15 March 2025
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Tuba Bits Holder

Last month I mentioned that I was working on a 3D design for something to hold the pipes and valves of my tuba so they can dry out but with less chance of mixing them up. The valves in particular will fit in the wrong slots but then you can’t blow through the instrument. Here is the finished result:

I don’t have a multicolour printer and, at the time I ran it off, I didn’t even have PLA filament in any colour other than black, so it was printed in that. It has worked well but the numbers were a little hard to read. Last night I applied some white acrylic paint and this morning I used Dremel-like tool to tidy it up, making them much clearer. The pieces have been designed to tessellate, with the large end having two spikes for the pipe extensions, a valve holder in the middle and then a spike to hold a spring at the other end.

Once the parts have finished drying, I’ll check the lubrication and then pop them back on the tuba, ready for some more practise.

14 March 2025
by wpAdmin
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X-X

I’ve pretty much given up on X (formerly known as Twitter). Fewer of the messages I saw were from people I know or am interested in. That was balanced by an increasing level of messages that were not just junk but brain-rotting sewage. It was the equivalent of going into a newsagents and find that contents formerly relegated to a dodgy corner of a high shelf were all over the place, even mingling with the children’s comics.

I had been accessing X on my iPad. A while ago, I put it off the main screen and then turned off notifications. Last month, I decided to delete the app entirely and I haven’t missed it. The poor little blue bird died a long time ago and I’d now count myself as an ex-X user.

13 March 2025
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Custom Clips

The hot bath for plant propagation that I mentioned yesterday was also another opportunity to do some more 3D design and printing. The heating mat only comes on when the temperature drops too low, which means I need a temperature controller (also part of my homebrew set up) with a probe in the water. There was a hole in the propagator lid but I didn’t want the probe running through that for too long as it was a pain every time I needed to take the lid off to check on the plants or add new trays.

The solution was to create a little block to sit on the side of the propagator at one end, propping the lid up and allowing the probe lead to flow through. My first design was based on a cuboid with a couple of other cuboids cut out from it. One resulted in a lip on either side, so it would fit securely on the rim, and the other ran perpendicular to the first, creating a tunnel for the lead.

It worked but had a few flaws. In particular, the weight of the lid pressing only on one side of the block made it feel unstable. I tried a second version with tweaked dimensions, including a long extension down the outside of the rim but it still wasn’t quite right and the overhangs I had introduced didn’t print perfectly. As I worked on the design, I realised I could simplify it into a single solid shape designed from the side and extruded to length rather than cuboids with cut outs. Version 2.5 was a thin variant of the hook design to check the dimensions. One was off and I decided to run another print of that with four slightly different variants.

Finally, I could print V3, the final one for now. The hook is long enough and flexible enough to go under the rim on the outside and resist the force created by the lid that tries to pull the block inwards. There is no cut away, meaning I can print it with one side flat on the build plate for a higher quality and stronger result. Finally, how did I feed the cord through the solid shape? Easy – I printed several of them to hold the lid up (strength in numbers) and the cord runs safely through the gap between them.

Better yet, the tomatoes have germinated pretty well and I think I can see signs of the peppers coming up so the design work is serving a useful purpose.

12 March 2025
by wpAdmin
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Hot Bath

My homebrewing might have to take a break for a few weeks as I’ve pressed my heat mat into service to create a warm environment for germinating seeds that like a bit of heat, such as chilli peppers and tomatoes. Those often cite a range from 20-22°C. I’ve still managed to germinate tomatoes inside, even though the house is normally cooler than that but, this year, I’ve set up a large propagator with the heat mat underneath and water inside.

The heat mat keeps the water to about 21°C and then I can put plastic containers in that with compost or small pots. No sign of the peppers yet but the tomatoes are just beginning to show. I’m interested to see if it gives them a stronger start but time will tell.

11 March 2025
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To Cover Again?

As a gardener, I try to keep my eye on the weather. At this time of year, the question of whether we are going to have a hard enough frost to do damage to young and tender plants is at the front of my mind. With several days at the end of this week where temperatures will probably drop to or below freezing, I think I might make time tomorrow or Thursday to pop up to the allotment to cover a few things up again.

