14 October 2024
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En-choir-ing minds

Week 3 with the Loughborough University Choir tonight. There is still plenty of work to be done but we’ve covered a good proportion of the repertoire for the Christmas concert and some sections are beginning to firm up.

This is the largest choir I’ve sung in and the new aspect for me is that each voice (soprano, alto, tenor and bass) is split into two subsections. I’ve opted for bass 1 so, although I am singing the same part as all the other basses most of the time, I take the “high road” when that line splits in two, which is an extra thing to pay attention to. Good exercise for both the voice and the mind.

13 October 2024
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One for the worshippers

Did you attend, or contribute to or even lead a worship service this morning? How was it and how was your part in it. For example, if you played an instrument, did you get all the right notes in the right order at the right times or did you drop a few clangers? Gathering for Christian worship should be a delight but it is easy to feel that it fell short, either because of mistakes you made or how you responded to what others brought with less than amazing grace.

This weekend, I’ve been reading one of the books I picked up at the Keswick Convention, Rhythms of Grace: how the church’s worship tells the story of the gospel by Mike Cosper (Crossway, 2013). I was struck by a line from p. 84: “… having God in our audience means there is One who accepts us just as we are and deems our imperfect worship as made perfect in Jesus.” That isn’t an excuse to give second-best in our worship (Abel, not Cain, should be our model) but it does mean we can trust in God’s grace. He doesn’t wait for us to get to the door of the house and grovel in the dust but runs to meet us before we even get on the property (while we are “still far off” – Luke 15:20).

I suppose we ought to expect this. After all, just look at the fridges of parents with young children. Typically they have pictures by the children stuck on the front. As a ‘critic’, you might judge the images as not very good but the parents are delighting in what those they love have given them. Sad would be the household where young children had to reach a certain standard before their creations where put on display; sad will we be if we treat with scorn what our heavenly Father accepts through the kindness and love of Jesus.

12 October 2024
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Sally in the Garden

I enjoyed this rendition of Sally in the Garden, which came across this week. One to add to the learning list although I might see if I can track down versions in some other styles of playing as my clawhammer work is still very basic.

11 October 2024
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Orange Splat!

Today’s lunch (roast vegetable soup) could be described as “orange splat”. Unfortunately, after roasting squash, sweet potato and other ingredients and blending them up, I must have twisted the jug when I lifted it up and the soup splashed out of the bottom!

It is a while since I used the blender but I’m glad everything had cooled down a lot before I got to blending it or it might have been dangerous as well as messy. I’m also glad the surfaces were clean and it had a very thick consistency. I probably lost about a third but at least there was enough for our lunch and a portion to save in the freezer.

We are getting into soup season and you can be sure I will be taking more care after blending next time!

10 October 2024
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Turn up the heat

I’ve been using my dehydrator a fair amount in recent weeks. It is the one I picked up in the autumn of 2021 and I’d say that it earns the cupboard space it takes up for portions of the year. One of my experiments this year has been turning up the heat setting. I don’t know how well calibrated it is but my inclination had been to keep the process low and slow in order to avoid denaturing too much of the goodness of the foods. However, turning up to what it calls about 70°C seems to produce faster and better results with fruits like apples and tomatoes.

The other thing I’ve been doing with those types of items, is making more frequent use of baking parchment on the wire shelves. Without it the slices have a tendency to stick. The baking parchment works better and doesn’t seem to impede the drying process. Depending on what is being dried, the sheets can often be re-used several times.

Tomorrow, it will be another batch of beetroot going through, allowing me to top up my supplies of beetroot powder, an excellent way to impart colour to various foods, like bread (garishly pink dough but a more subtle hue once baked).

8 October 2024
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Autumn Colours

Our garden has some strong autumnal colours coming through. We were a little bit surprised by the yellow blooms on the Hamamelis (the plant with the yellow and orange leaves). It isn’t that we didn’t expect flowers but we thought they would be coming out in a couple of months time. We’ll have to see how long the last (and also enjoy them in the present).

7 October 2024
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A Day Full of Nectar

Most of my grocery shopping is done at Lidl. Not only is it my nearest supermarket but I’m impressed with most of the products (let’s not mention wasabi ice-cream!), the prices are highly competitive and the Lidl app gives a variety of offers and bonuses that save me a decent chunk of change each month.

However, there is perhaps a flaw with their bonus scheme. If you spend more, you get bigger rewards, up to 10% off your next shop when you spend at least £250 in a calendar month. Especially with the “Middle of Lidl” aisles containing decent quality hardware and other goods (yesterday I found I was wearing the same comfy Lidl-sold shirt as someone else at church) that is all too easy to do. That’s good but, to my mind at least, there is an incentive to not cross the £250 threshold too early in the month. The vouchers only last for a week so, if I cross £250 towards the end of the month, it means I can do a big shop at the start of the following month, giving me both the maximum saving and a head-start on the next £250.

Anyway, a combination of not wanting to get too far ahead with Lidl along with expiry dates looming on some Sainsbury’s Nectar vouchers (and, to be fair, some items I can’t get in Lidl) meant I was down at that store this afternoon. Petrol (one voucher) then groceries, where I managed to use both an existing voucher and one I got from the petrol station. Plenty of Nectar and plenty of win!

6 October 2024
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Router Sled

A few years ago, I made a router sled (mentioned here), which is a jig designed to turn a router into a way of levelling off bits of wood. It doesn’t do a flawless job, certainly with the router bits I have available, but it does get to a point where a little sanding can give a good final finish. I used it for the bookshelf project I was working on in 2018 and also for creating some wooden coasters. Now, as some of those coasters are beginning to split, I’ve pulled it out of storage and begun figuring out how it works again.

I’m not sure the wood I’m working on – slices from branches a lilac tree I recently helped reduce in size – will do much as coasters despite it’s gorgeous colouring. The slices I cut a few weeks ago have now mainly developed cracks larger than the ones I was thinking of replacing. I’m wondering if this is a project where I need to cut some lengths from suitable branches and then store them for a couple of years so they can dry out more before I slice them down? Still, I’m making some refinements to my sled system and perhaps this time I will remember to jot some instructions down on it to make the process quicker to pick up next time it comes out of storage.

5 October 2024
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Sing Around – 5 October 2024

I led three songs at the sing around this afternoon. The first two were on banjo and were ones I’ve played before in other contexts but not led: I’m Not in Love by 10cc and New York Girls, a folk song from the late 19th century (or earlier). The first one worked nicely on the banjo but the key wasn’t great for my voice so I’ll have to do some adjusting. It is hard to settle on a key when practising at home because I’m not trying to project in the same way! This time I started on a C chord and the actual key was, I think, G major but I’ll need to do some more experiments for the best range for my voice. Warned by that experience, I took advantage of a break and reset New York Girls from G to C, which fitted better.

Towards the end, I also led a song on electric bass (borrowed from Kev): my old favourite, Diving Duck Blues, which I have road tested in G plenty of times!

4 October 2024
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Loco Stats

My Loco Beer is now fermenting with some “Midland” yeast from Crossmyloof Brew, their equivalent of the standard “Nottingham” strain. It turns out I did overshoot the target gravity, hitting 1.042, but not by as much as I thought. I have put the recipes I use into spreadsheets so I can calculate the ingredients (I’m not brewing 19l batches and I sometimes make substitutions). I’d entered 1.034 into one field as the target but it should have been 1.040, so I’ve generally been closer than I thought. Good job I’ve still got the book on hand!

That should take a week or so to ferment and then I’ll be ready to move onto the next one.

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