |
| Fri 21 | Squirrels! Not one, not two, but four squirrels in the garden at lunchtime. No wonder the peanuts get emptied so fast from the bird feeders. But I like seeing them, and their acrobatics – as do the cats! |
| Sat 22 | Australian comedian Barry Humphries has died at the age of 89. The creator of the uncomfortable charicatures Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson he was extremely knowledgeable about literature and art, especially dadaism. He was an expert on the artist Charles Conder, an interest he shared with author Anthony Powell, whose work he also enjoyed. On several occasions we tried to get him to talk to the literary society, but he was elusive, especially as he always seemed to be touring. |
| Sun 23 | Today yet another stupid foot race through the streets of London. I wonder how many runners it’s managed to kill this year? [As at 26/04: only one that I’ve seen mentioned.] |
| Mon 24 | Flame red and yellow tulips! |
| Tue 25 | The gardener cometh, so nothing much got done. Just having him here is so disruptive; somehow one can never settle to doing anything which requires concentration. Which is quite mad really, because the Rosie Cat does any supervising required. |
| Wed 26 | I really must pot on some seedlings that are growing on the study windowsill. A few small chilli seedlings don’t seem to be growing much, but the lemons (from pips) and coleus are growing well. And the endive is going to need harvesting as a small portion of micro-greens. No sign of my lottery mix cacti yet though. |
| Thu 27 | A day of buggering around doing odd jobs, which is just as well as I slept badly. N’s study chair has finally given up after 30+ years, and mine (much younger) is aiming to join it, so spent some time looking for replacements. And a phone call with my GP to follow up on the vascular appointment of over a month ago; we agreed on conservative management – ie. do nothing for now. |
| Fri 28 | Well, no, today was actually Friday. At least that’s what they’re trying to convince me. |
| Sat 29 | So we had to bite the bullet and order new office chairs for both of us – but they’re horribly expensive. To make up for it we also ordered a large bouquet of flowers for next week. Well it’s only money! |
| Sun 30 | I was awake just before 04:00. Coming from outside there were 3 or 4 barks. Clearly not dog but fox. By the time I’d exited my warm bed and looked out the window there was, naturally, no sign of anything. However here’s a trail camera image from about 3 hours later of one of our local foxes investigating about 5 metres from the back door. |
Monthly Archives: April 2023
World Pinhole Photography Day
Today, the last Sunday in April, is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day. I wrote briefly about pinhole photography with this month’s self-portrait. But, of course, I had to have a go on the day itself – especially having made my own pinhole.
Unfortunately the results were less enthralling than I’d hoped, especially as I ran out of steam after bout half an hour. That, though is part of pinhole photography and also a penalty for making your own, imperfectly engineered, pinhole. Anyway here are the two best shots (slightly enhanced for exposure in post-processing).
[Home-made pinhole; 30 second exposure; ISO 200]
[Home-made pinhole; 10 second exposure; ISO 200]
I rather like this impressionist apple blossom.
While these are not top class pinhole photos, when I make up my mind I will probably submit one of these two images to the Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day Gallery.
Monthly Links
In keeping with everything springing back to life and growing we have a blossoming collection of links to items you may have missed this month.
Science, Technology, Natural World
First off, here’s a Twitter thread from astrophysicist and science communicator Katie Mack assessing future technology.
Looking the other way, at the consequences of the universe’s origins, there appear to be four possible types of multiverse.
Weirdly it seems that the majority of planets in the Galaxy are in orbit around stars we cannot see. [££££]
And to “homemade” stars … the first atomic bomb (the Trinity Test) created a “forbidden” quasicrystal.
Meanwhile some evolutionary innovations wait millions of years for their chance to shine. [LONG READ]
Wasps complicated social lives can illuminate the evolution of animal societies.
Palaeontologists have recently found the oldest bat skeleton on record.
At the other end of the accessible world scientists have spotted an unknown fish at a record depth of 8300 meters off Japan.
Talking of unknown life in unexpected places … oceanographers have found a massive river and cavern beneath a West Antarctic glacier which is teeming with life. [LONG READ]
Finally in this section of the unexpected, scientists are reporting that plants emit rapid bursts of ultra-sound when stressed – although it isn’t clear if this is an artefact of their structure or a “deliberate” act.
Health, Medicine
Here’s a review of Kate Clancy’s new book Period, which aims to change we understand menstruation.
Sexuality
According to a recent survey Britain is a lot sexier than thought.
In an unsurprising finding it seems sexual wellness and talking about sex helps us flourish.
All of which makes sense when you consider that someone, somewhere, thinks we all need to learn the dos and don’ts of kissing.
Social Sciences, Business, Law
So are coincidences real, or are they merely us spotting patterns which should be expected? [LONG READ]
Art, Literature, Language, Music
Researchers have looked at the science underlying why some Renaissance artists used egg in their oil paints.
