Finished reading: Murder on Black Swan Lane by Andrea Penrose 📚 This was quite a fun, Regency-set romp.

Finished reading: Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear 📚

New post: TOTEM keyboard number two or three

They breed like rabbits!

Nice colour sky this evening.

If it is winter where you are, can I recommend spending just over 12 minutes in Panama, looking at the Cornell Lab Bird Cam compilation from their feeder in Panama? So many beautiful bird species!

New post: Review of Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne

My review of Katherine Rundell’s wonderful biography of the Elizabethan poet.

Finished reading: The Book of Why by Judea Pearl 📚

Finished reading: A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers 📚Absolutely loved the first of this new series of optimistic sci-fi by Becky Chambers. I’m invested in the characters and can’t wait to read more.

Wow. I don’t read a lot of non-fiction outside of work, and even less biography, but this book was an amazing ride. I plan to write about it in more depth, but I need to let it settle in for a while.

Finished reading: Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel 📚A gentle and humane time-travelling yarn.

Fingerless mitten knitting progress: not too shabby, though I have anxiety about tackling the thumb when I get to that point. The ribbed bits sweep across the hand and form the thumb gusset and thumb, while the hand will be formed from the plain stockinette section.

New post: Reading with Kobo

In which I rave about my new Kobo e-reader, and the joys of Libby.

Currently reading: The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey 📚 A Medieval detective story of sorts, this is rich in convincing period detail. I loved this and felt for the impossible position of the protagonist, the village priest.

Finished reading: The This by Adam Roberts. I found the start of this book intensely irritating (I think it is supposed to be), and nearly abandoned it. Glad I persisted though. It gets compelling and even rather moving by the end. 📚

Well. I have just finished amalgamating my many book wishlists into the app Book Track, and it seems I have a total of 78 books on my wish list 😨 Better get reading…

Finished reading: Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes 📚 Fresh view from the perspective of the mythical ‘monsters’, with some great touches of humour, but also great empathy and pathos.

New post: Friendly streets

In which I think about what makes for a friendly and liveable street.

Hearing “In the Meantime” by Spacehog in the soundtrack of Guardians of the Galaxy 3 reminded me (again) what a perfect song “Telephone and Rubber Band” by The Penguin Cafe Orchestra is. The Spacehog track has a sample of the PCO track, but the original is so much better in its quiet simplicity.

Finished reading: The House of Fortune by Jessie Burton 📚I loved spending time in Nella’s world of 18th Century Amsterdam again.

Finished reading: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig 📚

Finished reading: The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk 📚Loved this - fantastically rich and believable characters, with touches of humour.

I’ve got a new spindle! It’s a Turkish spindle and it spins for days! I’m finally able to spin fluidly rather than using the ‘park and draft’ method. This is Blue-faced Leicester wool and it’s really soft with a long staple length.

Ozzy the mechanical bull at New Street Station, Birmingham. He’s a lot bigger than I imagined!

Finished reading: How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. I admired this book more than I liked it, if that makes sense. Great writing, but I didn’t feel that the different stories made a satisfying whole. 📚

I forgot to add a photo to that post. The skein on the left is the first one that I spun (knobbly like a nest of Twiglets) and the one on the right is the second (much more yarn-like).

New post: Spinning and balance

In which I manage to acquire yet another hobby while recovering from a nasty bout of Covid.

Finished reading: The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman 📚 Another entertaining and touching outing for the Thursday Murder Club.

Finished reading: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear 📚 This is a series I had no idea about, but I love the protagonist and the setting. I’m definitely going to read more of the series.

We had a power cut for an hour or so and it has caused all manner of havoc with our heating system. Radiators came on full blast and I had to look up the magic incantation to re-pair the wireless thermostat with the boiler. I hope we have regained control now. 🤞

Finished reading: Queen High by C J. Carey 📚 This started more slowly than the previous book in this series (Widowland), but the pace accelerated enormously. I just binge read the final 60 pages or so this morning. Highly recommended if you like ‘what if?’ counter-factual fiction.

New post: TOTEM keyboard

In which I am very much down the keyboard rabbit hole. Again. 🐇

I’ve just switched to the Tinylytics site analytics app by @vincent for all my sites. All the little touches are so thoughtful, clean and easy to use, I love it! ❤️ In fact, I love it so much that I signed up for a paid account and have just cancelled my Fathom account.

Just finished the last ever episode of ‘The Marvellous Mrs Maisel’. I didn’t want it to end, but it was a very fitting ending - loved it 🥰. It has been one of my favourite comedy/drama series ever. That and Detectorists, though they are very different in many ways.

New post: Merlin Bird ID app

In which I rave about the joys of being able to identify bird songs and calls.

Finished reading: The Distant Echo by Val McDermid 📚 I enjoyed this much more than the first in the Karen Pirie series (which only really introduced her at the end). Engaging all the way through as it jumps between the current and the cold case.

The little kid next door is singing ‘Holding out for a hero’ by Bonnie Tyler, but apparently can’t remember all the words, so is just winging it, but with great commitment. It is adorable. Also, I now have an ear worm.

I found this album a few months ago, after hearing an interview with the artists. It’s a wonderful modern (but respectful) interpretation of ‘Broadside Ballads’: cheap sheets of song lyrics or tunes that were popular from the 16th Century onwards.

New post: Current command line setup

I seem to have gathered a few new tools 🧰

New post: Exercising little and often

In which I try 10 minute strength workouts (nearly) every day to counter my reluctance to exercise.

It works! I’m looking forward to reading some news that I don’t usually get exposed to. Take a look at the plugin here if you’d like to try it (Firefox and Chrome plugins available).

For those of you (particularly in the UK) wanting a bit of respite from the ubiquitous Coronation stuff, can I recommend Māori artist Hāmiora Bailey’s Pīkari Mai browser plugin which scrapes pages to replace Coronation stuff with Indigenous news?

It’s top-stitching time!

Why is getting old an broken plumbing parts removed so much harder than fitting the new ones? After much exertion to remove rusted bolts while inside a tiny bathroom cabinet, we now have two shiny new taps! No more having to keep pliers by the basin so that you can turn the water on and off!

Look at this georgeous thing: another Gravitas pocket pen (in Titanium this time) that I am using as an eye dropper.

New post: Rescued by skylarks

A more personal post than is usual for me, talking about eco-grief.

Finished reading: Widowland by C.J. Carey 📚 I practically inhaled this book in one go: chilling but impossible to put down.

Spring seems to finally have sprung.

New post: Nine keyboard layout tweaks

More tiny keyboard fun!

Apple’s Photos app just offered me a slideshow of my “Feathered Friends” over the years. Turns out I have a lot of photos of birds. Probably more than I have of people. 😏

New post: Neovim again

I’m editor-hopping again!

Beautiful sky this morning.

This kind of shenanigans does not help with the Bluetooth range of my keyboard.

Finished reading: Down Cemetery Road by Mick Herron 📚This took a while to get going, but then it was completely gripping!

I have also published the source files for the keyboard and case, and the firmware if you are curious.

New post: Nine keyboard Part 2 - the case

In which I talk about the successes and failures of my first non-trivial 3D design project.