Eudaimonia [549]
Greetings from The Borders...
I’m Christian Payne, Autotelic generalist with a love of wild places and stories that connect the dots.
I hope you don’t mind that this is early as I’m off to see Bob Dylan play live. It has been a lifelong wish I’ve somehow never managed till now. I hope. It still feels a bit unreal. He’s pretty old so I hope he can hang on. I’ll believe it’s really happening when I’m in the same room.
Anyway. Thanks for joining in.
#TheAction
The fireworks seemed to happen late this year.
There were also a few drones flying around the explosions and a part of me really wanted to see them get hit, to careen off, spinning uncontrollably like a winged Tie-fighter.
Didn’t happen though. So i’ll settle for the close up footage if I can find it.
I’ve also done a lot of climbing this week. (See top photo.)
Up on a roof to fix a chimney cowl for a neighbour, up a tree to trim some branches for someone in the village and up the side of my barn to see if it might hold an antenna.
The rest of the week I’ve been lunching with friends, making more cider and raking leaves. Lots of leaves. As we have 333 trees a very rough estimate (as I have not logged all the species) is that they will drop between 21 and 67 million leaves.
I’m not picking them all up.
As many as I can though. It’s all free compost. The rule of thumb seems ot be two parts green stuff (like grass) to one part brown (dead leaves).
“The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world.” ― Michael Pollan
#ThePictures
This week I watched Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Frankenstein.
Visually it is stunning with gothic tones, a touch of steampunk and far less horror than I expected. Jacob Elordi, at six foot five, brings surprising tenderness and emotional depth to the monster.
It is not a short film but the time flew by. Even so, the pacing felt slightly off and the story arc could have used more meat on the bones.
Expect more emotion than jump scares. It is a beautiful reinterpretation and well worth a watch.
Online it is getting a lot of stick for not staying true to the character, but the classic Frankenstein people seem to expect is already a mash up of decades of reinterpretation. Shelley’s creature was articulate and tragic. Stage plays turned him into a silent brute. Universal added the flat head and bolts and Hammer made the doctor the monster.
Modern versions reshape him again and again. The character has never been fixed. Reinvention is the tradition.
I feel del Toro’s Frankenstein is closer to the essence of Shelley’s original and I would have loved to see more of the creature out in the wild. Perhaps even a ten episode series.
This is amazing and adds a whole new meaning to forest school.
If you are a fan of adventure time you probably already know there is a new season of Fionna and Cake.
This is me.
#TheWords
I’m still reading through the Dungeon Crawler Carl series but queuing up some other things. These are apparently the best novels of 2025.
#TheSound
I guess I need to play a little Dylan. This one springs to mind.
And this is mindblowing…
Inspired by the story of Rosalia of Palermo. Here is a translation. (via Monkchips)
#TheConsumed
Been talking to John Hancox of ScottishFruitTrees.com. Hoping to get some professional advice in regards to maintaining an orchard.
I ran into a Chinese take-away with orders to get some noodles, (like a chow mein) some chips and a curry sauce. So that’s what I ordered and was given a bag. On returning home I discovered a tub containing chips and noodles mixed with curry sauce.
Apparently it’s a local delicacy round here.
#TheFound
Thanks to Dave Graham for using the power of commenting in the most usful of ways. He pointed out that what I thought was a butter/spreading knife last week is more likely a fish knife. I think he’s right.
Supporting subscribers will know that next week I’ve been asked to head into the Treasure Trove Unit in Edinburgh as they would like to see a couple of the things I have found while metal detecting.
They told me that anything over 300 years old is of interest and may be classed as treasure. In England (only a 1km from where I’m sitting) the rules recently changed and anything over 200 years old needs to be reported. As a result ‘treasure finds in England have reached a record high’.
#TheThings
This week we took delivery of our EasyBuild Polytunnel from Northern Polytunnels.
It’s a big investment so we did a fair bit of research before choosing who to go with.
