15 April 2026
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This month’s picture features a pigeon perched on the door-runner guard on the polytunnel and you can also see the new fence down the right hand side. Reviewing the whole album of photos, I can see that this year follows the typical pattern of the March to April transition bringing a substantial greening up – many plants that were bare or at best barely budding last month have their little solar energy collectors unfurled to take advantage of the lengthening days and rising temperatures.
14 April 2026
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This evening our training band conductor was unable to make it so I stepped in. I’ll be doing the same next week as well so I decided an upgrade was in order for the stick I’ve been using as a baton. It was really nothing more than a thick splinter of wood with black tape round the handle and white tape along the rest of it. I’m still using it but I’ve now designed and printed a curved base to give a better grip and it did an decent job in its first test tonight.
To get the shape, I sketched out my idea on paper, created a curved profile of one half using Inkscape (allowing a mixture of measurement and moving things by eye) and then did a “rotate extrude” in OpenSCAD to create my model for 3D printing. Originally I’d planned to drop some waste plastic inside the handle to add a bit of extra weight (and dispose of it in a helpful way) but I ended up needing to get the print done quickly. I’ll have to find another use for my plastic waste but I think the feel of the finished piece is quite successful.
All I need to do now is work on my conducting skills!
13 April 2026
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In the last couple of days, Jane and I have taken up fencing… and replaced it with new fencing. The boundary fence between us and next door was getting fairly dilapidated so we finally got round to replacing it. Originally we’d planned to do the job during winter but the first part of this year was so wet we had to delay a bit. Extra foliage made it a little harder but I think we’ve done a decent job.
The next job to finish is taking apart the old fence panels, salvaging any decent wood and disposing of the rest. Meanwhile, I can definitely feel the work out in my shoulders – there is a lot of lifting and carrying involved. At least we’ve got concrete fence posts, which made the job easier than if we’d also had to replace rotted wooden posts… apart from the last one which is set just a little too wide and need a bit of engineering with some of the wood I’ve recovered so far in order to fit the panel firmly in the gap.
12 April 2026
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Today I was speaking at Hathern Baptist Church on Acts 1:1-11, the start of Luke’s second contribution to the New Testament. This portion doesn’t take the story any further forward than the end of of Luke 24 but it does give some more details. He is writing to the same person (Theophilus) but a little later, so it makes sense to link back to the previous work. In some ways you could see the first few verses as recapitulating the entire gospel, reminding us of both its beginning and end.
I’d started my talk by sharing some reminiscences of my journey down the Camino de Santiago, a 100 mile pilgrimage walk Jane and I did in 2005. I kept it brief but one of the memories I shared was of finding this old, rugged cross on the hill above our starting point, the village of O Cebreiro. However, what I kept back until later in the talk was that this particular photo wasn’t taken on that journey but when I returned the following year to repeat the walk with Magnus.
That was my illustration of how it can be a benefit to revisit things – you might pick up something you missed the first time around. The same, I argued, is true with the Bible. Even through we are now in the second part of our “Luke-Acts” series, there is value in keeping a finger back in Luke’s gospel. For example, since preaching on the parable of “The Good Samaritan” at HBC last month (Luke 10), I happened to read Luke 9 and spotted that Jesus and his followers were denied hospitality by a Samaritan village.
The fact that Jesus picked a Samaritan as the hero of his story not long after adds an extra resonance beyond the normal observation that the person he was speaking to (and probably a good number of Judean Jews of the time) would have found the idea shocking. Jesus had himself been treated in a way that would have reinforced those stereotypes but chose to depict that group in a way that cut against that prejudice. That’s an example of why Jesus is a leader worth following and why I find it so wonderful that the Acts passage tells us that the same Jesus is coming back again.
11 April 2026
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It has been over six months since my last batch of beer brewing. Although autumn / winter / spring is better for my process (I can heat a colder batch but can’t cool a warmer one), I’ve had a bit of a busy patch. However, I fired up the burners yesterday for my mash and got Spring Blossom underway. It is based on Graham Wheeler’s recipe for Flowers IPA and, apart from reducing the volume to fit my kit, I’m fairly close to the original with this one.
It has come out with a gravity of 1.034 (target was 1.035, so close enough given the precision of my measuring equipment). However, having said that I can heat a batch that is a bit cold, I’m flying blind on this one. Germinating seeds and creating a temperature controlled environment for ones that like it hot is occupying my heating set up so I’m just going to take a chance on this one – I’ll be interested to see how it turns out.
