I’m Christian Payne, generalist, photographer and writer. In this weekly dispatch I seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, plus where we might be going. Thanks for stopping by.

#TheAction

Every time I head into the local town of Berwick-upon-Tweed I notice a small enclosed patch of grass on the right just before you enter Scots Gate.

Scots Gate is the northern entrance through the town walls, apparently one of the best-preserved examples of Elizabethan fortifications in Europe. I’ve always wondered what the strange walled enclosure was for and this week, while in town with my daughter, I let my curiosity get the better of me.

From the top of the fortifications we slid down a steep grassy bank on our bums and landed on the top of a broken wall. I went first, obviously, for health and safety reasons.

Hidden from view by the fresh leaves of a friendly oak tree, we clambered down into the enclosure.

From there we explored a short broken stairway leading up into the wall, ending at a bird’s nest, and a long tunnel that linked the enclosure to the town. At the far end was a thick wooden door secured with a hefty padlock.

The photograph at the top of this post shows my daughter returning to the sunlit enclosure after we’d discovered the locked door.

As well as being a fun bit of respectful exploration, it solved a mystery. What we were standing in might have been a 16th-century version of airport security. It appears to have been part of the defensive works protecting Scots Gate. Anyone entering the town from the north would have been funnelled through this controlled space where guards could inspect, delay or, if necessary, stop them before they reached the main gate.

The tunnel through the ramparts was likely a protected military passage, allowing soldiers to move between the outer defences and the town while remaining under cover.

Berwick’s walls hide all sorts of chambers, passages and forgotten spaces, and I was pleased to share this small glimpse of them with my daughter. Ten minutes later we climbed back out and continued our invasion of the town in search of sushi and milkshakes.

Yesterday, or a bit of volunteering my wife and I took part in the Big Seaweed Search. It’s a joint project with the Marine Conservation Society and the Natural History Museum. This is me identifying some Spiral Wrack on Spittal Beach.

The idea is to “…monitor the effects of environmental change on Britain’s sealife by exploring the seashore and recording the seaweeds that you find there.” Which is what we did.

If you’d also like to take part in a little citizen science, all the information is here.

#TheSeen

I finally got to watch Project Hail Mary. Loved it. Two thumbs down. ❤️

If you are one of the few people that have viewed and thumbed up a recent video I made… Thankyou.

I shot this niche tech review in my caravan/radioshack and was reminded how much of a faff videoblogging can be. No wonder burnout is so common with daily vloggers.

Making edited videos can feel like a pain in the ass now-a-days when my daily list of maintenance and land management stuff is so long. I just don’t have the time or patience. Especially as while I write, every few minutes my computer is telling me i’ve ran out of space on my hard drive. I’m currently one hour into shifting 429.54GB of FinalCut Pro library from my laptop to an external drive.

So yes. Please view, like, thumbs up, share, hell… even comment if you are up for it. Just so I can feel the effort was worth it :-)

There are no other videos planned for the channel. But if I do get the urge, I may go down the old one shot minimal-to-no edit path. Like we did in the old days.

Tom Simons asks Stephen Fry 100 questions.

Topics in this video include anagrams, Steve Jobs, mental health, social media and AI.

Currently testing the Foto app’s web based interface. This is my profile there and I think the new features will be released to all soon. Works well so far.

#TheWords

This week I read The Debatable Land.

It’s an interesting exploration into the lawless border region that once lay between Scotland and England. I feel I have a vested interest in this book as when I got my DNA test back It showed a small part of my ancestry originated from across this region. So I worked through this pretty quickly.

Part history, part place writing and memoir. The book unravels a landscape shaped by centuries of conflict, shifting loyalties and family trees.

There are also connections made between past and present, with stories of reivers, raids and rival clans brought to life via the author’s travels and encounters with the people who still live there.

The Borders certainly come out as a place with a distinct culture, character and identity. But I personally got to feel this after only a few months here.

There are a few sweeping generalisations made of the border folk, but it’s an interesting portrait of the region, landscape and the stories it holds. 3.5/5

#TheHeard

As it’s AudioMo, you probably know what you’re going to get in this section. At least till the end of the month… I shall link to my posts as they landed in Bluesky for click through ease. But I tend to post to Mastodon first.

Day 01 -

Day 02 -

Day 03 -

Day 04 -

Day 05 -

(Let me know if these have not embedded properly and I’ll just drop a link in the titles as this list grows.)

Remember it’s never too late to join in and anything goes. I’m having a lot of fun listening to what Darren Ewing produces.

#TheConsumed

I used to think that someone either ate PotNoodles or never touched them. And having had my fill of them when camping or working in a location that only had a kettle, I’ve not had one for years. I eat plenty of those 25p instant noodle packs though. Mainly because they are a) cheap and b) easy to modify to make them tasty and at least a little nutritious. But perhaps i’ve been doing it all wrong.

When I scan those super cheap packets of noodles with the Yuka app they score 0/100. As in they are not only not healthy… They’re actually bad for you. (Do I hear a “No shit Sherlock”?) I doubt that adding a bunch of veg and an egg actually negates the salt content and additives, but I like to kid myself.

But this week, despite everything I know about plastic coated noodles, I saw a perfectly in date Bombay Bad Boy for 80p (normally £1.40) and thought I’d give it a go.

I followed the simple instructions, added the sachet and slurped them down. It’s certainly no fine dining experience, but with a slice of bread it did me for a quick lunch and the spice was invigorating enough for me to want to cleanse the pallet with a spoon of clotted cream ice cream.

Will I have it again? Probably for camping. Also the pots come in really handy for growing stuff in the polytunnel. In fact all out pots have either been donated from neighbours or come of food packaging.

Also… Having once got to wheelie an Auto Rickshaw (Tuk-Tuk) in South East Asia my favourite thing about this snack is the flavour logo. 3/5

#TheFound

I keep finding pheasant eggs wherever there is woodchip. In random open places.

Just abandoned. Like they don’t even care (or most likely were disturbed)

I’ve placed a hens egg on the left for scale. That one came from the shop.

The internet tells me that a pheasant hen can lay 8-15 eggs, adding one each day before sitting on the nest for about 24 days. Rather than build a proper nest in a sensible place, they usually lay them in a simple scraped hollow, hidden in long grass, under a hedge or as I have found… in random piles of wood chip.

If undisturbed the chicks hatch almost simultaneously, fully feathered, with their eyes open and ready to walk within hours. They can even manage short flights when only about a week old.

To some, the eggs are a delicacy and I did candle it to see what was inside. Nothing. But I’m not going to risk it as it could have been there a while.

#TheThings

If you like shoe laces. This is your site.

Quadlock is offering $4000 dollars (Aus$ I think) to one lucky winner who sends in photos and video of their most ‘epic’ ride. You just need to go to this page to submit. I have not been paid to share this but also probably can’t enter because they have sent me kit to review in the past.