History, Archaeology, Anthropology
Let’s start this long section of history with the Ancient Egyptians … They seem to have been creating automata 4000 years ago.
Also in Ancient Egypt, archaeologists have found a collection of severed hands and suspect it is evidence of trophy-taking.
Across the globe in Mexico archaeologists have found what they believe is a scoreboard for the ancient Mayan ball game pelota (above).
Iceni Queen Boudicca who led a revolt against the Romans is enjoying a resurgence as a symbol of rebellion and a feminist icon.
New dendrochronology shows the Vikings really did live in Newfoundland around 1021, but we don’t know how long for.
A building archaeologist asks “what is a castle?“. [LONG READ]
In a surprise twist Pink Floyd have inspired research into medieval monks and volcanology.
Going Medieval takes a look at nobility, courtship, moral justification, and sexy tapestries. [LONG READ]
In another round of medieval myth-busting our building archaeologist looks at why the historic records may not tell you the date of your house. [LONG READ]
Etchings of the Coronation of Charles II in 1661 by Wenceslaus Hollar have been found hidden in the back of a cupboard.
Temple Bar was once an historic boundary to the City of London – and the site still is. [LONG READ]
They’re digging underneath the Palace of Westminster, and one recent discovery is an 18th-century fish token gaming counter.
London
Over 300 old London street signs are up for auction next month (18 May).
Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs
In a break with tradition, King Charles will use a new coach for the Coronation procession to Westminster Abbey – and it has electric windows and air con.
Some people absolutely cannot abide being in the same room as some of their hated foods.
People
And finally, the 40-year mystery of three abandoned children and two missing parents.
Monthly Quotes
So here we go with this month’s assemblage of quotes which have caught my eye recently. And it’s lots of soundbites in this collection.
Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
[Khalil Gibran]
Money can’t buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery.
[Spike Milligan]
[Death is] not a beginning, it’s the real end, there will be nothing afterwards, nothing. I feel you must look truth right in the eyes … To deny death and its power is useless. Deny it or not, you’ll die anyway … It’s stupid to protest against death as such, but you can and must protest against violent death. It’s bad when people die before their time from disease or poverty, but it’s worse when a man is killed by another man.
[Dmitri Shostakovich]
Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.
[Eleanor Roosevelt]
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so uneducated people won’t be offended.
[unknown]
We’ll go down in history as the first society that wouldn’t save itself because it wasn’t cost-effective.
[Kurt Vonnegut, American writer and novelist (1922-2007)]
Science is what we understand well enough to explain to a computer; art is everything else.
[Donald E Knuth]
Our society, in which reigns an eager desire for riches and luxury, does not understand the value of science. It does not realize that science is a most precious part of its moral patrimony. Nor does it take sufficient cognizance of the fact that science is at the base of all the progress that lightens the burden of life and lessens its suffering.
[Marie Skłodowska-Curie]
The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. We are so insignificant that I can’t believe the whole universe exists for our benefit. That would be like saying that you would disappear if I closed my eyes.
[Stephen Hawking]
The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.
[BF Skinner]
Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.
[Eric Hoffer, The Temper of Our Time]
However much you deny the truth, the truth goes on existing.
[George Orwell]
There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don’t come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.
[Isaac Asimov]
Don’t worry about siding for or against the majority. Worry about taking up any of their irrational beliefs.
[Marcus Aurelius]
Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
[Douglas Adams]
Never confuse education with intelligence. You can have a PhD and still be an idiot.
[Richard Feynman]
Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.
[Sigmund Freud]
Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.
[Margaret Mead]
Open-minded people do not care to be right, they care to understand. There is never a right or wrong answer. Everything is about understanding.
[unknown]
What man does not understand, he fears; and what he fears, he tends to destroy.
[WB Yeats]
Those who will not reason, are bigots; those who cannot, are fools; and those who dare not, are slaves.
[Lord Byron]
God is a mathematician of a very high order. He used advanced mathematics in constructing the universe.
[Paul Dirac; theoretical physicist; 1902-1984]
Life’s tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
[Benjamin Franklin]
I don’t believe the universe contains supernatural forces, but I feel it might. This is because the human mind has fundamentally irrational elements. I’d go so far as to say that magical thinking forms the basis of selfhood.
[Paul Broks, “Are Coincidences Real?”, at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/13/are-coincidences-real]
April Quiz Answers
Here are the answers to this month’s five quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.
April Quiz Questions: American History
- During the Salem witch trials, how many of the accused were burned alive? None; most were hanged, some died in jail.
- Who first got off the ground using controlled motor power in 1903? Wright Brothers
- For what is Button Gwinnet renowned? Signing the Declaration of Independence
- How and when did Alaska become a part of the United States? In 1867 it was sold to the Americans by Russia
- Which was the last state to move its state capital? Oklahoma; in 1910 the state capital moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2022.
