6 August 2024
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Beetroot and French Beans were the main things I brought back from yesterday’s session at the allotment although the picture also includes some leaves from a tree spinach (Chenopodium giganteum) plant and a handful of raspberries and blackberries (not pictured). We are definitely into the glut season and our meals will be getting dictated by what is ripe.
5 August 2024
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That’s the last of my photos from our recent trip to the Lake District online. This is looking over Ullswater from near Aira Force Waterfall. We’ve got some lovely countryside nearer home and some decent hills but nothing quite so rugged (or, I expect, so inhospitable when the whether is less good than it was last week).
4 August 2024
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Barcodes were invented in the early 1950s, although it took another twenty or so years before they started to become more widely adopted. They are essentially a style of font that is pretty impregnable on its own to human vision (although helper information is often included for our eyes) but easy for machines to read quickly and accurately. For example, on most books published in my lifetime, I can expect to find a barcode with the ISBN number on the back cover.
I’m still using LibraryThing to track both the books I own and the much larger number of books I’ve read from other sources like public libraries. That means I have to enter each book as I get my hands on it. I used to just type in the numbers and for a while have been using the LibraryThing app. The problem with the latter is that I don’t think it has seen a lot of development time recently and often seems a bit flaky in use. This weekend, after another library trip along with several new books picked up at the Keswick Convention, I wondered if I could find another way to get the numbers?
It turns out that an app I already had installed on my Android phone, called QR Code Reader and Scanner – QR (a less than snappy title) was up to the job. As well as QR codes (a more recent form of barcode which can carry much more information) it is very snappy at reading in the original ‘linear’ ones. The most efficient route I’ve found is to scan the code, share it to my Google Keep account and then, back on my computer, copy and paste the ISBN codes into LibraryThing. There are options with some programs to read directly from the phone to the computer but, without a bit more security investigation, I’m not quite ready for that. Especially as I increasingly have to squint to read the numbers directly (not to mention the typing accuracy challenge) I think this will do for now.
3 August 2024
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It was 5 July 1993 that Peter Steiner drew his “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” cartoon. That turned out to be very prescient. It was true then even though relatively few people had access to the Internet and it is a lesson that is even more relevant today.
It came to mind yesterday when I was catching up on the discussion forums at Scott’s Bass Lessons and spotted an introductory post from Victor Wooten, one of the most amazing bassists in the world and some one who I’d love to meet. Or, the thought came to mind, it could be another one of those dogs. Call me suspicious but would a player of such calibre just be popping up on the site without any fanfare, especially given he has his own courses and events?
One of the moderators is a cousin of the real Mr Wooten or at least claims to be. I’ve never met him but I’ve interacted with him enough online to feel that I know him and know enough people who will know him better to trust that fact, so I dropped him a line. Could this be the actual VW or just someone who knows how to pull a few facts off the same Wikipedia page which was my first place to check. Perhaps that was what sparked my spidey-sense in the first place – why would Victor Wooten feel the need to mention when and where he was born when making an introductory post on a site full of bassists?
It turns out I wasn’t just about to get to hang out with Wooten online. Maybe one of those days but, until then, I’ll remember to stay alert for web-surfing canines.
2 August 2024
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Whoops! I managed to add about half an hour to our journey home by getting in the wrong lane at one critical point. Instead of heading off the A50 and onto the A453 through Kegworth, I ended up getting onto the left too early and hitting the M1 northbound. In lighter traffic, I could have corrected this when I realised it but the conditions meant that I had to head away from home and then swing back round, which took a lot more time than I would have liked. The second go put me through the same junction and I realised where I’d made my mistake. Glad I didn’t make it again!
1 August 2024
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Today we took a trip to the shore of Ullswater, where I did a bit more painting:
31 July 2024
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I’m beginning to get a feel for Grisedale Pike. I almost scaled it last Saturday, I’ve been looking at it every time I walk back from Keswick along the Cumbria Way and I did a bit more painting and drawing of it today (from photos but based on my ponderings about its form while observing it on those walks). Here is a simplified sketch using watersoluble graphite:
At the moment, I could probably do another sketch from memory. However, that’s not nearly as impressive a feat as I witnessed at today’s Keswick Unconventional lunchtime concert. John Redeemed recited most of the Book of Revelation (about four chapters omitted for the sake of time, for which he gave a brief summary as they came up) while accompanied by improvised piano backing from Graham McDonald.
I’m not unused to hearing the Bible but it is normally in much shorter chunks and normally read from the page. Hearing a much longer portion and particularly hearing it spoken from memory and with the improvised live music was a profound experience and one I’ll look for the opportunity to explore again.
30 July 2024
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The Bowder Stone is a massive lump of rock that appears precariously balanced, sitting in the Lake District and looked after by the National Trust. This watercolour doesn’t really capture the whole scene or give an impression of how it sits in the landscape but it was a chance to revisit the technique of lifting paint off by a combination of a wet brush and dabbing with a dry cloth in order to create texture.
29 July 2024
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I’ve lost track of when I last got my watercolours out. It might have been as long ago as June 2020, when I did the 30 watercolours in 30 days project and then took a rest! Anyway, I brought them with me to Cumbria and managed to get them out today for a bit of en plein air painting.
This is the result, a view of Skiddaw across Derwent Water. The most exciting part of this painting process was when I sharpened my soluble graphite pencil and realised the shavings had added a light spatter across the wet areas.
28 July 2024
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Last night’s Keswick Speaker, Andy Prime, was very good – a gifted speaker bringing a message that both put its roots in the Bible and had a challenging edge rather than being just some cosy nuggets of information. His passage was John 20:1-10, where first Mary finds that the tomb is empty and then Peter and John observe the linen cloths in which the body of the crucified Christ had been wrapped.
I think he stepped a little too far in trying to find a meaning in the cloths though, diverting back to Leviticus 16 and the Day of Atonement. The Bible does have foreshadowings established that are fulfilled centuries later but, having pondered it and re-read the passages, I’m not sure we can draw a line connecting the linen garments the high priest wore when slaughtering the goat ‘devoted to the Lord’ and the linen burial cloths that Jesus (the ‘Lamb of God’) had been wrapped in. Not least, linen turns up frequently throughout the Bible in a whole range of contexts so I find it a bit hard to see a reliable link between those particular passages.
I do think John had the liberty of adjusting how he recounted his gospel so that there is more than just a simple narrative going on. For example, one feature is the seven ‘I Am’ sayings of Jesus, such as ‘I am the Good Shepherd’. There are also some differences in timings compared to the other gospels, such as the cleansing of the temple (early in John’s account, late in the others). However, while he is artful in his construction, I think he is still recounting things he has witnessed or heard about directly. The presence of the linen tell us in a very straightforward way that Jesus is not in the tomb and prepares us to meet the risen Christ. They don’t need a tenuous link back to Leviticus to do that.
Likewise, the fact it was still dark when Mary set out for the tomb can be simply explained by her wanting to get started on the task as early as possible, before the heat of the day or more people being around. Possibly John did think back to the words near the start of his account of how the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it (1:5) but I don’t think he would have insisted on it being dark if Mary had set off later.
One idea that I will hold onto was the thought that Jesus came from glory to serve us and then, after his resurrection, returned to glory. Prime referred to the pattern in the story of Jesus washing the disciples feet in John 13, where Jesus starts off at the head of the table, then girds himself as a servant to wash their feet before resuming his place as master of the table. John wrote what he witnessed but I can well accept that what Jesus did that evening was full of meaningful symbolism being deliberately acted out by the Lord for the instruction of his followers.