It’s a good way for them to glean some user content for their publicity needs, but what interests me is their no AI policy. “No AI. No filters. Nothing generated.” I’d have thought that was obvious but have never been on the receiving end of submissions.

Also… putting my pedantic hat on… does that mean no GoPro or iPhone footage? As both use computational photography and can merge pixels from several frames, employ local tone mapping, artificial depth blur, algorithmic colour and contrast adjustments as well as AI-powered noise reduction and sharpening.

So technically there’s AI, filters and some light generation happening.

I still have the NoPhone and it’s still does what it does really well.

Great idea if you’d like to get some solar but have limited space. Although for this particular set up it might need unlimited cash :-)

#TheLinks

• How often do you actually sit still and observe something in nature?

• Greetings to Alan P in Gala. Thanks for adding yourself to the Documentally community map. I’m over there occasionally. If you haven’t added your name to your map pin don’t forget it’s editable.

• The robots have started revolting.

• I don’t normally link catastrophe news down here but we all need a reminder to prep.

• Some of my other places include these… Also been making random phone calls this week. Been really nice catching up with old friends.

• Can small pleasures help us get unstuck?

• Here is a lovely piece of optimism. The independent writers advantage in the age of AI.

#TheThanks

Thank you for liking, sharing and commenting. It’s us against the AI slop. It’s also good to know you’re there. :-)

As ever, special thanks to those supporting subscribers who pay a small amount every month to receive this dispatch and keep it free for everyone. ♥️

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Thank you in advance for supporting a human doing manual work with their brain.

We have guests arriving through the week for a big birthday celebration at the weekend. I will endeavour to keep posting the daily audio and have a feeling next week’s dispatch will be thinner than usual. I hope you also have some fun and frolics in the pipes. Thanks for reading.

“In wisdom gathered over time I have found that every experience is a form of exploration.”
― Ansel Adams

Experience.

See you out there.

Over…

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A ❤️ is a high-five, a comment is a hug. A supporting subscription earns my undying love.

Hello. I’m Christian Payne, generalist and writer. Current mood: Happy. In this weekly dispatch I seek out novelty, overshare, explore the relations between things and ponder where we might be going.

Thanks for joining in.

#TheAction

Beach trips, friends from the south, long chats with the neighbours and many hours of wood chip shovelling and log stacking into a freshly built store. I won’t go into detail. But i’ll also not apologise for my week being 95% offline. Loved it.

I also managed a bike ride to the Bear Claw Brewery. That is one of my many hats in the bottle bag on the bars.

I took it along as I knew my freshly sweaty head under my cycle helmet might need hiding from public. It’s a decent hat but I some how lost it on the 7 mile ride in. There were some fast erratic downhills on a road I’d not ridden before and I figured it must have fallen there.

A couple of hours later I retraced my steps and there it was, still lying unscathed in the middle of the road. It’s a nice hat and surely warranted picking up and putting on a post. Or keeping. But I’ve a feeling that while it lay there, not a single person had passed that way. Another benefit of living where we do.

Anyway. Loved the ride and might do it again, but on the Brompton. Just to compare times.

How was your week?

#TheSeen

I have dome most of my online watching today. When I should have been writing.

This short ‘Life in the slow lane’ was sent to my by @KateNorman)

This is their website should you want to experience the same.

This is a longer story taking a glimpse of ‘The Microdot Gang’.

I feel there’s a lot going on under the surface of this 1972 film about the building of a small community on Herm Island. Beyond it being over 50 years old and all the “of its time” moments that brings, there’s also a hint of The Wicker Man in this slightly conservative vision of a self-sustaining community.

It’s now run by a trust. Cars and bikes are banned but quad bikes and tractors are allowed for staff. More info on Wikipedia.

Finally I love this breakthrough in archeology…

#TheWords

During my recent resilience workshop at Thinking Digital …which at one point looked like this…

I listed a few relevant books I thought might be useful. Some I have read, some recommended to me. One that I hadn’t read until this week was ‘A Paradise Built In Hell’ by Rebecca Solnit.

We’re often told a certain story about disasters. Remove the a sense of civilisation, take away electricity, the food supply, authority or policing and supposedly chaos emerges. That suddenly, humanity reverts and daily life becomes (in Thomas Hobbes’ famous theory) “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.”

This book is a very compelling challenge to that assumption.

While sharing real life survivor tales from earthquakes, fires, terrorist attacks and hurricanes, Solnit explores a counterintuitive pattern, showing us that crisis often does not reveal humanity at its worst, but humanity at its most cooperative.

“The map of utopias is cluttered nowadays with experiments by other names, and the very idea is expanding. It needs to open up a little more to contain disaster communities. These remarkable societies suggest that, just as many machines reset themselves to their original settings after a power outage, human beings reset themselves to something altruistic, communitarian, resourceful and imaginative after a disaster, that we revert to something we already know how to do. The possibility of paradise is already within us as a default setting.” ― Rebecca Solnit

When stability disintegrates, most people do not immediately descend into selfishness and violence. Instead, they organise, improvise, share resources, rescue strangers and build temporary communities based on mutual aid.

The book was worth reading just to have that hammered home in various tales from the edge.

One interesting thread running through the book is how often religious organisations come to the front. I needed to check if the author was preaching to me, but I believe Solnit is writing from a secular perspective. I didn’t see a theological argument, but I can see how churches and faith groups often emerge as examples of resilience. Not necessarily because of religious teachings, but because they already have some of what communities need in a crisis... Relationships, gathering places and an expectation that people should look beyond themselves.

I don’t think the ‘paradise’ Solnit describes is a religious one. It’s more a glimpse of another way of being. A world within a world where people remember their connection to one another. That we are in this together.

Her argument is not that disasters are a good thing. More that they can expose a root truth hidden behind our daily distractions.

While fascinating and beautifully researched, the book occasionally repeats it’s arguments and at times I felt the same core idea was being reinforced when a shorter version might have worked just as well.

Still, that central idea was quite an eye-opener for me. I always joke that we don’t have enough guns to survive ‘the collapse’, when we might have just the right amount. None.

Maybe the real lesson from disastrous situations is not how quickly civilisation disappears, but how quickly community returns.

We are a culture saturated with apocalyptic fiction, disaster movies and sensationalist news feeds… ‘A Paradise Built in Hell’ asks whether our fear of each other might sometimes be more dangerous than the crisis itself. 4/5

#TheHeard

An old acquaintance of mine Andrew Dubber has resurrected an award winning thriller, conspiracy, sci-fi radio drama from the late 90’s called Claybourne. Think Stranger Things meets Northern Exposure.

He recently wrote… “From 2000 to 2003, Claybourne became the most popular spoken word download on MP3.com. A couple of years later, not long after the word “podcast” was coined, it became the first drama series ever released as a podcast.”

Revisiting and remastering it, he’s putting it out as as a fresh podcast starting next Monday the 1st of June. Ninety-six episodes, four per week. For free.

You can listen and subscribe here and this is the Substack that supports the project.