On this Day in 1923
Our monthly look at what happened 100 years ago.
On this day, 15 April 1923 …
Self-Portrait, April
So here’s this month’s self-portrait. I took this using a pinhole “lens” I made for my Canon dSLR. I actually made three pinholes, which came out slightly different sizes – it’s quite hard to get a really tiny hole. This is the best of them as it is the smallest aperture. This was a 30 second exposure with a fairly slow film speed setting of ISO 200.
[Click the image for a larger view]
Anyone who wants to try making their own pinhole, I followed this article on wikiHow. It isn’t difficult; if my ten left thumbs can do it then anyone can!
Culinary Adventures #98: Pork Pie
It seems to be tradition in this house to make a huge terrine at Easter, see inter alia my post from 2014. However this year we decided to be different and do a large home-made pork pie instead – and yes, do it properly with hot water pastry.
I’ve not done hot water pastry before, but N has and so did my mother occasionally, so I knew the basic idea. This is the traditional pastry for pork pie. It isn’t difficult and is actually quite forgiving. To be absolutely traditional it is made with lard; while that produces a good flavour it isn’t wonderfully healthy. It turns out that butter (which is just a bit healthier) works OK too, although it does make a slightly softer pastry.
Anyway this is what I did …
Ingredients for the Pastry [1]
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Ingredients for the Filling [3]
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What to do …
- Make the filling first!
- Cut the bacon into 5mm squares (do not remove the fat) and add to a large mixing bowl.
- Similarly cut the pork fillet into roughly 5mm dice and add to the bacon.
- Skin the sausages and add them with the mince to the pork.
- Add the herbs, a good grind of black pepper, and then another, and the same with nutmeg.
- Get in there with your hands and mix it all well. Set aside.
- Heat the oven to 205°C. While it heats up make the pastry.
- Grease well, and/or line with parchment, an 8″ cake tin.
- Put the flour in another large mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.
- Gently melt the butter and water together in a saucepan.
- When the butter is all melted add this to the well in the flour and mix it together with a wooden spoon – it will be hot!
- When it is almost mixed, and has cooled a little, finish mixing the pastry with your hands. You should have a soft dough.
- Reserve about a third of the pastry to make the pie lid.
- Roll out the larger portion and line the cake tin; let the excess pastry flap over the edge.
- If the pastry splits, don’t panic; just use a few of the extra bits from the edges to patch the holes – it’s fine; this is how hot water pastry is so forgiving.
- Add the filling to the pie case and pack it down well.
- Roll out the lid; dampen the edges of the pastry case with beaten egg; put on the lid and press firmly onto the case using your fingers to make a pretty scalloped edge.
- Trim the edges and use the offcuts to make decorations for the lid.
- Don’t forget to cut a hole in the centre of the lid, in case you want to fill the cooked pie with jelly. [5]
- Glaze with beaten egg. Place the tin on a baking sheet.
- Cook for 30 minutes at 205°C, then turn the oven down to 165°C and cook for a further 1½-2 hours until the juices run clear on application of a skewer. (If you’re a meat thermometer fan then you need to get the centre to at least 70°C.)
- Leave the pie to cool, preferably overnight in the fridge, before removing from the tin.
Notes
[1] This should make plenty of pastry for a round 8″ (20cm) cake tin (preferably one with a removable base).
[2] Note the omission of salt as we used salted butter; add a tiny amount if you’re using unsalted butter. Similarly with the filling, the bacon may well be salt enough.
[3] No this is not too much for an 8″ cake tin; it packs down surprisingly well, which you want.
[4] Or any other good, flavoursome, pork meat like shoulder.
[5] If you wish to fill the pie with the traditional jelly, you need to do it as soon as it comes out of the oven. Use a funnel to carefully pour hot jelly into the hole in the pie lid. I didn’t bother, so I’ll leave you to work out how to make a suitable pork jelly.
[6] Having done all of that I felt that the filling needed a bit more seasoning. I note that Jane Grigson in Good Things adds teaspoon quantities of spice (cinnamon, allspice) to her filling in addition to the nutmeg. Or you might want to add a little salt. Or perhaps some garlic paste. Or a layer of sharp apple (like Bramley) in the centre of the filling.
Ten Things: April
This year our Ten Things column each month is concentrating on science and scientists.
Where a group is described as “great” or “important” this is not intended to imply these necessarily the greatest or most important, but only that they are up there amongst the top flight.
Earth Science Discoveries
- Internal structure of Earth
- Continental Drift
- Seafloor Spreading
- Plate Tectonics
- Troposphere and Stratosphere
- Magnetic Field Reversal
- Dating using radioactivity
- Seismology
- Super volcanos
- The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary marking the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs
Quote of the Month
If you have a garden and a library you have everything you need.
[Cicero]