10 April 2026
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If only it was possible to say for sure whether there will be any frosts before we get to the summer! We’re now starting to build up quite a queue of small plants and, with several more due to be started soon, I think I’m going to have to take my chances with one or two of the existing batches, getting the ones we’ve been hardening off into the ground either at the allotment or in the back garden.
9 April 2026
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On Saturday, I’ve got my next performance with the Loughborough University Choir. This one is a half-hour contribution to the World Parkinson’s Day event being held at Loughborough Town Hall (we’re in the starting slot at 2pm and music continues all afternoon). We’ll be dressed in our regular uniform of black bottoms, white tops and purple scarves / cravats and we’ll have our music neatly held in black folders. Except I have all my music on my iPad rather than on paper…
Previously, I’ve held my iPad either behind a folder (cumbersome) or a sheet of black card (reasonable but it can quickly become dog eared). For this one, I am going to experiment with a 3D printed solution, creating a box in black PLA to hold the tablet, large enough to take the tablet in its regular protective case. However, since the print bed is smaller than the iPad, it becomes a little more complex to get a sufficiently large container.
Version 1 involves printing the box in four segments along with some joining strips that run along channels on the inside and cross the gap. Glued together, it works and feels reasonably secure, although I may end up lining the inside with gaffa tape. Already though, I’m drawing up a list of ideas for version 2. The walls seem sturdy enough at 3mm but the connectors (2mm) feel too flimsy. I could make the base thicker or I could just let the connectors sit a bit proud of the surface. Maybe I should print a grid, based on bars 3mm deep and 6mm wide, which can be glued partially into the base as it doesn’t matter if the iPad sits a bit higher. In fact, a bit of height might be an advantage as I can’t reach the buttons on the side! Cutaways are probably the solution for that, as found on iPad cases. Work in progress but I think I’ll have it together for Saturday.
8 April 2026
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I first came across the concept of natural burial grounds when my father passed away several years ago. It seemed like an excellent resting place and is a decision the family remains happy with. We were at another today in Leicestershire where someone we met last summer was laid to rest (his wife is an active member of some of the bands I am in and brought him on the Belgian tour Jane and I went on).
Typically, an “NBG” is in a quiet rural location and the remains are marked not with blocks of masonry but with trees or shrubs. Over time, it creates a mixed woodland – the one my father is laid in has a limited range of native tree species available so it will be a very natural appearing area. In addition it is a good way to ensure that patches of green land remain – a developer won’t be able to put a housing estate on top for a very long time and would probably not care to put one nearby. After all, if they can’t even bring themselves to put the number 13 on front doors any more, they are probably going to baulk at trying to sell plots with very quiet neighbours!
I’m not too precious about what happens to my body after I die. My hope is to be raised again to eternal life where I’ll stand alongside those who have died and been martyred in all sorts of horrendously destructive ways. Therefore, I don’t think it matters too much what kind of earthly remnants are left behind. However, if for a few years anyone does want to visit the site, an NBG would be a pleasant location for them and the thought of safeguarding some space for nature for a century or two appeals as well so, if there is a choice, a plot like that and a suitable native tree on top of me will do the job well.
7 April 2026
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Komatsuna, also known as ‘mustard spinach’ or (more technically) Brassica rapa var. perviridis, is one of the new seeds I got in my recent order with the Real Seed Company. It should produce edible greens that can be grown across a long season and eaten either when small or left to put on some size. The other seeds I bought either need a few more weeks before sowing or a few more days until I’ve finished using my heated propagation set up to get tomatoes going but I was able to sow a couple of rows of Komatsuna in the polytunnel this lunchtime and I’ll probably try it at the allotment soon as well.
If I like it, I’ll let some go to seed – one of the benefits of the Real Seed Company is that they breed their source plants to produce viable seed and encourage you to save it and use it yourself (nothing like the F1 hybrids that won’t produce reliable offspring or the ones that are even labelled as illegal to propagate). Hurrah!
6 April 2026
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After lots of iterations, we still haven’t got supplying water to the butt at the far end of the garden working well. The pipe overflow that ensures any excess rainwater gets to the canal without slowly draining all the way through the garden and my diverter can reduce the rate at which the first water butts get fed but I think the run is too long for a regular hosepipe and the far one wasn’t getting filled even in the wet months earlier this year.
Today we implemented a more radical solution and shifted that large butt up next to the polytunnel near the other ones. We’ve still got figure out how we are going to link the two together but the job should be a lot easier now that there is about a 50cm gap rather than a 15m one between them.