I’ll offer a sneak peek to the series for the supporting subscribers in the Discord.

And it’s all just in time for #AudioMo ;-)

This post has a wonderful collection of musicians who didn’t have their work properly discovered till later in life. Or in some cases, after their death.

Thanks to for sending me this link to a web based audio editor. Looks pretty neat. Also just in time for #AudioMo.

#TheConsumed

Longtime dispatch subscriber Simon Devine told me that Allotments are in high demand in the North East and after being on waiting lists for years they thought they’d give RootsAllotments.com a go. It’s a commercial approach to allotments and for £20 a month you get access to running water and “an abundance of compost and manure” as well as regular batches of seeds and plug plants. It has attracted a little controversy, but so far they are enjoying access to land where they grow their own food. Here is an overhead photo of the beginnings of their plot.

It’s certainly an interesting business model. Especially at 48 times the price we used to pay for an allotment. OK it was twenty years ago but I’m pretty sure we only paid £5/year for your pilot in Northamptonshire. It also had running water.

I just went to check the blogspot I created for it, ‘Plot 29’ but it’s gone. There are a few traces on the Wayback machine and it appears that 20 years ago we were doing pretty much what we are doing now but on a smaller scale. Check this snippet from June the 5th 2006…

“Years ago we would have stored much more food in the house than we do now. When i say food I don’t mean the pile of condiments and sweets we amass over the year. I mean the staple foods that the average agrarian family would live on over a few weeks.

Now-a-days we pop to the shops a few times a week and live pretty much hand to mouth.

I am in no doubt everyone should be learning to grow their own food. Not just for the health benefits but also in preparation for when the proverbial sh*t hits the fan and our infrastructure goes down.

The government say that in case of an emergency you should store supplies to keep you going for up to three days. Here in the UK, anyone that knows our government would probably be tripling that figure.

It can happen all to easy, you only need a Fuel Strike, Flood, Drought, Hurricane, Earthquake or Civil unrest (preferably not all at once) and the shelves will be empty in the panic buying chaos that would no doubt ensue.

Have a think what could happen if/when the US attack Iran.

You are going to want all the food you can get your hands on.. and most allotment owners will have. :)”

Weird… A lot has happened in the last 20 years. But some things don’t change… and some things eventually happen.

#TheBody

As I am doing homesteading stuff for around 12 hours a day, it’s hardly a surprise I have a new ailment. In the last few weeks I have had cuts and bruises, stings and scrapes, splinters and sprains plus something called Trigger Finger.

Thankfully the swollen tendon causing trigger finger is on my right hand and should I have to pull a trigger at some point, I’d use my left. If I relax the manual axe work then the tendon heals and my hand works as normal again. Thankfully.

My new ailment though was a mystery for a day or two before I figured out how I might have caused it.

I was pulling up weeds with gloved hands. Random stuff including nettles and cow parsley. I was thinking my gloves would protect me. Then a little while later using those same gloved hands I wiped dust and sweat from my arms.

The result was what I think might be a phototoxic plant reaction. A mild phytophotodermatitis from plant sap enhanced with exposure to the sun.

This was three days ago and the blistering has mostly gone. I’m avoiding any UV light for the time being.

It’s not pretty so I’ve hidden the image behind a content warning on Mastodon. Click here should you want to see it.

#TheFound

Remember that suspected ginger beer bottle that the badger had pushed out of their set over a hundred years after it was discarded? I had suspected that it might had taken a ceramic screw stopper.

Well this week on another dog walk, I found a ceramic screw stopper in a potato field… and it fits!

It’s not the right one for this bottle, as this particular stopper was made for a company that mostly dealt with household ammonia, possible used for cleaning.

Fitting it to the bottle was very satisfying though. Both bits work and having stuck a modern rubber seal on the top, it is water tight and I might find a use for it.

#TheThings

A $200,000 lego theft.

I will never build something like this but I’m glad there are people doing it.

This week I have mostly been buying MDPE pipe and fittings. Last year I didn’t even know what is was. This weekend I might be tampering with the mains water supply.

#TheLinks

• How AI is helping us develop memories of things that never happened.

• The US beats China… in global climate damage.

• There are a lot of ‘untitled’ pins on the Documentally community map. I wonder who you are.

• AI as a design medium.

• How right wing politics make you physically ill.

• Some of my other places include these… If you are a supporting subscriber and don’t yet have access to the discord let me know and i’ll send you an invite link. 👍🏽

• Broligarchs be damned... Is the Pope Team Hobbit? Tolkien’s world is ultimately saved not by the powerful, but by small, ordinary people doing brave and compassionate things.

• Retiring from tech to live offline.

#TheThanks

Thank you very much indeed if you’re a supporting subscriber who pays a small amount every month to receive this dispatch and all other content. You keep this place going. Much Love. ♥️

If you are yet to chip in you still can, Either by clicking this button…

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Pay what you like via PayPal

or Monzo …Either way… Thank you for being here and supporting a human doing manual work with their brain.

This is going out late. But we still have a little of today left. Hope you are having fun. Thanks for reading. And hitting that like button late at night to say “I was here.” or “Cheers!” Or whatever it might mean. Always appreciated.

It’s June in a couple of days. Wow. See you in the feeds, or at a party, or a gig, or at a festival, or at Orwell’s grave. It’s gonna be a busy month.

“Beauty is not who you are on the outside, it is the wisdom and time you gave away to save another struggling soul like you.” ― Shannon L. Alder

Commune.

See you out there.

Over…

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A ❤️ is a high-five, a comment is a hug. A supporting subscription earns my undying love.

I’m Christian Payne, photographer, writer and casual prepper. In this weekly dispatch I attempt to sound lucid after squeezing every possible hour out a few days in Newcastle and Gateshead. I shall still seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, how we share, what we share and consume, plus where we might be going… Which for me, will soon be bed.

Thanks for joining in.

#TheAction

The montage at the top of this page is merely a glimpse into the experience that is the Thinking Digital Conference.

I was still adding to my slides on the train to Newcastle and despite having not delivered this particular workshop before, I easily filled the three hours with stories, discussion and practical ideas around everyday resilience.

Thankfully people were attentive and generous with what they brought to the conversation. There were participants offering everything from deep technical insight into zero-day vulnerabilities and the end of encryption, to improvised low-tech systems and even a few tongue-in-cheek zombie-specific contingency plans.

We covered all sorts of scenarios. There was no fear or paranoia. Just thoughtful conversation, a laugh in parts and a little seriousness when needed.

Community featured heavily and I came away convinced that “casual prepping” resonated because most people aren’t looking for underground bunkers. The Thinking Digital attendees want to be aware of the options, any useful skills, local connections and a chance to exercise their creativity. Oh and they really like gadgets.

As it was my first time running through this, my timekeeping could have been better and I must remember to drop in a slide of a composting loo somewhere in the deck where the break should be.

Ultimately I feel everyone left with the knowledge of how to survive at least 72 hours without access to basic essentials.

