Wulf's Webden

The Webden on WordPress

16 August 2024
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Zip Slider

As mentioned recently, the remaining slider on the zip on my double bass case broke recently. The slider is the bit that slides up and down the zip itself, joining or separating the fastenings. Since there was no label on the old one to suggest what sized I needed, I did some research and discovered that zips are commonly sized based on the approximate width of the two rows of teeth or coils in millimetres. On my case, that was about 10mm, so I ordered a couple of replacement sliders from eBay – £4, including free postage.

They arrived today and, with some help from Jane, they did the job. I’ve only fitted one as the short part works well using the strap and buckle. All should be good for my next gig (back at Queen’s Park Café from 11:30 – 1ish) on Tuesday 20th.

14 August 2024
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Counting Plants

Today’s Green Gym session was more about mental than physical exercise. Working in Morley Quarry (Shepshed), we were surveying the range of plants growing there. The longest step was identifying what we found. Some, like nettles and brambles, were easy but others, like Perforate St John’s wort (Hypericum perforatum) were less familiar and needed looking up with a variety of books and online tools. After a tea break, we set to counting, trying to estimate the balance of coverage between the different species found. Just for the corner I was on, there were over 30 different types of plant and I don’t think I managed a wonderful level of activity.

Hopefully, though, it will at least serve as a baseline for future surveys. The ranger team want to conduct such surveys several times a year and keep records of how it changes with the seasons, over the years and under the influence of their management plan.

13 August 2024
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Basil Potted Up

I’ve previously posted about propagating basil by putting cuttings in water. Looking back, I see that I’ve recorded mixed results but it has worked sometimes and I potted up another batch in earth today. We’ll see how many of the seven offshoots survive but even just one or two bushing up will help get a lot more value from the original investment in the supermarket plant.

12 August 2024
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Hottest Day of the Year (so far)

Today has been the hottest day of the year so far across much of the UK. I think it did get hotter in Loughborough in the heatwave a couple of years ago but it was still somewhat warm. I made sure I was inside, under shade, at the height of it, having got my tasks in the garden finished off quite early.

Hopefully it will follow the forecast and be merely warm and sunny tomorrow, as I’m out for another gig in Queen’s Park (c. 11:30am, outside the café).

11 August 2024
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First Sweetcorn 2024

Sweetcorn for lunch earlier today from the patch at the end of our garden. I can’t remember when we last tried growing it but I think we had fairly limited success. We’re doing a bit better this time round – probably could have waited another day or two for the first cobs to be at their best but I’d rather enjoy the luxury of ultrafresh corn than forget to harvest until it has gone past its best.

10 August 2024
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Sing Around Songs – 10 August 2024

I had been thinking of taking the banjo to today’s sing around session but there was a particular song I wanted to take along so it ended up being guitar and ukulele instead. The song in question was one by Andrew Peterson, which he played and explained how he created and developed it at the Keswick Convention a couple of weeks ago:

I haven’t got to the point where I can play and sing it like this or even particularly well but I wanted to cement where I’ve got with my own rendition of it. I’ve been working it with a drop-D tuning. Maybe now I’ve done the initial stab, I’ll go back and observe this live video more close to try and figure out exactly what Andrew is doing, even if I don’t necessarily keep all of that for my own version.

The other two songs I contributed were Free-Fallin’ (Tom Petty), which is built around a simple repeated riff so easy for others to join in and I find it easier to lead that one on guitar than other instruments, and You’ve Got to Move, a solid gospel blues that is also easy for others to join with and which I’ve done happily on electric bass, double bass, banjo and more.

Where did the ukulele come in? For backing up some of the other musicians. Sometimes it seemed to fit better than (yet another) guitar. For information, the next session isn’t on 24th August but 7 September, also in the hall of Thorpe Acre Church.

9 August 2024
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Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Done

This lunchtime I had a gig at the café in Queen’s Park with a couple of friends: me on double bass, Simon on guitar and vocals and Kev on cajon percussion. I had a bit of a challenge getting there though because, when I was putting the bass in its gig bag, the remaining zipper exploded. The other one went a few months ago and I had replaced it with a bit of strapping. This was the same metal fatigue cause, with the cheap alloy shearing off under the pressure of simply pulling it along the regular path.

As this is the zip which runs about 2m on the long side of the case, I’m not sure a single additional strap would do the job. As a stand in, I wrapped it around with several bungee cords but that won’t do as a longer term solution. Perhaps I can just get a replacement zip fastener? A very similar bag would cost about £150 but, even though it has lasted through ten years of moderate use I’d rather not throw the old one away as it is mainly in good condition.

Apart from that set back, which didn’t stop me arriving on time, the gig went well. We might be back for a repeat showing next Tuesday lunchtime although that is still to be confirmed.

8 August 2024
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Leaning Wood Store

Doing some firewood processing this week, I’ve spotted that one of my home-made wood stores has got a bit of a lean on it. I think it has had too much weight on the roof and too much leaning on one end. The trouble is that it isn’t just as simple as banging a few more nails in.

After my work this morning, I’ve managed to empty it of all the wood it was carrying and to saw up the large logs and branches that were leaning on it. I should now be about ready to extricate it and make an assessment of just how much repair it needs. In particular, I’m interested to identify the points of failure and whether it looks like additional bracing would help it hold up better in future. It will certainly be a learning opportunity and, fortunately, before it reached the point of collapsing!

7 August 2024
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Easier to see

My mum recently got a new computer and wanted some help getting it set up. The trouble is that she is a bit too far away to just pop over so I was trying to do it via phone support. When you do a computer task a lot, you have a mental picture of what is on the screen but I haven’t done a lot of new computer set ups in recent years so it relied on lots of visual description. Pages that I would have evaluated in a glance took minutes to work through and I was concerned about missing something important.

The new computer also came in “Windows S mode”, a configuration which only allows applications to be installed from the Microsoft Store. That might be suitable in some cases but not when you have a set of trusted applications to get up and running. We couldn’t figure out how to install Zoom Workplace via the Windows Store, despite me being able to see it on my computer, but finally managed to get out of S mode, allowing us to install a version downloaded from Zoom’s website.

Finally I could switch to giving support via a Zoom call and see what was going on at the other end. I know there are plenty of software tools that go even further, such as letting me drive the remote computer from here, but I’m not an expert in what is currently available and that would be another set of installation hurdles to get over so Zoom it is for now. Not perfect but being able to see makes it so much easier to proceed.