Wulf's Webden

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4 May 2026
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Writing for Reading

At tonight’s choir rehearsal (concert a week this Wednesday, BTW) I realised why some of the bits of the Hiawatha’s Wedding score are so hard to read. It’s not just that it is an facsimile of an old manuscript with some very outdated engraving marks (eg. crotchet rests look like backwards quaver rests) but the horizontal note spacing often sits in contrast to the note values. When following a complex passage at speed it makes a big difference when the spacing gives a nod to the timing and it can really trip up rhythm recognition when a semiquaver, a quaver and a dotted crotchet all have the same allotment of white space between them.

You get more used to styles of music engraving over time and with practise but I’m glad that modern music generally does this better. Everything the person creating a part can do to make it easier to follow is a blessing. The only upside I can see is that the score we have is quite condensed. If the spacing were more consistent, I expect it would take more pages and a lot more weight to hold up for those relying on paper copies of the score.

3 May 2026
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Refill Station

I’ve now got four Lamy fountain pens and four colours of ink so I anticipate refilling cartridges being a frequent activity. It is pretty quick and easy but has the potential to get messy so I think one of my forthcoming 3D printing projects will be to create a little refilling station I can use in the bathroom sink to minimise clean up.

I probably need a section to hold the ink bottle – or possibly two sections. I’ve got three Diamine ones and an older, much large Quink one. Perhaps that should be a drop in section? I also want a holder for the pen components, including the cartridge I am refilling, and for the syringe I will be using. In the sink, I will have running water but it would be less wasteful to have a water reservoir which can be used for initial cleaning. Finally, I think I want an open section to sit above the plug hole, perhaps with a grill at the bottom, so I can easily squirt away waste water.

Its been a busy day so I won’t start trying to design it right now but it is helpful to get some ideas down to fuel the next stages of scribbling, sketching, prototyping and refining.

2 May 2026
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Worx on the Lawn

My lawn is looking a little neater today after I picked up a pair of battery powered tools – a lawnmower and strimmer. Both are by Worx and I have some other items using the same battery platform. There was a little bit of assembly to do but both performed well and, even without getting the new batteries fully charged, it was ample to get the grass trimmed up.

Just in time too – it has finally rained a bit this afternoon and might be cooler and wetter (and less good for mowing) for the next few days.

1 May 2026
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All You Can Eat

It is quite a while since I last went to an “all you can eat” buffet but we went to Kung Fu in Staines with Jane’s mum for lunch today. I don’t think I’m such a scourge of such buffets as I once was but I did manage three platefuls plus dessert and although those plates are deliberately not very large I haven’t needed more than a small snack this evening.

Checking for a website link tonight, I noted that Trip Advisor reviews were mixed. My experience was that the staff were friendly although not overbearing and that the food was pretty decent. At a pretty low price (£10.99 / person), you can’t expect the most gourmet dining experience and the wide variety of dishes on offer were generally well stocked and decently warm. There has to be some compromise with food that must sit in warming dishes that will be handled by a wide range of diners.

That was probably the most potentially unhygienic part – all the regular people interacting with the serving dishes and utensils. There weren’t any handwashing or cleaning facilities and you don’t know who has been licking their fingers (or picking their nose) before lifting handles and handling tongs! I checked and the Food Standards Agency gave the place 4/5 in January this year. What their notes don’t say is whether they considered all the people who interact with the food before a customer eats it or just staff!

Still, my belly is all good so far even if still a little bit full!

30 April 2026
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Pink Rhubarb

Tonight I’ve been cooking crumbles for various uses over the next couple of days. The challenge was that, since I was cooking in three identical dishes, unless you cook a crumble to the point the filling oozes through the top, it is hard to tell what is inside. One of my crumbles was rhubarb, one was apple and one was apple and rhubarb. How could I tell them apart?