If you think a workshop that explores everyday resilience and slow tech backup systems might suit someone or somewhere you know, let me know and I might roll it out again.

As ever Thinking Digital was an eclectic mix of people working across technology, creativity, infrastructure, psychology and systems thinking.

I particularly enjoyed Wil Cheung on aurora chasing, a powerful talk from Alex Partridge on ADHD, the hilarious comedian Valeria Vulpe and some brilliant magic from Paul Innes that I’m still trying to figure out.

I won’t talk about the internet based solutions for dogs abandoned at home, as if you’ve left them at home all day the last thing they need is a doggy doomscroll. Just pay a dog walker to drop by.🙄

Once again the really special part of the conference is the catching up with fellow nerds between the talks. Some of whom have been attending since 2009. We’ve seen a whole lot of change in that time and I don’t see the rate of change ever slowing down.

The Thinking Digital conference is still a highlight of my year and I applaud Herb, Beatriz and the team for keeping it fun, informative, friendly and as relevant as ever.

#TheSeen

Earlier in the week I went to the theatre at The Straw Yard.

‘We’re all right’ was a crazy conspiracy riddled cult fest from the Tideline Runners Theatre Company. I’m still thinking about it.

I first met Tom at Thinking Digital many years ago and it’s about time I shared another one of his widely watched videos.

Last year I hardly documented my visit to Cragside in this dispatch so am glad that Tom has done a proper job in this video. It’s a great tour of an amazing place. I love his corrections and connections. Especially the Armstrong Zuckerberg one. Both fascinating dangerous nerds.

All of the slides in my TDC deck were created by me using real photos. All but one taken by myself and that one stock image was CC licensed.

But there was a surprising amount of Generative AI in the speaker presentations at TDC26. So much that it was distracting and I didn’t hear some of what was said as I was counting fingers on hands.

I did see that one deck had placed a Gemini logo on synthetic images, but I’d like to see events have some kind of policy in place. Especially for academic talks.

Even if it just advises speakers avoid deceptive or misleading synthetic media, including cloned voices, fabricated screenshots, or fake people presented as real.

I feel this would go a long way toward adding transparency to talks that can sometimes feel disingenuous, while also reinforcing the authenticity of what’s being presented.

I have added a glimpse of my human made slides to the bottom of this dispatch for supporting subscribers.

#TheWords

Took me six years to read this. Ok, I lost it for a while, then only half heartedly dipped into it till recently while genning up for the workshop.

Part history, part science, part resilience manual, the book argues that preserving practical knowledge may be one of civilisation’s most important safeguards. It’d be handy to have this book in your library for that reason alone, but it should certainly not be treated as a guide to surviving the apocalypse as it’s less a survival manual and more a book about understanding the hidden scaffolding of civilisation.

You won’t find tales of derring-do or step-by-step survival instructions, but you may come away with a deeper understanding of systems thinking and the fragile complexity of modern life. 4/5

And this was a curveball choice.

A fascinating read and I kind of do and don’t want it to be all true. I’ve a feeling a large chunk of it isn’t, but the general trajectory of Genisis P.Orridge is crazy as hell. Even if embellished and warped.

I started reading this because I wanted to know more about the band Throbbing Gristle who basically invented industrial music in the late 70’s. And I did learn a lot in the book about the band, but it was wrapped up in an awful lot of other stuff. Stories that kept me reading… but that on the whole I felt they might be an attempt at retrospectively polishing the reputation of a difficult person that did some dark things.

#TheHeard

This is the album 20 Jazz Funk Greats by Throbbing Gristle. (FYI there are not 20 Jazz funk greats on this LP.)

Throbbing Gristle built on the existing experimental noise and electronic art music scene with this album and are generally regarded as the group that fermented those ideas into what eventually became industrial music.

It’s a fascinating album that I’m glad I have in the collection, but I’ve got to be in the mood to put it on. Think warped synth-pop-lounge-music, mixed with eerie disco snippets and some ambient electronics.

It’s a sinister, dark-electro-cheese mix of music from the future. The cover of the album is shot at Beachy Head. A popular suicide spot. And creepy as it is in places, it can also make you smile.

Backpack Studio the fully featured editing app is now Backpack Studio 3 and I’ve been testing and reporting bugs to its creator Ed. It’s still a great bit of kit with far too many features for me to mention now, but as an example I took this old audio track I made on the iOS GarageBand app , added it to Backpack Studio and exported it with a photo and some auto generated captions into a video.

I could have easily added a live voice intro explainer or exit jingle, anything shared to the phone or recorded with it. Lots of possibilities.

With Audio Bloggers Month (#AudioMo) starting in June, it might be something you’d like to try.

I’m not kidding when I say I’ve had the song ‘The Windmills of Your Mind’ by Dusty Springfield as an ear worm for almost three weeks now. It’s not a bad song but I’m sick of catching myself whistling or la-la-la-ing it. I figure if I share it with you it might cancel the curse.

Also… Have you seen how many cool covers of this there are?

#TheConsumed

This is a slide from my casual prepping deck showing what we are currently growing.

If you are also growing food I’d be really interested to know what’s working for you. Comment below always welcome.

One of our Purple Plum Radishes is enough to make a salad on its own.

#TheThings

The Flipper One looks really interesting as it’s claimed to be a truly open Linux platform you can build almost anything on. It might i’d find it too steep of a learning curve.

OK. I tested the Petrol powered log splitter and it’s not a tool for me.

Yes it did a fantastic job… and with a 15 ton splitting pressure, you’d expect it to. It made light work of the knottiest wood, but there was something about it being petrol. I know the good bits. Being petrol not only makes it more portable, but it can deliver more power to the blade.

But I don’t suffer petromasculinity and much prefer the far quieter, less smelly and let’s face it, cheaper-to-run electric versions. (Electric is free on a sunny day.) It might be that I will need to chainsaw my logs a little smaller to start with, but the quieter, cleaner and easier to maintain electric option is for me.

I spotted this mystery car outside my hotel window this morning. It has that special camouflage on that is designed to obscure panel gaps, body creases and proportions. It looks like it might be the new Mazda CX 6e.

#TheLinks

• Four years before Vine popped up (mentioned in the following linked article), we had Seesmic, 12seconds and Phreadz. Eighteen years ago… and I can confidently say short form video never got better than this. What we have now is invasive artificial and exhausting. Read these interesting thoughts on the possible end of short form video.

• A fascinating animation showing the spread of Christianity.

• Have you added yourself to the Documentally community map?

• The feed is fake.

• Things can be true in one context and false in another. The case against boolean-thinking.

