Wulf's Webden

The Webden on WordPress

22 June 2026
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White to Black

I popped up to the allotment early this morning to do some watering and thought I’d have a look at how my mooli were doing. Mooli, also known as daikon, is a long oriental radish that doesn’t have a lot of flavour but works well for bulking out dishes. I was somewhat surprised to find that the plants ready to harvest weren’t those white roots but instead black radishes!

I’ve heard them called “black Spanish radishes” as well but further research shows they are sometimes know as black mooli. I think when I was given the tray of seedlings it must have been a mix of both types.

Whether the white mooli will come to anything worthwhile remains to be seen. At the moment they are still pretty undeveloped. However the black mooli have been worthwhile – we had some of them sliced up and roasted in a miso and garlic mix as a side for dinner tonight (recipe here) so, although a surprise, it wasn’t an unpleasant or wasted one.

21 June 2026
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Survived

I’ve survived the second day of my music weekend. Earlier on today I was wondering if this evening’s double bass outing would be a step too far but it turned out to be less wearing on the fingers than the rehearsal I did for it a few days ago (probably helped by having good PA support so I wasn’t tempted to push too hard to be heard).

I should sleep well tonight though… if the warm temperatures allow!

20 June 2026
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A Long But Successful Day

It’s been a long day out on the boats with AVAST. We ended up playing four half-hour sets (back to the first pub again on the return journey) but travel by boat is not for those who are addicted to speed, so it took from arriving at the boat yard at 11am until getting back around 8pm! However, the weather was ideal – warm, no rain when we were out and a bit of sun but not a blazing, heartless sky. That also meant the pubs were quite full and we raised over £500 for the music library!

19 June 2026
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Music Weekend

For some reason it has worked out that this is my “music weekend” for the month. I’m back from a rehearsal tonight and tomorrow I’m on a boat with my tuba, playing with a small wind orchestra at The Waterside Inn in Mountsorrel (12:15), The Navigation Inn in Barrow (2pm) and The Moorings, also Barrow, (3:30pm). We might even make an extra appearance at The Waterside Inn on the way back after stopping for food at The Moorings.

Sunday then sees me playing at Hathern Baptist in the morning (electric bass with the worship team), Queen’s Park, Loughborough in the afternoon (electric bass with the Charnwood Concert Band from 2pm) and The Kilo Wine Bar in Quorn in the evening (double bass with The Panamas from 5-7pm).

Sunday night, I think I might be ready for a rest and I probably won’t get a weekend with more gigs (or different instruments – it won’t even be the same electric bass on the first two Sunday outings) any other time this year! All the events are ones you could just turn up at although the pubs and wine bar might prefer you bought a drink or two.

17 June 2026
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Spring Blossom in the drinking

I’ve had a couple of bottles of my Spring Blossom brew now (one two or three weeks ago and another tonight) and it is definitely into the “good drinking” window. It has a good clarity and tastes like good beer. What I need to figure out now is whether it is worth getting another batch on the go or if, with the prospect of some more warm weather, I need to wait until the autumn. Using my brewing heat mat to support seedling germination was a good strategy for that but did knock several key months out of my normal brewing window.

16 June 2026
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Like a Fast Car

This week I’ve been ticking things off my To-Do list quicker because I’ve been continuing to make use of AI (via the Cursor app). That has included several things for work which would have involved hours of code unpicking by hand and a fix for the site I’m playing with for my church music group, which had a problem transposing songs in minor keys and I was able to fix in about twenty minutes or less. It is rather magical and reminds me of some of the science fiction books I used to read and games I used to play.

However, it struck me that these tools are a bit like having a fast car. I could drive to the outskirts of Nottingham or Leicester in the time it would take me to walk to the middle of Loughborough and I could drive to the outskirts of London in less than the time it would take me to walk to those nearer cities. However, if I walked into a tree, I and the tree would probably survive relatively unharmed. If I drove into a tree at the same speeds I’d need to drive to make good those claims the picture would be less good!

Perhaps that would also be fair of how AI code development works – you can go at speeds that would be superpowered for a regular human but you need extra precautions to avoid ending up with a codebase that is a confused mess that even more AI can’t penetrate. Things like using Git for version control (exposing what has been changed and allowing dead ends to be rolled back) and understanding what the system is proposing before unleashing it help add the level of safety you need for travelling at that speed.

While on the car metaphor, it is probably also worth observing that we still haven’t got to the point where computer controlled vehicles look like becoming a significant presence on our roads despite massive investment and many very smart people working on it. That suggests some problems still to be solved and that we haven’t reached the point where AI tools are entirely magical!

15 June 2026
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Strap Locks

Beyond keeping an eye on the setup, I don’t tend to do a lot of after-market modification to my basses. One exception to that rule is that I like my instruments fitted with strap locks. There are various strap lock systems available but the one I’ve standardised are Schallers. By using an additional mechanical component, you make it much less likely the strap will depart from the strap button on the instrument. I have had that happen before which is probably why I treat this action as a fairly essential step.

The modern Schaller ones can be quite expensive so I ordered a pair of the older model off eBay, which were much cheaper (less than £5 with free delivery). It took a little while to fit them because I tried to reuse the screws from the bass but hadn’t realised that they protruded too much from the top. The screws which came with the locks were silver rather than black but that won’t be seen when a strap is on the bass, so that was an easy fix when I realised.

Without that slight detour, the fitting would have been less than five minutes from unpacking to another bass that isn’t going to suddenly dive floorwards. I can also pick which strap I want to use on this instrument (the Ibanez SR305EB) as the new models are backwardly compatible with the strap buttons although the bass is so comfortably light I’ll probably just stick with the purple nylon strap I had on it already for now.

14 June 2026
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FxSound

Jane and I were watching something this afternoon using the set up in our front room – laptop to HDMI monitor and audio from the monitor to the Aux in on my Blackstar ID Core BEAM amp – and it was sounding too bass heavy. I looked but I couldn’t find any way to control that. Win11 just had a volume setting, the monitor didn’t help and the amp just made the input louder, with the settings just for an instrument input rather than the aux feed.

A bit of searching recommended a program available via the Windows Store called FxSound and it provided all the EQ control I needed to get a better sound output. In this case, it was mainly rolling down the bass that did the trick. In fact, I was so impressed that I’ve also installed it on my own Windows box and it gives me extra control over the sound that I’ve been missing. I need to test it some more but thumbs up for now.

13 June 2026
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Singaround Songs – June 2026

Three songs at today’s singaround (on double bass). I started with Wayfaring Stranger, which is part of a medley the Charnwood Training Band has recently started playing. On my next go, I went for I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free, a jazzy piece that I’ll be playing with The Panamas on Sunday week. I also got to close out the afternoon and picked Proud Mary. It would have been a good choice for next Saturday’s boat gig but I didn’t get round to working out an arrangement. All in all, a good afternoon.