Rick's b.log - entry 2025/04/06

Five thousand

My odometer reading 5,000 km.

So, then, that is half of my yearly distance used up. Worse yet, the car appears to be reading about 9% over, in both the speedometer and the odometer.

That being said, I took delivery of the car at the end of June so... April to May one, May to June two, June to end of June three. Half of my allowance and a quarter of the year remaining. Maybe I can go to Big Town once in a while? Thing is, while it was a weekend trip with mom (the times we didn't go Down South to Clisson), it's just not the same by myself. Couple that with a new Lidl near where I work, there's even less reason to be tempted by the bright lights of the big city. Well, twelve thousand people so it's a lot smaller than the town where I grew up (Yateley), but it's big in rural French terms - the village I live in now? A nearby piggery has three thousand pigs, which outnumbers the homosapiens ten to one.

Mowing!!!

Mowing, yet again.

I could have kicked myself, having forgotten to get petrol. That being said, I went to a closer town to buy some more expensive petrol from the mini-mart, but they had both SP95-E10 (unleaded 95 octane with 10% bioethanol) and SP95-E5. You don't often find the E5 version. I got that as it was the same as the very expensive stuff that I first ran the ride-on mower on, and to be honest none of my garden stuff needs 98 octane, I just get it because it's less corrosive to old equipment than the E10. However, E5 is about the same amount of bioethanol as in the SP98, but with a slightly lower octane will run a little cooler in the engines. So I don't begrudge buying this. And, anyway, while it's expensive for 95 octane, it's cheaper than the 98 I would have chosen otherwise.

Anyway, Friday. I had a little over a quarter of a tank of petrol in the mower. So I thought I'd do the Western Wilderness to keep that under control. It's large and open, it took time (including by Anna and the Northern Passage). I then did the Southern bit, and cut through the Potager to the Picnic Lawn and...
...except for the Potager that I didn't do as it's fiddly, everything was done. And there's still a little bit of petrol left.

Damn.

Tidying up afterwards.

Coffee capsules

These capsules are nothing alike.

I got myself some Starbucks... creamy vanilla light coffee? Something like that, all of the Starbucks coffees had weird names, so let's just call it a mochamacchifrappalatte and be done with these pretentious names.

You can get adaptors at the usual Chinese tat bazaars, but there's no way I'm buying a dinky piece of plastic that costs more than the entire coffee maker. I'm also reluctant to chuck out something because it's the wrong sort of something.
But, I have a cunning plan... and it only cost a euro.

An alternative approach.

Boiling water to put about a centimetre of coffee into the cup (along with a crapload of sugar), fill up most of the way with hot water, and then chuck in some milk.

Yes, I take my tea darker than my coffee.

It's not something I can see myself drinking regularly, I like the smell of coffee but less so the taste. However for a special thing, it was okay.

Amusingly, people who prefer dark roast coffee are usually getting less caffeine than in a light roast coffee. Now, before you Google and say "Rick you idiot, coffee has the same amount of caffeine in both roasts", yes. That is correct. But, alas, light and dark roasts are not identical. You see, the amount of caffeine is the same if you use the same weight of coffee grounds. 3g of coffee is 3g of coffee. However who weighs coffee? It is usually measured by volume, like "a heaped teaspoon" or "to the top of that scoop-thing that goes into the coffee machine" or whatever your preference is. This is where the disparity lies, as the light roast grounds will be denser and heavier. Which means per volume you are getting more coffee with a light roast, which means more caffeine in the cup, when you measure it out visually/by volume...as nearly everybody does.

Sad Trump!

Aww, diddums, somebody need their diaper changed?
© Guardian and/or AP and/or Getty etc etc (not me!)

The thing is, the last times the US has been heavy-handed with import tariffs in the name of protectionism, it blew up spectacularly. The "Tariff of Abominations" in 1828 set off a consitutional crisis and pitted the northern states against the southern ones. While it didn't directly lead to the Civil War, it was one of the events leading to it.
The "Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act" of 1930 was a response to the Great Depression which started a year prior. At first it seemed to be a success, however the financial instability of the Depression made the monetary system weak, and this led to over a decade of financial decay. Indeed, unemployment in America didn't fall below 1930s levels until WW2 when the American economy exploded.

It is heartening to see that there is starting to be some level of pushback, but it's disquieting to note how many people interviewed by the media did not want to be identified. Because that's the sad reality of "freedom of speech" in the US. If you want to insult people (especially, these days, trans people) then "freedom of speech!", but if you want to criticise the actions of the government (what that freedom is really supposed to be about) then... well... when they run out of foreigners to illegally detain, they'll be coming for you, because rule of law counts for nothing when confronted with armed thugs wearing uniforms.

Not quite what I meant, but the joy of AI art...

Sakura starts! Swallows!

The first of the pink cherry blossoms, and lovely bokeh.

Looking up, I think it's going to be quite spectacular.

This is going to be impressive.

Also this weekend, the cherry out front has burst into flower, and at the same time the oak has decided that it's time to unfurl the greenery.

Bird cherry flowers and oak leaves (he does? where did he go?).

I popped over to see a guy in the next town over regarding his Sky box having lost some channels (they were breaking up, and now are gone, I think his dish is slightly off target but thankfully it is mounted low so he can have a fiddle). When I came back I was walking around front to take the above photos when I saw this.

The first barn swallow.

It dived into the cow barn. So, yay! My swallows have returned. Also, I heard my noisy little chaffinch earlier. ☺

Vegetables

So, I peed on the ground?

The 2025 vegetable patch.

I'm thinking sweetcorn on the left, and either more peas or a few melons in the middle. Or maybe it might be better to have more peas on the left, some melons in the midde, and a row of sweetcorn along the back? Or perhaps put the melons on the left so they can sprawl onto the grass if need be? Decisions, decisions...

I'm not doing potatoes this year. I will absolutely go for Spunta if I see them again because, oh my god, I think there's probably a hundred mouldy potatoes underground in the potato patch (that will probably start growing soon). There were so many I could just walk out and hoike some out of the ground well into winter.
I'm not growing them not because I don't want to, but because I have nowhere prepared. This new patch is too small, the previous patch grew potato last year, and is too shady otherwise so I'll probably turn the ground to flatten it and then let it grass over. Oh, and the place by the stream? Way too shady, and spent far too long underwater these past few months so it's been seeded with grass.

Hovercat

Anna in turbo hover mode.

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jgh, 6th April 2025, 22:25

Having been a teen when Ferris Beuler's Day off came out, I naturally know all about the catastrophic effects of tarrifs and the Smoot-Hawley Act. Kids today, bah! I notice some MP in the news today who was born *after I left university*!    (waves fist at cloud)

Rob, 6th April 2025, 22:38

End of Feb, our car ticked over to 011111 miles. I had to stop and take a picture. Just over two years, so we're probably doing about the same milage as you.

Rick, 7th April 2025, 07:48

I trust you also took a photo 1,234 miles later. 😺

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