• Some of my other places include these… plus Strava for documenting exercise, my audio RSS feed stores recordings, LinkedIn for… not sure what that’s for, Mastodon for decentralised social. Supporting subscribers also get access to a Discord server. Message me for a link. 👍🏽

• I get to meet all the cool people. And it doesn’t have to be at a tech conference. Today I bumped into Georgia Brown on the train. She’s an astro biologist heading to a local conference with the UK Environmental Law Association. She will be there talking about Space Law and Planetary Protection. The latter being a scientific/ethical field focused on preventing biological contamination between Earth and other worlds. You’d think we were too busy contaminating our own planet to have time to ruin others. Great to know some people are laying down the law though. Anyway, Georgia is close to 1000 followers on Bluesky and does fascinating work so why not follow her.

• I also met a hiker who packed impressively light. She was heading into the wilds of Scotland to bivy and dreamt of starting a hiking lodge in France. I think her name was Dylan. I hope she follows her dreams.

• I wonder if the fact you can’t google the word ‘disregard’ is some kind of joke?

#TheThanks

Special thanks to those supporting subscribers who pay a small amount every month to receive this dispatch and all other content. You keep it going. ♥️

If you are in a position to be able to pay a little to keep these words, ideas and curation happening, please consider an upgrade by clicking this button…

Upgrade to paid

Or if you prefer a random hat tip you can do that via PayPal

Pay what you like via PayPal

or Monzo …Either way… Thank you for being here and supporting a human doing manual work with their brain.

Thanks for reading. This was a bit of a rush job from a tired mind, started on the train in Newcastle and now finished at my desk at home. I hope you found something of interest. I now plan to catch up on some sleep and prepare for a weekend outside.

Have a great week!

“The more we know the easier it is to survive. Knowledge dispels fear.”

― John ‘Lofty’ Wiseman

Survive,

See you out there.

Over…

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I’m Christian Payne, autotelic over-sharer. I also take photos, capture audio and write this dispatch. This is where I seek out novelty, ponder where we are going and explore the relations between things.

Thanks for joining in.

#TheAction

The last few days has seen me assembling slides for a workshop I’ve been asked to deliver at the Thinking Digital conference. I’m almost there.

The brief is on their website and if you’re keen to go to the conference, the workshop sessions are free for ticket holders to attend but fill up fast. My workshop will explore what resilience looks like in a world built on fragile infrastructure.

There’s also some standard tickets to the main event which is well worth the money.

I’ve had to take a step back from the day-to-day in order to reframe the short to longterm aims of the life we’d like to have here.

It’s been a year and things are really coming together. The land is being shaped, solar and portable battery storage has grown, as has our arsenal of manual tools. Some back up systems are in place and we have enough fuel to keep us warm for a few years.

We are building our networks and learning from the locals. My Mother in Law (head of vegetable operations and chief grower) is already bringing in a steady flow of produce and the freezer is filling up faster than expected.

The land has its own agenda though and there’s always something. Being resilient does not mean never struggling. It means continuing through disruption with preparation, adaptability, redundancy and community.

As you can see from the top photo I have also acquired a serious log splitter. What was I just saying about community? ;-) A local arborist has kindly loaned it me free of charge for a couple of days. It’s their baby petrol splitter and at 15 ton it’s three times the power of the one I borrowed from a neighbour. Also three times the cost and about 10 times the noise.

I’ll get to grips with it over the weekend and see how it compares to the £400 quid one.

My daughter completed her Duke of Edinburghs Bronze Award. Dead proud.

Personally I’d love to work through Bronze, Silver and Gold today. As a youth I only did the expeditions. I feel it did wonders for my my camp craft and I can still read a map. That said, today my metaphorical compass fails to point in the direction I should be travelling in. The needle is attracted to all the interesting things. And everything is interesting.

Let’s see where this particular journey takes us today.

#TheSeen

This video is 13 years old now but still relevant. Probably more so.

I found it via a blog post by Terrance Eden’s on the unintended consequences of gamification.

And I got my fair share of big screen time in this week… I started with ‘One Battle After Another’.

Lots to enjoy in this. The music, the action, the acting, the plot.

Great movie. 4.5/5

Also watched ‘Fear And Loathing in Aspen’.

It was ok. I managed it all the way through. So that’s something. This story should be definitely be a film, but perhaps not this one.

Fair play for keeping hunter’s memory alive though. 3/5

Finally, speaking of resilience… last night I watched The Punisher: One last Kill. It’s only 50 mins long.

I stumbled upon it and thought it was a fan flick wondering “...how the hell did they get Jon Bernthal!?” Then I realised it was a kind of lead up for an upcoming Spiderman Movie.

Glad it exists, but being a massive fan of the comics I miss Micro(chip). :-) 3/5

#TheWords

Just finished reading Outlaw Journalist about Hunter S. Thompson.

The author William Mckeen tried to see past the drug fuelled mad man and does a pretty good job. He met HST and although doesn’t worship him in this text... he certainly outlined the good the bad and the ugly.

He describes Hunter’s writing strategy and occasional discipline. As well as the manipulation, addiction and cruelty to those around him. Also his final self destruction.

Hunter S Thompson was a troubled man. But where did the persona end and the man actually begin? Even when considering his work now historical, it will offend many. A self proclaimed omni-bigot, he also spent much of his writing life attacking racist political systems, was a staunch anti-authoritarian and could be incredibly kind to fans.

Writer, celebrity, characature and while a difficult human being, I think he was one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century. Perhaps even the godfather of all bloggers who document the act of getting the story and so become the story.

We might also attribute the ‘Mojo’ of mobile Journalism to him. Back in the 70’s and 80’s he’d submit text copy using a precursor to the fax machine called the Xerox Magnafax Telecopier aka (his words) ‘the mojo wire’. Now that’s old school mobile journalism.

“I think it is time for morphine” — D.H Lawrence (Last words)

#TheHeard

On the one day I didn’t have to get up early, I found myself in that blissful place on the edge of sleep. The sun was already up and the birds in full song. The wren, chaffinch, robin, wood pigeon and crow are often among the regulars but then a cuckoo piped up.

The first i’d heard while living in Scotland. I could not resist it. I half opened an eye, reached for my phone and muscle memory opened the app Merlin bird ID. The cuckoo call was feint but I figured that if I put my phone by the open window I’d be able to grab it and add it to my virtual collection.

My half opened eye saw the relatively rare capture populate my screen. But I’m meant to catch a glimpse of it before I can log it. It sounded close.

But it wasn’t. Right then, I heard my eldest, (who’s home on study leave) stomp out of their room to my daughters room (who was doing her Duke of Edinburgh award) and disconnect her alarm clock. That sounds just like a cuckoo.

Ah the cuckoo. A natural imposter in the nests of many birds, didn’t even need to be real to impose upon our sleep and my hopes of a rare capture.

One of my favourite podcasts went someway to comfort me with my decision on how to use AI tools. They agree that the trick is not to use AI chatbots as an answer box… use them as a thinking companion.

The Artificial Human episode: Is AI the future of learning?

There’s a new firmware update for the Zoom H1 essential. They have added input gain adjustment (despite it being 32bit float and not really needing it), ai noise reduction and MP3 recording and export. The latter probably explains the addition of input gain.

