A new cork pinboard

Posted on January 20, 2026 by james

Made from, err, corks.

Obviously it was quite a tough job acquiring all the corks to start with. I’d not recommend it without having put in years of practice first, though you can cheat by just buying the bags of corks that are sold for wine-making.

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Cheap polytunnel problems

Posted on January 20, 2026 by james

I posted ages ago about the issues with the cheap polytunnels available from the South American river place (amongst others). Here are a few more that affected me.

First the uprights either side of the door come in multiple pieces, which allows them to bend in the middle. Here I’ve temporarily added a piece of wood to force it back to the correct position.

This issue doesn’t help with the way the door handle works and neither does the “flap” of cover material on the opening side of the door which obstructs easy use of the handle.

Finally, there’s insufficient “skirt” on the cover to allow it to be buried, but even when weighted down it tends to get “sucked” off in high winds. I had this happen several times. Eventually I put these pieces of mesh over the top which helped quite significantly, but even with them the cover was eventually completely ripped off by a major storm when winds were gusting close to 60mph.

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No buts, it’s got to be butter

Posted on January 20, 2026 by james

Obviously there’s some concern about ultra-processed food at the moment which would include margarine and similar products, so out of interest I thought I’d have a go at making butter myself, particularly as someone else I knew had managed to make some.

What I didn’t expect was quite how easy it could be done using a kitchen mixer. There’s little more work involved than beating cream until it clumps into butter, separating it from the buttermilk, adding a little salt (assuming you want any) and forming it into shape.

This one isn’t the neatest, but it tastes great. Proper butter pats might help.

Sadly in terms of cost it’s probably more expensive than buying butter from the supermarket. Ideally I’d like to find somewhere that I can buy milk or cream direct from the farm at a slightly lower price, but given how poorly farmers are paid for milk I’m not sure that’s actually feasible.

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Almost as handy as mole grips

Posted on January 20, 2026 by james

Again, not sure how often they’ll get used, but at least I have them and can clean them up so they don’t deteriorate any further.

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The orange man-baby strikes again

Posted on January 20, 2026 by james

From a Marco Rubio press release eight months ago about the UK’s handover of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius:

Following a comprehensive interagency review, the Trump Administration determined that this agreement secures the long-term, stable, and effective operation of the joint U.S.-UK military facility at Diego Garcia. This is a critical asset for regional and global security. President Trump expressed his support for this monumental achievement during his meeting with Prime Minister Starmer at the White House.

And then yesterday, on “Truth” Social:

Shockingly, our “brilliant” NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER.

There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness. These are International Powers who only recognize STRENGTH, which is why the United States of America, under my leadership, is now, after only one year, respected like never before.

The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired.

Denmark and its European Allies have to DO THE RIGHT THING. Thank you for your attention to this matter. PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP”

To be fair, he has one thing right. The USA is now respected like never before. Just not remotely in the way he thinks.

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Foggiest day of Winter so far

Posted on January 19, 2026 by james

Almost the entire world disappeared. These days I’m not sure that isn’t a good thing, mind.

Oddly however, it was still possible to make out blue sky above us. I think we must have been right at the top of a cloud.

When darkness fell it was even possible to see stars in the sky even though a torch was almost useless because of the amount of light being reflected by the fog.

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A beast of a cabbage

Posted on January 19, 2026 by james

Yes, that is grammes.

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Well pickle my jalapenos!

Posted on January 19, 2026 by james

And call me Susan, if you must.

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Mains water leak (hopefully) resolved

Posted on January 19, 2026 by james

The final paperwork is still to arrive, but it looks as though our water leak may now be fully resolved. The most shocking thing is the amount of water lost. At our current rate of consumption it looks to be about twenty-five years worth of water!

As I’ve written before, I just can’t get my head around how such much water can disappear without any sign during one of the driest Summers ever.

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The real cost of supermarket eggs

Posted on January 19, 2026 by james

For well over fifteen years now, we have kept a few rare breed chickens hatched from eggs to supply our family with fresh eggs. If you’ve never had the opportunity to eat such eggs then it may be hard to believe it, but there is an astonishing difference in taste and appearance between eggs freshly laid by hens kept on grass, allowed to lay at their own pace and those produced commercially for supermarkets.

Recently however my wife decided that we should have some “rescue” hens — ones that have effectively reached the end of their commercially-productive life, perhaps because they don’t lay as often or because they consume more food or whatever other reason. For us however, they’re absolutely fine.

The quality of life that we are able to offer compared with commercial operations was really brought home hard when our first rescue hens arrived. Seeing this actually made me feel sick. I don’t believe any animal should be kept in conditions that end up with them looking so awful.

Fortunately after a few months with us she started to look so much more healthy and content.

And I am certain that if in the future we do not have our own chickens, there is no way I will ever buy commercially-produced eggs ever again.

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