Aethon

UK based healer, maker, writer.  I was around for gopherspace and JANET.
 
Planet friendly social realist.

 The external is armour as safety against the harshness of the world.  Let’s do good things with kind hearts (penfriend)   ID photo is of a butterfly at a rehab centre I used to work at, the header photo is of the woodlands I sometimes work in.

Last Notes

2026-05-08 19:24:27 UTC

Bugger the lot of them. Happiness is a hot forge, and I can’t be doing with the news at the moment and in spite of the arm/neck issues I needed to pick up a hammer.
Made a couple of door hooks, fixed a garden half moon edger someone had decided to use as a spade and make myself a weed yeeter. Also known as a weed slasher, it’s a long flat bar with a blade at the end. Add a wooden handle and it looks rather splendid. The wood is preserved with a dressing bar made of linseed oil, beeswax and lanolin. I use that bar to dress everything from waxed jackets to metal and wooden tools. The old ways still work better than many modern solutions.
As well as the joy of solving a problem with something I made myself, I love the idea that this will allow me to manage thistles and nettles without power and it’ll last much longer than I will, perhaps just a new handle occasionally.
#blacksmithing #handmade #gardening
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2026-04-26 20:39:43 UTC

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I use hessian fabric as a replacement for the shade netting and hazel benders for the arches. If you can coppice or harvest hazel or willow at the right point it remains very pliable. The issue I’ve had with willow is that it really really wants to grow roots and start growing again where you put it. Fine if that’s your thing, bit of a problem for seasonal structures.

2026-04-09 10:39:00 UTC

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I agree and think this has always been the case. The process is one thing, the skills and knowledge to apply it can only be learned through experience.
Example- I have some reprints of 19th blacksmithing manuals. And although they might describe the process of welding an axle, or forging a wrench, it always assumes that, as the reader, you know what a welding heat is, about the correct temperature for drawing down, how to make the tools required to make the tool (first forge an eye punch of 1 inch) and so forth.
If you have never got your hands dirty doing the work, whether smithing, working front line support or deep in the code base (something I cannot do but admire), you simply don’t know.
And as you say, from that lack of knowledge comes the ignorance that leads to a misunderstanding of value and need.

2025-06-29 14:46:48 UTC

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I agree. The only reasonable alternative for coffee in the morning is proper tea (in the British style). Strong, with milk (without milk, the tannins are deeply unpleasant). Preferably made with a decent brand. Anything else people call tea (earl grey, herbal etc) is delightful but not for before noon.
Context- British tea drinker with a moderate obsession for properly made coffee. We travel with our own teabags.

2025-06-19 19:45:39 UTC

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There was also the Iran Contra affair in the 80s, where America supplied Iran with arms, despite a sanction, I remember that one.
We constantly torment trouble if it benefits “us” then wonder why it comes back to bite us on the ass.

2025-06-12 16:46:17 UTC

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Now I have a reason for that, thanks to a partner who corrected me. We hang them standing up, so they’re at eye level when we do it. I was shown the error of my ways and they were right.