#TheConsumed

I thought I’d try this hazy IPA from Lucky Saint. They have rave reviews about their lager.

I think the 0.5% on the can donates the percentage of taste that relates to a hazy IPA. It pours and looks like the business but has all the notes and flavour I imagine you’d experience if licking the yeasty residue from the bottom of the Wilcos brewing tub after bottling your cheap home-brew. I’ll give it a 2/5 as it’s vegan, low calorie, wet and they at least had a go at a hazy IPA and made a brilliant movie prop.

This only came in a four pack costing £6. Someone is making a killing out of this. Also… I just googled to see what others out there thought and in some places it’s been given five stars! WTF. Hold on. I’ll open another can to make sure I’d not been sucking a polo before supping…..

Now I’m getting salty, metallic and dry. Perhaps it’s growing on me, as this tasted far less of yeast dregs. I’ll bump my rating up to 2.1 out of 5

#TheBody

I went on a bit about that beer above and filled up that last section, so am dropping this here…

Click the pic above or here to read the article in the Guardian.

If you have the space, grow your own veg. If you don’t have the space, try to find a gardener happy to trade.

#TheFound

I found another free to use phone box. This one was in the village of Cranshaws.

I know they monitor the numbers of calls made per year to see if these phones are worth maintaining, so I had fun phoning a few people while waiting for my daughter. I say use them or loose them!

#TheThings

You may have noticed that my relationship with tools has changed. I still keep an eye out on the latest image and audio gathering tools. I was quite tempted by this film camera from Kodak and this recorder from Zoom. Mics and sensors with more sensitivity will always excite me. But on hovering over the ‘buy button’ I remind myself that I might already have a few devices that will do almost exactly the same. Or at lease come incredibly close.

Now I’m increasingly drawn to tools that can carry, split, dig, hone, grow or repair.

Not just the solar charged battery driven options... Far simpler, tried and tested tech. A blade, an axe, a hammer and more recently a wheelbarrow.

There’s no connectivity or endless updates but they do need maintenance and often promise some kind of optimisation of my workflow. That is in my ability to help me work with the physical world. Reliably. Hopefully for decades.

Both the axe and the wheelbarrow come with a lifetime guarantee. Despite having fully operational cameras decades old in my collection, A lifetime guarantee is not something I’ve ever experienced with all my other precariously held together boxes of components and glass.

This is my latest acquisition. It’s looks like a wheelbarrow but I’m told by the paperwork it’s an Agri Barrow (TM). I think it’s popular for carrying a lot of horse shit but not having any horses I’ve been testing it with logs and wood chip. That’s 50 shovels of chip in the one pictured above.

So much fun.

#TheLinks

• I enjoyed reading The Boring Internet - (Via LJ in the Wire Backchannel)

• Have you added yourself to the Documentally community map?

• Jeez. If I was worried about appearing cringe I would not do and say most things. I certainly would not open up in this newsletter. But apparently Gen Zs big fear is appearing cringe.

• There have been a few sites online where you can tag stories to places. I used to ask my friend Richard Mackney to hack together maps where I could tie multimedia to the spots on journeys I was undertaking, or festivals I was attending. This site AMapOf.Us calls itself a collective atlas of human experience.

• Should you not feel a certain site is worth subscribing to and desperately need to remove a paywall, then the aptly named https://removepaywalls.com/ has your back. Just paste your link, then work through the option buttons till you can get in. Should you need to bypass the paywalls on my archived posts and audio then click here.

• Some of my other places include these… plus Letterboxd for film logging, Strava for documenting exercise, Untappd for new beers I might sample, my audio RSS feed stores recordings, Mastodon for decentralised social oversharing, and LinkedIn is a last resort should no one subscribe to this dispatch, Bluesky occasionally and foto when I remember. Supporting subscribers also get access to a Discord server. Message me for a link. 👍🏽

• The last great weed smuggler

• Fear simplifies people, anger channels them and curiosity and creativity resists control. The less we imagine, the easier we are to manipulate. Great article from the Next Web that explores how the most radical act in an age of outrage is to play.

#TheThanks

Thank you very much if you support my words and musings here. Especially those supporting subscribers who pay a small amount every month to receive this dispatch and all other content. You really do keep it going. ♥️

This week I’d also like to thank Bee Lilyjones who is a naturalist who writes about people place and nature. She is also my most recent supporting subscriber ,so please go and check out her own publication linked here. Cheers Bee!

If you’re in a position to be able to pay a little to keep these words, ideas and curation happening, please consider an upgrade by clicking this button…

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Just got told we are off to the theatre tonight so am rushing to finish. Please remember all errors are sign of life.

This weekend will be all about splinters and rehydration. Next week is a busy one as I head down to Newcastle and Gateshead for the yearly pilgrimage to the Thinking Digital Conference. Hope to see you there.

Thank you for reading. Have a great week!

“Music has always been a matter of Energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel. I have always needed Fuel. I am a serious consumer. On some nights I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.”

― Hunter S. Thompson

No fear.

See you out there.

Over…

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No cheating but the original post has the answers.

A ❤️ is a high-five, a comment is a hug. A supporting subscription earns my undying love.

I’m Christian Payne, photographer, writer and casual prepper. I’m told that this weekly dispatch (where I seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, plus where we might be going) will be truncated by your email provider. If in doubt, read it online to get the full experience.

And thanks for joining in!

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[Content warning: This podcast mentions suicide, substance abuse, self harm, addiction, depression and sexual abuse.]

Twenty Years ago I recorded a podcast with my friend Glen Wilson. That podcast features in the longer piece of audio above.

Glen died this week.

Here is the original tex…

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I’m Christian Payne, photographer and writer.

In this weekly dispatch I have no idea how to get started, but by the end I hope we’ve been able to seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, how we share, what we share and consume, plus where we might be going.

Thanks for opening this email.

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I’m Christian Payne. Autotelic, analogical thinker and collector of unnecessarily pretentious openings. If you’re new here, welcome.

Click all the buttons. Especially the heart. Love makes reality better than your dreams. We could all use more of that right now.

In this weekly dispatch I seek out novelty, connection, what we share and consume, plus where we might be heading. Thanks for joining in.

#TheAction

A week of sunshine frolics and drama.

The first frolic came straight after posting the last dispatch when I headed to a gig in Berwick. A late birthday present I shall share more about below.

Then the following day was Record Store Day. I had no plans for joining the queue this year, despite it being a regular in my diary for a long time. But living where we do there is nothing within about 60 miles. A dedicated record store in Berwick Upon Tweed would clean up (…Just saying).

But as I was to be chaperoning my kids into Newcastle so they could go do their own thing, I figured I’d go and see what was left. After a shout out in my last dispatch John Hill messaged and we arranged to meet up. With someone with such great local knowledge it was a no brainer that we should go explore the local record shops and ale houses.

As it was lunch time the queues were manageable but all the records I might have invested in were gone. Luckily John got what he was after and the bars had more than enough ale to keep us merry.

