Unmediated nature [526]
Greetings from The Borders...
I’m Christian Payne, autotelic. In this weekly dispatch (that appears to be getting later) I seek out novelty, explore the relations between things, how we share, what we share and consume, plus where we might be going... Hell in a hand basket? No. We’re survivors!)
Thanks for joining in.
#TheAction
Never a dull moment. Not with the passing of weather fronts as we seamlessly slip between smells and textures. From damp to dry, under varying sky. Who’d have thought that spring/summer transition could be so dynamic.
Or perhaps in a landscape where I’m seeing everything with new eyes, i’m just experiencing this part of the borders as they’ve always been. Leeward, in the rain shadow. Protected to a point. Till the hills fill with moist air to then spill over bringing the haar.
This is where i’d insert the photograph I wish i’d taken last night. I was returning from a meeting of the Northumberland Amateur Radio Club. Returning northbound along a saturated A1, I looked out over the sea and the scene was split into a perfect rule-of-thirds. A brooding black stripe, over a piercing evening afterglow, above a shadowed landscape.
If on foot, I would have clicked the shutter as I passed an open gate. The space would provide the verticals needed to complete the composition. But I didn’t. I’ve seen similar scenes round these parts and I figured i’d see it again. I hope that as i’m settling in, i’m not getting complacent.
I touched upon my disconnect from the news last week. It’s only Friday when I tend to deep dive into the web. And once again, with the current state of affairs in the world i’m finding it increasingly easy to avoid screens and get on with analogue things.
I also pondered a complete reinvention of myself. It crossed my mind that I could put the tech focused parts of my work life out to pasture and disappear from the majority of online places.
I’d hate to loose touch with so many of the people i’ve met online, but with all the siloing going on and the broligarch owned sites getting increasingly more toxic or algorithmically shifty, the temptation to dial everything down grows stronger.
In regards to this platform and all its imperfections… I’m still enjoying this space. The replies to my posts, the comments and feeling of continued connection. It’s currently my only income and i’m deeply grateful to those supporters keeping me away from more addictive places. I’m also ever hopeful that a few more of you might take out a supporting subscription. If you feel you’d like to support my work here but can’t quite stretch to the standard subscription, let me know by replying to this email and tell me an amount you feel is a fair investment.
In other news… I was tidying up after dinner and there was an almighty thwack against the window.
This Bluesky thread will explain what happened next.
Spoiler alert: There’s a happy ending.
We need more of those.
#ThePictures
After meeting the bullfinch, I spotted this piece of art by Angela Proctor on a trip into town. She has a fantastic little shop in Berwick Upon Tweed.
She painted it when, like our bullfinch, it was visiting for the plum blossom.
I just need to frame it.
He’s back!
Longtime friend Mike Sizemore has relaunched his newsletter as well as getting back into video. Subscribe to the channel below. You’re in for a treat.
I’m pretty sure you read his Substack. But i’ll drop a reminder in ‘the words’.
I only normally rewatch films but now my daughter is getting into the Sherlock universe I’m rewatching Sherlock.
This is required viewing and the kind of topic I hope we can chat about at the 1984 Symposium this year.
#TheWords
As I mentioned above, with work commitments lightening up, Mike Sizemore will be spending more time with → Midnight Quatermass. Well worth your time.
Martin Bell on censorship in war reporting.
#TheSound
Audio Bloggers month is in full swing. Here is a link to all the posts sent to the hashtag.
And these are some my recordings so far.
Day One / Day Two / Day Three / Day Four / Day Five / Day Six
I’m mostly recording into the app BlipVox made by Kosso as video seems to be the easiest way to get audio into social platforms.
#TheConsumed
Having switched back to loose leaf tea i’m starting to find the bigger the leaf, the better the tea, and anything in a bag is starting to look like dust.
There are a couple of tea brands who can be trusted to produce loose leaf tea that is both plant based AND home compostable. One is Pukka using paper with an organic cotton stitch and Clipper who use paper and a biopolymer from bananas.
Companies like Tesco put ‘plant based’ and ‘compostable’ on their boxes but they are only compostable in an industrial composting facility at high temperature. If placed in a home compost bin you will find PLA mesh very much intact years later.
We’ve enjoyed loose leaf tea in the west since the 1600’s. Hundreds of years of simplicity alongside inventing new ways to strain.
After arriving in the UK in the 50’s, teabags only really gained popularity in the 70’s. But let’s face it, it's unnecessary packaging we can live without.
There are a lot of novelty tea strainers available online, but many are plastic. Get a decent metal or ceramic one and it will last a lifetime.
As I only occasionally make tea in a pot, I have the three strainers at the bottom of the above montage, with the last one being my favourite. It steeps under its lid and stays warm. The same lid becomes a drip tray when removing.
Tea leaves can be used more than once. This ensures you get all the antioxidants out and some teas like oolong keep delivering polyphenols and their health benefits when steeped multiple times.
On top of the environmental and health benefits, I think loose leaf tea can be the cheaper option. You need less high quality loose leaf tea to make a cup and it can be used multiple times.
I looked around for a video to add to these thoughts. Outside of the naff AI generated thumbnail and the fact they are keen to sell their tea, this is useful.
#TheThings
Hacks of the Switch 2 are popping up. Albeit minor ones.
On Monday i’ll hit a 5000 day streak on the Day One app. That’s a long time to not miss a beat. But as well as dropping a few words in every day, I use the space to back up my writings, old poems, newsletters and journals.
I would not have been comfortable doing that if I hadn’t campaigned in the early days for them to encrypt all user content in the cloud. And they did.
End-to-end encryption utilizes a private key to encrypt all entries before they reach Day One servers. With possession of the encryption key stored locally on the device (and securely in iCloud), maximum security is assured for journal data. This data not only includes text, but all media files added to entries as well.
But with the US government and attached shady associates craving all the data everywhere on everyone, in order to stick it in their scrape heap panopticlone while forcing companies to add backdoors to all servers… What hope do we have?
Can we self host something with the same features and metadata? Do you know of something?
Although did you know… Self hosting your own media is considered harmful. I wonder why.
The world first auto focus glasses.
#TheThanks
Massive thanks to the paying subscribers who continue to support this dispatch and the adventures/experiments that make it. You know who you are. ♥️
If you value these words, ideas and curation, please consider an upgrade to paid…
#TheWeb
‘Meta is blurring the line between private and public’. Do you think it ever really cared?
Corellium are in the news again.
The Vinyl Revival Store has popped up on the Documentally community map. Miss you Ian. Hope you are well. :-)
How to maximise privacy in signal calls and chat
‘I’m done thinking about GenAI for now’.
Incidentally, should you need a handbasket.
The UK’s free school meal program will be bumped up in 2026.
Some of my other places include these… Supporting subscribers also get access to a Discord server. Message me for a link. 👍🏽
Everything you ever wanted to know about the world’s languages.
Thousands of endangered trees found preserved for centuries in Chinese temples.
#TheEnd
Thanks for reading. I might pop to Edinburgh tomorrow. Cause I can do that now. But it’s nice here and there is a shit-ton of stuff to do. Like build a radio station. Oh, and mow the lawn.
Later in the month, on the 25th, I’ll be at Orwell’s Grave for the 19th 1984 Symposium. Put it in the diary? Would be great to hug* (*optional) and hang out.
“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow” — Helen Keller
Bask.
See you out there.
Over…
Has she tried the Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce Sherlock movies? Her love of the character may get her over the hump of how ancient they are now. I fell in love with them as a kid and find myself revisiting them often.