Reading all the UK websites didn’t help much although some were better than others. Asking other growers helped far more. Knowing nothing in this field, I risked making a fool of myself on Reddit and in the forums by asking what I thought were silly questions. But people were kind and generous with their advice.
The same name kept coming up. Northern Polytunnels. They’re a family-run Lancashire company that has been manufacturing polytunnels since 1969. More than 50 years in the business and still going strong felt like a good sign.
In one thread a professional grower mentioned that their steel frames are more robust than many alternatives. This matters in a Scottish Borders winter. Although we feel fairly sheltered here, you never really know. Up on the hill behind us I saw one of their polytunnels that had survived Storm Arwen, even though the surrounding fields still show the damage. At first I wanted to buy it because it looked unused but the owner laughed that off. Another good sign.
The EasyBuild section of their site made it simple to design something that fit our plot and being able to visualise the size helped a lot.
The kit arrives pre cut and colour coded so it should be simple enough to put together. Ours is 13.5 metres long so we paid extra for installation.
We chose the UV-stabilised diffused cover for even light. It’s tear resistant and the tunnel has plenty of ventilation with roll-up sides and vent kits to manage humidity and reduce blight risk.
It is a big purchase but the customer service has been consistently excellent which has softened my usual buyer’s remorse. Now I am just excited to see it go up and to start planting.
As I slowly shift my camping gear into the new shed/kit store the mix of new and old gear always has me marvelling at the evolution of the tech. I love going out in cotton, wool and and leather. It feels timeless and natural. But it really is a different world compared to today’s outdoor gear.
My modern backpack contains a mix of old and new. My favourite socks are marino, my favourite boots are leather, my sleeping gear is a mixture of silk and polyester and my shirts capilene and cotton. The jacket I would save first in a fire is my Ventile expedition jacket. Big and heavy, but comfortable, quiet and all encompassing protection from the rain.
This (overly long) video compared the outdoor gear of 1925, 1975 and 2025. I must admit I skipped through a lot but loved seeing the evolution. Packing for a long trip has me lean towards the lighter gear, but day to day it’s the natural fabrics I love most.
#TheThanks
I promised supporting subscribers a private tour of a bit of the land and my new shed, so I’ve posted a little video at the bottom of this dispatch.
Thank you for supporting my time here with a few quid a month. Next time I see you, remind me and i’ll buy you a coffee.
If any subscribers feel moved to endorse this dispatch or offer a few lines that might convince others to take things to the next level, please do. Elena Marlowe (who i’m pretty sure is winding me up) set the bar with these words:
I felt my spirit called to rise to a higher plane, so I became a paid supporter. What I offered came back to me many times over, because in giving I helped strengthen the well we all draw from.
As Elena has shown, nothing is too cheesy. Nothing is too profound.
Plus upgrading to become a paid supporter really does keep this thing alive.
#TheWeb
The BBC is under attack and democracy could be next.
I am seeing more articles about people marrying an AI partner and I imagine it will feel normal within my lifetime. The Sky News presenter here seems disgusted. I also wonder if gaming companies will start licensing characters for marriage before someone decides it is unethical.
What if the aliens come and we just can’t communicate?
If you live in the US and are not on Documentally community map… Add yourself and let us know how things you are.
What socialism got right.
Ten thoughts on sports betting.
Kenya is among the fastest growing EV markets thanks to buy now pay later deals.
Some of my other places include these.
A tale of three customer service chatbots
The story behind a photo of a rare hyena in a ghost town.
#TheEnd
Thanks for reading!
All spelling and grammatical mistakes are sign of life.
Scroll down for the video if you’re a supporting subscriber, fare thee well to the rest of you yet to peak behind the veil.
Next week i’ll be doing stuff in nature again but also overseeing a large build. Weather permitting.
Right now i’m off to a gig!
Have a good one.
“Even if you don’t have all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don’t have that you don’t want.” — Bob Dylan’s dad
I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours.
See you out there.
Over…
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