What I'm Doing Now
- Lambing is well and truly done. The last ewe and lamb have settled happily by the pond. The cades are still in the orchard and increasingly convinced they don't need me — though they still come running when they hear the bucket.
- Orchid the cow had a difficult birth this month — twins, one of them needing Phil's full attention. Only one calf made it. A female who is a freemartin. Farming is never dull.
- Two hens died recently - Ginger and Lady Marmalade. The others are carrying on as though nothing happened, which is very much the hen way, although there seems to be a better balance among the flock.
- The smallholding has gone completely feral. Poppies everywhere, which is actually rather beautiful, but there's work to do. Chipping away at it.
What I'm Writing
- Instagram is still going — a scheduled task in Claude runs every morning, scans recent Obsidian notes, and suggests a post. I don't always use it but it's a good starting point.
- Obsidian is properly set up now. Seven Claude automations run daily, weekly, and monthly. It's become something of a small ecosystem. I do love what AI can do but also conscious of the phenomenal numbers of data centres attributed to this or is it the next point ...
- The digital ID/social media age verification stuff has been provoking a lot of thought. Analogue looks increasingly attractive.
- The book is there. Still there. Thinking about essence.
What I'm Reading
My reads are getting logged on Goodreads by default but also came across a phenomenal app called Epilogue recently which is delightful.
Still making my way through Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare — it's the kind of book you want to last, so I'm rationing it.
Tech Stuff
The Obsidian + Claude setup has properly bedded in now. Seven scheduled tasks running across the day and week — daily note processing, Voicenote input, Instagram post suggestions, weekly planning, and this Now page. The H2O Audio Sonar Clip arrived (an Apple Watch attachment, roughly £24 from Amazon) and I've been using it to record Voicenotes at the farm hands-free. It works surprisingly well, even in the wind. Voicenotes has bumped me up to 3rd out of c850,000 users, which I find both pleasing and slightly surreal.
My Toolkit
AI Tools
- Lightpage
- Voicenotes (now rank 3 globally — out of c850,000!)
NotebookLM- Obsidian
- Tana
- Claude
Productivity
- Tana
Writing
Eden (previously Kortex)- this has become increasingly complex and I've lost interest. I did revisit it briefly when the Telegram integration was announced but, after one day, I'd run out of credit. Tana credit lasts much longer. A new iOS app looks amazing but I think Eden is overkill for what I need. Plus, I have abandoned most social media and the whole content creation malarkey.- Obsidian
- Tana
Publishing
- Bear Blog
- Tiny Dot
- Public.Me
- omg.lol
Miscellaneous
- Patronat
Part of this. Create your own page. Last update: 2nd July 2026.