I was kind of happy that the records I was keen on were all gone, as purchasing five records in one day would be a chunk of cash at today’s prices. Plus I am always easily tempted in among the frenzy of people vying for limited stock.

But all was not lost as you will find out in a bit (also down below).

The main drama of the week came on a dog walk. There is so much wildlife around our way that you might see deer, hares, badgers, birds of prey and who knows what else on a single dog walk. Deer often being more common than rabbits.

I’m pretty careful to make noise with a hand clap or a whistle when rounding a hedge or cresting a hill, but sometimes it’s not enough to warn wildlife that we’re approaching.

This photo was taken a few minutes before the dog chased and caught a deer. And not a small one.

The deer are always super quick and can leap massive fences. Apart from on this occasion.

We must have approached the woods downwind, with the sun behind us. There was a roe deer in the shadows, invisible to me, but the dog caught it’s scent.

She was off before I could put her on the lead and although the deer ran it must have struggled in the ploughed field as it bounced off the fence.

The dog got caught the deer’s leg and as I sprinted towards the screaming deer, I was shouting at the dog to let go. I tried everything but the she was in that primal mode I’ve only seen once before. As I got to the deer and grabbed at the dog she managed to go for the deer’s throat and started dragging the huge terrified animal, keeping it between us.

Every time I tried to get round the deer the dog would rotate her prey. I’ve no idea if she thought this was some kind of game, or if I was in competition with her. It took me jumping over the deer and lunging at the dog collar to get a grip. Still she would not let go and the deer looked done for. It had stopped screaming and the body was now limp.

I twisted the dog collar and for a micro second she loosed her grip and I was able to pull her off. The deer’s head flopped to the floor and I had to straddle the dog with my arms round her to keep her away. There was no blood. On the deer, or round my dogs mouth. I was thinking she must have strangled it.

Just then the deer’s eyes opened, it stumbled to its feet and ran off towards the woods. As the dog struggled in my arms, I held tight and got her on the lead. Utterly relieved the deer would get to live another day.

A part of me wondered if it was functioning on adrenaline when it ran away. And that perhaps it had then collapsed from shock. So later that evening I returned to search the scene and surrounding fields with my daughter. We saw some deer in the distance running away from us. Nothing else out of place. As the sun set we were glad that all seemed well.

#TheSeen

A few snaps taken in Edinburgh. (Larger resolution on Bluesky)

Been watching the cartoon Final Space with my daughter. I know we’re only 7 years late…

We are one season in with two more to go. Sad that it was cancelled after series three with no finale, but there’s a graphic novel coming out soon to tie up loose ends.

#TheWords

Just finished the book ‘Bound for Glory’ by Woody Guthrie.

As it drifts through the American Depression with a mix of poetic travel writing, grit and humour, it restored in me a yearning to travel. Not the penniless vagabonding of the book. Something as romantic and rewarding, but with less coal dust and fewer blisters.Trains, music, hunger, more music and people punctuate a blurred landscape. It felt short for an autobiography, but I enjoyed these myth-making tales from the road.

Guthrie is one of those voices I’ve long enjoyed in song and this book read like I was along for the journey, listening to stories from the man himself.

#TheHeard

So… about this gig I went to see at the amazing Straw Yard in Berwick Upon Tweed… My wife bought tickets to a band called Driven Serious and we had no idea what to expect. She had just seen ‘folk-rock and unplugged’ and thought it sounded cool.

It was. From the off.

On entering the venue I spotted someone in purple flares, flowery shirt and hat. I assumed this must be the singer. He was. After talking for a bit he asked me where I was from. I said lots of places but recently Cambridgeshire. He then said “And Rugby?”

I looked back gone out.

“It’s me Rob Jones.” he said.

The weird thing was that I had recognised his voice the moment he spoke, but in the almost 30 years since hanging around in the same spaces, I struggled to place him. It took a while for my mind to register. We knew all the same people, had been hanging out in the same places and this was another one of those serendipitous moments this place gifted me.

Berwick never fails to deliver these mad moments and music always feels like the alchemy behind them.

The band were cool. Talented nerds all playing their hearts out. It was like a bunch of travelling minstrels had dropped into town to entertain and enlighten us. Such fun. One of the best nights in Berwick so far.

This is their website.

Three days after the official Record Store Day I found myself in Edinburgh. I mooched around and checked out what was left from RSD.

There was more than I expected and was surprised to find The Doors Strange Days Part Two which I’ll be honest was a bit meh… But I also bagged Buddy Guy Sweet Tea. Which is bloody amazing. Click on the pic to hear the album.

I found both these records in the store Underground Solution (pictured in the montage above).

This means there is only three more records missing from my want list and I have a funny feeling Ian from my old local record store Vinyl Revival UK might be able to fix that. I’ll let you know more next week.

Around the same time I was in similar spaces as Rob Jones from Driven Serious, I was playing in a few bands. One was called ‘P-Funk and the Funky Monkeys’. We (Nathan, Ed, Georgi and me) obviously had no connection with the Sci-Fi-esq Parliament or the psychedelic Funkadelic. The name was just inspired by them.

[Seven years ago I shared a track I recorded with them in the Documentally podcast channel. Supporting subscribers can revisit that here.]

My role was to sing, play harmonica and didgeridoo. And when I say sing, In this instance I mean make noises. This song entitled ‘Georgi’s Son’ was jammed out both to commemorate the birth of fellow band member Gorgi’s first child, but also written in a way the child might enjoy it.

There are few legible words and an obvious hat-tip to a new group on the scean called the Teletubbies. Other inspirations might include THC, LSD and Tannat.

Be careful. This could steal seven minutes of your life.

At the bottom of this post is another track written by a lovesick, angstridden me about 28 years ago. It’s the kind of song that was blurted out, ad-libbed and raw into my Minidisc recorder. A quick vent more than anything else, with bonus therapy.

It has never seen the light of day. And probably never should. So I’ve dropped it under the paywall for the more invested of you, who I know will treat it kindly, or at least for what it is… the product of a young, jilted version of me.

#TheConsumed

I saw a small tub of Schwartz whole bay leaves for £5.11. This stuff grows on bushes!

And we’re planning a hedge of the stuff. Perhaps I should consider a mail order sideline for supporting subscribers.

Next week let’s talk about rhubarb. Sheesh.

#TheBody

The company I did my DNA test with asked me if I wanted to do a trial to see if I was a ‘gifted baker’. It’s a bit niche, but I do enjoy baking so I answered a questionnaire and offered up my anonymised DNA data to see what came back.

I’ll not be rushing off to start a bakery but it appears I might be an above average baker.

It looks at a selection of markers associated with tasting etc. But that was far less interesting to some of the other results the test flagged. Over the years I have found the perfect time for me to have my single coffee of the day is around 10 am and if I have a second coffee or one early/late afternoon I have a terrible night’s sleep.