While I’m there, I might need to think about watering too. Although it has felt more wintry for the past couple of days, it still hasn’t rained and the upper levels of the soil are getting quite dry. Some rain is possible, even overnight or tomorrow afternoon but I’m not sure we are going to get a really good drenching so some of my less well rooted plants might want some moisture too.

10 March 2025
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Summer Is Icumen In

Summer Is Icumen In is the title of a piece of music I have arranged which got handed out to the choir this evening and, I expect, will get a try out in the next couple of weeks. As you might have guessed, the core is the old folk song Sumer Is Icumen In, which celebrates signs of the coming summer, like cuckoos singing, plants springing up and animals giving birth to and nursing their young. It is a fairly simple melody and often sung in a round.

My twist is the idea of starting with a modern translation of the words and then, gradually, switching the different voices to sing in the original Middle English. The thought is that this will create a time travelling effect and bring the audience into enjoying the original words with greater understanding than they might just hearing it immediately in a ‘foreign’ tongue. After all, “the past is a foreign country” but this should smooth the journey there!

I’m looking forward to hearing it with actual voices rather than just my mock up in MuseScore.

9 March 2025
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Prayer for Burma

Jane and I led prayers at church today for Burma, joining in the Global Day of Prayer for that nation. Officially it has been known as Republic of the Union of Myanmar since 1989 but that name was given by the military junta which has exercised power in the nation for many years and is still under dispute.

One of the complications of the nation is that it contains a number of distinct ethnic groups. It came under British colonial rule in the 19th century and, after becoming independent in 1948, has suffered with various levels of civil war since the early 1950s. There was a brief period of ‘democratic rule’ from about 2010 but the military seized control again in 2021 and have been brutal in repressing the various ethnic enclaves. However, that is having the effect of uniting the minorities along with a proportion of the main Bamar group. Maybe the junta’s days are numbered?

We prayed for peace but also for reconciliation and for the work of those, like the Free Burma Rangers, who sow compassion and love in the midst of hate.

8 March 2025
by wpAdmin
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Sing Around Songs – 8 March 2024

Numbers were down a bit at today’s sing around session, for which I’d largely blame the sun and warmth outside! That meant I got to lead on more songs than usual, all using the double bass.

Mo was busy looking after the refreshments counter at the start so she asked me to welcome people and kick things off, so I picked a familiar song to begin with: Folsom Prison Blues. That is familiar to me but also well known by many of the others there and easy to follow along with. When it came round again, my next choice met neither of those criteria. Black Hole Sun, originally released by Soundgarden (1994!) is a gorgeous but complex song that I’ve heard many versions of but never tried. It went okay but I will need to do some more refinement.

On my next turn, I continued to walk on the wild side with Black Betty. That was made famous by Ramjam in the 1970s but had previously been recorded by Lead Belly and other blues artists and that was the approach I went for. The original song is probably much older and nobody really knows whether it is referring to a nasty prison whip, a rifle or just a lady called Betty. My final contribution was back to a familiar tune for me: Down in the Hole. That is relatively easy to join in with but, as a 16 bar blues, takes a little more listening that the more common 12 bar form.

6 March 2025
by wpAdmin
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Mild Bee Bottled

My Mild Bee brew is now bottled. When I tested it yesterday, it had already reached 1.007 so I went ahead and bottled, using my recent “easy” method. It was a slightly smaller batch but I still got 12 500ml bottles and a fairly full 330ml one (which will be the first to sample from).

The next job is to get on with a label design and then I need to decide whether I’m going to get another brew going or press the heat pad into use for kicking off some seedlings that like a bit of extra heat.

5 March 2025
by wpAdmin
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Greek Chicken

We had friends round for dinner this evening, one of whom is following a keto diet. That means many of my favourite foods, like bread and potatoes (both high in carbohydrates) were off the menu and I had to find something else. What I settled on was “Greek Chicken” – chicken thighs marinated in olive oil with salt, garlic, lemon and dried herbs, fried off and then cooked with a variety of vegetables (courgettes, bell peppers and asparagus in this case).

The result was tasty although a bit thinner than it would have turned out if I’d followed my regular, non-keto instincts. Read the recipe I riffed from here.

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