Matthew Kennard

No mow May

Some of the wild flowers we planted, and then regretted, last year have come back and doing a wonderful job of attracting bees into our garden.

Finished reading: The Thing Itself by Adam Roberts 📚

If AirTags were small enough to attach to my glasses I definitely would have bought some by now.

Enjoyed Great British Photography Challenge this evening. Great to see so many assignments in one episode, and a nice change that no one is ‘sent home’ at the end.

My wife bought some shampoo, conditioner and shower bars to try and reduce the number of plastic bottles we buy. The shampoo bar is great and I find it quicker to wash my hair than when messing about opening a plastic bottle and squeezing. However the bars aren’t labelled so I ended up using the wrong one thinking it was conditioner - took a good few washes to remove the feeling of stickiness!

I’m only just getting round to having a play with Catalyst for creating Mac versions of iOS apps. I’ve been using it over the last couple of days to create a version of my app Classical for macOS. If you enjoy classical music and are an Apple Music subscriber it would be great to get some feedback.

For more information and a download link

The macOS version of the app will be free with no in-app purchases or adverts.

Finally finished

Finished reading: Something Childish But Very Natural by Katherine Mansfield 📚

It’s been very on and off wet at the moment. A pro though of all the rain is the freshness of my lunchtime walks (weather permitting!)

Finished reading: Mr Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe 📚

Heavy rain showers this morning interspersed with sunshine. I’ve been needing to get out and do some testing of a location based app. Lots of bluebells to see on my quick circuit whilst testing.

The end result - Egyptian Koshari and Orange Salad with Spiced Syrup

Next step in this evenings meal. Pickling some cauliflower and carrots.

In the fridge for later. I’m finally using a recipe pack my wife bought me last June. Egyptian inspired meal this evening (+ pasta for the children)

Family Lego time. We’ve got Harry Potter, Friends baking competition and Friends sitcom sets on the go!

I’ve not been able to see my £4.99 Apple TV+ credit. Just discovered though that it gets used up so quickly by the purchase of various subscriptions that it never registers as credit for long enough when I check my Apple ID!

I’m finally dealing with the ever dwindling space on my iMac. Its a machine purely for work/software development - so no photos, music or other media. I’m going to move my Windows 10 VM onto an external SSD, and maybe my primary Linux VM as well. That should give Xcode lots more space to continue growing with every release and for all the caches, archives and Simulators under its care.

It’s number day in my sons class on Friday. So my wife has made him a magic square t-shirt.

Finished: The Absolutist by John Boyne 📚

It’s a wet bank holiday so time for some family rock painting

I’m glad I’ve finished my lunch as my daughter seems to be enjoying a fries/McFlurry combination which looks very unappetising.

Listening to Takemitsu, Hindemith, Janáček, Silvestrov: Five Pieces by Duo Gazzana 🎵