Wulf's Webden

The Webden on WordPress

20 January 2025
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Not All Details Are Important

I was recently looking at the story of Jesus being tempted by the devil just before the start of his recorded ministry. A very condensed account is found in Mark’s gospel (Mark 1:12-13) but Matthew (Matthew 4:1-11) and Luke (Luke 4:1-13) have fuller accounts.

A detail I don’t remember noticing before is that, although Matthew and Luke mention the same three exchanges of words, they don’t mention them in the same order. Both start with hunger (Satan says, “Turn these stones to bread,” and Jesus quotes from Dt 8:3, “Man does not live by bread alone…”) but the next two switch around between the two gospels. I can imagine preachers who just read one of them being tempted themselves to work out cunning schemes of how A leads to B and then on to C but one of the lessons from looking wider must surely be that, in this case, the details of the sequence are not significant.

In all cases, it is good to look at details when studying a subject but I think it is true to say that sometimes they can be misleading or, as the saying goes, you end up not seeing the wood for the trees.

19 January 2025
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Drywall Repairs

Jane called on me yesterday to refasten one of the curtain rod holders in the dining room, which had come loose. It was fastened into a section of drywall, which means there’s a void behind the surface – a common technique in modern buildings but annoying to deal with. I have a feeling the rod may have been up when we came or perhaps I couldn’t locate the wooden studs when I first installed it but, without turning the task into a more major job, I had the challenge of how to securely fasten the holding screw when the existing fastener had failed and none of the drywall anchors I had on hand would do the job.

In this case, there was quite a big hole in the wall which matched some 12mm dowelling I had in the shed. I cut a suitable length, hoping that a screw would push the perimeter enough to hold it tight. That didn’t work so I ended up cutting a slit partway down (making it easier for the screw to expand the wood) and taping round both ends (to try and avoid splitting it entirely). For good measure, I also taped a couple of pieces of matchwood at the front end to give a couple of ‘wings’.

Tapped in with a hammer and then having the screw driven in seems to have done the job although it will be more complex again if I have to effect another repair!

18 January 2025
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First planting of 2025

I need to get on with my crop plan for 2025 but I’ve done my first planting of the year – three supermarket garlic cloves that had sprouted in the cupboard. It might be a bit on the cold side but we shouldn’t have a hard freeze over the next week and hopefully they will get a bit of growing done in case it does drop lower again. I understand that cold actually encourages garlic bulbs to split into multiple cloves so, once they’ve got underway, I don’t mind if it drops again.

At worst, they will just rot away but there’s a decent chance we’ll get one or two bulbs of garlic that are bigger than the total volume planted (outside storage!) and a possibility that they might produce a worthwhile level of multiplication. Not much to lose and the chances of a decent amount to gain… which is true of many other garden endeavours too!

17 January 2025
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jUKEbox memories

Jane and I have been down to the edge of London and back today to help celebrate a 90th birthday. Part of my contribution was taking down my ukulele and contributing a few songs to the party and I was aided in that by the folder of music we collected when we were part of jUKEbox, a weekly lunchtime ukulele club made up of colleagues from various nearby departments in the University of Oxford.

I’ve got various other ukulele resources but there’s something special about that collection of songs. It is probably in no small part because I’ve learned them well by playing them week after week with other people. I imagine a lot of the remnants of my professional work have already been erased – servers being decommissioned and websites being closed down, for example – but that low pressure club continues to be a lasting legacy, a part of my musical resources and how I express myself as a musician.

16 January 2025
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Almost an Orchestra

Last night’s jazz gig went well. Given that I’ve not done a lot of double bass practise recently I was pleased that my fingers didn’t fall off and that, musically, it went very well. I think that is evidence of how a lot of musical experience is transferable – although I haven’t been building the specific motor skills and endurance around the double bass, I have been building my musicality with plenty of time on other instruments.

Meanwhile though, here is a video I came across today that shows how AI generation of images can be both quite impressive and wildly off the mark:

I’ve not played in a classical orchestra but I’m pretty sure that isn’t how that kind of gig is meant to go!

14 January 2025
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Doghouse time…

We didn’t have a Saturday sing around last weekend so it looks like my first gig of the year will be tomorrow night down at the Fennel Street Club in Loughborough (no prizes for guessing which road that is on). My friend, Les, will be playing some piano jazz and I’ll join him for an hour or two at 8 o’clock on my double bass.

Entry will be free and all are welcome. As I recall, drinks are pretty cheap at the club so bring some friends, buy yourself something to sup and hopefully the club will keep going to create more opportunities both for me and Les and for other musicians to put on some entertainment.

13 January 2025
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Uncovered Again

On the way home from doing some IT work this morning, I took the opportunity to pop by the allotment to uncover the tender plants that I covered up before the recent cold snap. Mind you, checking what the forecast looks like today, they might be going on again fairly soon if it does look likely to drop to freezing again overnight on Saturday.

12 January 2025
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Misty Canal

I think this was my favourite photo of several I took at the end of yesterday morning:

Misty Canal

It shows the canal near the back of our house and you can just see the frozen area at the bottom of the frame. The day was mystically misty and the almost monochrome result was not the result of tweaking in the digital darkroom. In fact, as well as cropping, I even enhanced the contrast a little but no desaturation was done.

11 January 2025
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Looking Down on the Back Garden – January 2025

Over the next few days the weather should be warming up quite significantly, with double digit days forecast in the week ahead. However, the temperature reached a nadir last night and this morning the canal was frozen over.

Looking Down on the Garden - January 2025
Back Garden – January 2025

It might even have been thick enough to walk on but I didn’t want to risk that. However, it was a solid enough sheet to create some fascinating reverberations when I bounced some small stones along the top of it. Me and the ducks, we’re looking forward to it warming up.