This year I set myself a target of reading a book a week, and at the halfway point I’m right on schedule with 26 books in 26 weeks. 16 were non-fiction, 14 were by women, 6 were translated, and 4 were over 1,000 years old (The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon is in all four categories). The complete list:

1. The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Richmond Lattimore
2. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
3. Holloway by Robert Macfarlane, Stanley Donwood, and Dan Richards
4. Now Go by Karl Thomas Smith
5. How Infrastructure Works by Deb Chachra
6. Ness by Robert Macfarlane and Stanley Donwood
7. Nausicaä Of The Valley Of The Wind by Hayao Miyazaki
8. H Is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald
9. Rose/House by Arkady Martine
10. Tarka The Otter by Henry Williamson
11. The Iliad by Homer, translated by Martin Hammond
12. Ring Of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell
13. The Lass And The Quine by Ashley Douglas
14. Hekate by Nikita Gill
15. Enemy Feminisms by Sophie Lewis
16. A Simpler Life by The School Of Life
17. Underground Maps Unravelled by Maxwell J Roberts
18. The Little Book Of Humanism by Andrew Copson and Alice Roberts
19. Men Explain Things To Me by Rebecca Solnit
20. Essays In Idleness and Hōjōki by Kenkō and Chōmei, translated by Meredith McKinney
21. Death In Ten Minutes by Fern Riddell
22. The Epic Of Gilgamesh, translated by Andrew George
23. I Hope We Choose Love by Kai Cheng Thom
24. The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon, translated by Meredith McKinney
25. The Book Of Birds by Jackie Morris and Robert Macfarlane
26. Whose Story Is This? By Rebecca Solnit

#BoreDa bawb. Dim newid. Mae drwg gen i daswn i ddim ymateb i bob tŵt, ond dwi werthfawrogi eich dymuniadau da.

#GoodMorning everyone. No change. I'm sorry if I don't respond to every toot, but I appreciate your good wishes.

Bore Da Bydoedd!
Good Morning Worlds!
Nothing much to add at the moment.
We'll probably do a bit of laundry, in between visiting MiL in hospital, and waiting.

#BoreDaBydoedd
#GoodMorningWorlds

Thank you all for your thoughts and best wishes.

We are all resigned to the inevitable now, and it is just a wait.
I am very emotional right now, and distracting myself with the ongoing house hunting that we would have been doing, in Wales, this week.

I am really sad. 😢

My MiL, is a wonderful and lovely person, exasperating sometimes (often) but always funny, learned, and able to have deeply meaningful and educated discussions. I have often talked for hours at a time with her, and been more than happy to help out with tasks around the house.

I am going to be remembering her with a smile on both our faces as we discussed mundane things like the changes in architecture over the years, and how I really don't mind doing that little DIY job and would have had it done if she would just stop apologising for needing to ask me!

We will be popping into the hospital to see her again in a bit, though I don't know if she will know that any of us are there. But we will know, and I am sure we are all still in her thoughts.❤️

Bore Da Byoedd!
Good Morning Worlds!

We are busy with some deep family discussions.
There is sadness, and humour.
It all amounts to a lot of love, and respect, while we wait.

#BoreDaBydoeed
#GoodMorningWorlds

UK anti smart glasses petition

one to publicise

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/769206

#BoreDa bawb. Dim ond yn aros nawr.

#GoodMorning Everyone. Just waiting now.

Due to unforseen family matters, there will not be a MakersHour this week.

We will resume when we can.

Thank you,
Alfred

#MakersHour

Dyn ni wedi bod i'r ysbyty, a siarad gyda'r meddyg. Fy Mam yn ar diwedd oes. Dyddiau, efallai. Diolch bawb, am eich dymuniadau da.

We've been to the hospital and talked to the doctor. My Mother is at the end of her life. Days, maybe. Thank you all, for your good wishes.

#BoreDa bawb. Dyn ni ddim yng Nghymru rhagor. Dyn ni yng Nghaerlŷr. Fy mam wedi cael strôc. Mae pethau yn edrych yn ddrwg.

#GoodMorning everyone. We're not in Wales anymore. We are in Leicester. My mother had a stroke. Things look bad.

#BoreDa bawb. Ar ôl y wythnos poethaf erioed, dyn ni wedi cyrraedd yng Nghymru. Mae hi wedi bwrw glaw. Dyn ni'n mynd i drio ymlacio heddiw, efallai yn Aberaeron efo coffi a chacen.

#GoodMorning everyone. After the hottest week ever, we've arrived in Wales. It has rained. We're going to try to relax today, maybe in Aberaeron with coffee and cake.

Bore Da Bydoedd!
Good Morning Worlds!

Happy Sunday, we are going to do something restful and more holiday like today. That will involve going out to Aberearon to find a car charger.
The charger here has tripped off twice with our car, and no idea why.
Is it our car, or the charger? This could be an issue with needing to do house visits, but we'll find a way. It may just mean finding somewhere else that will fully charge the car while we are out each day.

Ho hum...

#BoreDaBydoedd
#GoodMorningWorlds

We have arrived at our holiday destination.
The Volt Share charger here is easier to set up, with a clearer UI, and all worked first time. Yay!

It has been a long day, given I was awake at 4am.

#EV

Apparently Hasbro has begun demanding that CHILD ACTORS in their cartoon series like Peppa Pig sign over the rights for the company to use #AI to clone their voices for future commercial use.

CHILD ACTORS are being asked to sign away control of their voices.

I think this should be illegal. Parents should not have the legal right to sign away their child’s voice or likeness to be turned into corporate assets forever.

https://deadline.com/2026/06/peppa-pig-hasbro-child-actors-ai-backlash-1236967142/

Arrived in Machynlleth.
The fast charger stopped on us after a couple minutes, so went to the Dragon chargers.

Dragon Charging is a right annoying faff!
Logged in as a guest, and it took £30, but wouldn't charge. On the advice of a fellow EVer, I downloaded the app and registered on the shittiest black on black online form that was impossible to see in daylight.

Couldn't check password match as no 'eye' icon to see where I went wrong.
Invisible tick boxes for T&C and Privacy.

However, once all the formwork was done three times until I got it right, it started the charge straight away.

But, yeah, black on black in blazing sunshine is really bad user interface.

#EV

Small panic.

We ran over something, debris, on the motorway so I stopped at the services to check for damage. Didn’t see anything amiss.

But there was water leaking out from somewhere!
Checked coolant levels and washer water, then went to use the services.
It was still leaking.

Carried on driving to the next stop, and still dripping.

A quick internet search, and it is aircon condensate.
Phew!

We had a little company with our coffee!

I made a blog post about learning Welsh so that it is possibly easier for others to learn Welsh as I put quite a bit of effort into finding and making a bunch of useful resources.

https://rincentvanuggh.wordpress.com/2026/06/24/learning-welsh/

#blog #cymraeg

"Not she berry or he berry"

#lgbtq #nonbinary

A week after the teleport network had opened, it was already routine. Johnson stepped onto the plate and thought about the Bank Street station.

He arrived at the leisure park. He complained to a guard, who said:

"It takes you where you need to be."

Behind him, his daughter's soccer game started.

#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories