New ways of seeing [279]

Greetings from my shed...

What are you looking for?

Maybe it’s here.

---

#TheAction

Had a great week. I think the weather helped.

After a scorching hot and very successful yard sale at the weekend, the most comfortable place to be was in the water.

Swimming in a local lake followed by some paddle-boarding did a great job of hitting the reset button.

To finish the weekend I jumped on the bike to meet friends for beers in a meadow. We had all cycled there and I’m not sure about the others but I always feel like a kid if i’m meeting up on a bike. Even with my frame bag packed with beer and icepacks.

[If I could go back to any part of my youth it would be age thirteen, CB radio on my handle bars and what felt like all the freedom in the world.]

Back to later this week and while out walking the dog I spotted a hot air balloon descend on the local school. It was hard to miss.

I took a few snaps and posted them to Twitter. Not long after they were on various news sites. Must have been a quiet news day.

Then, while the weather was still hotter than hell, I cycled 32 miles with my Brother-in-law.

I noticed a split in my tyre just before we set off. But both tyre and tube held out on my longest ride on my bargain eBay purchase. I’m now wondering if I should go tubeless on my new bike. Thoughts?

While we sweat it out on the bikes, my wife was climbing Snowdon on a work team building exercise. So it’s been adventure all round in our house. Especially with my daughter getting to see the hot air balloon land. I mentioned to Virgin Balloon Flights that I once had a ticket for a flight but it had expired. Next day in the post there were three free tickets. Looks like I’ll get to tick that off my bucket list after all.

---

#ThePictures

This is a fantastic experiment i’m still tying to get my head around.

---

Most of the ham radio operators round my way are older than me. Some of them are old enough to remember the second world war. As a result war stories abound. Unlike some of these ex-service members I’m not into the glorification of war. It’s mostly those too young to have witnessed battlefields littered with bodies.

But I do like a good story highlighting the human condition. Especially in conditioned humans. This is one such story.

There is more on what is now called the Franz Stigler and Charlie Brown incident in this moving video.

---

#TheSound

It’s day eighteen of #AudioMo! a.k..a Audio bloggers month. So far i’ve still just recorded single takes to the phone and posted to Twitter but i’m aching to edit something bigger. My #AudioMo posts so far…

Day 01 / Day 02 / Day 03 / Day 04 / Day 05 / Day 06 / Day 07 / Day 08 / Day 09 / Day 10 / Day 11 / Day 12 / Day 13 / Day 14 / Day 15 / Day 16 / Day 17 / Day 18 to come.

---

Brian Eno has a radio station.

---

Both myself and the kids enjoyed this Boring Talks podcast featuring farts.

---

#TheConsumed

This is my new favourite sandwich. It’s the origin story of salade niçoise.

Back in the 18th century, French fisherman on the Côte d’Azur would take something very similar out to sea. They would use yesterday’s baguette, rub it with garlic, moisten it with olive oil and stuff it with whatever was to hand. I think the oldest ingredients are black olives, tomatoes, anchovies and a hard-boiled egg.

And this is what I went with. But rather than use old bread, I used a freshly baked sourdough baguette. There was no need for seasoning. The salty anchovy sorts that out. For me this was the perfect summer sarnie and an amazing combination of flavours and texture.

It would be easy to overdo though. You could add some red pepper or a little onion as an experiment. Or swap the anchovy for a grind of sea salt for a veggie option. Maybe also swap the egg out for avocado if making a vegan version.

But for me, if I know we have garlic, olive oil, eggs, anchovy, tomatoes and black olives in the house… I’ll make this.

---

In both Italy and Spain I would see tomatoes sitting on chairs in the sun. Perhaps in order to ripen them. They looked something like this. But on a wooden chair or stool.

Not sure if this has any effect on ripening but it certainly has an effect on taste. If you keep your tomatoes in the fridge you might only have tasted bland versions of this amazing berry. If you have grown your own and eaten from the vine, then you’ll know exactly what I mean.

The tomato I used in the salade niçoise sarnie had been sitting in the sun for a good few hours. It made a huge difference to the taste but I’m not sure i’ll always be able to go to these lengths.

---

#TheThings

I have ordered the Wahoo Elemnt Bolt V2 cycle computer.

I’m finding myself checking maps on my phone a lot and I like the idea of plotting and sharing routes to ride. The Wahoo seems to speak to other apps like Komoot well.

---

I may now pay closer attention to junk shop paintings.

This abstract was bought for $5 from a thrift store and was later found to be the handiwork of David Bowie. Fancy a bid? It’s currently at over $50,000

---

#TheThanks

This is the spot where I thank paying subscribers. Those folk that drop the $5/month. Yup, only £3.60. The starting price of David Bowie painting. (Did I ever tell you my Mum was his neighbour in the 60’s?)

Anyway… Thank You for supporting this project. It means a lot to me.

If you are on the fence in regards to becoming a paid subscriber then why not pick today, right now, to sign up. To get all the content. To join the club, the tribe, this is partnership over patronage. This communication is a community. We do not need to be geographically close to be connected. We share curiosity and compassion. And I hope we can grow together.

---

#TheWeb

• Looking for a simpler way?

• Evolution of the dad.

• Have you added yourself to the Documentally community map?

• Fox News get’s a British accent.

• Japan makes a big bet on hydrogen.

• Glyphfinder is a handy little app.

• One in five cars made in Germany can be plugged in.

• Why people fall for conspiracy theories.

• This is a nice link to end with.

---

#TheEnd

Early next week I have some interesting work lined up. And this time next week i’ll probably still be sat at Orwell’s grave. Probably sending the subscriber email.

---

“Look at everything always as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time: Thus is your time on earth filled with glory.” ~ Betty Smith

---

Pull together.

See you out there.

Over…