Pupdate

We were back in the Lake District (more on that later), so the boys were able to get out for some nice long walks.

Going a month later than usual meant that there were no grouse on the estate but there were loads of ripe blackberries, which the boys enjoyed browsing.

Sadly Milo’s scan when we got back showed that he’s relapsed, so he’s had to start chemo again – his fifth protocol :(

Chapel Down

Chapel Down have been doing a ‘Taste of England’ series of dinners with chefs selected from a competition. We were able to make the one with Ethan Pack, who’s head chef at Three Sheets, Soho.

Since we were going to be at Tenterden we also booked an afternoon wine tasting, and got to see first hand that the 2026 harvest is shaping up to be tremendous after all the sunny warm days of June/July/August.

Ethan’s dinner was delicious, and was complemented beautifully by the chosen wines.

We stayed at the White Lion again, which is becoming a firm favourite as the bar snacks and breakfast are delicious.

Lakes

After a couple of years in the smaller Dove Cottage we returned to Keepers Cottage (along with more of the family to fill the place up). The main difference was that it now has Starlink based Internet, which is way faster than the previous ADSL :) Though it was also nice that the path has been cleared around the fishing lake over the road, making it viable for a walk.

Over the years we’ve been up to ‘The View’ a few times, but this year we walked a trail that we’ve not been on before, and stumbled across an even better view:

We also walked the West Windermere Way again, this time going all the way to The Swan Hotel at Newby Bridge. That set a new record for longest walk that the boys have done, at 20.6km (12.8 miles).

By the end of the week it felt like we’d been there for about 3 days, a sure sign of a great holiday.

OSHcamp

It wasn’t long until I was heading up North again, to Hedben Bridge for Open Source Hardware camp 2026. Driving up on a bank holiday weekend wasn’t my smartest plan ever, and if I was just going to OSHcamp I’d have taken the train; but I needed the car to visit family and friends afterwards.

There’s a bit of overlap between the OSHcamp community and EMFcamp, so in some ways the event felt like an EMF afterparty. One of the organisers also mentioned that registration leapt up in the wake of EMFcamp.

I gave a talk on ‘RISC-V — the road to ubiquity’ just before lunch, which led to some great lunchtime conversations (and more in the pub later).

Vespa repair

My Vespa still isn’t working. It seems a bit cursed at the moment.

When I went to fit the new piston I found that the small end bearing from the last kit was too large. So I then had to wait for another to be delivered, meaning it was the next weekend before I could resume work.

Then I sheared a cylinder stud whilst torquing down the cylinder head, meaning another wait for delivery, and waiting until I was back from the Lakes to resume work.

After getting the top end back together (third time lucky) it won’t start, with the issue looking like low compression.

I’m starting to reconsider selling it as a project, especially as the Honda CUV e scooters I’ve got my eye on seem to be coming down in price.

Universal remote

I still have an old school digital video recorder (DVR), and its remote has been getting a bit frail and unreliable. It’s also annoying that I need three different remotes to watch something – TV, DVR and AV receiver. So… I got a One for All Essence 4 universal remote, and it’s worked out pretty well. It was a little fiddly to get programmed, as I had to ‘learn’ some of the buttons from the old remote(s) (mainly the DVR); but it’s taken over duty now, and the rest of the household seem to have adjusted to using it :)

Solar diary

Another record breaking month.

Something seemed to go a little odd with the data logging on the 19th :0