It seem that the reason is this:

“Your genotype is associated with slower caffeine metabolism. Your body takes longer to clear caffeine, so its effects, including alertness, restlessness and potential sleep disruption, might linger for longer.”

It sure does. One coffee does me fine and also keeps the habit cheep.

Another trait that was flagged and I will be continuing to flaunt is this:

“You are likely to have a higher threshold for heat and pain, meaning discomfort from minor burns, heat exposure or small injuries registers less acutely. In a busy kitchen this can be an advantage, as working near hot ovens, handling warm trays or managing the occasional knock may feel less disruptive to your focus and workflow.”

I’m regularly accused of having asbestos hands and any injuries around the land have to be pretty severe for me to reach for the painkillers.

I know this is all a bit of a gimmick but i’ve never had this much access to data relating to my genetic make up and it’s fascinating knowing some of my ‘quirks’ may well be hard coded.

#TheFound

While walking the dog i’ll often find potsherds in the fields. (A potsherd being a fragment of pottery. The ‘sherd’ is a reference to ceramics as a ‘shard’ is to glass.)

No idea how these pieces (one possibly dating back 200 odd years) find their way into what sometimes feels like the middle of nowhere. I used to wonder if a farm worker was taking their best crockery out into the fields for lunch.

Most likely it’s the site of an old cottage, near an old tip or meeting place, or perhaps household rubbish was chucked on a dung heap and it found it’s way into the muck spreader.

I searched online for ‘blue transferware of man and woman fishing’ to see if I could find the one pictured on the left anywhere. No joy. I’ll continue to save up the pieces and when I have enough I might go find some kind of expert who might be able to shed some light on these finds.

#TheThings

I like big batts and I cannot lie.

Picked up this recently. It’s to run the radios in my field station but should there be a power outage, it can go with my other stand-by sources.

It’s big enough to charge my phone 70 times, my laptop about 20 and could run a fridge for two days. It can also boil a kettle 15 times, although i’d mostly boil water on a fire in a power cut as we’re not short of wood.

#TheLinks

• Battery tech for EV’s is on the up again with some impressive new charge speeds.

• Have you added yourself to the Documentally community map?

• A boom of independent bookstores, just when we need them most.

• My Italian Grandmother always called the wardrobe the garderobe and now I finally know why.

• Some of my other places include these… plus Letterboxd for film logging, Discogs for my physical music collection, Strava for documenting exercise, Untappd for new beers I might sample, my audio RSS feed stores recordings, Vivino for questionable wine reviews, YouTube for vlogging, Mastodon for decentralised social, a ham radio newsletter, foto for random photos, or search ‘Documentally’ on Wire and Bluesky. Plus ask me if you’d like to connect on Signal.. 👍🏽

• And the best customer service award this week goes to… Sam and Harvey.

• We need more repair mode rather than growth mode.

• Everybody needs a cultural atlas.

#TheThanks

Thank you very much if you share and link to my posts. I’m sure it all goes some way to getting the word out to any curious folk who might find something of use here.

And super special thanks to those supporting subscribers who pay a small amount every month to receive this dispatch and all other content. You really do keep it going. Thank you. ♥️

If you are in a position to be able to pay a little to keep these words, ideas and curation happening, please consider an upgrade by clicking this button…

Upgrade to paid

Or if you prefer a random hat tip, you can do that via PayPal

Pay what you like via PayPal

All errors in this dispatch are signs of life.

I may be back in Edinburgh next week but i’ll mostly be tending to the land etc. If there is anything you’d like to know about the things I haven’t said, ping. Till then, have a great weekend and enjoy the weather.

“If you hit a wrong note, it’s the next note that you play that determines if it’s good or bad.” – Miles Davis

Sing.

See you out there.

Over…

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A ❤️ is a high-five, a comment is a hug. A supporting subscription earns my undying love.

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I’m Christian Payne, generalist. Depth is useful. Breadth is how you know where to dig.

In this weekly dispatch I seek out novelty, explore the relations between things and ponder where we might be going.

Thanks for joining in.

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Way back in the archives I state that this weekly dispatch is about ‘Exploration’. About how I might examine how social trends shape the way people interact, connect and share stories. I also say I’m interested in exploring how personal identity is shaped by new and unconventional ideas. All that still stands… But sometimes I just like to chew the cud a…

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I’m Christian Payne, photographer, tinkerer and this week, wannabe panpsychist. More on that below.

Thanks for joining in.

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How do.

I’ve opted for a stream of consciousness this week. So no intro to who I am and no separate headings.

I’m pretty sure you remember who’s writing this, despite me identifying as different stuff depending on what I’m doing. This week I’m in full lumberjack mode as I attempt to process a mountain of wood. The longer I leave it the tougher it gets to …

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I’m Christian Payne, flâneur, photographer and writer. In this weekly dispatch I explore connection, community and the tools that shape how we share.

Thanks for joining in.

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I’m Christian Payne, photographer and writer. In this weekly dispatch I explore connection, community and the tools that shape how we share.

Thanks for joining in.

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I’m Christian Payne, smallholder, photographer and writer. Thanks for supporting this weird little publication..

#TheAction

I can’t remember ever feeling like I was working more than my body could handle. At least not since I did a few weeks of potato picking. Or was it a few days. I can’t quite remember. All I remember were the aches and pains akin to how you feel the morning after being flung from a motorbike into a hedge at hight speed. Done that too.

So yes. Sitting down to write this is a welcome break from some of the heavy lifting I’ve been doing round the land. Not that I’m complaining. It’s more like i’m enjoying it so much i’m forgetting to rest my body.

An update on the volunteering at the Swan and wildlife trust. The once skinny underfed hedgehogs are putting on a healthy amount of weight in preparation for their release and the signets are rapidly becoming swans. Also soon to head back to the wild.

The unread Daily Mail newspapers you see in the pile serve a noble role in the hedgehog hospital… Despite already being full of shit the papers are still surprisingly absorbent and can take all the wee and poo the hedgehogs have to offer. And believe me… Hungry hedgehogs like to poo.

[Although I’m fully aware of the viral potential of showing a Mail headline covered in poo, I prefer to leave that magnificent art piece to your imagination.]

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I’m Christian Payne, photographer, writer, tinkerer. In this weekly dispatch I seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, how we share, what we share and consume, plus where we might be going.

All errors are proof of life. Thanks for joining in.

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I’m Christian Payne, photographer and writer. This is my writing face. In this weekly dispatch I seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, how we share, what we share and consume, plus where we might be going. Thanks for joining in.

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I’m Christian Payne, photographer and writer. This is my weekly exploration of novelty, connection and the direction we seem to be heading.

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I’m Christian Payne, noticer of things, enthusiast of the everyday, photographer and writer. In this weekly dispatch I seek out novelty, explore connections, how we share, what we share and consume, plus where we might be going.

Thanks for being here.

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I’m Christian Payne, photographer and writer. Normally in this dispatch, I seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, how we share, what we share and consume, plus where we might be going.

Thanks for joining in.

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