My solution was to enhance the toppings of two of them. Apple-only got some sliced up bits of dehydrated apple. By the time it gets reheated and served they will be pretty crispy but also visually distinct. How to represent rhubarb though? I didn’t have any dehydrated rhubarb but I did still have some beetroot powder. I’ve mixed a spoonful of that with the top layer of the crumble topping and, as expected, it has turned out a distinctive pink colour. It remains to be seen whether I get any beetroot taste but, based on my experience with using it in bread, I think the colour should be stronger than the flavour.

I won’t get to find out until Saturday though – it is the rhubarb and apple that is due to be served tomorrow.

29 April 2026
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Grinding Day

This morning I spent a bit of time grinding up a collection of branches that we don’t need for next year’s kindling in order to spread over some paths both by our polytunnel and on our allotment. What seemed like quite a large pile reduced down to three bags full and probably didn’t cover much over a couple of square metres at the kind of depth it needs to be applied.

I’m very grateful for the heavy duty motorised grinder/shredder we picked up a couple of years ago – this would have been an impossible task with our old hand grinder, which is better suited to soft, green material for the compost heap. Thinking of it, I believe I still need to get round to replacing a cotter pin which I broke a couple of years ago when trying to break up a branch that was too thick and thus the reason we got the heavier machine in the first place!

28 April 2026
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Back to Tuba

I was back to tuba at the training band this week, which was a lot of fun. I need to try and get back into doing a little more practise between rehearsals though if I’m going to develop my skills rather than just keep coasting at the level I’ve reached.

That said, I also need to do some more conducting practise as there are a couple more weeks coming up where I’m back on the baton again. Particular challenges are swapping back and forth between 2/4 and 4/4 and a 3/4 piece with lots of changes of tempo.

27 April 2026
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Depth Effect

I recently decided to get a new iPad. My previous one was an iPad Pro, purchased at the start of 2017 (see blog post) and still working pretty well. However I’ve recently spotted that it sometimes gets to a moderately low battery level (around 30%) and seems to turn off. Since I rely on it for a lot of musical situations, that makes me a bit nervous. Additionally, although the hardware is still pretty good, I am aware that it is not getting all the updates and some apps are either not working or nagging me about upgrading to new versions. Again, that could include ones I rely on for music so that is why the old iPad needed a newer sibling.

Swapping from one device to another has become pretty painless. I’ve had to sign back into a few services but everything I need is there, including my extensive ForScore library of music for different projects. Meanwhile, everything is pretty similar on the surface to what I’ve been used to.

One thing that is new, to me at least, is the depth effect on photos. I’m using a photo I took in Wales in October 2023 (again, automagically transferred) of a rugged hill viewed across a lake. What I’ve spotted is that, when I have the iPad in landscape mode and it is on the lock screen, the clock text is partially hidden behind the hill. It’s a rather neat effect and it turns out that it is automatically working out the depth of various objects in the photo and exploiting that to create an illusion of depth for interface elements. I have to admit that my mind is a little bit blown by some of the clever things modern machines take for granted that would once have seemed impossible or computationally too expensive.

26 April 2026
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A wash and a brush up

Today we’ve done some overdue polytunnel maintenance and given the outside of the polytunnel a clean. We just used a hose to spray some water on and a soft bristled brush (original function for washing cars) to apply a bit of movement to the surface. It wasn’t a perfect wash but, looking down from upstairs now, it is definitely an improvement and should be giving a worthwhile increase in light to the plants inside.

25 April 2026
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Connecting Hoses

I couldn’t find an overflow pipe lying round at the end of the garden (see yesterday’s post) but it did get me thinking that maybe the best solution would be to join the slightly-too-short pipe I did have to another one. Ideal for that would be a couple of large jubilee clips, which I didn’t have. Again, I began thinking about 3D printing solutions but then I remembered that I’ve got some clamps that came with the polytunnel. Since some of our side benches are just rested on the supports rather than clamped in, it means I’ve got spares.

It turned out they were just the right size and gave a solid connection. I’ve gone from tubing portions that were a little too short to a joined one that is almost twice as long as it needs to be but that means it can do the job while not being under undue stress. Now I’m keenly waiting for some rain so I can see how it works in practice.