My Decrease in Tech Use

and subsequent decrease in Substack use

blood oranges and broccoli from the Winter garden

I’m sorry for my absence lately….I seem not to have much to say. I have been more focussed on ‘doing’ things rather than talking/writing about them. I often hear people who are concerned about all the tech use in our society say they see the irony of using technology to discuss all the problems of tech use. So I guess I feel I have to pull away from technologies, even this one, in order to be true to my ethos. In turn, I have been much more focussed on creating things with my hands, developing skills I didn’t have before and expanding on the skills I do have.

I had a conversation a month or so ago with my boss who was saying I had so many skills and I really couldn’t understand where she got that idea from. She meant that I can take on different roles within the school when the need arises, but that is really just adaptability and self-efficacy, but not skills, not really. When I say skills I mean ‘things you can do with your hands’ (other than typing), I don’t mean being a chameleon.

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I have been working on practical skills to produce things for everyday use. My grandson has a birthday coming up, so instead of buying a gift for him I decided to make one. Making gifts for others isn’t necessarily a new thing for me, but I guess I felt it was an opportunity to expand my skillset.

Here’s a list of the things I am doing:

• whittling - gnomes and little people for my grandson

• spinning wool into yarn - I’m really shit at it, but I will persist

• wet felting - balls and playmats for little people

• mending - this seems to be a never-ending task

• new textile techniques like sprang - a really cool bronze age technique

• new dyeing techniques - dyeing paper and paper bundles

• weaving on a neolithic-style, backstrap loom

• herbalism - slowing expanding my knowledge

and, of course, cooking and gardening.

None of these things are mastered overnight, they take time, effort and perseverance. Which means time must be spent working on them and not working on essays; so for that, I am sorry I have been less communicative than previously.

my latest food obsession

I would like to share my latest food obsession with you though - baked brie (or camembert).

I take a round of cheese and wrap it in pastry leaving an opening on the top of the round of cheese (don’t pull the pastry all the way together). Mix together in a bowl: walnuts, raisins, butter, a little bit of brown sugar and some cinnamon. Place this in the space on top of the cheese. Bake at 180C/350F for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden (careful though not to burn the nuts and raisins). Serve with seeded crackers, homemade bread, vegetable sticks or just eat it with a fork! You can add other nuts and dried fruit depending on what you have on-hand.

broccoli did well in the Winter garden this year

I do have other essays half-finished and I will endeavor to complete and post them soon…

N x